#PurposefulTravel #ChoosingCareer #FindingPurpose #GapYearstravel 🌍
Hey there! It sounds like you’ve had quite the adventure so far! Taking time off to travel and explore the world is an incredible experience that can provide so much insight and personal growth. It’s completely normal to feel a bit lost after such a journey, especially when it comes to figuring out your next steps. Here are some tips and advice to help you navigate this transitional period and find your purpose:
Explore Your Passions and Interests
1. Take some time to reflect on your experiences during your travels and the things that have sparked joy and excitement for you. What stands out as something you’re truly passionate about?
2. Consider your interests in cooking, travel, and writing. These are all wonderful areas to pursue and can lead to fulfilling careers. Even if they seem niche or saturated, there are always ways to stand out and find success in these fields.
Seek Guidance and Mentorship
1. Reach out to professionals in the industries that interest you. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to share their experiences and offer valuable advice to someone who is eager to learn and grow.
2. Look for mentorship programs or networking events in your area. Making connections with people who are passionate about the same things as you can provide invaluable support and guidance.
Consider Further Education or Training
1. It’s okay to not have it all figured out right away. There are many educational and training programs that can help you explore your interests further and gain valuable skills.
2. Look into culinary schools, writing workshops, or travel industry certifications. Taking a more structured approach to learning about your passions can help you gain clarity and confidence in your career path.
Embrace Your Unique Path
1. Remember that everyone’s journey is different, and there is no right or wrong way to find your purpose. You have already gained so much wisdom from your travels and experiences, and that is incredibly valuable.
2. Embrace the fact that you have a wide range of interests and talents. You don’t have to fit into a conventional career path – there are many opportunities to create a career that is uniquely tailored to your passions and skills.
Finding purpose and choosing a career can be a daunting task, but with time and self-reflection, you will find the path that feels right for you. Trust in your experiences and the journey you have taken so far – they have all contributed to shaping your future. 🌟
I hope this advice helps you feel more confident in finding your career path. Remember, it’s okay to take your time and explore your options. You have a unique and valuable perspective to offer to the world, and the right career will align with your passions and bring you fulfillment. Good luck on your journey! #FindYourPurpose #DreamCareer #PassionAndPurpose 🌺
well you at least have another year of gen eds before you have to commit. See if you can get any kind of jobs or internships in the fields you are interested in.
exposure to those industries and people in them is what will help you decide.
Read this book: The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now. It helped me.
Don’t compare yourself to others. Ask about their student loans debt
Go to community college after you finish gen ed. Take a bunch of introductory courses. You’ll figure it out!
You’re still only 20. I went back to college at 23 by starting off with one class at a community college. I didn’t even take it that serious. I felt so lost, especially not being in a classroom for more than 5 years.Then the second semester came and i took classes that i was interested in and wanted to major in, which at that time was psychology and business; intro to psych 101 and an intro to marketing course. Then from there you start to want to take more classes that you like and enjoy.
4 years goes by so fast. Every year i kept worrying about what I’m doing and if I didn’t take the chance to go back to school, id probably be just as similar in the same spot worrying on what to do next. I’m close to graduating in the end of the summer for my undergrad and about to apply to grad school for a masters in counselling.
Just start now because you learn from a different perspective in college. Sure, you can learn from friends and family about multiple perspectives but those are just distant convos. Learn for yourself and challenge yourself. No one can take away your education and experience. It’s a perfect time to take calculated risks. Good luck.
Air Force
Trades
There is no purpose. Find a job that pays the bills that you don’t hate and take joy in the little things in life.
I mean 20 isn’t that late to go back to college and finish SOME degree. You don’t have to love it, just have to tolerate it for a bit.
This post feels very close to home. I’ve had more than 40 jobs in my life so far, and I studied multiple majors. Eventually, I met an old author, and he rekindled my passion for writing and language.
I started an editing career. Pay and travel were great, but I felt little joy, and I had to sit in front of a computer all day. I’m not an introvert or an extrovert. I’m a complete ambivert.
I have also always felt like I can do anything, but as the years went by, I realised that it’s important to be passionate about whatever you’re doing. Therefore, I’m strictly doing things I’m passionate about.
You’ll never “find purpose,” in my opinion. It’s like trying to “find love.” Both, in my opinion, are like plants. They need to be watered and cared for with passion. After 30, some things became clearer, but many other things became unclear.
The search for a purpose shouldn’t have a destination, in my opinion. Dig into philosophy and reading, and sometimes helps to organize your thoughts. Stay close to your core values, but be open-minded to continue learning. I’m sure you’ll be just fine.
Good luck. In my experience Higher education like community college or Uni wont let you enroll unless you know what you want to do. Even requesting gen ed or saying no major I was denied enrolment and these are all american public schools
I don’t know why people think just travelling will give them purpose, it will broaden your horizons sure, but not magically create purpose.
