When he said "you're gonna die in 2 weeks" I felt relief for not having to decide what I want to do with my life. That just shows how much I'm struggling with this question but also how much it means to me😭😭

very well said and good humor. The crowd probably skipped lunch

How did no one even giggle at him?! If I was in the audience, my random chuckles would definitely be heard. He did a great job! Very personal and relatable. Loved it

These kinds of crowds are the reason why people are uncomfortable with public speaking lol

Im 16. I fear the future so much. Almost everyday someone asks me, “what do you want to be?” Or “what are you doing after high school?” and I answer with a laugh a “I don’t know don’t ask me.” From afar just brushing it off, but really that question sticks with me, filling my head and distracting me for the rest of the day.I ask myself it all the time. I beat myself up over it. That question makes me want to just end it all. Because I really don’t know what I want to be. You see I’m not good at anything. I haven’t found my “gift.” I’m not outstanding at anything and I’m not exactly terrible at anything. I guess you Could say I’m a jack of all trades and master of none. What do I like? I like a lot of things. I like photography, videography, drums, guitars, pianos, instruments in general, travelling, designing, laughing, volleyball, badminton, soccer, basketball, learning languages, writing, reading. I enjoy so many things and each one equally. Dreams I’ve had include wanting to be a lawyer an actress a model a princess a an entrepreneur a successful sports player a drummer for a band a traveller a writer a director a doctor a dentist a chiropractor a TRshowr. I don’t even know any more. I hate this. I don’t know what I’m saying. I just get so down sometimes about this. Like really down. Usually it’s just saddening but sometimes I lay in bed at night and cry. I cry like the type where it gets so hard to bloody breathe. The type where I’m rocking myself to calm down, with my hand over my mouth so no one can hear me. I watch videos about my purpose, my dream, what I want to be. I cry so hard that eventually i run out of tears to cry. I’m so lost. I’m so scared. This year is a very important year. I am year 12. This means it is my second to last year in high school. The grades I get from this year will be the focus of universities. I’m doing physics biology chemistry maths and english. I gave up art and history because of my fear. I’m taking all the sciences just to make sure I have something to fall back on in the future. But I don’t enjoy the sciences at all. I don’t enjoy maths. And I kind of like English. I don’t know why I’m ranting. It’s just .... I guess I’m hoping that maybe some angel will find this or maybe my guardian angel might reply. Maybe the answer might come up in a reply. I don’t know. I’m running out of time. I am really really scared. I don’t know if I can do this.

I thought I wanted to be a 'successful career woman' because that's what everyone expected of me. But then I fell in love and quit college and became a wife and mother. Some were disappointed in me that I chose that path. I am very happy with this and now feel I am changing the world by raising good people, who will in turn make more good people to populate the world. At the age of 47, I still don't know 'what I want to be' as a career, but that no longer matters because I have been and still am a good mother, and I look forward to helping my grandchildren til I die. I have other non-mother work that takes up my time, but that's just busywork.

This guy is so nice and smart, I wish the crowd showed more respect towards him

I get so frustrated because I know I can be amazing at something. only I have no clue what it is! I hate not knowing what I should be doing.

I actually thought he was funny, but this crowd was pretty cruel.

wow what a tough crowd not even one guy who decides to give him a pitty chuckle

But he knew what he wanted all along. His doubt stopped him. That's different then not knowing what you want

I like what he says, but I still truly don't know what I'd miss the most

What if you don't know what you want? There are so many videos talking about chasing what you want. That's great. What if you don't know???

I wanted to become a polyglot since i was a child. Chinese was my priority. After 3 years of korean my passion is slowly fading because i struggle with it. This talk reminded me that I’m the one stopping myself from doing this. I speak 3 languages. Two of those had to be learnt. I will be a translator and i will work in immigration. Its what i love. Thank you. ❤️ Im 21 btw

"At what point did 4 year old Iron Man became maybe a farmer?", I loved that phrase... maybe the perfect summary for the talk (and a good alternative title, too)

"It isn't that I lacked ambition . I had plenty of gunpowder in my bones to burn the world ten times over. It is that I lacked the spark . And that was my greatest worry - that the fire in me would never roar because it never found a reason to." This is my life situation right now ! It sucks 😥

I actually really appreciated this I realized the first thing that came to my mind was “I can’t cook anymore when I die, I can’t learn new recipes and make people happy with my food, food brings people together but how can I do this in such little time?” As well as “could I make the world a little better by joining the marines in the culinary field? And that’s where I think I realized that I want to be the first culinary artist marine from the Chicago area in Illinois.

