Graduating from high school as a hopeful and wide-eyed young adult, I remember quoting "the world is your oyster" in my valedictorian's speech. At the time, the possibility of choosing any career I want, choosing where to live and essentially choosing my own way of life was an exciting thing to look forward to.
Undoubtedly, we can say that our happiness is affected by whether we succeed or fail at achieving our goals. So when a wide variety of possibilities are at our disposal, choosing the right path to go down can be a little nerve-wracking. When these choices are the building blocks of your future, it can be an even more intimidating experience. The Paradox of Choice -- Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz puts this dilemma in to perspective through the eyes of the modern-day consumer. In the book, he argues that reducing the number of choices available to the consumer, directly affects the anxiety that the consumer has by greatly reducing it.
Towards the end of my 13 years of secondary schooling, the career possibilities included a wide variety: doctor, lawyer, dentist and economist. I remember getting the 600+ page undergraduate course catalog from the university and flipping through it incredulously as I tried to pick my courses. Although I felt no pressure from my parents at the time, becoming a doctor was the conventional route for me. It meant that I would have a greater possibility of guaranteed job security and a good income. But the things that I did not weigh in included: Will this profession make me happy? Will I get to make a difference in this world? Will I have time to do other things that I loved doing? Will I have time to have a family? Will I have time to travel and see the world?
Social psychologists have pinned down the term "cognitive miser" for people who choose to go down the conventional route when given too many choices, in an effort to save their mental processing resources. Simply put, you choose the easy way out instead of weighing and evaluating each and every possibility. Weighing out these factors and trying to figure out the path I wanted to take proved to be an exhaustive task for me as I juggled doing my pre-med degree, living on my own for the first time in a new country and managing my finances. Career fairs provided a colorful array of different careers I could pursue with a science degree. Networking with different people opened my eyes to new career paths that I had never even considered. I soon realized that I was becoming more and more unfocused as more and more possibilities unfolded before me. Needless to say, I did not end up becoming a doctor.
Every day, we are plagued with lists and lists of choices, whether it be what to have for dinner, which TV show to watch, which school to send your kids to or where you want to go for holiday. Having too many choices can end up fatiguing you when going through the decision making process. And when the decision is about your future, it is much more stressful than browsing through Amazon to choose which cover to order for your phone. When you want to find out what will fuel your passion, the questions you should be asking yourself are: "What are my values?" "What is my personality?" "What are my strongest talents and skills?" "What do other people say I am good at?" and finally "Am I ready to fight for this for as long as I need, if need be?" Having said all of the above, if you have managed to wade your way through sea of choices and questions to find your true passion amidst all of the endless possibilities, kudos to you.