What To Do With My Life?

A couple of years ago I set out on a journey to discover the answer to the question: "What should I do with my life?"

Like many people, I did not have the luxury of knowing "What I want to be when I grow up".

From an early age my parents told me, "Lynden, you can do anything you set your mind to." (In my house the word can't was almost officially classified as a 'dirty word'.)

So, like any young child, I trusted what my parents told me and believed that I actually could do "anything I set my mind to."

Now I was a competitive young guy. As the second born of 5 athletic boys, I learned very quickly how to compete. My brothers and I competed at everything: who could run the fastest, throw the farthest, climb the tallest tree, do the most back flips on the trampoline, jump their bike the furthest off of the ramp, eat their food the fastest, shower the fastest, etc... (and yes, I did hold the family record of showing in just under 12 seconds when I was 10 years old. Ha, ha...)

If anyone ever beat me at something, I'd work hard to figure out how to get better and then I'd practice hard until I could beat them at whatever it was we were competing in.

While competition and confidence are both wonderful traits to have, they became a barrier to me when it came to discovering 'what I wanted to do with my life'. Since I always believed I could do anything, and due to my competitiveness I'd usually figure out a way to become good at it and do it better than most, it made it difficult to know what I wanted to do.

During this journey of self discovery I came across this idea:

Imagine a piece of paper with two overlapping circles on it that represent different parts of your life. One circle contains all of your Motivations/Passions. It's everything that moves you emotionally or activities that you enjoy doing. The other circle contains all of your Skills/Talents/Abilities. It's everything you are ether naturally good at or skills that they have developed over time.

Where these two circles overlap is what some refer to as the 'Sweet Spot'. The 'Sweet Spot' is where you're good at (gifted in) something you love (one of your passions). When people identify their 'sweet spot' and build their career/life around it, they say that life becomes much happier and more fulfilling.

As often happens when you delve into a subject in search of the answer to a question, initially the answer remained hidden while more questions were brought to light.

The new primary question that I discovered I must answer first in order to find the answer to 'what I should do with my life' is this, "Who am I?" Or said another who, "Who did my Creator make me to be?"

Without first knowing who I am and taking invintory of my gifts, tallents, skills, motivations, and passions, I can not begin to answer the question, "What To Do With My Life."

My next post will look at our new question, "Who am I?" and walk you through the steps I have taken to discover the answer to this question.