What should I do with my life?

http://www.fastcompany.com/node/45909/print

by anirudh • 17 years ago

44 6 17 years ago

wallflower• 17 years ago

> I'm talking about the garden-variety fantasy: Put your calling in a lockbox, go out and make a ton of money, and then come back to the lockbox to pick up your calling where you left it.

His researched book "What should I do with my life?" is interesting, in a college alumni notes kind of way, for picking up and opening to a random page and reading one of the 70 profiles (which are categorized). It's a great coffee table book for kindling conversations.

I liked the profile of the woman who was a top toner sales executive.

stuffthatmatter• 17 years ago

A great book for when people have enough financial backup to explore a bit. Nowadays with people's 401k down 40% and underwater in their house, they can't afford to take a year off to 'figure life out'

HeyLaughingBoy• 17 years ago

Figuring life out doesn't have to take money.

You only get what Mary Oliver calls "your one wild and precious life." So if living it well means giving up the 401k, walking away from the house and filing bankruptcy, then that's a valid choice.

[edit] I keep that poem on my desktop so I can read the last two lines every day and it is slowly coming to influence the decisions I make:

"Tell me what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?"

mannicken• 17 years ago

You think that you'll make lots of money and get back to your dream in 2-3 years but you'd be wrong. You'll be dead in 2-3 years. Perhaps not physically but this person right now that is you -- he will no longer exist, only someone who has memories of being you.

Ardit20• 17 years ago

How are the two different? You might as well say that I will be dead in the next minute. What makes me is not this instant, this second, is the core me, the core ideas, perspectives, themes, aims.

cousin_it• 17 years ago

This article has been sitting on my hard drive for a long time now, since I first read it and felt that I'd have to reread it many times over the years... My favorite part:

"Keeping your doors open" is a trap. It's an excuse to stay uninvolved. I call the people who have the hardest time closing doors Phi Beta Slackers. They hop between esteemed grad schools, fat corporate gigs, and prestigious fellowships, looking as if they have their act together but still feeling like observers, feeling as if they haven't come close to living up to their potential.

What should I do with my life?

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