{ What Should I Do With My Life, and How Do I Decide? How To Make Life Goals and Plans }

I’m a perfectionist when it comes to this blog, I have realised.

This week alone, two fully written posts have gone unpubliihed because they just aren’t what needs to go up. I know – you see the photography in some of my more rushed posts (namely, hauls – I’m sorry, okay?) and you find that hard to believe, but it’s true. Anyways, pointless intro aside, this post is about something we all struggle with:

How To Decide What You Want From Life

and

Creating Life Goals and Plans

This is because I’ve recently been thinking about my future (as uni applications, for me, start in September, or something as equally scary close) and – as someone the definition of aimless – I thought it would be nice to start planning and share with you all. Helps to have a little direction in life, right? Everyone’s always asking about what you want to be when you’re older, or where you want to go and do – and nobody stops consider that maybe you don’t fucking know.

Huh? The concept that you didn’t just pop up out the premade box mould the world seems determined to shove people in knowing what you want to do like some kind of Rockstar Barbie that from her concept sketchboard aspires to sing country tunes for the rest of her life is somehow foreign?

Or that, because you like certain things, or have affinity in certain subjects you obviously want to do that for the rest of your life.

(Side note: I never played with Barbies, so I had to check the website and see which ones were there – and go feminism – there are firefighter and pilot Barbies now. There’s a nice ad that flashes all these previously “masculine” jobs with their respective Barbies and the tagline is “You can do anything”. Progress.)

“That’s it, I’m bohemian.

Well, when I’m not being tumblr, or craving luxury or just feeling like a complete Goth.

But you know what, guys? I AM A PERSON. I AM A REAL PERSON CONSTRUCTED OF REAL THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS AND PREFERENCES BASED ON MORE THAN JUST ONE SOCIAL CATEGORY I PUT MYSELF INTO BECAUSE SOCIETY TEACHES THAT “IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU ARE THAT”. I LIKE WINGS, DOESN’T MAKE ME A FUCKING FAIRY.”

Yes, I just quoted myself. It was a good point I couldn’t be bothered to reword and I’m feeling pretentious, fuck you. The moral of the story is that we are so much more than set definitions or predictable outcomes. The fact you’re expected to know the direction of your entire life based on your current preferences (from when you’re bloody young too) or your skills or whatever else you’re meant to know by is just bullshit. I’m a very academic student that was told I should go into something like Science or Maths because I had the capability – and I gave all that shit up for creative subjects because I hate Science and Maths and would probably put a gun to my head if that was my career.

Or – God forbid – what if your life dream isn’t a career? What if a job is just a way to earn money to survive? Oh, gosh, they haven’t prepared you for that, have they?

(Side note 2: I was looking at a job site, indeed.co.uk – that you don’t even need a registration for, may I add – and there was an MI5 recruitment ad for digital/technical safety. Our government recruits spies online, and not even through the Dark Web. How’s that for disillusion?)

Tips:

1. Remember it’s not a be-all, end-all. Your life dream doesn’t have to be a career, so don’t feel like you have to plan that out to a T. Get into a position where you have a career you don’t hate to fall back on and go from there.
2. Not knowing what you want is fine – you haven’t had enough life experience to know yet. In all honesty, you can make it up as you go. Your dream now could change in five years – the point is just to make a vague plan to keep it moving.
3. Keeping it vague can be useful; especially when picking degrees and courses, things that are wildly relevant (like English and Maths) can be pretty useful so that wherever you end up, or want to go, you have a foundation.
4. When you think about your future, what do you picture and, more importantly, want? Where do you want to end up? When you think about this, everyone probably comes up with different answers – I want to have an really open, very naturally well lit apartment in Italy (preferably Venice) where I can lounge around in silky robes and drink coffee and look at pretty views; my best friend Josh wants to be CEO or something as equally well paid and be surrounded by his twenty brand new cars; my best friend Amber wants to be married and have kids. See how what you want may not necessarily be a job, but how it can lead you to picking something? Josh wants to be earning a crazy large amount of money, so he wants to go corporate and is looking into either marketing or accountancy. I want a job that gives me enough freedom to relax at home some days and allows me to travel and just generally enjoy my life and Amber . . . well, she wants to meet a guy, so I guess that has nothing to do with her career choice, but it does give her a pretty wide option net.

So, as I do practice what I preach, let me show you how I’ve put this all into a plan.

My final goal: To get into a job in graphics, preferably branding or advertising. I know that I always say that I’m a pretty aimless person, but I’ve always loved branding – it’s my favourite things about art and advertising combined and it’s just something I really enjoy. I’m currently trying to decide between university and an apprenticeship, but will apply for both and either take a year to complete an apprenticeship and then go to uni, or go to uni and hopefully land a graduate scheme after that.

So I guess for now I just have to work towards getting into university or an apprenticeship. Because I currently have nothing noteworthy to my name.  (Or that I could put on a UCAS form. Which may be more important. Who needs individuality; let’s conform to the government’s pre-paved pathway!)

Just remember that this is my plan – you don’t have to do the same thing. Hell, I’m only half kidding when I say that we have a preformed path set out for us; it’s conventional to go through high school, then college, then uni, then a job, then progress through that job, then die. You really don’t have to do it like that. Become a beach bum if you want and live off a hut on a seafront. Go become a modern day adventurer. But, regardless of what you want to do, I would definitely recommend making a few life plans just so that you don’t feel like you haven’t done anything. And tell me what your life plans are in the comments box because I’m nosy and want to know!

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