Forget about life callings and destinies. Just pick something!

From 2006. A school in Xinjiang province, China that my Dad's organisation had donated money to.

Yesterday a friend, currently doing a masters in International Relations, bemoaned to me her perpetual conversions to -isms, depending on what they were studying that week. It was driving her crazy, everyone was right, everyone was wrong. Who was she to believe?

It’s a feeling that I get sometimes when I read one newspaper, only to be contradicted by another. Or even just having a spirited discussion between friends. How are you meant to sort out the truth from the bullshit?

Particularly when the issue at hand is extremely complex. Look at the financial crisis. I have read a hundred pieces that all point to different things as at the heart of where it all went wrong. With each new, very convincing piece, I nod knowingly, so this is what it was! Until the next piece comes along …

Now I have become resigned to the fact that, you can only ever be an expert in one thing, maybe two, three tops.

And that field is likely to be your work, plus a few hobbies. When it comes to your work, you have first hand knowledge. You know the industry, you know the processes, you know the players and rules involved. You’ve read or done more research on this field than any other. You can comment on the media stories and back your opinions with actual experience! And best of all, you have an understanding of what’s true, what’s bullshit, what’s right, what’s wrong.

As for the rest? Well there’s not a lot you can do but bring a compassionate heart, a pinch of skepticism, but mainly, as you have no choice, a high degree of trust. Just as you are an expert of one field, you must trust the experts of other fields, and the media that trust them.

For example, local politics. I know it’s important, but I do find it very difficult to sustain any long-term interest. Perhaps though that’s OK. We can’t all be experts of everything. So every election year, I read a few articles from the Sydney Morning Herald that summarises the policy outlines from each party, and even more usefully, I look to a couple of good friends who are passionate about local politics, to fill me in.

Inevitably, due to political leanings, or demographics, you will drift towards some titles or opinions over others, and that feeling of never being quite certain of the facts will probably never leave you. Your views will be shaky, susceptible to change, and you should unabashedly accept and confess to others with humility, that you’re not sure. I’ve accepted that loss of control, satisfied that there is at least one area that I know intimately, and can make concrete decisions of what’s right and wrong.

(The two exceptions to this rule are jounos and politicians, who must make it their business/ expertise to know a little of everything. They’re experts at knowing who to trust.)

So the next conundrum is, of course, but what field to become an expert at? “What should I do with my life?” another friend bemoaned. He wanted to do something good for the world, but nothing felt like “his calling”, or stood out as “his cause”. It all seemed important, but then the soupiness of it all made them seem unimportant too. What was the point in fixing this part, when that would remain broken? The world was a big, horrible mess.

I nodded. Same for me.

But I said to him, as I’ve said to myself, just pick something. Don’t worry if you find you don’t like it, you can change it later. Just quit the angst machine and do something, because we the world, we the universe, we need you! Now! Being busy!!

I picked something. I want to live in a world where every soul on this planet has their human rights respected. Too many people live without shelter, without work, without education, without healthcare, without safety from violence and persecution. And I want to be involved in work that helps restore some of these rights.

As soon as you pick something, everything else falls into place.

I picked something, and I decided that I had to be able to speak more than one language. And that Mandarin, and Spanish would be the two most useful. So I quit my job in online entertainment journalism early this year, and headed to Argentina to learn Spanish. Now I’m going to Beijing on a one-year scholarship to learn Mandarin.

But that’s a pretty big picture goal I have there. How, precisely, do I want to be involved in humanitarian/ development work? What are my views on the best way to lift people out of poverty?

I realised I needed two more things. Experience and knowledge.

Experience? After my studies, I am going to try and base myself in a developing country (probably a different part of China), and do good work. Will the company be an exact fit of the sort of work I want to do in the long run? Probably not. But that’s OK. I just need some first-hand experience in the field, in the culture. I need to get stuck in there.

Knowledge? I’m going to research this area, and attempt to answer some of those pivotal questions that previously overwhelmed me. It is, after all, an insanely big, complicated topic. There are many different reasons why there is such an imbalance of resources between countries, with a myriad of different political, economic, technological and strategic solutions one could be involved in. And people have overthrown governments, dedicated lives, and loss them, fighting for where they stand on these issues.

And what’s more likely than me understanding the whole picture (which is highly unlikely), is that as I drill down, I will gravitate to something more and more specific. Gravitate towards “my thing”.

Wish me luck, as I do you!