Remember you once wanted to be a fireman

As a 20,30,40 or 50 something it can often be a challenge to figure out 'what you want from life'. There are so many options but what do you want to be, are you in the right career? You are meant to 'know your purpose' and follow it - but how do you figure it out?

The important thing to remember is that what you think you want now from your life might not be what you want from your life in 5 years time. Its Okay to have an hypothesis of where you see yourself going and where you want to be. Remember that when you were 5 years old you might have wanted to be a fireman, at 12 a professional wrestler at 18 an entrepreneur, at 22 a partner in a law firm and now perhaps an entrepreneur or a restaurant owner. Once you make an hypothesis test it out. Go talk to people who have done what you are about to do. Is it really all roses like you think? Or is it going to take way too long and going to be way harder than you are willing to sacrifice?

Don't worry if the hypothesis keeps changing - you will start getting to know yourself better. Maybe even try keeping a journal of what you are thinking and where you want to go - you might start learning about yourself and this is still learning which is invaluable. You might feel like you are working in circles and not knowing what you want but infact everything that you seriously investigate and go down gets you closer to your goal. I am talking about if you actually do something about it - not just think through in your head - give someone a call, research the web or visit a company. This will help you determine your goals and validate your hypothesis - if you still want to be a fireman than go for it.

Writing down your goals will also help you out - it will prevent you from changing your goals all the time. Often when trying to achieve a goal you will reach hurdles and your goal will seem too difficult to achieve - these are the times to review your goals - if you hadn't written it down you might just take the easy way out and switch your targets.