Some people really have a hard time finding out what they really should be doing as an adult. I think that anyone having this problem are looking at other adults too much. They should be looking at their past instead.
Children aren’t shy about having fun. And I know that what we enjoy doing as adults are simply extensions of things we used to do as children.
My job as a software engineer cum web developer cum innovator stems from my childhood hobbies playing Lego and drawing portraits and doing all sorts of other ‘building’ stuff. I also spent my teens collecting comics, which I used to build my figure sketching skills. I was never into sports, but I feel that sports is a great way to learn about strategy, which is useful for stuff like finance, management, and innovation.
Playing with dolls may mean you enjoy storytelling, or being part of a hospitality service, or traveling. Reading may mean you enjoy research and learning, and being able to function as a team player.
One question a career counselor asked my wife when she went in for a session was ‘what did you enjoy when you were a child?’. Most likely, the things you did when you were a child were already preparing you for something you would be doing as an adult.
I posed this question to my youth session yesterday as well. Not all of them responded to the various interests. Some enjoyed traveling while some didn’t. Almost all of them played computers, but I’m guessing what they play may differ as well. Some enjoy sports. Some don’t like cartoons but enjoy watching animal planet. These were children aged 9 onward. They were specific and vocal – they could express what their interests were at a very young age.
I told them that when they become an adult, the toys don’t go away – they get bigger. So the trick is in deciding which toys to play, because there’s never enough time to play all of them (or enough money).
The reason why I love web development is because I like building things. I like art as well, and graphic design, although my background is in engineering. I like ideas – and good sites build on good ideas. I also love writing, and the web really needs a lot of that. In fact, writing was one of the things I used to do growing up.
In the book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell described a phenomenon about how Sesame Street became such a huge success. In that research, scientists realized that children watched TV very differently than adults do – in that they watch for learning’s sake (in terms of context), instead of pure entertainment. Their attention span only maintains when there are things on TV that they are attempting to gain knowledge from. This may be why one of the boys said he didn’t enjoy cartoons, when quizzed yesterday.
Don’t abandon your childhood for your adulthood. Bridge it together in one seamless story. Penelope Trunk’s advice is to do what you are – and I feel everyone ought to already know that growing up.