The point when you start trying to determine what you want to do in life is an important time in the life of any man. This is for no other reason than the fact that whatever decision you make will be intimately tied to subsequent decisions in your future. 

With such weight bearing down on a single decision, making the conscious effort to figure out what to do in life becomes almost as important as anything else you do, if not more.

Here are some tips to help you out find your path.

1. Know Your Passions

The rest of your life is a long time to be unhappy, so we have to guard against that.  That is why we recommend that you choose something in line with your likes and passions. What gets you going the most?  What gets your creative juices flowing?  Where do you feel at home the most? What is that work you do which doesn’t feel like work?

Those will usually be the thing(s) that you would love spending your life doing.

2. Experiment

A large percentage of people have the passion to become their favorite superhero, but that doesn’t make that passion valid.  It is easy to look at things from the outside and make decisions. It’s not until you get to experience different things and find the practicality of them that you start seeing the true picture.  Get out and pursue your passion(s). It could be an internship, work experience, or coaching.

3. Goals

What are your goals in life?  We are not even talking about your career or academic goals here.  We are referring to every other goal you must have held for yourself.  These include your:

• Health goals
• Financial goals
• Personal goals
• Professional goals

With a good understanding of these, you will be able to shape your thoughts into deciding what you want to do in life.

4. Role Models

Who do you admire the most?  Who do you look up to and would always want to grow up to be?  Who are the sets of people that you are naturally drawn to? You might not have been giving this much thought but you must have been subconsciously gathering a list of people that you admire.

Check to see the correlation between them and you might just get the answer you have been looking for.

5. Engage Others

Others sometimes see in us more things that we see in ourselves.  That is why it would be a poor strategy to keep these things to yourself.  Let people around you know that you are developing a profile for yourself to set a template for what you want to do in the future. Allow them to be a part of the decision-making process, ask them to tell you what they have seen in you, and how you can apply that to the rest of your life. Just be aware, people with imposing personalities might want to take the show away from you and strongly drive what you should do rather than just suggest.  The power is in your hands to take the wheel back in these situations.