Undecided n what to do with my life- ADVICE PLEASE

LegacyUser

Hi All,

Having a big of a problem and it's starting to affect my relationships with people around me.
I'm blessed as I have nothing massively gone wrong in my life.

My problem is I can't for the life of me make a decision and stick to it in relation to career choices.

I have so many different interests in *completely* different areas and I can't chose which career that would suit me. I have sought guidance etc however I always end up in square one. From each day to the next I change my mind on what I want to do with my life. It has actually taken over my thinking at this stage and I am now starting to become depressed. It's like there is so much choice in careers that I can't seem to pick one! When I decide on one path I start thinking ''what if I do this and want to do something else''

I suppose I want to make a difference with my life in some shape or form but can't decide for the life of me which way to go. I want to do so many things and because I can't decide I am not doing any of them. It doesn't help that any area I would like to work in there is recruitment embargo's in place.

Is it just me or does this kind of stuff happen to anyone else

YumCha

I've had well over 20 jobs across numerous different careers, and showing no signs of stopping!

Here's some things that helped:
- Doing an online personality test: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp - yes there are limitations, but it can be a good starting point for understanding what motivates you. Once you've done that, look up a few different overviews and personality forums to get some further insight
- A really cool book called And what do you do? Creating a Portfolio Career
- Getting career counselling
- Finding free online courses in areas I was interested in to whittle the list down... once I dived into some areas I quickly realised I didn't want to pursue them

You might not be the same personality type as me, but this thread definitely made me feel I wasn't alone in not knowing the one thing I wanted to do with my life: http://personalitycafe.com/entp-forum-visionaries/15363-entp-any-fellow-young-entps-having-hard-time-deciding-career.html

You don't have a problem - you just need to see your varied interests as an asset, and structure what you choose to do around that... Obviously as you get older some things will be out of reach, but there's absolutely no reason you can't maintain multiple careers well into your 40s and beyond... go for it!

Obliq

I remember doing one of those personality/career tests way back, when I was doing a career assesment course in Fas. It advised me that I should pursue a career in either deep-sea diving or mining ;-) For someone with a fear of confined spaces and who loves working with people, this came as a bit of a let down!

However, good advice above. OP, I still don't know what I want to "do" with my life at 41. What I mean by that is I have never actually decided on one area to pursue and am a proper Jack of all trades (well, Jill in my case). I have had many different jobs in entirely different areas and by now, even though I've never hit on one thing to stick with, I consider that I AM living my life in a worthwhile way. All my experiences and broad range of skills add up to make me a useful person who can turn my hand to a lot of different jobs and I have serious trouble picking what best describes my career when picking an option in online forms!

My advice is to pick something you can do NOW. It doesn't have to be something you think you would still want to do in 10 years time, or even 5, or 2. Just do it, and it will all add up alongside every experience you have, to make you a highly (multi) skilled person with a lot of interests. One day (maybe in 20 yrs!) you will realise that you've never had a dull moment, and if you continue to be interested in everything, keeping busy....well, what more can you want of life?!

Growing up, we are told time and again by school, parents and society that there is a clear route to a worthwhile life when you pick one area, study in it, qualify, start at the bottom of your career and work your way up to a good position when you can then be thought of as having "done" something. This path is not for everyone, and if everyone did pursue it, there wouldn't be enough to go round (there already isn't, and it's also pretty unrealistic for most people in these days of internships and short term contracts). It's ok to be different to people who (think) they have decided on one area of interest and will stick with this for their lives. Unfortunately these days, there are many graduates and people 5/10 years or more into their chosen careers who are forced into the realisation that the jobs are not there and end up having to train in something else against their will. At least, if you don't decide, but just keep learning and working, your mind is open to all areas and offers. I see that attitude as an asset, so I hope you will one day too. Don't sweat the small stuff - life is long and interesting. Whatever you do will stand to you - good luck!

Sorry, very long post.

castaway_lady

DEFINITELY STOP thinking that you have to pick one career, you most definitely dont. These days that is not the reality for tonnes of people and the portfolio career is really popular too especially amongst people like us who dont just want to do one job. Id go nuts if i just did the one repetitive job day after day. So I have three and sometimes four jobs, one with stable income that makes up the bulk of my hours and the others are weekends and evenings and occasional contracts. I love the challenge and the call on the a wide range of skills. I also couldnt decide to be just one thing and when I thought I had something else took my interest. So I did a broad initial degree, specialised in a particular strand with my MSc and then did some professional qualifications in the other areas and I will do more I know.
So I think you should search for something that gives some kind of fit between a few areas.