I’m 24m and I just feel lost. A feeling I can never shake. I work a construction job, and I don’t really think I want to do this forever, I feel like I’m wasting my life away. I just want to feel happy. I live with my parents and can’t afford to move out yet really. I always feel like I’m just running out of time.
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I started going to college and as I took classes I realized I liked finance so I got a degree in that and I love my job. But prior to that I did a lot of different things. I think you just decide whether you think a degree would open doors to a job you want (what I did) or try your hand at something else. If you like working on cars go be a mechanic.
The biggest mistake you can make is staying where you are because you’re scared, if you don’t like what you are doing. My dad was in construction his whole life and he always told me to use my brain not my back. He got permanently disabled from it
I kinda just fell into my current job when I was 30 going on 31. Been 4 years and I enjoy the work for the most part. Paid vacation, pension, good benefits. I joined the us navy out of high school and it paid off I think
You’re still pretty young. Not many people have it figured out at 24 man
In my case what helped was realising it is all pointless anyway.
I realised there are two ways to look at a starry sky and realise the vastness of it al. It either robs you of agency (I am insignificant, so why bother) or empowers you (since I am insignificant, I am pluripotent without consequences).
I decided to become as uncaring as the universe and I now have inner peace.
I just bend instead of break. I am happily married, but knowing nothing really matters allows me to not be pretentious towards my partner. No need for politics, just harmony.
Also, no crotchgoblins because I am neither sufficiently selfish or arrogant to inflict this world on something that hasn’t consented to a life of pointless suffering.
Hope that offers a fresh perspective.
I’ll be 56 next year, I’ll let you know when I figure out what to do with my life.
I went to work
Ask yourself what would you like to try if you knew you couldn’t fail. Obviously this requires you to be realistic. Another way to think about it is what could you see yourself doing even if you weren’t getting paid. Asking myself these questions and being honest with myself helped me leave a shit career for one that I love.
It could depend on what kind of construction job you are currently doing. For example, if you’re an electrician or plumber right now, you could learn all the aspects of the business and start your own company in a few years. But if you absolutely hate construction then going to college might be a better fit
Lots of kids in Your situation. My daughter 33 still lives with me.
What do you enjoy doing when you aren’t at work?
Daily routines that improve your head and mood = more gym time less drinking time and probably getting a level headed girl in your life. THIS is my best general suggestion for a fuller life approach, and don’t be too hard on you, you’re today still young in relation to the life ahead of you.
Look at jobs / careers that interest you.
Google information about them.
Eliminate the ones that interest you less as you find out about them.
The ones that remain try to talk to someone in that field and find out what they do on the day to day (not the brochure crap that’s on career websites but the real stuff).
See if anything interests you and what you can do.
Rinse and repeat.
You might not always be able to get your dream career but there’s lots of jobs you be comfortable doing that have good outlooks. There’s lots of jobs you didn’t even know existed.
Try stuff. Reflect and adjust
Write a list of everything you enjoy. Write a list of everything you’re good at. From those lists, circle what you think you might enjoy doing every single day – what would excite you. From those circled items, research what opportunities might be available whether it’s working for someone else or working for yourself.
Just do it. If you’re between a few options, choose the one with the lowest barrier to entry/cheapest. Do that until you no longer enjoy it, then move on to the next.
Good luck – have fun. 🙏🏻✌🏻
People set “happy” as the goal, and I think they miss a lot of opportunity because of it. “Good enough” can be a real game changer. Some people will read that and get angry, thinking I mean “settle for less”, but this a glass half-full/empty kind of argument. I’m suggesting that you consider how you can reframe your life with gratitude.
Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.
If you magically discovered in the witch’s glass eye that you had no choice but to work construction until age 60, it would shake you, but in time you might start to consider how to make that existence the best it can be. What’s interesting is that when you start to accept your circumstances as good enough, you find the strength necessary to break the perceived ceiling above you. I think letting go of what could be is quite liberating because what remains afterwards is what can be.
Is any of this super confusing? It was for me.
You’re still super young don’t worry to much but yeah maybe consider what you do want to be doing and start investigating what certification or training you’ll need to get into that field. It would also pay to find out what the job market is like in that field before you invest in training.
For me it’s been what can I enjoy for work in order to do the other things in my life I can’t do full time. Hike, surf, woodworking, music. I have kids, 45 in a month.
