How to decide what to do with your life.

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Many of us reach a point in our life where one day we realised we have lost our passion for whatever it is we have once chosen to do. A lot of people I connect with reach a stage in their life where they are no longer passionate about their job (despite the years of university invested and working their way up their corporate ladder).

A lot of us aren’t challenged enough to want to stay with one thing for a very long time. Especially with all the choices and possibilities at our finger tips, and all the hobbies we want to do but can’t seem to find the time. I get asked a lot, should I just leave my job and pursue my passion of writing? But what if it doesn’t work out? What if people look down on me? What if, what if what if….

Ah… but what if later you realise it was the best decision you have ever made? What if you succeed? What if you doubled or even tripled your income replacing your 9 – 5 job?

We all have limiting beliefs, doubts, fear, but ask yourself this? What will happen if I don’t try? What will I lose? What is holding me back from starting today? A lot of the time, we are so good with coming up with a million excuses but you are only fooling yourself.

Picture yourself at 80 years old… how does your life look when you look back on it? Are you glad you were a person who was brave enough to follow their passion? Do you have any regrets? What if you had the chance to go back to your younger years, what would you change? Who would you become? Are you happy and content with the person you are and the decisions you made? Did you love yourself enough to live your dream and give yourself the best quality of life possible for you?

So where do you start when possibilities are endless or you simply just don’t know what to do?

Know who are you are and what you want

I find a lot of people seem to get confused on who they are (not what they are meant to be doing or who they want to be) but who they are now. Are you someone who is confident, a risk taker, shy, introverted, extroverted? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? How can you excel your strengths? How can you improve your weaknesses?

Once you know who you are, now it is time to start thinking about what do you want? Or who do you want to become. If money was no object and you had all the resources in the world, what would you be doing with your time and energy? What do you want your life to look like? Where do you want to live? What do you want in your career? What do you want for your relationships?

Now think about how you can make this happen for your life, outline some steps you may need to take, people you may need to speak too, courses you want to take. Whatever you do start today! Set yourself small goals and reminders to take the baby steps needed in order to start living a life on your terms.

It is important to listen to yourself and know what is important to you. Other people may want you to become someone else or may think they know what is best for you BUT always take everyone’s advice as a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, you are the only one who can make things happen for you, they are your decisions and it is your choices that are what really matter in order to have the life you want.

Never stop learning, never stop growing

No matter what you are trying to achieve never stop learning and applying what you have learnt to your life, other-wise it’s a wasted investment. A lot of people make the mistake doing course after course, reading book after book and never really doing anything with what they have learnt.

Remember when you decide to invest in something; it is your time and your money you are willingly giving away. Why not get something out of it? Take advantage of the opportunity, ask questions, network, remain curious and ask yourself how you can use this to better yourself, your business, your relationship or your life?

Although you are taking the small steps to reach your goals, always have the bigger picture in mind and remember what it is you are working towards.

Learn to be okay with uncertainty

As Susan Jeffers said “feel the fear and do it anyway”.

A very important skill to master is the skill of learning to be okay with uncertainty and discomfort at times. You may want to be a teacher but you hate public speaking, or you may want to make you tube videos but you are afraid of what people think, or perhaps you want to start a business but unsure if it will be profitable or not.

We all need to start somewhere and remember that something is better than doing nothing. Practice, practice and practice and over time you will perfect your art. Stop allowing your limiting beliefs and your fear determine the way your life will end up, stop procrastinating saying to yourself ‘one day I will do this or one day I will do that’… that one day is TODAY! Learn to challenge your own mind and the way you are programmed to think and rewire how you think by accepting the challenge to get out of your comfort zone. Remember time is ticking and you are not getting any younger.

Say goodbye to distractions and procrastination

Raise your hand if you love video games, love watching movies and could sit on social media for hours?

Distractions are in our life to keep us safe, it is a way of avoiding discomfort and our mind tricks us into thinking we are doing something and everything else can wait to later because right now we are pre-occupied watching TV or browsing on Instagram.

