Inspired by a question from a friend. The full question what will you do with your life.
The question requires an element of certainty with words like will and do. Additionally, the question contains a time vector - life. I wonder if some humans experience anxiety when they are asked to be certain about an inherently uncertain thing — life.
I thought about this more — if you asked me what I wanted to do with my life I would have responded: be a ghostbuster, be a vet, be an architect, be a musician. I work as a musician and made a career out of music. But I don’t believe "being a musician” is what I did.
Doing requires an action — a verb. The act of being a musician is a function of these verbs: collaborating, listening, considering, reflecting, practicing, solving, conceptualizing, communicating, and many others. These verbs are verbs I do now in the work I do in sales/marketing. These verbs are verbs are functions of my earliest proclivities.
I discovered these verbs by way of interests. Pursuing my interests forced the expression of the aforementioned behaviors. I’m privileged and fortunate that my parents allowed me to pursue many interests — even at the expense of school (which was not their hope).
I conclude — if interests allowed me to express actions that I realized I wanted more and more in my life, and if my life is a product of those actions, then it was the freedom (and privilege) to pursue my interests that helped me get to where I am now.
If that’s true, then the question “hat will you do?” may not be as helpful, or as stressful, as…
What are you interested in now? And what do you love most about pursuing them?