Before you read this, erase any guilt or shame for not knowing what to do for a living. Your occupation does not define you, but if you want it to, you can get the kick-ass career you want. You can set goals and meet them. Make the sacrifices you need to. All you need to do is know what you want, then you can find a way to make that happen. You don’t need to have a specific career in and to be able to have a plan to approach the ultimate question: “What should I do for a living?”

Finding what you want to do for a living can be the hard part, though. Choosing a career doesn’t just involve what you want to do with your life: How far can you commute? Are you a caregiver? How do you know what career is best for you? Can you afford school? Etc. etc. etc. 

From my experience, choosing a long term plan is the surest way of guaranteeing that that plan won’t happen. When it comes to preparing for what you should do for a living, bear that in mind: your plan to reach your goal has to be flexible. To balance this, make sure your plan works for your situation specifically and can be adapted to whatever may happen moving forward. If you want a certain career and need a certificate, see how long it would take to recertify in another state if you had to. If you’re applying to college, see if it would be a possibility to transfer if you had to. This will help you prepare for whatever future you have going forward. 

In the end, your answer to the question, “What should I do for a living?”  will change multiple times. Finding the answer is a life-Iong process. And although I can’t tell you what you should do for a living, I can tell you that every situation is temporary, and if you don’t like yours, you will always have the power to change it.