We have sessions called Challenge Accepted every month in Breverie 10x. During these sessions, you might discover what to do with your life and how to navigate pivotal moments in life.
Everyone brings a life challenge — one they are currently or soon to be facing.
As a group, we help find some path forward with each unique challenge.
FIGURING OUT WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE
One student quit her full-time job a year ago and was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.
She is a mother with a lot of passions and hobbies, but professionally, she was feeling lost.
This was her challenge — to find meaning or “purpose” in life and stop feeling lost.
A quick disclaimer. A challenge like this can’t be fully addressed in a single session. That’s what Life Design is for. But it takes time.
Let’s figure out how to approach this challenge since it’s one many people face.
How do you find that next step or next path when you either hate your job or you’ve already quit or whatever other pivotal moment you’re facing, and you’re not sure what’s next?
What’s Next — Figuring Out Your Life Path
After ending my marriage several years ago, I started questioning everything.
- Who am I?
- What do I want?
- Where do I want to live?
- What do I want to do?
I was living with my parents back then and raising my daughter.
I felt completely out of control.
I felt like I could live in any city in the world and do any job. It opened up a lot of questions.
- Should I quit my job in technology and become a photographer?
- Should I continue my job in technology?
- Should I quit my company and join another company?
I had no idea where to find answers, and this is what so many of us struggle with.
If this message resonates, keep reading to learn some actionable steps and common mistakes people make as they try to uncover their path in life.
MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WHILE FIGURING OUT THEIR PATH IN LIFE
Plenty of mistakes prevent us from figuring out “what’s next.”
Mistake #1: We put too much pressure on ourselves to figure it out.
We believe we have to come up with a plan right here and now.
We view our life as linear. We are at point A, and we need to come up with a straight line to get to point B.
And because we believe we’ve made the wrong choices once, we might do it again.
So, whatever decision comes next has to be the final decision, right?
Wrong.
It’s impossible to come up with one linear path for your whole life right here and now because life is so much more complicated than that.
One or five years from now, we won’t know:
- who we will love
- what our passions will be
- what our priorities will be
Life situations change, so it’s impossible to predict the future.
The more pressure we put on ourselves to come up with this perfect plan, the further we get from actually getting on any path.
We’ll continue to feel lost when we don’t know where to begin creating our life plan.
Mistake #2: The advice that if we feel lost, go ahead and try different things.
This is an honest mistake because so much advice counters this.
And don’t get me wrong. Trying new things is good, with one caveat we’ll uncover in a moment.
When you feel lost, mindlessly trying random things won’t give you direction.
If you start listening to random podcasts, reading different books, listening to different advice, and visiting different places, you get more confused.
In our fast-paced, busy world, there is never a lack of information or opportunities to try new things.
If you chase all of it, you get lost and forget who you are and what you want.
So, my advice?
Yes, trying new things is good when you do it mindfully, reflect, and figure out what’s working for you.
But if you’re constantly chasing new things, you might actually be running away from yourself.
You might be trying to find answers “out there” instead of inside yourself.
Here is my suggestion for you to be able to hear those answers within yourself…
- Start recognizing moments where you felt proud, accomplished, fulfilled, and happy in your life.
- Ask yourself daily what happened during those particular moments.
These are the moments where you are either living your life in line with your core values or engaging your personal strengths that help you perform and feel your best.
Values and strengths are the things that make you who you are.
When you start noticing those moments and uncovering your strengths and values, you begin to reconnect with who you are.
You forget who you are, what you believe, what you’re good at, and what’s important to you when you’re lost in life.
So, the first step in getting unblocked and unstuck is to uncover your values and strengths.
The simplest way to do that is to look back on your day every day, find those moments, and determine what makes them so special.
UNCOVER YOUR LIFE PATH BY OBSERVING YOUR LIFE
You don’t need to push yourself to try new things or travel the world to discover your strengths and values.
It’s already within you, and you can observe it anytime.
So, your job is to analyze those moments, reflect on them, and get to the root cause of why you feel fulfilled and happy during specific experiences.
Once you learn more about yourself, you’ll start to create more of those moments in your life naturally.
Why?
Because you see more of what you think about.
For example, I bought a Jeep last year. Once I started researching Jeeps, I saw them everywhere!
So, by looking back and finding moments that have already happened, you will automatically start creating more of them.
This practice creates a positive energy in and around you.
You don’t need to know the full path of your life to know what the next step is that makes you feel a certain way.
You’re not mindlessly and randomly trying things to find direction and purpose.
You’re choosing your life because deep inside you, a desire grew to do a particular thing.
As you practice engaging more of the things that you’re genuinely curious about because of a value or strength driving that curiosity, the more you’ll progress on your life journey naturally.
If you’re in a pivotal moment in life right now, the first thing you should do is stop pressuring yourself.
You don’t owe anybody anything.
Give yourself space and grace, and start living your life in the present moment. It’s happening now — not yesterday or tomorrow.
Make the most of today and learn from it. As you learn, the more you’ll channel your energy toward something positive and fulfilling.
Life isn’t set in stone. There are no wrong or right decisions. Only choices that lead to the next choices.
If you need any help or support, please feel free to send me a DM on Instagram. I’m always here to support you on your journey, whatever it is.
Until next time,
Olena xx
