Here’s Why You Have To Do What You Want With Your Life

You have to do what you want with your life because it is what you’re going to be best at. The world doesn’t need more uninspired people doing mediocre work at jobs that they’re emotionally divorced from. The world needs more people who are bursting at the seams with passion and excitement and enthusiasm for whatever small, seemingly insignificant job they undertake. Those people are the ones who shine the brightest, accomplish the most and meet with the greatest successes on whichever path they choose to walk down. Those are the people who make real change in the world. And the world needs people who make change.

You have to do what you want with your life because most people don’t have the privilege of knowing what they want. Most people stumble and fumble through life, wondering what it would be like to have something that truly compels, inspires and ignites them. And because they do not have the answer, they choose the safest route available and they advise others to do the same. But you have to remember that you’re different. If you’re lucky enough to know what you want out of life – truly and clearly and explicitly, you cannot listen to the advice of those who don’t. They are playing in an entirely different arena and if they were playing in yours, their advice would be wildly different.

You have to do what you want with your life because we’re never guaranteed a tomorrow. Because ‘someday’ is a patronizing, soul-sucking promise that will rob you of your life as it’s happening. Because anything could happen and we should be prepared to drop dead at any moment, feeling entirely satisfied with the choices we’ve made in our lives. Because the future is full of unknowns and you never know which barriers are going to exist in that all-consuming ‘someday.’ All you know is what you’re capable of now and if you’re capable of going after what you want, you likely have no idea how lucky you currently are.

If you’re lucky enough to know what you want out of life – truly and clearly and explicitly, you cannot listen to the advice of those who don’t.

You have to do what you want with your life because doing anything else will exhaust you. Because waking up every morning and going to a job you hate to pay bills you can’t afford to maintain a lifestyle that you never wanted is the surest and quickest route to growing old before your time. Because true energy, true vigor, true meaning, can only come from that endless well within us that comes alive through what we love. Because passionate people die young at ninety and apathetic people die old at twenty-one or twenty-two, even if their body takes an additional seventy years to shut down.

You have to do what you want with your life because you’re the only one it’s going to end up mattering to. Someday your parents will die and your friends will disperse and the people who belittled and judged you will all cease to care about the choices you’ve made. And the only person who’ll be left rooting through the consequences of those decisions is you. You’ll be left to pick up the pieces and come to terms with an entire existence you’ve spent attempting to please the people around you – and chances are you will not be happy with those choices. Chances are you’ll realize what a fool you have been for ignoring your truest desires all along.

You have to do what you love with your life because it may just be the reason you’re here. Because outside all the lofty ideals about destiny and fate and meaning, what you love is always going to be what you’re best at. It’s always going to come the most naturally to you. It’s always going to be the number one thing you have to offer the world. So why take that thing to your grave? Why whittle yourself away living a life you don’t want, half-engaging with everything around you, when you have a well of unused brilliance within you? Why hold back for one more moment?

The truth about life is that none of us can be sure why we’re here or what we’re meant for. But we can be sure of what we want. And that’s as good a reason as any to go after it.