It's hard for me to be disciplined because I have no direction.

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>Hey all,</p>

<p>This is going to be something of a lament, but I know we have some upperclassmen out there who've been where I am now, and I'd love your advice.</p>

<p>This situation is that I'm off at a big state school. Culturally, I dig this weather. It's a lot of fun, and I'm not even a very sociable guy. But, naturally, in the back of mind, I'm dwelling on the fact that I'm here to get an education and hopefully join the workforce.</p>

<p>The problem is, I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night wondering what I'm getting this education for, and how I'm going to parlay it into working for me.</p>

<p>I have a family member who is a doctor, and for the longest time I assumed I might just follow in their footsteps. What I realize now is that maybe I don't want that. Really, I don't know what I want... </p>

<p>And that's concerning, because in high-school, I was driven. I <em>knew</em> I was going to be valedictorian going into high-school, and that flame was kept alive up until the day I graduated with the special vestment befitting the kid with the highest GPA. It was a superficial motivation, but it was motivation nonetheless, and it begot a discipline unlike any I've had before, and unfortunately, since.</p>

<p>I wish I could find that motivation now, but I don't because I just don't have any realistic, well-defined goal at the end of the line. I'm just going through the motions in my classes. I don't think, "I need to get this homework done because I'll need the grades to be a doctor."</p>

<p>So, I pace around my room and think about switching to Comp Sci, where I'm taking an elective that I enjoy (but where I have no real experience), or doing naval ROTC (I don't even know where to start), or even doing something entrepreneurial (but I'm not just gonna drop out without a real plan, obviously).</p>

<p>And in the meantime--in the midst of all this brainstorming and worry--nothing is getting done. I'm where I've been for my entire life, no big-time work experience, no long-term friends, no relationships, and not a whole lotta hope either.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice they could offer me? Anyone who's been in a pint of indecision in their lives? I'd love to hear from you.</p>

<p>Sorry for the long read, just needed to vent, I guess.</p>

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<p>I know that you don’t know me from a hole in the wall, but I do know that you feel brain-dead in class even though you don’t feel like you’ve done too much “work”. It sucks going to bed at night wondering what it’s all for and getting up moreso out of habit than anything else. Your fear of not getting things done inevitably subsides and you begin to grow weary and lackadaisical in your pursuits. Nothing fulfills you and thus, eventually, everything begins to slightly disgust you since you feel that its for nothing more than merely “wasting time” in the grand scheme of things.</p>

<p>I too experienced a time such as this. It lasted about 8 months and in it I became something that I could never have seen coming. However, I have to say it was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I felt I was completely alone. It didn’t seem like anyone else truly understood the depth of the abyss I was in. And so, there came a time when, in sort, I began to become my own best friend – not out of presumptuous denial, but out of necessity. Maybe you’ve tried talking about this with someone else, but they’ve just swept the situation aside and acted like it wasn’t that big a deal. “Figure out what you want and do it” … as if it were always that easy.</p>

<p>Now, I am about to graduate, most of my professors know me and would be willing to write letters of recommendations for me. I have a 3.81 GPA, have helped lead 4 student organizations, take more credits than the average student and go on frequent dates. Although this wouldn’t have occurred if I had not gone through this process that I feel you’re going now, I would still consider them all rubbish had I not figured out what it was I truly wanted.</p>

<p>I can give you one of two answers:
I can give you the quick-and-dirty “to-do” list which will get you on your way to figuring this out,
OR,
If what I described is what you feel, PM me and I’ll share with you much more advice than just the “to-do” list</p>