You know what procrastination and distractions mean to me? Time wasted when I could be doing a million other things… I could be learning how to become a better public speaker, practice making better you tube videos, mastering the art of photography, building up my brand and client list, the possibilities are endless of things I would rather be doing with my time. I see time as a precious gift that is given to us for us to live our life, not waste it away.

I also see distractions as an opportunity wasted. I am someone who loves learning about a variety of topics, so if I have the opportunity to learn things that will get me another step closer building up my skills, my knowledge and my future dream life – then I choose learning any day. The moment my mind starts to wonder off, I catch myself and tell myself to re-focus or if my mind has had enough of whatever it is I am doing at the time, I will give myself a little break to be able to focus on the task at hand.

I am not saying I don’t ever watch TV or scroll through social media, but if social media didn’t help grow my business or help get my name out there, I probably wouldn’t bother with social media at all, unless I had a purpose to do so.

Earn passive income

What better way to make use of your time by figuring out ways to make yourself extra income? Who wouldn’t like a little bit more money? I am sure we could all use with a little bit more pocket change that can grow over time in our savings, or go towards something we have been saving for or even getting out of debt and becoming financially free.

That is everyone’s dream to be financially free, so what is stopping you today from learning ways you make extra money? After all, every cent adds up.

Time to build and create

If you are someone like me that likes variety and creativity then it is time to get your creative juices flowing.

All my life I have always loved creating, designing, and bringing to life a masterpiece. In my younger years, I would spend all my time learning how to sew, design and create my own clothes. As I grew older, I loved fashion styling, then I had a passion for interior design and when I got my first apartment where I could decorate it the way I want, I went nuts researching furniture, colour schemes, I even drew myself blueprints of where I wanted everything to go and what it would look like. It was a lot of trial and error but I love the process of being able to create, design and build something. From making clothes to designing websites to building a blog and a You Tube channel, these are things I can get lost in doing because I love to do it. I may not be any good at those things yet but, by keeping at it I know I will get better and better over time.

Ask yourself what do you want to build and create? Have you always wanted to start a business? Why not start creating the life you want to live? What habits do you want to acquire? What do you want to learn? What are you good at? What have you always wanted to try?

Whatever it is, start with what you have, start small and build it on it every single day. Think of it as putting your money in investments: it grows in value over time.

Stay hungry for opportunities

If you have started doing most of the tips mentioned above then you are off to an excellent start on what you should do with your time, energy and money (in other words what do with your life).

I can’t tell you how many opportunities I have declined all because of fear and talking myself out of opportunities. I convinced myself I am not ready. Sooner or later, I kept asking myself when will you be ready? And then I made a decision to mentally prepare and stay ready.

When a new opportunities arises and it aligns with my values and purpose, or will help me grow as a person and potentially my business, I automatically make the decision that I am 120% all in.

Have you ever heard the expression say yes and figure out the rest later? That is my mentality when opportunities arise. So prep yourself to stay ready and stay hungry, so that when life presents an opportunity, you are ready to go all in without hesitation and you won’t let fear or doubt stop you because your mindset will be stronger than your fear.

So, if you are still trying to figure out the future and what you should do, I encourage you to stop focusing on the things you don’t want and focus on what you do want and to know what it is that you want. We can’t always control events or circumstances that happen and sometimes life does get the better of us, but that doesn’t mean you should stop or quit. You are a lot stronger than what you think and you sure as hell are smarter than you realise. You have the potential to be and build something great with your life, so what are you waiting for?

Stop waiting for a miracle and go out there and make miracles happen! You are the boss, you are the CEO of your life and you make all the executive decisions for you. So no matter what the future may hold, focus on the NOW and start making, building things. Learn things, go on adventures, challenge yourself to do something different, learn to challenge your own mind and the way you think, go out more and network, become an expert in one thing, make friends, make connections…

I CHALLENGE YOU TO DO SOMETHING TODAY THAT YOUR FUTURE SELF WILL THANK YOU FOR.