What Should I Do With My Life? Real Advice From Young Adults On Work & Study

By Christel Price

What are you going to do with your life?

If you find that question scary or don’t know how to answer it, you’re not alone.

There’s lots of pressure to have it all figured out from a young age.

In What Should I Do With My Life? 16 young adults share what they’ve learned since leaving high school; how they figured out what they wanted to do with their lives and what they wish they had known when they left high school.

The world of work and study is changing rapidly and a lot of advice that's available is no longer relevant.

This book offers real, honest advice from young adults who know what it's like to navigate the world of work today.

What Should I Do With My Life? provides advice on how to figure out what direction to head in and will inspire you to chase after work you'll love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christel Price
• Release date: Aug 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516389315

Book preview

Introduction

What you are going to do with your life?

If you find that question scary or don’t know how to answer it, you’re not alone. There’s lots of pressure to have it all figured out from a young age, despite the fact that you have lived such a small portion of your life.

Work can be an awesome part of your life; it can make you happy and give you a purpose worth being excited about. Or it can be something that you hate, that drains you, and as a result you end up living for the weekends and dreading Mondays. The awesome thing is that you can decide exactly what you want to do with your life and whether or not your career will be one of the great adventures of your life.

The average person spends ninety thousand hours at work over their lifetime. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to find work that you love. It can be super hard to decide which direction to head in. There’s a lot of pressure to know the exact path that you’re going to take to success. But I want to let you in on a little secret; discovering what you love to do is a process of trial and error. Every single human being is figuring it out as they go along.

Who am I?

I’m Christel Price, writer, author and founder of Slipstream, an online resource which features advice from young adults on work and study.

I’m from New Zealand and currently live in a small city in the North Island. After high school, I worked for two years in retail and hospitality. I then went to university and got a Bachelor of Arts in communications and international development studies. I have spent the majority of my working life as a news journalist and now work as a freelance writer and a weight loss coach.

What does slipstream mean?

A slipstream is the region that is created behind a moving object. The term is often used in cycling. If a rider is in the slipstream of another cyclist, it’s easier for them to get to their destination than if they were riding alone. The person leading is breaking all the tension for the person following.

The same can be said for learning from people who have gone before you. Much can be learned from other’s life experiences. I created Slipstream so that young adults could share their experiences with work and study, that way you can learn from them. Listening to the experiences of others could save you from heading in the wrong direction.

In this book 16 young adults (or Slipstream Guides) share what they’ve learned since leaving high school; how they figured out what they wanted to do with their lives and what they wish they had known before entering the real world.

Much can be learned from those who have gone before. There are many things that I wish I had known when I left high school. I can’t go back and offer myself advice, but I can pass on to you what I’ve learned and so I would like to kick off this book by offering my advice.

Don’t panic if you don’t know what you want to do with your life!

I’m 27 years old and one thing I know for sure is that life never pans out the way