I was only a year younger than you when I got fed up doing general labour jobs and moved away to go to college to pursue a dream to do design work. I have been working in the field for over 30 years now. I was so lost for the first few months but loved every minute of it.
Maybe you could do the same? Or pursue an apprenticeship in one of the skilled trades? Your young bud. You can choose to do whatever you want… you just have to picture it and go for it.
Everytime I take action and changed my life, the powers that be…decide to knock me down. Most often it a career ending injury or other life changing event.
This has been happening my whole life and is why I never had kids.
It put me into a Bad depression for a long time. Everytime I think, “I’ve hit rock bottom”, I drop even further.
I tried to fall back on jobs I have done before, but I am severely over qualified and they want someone younger.
I don’t know what to do…. but if you figure it out, let us know.
I stayed social and networked, I didn’t say no to many things if they weren’t a risk to my life.
I’ll skip a few steps and cut to the construction era:
When a family friend who ran an hvac business offered me a job I took it and did that for a few years.
When my friend was doing really well as Union Millwright and I got curious he suggested I join after seeing how I work doing engine swaps together. I jumped on that and took my first millwright job at a salt refinery and watched my tools dissolve as I waded through disgusting muck.
I finished my 4yr apprenticeship in 3.5 yrs and right around that time I had a friend working a fancy millwright job at a Silicon Valley semiconductor r&d facility. It was a huge upgrade, casual 2hr lunches often, never got dirty, worked with and around pleasant well educated individuals rather than grumpy construction and factory workers. My friend suggested I jump ship and join him, I did.
Within some years I became the guy just going to meetings, sitting in my air conditioned office, or walking around making sure everything is moving along as planned.
As comfy as that sounds, the construction industry is still very stressful especially at a billion dollar corporate level, so I did some other things to retire by 40 but it would have been a lot better than the typical construction grind if I didn’t get to leave early.
My point is just keep making moves, talk to everyone, say yes if it won’t kill you (not just to the jobs themselves but the social gatherings where people talk), options outside the box will present themselves.
I would recommend something that you can, Definitely move up in. I think if you can’t be the foreman or own your own company, make plans to move on.
95% of people make money for other people, and are NOT the ones with money.
Your 24 dude chill out. My advice is if you don’t know what to do, try many things you are interested. No job is going to be perfect but some are better than others. You make money, and you start to learn what you do like and don’t like.
Awfully bold of you to presume.
Learn a trade?
Join the Armed forces. You already work construction so youre used to workin with the boys, youre still young, and you will save a shitload of money because food and rent are free in the military. Then get out, get that free medical insurance, free college degree while they pay you a salary AT THE SAME TIME, and buy a house with your guaranteed veteran home loan.
If youre worried about getting a limb blown off, just choose Admin/Intelligence/HR or go with the chair force. I did it (at 30!) and it gave me a HUGE life advantage and was the best decision I ever made. Theres a reason why most veterans say the same.
About twice your age, and I’ve been pretty much winging it since college.
I’m 36 working overnight stocking a grocery store and still don’t know what I want out of life. Barely enough money to pay my rent for my tiny apartment(luckily I’m under a lease til next year). Some of my coworkers who are my age or even older don’t even have their own place or a car
I wanted to become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur. That was very clear in my mind since I was a kid. Then life happened. High School… University… Looooots of fun. Then I met the girl… married her… moved to another country and took the first job I could find. And since then, I just looked around me and spotted the people who had the job I would like next, and did all I could to get that type of job as quickly as I could, generally in another company, generally after 2 years. I ended up 20 years later as an IT project manager as a consultant. I’ve liked most jobs I’ve had in between because they were always better than the one before 🙂
I did not become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur. I tried entrepreneurship 3 times and failed 3 times. Did not like entrepreneurship that much in fact. The PM job is not a dream job at all. However, I have a lot of fun and laughs everyday with my teams and colleagues. I meet a lot of new people. I learn a lot of things about the industries I work for, and I make good money, all that without having a single employee to manage, a single customer to talk to. Happiness !
Quick conclusion: don’t figure out what you want to do “in life”, figure out what you want to do next.
I chose the path of least resistance and it has been kind of stupid.
Bruh. Life is long. You got time. If you can, try some different things, figure out what’s lucrative enough to support the life you want, that’s also something you don’t hate. Save and invest. Focus on your mental and physical health. Keep up with friends. You’ll be alright.