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I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life and it's driving me nuts.
I currently work as a tech support advisor and they pay well. $13.50 an hour. Well I was placed on a 60 day performance probation for not meeting my customer satisfaction score. So I have to meet my goal for 2 out of 3 months to pass
Well. Let's just say I don't want to get out of bed every morning dreading the day and get an anxiety attack and praying I don't get a negative customer review. And constantly worrying about playing the numbers game at my job. I want to wake up in the morning and look forward to the rest of my day. I want to get up and enjoy life and have fun. A life without enjoyment isn't a life worth living. At that point I considered quitting my job.
I am 27, and will be 28 in 6 weeks or so. I have no idea what I really want to do, and if what I really want to do is a good decision. I want to take this seriously because every decision I made up to this point felt like the worst mistake I ever made. I didn't finish college, and if I did, I probably wouldn't be so miserable in a call center.
I want to be a lot of things. I want to go back to college but I lost financial aid and didn't pass many classes. I wanted to be a game developer, professional gamer, freelance artist/writer, pet groomer, veterinarian. There's so many things I want to do that I'm afraid of picking one and getting bored with it and moving on. I want to pick something that's fun to do, and would make enough money to pay bills.
How do I make a decision of what I want to do in life? I want to live life happy. Not constantly miserable.
Everybody has different paths, and what is glorious to one person is boring to another, so don't expect anything but suggestions that may or may not sound good.
The good news, is you are young. I didn't even go back to college for my final career choice until I was about your age, and am retiring from a long career in less than two weeks. My take on working?
If you want to be a game developer, that means you will need to learn to program. If that programming is put to use on a game, you might make decent money after a few years of moving from startup to startup, or you can get a job using the same skills to do cancer research for 150K per year. Same skill. The best paying jobs are hard to do. Those are also the ones that allow one to not only pay bills, but also to save and invest enough money that you can retire early. It won't be a dog polisher, or an artist. Those will be satisfying jobs as you sleep in your car, or on the ground by a dumpster somewhere.
For me, it was all about music. Went on the road as a musician instead of college after HS, did um, OK. Music was highly satisfying, but I was broke. Decided as an adult, I wanted to design musical equipment, but needed an engineering degree to get a good job, and decided to take the plunge and learn mathematics, which I hated. Discovered that having a goal of a decent job in music made learning math much easier, and I actually enjoyed it. After college, while waiting for a job to open up with a musical equipment company, took a job designing medical equipment instead, and one early prototype saved the life of a volunteer during a clinical trial. Decided the hard work was worth the pain, and made the decision to switch to medical equipment. Fast forward 30 years, ended up in high-tech automotive research and development, and am now retiring.
That all may sound boring, and some of it was, but there were a TON of interesting adventures in engineering that both paid well, and sent me all over the world from Europe/Japan/Korea/China for almost 40 years.
Don't give up. Just get skills that can be applied to multiple fields, and you will discover to your surprise that what Forrest Gump said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are gonna get'
Everybody has different paths, and what is glorious to one person is boring to another, so don't expect anything but suggestions that may or may not sound good.
The good news, is you are young. I didn't even go back to college for my final career choice until I was about your age, and am retiring from a long career in less than two weeks. My take on working?
If you want to be a game developer, that means you will need to learn to program. If that programming is put to use on a game, you might make decent money after a few years of moving from startup to startup, or you can get a job using the same skills to do cancer research for 150K per year. Same skill. The best paying jobs are hard to do. Those are also the ones that allow one to not only pay bills, but also to save and invest enough money that you can retire early. It won't be a dog polisher, or an artist. Those will be satisfying jobs as you sleep in your car, or on the ground by a dumpster somewhere.
For me, it was all about music. Went on the road as a musician instead of college after HS, did um, OK. Music was highly satisfying, but I was broke. Decided as an adult, I wanted to design musical equipment, but needed an engineering degree to get a good job, and decided to take the plunge and learn mathematics, which I hated. Discovered that having a goal of a decent job in music made learning math much easier, and I actually enjoyed it. After college, while waiting for a job to open up with a musical equipment company, took a job designing medical equipment instead, and one early prototype saved the life of a volunteer during a clinical trial. Decided the hard work was worth the pain, and made the decision to switch to medical equipment. Fast forward 30 years, ended up in high-tech automotive research and development, and am now retiring.
That all may sound boring, and some of it was, but there were a TON of interesting adventures in engineering that both paid well, and sent me all over the world from Europe/Japan/Korea/China for almost 40 years.
Don't give up. Just get skills that can be applied to multiple fields, and you will discover to your surprise that what Forrest Gump said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are gonna get'
...is true.
I really like your story man. I'd like to hear more intimate details. Maybe I can PM you?
I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life and it's driving me nuts.
I currently work as a tech support advisor and they pay well. $13.50 an hour. Well I was placed on a 60 day performance probation for not meeting my customer satisfaction score. So I have to meet my goal for 2 out of 3 months to pass
Well. Let's just say I don't want to get out of bed every morning dreading the day and get an anxiety attack and praying I don't get a negative customer review. And constantly worrying about playing the numbers game at my job. I want to wake up in the morning and look forward to the rest of my day. I want to get up and enjoy life and have fun. A life without enjoyment isn't a life worth living. At that point I considered quitting my job.
