Broad Brushed Learning, Your Thoughts?

[Bubba66]

Have you ever been a naïve college student like myself?

Have you ever thought that it was so hard to just pick an interest and stick with it/ "Pick a damn career already!" ?

Or have had great difficulty with decision making in general?  

These are the struggles that are defining my life right now. Albeit they are really good, first world problems to have in a society with an abundance of choice and opportunity, they are also a immense pain in the ass. That is why I am taking to this forum, as everyone I have encountered on here so far seems very reasonable and knowledgeable. My inquiry to all of you is this: What if I just said "screw it", and embraced the college experience and made learning my first life purpose?

I am looking for your thoughts, support, criticism,  suggestions on how to make this a reality given the current financial climate in the US, and personal opinions on how to get the most out of the college experience academically (I am already participating in plenty of clubs and cross country).

The reasoning behind my idea of just forgetting all stresses about looking for a career and just learning as much information as humanly possible while I am in college is that I am stumped when it comes to trying to decide what is important to me in life. I love to learn. I have a few hundred different interests. I have read the book Mastery and I am definitely a Dabbler, however I am meditating and working on my awareness to fix this issue. Is this an immature response to the same issue every college student faces at one point or another? Or is it a legitimate approach to finding my life purpose in the context of the "real world"?

I value your responses. Thanks!

 

 

[J. M. Wigglesworth]

The way I maximized my college experience was by quitting. Very edgy, I'm well aware. Wasn't the easiest thing in an asian family with nobody above thirty holding less than a master's degree. Don't get me wrong, the classes were rather enjoyable but something didn't quite sit right with me. I'm joining the navy in a few months, so I can get work easy and not worry about safety/security/money and so I can focus on my path of mastery(writing) and inner work without stagnating a another couple years in college and bouncing around in the job market.

 

The best thing you could do is really tighten up your life purpose or path of mastery. Learning is wonderful, but does it really resonate with you at your core. Developing and finding life purpose isn't picking crumbs out of your pocket. Again, if learning is such a deep value to you, you probably wouldn't even have to ask us on this forum whether you should focus on that. 

 

Let me say it straight: if college isn't a track to your path of mastery or a job then it is purgatory.  So, you're purgatory right now. You're waiting it out to make a choice. Fielding your options. There's no shame in that. It's the case with most people. I consider myself lucky to have discovered my path of mastery at a fairly young age(life purpose is still a little unrefined). If you want to search for it and you think college is a good mechanism to do so then go ahead. Experience the different domains that interest you, get a flavor for it's style, requirements and an understanding of where you have definite advantages to help you proceed in it. If you haven't already, start doing shadow work. Explore the depths of your unconscious and figure what really strikes you most powerfully.

 

Otherwise, if you want to 'maximize' your college life: study hard, make good friends and have some 'peak experiences', savor the moment in general, and believe that you can look forward to the future. 

 

[FelixTheCat]

Hey there! :3 I understand how you are feeling as I am facing similar dilemma. Myself, I have done one year of univeristy already. I would say do not stress out about it, people tend to make big deal out of university (college), but in reality it is not that important what you do in uni; many of us end up doing something else in life anyways, not what we have done for our degree (including Leo himself). I think this guy talks about decision-making nicely in this video.

Maybe it would be a good idea to try out as many different things as you can while you have relatively free time (even if you picked a degree already, you can do stuff in parallel). At some point you will stumble upon somethiing that gives you creative energy. This usually comes from other people, where your work inspires them and makes them change. For example, in one of Leo's videos he talks about how he started making self-help material and he recieved lots of appreciation and support. (I tried to search the video to link it, can't find it :c) This gave him creative energy to make more material and love what he is doing. So I think it is important to consider that you need to impact other people with your work. This is how I go about with my stuff now! That said, if you have not seen this, this and this yet, it is very helpful!

Hope I sort of helped!