4Tests Blog

Comedian Jim Carrey may not be the guy you typically go to for life advice, particularly when it comes to finding yourself, or when you’re trying to find a major you should choose when college kicks in in another month or so. However, he recently imparted some great advice. During his commencement speech at the Maharishi University of Management, which combines teaching traditional subjects (math, business administration, etc.) with less conventional topics like Transcendental Meditation and “Sustainable Living,” Carrey touched on the importance of pursuing your passions.

“The decisions we make in this moment are based in either love or fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never ask the universe for it. … I learned many, many lessons from my father, but not least of which is that you can fail at something you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance doing what you love.”

So true!

While we wouldn’t condone aspiring to fail, shouldn’t you make sure that if it happens, it happens in a field that you actually want to pursue? Keep that in mind now as we share some of our favorite quotes on knowing what you want out of life.

From The Single Woman: Life, Love, And A Dash Of Sass By Mandy Hale

You’ll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYBODY is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in.

From Dangerous Angels By Francesca Lia Block

If you want to find the trail, if you want to find yourself, you must explore your dreams alone. You must grow at a slow pace in a dark cocoon of loneliness so you can fly like wind, like wings, when you awaken.

From Film Director Jason Reitman (Juno)

When my father was 17, he went to Montreal and found these submarine sandwich shops that were really successful, and weren’t in Toronto [his home town]. So he went to my grandparents and said: “Look, you have to give me the seed money to open up one of these places. We’ll make a fortune. They’ve got lines going round the block. There’s nothing like that here.” And my grandfather’s response was: “Look, I’m sure these sandwiches are really good, and if we scraped the money together we could make a lot of money and your mother and I would be really proud of you, but you need to find something that has magic in it for you.

It was off of that conversation that my father went to college on a music scholarship, started a film club and became one of the most successful directors of all time.

From The Second Sin By Thomas Szasz

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.

From Actor Alan Alda (M*A*S*H, The Blacklist)

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.

From Letters To A Young Poet By Rainer Maria Rilke

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.

From The Nemesis Of Faith By James Anthony Froude

[Y]ou must learn what life is now, not from me, but from life itself; but, if you will hear an old man’s opinion, I will give it you. If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, supposing you will grow into it as a matter of course by a rule of necessity, in the same way as your body grows old, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man into his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. Go out into life, you will find your chance there, and only there.

From Zen Proverbs

Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it’s dark.

From Religious Figure St. Augustine

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

From Religious Figure Kwan Yin

When one feels pulled to do a particular thing, when one has passion for a certain life path, karma is always involved. In such an instance, when the goal is worthy and makes one happy, one should continue on that same life path. Just because the elephant cannot carry you anymore doesn’t mean you should give up your goal. Continue down the path that makes you feel fulfilled. Those who continue on an unrewarding path for the sake of only monetary gain are displaying a lack of trust in life.

From Writer Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah)

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change.

In Summary

With college fast approaching, it’s important that you give serious thought to what you want from life. The next decisions you make will be some of the most important in your entire life and they will impact every day of your existence moving forward. By taking a hard look at who you are and what you want, you should be able to find a career that will invoke those principles. Good luck in your search!

[Image via Goalistics]