In this episode, we discuss ways to figure out what you should be doing with your life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how to get over feelings of aimlessness. I’ve been lucky over the past five years, but there hasn’t been a moment where I asked myself, “What should I be doing now?”
If you have had to ask yourself this, then the goal is too quickly figure it out as fast as you can. You might not know where exactly you should go but if you have to travel to California from New York, then the general idea is that you should travel West, and not East, North, or South.
I spent my teenage years and 20s trying to figure out where I should go and what helped me find my passion, is that I just focused on doing important things and I learned as much as possible through listening to podcasts and reading books.
When I was in the Marines, I went to night school. After I graduated from college, I kept reading books and listening to podcasts. I started a personal training business. I became a financial advisor, I wrote a book. I created a podcast.
I might not know where I want to go, but I just keep doing stuff and it shows me where I need to go. I think a great way to know if you heading in the general location is to ask yourself, “Is this important work?”
If you spend time learning a skill or improving one, then that is something important that could be used in the future. What is not important, is doing an activity that will cause you to decay as a person. This is excessive partying, excessive Netflix, excessive drinking, excessive mindless scrolling through social media. Especially social media because all you see is the best side of everyone and that just might cause you to feel even more unmotivated.
So look at your day and ask yourself if you’re doing important things. I would recommend that you read at least 20 pages in a book, workout, write three things you’re grateful for, and write down what you learned from reading. Plus go volunteer or join a professional networking group. When I was in DC, I joined Prospanica, ALPFA, and the Hispanic Bar Association just so I could meet different people. I met a lot of great folks and it helped shaped how I should move forward with my life.
If you just stay as a hermit crab, then nothing will change. Even you start doing these things like learn a new skill or meet new people, you might not get a lot of clarity on your life until a couple of years later. So don’t give up after the first couple of tries, just keep going. It really took me until I was 32 to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. This reminds me of the quote, “Your 20s are for learning and your 30s are for earning.” I’m still working on the earning part but I have absolute clarity on what I should be doing with my life and I don’t ask myself, “What should I do now?”
I heard a great saying that the meaning of life is to figure out what you should do with your life, and the purpose of life is to give away your talent as much as possible. If you know these two things, then you won’t be asking yourself, “What should I do now?” I feel so fulfilled because I know I need to be a financial planner and now my purpose in life is to share my talent with as many people as possible. This is why I write blog posts, create podcasts, do Facebook lives, and go on another podcast because I’m trying to spread what I do as much as possible so people come to me for financial planning.
Financial planning is important to me because money can cause a lot of problems and grow up I saw how financial insecurity could cause a lot of stress with my parents. So I want to make sure that Latinos understand the language of money and the power of self-development so that they can live their best life.
Your meaning in life is most likely going to be very different than mine but your mission in life is to figure it out. I would recommend that you just take a personality test like DISC and Meyers-Brigg to figure out what you like to do as a person and then from there, start doing things that fit your personality. You’re probably going to have to do some experimenting, but going through the trial and errors is necessary for our development and you should do it as fast as possible since today is the oldest you’ve ever been in your life, and today is the youngest you’ll be for the rest of your life. So you don’t have much time to slack off. You can, but just realize that you’re giving up your youth on the wrong thing. Go take a break when you need it but don’t overdo it. I read that the perfect break is 8 days so make sure that you do this at least once a year if you can. The idea is that when it’s time to rest, rest. When it is time to work, work.
When you’re going through your day today, are you doing the things necessary to live your life? If not, then figure it out.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it if you have to ask yourself, “What should I do now?” then your mission in life is to quickly answer that question as soon as possible. It might take a while to answer that question, like years, to get an absolute grasp on what you should do in life, but just focus on doing important things. If you do this for a long enough, the answer will come a lot faster than doing things that are not important. And once you figure it out, you’ll live a very fulfilling life. I feel like that if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, I would be fine with it because I lived my life to the best of my ability with the time I was given. I was the least wasteful of my life. Can you say the same thing about your life?
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode.
Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
