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[NT] What should I do with my life?

ThatsWhatHeSaid

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
7,263
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
I need to do something. I read some quotes from Feynman and I read quotes from Einstein and I want to achieve something. More like I should. No, no, I want to. So what should I do?

Background: BA Psychology, JD Law
Skills: I'm very good at explaining things, reading people, and discerning motivation. This has helped me become a good communicator, knowing how to navigate around people's issues. I can usually tell what's bothering people and turn it into a semi-offensive joke. It's like a massage for one's personality, hurts at first, then feels better. I've been told I have a soothing voice, even by people I'm not sleeping with. I've studied myself and battled anxiety enough where I know where the answers are, even if I haven't totally developed them. Those answers can, I believe, help people find meaning, authenticity, and real intimacy.
Intellectual interests: Western Psychology, Eastern Psychology, Psychotherapy, Politics and resolving disputes, especially in the Middle East, Relationships, Legal reform
Spiritual interests: First off, I am not a New Age spiritual whack job. Spirituality and mysticism, to me, are just a form of intimacy with one's experience, an intimacy that usually gets interrupted by resistance and excessive thinking. I loathe the Secret and am skeptical of just about everything I hear unless I've personally experienced it. Next, I would really like to help people. Making beautiful moments is a healthy addiction, and seeing people grow and shed their baggage is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Generally, dedicating myself to improving the world is a source of spiritual nourishment. It provides meaning.
Past jobs: Mediator, psych hospitals (various positions), litigator; prefer to avoid litigation unless the cause is really worthy.
Other goals in life: Make enough money to live a stable life with a wifey, pursue Buddhism, have a kid.
Options on the table: Psych grad school (recently accepted), go and meditate somewhere for 3 years (in silence?), take a trip somewhere important (Far East?), teach high school, teach college, teach psych, teach law, tutor, activist/community organizer, write psych books, some awesome thing you're thinking about that I haven't thought of yet

Help!
 

suttree

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
231
MBTI Type
intP
Hooray, p-ness.

Don't teach high school. Loving knowledge and wanting to share it with young people is a recipe for dissatisfaction. The majority of the energy spent as a teacher is spent dealing with discipline and beauracracy.

I faced a similar crisis of career satisfaction and chose grad school. O figured it would be a challenging, stimulating process and an opportunity to surround myself with intelligent, like-minded people resulting in opportunities for a significant career upgrade. I'll let you know how wise a choice it was in five years or so.
 

Amethyst

¡MI TORTA!
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
2,191
MBTI Type
ESTP
Enneagram
7w8
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
I think being a college professor would be rewarding to you considering your interests. I believe they would let you travel and pursue your spiritual beliefs, and teaching classes you can create on your own regarding spirituality and psychology or law, whatever.
I'm not sure if being a college professor deals with trivial stuff as much as high school does, but you're going to find that everywhere, just not to the extent you would find in secondary education. Maybe teaching at a private college would offer more freedom.

Good luck to your discovery and stuff.
Speaking of which...I need to choose a major, and what I want to do with my life in the next two weeks...haha crap.
 

ThatsWhatHeSaid

Well-known member
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
7,263
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
I think being a college professor would be rewarding to you considering your interests. I believe they would let you travel and pursue your spiritual beliefs, and teaching classes you can create on your own regarding spirituality and psychology or law, whatever.
I'm not sure if being a college professor deals with trivial stuff as much as high school does, but you're going to find that everywhere, just not to the extent you would find in secondary education. Maybe teaching at a private college would offer more freedom.

Good luck to your discovery and stuff.
Speaking of which...I need to choose a major, and what I want to do with my life in the next two weeks...haha crap.

Thank you, and good luck choosing.
 

Tdore

New member
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
7
MBTI Type
INTJ
Not sure if this will be much help to you but here's my (work in progress) life plan, which seems somewhat similar to yours.

Get a degree in psych from a respectable college while interning for local PD's. Go to grad school and get a doctorate in Criminal psychology (more PD work). Then maybe spend a few years as a detective before trying to work for the FBI or NSA. They scoop up 9/10 people with a doctorate in criminal psych. Working as a federal agent gets great benefits, but not great pay. So I'm also going to write as a side career for an extra source of income. You seem to be roughly half way a long my road, so it may be something you want to look into.

But to me it seems like being a counselor/therapist would be really good for you. You could open up your own practice and make a lot of money. Since you enjoy metaphysics so much, maybe you could open an area with a holistic doctor or a chiropractor and split the rent of it? It would be pretty tough starting out, financially especially, but it would be better in the long run then working for someone else.

Good luck, I hope you find what you are looking for.
 
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