How to find what you want to do in life - Excellent advice from Hunter S Thomson

Hunter S Thomson is an american journalist. In a letter he wrote to his friend Hume Logan, he gives excellent advice about finding what you want to do in life.

Basically the advice boils down to this -

You can either float with the tide or swim towards a goal. But since our goals change as we get more experience and insight, the goals are never constant. They keep changing so our focus shouldn't be on the goals. We don't want to be a fireman or banker or teacher etc., we want to be ourselves.

So the idea is not to reach a pre-defined goal but to choose a way of life you ENJOY. So choose your lifestyle and not the goal.

Next if there are eight pre-defined paths laid down for you in life and you feel they are all not satisfying to you, then it is upto you to design the ninth path for yourself. But if you procrastinate in this CHOOSING you will have circumstances making the choice for you.

What this means is that you don't just have to take the handed down paths to you but you can look for new paths that fit your lifestyle.  This is an amazing point.

I like learning new things, reading and sharing stuff. I should choose a way that allows me to keep doing that!

This is from a book called letters of note via farnum street.