Career Pressure At A Young Age

“What do you want to be when you are older”?

At an incredibly young age this question was always asked! Typical answers consisted of a teacher, a footballer, or a doctor! As we started to grow up our minds opened to the many professionals held in this society.

It was all fun and games until we hit a certain age as young as 16 to know what we all wanted to be and how to get there. This dramatic change in expectations and mindset is very daunting for many young individuals.

During high school days, many believe they should be choosing their path which would be set for life and up until they retire. But we all know for some of us this is not or was not the case. We did not have it all figured out and that was okay! Highschool is a time when we were all trying to figure out who we were as people not what we wanted to do for our career path.

This calling for a professional identity was very much stressful and frustrating especially when we are told these decisions will make or break us for our future. We were all internalising the message of being indecisive now was wrong and we were wasting our time and if we do not make a decision at the age of 16, we will regret the rest of our lives. To think at the age of 16 we had to make a decision as big as this is CRAZY!

Life is not about choosing one path and sticking with it – its about finding our true calling by experiencing different things in life.

We all want to be content in where we are in life. Yes of course think about the future but do not put too much pressure on yourselves to know it all! I say, ‘live in the present moment as it’s a gift we are given as tomorrow is not guaranteed’.

We all have a great pressure to make right choices in life but without mistakes we will not be able to learn and reflect. So, do not be guilty in doing the things that make you happy and feel content – because these are the memories we will be talking about and recalling when we are older.

So, if you are happy with making a living with a minimum wage as a waitress instead of having 101 emails every morning to answer to– you do you!

With the world we live in today, social media can portray an unrealistic lifestyle of many young people in this world. We all have asked ourselves what they are doing to have this lifestyle at such a young age and here I am not knowing what I want to do in life or not having a penny to my name! but not knowing what to do in life is scary – but its normal.

REMEMBER – yes, we all compare ourselves to our peers, but some people may not know what they are doing but are saying they do as they think they should know.

Do not compare your life to someone else’s controlled online content.

Its time we try to de-dramatize this feeling of being doomed if we make one bad decision in life or not knowing what we want to become.

Yes, some decisions are important but that does not mean if you did not make it that all is ruined! There are many ways to get to a destination you want to reach so do not put too much pressure on yourselves.