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[Red Fortune]

Thanks for the longer and really helpful response there, I'll try to do that, but when I think about these things I always wonder about who I really want to be, and I can't find a specific answer, which can be annoying. I mean... I have a passion for science, but I don't like the idea of being continually narrowed down more and more into one small niche of the scientific world and being unable to budge, like I've heard about from family members in the research field.

I'm also finding art more and more appealing, and if I do say so myself, I've improved a crap tonne from being able to hardly draw more than a stick figure to being able to do what I can do now in just a few months, and I'm wondering if maybe that's the future for me? And thinking ahead, if I want to be an artist, I need to do something else as well, to be at least financially stable (which I see as incredibly important in order to feel safe and content). But what could that be?

All these questions I don't want to answer NOW, but I'll have to soon, otherwise I'll be stuck in a bad situation when I get out of school, at least... I think so.

[HollowClown]

Yeah, I hear what you're saying....it's tricky to figure out what you want in a career.  But, really, you don't have to make a decision about your entire future quite yet.  When you look at a career as a whole, you'll see an overall impression that jumps out at you -- scientists spending ages analyzing data, programmers working drone jobs in cubicles, etc.  But when you start looking around at specific jobs in a career, you'll see that there's a whole range of possibilities.

As a trivial example, two of my friends from high school both went to college to major in organic chemistry.  Now one spends most of her time in a lab, giving drugs and MRIs to mice;  the other one spends most of her time wading around industrial sewer outflows taking samples of algae.  They're both happy, and they both took the same major in college, but they have utterly different careers.

Anyway, I think it's great that you're passionate about both science and art.  Keep going with both of those!  While there may be some advantages to narrowing your focus, there are loads of cool careers for people with passions for wildly diverse subjects.  There are architects who study natural science, artists who study math, and engineers who study musical theory.  So, really....don't think that you have to limit yourself to one small niche, because there's a whole world full of really weird and diverse opportunities out there.  And ultimately, having a diverse skill set will actually make it easier to find a job;  nobody wants an employee who can only do one thing.

[Forumsdwarf]

Instead of trying to motivate yourself to do things you don't like try to find something you want to do that will make you enough money to live on.

When you find your passion you will know it, as surely as you know when you're in love.  Pursue it, get good at it, and above all else put your own mark on it, a personal stamp so people will know it was your work and not some other generic talent.

You'll probably never make any money following your heart like that, but you'll probably never figure out how to discipline yourself to do things you don't like, either, and the former situation is a lot more fun.

[Master Catfish]

Hey.  I don't know if I can help, but hopefully my two cents will do something for ya.  I've been pretty shy most of my life, do as little as possible to get by, and have a passion for art.  For shyness and motivation, I found learning martial arts to be a huge boon.  Maybe it isn't the same way for everyone, but learning coordination, mental discipline, and exercising seems to do a lot toward building confidence. 

I get motivation for art by looking at the artwork of others, and showing people my drawings.  Impressing people with your work can be pretty exciting.  Otherwise, doing a Google search is a good way to find art.  Just type in your medium and whatever subject you want.

One last thing.  It's pretty easy to get by doing as little work as possible in school, just not if you want to go to a super nice university.  The prestigious universities usually require a lot of work and stress to get by, so they might not be for you anyway. 

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[eerr]

What do you want to do in life?

[andrea]

What do you want to do in life?

such a simple question doesn't necessarily have an as simple answer.

[Red Fortune]

Sorry for the lack of presence in my topic, and thanks to Forumsdwarf and others for their advice.

What do I want to do in life, it really depends (hint: I have no idea). But I want to do something that requires intelligent and creative input.

[Forumsdwarf]

You're welcome.  There will come a time when even the thing you love will have other things you hate attached to it, but hopefully your desire for the former will outweigh your distaste for the latter.
You will at some point in your life need some discipline, but even if you were the most self-disciplined master since Chuck Norris why punish yourself if you can do something you like instead?
There are also ways of turning work into play, of finding a way to like something you really should hate, but I won't pretend you can Tom Sawyer yourself into gleefully painting every fence in your path.

[Mindmaker]

I'll add my story the following days.
At the moment I'm just to tired and burnt out to write it down.

[Red Fortune]

Ok, thanks.

[ChairmanPoo]

What do you want to do in life?

To crush my enemies, see dem driven bifore me, and hear die lamentations of die vimen!


Jokes aside..

The prestigious universities usually require a lot of work and stress to get by, so they might not be for you anyway.

I wouldnt expect any university whatsoever not to require lots of work. Whatever you pick, don't expect it to be a piece of cake

[Vector]

Hm.  Let's see if I can make all this make sense.

I am not sure if I could be sincerely called gifted or not.  I'm not one of those people who just coasted through high school doing nothing.  A lot of people characterize giftedness as needing to do absolutely no work, and that's not me.  Rather, I'll say that I couldn't get through 14 AP tests (12 5's, 2 4's--just to say that I wasn't getting 1's or something) with no work.  That took a lot of slogging.  I've always needed to think about things with care.

For a long time, though, I can't really say I was motivated to work hard.  I worked hard, but not as hard as I could.  I realized a year or so ago, though, that I saw mathematics as my true calling, and started working a little bit.  Now I'm trying to move up to 14-hour days of study, step by step, with the hope that I'll eventually stop having dysfunctional brain-crashes after the 8-hour mark.  My motivation is not only my dream, but the realization that I'm truly capable of doing something.  It's the knowledge that, in a world that is difficult for me to navigate, I can do this one thing and everything will be clearer.  I can get everything I ever wanted from this subject, and nowhere else.

So you ask yourself: what's your dream?  And then you follow that dream for a while.  If you give it up, it wasn't the right dream.  No matter.  Just need to find the next one and coast along on that until you know.  It's a little bit like falling in love.

Nowadays, I put my hair up and dress up like a school marm from the 1900s to remind myself that this is Serious Business.  I go to the library every day at 9 and stay there until 6, leaving for the occasional class.  Lunch break is from 12:00-12:30, when I eat and spend a couple minutes goofing off online.  Every time I want to quit, I remember who I am and what I'm fighting for, and then I keep going.  When the choice is between "sit in one place doing nothing for nine hours" and "do that work I really want to put off," it's very easy.  I work, and I work, and at the end of the day I feel good for working so hard--but I still want to work even harder.

[eerr]

CORE PROBLEM:

Goals deviate from natural desires.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION:

Go bang hot women.

[Archmage Ansrit]

You... you're like me Fortune.

However, in addition, I'm suffering from some other motivation-related problems as well, I can't even seem to pick up a pencil and doodle! Or write something other than RP's! No matter how hard I seem to desire it. When I DO want to do it, my time is sandwhiched by classes/middle of transportation and don't have time...

(No, I can't doodle/write while inside a moving vehicle, I get way too dizzy.)

I'd vent more (sorry about that) but it's nearly midnight, and I should sleep some.

[Mindmaker]

I too have some motivation problems.

There are days where I can't do anything except sleep a lot, watch animes and play games, even though I have work to do or I could spend some time with friends instead.
I planned on writing a huge post about it a long time ago, but even pulling this scraps of text together, makes me feel exhausted.

Well, I'll be seeing a psychologist in the next few days, to talk abou this issue to him.
Would be bad if my current situation ruins my last school year...