what to do?

[Justa Lol]

Lately it seems that I have lost sense of what is important in my life, like I have no goals, and no motivation. what do you think I should do?

[baja_yu]

I like to give my self some alone time and a change of scenery every now and then. I usually take my motorbike for a few weeks and just drive, alone, to a different country, where I don't know the language. I enjoy the road and the scenery and it gives me a lot of time to reflect. No destination, just a round trip home through wherever.
You could also talk to someone you feel can help you and who you find to be a good role model. Even just discussing your problems with someone (anyone) can help you put things into perspective or help you get a different point of view.
You might also want to think about where you see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years. Do you have someone that you admire that you aspire to be like. If so, think of all things you need to do to get there and start doing them.

How old are you and what are your current interests?

[Justa Lol]

Thanks for the advice. I'm turning 19 next month, and I have a few interests like swimming, taekwondo, programming.. but because of my asthma I'm no longer competent of doing much sports, and I'm tired of programming, I feel like I need to do something else, and I don't know what else I should do. I'm taking trade school courses, its kind of only to have an education, that I could use if not I should find something else, better something then nothing..

[baja_yu]

You could try something different in terms of programming, a new programming language or platform. About 3 years ago I moved (got moved to) iOS and Android, and I love it. The limited hardware (screen size, memory, CPU) and a different user experience (touch screen) make a world of difference and force you to optimize every aspect of your application.
If you're not doing it already, you can give reading a try. There's really a world of difference between a book and a movie, no matter how much a movie sticks to the original. What you see in a movie is someone's interpretation of the book, while reading it you make your own. It forces you to imagine what you read and allows your own thoughts and views to affect on how you perceive it. No two people are going to experience a book the same way. Start with some classics like The Stranger, Crime and Punishment, Antigone by Sophocles, Goethe's Faust, The Old Man and the Sea, Lord of the Flies, The Count of Monte Cristo... just off the top of my head. You may have read some or all of these as a part of your school curriculum. But even things that you've read earlier can have a whole different meaning for you later in life, depending on your state in life and experiences, you may see it in a completely different light.
In any case, a change from your standard routine is good to nudge you out of your place. Do something different that you don't usually do or have never done, pick a place that you always wanted to see but never got around to it, meet someone new, go out and strik a conversation with someone, maybe while you're in the book store looking up some of those books. And that's another idea, read them outside, a book store, park, cafe...

[john-max]

make your self relax and go to some where there are natural power like the mountain or river for rise a power

[Shaggy Hiker]

At 19, all the paths lie open before you. One thing that causes humans considerable anxiety is having too many choices, so having all the paths lie open before you is not necessarily the blessing that you might expect. I knew I was headed for college, and then I went hiking for a few months, but as I was hiking, I was painfully aware that I had no idea what I was going to do after I finished hiking. Eventually, I decided to do the one thing I knew how to do really well: Go back to school. Two years later, I had an MS and a job, and since then I have pretty much just followed my feet.

[techgnome]

I remember that time... I went to community college for a couple years, then "took a year off" worked at different jobs, including fast food, Disneyland, even worked at a ski resort for a while. Then one summer, once I decided that I didn't have anything keeping me in the area, I joined the Air Force... through that I got training (as a programmer), experience in all aspects of SLC... and after 4 years, came out doing pretty good, got a civilian job, and was there for 9 years... then I moved on to a new job for 2 years before moving on again to where I am now. I'm not saying I'd recommend it, but it's an example of something I think all of us, or most of us went through at some point... we've all had our rudder-less moments in life. The trick it to recognize it for what it is, and find a means to change it.

Take some random classes that have absolutely nothing to do with computers... in college I took a class in Volcanology (study of volcanoes, not Vulcans...) and astronomy ... neither were required or appropriate towards the computers degree I was working towards... but they were fun classes I took to escape from computers.

-tg

[Justa Lol]

I consider myself very relaxed, I meditate a lot, but asthma can be stressful sometimes when you get constant attacks, mine are so severe that if I used my inhaler for every attack, I would have to refill my inhaler every 3 days (100 doses) which would cost me more than I have, and probably wouldn't be very healthy for my liver, but I'm trying to learn to control the attacks.

and I agree, Shaggy, the society we live in gives the youth too many options, and its extremely difficult to decide which path to follow.

Every citizen in Denmark is obligated for military service from the age 18, however, some may get a free pass, but it is illegal not to show up for the meeting. I've already been to a meeting, and I was incompetent because of my asthma. however I like the idea of taking random classes, which is kind of what I currently do... When I finish HG (trade school basics? I think that's somewhat what it is translated to from Danish to English), I have decided to take psychology, and see where that takes me.

Thanks for the replies, I'm grateful for the suggestions.

[techgnome]

another option... cross-discipline studies... take a psychology class or two... then combine that with computers... that's what I'll end up doing at some point... there's a local college that has something caleld Discovery Informix.. combines, computers, science, math, psychology... to do high-speed, high-volume, near real time pattern recognition and data mining... programming actually only plays a small part of it. So that might be an option... I know some development shops employ people with psychology skills for things like developing user interfaces and what-nots... or you may decide to not go into computers at all...

-tg

[FunkyDexter]

I honestly don't think I ever had a goal, I just sort of bimbled along doing the things I enjoyed. Actually, that's not strictly true. At 19 it was my goal to become a rock star - it didn't work out. I personally think goals are overrated, they're just something to fail at.

Motivation, on the other hand, matters. It's motivation that'll take you to those psycology classes. It was motivation that gave you the focus to learn programming (which I guess you were enjoying at least until recently). Motivation's the thing that keeps us goalless drifters from becoming couch potatos.

As long as your doing something and enjoying yourself while you're doing it then don't worry too much about whether you're making the right choices because you'll never know anyway. Just enjoy the choices you're making as much as you can and if you're not enjoying one, make a different one. That's not the same as being lazy, you should be trying to do whatever you're doing as well as you can, but you don't have to agonise over whether it's the right thing.

It's worth mentioning that I never actually intended to become a programmer. I got fired from a job for, ahem, being naughty on a training course, and found myself unemployed and unable to get a reference. I looked around and thought "you know what, those bloody students are getting more money than me, and I can drop out after a year and my lack of a reference won't matter any more. I think I'll take a degree." I chose computer studies pretty much at random because I remembered quite liking computing classes at school 10 years previously. By the end of the first year I realised I was really enjoying what I was doing so I stuck with it. 10 years later and I still love it but now I also project manage, mentor, do a bit of public speaking, all sorts really. I never really set out out to do those things either, they just seemed like good ideas at the time.

[Shaggy Hiker]

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[Justa Lol]

Funky, I'm going to be honest.. I planned on taking the psychology classes before I started taking HG(mentioned in previous post), and the psychology is kind of an extension to the trade courses. The reason I started programming was because at age 9 I had no friends and was bullied a lot in school, so I decided to use the computer more, at that time I already was tired of playing games, so I decided to use it to learn instead, and that got me to programming (9 years 7 months ago).

I've decided to go through with the psychology classes, just so I have something to use my time with. I think the only thing that keeps me going is the fear of having nothing to do.

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oh ****! I missed it!