I’m overwhelmed, lost, and have no clear direction in my life. I don’t know what to do, but I desperately want to figure it out. I want to wake up every day feeling like there’s something bigger than myself waiting for me to accomplish—I just don’t know what that is yet.
Sound familiar?
Social media makes it worse. I see friends and strangers accomplishing things and living lifestyles I want, which makes me feel like I’m falling behind. My desire for success is getting more aggressive, and the more I want to become a better person, the more confused I get about what I actually want to do with my life.
I know I’m just 22, but time flies when you’re stuck in confusion. After lots of trial and error, I’ve started to develop a plan that’s helping me navigate this uncertainty. I’m not claiming to have all the answers—I’m still figuring it out myself—but I want to share what I’ve learned so far.
What I’m really looking for
Maybe one of my goals in life is to find something I’d love to wake up and do every day. Something so engaging that I don’t want to sleep because it’s so much fun and nothing can stop me from doing it. I believe finding this meaning in life is precious, and it would be a shame if we go through our entire lives without discovering it.
The mindset that’s working for me
Try different things efficiently with regular reflection. The goal is to test what interests you most without wasting years on something that’s not right for you.
Focus on quantity over quality for now. You don’t need to be perfect or even good at something to test if you like it. It’s okay to shift focus based on what interests you right now. Maybe today you want to content creator, tomorrow you want to focus on office work. That’s fine—you’ll learn what brings you joy on average.
Get your hands dirty as fast as possible. When trying something new, I used to spend hours watching YouTube videos. That doesn’t work. If you want to know if something is right for you, do it directly without overthinking. Want to create a blog? Just write whatever you like and publish it right away. That’s when you discover yourself fastest.
My current process
1. list everything interested in
I write down everything I want to try, without considering money, fame, or how “cool” it might be. For me, this includes running, boxing, product management, UX/UI design, writing, speaking, investing, and building businesses. This list feels overwhelming now, but it used to be much longer. As I tried things, many interests naturally fell away.
2. Try something every day
I don’t focus on long-term commitments. Instead, I try different things to get a feel for what it’s like to actually do them. When I wanted to try making content about running, I recorded myself running without much effort, uploaded the video, and watched the results. The outcome was okay, but I realized I wanted to try other things more.
3. Reflect and refine
After trying things from my original list, I write down my interests again. When I have free time and clarity, I notice my feelings and interests have narrowed down to about 5 things, and they don’t change much over time.
4. Repeat the cycle
List things, try things, reflect, repeat. Eventually, you’ll find 1 or 2 things you want to pursue most. I haven’t found mine yet, but I’m getting closer.
Things I’m learning along the way
1. It’s not a waste of time
You might think it’s wasteful to try different things instead of sticking with one long enough to see results. But for those of us who genuinely don’t know what to pursue, this is the most valuable time investment we can make. Finding what you really want in life is precious—once you do, you’ll never think of work as just earning money.
2. Everyone’s path is different
Be aware when you see friends and people on social media. Everyone has different goals and circumstances. What you want isn’t necessarily the same as what others want, even people you look up to. For example, you might think you want to be a CEO, but fundamentally you might just need to be appreciated and respected by others—which doesn’t necessarily require being a CEO.
3. Focus on transferable skills
Consider choosing things that apply to whatever you’ll do in life. This includes soft skills like speaking, writing, reading, and listening. For me, it’s speaking and writing. I don’t know what I want to do with these as a career, but I practice them every day because they’ll serve me regardless of my final direction.
Where I am now
I’m still figuring it out, just like you probably are. But this process has given me hope and a sense of direction, even when I don’t know the destination yet. The confusion is still there, but now I have a plan to work through it systematically.
If you’re feeling lost and overwhelmed like I was, maybe this approach can help you too. We don’t have to have it all figured out right now—we just need to start somewhere and keep moving forward.