It was a chance conversation with a 21-year old that set me thinking; and the trigger for this blog.

She said, “I know I am likely to finish my undergrad in another year and quite some people who meet me want to know what I am going to do next; and that is so irritating to hear.”

I thought it was an innocuous question and wondered what irritated this young adult. Wanting to know further, I asked her what was irritating her. She said that while she has options on what she wants to do next, these questions annoy her. Her next response was even more baffling and understandable at the same time, “Why do they want to know?”

Honestly and truly, for a moment I thought this question was for me as well, because many times I have asked the question on “What next?” to many teenagers and young adults; though not yet to her.

That set me thinking and the background process started turning its wheels. As her question of “Why do they want to know?” was being processed by me, her next question shot out. “What if I ask them the same question they asked me – what next? Whatever their age is, they will want to do something next, isn’t it?”

“Whoa!!” was the first word that was out of me, when I heard this. Before I could think, out came my response, “Maybe you should, the next time.”

Parallel to my mouth shooting off before I thought, my mind went on a journey of a train of thoughts.

– Why would we as adults want to know “What next?” of someone else? We aren’t going to help them figure it out.. or we aren’t going to do anything for them, assuming they know what they want to do next.. Is this curiosity making us ask? or has this become a question that we ask mechanically? Someone asked us and we want to ask someone else?

– What would the reaction be, if this young adult were to ask someone, “What next?”?. I am consciously not saying response, becuase the first reflex action from many of us adults will be a sense of being aghast that this question is being asked to us.

– If this young adult asked me the question, “What next?”, what will my response be? My response would be, “I don’t know.” The question came when I least expected and I had no answer to the question. Even if I had the time to answer, “I don’t know” would still be my answer because I haven’t really thought about it.

– Took me back to my years that have gone by. When I was around 10 years of age or so, I wanted to do medicine and become a doctor. In my class 12, we were taken to a hospital as a part of the science subject and we watched on camera, a live heart bye-pass surgery being done. I decided not to become a doctor after seeing so much of blood. I then thought that after I get married I will want to be a home maker and look after home and kids; and not be professionally employed. I did that for a year and found that there was more I wanted to do.. my answer to  “What next?” was never a constant. It kept changing and evolving.

– This young adult’s “What next?” made me connect it to, “What is my Ikigai?”. The “What next?” can be the answer to “What is my Ikigai?” or vice versa. In which case, the next or the Ikigai can be for that day, the next day, the next week, the next month, the next three or six months, the next year, the next 2-3 years and so on. I can be bound by it and work towards it; or I can be flexble on it because being bounded doesn’t work for me.. Me to my own and others to theirs.

It is very interesting to reflect on how the “What next?” and “What is my Ikigai?” can feed into one another.

The “What next?” can very well be the reason for each one of us being alive to every day.. The reason for our being..

Makes me want to spend some days putting down my “What next?” which will be my Ikigai.. and also spend a few moments expressing my gratitude to this young adult who is instrumental in my thinking hat being on for myself (for a change :-)), with her question,

“What next?”