Still confused on Life Purpose

[Chumbimba]

What's up guys ! it has been a while since I posted on here. I took a break from actualized.org content but now I am back and soaking it up even more and came back with some new understanding. I have been thinking a lot about what direction I need to take my life in. I am single, have no friends and I want to go all in on my life purpose. There are a lot of things I think I would be good at but I can't decide on one.  I am bound to pick the one that pays the most but I don't know if thats the best option long term 

1. Software Engineering - I am getting really strong in python, but data structures and algorithms bore me to death. I don't really know what I am doing and i really don't knw how to progress further 

2. Acting - In the last 3 months I auditioned for 4 Roles and so far I am 1 for 3 (The other one TBD). I GOT A ROLE WITHOUT ATTENDING ONE ACTING CLASS JUST RAW TALENT.  I LOVE ACTING but I am afraid of getting famous and ruining my entire life and also not making it to the financial status that I want (I want to be a millionaire someday) . I definitely have the personality for it but I am afraid of my future and also the competition is FIERCE 

3. Entrepreneurship/ Investing - My friend made $20,000 of game stop stock and I made $40 off of AMC stock which changed my whole attitude towards money. I even thought about becoming a quantitative analyst making algorithms to predict the stock market  but I DONT WANT TO SIT BEHIND A COMPUTER SCREEN ALL DAY.  Also I started watching shark tank which inspired me to become an investor even more but I have 0 capital

 

Anyway. My vision is blurry. I don't believe I can have my dream life and I am stuck and depressed (kind of) I am tired of working at a call-center making shit money.

Thanks

[universe]

If you are depressed right now it's going to be hard to start anything new and put in the serious work required.

Elevate your Emotional State, everything will become much easier after that.

If you change your inside, the world will follow.

Listen to your heart.

❤️

[Average Investor]

Really figure out what you want to invest some time into and give it a shot for a year or so. That will really help you know what you do want and you don't. Once you start getting a good list of stuff you don't want to do it makes it a lot easier. 

On 3/2/2021 at 3:09 PM, Chumbimba said:

3. Entrepreneurship/ Investing - My friend made $20,000 of game stop stock and I made $40 off of AMC stock which changed my whole attitude towards money. I even thought about becoming a quantitative analyst making algorithms to predict the stock market  but I DONT WANT TO SIT BEHIND A COMPUTER SCREEN ALL DAY.  Also I started watching shark tank which inspired me to become an investor even more but I have 0 capital

Business and investing are some of the best ways to get rich unless you can become a star or are very smart. I would not limit yourself on how intelligent you can become. Becoming a star is mostly out of luck though, but mastery plays a big part in it as well. I'd say knowledge is powerful with any route you decide to go. 

I would recommend you find what your a most passionate and creating a business around that. Becoming a millionaire isn't that hard really with good financial skills, so aim for enjoyment and impact versus money. 

You will likely not get rich guessing on stocks and all that crap. It sucks up so much time. Not to mention most people can't handle the emotions with higher sums of money. Investing is great for wealth building, but I would work on getting cash flow coming in first. Once you get a good amount of capital, then I suggest reading the intelligent investor and learning to properly invest. There is a fine distinction from being an investor and a speculator. You want to be the investor. Someone can make great returns with some research, then checking in on their investments maybe 4 times a year.  

[Space]

@Chumbimba Seems pretty clear that you know what you want. Sounds like you want to become an actor, so go do that! Nothing stopping you from investing you savings on the side.

Your friend got lucky with GME. There was no skill behind his win. He got lucky and followed a trend just at the right time, which just so happened to work out for him. A lot of people lost a lot of money. DO NOT look up to this guy for inspiration. 

Also I should add that no one here is going to be able to show you what your life purpose is or what path to take. You have to make that decision. You have to spend the time thinking about it and testing stuff out and making mistakes. This is YOUR journey. Life purpose is complex and subtle and depends on a million different factors within an individual's life. Even life coaches will not be able to tell you what your purpose is. Its deeply intuitive and has to be self-generated.

A lot of people write posts similar to yours, looking for someone else to advise them or tell them what to do. I get it, its hard, and we hope that another person's comments can shed new light on things. But the chances of that happening are low. You need to muster up the courage to choose a path and commit to it. Everyone, including myself, has to give up 10 other potential paths in order to make one path work. You have to make sacrifices. 

[NatureB]

What are your top 10 values in order from highest value to lowest? Values help you make hard decisions more easily.

[claypunk]

Hey @Chumbimba. I see a lot of parallels between what you write, and myself when I was around 25. Maybe the things I have figured out since can be of help to you:

1) don't confuse beginners luck or early gains with being good at something. Seems like all three things you've mentioned are relatively new to you. You see promise, and so you attach your hopes for success to those things. But you must recognize that anything worthwhile you will ever try in your life will have great depth to it. You have started scratching the surface, and it will take some time before you start making enough discernments to start seeing the depth.

It's one thing to understand how to write code and be able to solve some programming challenges, but you will need a lot of practice to get so comfortable with the basics. Once you can do the basics without thinking, you will free up bandwidth in your mind and start seeing subtle differences which will trigger more learning. It's hard to learn about algorithms and data structures when you have not yet automatized the concepts that precede them.

Same with acting – it's great to get a confirmation of your raw talent, but if you don't deeply understand what was it that you did right to get the part, you will struggle later on delivering a consistent performance. The more you act, the more you will start to notice subtle differences in your acting. If you reflect on those discernments, you will gain more control. But you must keep doing it and reflect constantly on your performance.

It should be obvious how your bet in stonks is just scratching the surface, if even that. It was a bet. From what you wrote, seems to me, trading only made the list because it seems like easy money. Which leads to:

2) don't make success your goal. This is advice I have gotten many times, but it took years and lots of suffering for me to understand. so I don't expect that you will take it from me, but perhaps some of what I write will stick.

You've landed one part, and you're already afraid of being too famous. Most people who have life-long, successful, fulfilling acting careers are not famous. But that's not even the point – why was that getting too famous, or not getting rich enough at the top of your mind when you wrote your post? If you love acting, as you say, why would that matter? 

3) focus on what you are good at, not at what will make you look good. What is it that you're good at, really? You say you're good at python, but also admit that there are parts of it that you find boring. Try to drill deep into what is it that you enjoy, that seems to come naturally to you, what you don't need to work hard for. Try to isolate this.

Reflect on what are the things that you do without even thinking. What is a pattern that you have when you work in a group? Do you maybe always fall into a specific role? Maybe you always end up leading the group. Or you are the person who keeps everyone realistic. Or you are the person to make the schedule. Or you are the most diplomatic, the one who makes sure that everyone is on good terms. Or you are the person who takes the hard tasks that no one wants to do. Or you're the person to do all the research?

Whatever that pattern is, even if you don't particularly like it or you don't see the value in it, reflect on it, try to see how that brings value. Chances are that the thing you do without thinking, that brings value to others, is your life purpose, and your path to success.

Hope this helps.