How to Create Conscious Decisions about Your Future

Story

When I was a senior in High school, my dad ask me to write an essay on different careers that I would be interested in pursuing, all from the highest paying jobs in America.  I wrote the essay, but I was reluctant and saying things like, “I know what I want to do, why does this matter?”  I had the mentality of this is a writing assignment and wanted to complete it to please my father.

I had made a decision to major in mechanical engineering in college at that time, but I had never even spoken to a mechanical engineer before in my life.

I was going into a profession without even speaking to someone that had been there.

Looking back this seems like a nightmare. 

“Would you reinvest in yourself when you first began to get where you are now? If not, cut the cord now”

The Importance?

I realize the importance of my father’s essay, now.  The wisdom that came from my father on that subject was breathtaking when I realized what a huge favor he had done for me.  He wanted me to make a conscious decision about how I would be spending my next couple of years in college.  He also wanted me to make that decision in relation to what I wanted as a career, the only issue was, that I didn’t know that college is a rocket ship for my career. I also completely took college for granted.

What I Wish I had done?

There’s a lot of people telling you to get a job doing what you love, and a lot of people saying make sure you get a job that pays well.  So you go to college for this purpose, to make a lot of money and do what you love. This is what I did or at least I thought I did.

The problem was, I didn’t take the time to figure out what it is that I would love to do.  I went into a major because I thought that money would be part of my happiness, and that I would semi-like what I would be doing.  I realized that I would semi like what I would be doing halfway through my college career.  So, as you can imagine, as I started my job and I was not as happy as I thought I would be when I was in high school making the decision about what my next 4 or 5 years would be like.

I wish, so much, that I had gone around and “Taste Tested” a bunch of different careers, so I could have a made a conscious decision about what reality would look like in 5 to 10 years.

The Solution

There are many ways that people can tell you to go about getting the job you want, but I want to offer a different perspective.  I want to ask you a couple of questions that would allow you to think about what it is you may want to do with your life.

  1. What are some activities you enjoy doing?
    1. Legos, Sports (Golf, Baseball, Tennis, Water Sports) Talking and communicating about important and interesting ideas
  2. What are some activities that you are good at?
    1. Lego, Sports, and talking about points that really matter to me.  Listening, Understanding.
  3. What is useful (What is a way you can give back to the world.)
    1. Speak on important topics, Learn about new ideas that have solid functional meaning in terms of me being able to understand and implement.  Building something. Competing in something(Terry Crews says to watch out for this because it stumps creativity, which I agree. Gary Vaynerchuk says to be as competitive as possible and try to be the best because thats what drives him to be the best he can be, which I agree with as well)

Ben Shapiro, Sebastian Junger, Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss, and many others all agree that these 3 things are what can bring together a person to be fulfilled in life.

Do whatever it takes to figure out what you love to do in this life and execute on it.

Thank you all, and I hope these questions reach you well.

Also, Tom Bilyeu says something along the lines of, Would you reinvest the same at the start of your journey? If not the quit now, becuase in 40 years you will have wish you would.

I hope you dont make the same mistakes I did.

I looked for diagrams that could explain the Question model, but didn’t find any LOL.

With love, Drew

3 thoughts on “How to Create Conscious Decisions about Your Future”

  1. You bring up some interesting thoughts. Original in your context, but really nothing new to those that are much longer in tooth. So, as to not shoot the messenger, I’ll explain in three points “ The Search”
    First, we aren’t issued a crystal ball when we pop out of the womb. The results would be obvious if we all had this advantage. Second, we move through life in a series of hills and valleys and for the most part we enjoy the ride. Often times we don’t necessarily find out what we want to do, but we find out what we “ don’t want to do”, hence, part of the journey.
    Lastly, many overthink “the search” .I think it’s quite simple and this concept is not only achievable but repeatable. So, I’ll break this one down. We begin to form thoughts, ideas, and concepts while we are quite young. Whether it comes from our parents, our Church, our friends, books or in some cases the bathroom wall. The outcome , values, morals, ethics, education and hopefully the end result the yield is- Direction.
    In a perfect world, we paint a mental picture and try to embed ourselves into the picture. The problem, we think the picture is finite. In otherwords, when we put down the brush and the paint dries , we are done. We rest on our laurels and wait for the world to revolve around us, because, we have become entitled- we’ve painted a pretty picture……we’ve paid our dues…….
    So, let’s unpack entitlement another way- look at the canvas as a living document, the paint never dries. We constantly add to it, maybe sometimes erasing an original color or figure, maybe changing the entire concept of the painting and Why? Well, because we want to raise the bar and move in a different direction and because of our values, morals, ethics,education, etc….we’ve made a conscious decision based on our crystal ball whose information is good for about two tenths of a second.
    Continuing the thought, so is this concept repeatable?
    Take a look at people who enjoy what they do, in fact they might even do it for free, if they could sustain living thru meeting their basic needs. My findings support, these people never settle on the status quo. Their paint never dries, they constantly raise the bar, they are always moving the needle….why? Because they have been fortunate to prepare themselves for the unknown thru values, ethics, education and friends to help them on their journey. They understand the concept of it’s not a matter of when you are gonna fall or how you land, but what ou do when you get up. Look at arguably one of the best and successful athletes in the NFL- Tom Brady. Personally, Im not a fan, but I’m a fan of his work ethic. So, after a game the Patriots ……he goes into the film room and breaks down the game. So, do you think he looks at all the things that went wrong or the things that the team did correct? Well, it’s the latter. They had a game plan, so he breaks down the game plan on everything that went according to the plan and how they did it right and why they did it right. It’s proven, Doing analysis this way will improve the process by allowing you to prepare differently or the next game so you increase the “ things you do right”.
    In the end, by focusing on the things we do right, we move the needle , we raise the bar, and we keep the paint wet in an ever evolving picture as we try to make a difference- large or small. We shouldn’t overthink life, just keep the paint wet.

    1. I agree 1,000%. To me, Your points bring to light the idea that life changes and you have to change according to hills and valleys. Thank you so much for your thoughtful response on this topic! Much Love, Drew

  2. In terms of navigating thru life armed with a form foundation comes a line from one of my favorite movies…..Big Trouble in Little China-

    From Jack Burton:
    You just listen to the old Pork Chop Express here now and take his advice on a dark and stormy night when the lightning’s crashin’ and the thunder’s rollin’ and the rain’s coming down in sheets thick as lead. Just remember what old Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big old storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.”
    Flye

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