Blog18. Skills, Curiosity, and Anger

Questions to Find What We're Meant to Do

Asking ourselves what we are meant to do in life is a big, looming question. Although it can be revisited throughout life, the best time to hard think it is when young. Time is abundant and unhindered with adult-type responsibilities. Yet a lot of times we rush to decide our future, picking what sounds good, what our friends are into, or might make a boatload of money. Reflection Done. Decision made. Career anxiety abated! 

One solution is to explore a bunch of different work environments and jobs in order to see what type of work suits us best: inside vs outside, day or night, manual labor, etc. Another option is to take a look inward to see where our natural inclinations point to. 

What are we good at? These are the things you do easily without someone on you to do it. To be fair, sometimes it’s hard to notice the skills or tasks where we shine. Tap the opinions of people around you: teachers, relatives, coaches, and find out what they see. Humans naturally notice strengths in others and what seems effortless for them to do, so they might notice ours too.  

What piques your curiosity? Similar to the first question, these are the subjects, sectors, or ideas that grab your attention. It could be fashion, battery technology, or, god forbid, corporate balance sheets. For clues, stand in front of a magazine rack and see what titles you linger on.   

What problems do you want to solve? Or better put, what drives you nuts in the world. Some people obsess about micro problems in their home while others can’t stop thinking about huge geopolitical issues. Find what makes you angry, and then layer in your strengths and curiosities.

Take Rowan Minnion’s example (episode 46). First, he obsessed about his own sport and athletic performance. Second, he pursued a fascination into physiology and nutritional science, and then, the lack of transparency and regulation in the supplement industry triggered his anger. The end result: Blonyx, a performance nutrition company built on real-food ingredients.