What makes you tick?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

While driving down the road today, thinking about random issues in my life, I found I meet nearly all of them with doubt and worry. Should I do this or do that? Is it ok to do this? Annoying, negative thoughts that constantly run through your head. Which got me to thinking, “I’m 23 years old, when am I gonna figure this shit out?” “When am I going to know myself?”

I just want to hear from people who consider themselves successful, or were at once successful. How did you find what makes you happy in this life?

2

Oooh, I know the answer to this one, let me try.

You try to know yourself all of your life, but your life will always be changing and so will you. This is a good thing, it’s called learning and personal growth.

I was lucky when I was your age. I fell into a business after failing at college, that allowed me to start at the bottom and work my way up into higher management. And that worked well for the next 34 years and helped me to raise a family. High stress, phone intensive, bulllshit corporate meetings, suck-o-rama type job.

But things change and the job evaporated. I mean the whole plant just went out of biz. I could have moved but I had married again and my wife’s job was more important (that would be the 3rd wife). So now I am in between. I cook, clean, and made blueberry jam today. I am also painting a large boat/yacht. Painting is peace. While I look for the next career.

You will probably have many different jobs in your life. Many, even unrelated, entire careers.
I was lucky to have the long term job I had, but that sort of thing is uncommon now. Adaption to change is the norm.

Try to understand what makes you happy now. Because the answers you expect will come in time will still be waiting.

That old person you see walking down the street does not have it all figured out either. I’ve got 30 years on you and I am sure that the next direction will be interesting, but not where it will lead.

It you doubt, if you worry, then hey, you are doing it right. And it will be that way as long as you live. Sorry but that is the truth. Nobody gets it figured out, nobody ever is really sure of themselves.

The journey is easier if understand this.

3

When you die, God says “So, did you do anything interesting?”

4

There’s that line from The Sunscreen song:

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you wanna do with your life; the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

5

I like the Defending Your Life take on it all–you know, the afterlife pic with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep? That here on earth what we do as ‘little brains’ is spend most of our time dealing with fear. Fear that we don’t know what it is that we’re supposed to do, fear of pain, fear of… well, you name it. I think that the closer you get to living your life without fear and doing what it is you want to do, the closer you get to happiness. Imagine that you could do anything at all you want all day … what would that be? Don’t let fear of not being able to get the necessary degrees or having enough money for groceries and rent get in the way… that might illuminate what area you want to focus in, career-wise, for example. Very general, I know, but I don’t know if anyone has it all figured out.

6

It took me many years to figure out why I got so fucked up. I have shucked off several big chunks of that, but, at 59, I’m still carrying a lot of it around.

Bob Seger sang, “Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then,” and that’s something to ponder.

7

When does time fly for you? What are you doing when you think " what time is it?" and you are shocked by how much time has passed? What absorbs you is a clue.

8

I’m 39, I have a good career and I think I’ve got a good life. I definitely don’t think I’ve got it all figured out though.

You get a certain amount of peace through how you react to fear and worry and doubt. There’s a lot of “school of hard knocks” kind of education involved there - how to deal with something that isn’t working out perfectly. As you do that over and over (and over!) again you become comfortable knowing that you have the ability to handle the unforeseen and I think that helps you to relax since you aren’t constantly freaking out about what might happen next; I mean you still think about what’s coming but you aren’t as wigged out about how you will deal with it, if you see the difference.

As to what drives a person, I think we’ve all got different answers to that and they might not be YOUR answer…I like the feeling of being a good family member, a good friend, of doing my job well. I like that my job pays me well enough for me to maintain my (modest) lifestyle and it gives me enough time away from work to enjoy same.

Never had a real “aha” moment where the lightbulb went on and I knew the secret to happiness or anything like that, it’s just a lifelong (so far) process. Relax, be a good person, handle yourself well, deal with the problems and you’ll start to get it.

9

Glad I’m not alone!

I’m 26, and definately DO NOT have it figured out. But my approach lately has been to focus more on the NOW than the future. If I like what I’m doing now it will lead me to more things I like and so on. I used to go out and always think “This is okay but I wish I was doing something else, something better” And now I think “Well I’m here, let’s enjoy the moment and see where it leads”

I like the new approach better. I actually enjoy things I’m doing now.

10

That is a great answer. There is a lot of wisdom in this simple reply.