Why is it that the simplest and shortest questions are always the ones with the most complicated, or frequently, unknown answers? For example, refer back to sentence number one. After completing my second week of the new job, which may I add I am enjoying very much, I have had cause again to consider my uncertain future. You are going to work for the rest of your life in order to make money. It may as well be something you are passionate about and can enjoy completely. Like many others, that impassioned state is something missing from me. I hope that the new start I have taken will lead me down a path of discovery, because I am understanding more and more that it is my own failures and unrealised potential that are preventing me from finding the happiness I feel I deserve.
It is difficult process to reach a level of greatness. There are some that say I am continually too hard on myself, but it is not my belief that being lenient is the best proactive way to affect change. If I am to redirect my focus and energy toward the reassessment of my priorities and to the building of something I can be both happy with and proud of at the same time, it does not seem unreasonable to expect a certain degree of harshness.
I can freely admit to being jealous of those people who seem to be born knowing exactly who they are and what they want to do with the rest of their lives. However, that gift, if you call it one, is not without its own drawbacks. Some of those people are so intent on seeking out what they believe for so long is their true destiny that they fail to see when something better may come along. At least without a definite ending to the story, the person is allowed to proceed with an openness of mind and heart. Now I do not mean to completely contradict my earlier statements with this comment, but I do suppose I fall somewhere in between these two ideals. In one way, I fantasise about what it must be like to wake up every day knowing who and what you want to be; to have planned out every detail for the next ten years. And on the other hand, I know being flexible and open is one of the things I try to achieve daily.
So what is the next step? Damn, there is another one of those simple and short questions.
Postscript: After a pleasant evening out with some co-workers downtown, I arrived back at my car to find I had left my headlights on and my battery dead. My rescuer Chris attempted to jump me unsuccessfully. We went and bought a new battery, but that did not work either. I ended up getting home at 0200 via tow truck. I made an appointment for a mobile automotive electrician to come over today and look at it, but his other appointments went late and he will now have to come on Monday morning. I am presently a synonym for displeasure, which may be slightly obvious if you read everything before this postscript.
Catharsis
by David July
Archived Article (2001–2014) 
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I too am a bit jealous of those people... I have no idea what I really want to be doing, what my "life plan" should be.
But I believe there's a far worse disadvantage to people like that. When you know exactly what you want to do, and you have your whole life planned out, things obviously don't always go your way. And when they don't, it can absolutely destroy those people. When you want something so badly that it's become an ingrained part of your life, and then it's crushed... that's a feeling I never want to have.
You two make it seem that people who know what they want to do are miserable people, or at the very least on the verge of becoming miserable.
I have known what I've wanted to do for the past 6 years and I very pleased with how my life is turning out. Of course, nothing in life goes exactly as scripted, and you have to roll with the punches. Very recently, I have discovered that the primary goal of my career is not something that interests me as much as it once did. This revelation did not destroy my life, because I have discovered other interests. I am living proof that hitting a speed bump or a road block in your chosen profession is not the end of the world.
There is definately something for being flexible, but there is a price to being too flexible. What happens to those people in 10-20 years when they realize that "being flexible" has kept them from living nicely or comfortably? These people are not incapable of finding work, but they also are incapable of progression in their work. I feel sorry for the people that will have to live with their parents or rent apartments when they are 35 because they are still "being flexible."
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that work does not make the person. You shouldn't hate your job, but it shouldn't be the defining characteristic of your life. A job or a profession is a means to live life. In my opinion, life is what happens outside of work.
Sorry about the incoherant ramblings.
Respectfully submitted.
Nah, I'm just saying there's downsides to it, just like anything else. And what I was talking about was when someone works so hard to get where they want for years, and then they realize it can't happen. THAT is hard.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
-FN
No one's life goes as planned. So why argue whether one path is more just than another? Furhter, why hold one path superior to another? Shouldn't all simply pursue what gives them individual joy?
Yes but paying rent and buying gas rarely align themselves with "individual joy." Sacrifices must be made either on the joy side or the individual.
I think everyone should have at least a vague plan for the future, something to guide their decisions and keep them moving forward in the philosophic sense. Being hell bent on a goal is definitely problematic but I think it is worse to be stagnating. No one needs to know what they want to "do" for the rest of their life but you should always try to better yourself.
very true. as long as the "vague plan" is based on the pursuit of joy and not on what the herd exaults. the dentist who wakes up at 40 and puts a gun in his mouth is the victim of following others version of joy. too many people seem to live too long and go too deep into that plan without examining their own subjective truth.
I think we can all agree there are things a person can do that will better them whether or not it gives them joy or should give them joy. For example, getting in shape, learning a new trade, (learning almost anything for that matter) or meeting new people will enrich a person?s life and make their goals more attainable. Even if a person does not know what their goals are they can still move their life in a positive direction without negatively affecting their well being.
I do not think someone should become a dentist for their whole life unless they really love it, but I don't see any harm in learing dentistry.
This is getting vaguer by the second; isn?t personal philosophy fun.
Indeed