Regrets and Lack of Direction in Life

I’m 25 years old and I don’t have a degree, no formal working experience and now I find myself beginning 2018 with no specific idea of what I’m going to do with my life. I get scared setting goals, because I usually don’t end up achieving them. Being 25, I’m not a kid or teenager anymore I’m an adult. But when I think about adults I think about my parents and people who have long working days, a car, maybe a house, a family and many debts. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, having debts to pay and a family to feed, as it must give you a sense of direction in life.

My dad became a parent when he was 24… When I was 24 I got a vasectomy. I don’t feel like I’m an adult as I have zero sense of direction in life and I don’t have any obligations- which I don’t want.

Nowadays I feel as lost as I felt when I finished high school in 2010. However, I learnt a couple things about myself, 4 things to be more precise. I don’t want to have more regrets, meditation is good for me, riding my bike is key for my happiness and going vegan is one of the best things I’ve done (maybe the best thing I’ve done).

After finishing high school I didn’t know what I wanted to study. The thought of continuing study was never something I liked since I never enjoyed school and uni ended up being even worse.
Here in Australia and probably in every first world country, it is normal for people to take a gap year and go travel the world. I had 42 classmates and all of them went straight into uni. I was the only one that took a gap year, because in Chile is different. If you take a gap year, it means that you couldn’t enter the uni you (or your parents) wanted. So I spent that year studying and focusing on uni, mainly because of my parents and social pressures. I don’t blame anyone; I’ve always been too docile. Anyway, I got in the programme my parents wanted and fast forward 4 years, I quit. I think I could’ve done something much more useful with that time but nothing’s going to give it back. Instead of living in regret, from now on if I do something Ill do it because I want to and because it’s something that I like doing- not because it’s expected of me.
The best way to manage your thoughts and the way they make you feel is by practising meditation. I was someone that used get stressed by thinking about the things I should’ve done but didn’t end up doing. Daily meditation helps you control your thoughts and if you control your thoughts, you can control your emotions, which makes your life so much easier. I still get stressed about silly things and I still have bad days but the quality of my life has improved a lot after I started meditating.

After two years of not racing or training on the bike because of a knee injury, I realised that riding my bike is something I’m absolutely passionate about.

I went vegan on October 2015, and one thing I find amazing about going vegan is that it empowers you, or at least that’s how I see it. No one likes animal abuse, global warming or health problems. Veganism is acting according our values.

I say that going vegan was one of the best decisions I’ve made, because after changing my lifestyle a ripple effect happened that led me to learn those 4 things. It was if the universe was rewarding me for making good decisions, followed with more good choices. I still don’t know what I’m going to do with my life, and the future scares me but at least I’m happy.