Finding meaning in life

[Unwanted94]

Recently, I have lost direction and meaning in life. I feel lost now and I feel like life for me is just pointless. I don't even know what I want to do with my life anymore,and I'm trying to figure this all out. I know I'm not the only one who has felt like this or who is feeling like this. I'm 18, so who knows what I will be doing in the future, but I do not want to be working at Wal-mart for the rest of my life. What should I do? How can I find a career or something? Loneliness is rarely on my mind these days. It's my future and where I will be. I don't see a bright future at all,and I feel like just giving up. I'm a bit frustrated because of this and I don't know what to do.

 

[lonelyfairy]

I was once in this situation too, and I think that I still am, somehow... 18 years old too. I am not 100% sure what I want to do in the future, but I don't want to stress about it. I am still young, like you, only 18 years old, whole life and future is ahead. :> I am sure ''the feeling'' will come, when it has to come. No rush.

 

[emptyspace]

You're still young, try a little of this, a little of that... figure out what you want. Time is on your side =)

 

[Sci-Fi]

Ah yes, the joys of being 18 years old, I remember those days, many moons ago. Everyone expects you to act like an adult yet you are still just a "kid". You're supposed to know where you want to go in life and expected to succeed on your own now.

Try different things out, if something peeks your interest give it a go. You may like it or find out you don't. If there are temp agencies in your area give that a try. You can get lots of varied work experience and there is less pressure.

 

[Unwanted94]

It'll happen when it happens I suppose. 18 has been very shitty for me so far,and I don't expect things to get better anytime soon. 17 was ok, but not a whole lot different. I'm just going to assume that I'm overthinking it and just go with the flow. I work at wal-mart,and my rate of pay is 9.95. So I'll just go with the flow of things then.

 

[whispers]

I find that living in the present moment helps alot. Do your thing, try to see all the positive things in your life. If you find negative stuff, see how you can illiminate them (in a positive way).
Make yourself happy NOW. Worrying about the futur is not worth it, because as life unfolds you will realise that most things we worry about dont even happen.

You do need goals, write them down, make an action towards that goal everyday. It may only happen in 10 years, but keeping it alive will make it happen.

 

[IgnoredOne]

More than anything, I think that finding purpose in life is what makes us happy in the end. The thing is, though, I think it ultimately is something that comes to us rather than what you can make happen - there are ways around to it, perhaps, but a lot of it just seems to happen naturally.

Here's what I would actually suggest..
1)make a vague long-term goal, remembering that this can change at any time
2)make a specific short-term goal, within the week, and aim to accomplish this
3)make day to day goals to accomplish the short-term goal.

The sum effect of this is to make us more confident and effective, and from there, we can grow immensely more confident in our choices, and decisions.

 

[MadMonkè]

:club:

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

It's my future and where I will be. I don't see a bright future at all,and I feel like just giving up. I'm a bit frustrated because of this and I don't know what to do.

When you lose course in life, you need a concrete objective I think.

In fact, I'd say success in life is determined by the ability to set yourself objectives and stick with them until you attain them.

Recently I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by my work and things were really starting to get stacked on top of me. I pulled myself through by analysing what I needed to do precisely and then logically fixing realistic goals for getting what I wanted.

In the end I got myself where I needed to be against quite considerable odds - right now I'm still surprised I did it, but it was all because I didn't let a lack of organisation get to me.

---

What would your ideal career be? What qualifications do you have at present? What would you ultimately like from your life in terms of friends and family?

My advice to you would be to perhaps sit down, write down what you desire from your life and then set yourself goals that you can work towards to get there. After that it's a case of hard work and determination - I think after giving yourself a target like that a sense of purpose will follow.

EDIT - I probably should have read the thread more carefully, it would appear IgnoredOne already beat me with his advice

 

[Basic]

worship god + career = meaning of life

this is my formula

 

[Unwanted94]

http://willblogforfood.typepad.com/will_blog_for_food/2006/11/10_reasons_not__1.html

Suddenly, I feel relieved. Yeah..Never mind college. I'm good.

 

[LoneKiller]

You're still young, try a little of this, a little of that... figure out what you want. Time is on your side =)

This.

 

[IgnoredOne]

http://willblogforfood.typepad.com/will_blog_for_food/2006/11/10_reasons_not__1.html

Suddenly, I feel relieved. Yeah..Never mind college. I'm good.

And yet college teaches you discipline and being systematic, plus it offers you an excellent environment to truly excel, because it /is/ an environment where knowledge can be widely and vastly available if you seek it. If you wish to find pearls, would you search for it in an ocean or a desert? The former, of course, offers more options.

The article is loud on rhetoric, much less so on facts; facts remain that statistically college majors who specialized in a technical field come out with higher salaries and far more consistent job offers. If anything, though, the article is a marvelous example of demagoguery and I do appreciate it for such.

 

[Lost Drifter]

42...oh wait a second...you wanted the meaning?

By all means let me know if you ever find out, I'm 32 and still without a total clue of what I'm doing, I've long started to laugh after the tears of confusion.

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

http://willblogforfood.typepad.com/will_blog_for_food/2006/11/10_reasons_not__1.html

Suddenly, I feel relieved. Yeah..Never mind college. I'm good.

Seeing as the excerpt is from a blog named "Will Blog For Food", I'm not sure he's the go-to guy for life advice

More seriously, while he makes some valid points (some degrees are just useless bullshit), he also totally misses out logic in some of his conclusions.

If you take a degree which demands that you just watch movies as your most intellectually challenging assessment, yeah, you're probably going to have pretty crappy job prospects at the end of it. And such "skills" could be learnt without even attending classes, as the guy says.

On the other hand, if you're doing a degree in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Finance, Comp. Sci, hardcore Mathematics or some other sort of concrete scientific discipline, you're going to be studying practically applicable material under the tuition of some of the most gifted people in those fields. There's no substitute for that in the "University of Life."

People who didn't go the academic route are sometimes very fond of proclaiming college graduates are overeducated but I think ultimately it's down to a personal choice.

If you want to get further education in a specialist topic that will be useful in setting up a solid career, do it. If you want to forget that and start on the career ladder early instead, do it.

In fact, if you just want to go to University merely to get paralytically drunk every weekend and get a rubbish degree at the end of it, do it. It's not a course I'd like to take, but everyone's different.

It's your life, you can make whatever choices you want, do whatever makes you feel most comfortable and satisfied in the end

 

[Unwanted94]

I do see your point, but at the same time... I would really hate to be thousands and thousands of dollars in debt for a degree that I'm probably not all that interested in anyway,and then on top of that, I could go months or even years without a job in the field I specialized in. To me, it just wouldn't be worth it, unless one knew exactly what they wanted to be.