Go volunteer and do some charitable work.
😂😂😂😂😂 im 24 and have been traveling for 2 years and am still very confused as far as a career and honestly dont really give a fuck. I am happy traveling and climbing. I work seasonal jobs and live out of a tent. Its a pretty amazing life if you ask me. Im outside every day and challenge myself. I hate money, i hate thinking about it, earning it, using it, but its damn good for buying food and climbing gear so thats why I play.
Those people are so far behind you its not even funny. Do not compare yourself to them… Even 6 months of travel and even the yuppy tourist traveling is twice a college education in terms of exposure and experience. There is no timeline for success. There is no standard of living. Its what makes you happy and fulfilled. Live the life you wanna live and the rest will follow. I promise you
Edit:
I just wanted to add. I grew up in a rich suburb, full of superficiality. Most of my friends from HS are engineers or in med school. It put me in a bad place comparing myself to them. But they arent me. They dont understand, and i am very different from all of them. Security is an illusion, and with how turbulent our country is right now, I am doing what I believe in. They dont have even a quarter of the experiences and exposure that ive had and im not trying to sound arrogant. Ive had a hundred jobs, just trying things out, what i like what i dont. Thats what your 20s are for. College is a scam unless you actually know what you want to do. What fight you wanna fight, and you dont truly know that unless you get out and explore. I know A LOT of my friends only looked at the salary and their general interests-OR what the school told them. your good at math, your good at writing, instead of discovering it on their own.
I dont know what I want long term, other than community and a relationship, but i know I am a hell of a lot closer than I was when I was selling my soul for a dollar-just so i could “fit in”.
You’re 20. You still have plenty of time
I had a similar dilemma about picking a field to go into. Stop trying to find what you love to do. Instead, pick one thing that you like and get good at it. After some time in the process of getting good, you’ll find that you love that thing more than all the other options you had when you started out.
How do you pick what to do? If you like a dozen things equally, it doesn’t matter! Pick one of them that you’re interested in and go with it. Good luck!
Purpose isn’t found it’s created. I’m sure you learned something about yourself from traveling, but 20 is still really young and you may need a few more years before you really figure it out. But don’t stress, keep following doing things you enjoy, and don’t go into debt for a degree you don’t care about.
I’m 36 and I haven’t found purpose. My advise for studying is to study something that needs skills you can only gain in college/ university. You are giving jn the years anyway, might as well be worth it coming out with something you can’t learn from YouTube or through experience. Have the skills that need Time in studying as it will set you apart, that’s since you’re lost on what to do. Once you find out, you can use the money you’ve gained from this skill you can leverage to actually dive deep into ur purpose.
If you can work with what you have, you are ahead of the curve. Factor in that you don’t have student debt (although I’m sure some debt from
Travelling) students have a lot of debt these days in general- so don’t get suckered in.
“Traveling”, girl, did you even travel?
Hawaii is far, but one place. Idk, and 6 months in Paris with occasional traveling around Europe isn’t a lot when comparing to people who have traveled a lot… I’ve throughly traveled throughout 3 continents with multiple multi destination trips by the time I was 18.
The stuff for me that gave me the most personal development was when shit went sideways and I had to figure it out. Much like what you’re going through right now. Keep your head up, that travel experience is already more than most people will ever experience.
One thing I believe young people aren’t told often enough is that their mission in life is to be useful. You’re currently working, which is good, but you don’t state whether this current job offers a path that you think will allow you to grow into the sort of life you can envision yourself having in 10 or 20 years. If you’re really not sure at all about careers, a personality test that would assess you and offer some job or career ideas would be a good start. These aren’t perfect of course, but other than your current position it doesn’t seem like you have any other foundation from which to build. Ideally anything you choose from now should be incremental (ie, building on what you’re already doing) and less aspirational (because you’ve already seen idealized paths aren’t the way to fulfillment).
You’re only 20. How have you taken “years off college”? Were you a child genius who graduated high school at 14?
Try everything!!! Go back to school and work PT in a restaurant, hotel front desk, etc. Take classes that interest you.
I have NO IDEA how difficult it would be but you could write travel articles for magazines (online or hard copy). Additionally when people travel, many times they want to know about the food scene too.
A degree in journalism will teach you several intangible traits such as gathering information and quickly forming a story. Being able to meet deadlines, talking to people are translatable to many careers.
So, set your sights on being a travel writer and through exploration of that field of study you’ll be exposed to so much more.
where are your parents or family? can you not ask them for advice?
from my perspective as a man, I would say you go to college, get your associates then undergrad. I would say that generally, most women find their purpose once they have a family and children.
