How to find your passion?

Well, this is not about any problem or any concept though this means a lot to me. This is about me searching for what I want to become in the future. I was told by many smart people in my life that successful people are those who know what's their purpose or what what they want to become in future in early age. I have been wondering from almost 5 years about what I should do with my life and why. I have not get any answer yet. I got temporary answers a lot. When I was in my 9th grade, I dreamt of becoming a mathematician because I love doing Mathematics and was good at it, but later in my 10th grade, I got bored from Mathematics though I was quite into it but not that interested as I was earlier. I dwindled my interest to Physics in 11th grade and then to Computer Science in 12th grade. And this thing is going on with me ever since and I don't know what to do. I couldn't settle for one thing; it gets boring after a while. I got more frustrated when I decided to go for engineering because of all the people who told me that's there's not good scope of scientist/research in India. Some of my well wishers guided me and I started studying for competitive exams. I got more frustrated than ever since. Entrance to all valued institutes are through competitive exams and this might tell you the whole story why I was forced to study for them and here I am writing this. These exams require practising a lot and make you feel like you are being trained like a robot. I studied for these exams but wasn't at all happy after all. I graduated from high school in 2013 and has been searching for what I love since. I need someone to help me with this. I don't know what to do with my life!

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Comments

Hi Lokesh.As a fellow indian I have also faced the same dilemma that you are facing today...in India this procedure of competitive examination made me feel like a robot too....I always loved imagining thinking and wrestling hard with challenging problems ever since I was in my early teens..then came the wave of these comprtitive exams which I was in wy I was forced to give and the preparation procedure made me feel that have I walked the wrong way throughtout my life? Have I wasted my time doing blue skies research when all that matters is breadth not depth to be successful? Then gradually I realised that the joy of discovering something new is unparalled...evolution has gifted us with a mind capable of analytical reasoning...so in our limited time of existence in this world we must make the best use of it which will be possible if we open our eyes and observe everything around us ....as the great CarlSagan once said "we are a way for the cosmos to understand itself" we must try to understand nature and how all of it works,..we must always keep on learning new things.....besides we are fortunate enough to have the internet-a vast resource to learrn from...everyone is not fortunate enough to have that.....Just for sake of learning Ramanujan self taught himself mathematics and Michael Faraday worked as an assistant in Davy's lab.their only motivation was t o push the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding....we should try to do the same...

Eddie The Head - 7 years, 4 months ago

The more you try to know out things, the more will you be able to find out your passion.For instance , I once came across a physics problem in Resnick-Halliday about the piling up of bricks, in the subscript it was written that the problem was posed by some 'MARTIN GARDNER'.I researched about him and came to know so muck of his wonderful works that turned my interest towards maths and Topology.I came to know that this person wrote more than 110 books and has been the editor of The Scientific American for almost 30 years!!

Ankit Chatterjee - 7 years, 4 months ago

Same thing here as well. I used to enjoy doing mathematics, physics and chemistry till 10th grade because I didn't think too much about my career, just some temporary thoughts. After I joined 11th grade, I felt like I am participating in a race.

Deepak Sharma - 7 years, 4 months ago

I was told by many smart people in my life that successful people are those who know what's their purpose or what what they want to become in future in early age.

I think this is true of many people who lead fulfilled, passionate and prosperous lives. Overall though, almost all of the passionately successful people I have met are not doing anything remotely related to what they were doing when they were 18.

It seems apparent that your problem of successively losing your passion in various disciplines is not related to your interests, the disciplines, or your aptitude. It looks like a direct consequence of having to explore them in the most boring way possible.

My experience of my late teens/early twenties was too different from what you face to be able to offer constructive specific advice. What I can take away from Eddie's thoughts, are that your options are probably limited and you might have to just run the rat race of competitive exams and such in India. But maybe with the right attitude you can prevent it from killing you inside or rendering you intellectually vacant.

What are your next planned steps? Deciding what to do with your life is not a reasonable or desirable goal in my opinion. Deciding what you should do next is probably really important.

Peter Taylor Staff - 7 years, 4 months ago

Of course you can do research in India's top universities such as IISc!! Its a very nice place! You can do research in any field that interests you more.

Vasavi GS - 7 years, 4 months ago

A Hint For You: It's not what you do, it's how you do. One More: Anything that requires effort will lead to boredom.

Ashwani Karoriwal - 7 years, 4 months ago

Is this is a human fact. which is happened to most of the peoples. because firstly we found the interest in something and getting bored with the same entire things. and then found interest in another activity or thing. I am not found my area of interest till now.

Piyush Gupta - 7 years, 4 months ago

Yeah in India they all want theory theory n theory...those idiots dont care of practical approach...I m too facing the same...studyin for JEE

Archit Murkunde - 7 years, 4 months ago

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

TAKE up philosophy, it would enlightened you more . :)

edsel fuentes - 7 years, 4 months ago

i think you will require patience if you do any work with some happy feeling you can not be got boring

ajith gade - 7 years, 4 months ago

Hi Lokesh, Try to find your passion.From what i read i feel that your passion lies in research.researchers do have scope.Try to get into one of the best institute in India.

Athira P A - 7 years, 4 months ago

First, you must come to America, the land of opportunity (and also where there is a shortage of STEM jobs). In America, you should study Physics. It takes elements from all of the other areas, and is one of the most unexplored areas of specialization. You will pioneer this area along with other people just like you, and will pave the way for my generation.

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 4 months ago

It is probably objectively true that there is more opportunity and upward mobility in America. It is also true that in our universities there is likely more freedom to pursue your interests as passions, rather than just a grade you have to get. People are probably downvoting the comment, because even if that is all true, it is not constructive to helping Lokesh navigate his immediate future, to find a way to pursue his dreams more passionately.

For everybody else reading, you should also all remember that many more dreams are broken in America than come true. It has it's nice parts, but it is on Earth so it shouldn't be de-facto regarded as the land of opportunity/milk and honey/promised land.

Oh, I guess so. I was just pointing out that it is a great place if you are probably going to have a STEM job, and then I recommended physics because there is so much to discover in physics.

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$