I am 27, and will be 28 in 6 weeks or so. I have no idea what I really want to do, and if what I really want to do is a good decision. I want to take this seriously because every decision I made up to this point felt like the worst mistake I ever made. I didn't finish college, and if I did, I probably wouldn't be so miserable in a call center.
I want to be a lot of things. I want to go back to college but I lost financial aid and didn't pass many classes. I wanted to be a game developer, professional gamer, freelance artist/writer, pet groomer, veterinarian. There's so many things I want to do that I'm afraid of picking one and getting bored with it and moving on. I want to pick something that's fun to do, and would make enough money to pay bills.
How do I make a decision of what I want to do in life? I want to live life happy. Not constantly miserable.
Ok, you mentioned pet groomer. Realistically, you don’t seem to be a great student, so let’s rule out things like veterinarian. You must like animals. How about taking a course in pet grooming? I presume you could accomplish this in 6 months or so. Then, you could have your own business, or work for another groomer to gain experience. If you want to, you could get more courses, in small manageable bites, in other related jobs like a vet tech. Imagine what a gem you would be to a large veterinary practice, or even a zoo?
Usually, if you don’t know what to do, it is best to just start doing something towards your goal that is easily accomplished. Then you will gain momentum and confidence.
Work is not always "fun". You will go through a learning curve whatever you do, and that can be excruciating. Once you are the master of your domain (Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours) you will derive deep satisfaction from being competent. At that point, you can go anywhere within that domain, provided that you have behaved professionally, and delivered on your commitments.
The problem is not the job - it is you. Become expert. Do not look for "Fun" at work. Look for "widely acknowledged competency".
If you had the "stuff" to be a professional gamer, you would have known it by now from external signals, such as offers from syndicates to join up and split the profits. If you had the "stuff" to become a freelance artist/writer, same applies. Pet groomer is attainable. How many ill-tempered dogs have you groomed? You'll have to work for somebody to develop - err - competency. If that person is walking on eggshells lest you throw a hissy fit in front of a paying customer, you're toast.
Vet school is probably out of the question: you'd have to go back and ace all of those hard courses that weren't "fun" so you never took them. At that, you'd be a 32 year old vet school applicant. I'm afraid the signs say that you do not have the tenacity to get out of vet school at 36/37 with an additional $150K in debt, needing to either buy a practice or work for somebody else until those loans are paid off.
You dropped out once. Imagine dropping out again, this time with $150K in additional debt with nothing to show for it.
If you expect to have "fun" all the time while you're earning a living and building competency, I'm afraid "you" and "the world" will not see eye to eye. Get over it. They call it "work" for a reason. Once you get good enough at it, it becomes a 'profession'.
In sum, until you wake up and smell the coffee and are able to buckle down seriously to develop expertise and a reputation, you'll still be doing what you've been doing (or something similar) when you are 50 and out of runway.
The idea of doing a career assessment is a good one. Community colleges have career offices that administer them. Also, there are youtube videos by Jordan Peterson who discusses precisely the dilemma in which you live: delayed maturation.
Some of us take our time figuring out what we want to be in life. I was 32 when my light went on. When all the kids were asked in school what they wanted to be when they grew up I was the one with no answer.
Then IBM released the IBM AT. I taught myself programming, how to upgrade computers, how to fix them, etc.
I got lucky at one point when an engineer at the place I worked wanted me to join his group because he knew I had all that knowledge and he wanted to move the drafting department from tables to computers.
So we did. Eventually I ended up taking care of all the computers in a world-wide company.
I probably shouldn't tell the OP this, but it was fun. I looked forward to my job every day. I hated going to work because the place was a hellhole, but if I could keep from dealing with management I was in heaven.
Then I left and started my own business. That was bliss. If I had a client that was a problem I would recommend them to someone else and walk away. I had enough great clients that I could do so. No more dealing with jerks.
I'm retired now and glad I found my niche when I did.
Unfortunately, i don't think as easy to do what did now.
I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life and it's driving me nuts.
I currently work as a tech support advisor and they pay well. $13.50 an hour. Well I was placed on a 60 day performance probation for not meeting my customer satisfaction score. So I have to meet my goal for 2 out of 3 months to pass
Well. Let's just say I don't want to get out of bed every morning dreading the day and get an anxiety attack and praying I don't get a negative customer review. And constantly worrying about playing the numbers game at my job. I want to wake up in the morning and look forward to the rest of my day. I want to get up and enjoy life and have fun. A life without enjoyment isn't a life worth living. At that point I considered quitting my job.
I am 27, and will be 28 in 6 weeks or so. I have no idea what I really want to do, and if what I really want to do is a good decision. I want to take this seriously because every decision I made up to this point felt like the worst mistake I ever made. I didn't finish college, and if I did, I probably wouldn't be so miserable in a call center.
