Never before in mankind's history had we so many choices and opportunities to follow our true calling, to do what we really love doing, and that doesn't feel like work while getting paid for it. The problem? Decision paralysis. Too many choices. And another concern? Instant gratification wanted. But there is a vital step everyone can and should take to not fall into the trap 90% of other people do.
Of course, I blame Facebook for shortening people's attention spans with their ridiculous 4-seconds 'reels', and Mark Skunkerberg encouraging short posts instead of proper writing. This got people of that morally rotten social network to jump from dopamine boost to the next in seconds. His money-hungry, controlling Orwellian empire cultivated a culture of people not following through on a task when the going gets tough, and not being tough enough to keep going.
But anyway, let me jump on that short bus too and do just a brief blog post here. Read it all the way, and take action then.
Half an hour ago, I came across a post on Reddit of someone complaining she doesn't know what to do with her life. Her boyfriend is a successful content creator; they travel all over the US in their RV, but she just can't stick to one thing long enough to make a success of it. And yesterday, a 50-year-old male complained in the same subreddit that he feels he wasted his life and that he has nothing to show for it. They both wanted advice, and me to the rescue, spending the whole night doing research, hence this article. I truly hope and believe it will change your and others' lives.
Most people never do what I'm going to recommend here, while they really know they should. In fact, once I become president, I'll make it compulsory. And here it is...
How do you know what your real passions are? Sure, you can make a list. But if you have to rank everything that interests you on a scale of 1 to 10 and things you really love doing, will you be able to rank them in order of importance? Likely, no.
How do you know what your limits are, what you are skilled at, and what your personality type really allows you to do for years? Statistics say you probably don't. This is the reason 20-year-old people throw their dreams overboard and go work for a boss to make him rich.
Hence, personality and skills tests. That's the answer. Get to know yourself first, scientifically, for real.
Preferably free as well, I hear 'ya. These tests used to be pretty pricey in the past.
Last night, I spent hours researching a 'ton' of sites specializing in these types of tests and found many. So the sifting began, and I found the best gems, free too. They let people write tests and complete challenges online, solely to determine what those people - read: you - are skilled at and what really drives them, and so on.
I'm not going to go into all the details here; it's just plain boring, and the scientific terms they used are not exactly in anyone's everyday vocabulary. Sufficient to say, scientists did get some specific tests down to a science, with a whopping 92.8% accuracy, and these sites use those. One person posting a testimonial on one of the sites I'm about to recommend called her test results 'creepily accurate'. Literally every big company makes use of these sites now, judging by the many logos I've seen on each. Each site brags with millions of tests done (one claims 1.2 billion!) and millions of users that completed the tests. I'm inclined to believe that.
Enough talk. Below are the seven sites that made it to my shortlist, in alphabetical following order. All of them offer a free plan to test your skills and passions, some with a very basic limited plan but still useful, others with a far more comprehensive set of tests. All of them use tests that were developed by scientists.
So, yes, I absolutely insist that YOU that are reading here put a few minutes aside to check them out, and do at least one test on at least one of these sites. It can be a mental lifesaver by helping you to determine what you really want to do with your life. Why waste years of your life doing something you don't really like, or even outright hate, just to pay bills with pieces of paper? What life is that? The subreddit r/antiwork on Reddit is full of super-unhappy people complaining about, well, work.
Here's the list:
That's it, choose one or all, and go do those tests. Some will take only ten minutes and still make you say wow. You will be doing yourself one of the biggest favors you ever did, I pinky-swear.
P.S: Somewhat unrelated, but worth mentioning, is Wisdom Plan. This is where you can learn a huge variety of skills, with AI helping you. I was quite amazed when coming across the site, and signed up right away. (They have a big free plan too.) You give it some inputs about what you are interested in or want to know more about, and it creates a tailored learning plan for you. How tailored? Well, it will tell you things like “go watch this video on YouTube and report back”, or “go read this article on Site Y and come tell what you learned.” The site follows a very fresh approach to learn anything you want in a very interesting manner, and you can drum up a very specialized course for yourself. You can invent your own subject that no school teaches, and AI will help you learn everything about it. I hope good schools take note of this!
If you found this post helpful (and it should be!), please share it on your Facebook timeline and tag your friends; let them complete the test too! I promise you, you'll be helping them a lot, and yourself as well, and reward me for the effort to do the research and spending a night doing so. Having this blog post on your timeline is also good as a bookmark for your records, in case you're too busy right now to do one of those tests. Hit one of the fancy share buttons below.
