I had a 15-year-old write to me and ask about figuring out what do do with her life.

She writes:

‘As a high-school student I’m constantly being reminded to figure out what to do with my life, what career I would like to have and so
on. I definitely feel huge amounts of
pressure when my teachers and
parents tell me to figure out
something now. I’m young and I
don’t want to make a mistake and
ruin my future. I know what I like
and what my interests are but when
I read about a job related to those
interests I always feel as if I
wouldn’t enjoy it and I don’t know
why.’
What an extremely tough thing to figure out: what
to do with your future! Now, I can’t really tell this
young woman what to do, as her parents might
not like that very much, but I can share what I’ve
learned looking back on my life, and what I
would tell my kids (oldest is 21 and still figuring
things out, but I also have 17- and 16-year-old
boys and a 14-year-old girl).
Here’s what I’d say.
You can’t figure out the future. Even young
people who have a plan (be a doctor, lawyer,
research scientist, singer) don’t really know what
will happen. If they have any certainty at all,
they’re a bit deluded. Life doesn’t go according to
plan, and while a few people might do exactly
what they set out to do, you never know if you’re
one of those. Other things come along to change
you, to change your opportunities, to change the
world. The jobs of working at Google, Amazon or
Twitter, for example, didn’t exist when I was a
teen-ager. Neither did the job of Zen Habits
blogger.
So if you can’t figure out the future, what do you
do? Don’t focus on the future. Focus on what you
can do right now that will be good no matter
what the future brings. Make stuff. Build stuff.
Learn skills. Go on adventures. Make friends.
These things will help in any future.
Learn to be good with discomfort . One of the
most important skills you can develop is being OK
with some discomfort. The best things in life are
often hard, and if you shy away from difficulty
and discomfort, you’ll miss out. You’ll live a life
of safety.
Learning is hard. Building something great is
hard. Writing a book is hard. A marriage is hard.
Running an ultramarathon is hard. All are
amazing.
If you get good at this, you can do anything. You
can start a business, which you couldn’t if you’re
afraid of discomfort, because starting a business
is hard and uncomfortable.
How do you get good at this? Do things now that
are uncomfortable and hard, on purpose. But
start with small doses. Try exercising for a little
bit, even if it’s hard, but just start with a few
minutes of it, and increase a minute every few
days or so. Try writing a blog or meditating every
day. When you find yourself avoiding discomfort,
push yourself just a little bit more (within limits
of reason and safety of course).
Learn to be good with uncertainty . A related
skill is thriving in uncertainty. Starting a
business, for example, is an amazing thing to do
… but if you’re afraid of uncertainty, you’ll skip
it. You can’t know how things will turn out, and so
if you need to know how things will turn out,
you’ll avoid great projects, businesses,
opportunities.
But if you can be OK with not knowing, you’ll be
open to many more possibilities. Read more on
uncertainty .
If you’re good at discomfort and uncertainty, you
could do all kinds of things: travel the world and
live cheaply while blogging about it, write a book,
start a business, live in a foreign country and
teach English, learn to program and create your
own software, take a job with a startup, create an
online magazine with other good young writers,
and much more. All of those would be awesome,
but you have to be OK with discomfort and
uncertainty.
If any opportunities like these come along, you’ll
be ready if you’ve practiced these skills.
Overcome distraction and procrastination. All
of this is useless if you can’t overcome the
universal problems of distraction and
procrastination. You might seize an opportunity
because you’re good at uncertainty and
discomfort, but then not make the most of it
because you’re too busy on social media and
watching TV.
Actually, distraction and procrastination are just
ways of avoiding discomfort, so if you get good at
discomfort you’re way ahead of most people. But
there are some things you can practice — read
more here.
Learn about your mind . Most people don’t
realize that fear controls them . They don’t notice
when they run to distraction, or rationalize doing
things they told themselves they wouldn’t do. It’s
hard to change mental habits because you don’t
always see what’s going on in your head.
Learn about how your mind works, and you’ll be
much better at all of this. The best ways:
meditation and blogging. With meditation (read
how to do it ) you watch your mind jumping
around, running from discomfort, rationalizing.
With blogging, you are forced to reflect on what
you’ve been doing in life and what you’ve
learned from it. It’s a great tool for self-growth,
and I recommend it to every young person.
Make some money . I don’t think money is that
important, but making money is difficult. You
have to make someone believe in you enough to
hire you or buy your products/service, which
means you have to figure out why you’re worthy
of someone believing in you. You have to become
worthy. And you have to learn to communicate
that to people so they’ll want to buy or hire you.
Whether you’re selling cookies door-to-door or an
app in the Apple store or trying to get a job as a
cashier, you have to do this.
And you get better with practice.
I worked as a clerk at a bank and then a
freelance sports writer when I was in high
school, and those were valuable experiences for
me.
Protip: save an emergency fund, then start
investing your earnings in an index fund and
watch it grow over your lifetime.
Build something small . Most people fritter their
time away on things that don’t matter, like TV,
video games, social media, reading news. A year
of that and you have nothing to show for it. But if
you did a sketch every day, or started writing web
app, or created a blog or a video channel that you
update regularly, or started building a cookie
business … at the end of a year you’ll have
something great. And some new skills. Something
you can point to and say, “I built that.” Which
most people can’t do.
Start small, and build it every day if possible. It’s
like putting your money in investments: it grows
in value over time.
Become trustworthy . When someone hires a
young person, the biggest fear is that the young
person is not trustworthy. That they’ll come in
late and lie about it and miss deadlines. Someone
who has established a reputation over the years
might be much more trusted, and more likely to
be hired. Learn to be trustworthy by showing up
on time, doing your best on every task, being
honest, admitting mistakes but fixing them, trying
your best to meet deadlines, being a good person.
If you do that, you’ll build a reputation and
people will recommend you to others, which is
the best way to get a job or investor.
Be ready for opportunities. If you do all of the
above, or at least most of it, you’ll be amazing.
You’ll be way, way ahead of pretty much every
other person your age. And opportunities will
come your way, if you have your eyes open: job
opportunities, a chance to build something with
someone, an idea for a startup that you can build
yourself, a new thing to learn and turn into a
business, the chance to submit your new
screenplay.
These opportunities might come along, and you
have to be ready to seize them. Take risks —
that’s one of the advantages of being young. And
if none come along, create your own.
Finally: The idea behind all of this is that you
can’t know what you’re going to do with your life
right now, because you don’t know who you’re
going to be, what you’ll be able to do, what you’ll
be passionate about, who you’ll meet, what
opportunities will come up, or what the world
will be like. But you do know this: if you are
prepared, you can do anything you want.
Prepare yourself by learning about your mind,
becoming trustworthy, building things,
overcoming procrastination, getting good at
discomfort and uncertainty.
You can put all this off and live a life of safety
and boringness. Or you can start today, and see
what life has to offer you.
Lastly, what do you do when your parents and
teachers pressure you to figure things out? Tell
them you’re going to be an entrepreneur, start
your own business, and take over the world. If
you prepare for that, you’ll actually be prepared
for any career.

sorry guys that's it's too long...Happy reading!