“It’s not how much time you spend doing what you love it’s about how little time you spend doing what you hate.” -Casey Neistadt
I remember when I was a little kid how often adults would ask me what I wanted to be when I was older. I would say a professional basketball player or something silly like a superhero.
As I got older the question became what do you think you want to major in in college? I would say something like business, but I really had no clue.
Once I graduated the adults would ask me what I wanted to do for a living. I still didn’t have a clue, but I’d make up an answer I thought sounded impressive like owning my own business one day or working in private equity, etc.
Today if you asked me what I want to do in life I’d be hard-pressed to give you a totally honest answer. I still, at 50, don’t have total clarity about what I want in this very short life I have!
I think a more interesting question and one I can answer and I think you can answer as well as what you don’t want in life.
I don’t want to put a suit on or fight traffic or have a boss.
I don’t want financial insecurity.
I don’t want poor health.
I don’t want to feel anxious or overwhelmed.
I don’t want people to hate me.
I don’t want to be bored intellectually.
I don’t want to be around mean-spirited people.
I don’t want my self-esteem defined by what I accomplish or don’t accomplish.
I don’t want to work on challenges that don’t stretch me or excite me.
I don’t want to ever feel like I’m trapped and can’t choose for myself.
I wrote my list of 10 things I don’t want in about 2 minutes. I will probably keep adding to this list quarterly and review it.
See how this exercise works for you to bring you more clarity in your life.
“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn’t stop you from doing anything at all. — Richard Feynman