Or more importantly where you are in the scheme of things?
I guess the former question applies more to the goal/path/light at the end/nirvana/cause related effect karmically avowed seekers who have always wanted to be cardiologists or MBAs or lawyers or bankers. Where career takes you to the very top of Mt Rushmemore and then life takes over while career shifts to D4 gear mode. Most friends of mine who might be trundling the same side of the 30s are people who have "settled down" thus.
The latter applies to those who are path seekers, more than end seekers. They wish to get to dabble with anysomething jobs, get bored, switch, travel the world, get right brain seizures and take pit stops or change tracks every few years, are sacked, do hemp on the way, play their tennis and panpipe,sleep late wake late, Cheyne Stoke their way to manic hypercreative and depressive ruminative periods. They are a confused protoplasm, feel good/ennui is their guiding gut feeling which drives crucial decisions. Goals are not as important as looking around while getting there.
I had written previously about motivation- what drives one to do what they do. Ismail would slog his ass out at Masjid bunder to get medicines for his chhavi and subsist on vadapav. Of course it was futile because she died eventually. But he did that. There was no goal chasing here. Life took a turn and he had to reinvent goals.
One of my friends wants to keep playing his guitar, trek, powerbike, travel the world, learn new things besides tending to patients. He wishes to adapt the 4 hour work week into being a doctor which of course is number 1 not feasible, does not pay and three, is a logistical nightmare in case you are vainly ambitious. But hell he wants to do all that chutzpah.
Another physician friend took to the villages because he wanted to wake up and feel good everyday about doing his job, in being able to tickle his altruistic conscience the right way; have a good quality of life, not want to earn big dollars and be able to afford small desires while not being consumed by rapaciousness. He would also be close to nature, and seek contentment in small things. It is hard to take that initial step, but he did.
My patient in clinic is separating from her husband of 10 years a month after suffering a stroke . She will need to reinvent herself because she went suddenly from Lionel Messi type focus to Tiger Woods like messed up. She has no goals now except dum vivimus vivamus.
There are some important drivers however which do tend to push one one way or the other. You do tend to feel then like a ch$#ya struggling with a multiple choice question where all answer options seem right the more you mull on each of them.And to say that you are 31!!! And this is not gurugyaan :
Health is a priority. You realize, your body has been kind to you till now. Especially so when 20 some year olds hold their clenched fists to their substernum to confound traditional teaching on age and disease.And climbing 3 flights of stairs or running for codes drains the functional residual capacity out of your lungs. You do want to live well, before you can live life well.
Wish to make Money( yes in capitals), family( how can I be selfish?!), visa status- I wouldn't have put that, but have seen this so much so close and so frequently-all are foghorns which may steer you one way you might not have even thought about.And when you do realize where you are going, common sense means something else to you.
Aiming for stability is what our ammas/appas have taught us , we have seen our brothers and sisters do; what our peers see their brothers and sisters do and want to do. Those three or four things mentioned above are essentially what they mean stability is constituted by. Way later,in your 30s, no one is sermonizing or showing the way. Some do things like they have always been told that they should be done, others call it fate/kismet, forresst gumption, bipolar, recession etc.
What the hell!!
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