I want to be a lot of things. I want to go back to college but I lost financial aid and didn't pass many classes. I wanted to be a game developer, professional gamer, freelance artist/writer, pet groomer, veterinarian. There's so many things I want to do that I'm afraid of picking one and getting bored with it and moving on. I want to pick something that's fun to do, and would make enough money to pay bills.
How do I make a decision of what I want to do in life? I want to live life happy. Not constantly miserable.
EVERY young person I know who grew,up with computer games wants to be a gamer, game development, or professional gamer. That's like wanting to be a professional black back player. Cross it off your list.games do NOT run the world.
Judge Judy, whose kids all became attorneys, except one, said she never forced her kids into law. She said she told her kids to figure out what they like to do, then figure out a way to make money at it in an interview. Notice none are gamers.
You say you like animals, but don't have the wherewithal to be a vet. Start small...pet groomer has been mentioned. Try it, you might like it or hate it. Then work to become vet tech if you can handle the education. How about a zoo keepers assistant? Feeding animals cleaning cages might not be "fun", but you'd be around animals. Just learn how not to become dinner for the tiger!
Work at your studies, even the " fun jobs" require some education. You can't design a game if you can't understand computer programming, and it can take a year or more to design a game, work on the different skill levels, the different "prizes " for attaining the levels, scoring details etc, must all be worked out "on paper" before the computer programming begins. Then you have to check out copywriter to be sure your game idea is original.
There's more to it than " let's play a game".
Anything you are interested will have its bad days, work is not all fun. How do you, as a vet, tell a family their loving pet died on your operating table, for instance? That you couldn't save Fido?
Sometimes work is just that: work. But your attitude towards your work also affects your work.
You are called on the carpet, under probation. Change your attitude, give it your all and do your very best. It might help raise your scores. It may not, you might not be cut to be a tech support advisor. Ask for some additional course or take them If your employer offers them. If not, see what your local community college has, and take just ONE course that will help you perform your work better.
Approach your job with a positive "CAN DO" attitude. A better attitude may help.
Life is 10% what happens to us, 90% how we deal with it.
So learn to deal POSITIVELY.
If you don't work put at this job, you've got 60 days to save save save for unemployment. Start looking for a side job NOW in case it's all you have left over after you get terminated.
I started a new job recently as a hotel desk clerk. At 30 days the manager called me in and told me they'd offer another week of training to me, and if I could not handle it, maybe the job wasn't for me. In two weeks, things started to "click" on how the programming worked! I have become one of his more valued employees. I can work more than one shift, all three in fact and I now can do the with some excellent degree of expertise. And here, when I was called on the carpet I figured my job was over. But i adopted a "CAN DO" attitude and said " I've got to get this" and i finally got it.
So maybe that will work for you. Be the best you can at what you are doing now while you search for a career you'll enjoy.
Can you make a connection between your "fun" skillset and a career path?
Put "fun" and "passion" into your outlook, the money will follow if you follow through. IF you can't look forward with excitement and interest every morning to what you do for a living, you're on the wrong path ... IMO.
Of course, success requires that you put forth your best efforts, work at acquiring and improving your skills, and being the employee that you'd want to have if you were the employer. You will only get back out of all this a compensation that is equal to your efforts.
Consider the advice of folks such as may be found in "Bluefishing". May be worth your reading ... among other folk who counsel similar approaches to life.
FWIW ... I think the folk who look upon their career path as "work" to pay the bills so that they look forward solely to the day that they can retire are on the wrong track. YMMV.
PS: keep in mind that success is a result of applying yourself. If you're seeking something for nothing, you'll likely succeed at getting ... nothing.
I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life and it's driving me nuts.
I currently work as a tech support advisor and they pay well. $13.50 an hour. Well I was placed on a 60 day performance probation for not meeting my customer satisfaction score. So I have to meet my goal for 2 out of 3 months to pass
Well. Let's just say I don't want to get out of bed every morning dreading the day and get an anxiety attack and praying I don't get a negative customer review. And constantly worrying about playing the numbers game at my job. I want to wake up in the morning and look forward to the rest of my day. I want to get up and enjoy life and have fun. A life without enjoyment isn't a life worth living. At that point I considered quitting my job.
I am 27, and will be 28 in 6 weeks or so. I have no idea what I really want to do, and if what I really want to do is a good decision. I want to take this seriously because every decision I made up to this point felt like the worst mistake I ever made. I didn't finish college, and if I did, I probably wouldn't be so miserable in a call center.
I want to be a lot of things. I want to go back to college but I lost financial aid and didn't pass many classes. I wanted to be a game developer, professional gamer, freelance artist/writer, pet groomer, veterinarian. There's so many things I want to do that I'm afraid of picking one and getting bored with it and moving on. I want to pick something that's fun to do, and would make enough money to pay bills.
How do I make a decision of what I want to do in life? I want to live life happy. Not constantly miserable.
i you did not yet decide, give me your date of birth and i will write you exactly what you need to do in this life.
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