We are living privileged and in the same time, confusing times! And the quest for meaning in our lives has never been so important and on the minds of many, as it is today… I am sure that since you reached this blog post, it’s a high probability that you agree with me and that you are one of the many “heavy thinkers” out there. And this thinking process can become quite painful!! Especially if you feel alone in it… but you are not alone!

For finding relief, in the age of Internet, thank God we have access to brilliant free videos created by brilliant, passionate and dedicated persons such as Alain de Botton and his team at the School of Life.

Just check out the comments below the video and you’ll see that there are more and more people like us, in the quest for meaning…

Summarizing the video, it goes like this:

1. Being confused about career choice it’s perfectly normal. Accept this and don’t go foolproof when you are faced with making a choice!! Foolproof means making no choice to avoid failure! Because, you guessed it, no choice means no action, thus no gain whatsoever. And yes, everybody ends up doubting their choices in the process, until they realize what their choice has brought into their lives.

2. Know yourself. This is the oldest philosophical message and maybe it goes largely overlooked today, considering the fact that we put a lot of energy into comparing ourselves with others, instead of just, merely knowing ourselves. That means: observing ourselves, listening to our tastes, natural inclinations and preferences, making a list of what we might enjoyed doing, from the smallest to the biggest thing. Further, use logic and analyze and refine your choices, correlating them with the market.

3. Think a lot. Making a big investment in a house or a car is a long thinking process, how do you think choosing a career path is? Well, the longest! Alain de Botton suggests taking at least a year of constant thinking. Why? Because it is very important not to end up spending the rest of our lives in occupations that were chosen for us and which don’t actually represent us.

4. Try something. You decided on something? Go try it out!! There are safe methods such as: shadowing, volunteering, internships.

5. Reflect on what makes people unhappy, because there is where business opportunities lay! Every business exists on the market for satisfying someone’s need and for solving someone’s problem. And essentially work is “a chance for us to serve”.

6. Be confident! A lack of confidence is “at the heart a misunderstanding of the way the world works”.

Last, but not least, ask yourself: while lying on your deathbed, would you have any regrets about how you chose to spend your life? Because how you spend you days is how you spend you life…

And nevertheless, your life has the meaning that you give it!

And to end it in a funny note…