The lack of purpose in the next generation

Do you also feel that your kids or people around you do not know what to do with their life? 

A while ago, I talked with a few dads, and all mentioned that their kids have problems finding something they want to do with their life. That their kids do not seem to find a passion and drive in a single direction, be it becoming a doctor or something else entirely. All felt powerless to help their kids see that passion, that thing they want to do with their life.

Finding a passion in your life depends on knowing your talents. Now in our schools and society in general, the definition of talent is a very restrictive one. We see people good at things visible in school or sports, and we assume that valuable talents must be linked with either of them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A talent is an activity that you are good at and gives you energy. You feel that you could do this all day, and at the end of the day, you have the sense that it gave you more power than it cost. 

Something that you are good at but needs to give you energy is a skill. We need skills, no doubt about that. We need to learn to read, write, type and calculate; all skills are necessary to function in our society. But skills do not tell you what to do with your life. 

The definition of talent above is much broader than we are used to. It includes the traditional description of talents, such as being talented at math or sports but also very different things, such as being a visionary or a talent in sensing stress in other people. So ask yourself or your kids the following question: what are the things you can do all day and at the same time feel that give you more energy than it costs? Then, make a list of those. 

Talents also do not tell you what to do with your life, but they point in a direction. The number of possibilities that the path points to is still huge. It is like going south from Paris, you can end up in Rome or Madrid and everything in between, but London and Amsterdam are excluded. Now, something interesting happens when you combine all your talents: focusing happens. You know it is in the direction of Madrid, but it could be before or after Madrid where your purpose lies. When you do this, you will have a sense of where your purpose in life lies.

Thank you for reading this post, and have fun discovering your Talents and Purpose. Feel free to reply to this post.