I’m 32 years old and feel that I’m relatively sorted. And yet, I don’t think I’ve figured out the meaning of my life. Or even what I’m meant to be doing with my life.
If anything, as I get older and have the benefit of even more experience and opportunity for reflection, I find that I come up with more questions than answers….And that’s a good thing!
It’s the questions that I’ve been asking of myself for the last few years that have lead me to where I am now. I wasn’t fulfilled with my job so I asked myself ‘What type of work would be happy?’ The result – I started my own company working in a field, and for customers, that made me happy.
Did the company end up on the Forbes 100 list and turn me into a multi-millionaire? No, but it’s opened my eyes to a world of opportunities that come from running your own business and controlling your life. It also led me to start another business with my partner, which in turn has allowed both of us to move out of the city. It’s also allowed us to buy our first home together.
I also knew I wasn’t really happy living in the city (or more precisely the suburbs, surely one of humanity’s worst constructs). I asked ‘Where can I see myself living happily?’ I started to get answers during short trips away from the city. These trips did more than just rejuvenate my tiredness, they refuelled my soul. I felt happy being away from the city. I slowly realised how much I enjoyed spending time in nature, hiking and walking along the beach. None of this awareness happened overnight. It took a few years for the answers to appear, but they did.
Asking a question where the answer seems impossible to find is scary. It can be so off-putting that maybe we even silence those questions, refusing to listen to them, and avoiding answering them all together. But it’s OK not to have the answer straight away. Maybe just asking the question is the first step to finding the answer. I’ve found this to be true for me. It didn’t come straight away, and I had to look hard for it, but answers did eventually come. The best news is, the answers keep coming – and so do the questions!
