I think the question, "What do you want to do with your life?" should be banned from society.
I was on a plane recently, and I overheard a college-aged girl talking to a much older woman, saying that she’s studying biology but that she “doesn’t yet know what she wants to do with her life.”
My question is, why did the focus in college become figuring out what you want to do in life?
Life? What does that even mean? The question "what do you want to do with your life" is one of the most ridiculous and harmful questions that society asks nowadays.
In addition to teaching us about how to influence our outside world (the job we attain, the house we live in) why don't colleges teach us about how to change our inner game, which is what really matters?
Why do we so often hear college students say, "I’m majoring in this, but I don’t know what I want to do with my life yet."
Why did knowing what you want to do with your life become a thing that all students seem to be after?
This is such a ludicrous concept on many levels. First of all, life is long, and we never do only ONE thing, so by that logic already the quest to find one thing is flawed. We're already setting ourselves up for failure.
But also, what are we really searching for? Has anyone ever questioned what that thing that we will do with our lives will actually bring us?
Is it happiness? If so, what makes us think THAT will make us happy?
Why don’t colleges teach about how happiness comes from the inside?
That’s a fact, and there’s plenty of scientific studies and spiritually awakened people who know that to be true, so why don’t schools instill this in us?
Instead, schools perpetuate this nonsense question of “what should I do with my life” and they make new generations miserable.
This is more dangerous than we think.
Instead of graduates who are focusing on what makes them happy - on giving, growing, learning, and trying new things - schools are pumping out kids who think they have no idea what they’re doing, focusing on all the wrong things.
I believe colleges have an immense responsibility to mold and shape students for the better, and they are colossally failing.
In future posts, I'll talk about how I think schools could do a much, much better job at giving young minds what they need, which is a dose of reality, and a lot more practical tools to navigate the real world, and more importantly, our real selves.
What are your thoughts on the concept of "knowing what you want to do with your life?"
All I know is that it made me, and continues to make people close to my heart, very, very miserable.
Live with substance!
Gabe