See I have the opposite problem. I can’t think of any career that I wouldn’t grow tired of and bored of 2 years in.
If you study management you can “use” that degree in a variety of different industries.
Your purpose in life is to live. Anything beyond that is just ppl trying to sell you things. Try something and see how it works. If it doesn’t, move on to something else.
Chop wood, carry water.
Seems like you have some work to do on your own. You didn’t get any answers externally, time to go internal. One year i read 26 books and i had a vision for who i wanted to be. Started to go that direction. It’s typically not one single epiphany.
There is no purpose. I work high paying job , never knew purpose, neve cared either. I just want to have my bills paid.
-peace corps (usually need bachelors).
-state department careers (bachelors not required, but experience is).
-WWOOF.
-bicycle tour guides based internationally.
-Study fulltime at university overseas
-work on yachts in caribbean.
-teach english abroad.
– international development.
– find a seasonal job work then travel 6 months on 6 months off
Go work on a cruise ship
Imagine if you only had 2 years to live. What would you want to learn and how would you love to serve before you died? Start there and correct along the way.
First, you are 20. You could go back to school and nobody will bat an eye at your age. Second, travel by itself doesn’t help you find purpose— it is the experiences and self reflection that do. Third, knowing you don’t want to do something is helpful. The list of things you might do gets shorter that way.
What are you good at? What sort of work environment would you like? How important is work/life balance?
You sound rich bc you can afford to just take a year off and travel. Must be nice. Just work for the family business and keep on traveling
You don’t FIND a purpose or passion. That’s a lie that social media has sold you.
It’s sad to see so many young people try to find something that doesn’t exist.
Passion is built, not found. You find something interesting and you get better by doing it, then you will build a passion for it.
Purpose on the other hand is created by oneself. It’s the meaning you put behind what you do. You can choose whatever you want your ‘purpose’ to be. But you don’t find it.
Stop trying to ‘find’ and just do.
And doing does NOT mean school. You don’t do shit in school but read books and take tests.
Be careful with trying to make a career from something you’re passionate about. The bureaucracy, bullshit, and politics of the workplace can kill it utterly. Focus on money, autonomy, work/life balance, and money.
Just keep living off daddy’s money would be the easiest way
You didn’t find your purpose cause you didn’t do shit. You just went to different places.
The vast majority of people don’t have a ‘grand purpose’ in life. It’s a bit of a myth – just like finding a ‘soul mate’. They are just lovely disney-esque ideas.
Finding a career / life goal in which you feel as if you are contributing to society or achieving something worthwhile is more realistic and achievable. You will never have all your emotional needs met by a job but, you can find work which feels valuable to you. Just don’t ever expect any job (or any person) to give your life meaning, that comes from within.
Give yourself purpose. Have kids
You won’t find any “life purpose” ever.
It’s a shitty idea that you have a given purpose in your life that’s assigned to you by the universe
You just gotta find out what useful you want to do with your time, what career you could tolerate and enjoy and then you study in that field. Or you don’t study and just go work and find something that you love. Travel is great and after disconnecting from everything you can find yourself, but it won’t give you answers on what you should do with your life.
Try different things now you’re young, without getting in a lot of debt. Find out what you’re good at and what you are bad at. Then find a balance between what you’re good at and what you enjoy that can build you a good future.
You don’t FIND a purpose in life you CREATE one. and you can ALWAYS change your mind too. You are overthinking this. You did what you wanted, dropped out of school and got some real world experiences, great. You also have an understanding of some of your natural interests, excellent. You don’t know EXACTLY what you want but you probably have good idea of what you don’t want and have some inclination towards others. Start there and if it works out for you, congratulations; if it doesn’t then try something else. Life isn’t linear. The only thing I will say is it’s important to see anything you start through. Losing momentum due to doubt is the worst thing you could do, keep moving.
Turning your passions into work is often a bad idea
A job that travels isn’t nearly the same as traveling for personal enjoyment. Most companies are going to make your trip as short as possible and jam-pack your schedule. You’ll be going from airport to hotel to conference room/work site then right back to the airport. Believe me when i say it gets old fast
There is no “purpose”. It’s all about making the most of the time you have here and enjoying it. Find a job that you enjoy on a day to day basis. It doesn’t have to change the world, just has to bring you enough satisfaction each day, then in your free time pursue your hobbies
Following your passion is for the rich. Find something you are good at or talented at and invest at least 10,000 disciplined hours practicing it. Then use that experience to make money.
Join the Air Force. 20 years and you earn a retirement. Free medical for life. You can hop on military transport planes and fly for free. Maybe get stationed somewhere interesting. My cousin completed her bachelor’s while in the Air Force, paid for by the government. When she got out she had a very good job waiting for her. She worked with supply procurement.