Seasons of life - being an adult

In last week’s post, I shared how the purpose of my life has changed from childhood to the age of 26. I am currently 33 (almost 34), and in this post, I would like to share how my purpose has changed in adulthood.

When I was 26, after realizing that I was not living the life that I wanted, I said to myself:

“This cannot continue like that. Something has to change!”

Of course, big changes cannot happen overnight. So, I started to make small changes in my life to live the happy, fulfilled life I was dreaming of. Soon after, I met with Guven, my husband:)

Since we met when I was 26, the primary purpose of my life has become having a happy, healthy, loving relationship with him. Especially in the first few years of our relationship, I prioritized our relationship over my PhD because I knew that I would happily continue my life without a PhD, but not without our relationship.

After settling things in our relationship, the purpose of my life again became having a productive PhD period so that I could find a good job after my PhD. During most of my PhD life, another purpose of my life has become protecting my health, especially mental health, because of all the struggles that I was having at that time.

When I was 30, in the 6th year of my PhD, the purpose of my life became being successful in the academic job market and finding a tenure-track position in one of the top schools in an English-speaking country where there are also job opportunities for Guven.

I found the job but lost myself.

Everything I did in my professional life in the last 8 years (2-year master's and 6-year PhD) did not make any sense.

Why did I do PhD?

Why did I want to be an academic?

Why does my research make any sense?

…

After I turned 31, after realizing that choosing the purpose of life based on others’ expectations for outside validation would only bring me regret and unhappiness, I decided to let go of almost everything about my professional life for some time.

During this period, the purpose of my life first became finding the best value for money property and then renovating it so that we could happily live in it for some time.

This project was done, and I turned 32. For some time, I didn’t remember having big goals for my professional life. I just did what I was supposed to do and enjoy my life: traveling, spending time with family and friends, and taking care of my physical and mental health.

In July 2023, the future started to become clear:

I want to have financial freedom, and I want to create impact.

Luckily, my academic position enables me to build financial freedom and create impact. But, since creating content on social media can help me create a bigger impact and improve my financial freedom journey, I started to create content on social media.

So, in the last one and a half years of my life, my purpose has become:

• Prioritizing myself and my family over everything

• Financial freedom

• Doing impactful research with PhD students

• Creating high-quality content on social media

Who knows what my purpose will become next year?

Life has seasons, and every season has different stories.

Does any of the seasons of my life resonate with you? What is the current purpose of your life? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Cheers,

Sidika