I would like to say the hardest part of this question is introspection and finding what your true compass in life is. I find this the easiest part. The part no-one is looking at, where you are free to explore all the crazy, unbidden paths to life that no-one around that is sane espouses. One can read all the books about purpose and how to live life optimally, blogs, and articles, and reach quite a satisfactory conclusion. Perhaps this is a stumbling block for some but certainly not personally, it comes naturally.
What is difficult is achieving congruency of what you hope to project and what you know you are. Inside the minds of those asking you this question is often hope - hope for you to be your very best, and to find your passion, and to see you work steadily towards the goal. There is often unspoken and spoken support waiting, and naturally people want to encourage others. They also want to help guide you in the way they feel will be constructive for you and your future. It is perhaps this hope and wish to guide the askee that leads me astray when answering this question.
I have dreams and aspirations from youth, of impacting my community and world, which sounds gloriously noble and selfless. This part I have no trouble admitting. I also have dreams and aspirations for a life of complete and utter freedom. This part is the difficult one. This is selfish, motivated only by desire to live life my own way. Writing it out doesn't sound so bad, as everything, even selflessness, is a selfish pursuit - but saying it is tough. I also don't believe in many things other people believe in, and the one thing that I don't believe in is sunk costs. The idea that you set upon a pathway and invest years or money into that project, idea, or career, and that the most optimal path is to continue along that pathway and strive to achieve your dreams and aspirations from within this chosen pathway. Try hard enough and perhaps it is true, that it may be possible. Is it how to live ones life though? To shoehorn your "sunk cost" into a version of what you aspire to be? Like love, it is possible to force the issue - but it certainly is not the best way to find satisfaction in work.
Expressing dissatisfaction with your current pathway of which one spends many years honing and practicing, is certainly to me the hardest possible answer to this above question. I think it begs many, especially those who have walked down the path with their initial dreams and aspirations successfully, to think the one expressing so is an unmotivated, untalented, and directionless person. It is also the straight truth and recently I explored the idea of being congruent with what I hope to project and what I know I am.
I knew that I wanted to have a deep knowledge and understanding of the world we live in. That I had a creativeness that was being neglected by my current career. That I was an enterprising individual at heart, wanting to draw people together in cohesion to achieve greatness, in new ways, with new approaches. At the same time, I knew my own darkest secrets. I knew that I had difficulty working where I could see no substantial benefit to the client. Where I could see that all we were doing was to stave off the inevitable march of poor outcomes. I hated situations where creativity was limited and protocols the name of the game.
When one becomes congruent then with what they hope to achieve and what they say they want to achieve, responses vary. There certainly are disapproving looks and questioning remarks, and these can be very difficult to battle, but the answer always lies in returning back to one's values that ultimately have guided one's goals and aspirations. Then there are those who express surprise; and then support you wholeheartedly.
The people who want to see your goals and aspirations reality. The people who see you as a person and not as an up-and-coming career-driven gunner. They listen to your reasoning, consider its merits, and reflect even upon their own thoughts. The most interesting conversations I've had whenever this subject is broached are with my fellow colleagues, who ostensibly are more certain about their pathway in life that I feel I am - of course, it's easy to reflect now that many others struggle with exactly the same issue and that the human condition is so nearly universal that it should not be a surprise to anyone who has the least modicum of life experience. Honesty with yourself begets honesty from others, and the deep connections made from the admission of vulnerability, of the spoken realisation that incongruency of belief and words exist, these draw people together.
This is about work and career, but it's the same for many other aspects of life. It happens when meeting potential partners. It happens when you discuss your faith or absence of it to friends and family. It happens when something of a political nature is being discussed. Honesty spoken out will cause some people to dislike who you are and what you represent; but it also more strongly binds you towards those who have similar conflicts and struggles, and strengthens your own resolve to pursue your own truthful life. Standing on one side of the fence will always bring detractors including those you felt were on your side just before. It all seems so simple written out, but it becomes hard to live out on a daily basis.
So I declare that I will always remain truthful to myself. That I will devote my energy into focusing time on achieving goals and aspirations. That I will not succumb to the temptation of portraying a planned perfection to others who surround me. That I will not spend time trying to recover sunk costs. Easier said than done.
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