How To Figure Out What You Want To Do With Your Life (10 Questions To Ask)

In today’s modern world, it’s easy for anyone to feel disconnected from everything that they do.

Whether you’re a teenager who’s struggling with school, an adult who’s experiencing a midlife crisis, or a professional who’s not satisfied with the work that you do, you come across a time when you don’t know what to do with your life. 

Figuring out what to do with your life can be an intimidating task especially if you don’t know where to start. If you’re currently experiencing this, then you’re in the right article. Read on how to figure out what you want to do with your life.

There are several questions to ask yourself to know which direction you should go. Knowing your passion, greatest accomplishments, your goals, knowing the people that you admire, are just some of the things that you should have an answer to. 

Once you’ve answered the right questions to ask yourself, you will be able to narrow down the path where you would want to go.

In this article, we will discuss in more detail the questions that you should ask yourself and your action plan in the future.

10 Questions to Ask Yourself

With so many distractions and pressures that we receive daily in our lives, it can be difficult to know the right questions to ask ourselves.

For you to be a step closer to figuring out what to do with your life, it’s important to narrow down the goal of your path. Once you know where you’re going, you can easily map out your plan for the future.

Here are some of the questions that you should ask yourself:

1. What are the things that you’re passionate about?

You often hear people say that you should follow your heart and passion in life. When we break this down, knowing the activities that make you feel fulfilled and satisfied is often your passion.

Although it may not produce the same money for you to leave your current job and solve all your responsibilities, it may help you feel happy every time you do it.

Not everyone knows their passion and that’s normal. Think about the activities that make you feel excited.

Whether it’s singing, dancing, painting, writing, making perfumes or candles, or helping the community around you, as long as it makes you happy and fulfilled, you can pursue this passion. 

Create a time every day where you can practice this passion that you have. Whether it’s 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour, make sure that you do this activity.

You can increase the time by a few weeks or months. Take note that your productivity is directly linked to your happiness.

2. What are your greatest accomplishments so far?

Make a list of all the things that you felt proud of. Whether it’s from your school, work, or personal activities, include everything on your list.

Contemplate the event when you felt proud, the things that you did, and the feeling that you felt. 

Now consider what would happen and what you would feel if you did it today? Would it still make you happy and proud?

Do you consider it your passion? Can you practice it every day and turn it into a skill that you can use for your work? Will it generate an income?

If your answer to all the questions is yes, we suggest that you practice it and turn it into something profitable. Remember that you won’t consider it work if you’re excited and happy to do it.

3. If you’re given unlimited resources in life now, what would you do and what would you like to have?

Hypothetically, if you were given a million dollars that you can spend on a specified amount of time, what would you do with it and what would you buy?

Who would you like to spend it with? Who will you help? Where would you travel? What would you try to learn?

Thinking about having everything that you would like to have can be powerful. This will show you the things that you would prioritize once you get the resources that you need.

Now, narrow down the answers that you had from the above questions to the things that you can do now. 

Think of the work and tasks that you can do in order to achieve the answers that you had. This will give you an idea of what you should do with your life.

4. What are your goals in life?

Now that you’ve asked yourself your passion, accomplishment, and priorities, you can now move on to listing down your goals in life. Knowing your goals in life will allow you to focus on the path that you would want to take.

Divide your goals into three sections with these questions:

• What are your career goals?
• What are your health goals?
• What are your personal goals?

Our life can be dissected into six important aspects. These are spiritual wellness, mental strength, health, relationship, professional life, and wealth.

It’s vital that you set goals for each aspect to ensure that you get a proper balance because this can help you succeed in life. 

5. Who do you admire most?

Looking up to somebody or a couple of people is normal and important in life. These people will help you discover where you would want to be.

List down all the characteristics, values, beliefs, work, and accomplishments of the people that you admire and try to compare them with those you have. 

Try to get an idea of how you can follow their path to success. These people will inspire you to do better every day and, hopefully, you can also inspire other people in the future. 

Avoid spending time with people who you think can set you back with your goals. Try to focus on the people who give you inspiration, motivation, and help you to achieve your goals faster.

Spend more time with successful people who talk about businesses, stocks, and their passion so that you can get the same energy that they have.

6. What are the things that you don’t like doing?

Knowing the things that you’re not fond of doing is equally important as knowing your passions in life.

Once you know the tasks that give you negative emotions, try to restrict doing these activities. Understanding the things that you don’t like will make you a step closer to doing the things that you love.

For example, if you’re not happy with doing long meetings, try to summarize all the important points and questions before your meeting starts so that you can narrow down the time that you spend on your meetings.

If you’re not fond of working 9 to 5, then start your own business where you can be the boss. 

7. How much effort and time are you willing to spend to get what you want?

There’s no such thing as overnight success. If you want to achieve your goals in life, it’s important that you’re willing to sacrifice your sleep, time, effort, and resources.

This means that you should be ready to get out of your comfort zone, put in more hours, and learn all the things that you need to learn for your passion.

8. What are the things that you would like to experience?

Many people get the wrong idea that thinking about the material things that they want will get them motivated in life. For you to be one step closer to figuring out what you want to do with your life, you need to think about the things that you would want to experience.

When people talk about having a Ferrari or owning an exclusive yacht, you only think about temporary happiness.

But asking yourself what you would like to experience creates a defining feeling that you long for.

Whether you want to experience learning a new skill, how you would feel when you travel the world, eating in expensive restaurants with your loved ones, or as simple as having a quiet night with your family without worrying about money, debt, or mortgages of tomorrow.

Try to see if imagining these experiences will inspire you to work and do more for a better future.

9. What is your ideal day?

Take a couple of minutes to think about your ideal day or week. Would you be happy hanging out with your family and friends? Would you like to learn a new skill for the passion that you have? Your plan doesn’t mean that you write down every last minute of the day, it can be as easy as:

• Get a full night’s sleep
• Eat a healthy breakfast
• Do a mile run around the neighborhood
• Paint for at least an hour
• Read a book
• Play with pets
• Have a dinner date with a loved one

Experiencing an ideal day can give you the happiness that you deserve for working well from the previous week. It also provides you the boost and motivation that you need to face tomorrow.

Try to create ideal days on your monthly schedule so that you can have a rest day.

10. What would you like to experiment on?

Experimenting doesn’t mean going back to science class. Rather, try to learn new things or play around. Be willing to fail and learn from your experience. You can experiment on the things that you’re curious about. 

For example, if you’re not good with arts, you can experiment with drawing or painting for a full half day. If you don’t travel much, try to go to a new city, museum, or library.

Think about how you felt when doing this experiment and list down anything that you’ve learned. Try to contemplate if you will enjoy doing the same things over again.

By experimenting with the different aspects of your life, you will be able to learn new things about the world around you and about yourself.

Conclusion

Figuring out what you want to do with your life may seem intimidating, but you shouldn’t be afraid of doing it. It’s important that we ask ourselves what will make us feel fulfilled because it is what makes us humans.

Try to answer and list down all the questions mentioned above. Narrow down your answers and try to look for a common task or activity that you can do for you to feel happy and satisfied. Remember that your passion can go a long way if you spend time doing it every day.