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And I don't know how to know what I want out of life.
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<p>Wow, you stated the key problem right here very succinctly. How do you figure this out? That's a question that's taken me years.</p>
<p>My father's a doctor. He wanted me to be a doctor too. But I would make a horrible doctor. It's not that I am not smart enough; supposedly I have a near-genius IQ and my grades were good. I just don't have the right personality. I am unfocused, or perhaps better to say that I have multiple foci and am interested in a lot of things, and I have lived my life changing from career to career. I thought this was a bad thing for a long time. But I came to realize that, for me, this is how my personality shapes my life. I have done the right thing, and it has worked out.</p>
<p>I would honestly say that if you are just a little disappointed with the thought of being a doctor, but it doesn't crush you to think of doing that, I would say go ahead and do it. Other people will say: follow your dream, and all that. But you seem to be one of those people who don't really have dreams or burning passions such that you don't have any questions. Similarly, you are someone who likes money, but for what it affords you, not because you find making it innately interesting or challenging.</p>
<p>What may be needed is for you to figure out being a doctor on your own terms. Part of what you are doing is taking the vision that your parents have for your life and turning it into your own. Maybe you need to take a year off and work for a hospital in Tanzania or rural Brazil. Helping the poor, being close to people. This would be elemental, and also prepare you for med. school because they like to see that sort of thing.</p>
<p>If you view medicine solely as a money-making venture, I would say that you should not do it. There has to be part of you that likes it. What I am questioning is this notion that nothing is worthwhile unless you burn with passion for it. I think it was Solon, the philosopher, who said "Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world." I have also seen this as "Give me where to stand and I could move the world." For me, it was not apparent where to stand. Some people know exactly where to stand. They feel it and they naturally go for it. Others don't. You may be the latter.</p>
<p>The last thing I will say (I've got to run) is that I have worked in a lot of companies and positions and have found that personality type and temperament are a lot more instructive of what you should do than intelligence level. This was not explained to me in a way I heard, or could hear, when I was in your situation. But I have realized that in certain situations even if I was innately smarter than someone, that didn't mean I was better than they at doing something. For example, no matter how hard I try I'll never be a great accountant, even though I understand the principles of accounting actually pretty well.</p>
<p>Doing personality tests such as Meyers-Briggs should not limit your sense of possibilities or provide you with a roadmap. But you will find, in my opinion, that rather than providing a roadmap, such tests can provide you with a kind of compass. If you start to head in the wrong direction, you can do a reality check more readily. There is a book I would recommend called Do What You Are. I forget who wrote it. What that book helped me figure out was the "shape" of the kind of job that meshed best with my personality. For the longest time, I didn't except the directions these kinds of books point me in, but the fact is, they have often been right and I would have been better off embracing the wisdom rather than trying to fight it.</p>
<p>One thing you can learn is whether you are someone who needs to be passion-driven, in which case choosing to be a doctor against your passions will prove to be a very bad decision. But if you are not particularly passion-driven and you like being a doctor okay, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad choice.</p>
<p>Regarding the doctor decision, there are lot of reason people choose to be doctors: status, money, sense of giving to the world, etc. Find out which constellation of these fits you -- or doesn't -- in making this decision. But, as I said, make it your own.</p>
<p>I hope some of this helps....</p>