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comment by lil
lil  ·  3779 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Advice

    how have you made sense of what you have done/what has happened to/because of you?
Things don't necessarily make sense -- unless you are religious then you create sense by saying it is god's will or some such. Humans like to create explanations. I make sense of what I do by hoping that my actions move in the direction of goodness (as I define it). I have various measures of this.

    I'm just having a hard time, despite everything falling into a career-wise direct path for me, to actually try to decide what is really right and wrong for me, or is it all just subjective and that I should just let it happen.

Deciding what is right and wrong for you is 100% subjective. I had a job offer very recently. The deadline to apply was August 13. The application procedure was just a formality as they don't post the job until they know who they want to hire. I was quite ambivalent because I was interested in doing the work - it was what I was doing anyway -- but with a bunch of constraints - some commuting, way more students, less time to prepare, and not enough money to compensate for those factors. People wanted me to do it -- and that was a compelling and blinding factor. I finally made a serious list of pros and cons. There were 3 lame items on the pro list and a dozen nuts and bolts items on the con list. I still thought I would take the job, but I talked it over with a smart person and it became more clear. As exciting and flattering it was to take on a new job, it didn't make any sense.

You should make a pro/con list too. Alone. Sober. It might help bring your issues to light.