Feel like you’re under pressure to decide everything right now? Are your parents or teachers putting pressure on you to know where you want your life to go? Are your friends all pressuring you to go to their uni, live with them or just join them doing something you’re not that interested in? Try not to worry too much, sadly a lot of us have experienced this kind of pressure. Everyone wants you to make up your mind RIGHT now about what things to study, what career you might want to do…. The list goes on. But here’s some little things to remind you that you don’t have to make up your mind about life right now.
Failing Is as Useful as Succeeding
Seems weird right? Wrong! Sometimes when something doesn’t work out, or we realise we don’t like our new venture (be it a subject, career or new place to live) that experience sticks in our mind more than the times something goes right. Although it might feel painful in the moment, it’s all part of the journey to knowing what you do and don’t like. Sometimes knowing what you don’t like is more powerful than knowing what you do. So be kind to yourself if something doesn’t go your way, you never know what could come out of this situation!
It’s Ok to Change Your Mind
We can enjoy something for a while, then decide we want to go down a different path. That’s still fine! It can be easy to think that people are judging you for changing your mind, honestly? They’re too wrapped up in their own lives to give it much thought, or they are projecting their own insecurities onto you – which isn’t your problem.
It’s OK to change your mind, you can realise that you prefer to be outside rather than inside for a job, decide you prefer a small team over a big team, prefer freelance work over a permanent job. There’s so many ways you can live your life, and trying different things out can really help you feel confident in the eventual decision you make.
How Do You Want Your Life to Look?
Everyone always wants you to start with your career/subject/place first. But what if you reversed it and asked “How do I want my life to look?”
Basically, look at what you want your life to look like. Do you want to travel around the world and get paid for that, then look into ways that could happen – like remote working or teaching abroad could fit the bill for you. Do you want to be at home every night with your friends/partner/family? That’s great! What job/career/place could help make that happen? Do you want a steady pay check and stability? Then maybe freelancing isn’t for you. Start with how you want your life to look, and a few potential choices could come up that you can explore.
It’s Ok to Not Know What You Want to Do
It might seem that people have it all figured out. But want to know a secret? Even most adults have no clue what they’re doing! Some have every step of life planned out as best they can… others are just seeing where life takes them! Everyone is experiencing things for the first time, and honestly? It’s part of the fun, just seeing how your loved ones are muddling through each new experience and situation. Just know that it’s ok to not know what you want to do, and you don’t have to have everything worked out right now just because someone is asking you to. Half the time the journey to the prize is more rewarding than the prize itself.
Don’t Let Judgement Stop You From Your Enjoyment
Not everyone likes the same thing, we all have different interests and things that make us happy. This is ok! It’s what makes us human and happy, life would be very dull if we all liked the exact same things. If you like something and people are bullying you or mocking you for liking it? Not your problem, if it makes you happy it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else! A negative reaction from someone says more about them than you. It can hurt, but make sure you don’t take that negativity on board so much that it makes you stop doing things that make you happy – you’re only doing yourself out of happiness!
Life Is Short, Live It!
Such a cheesy slogan we know we know! But honestly? Life really does go by really fast, and it’s easy to think this one decision can’t be changed, or that this is the only route you can take. But you can change your mind, change your path and all of that if you’re not happy or living the life you want to live. At the end of the day, this is YOUR life, so you should be able to decide how you want to live it.
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