I just dropped out of college. Partly it was because of self-doubt, but mostly it was because I felt unfulfilled. Normally I find TEDx Talks like these to be a bit much, but I liked the image of thinking: 'what would I miss'. Really useful for me now trying to figure out what I'm going to fill my time with now that I finally have the time to consider other options.

I don’t care about the crowd. This guy is amazing. He is so right and it affected my life :)

Whenever I get asked what I want to do with my life, what I want to become; I always say I don't know. Not because there isn't anything I want to become, but because I don't know anything I want to become that sounds reasonable. My dream isn't some grant thing that's hard to achieve. I want to be an author. But I never tell people that, because all my life all I've ever been told when I do express that dream is how hard it's going to be and how I need something else to support myself. Even when in reality it isn't, I still feel like it's an impossible thing, because I've listened to people who tell's me it might not be possible. I've started to fight back against those doubts, and I feel much lighter already. I won't let people, intentionally or not, tell me that something is too hard or unrealistic, when I want it. I want to give my best shot at it, and that should be all that matters.

The combination of his jokes and the crowd and his reaction was great... You know, I was picturing myself as a game programmer when you started that visualization thing but then it instantly went away when you said we'd die in 2 weeks in this scenario. All I could think of was missing my partner and family and how I'd just spend all my time with them... I have no clue what to do with this now, being a housewife is a luxury we probably couldn't afford... So I guess my dream is being rich enough to be a housewife.

I just turned 15 and I think I've finally figured out exactly what I want to do with my life. I glad videos like these exist cause it's a hard question to find the answer 2

You explained this so perfect! Thanks for the great points about when people are down about who they want to be and go against themselves. I'll remember this for next time!

Oh my, how powerful this talk is. The picture of the inner voice and inner doubt really moved something in me. Wow. Thank you so much, Mr Parker!

So true..the most difficult part is knowing what you want to do...but when you know it, you can t have excuses...just go for that!

The story about him as a teenager not knowing what he wanted to do was great. It's so relatable. I wish he would tell the full thing.

When I did the visualization, I cried when I opened my eyes. Really brought me back to the main reason why I want to be a writer in the first place.

Thanks Charlie, appreciate your story and the willingness to improve others. All the best with filmmaking.

I quit my architect job and work on my childhood dream to be a portrait painter. Off course, I got a lot of part time side hustles to support me financially. However, fullfilling your childhood dream is one of the biggest achievement in life.

Thank you for this wonderful speech sir. I need this right now and I think you really help me to listen to my inner voice and do what I'm passionate about and that is to make A BIG IMPACT TO THE WORLD AND BY THAT I MEAN SPREADING IMPORTANT MESSAGES TO PEOPLE'S WELLNESS AND WELL-BEING.

If you guys want something practical then do this - 1. Write down all your interests. 2. Research and take action on each interest per week. So one interest for each week. 3. Journal your feelings everyday about that interest. 4. Then decide to choose one and fully focus on it!

Honestly one of the best TED talks I've listened to so far. Really put things into perspective for me :) amazing

I want to be a filmmaker. A writer. Or no, I don't "want" that. I'm GOING to create stories and bring them to life by movies or books. Or maybe even BOTH. I can do it. It won't be easy. I'm from Switzerland, English isn't my mothertongue, so the way to true success is heavy. But you know what. I'll take that way anyway! And you can too!

Great story and great speaker. This is one that definitely hits home. In my early 40's now, successful in my career, recognized in my field, but I can't stop asking 'is this really it?'. Time to do some soul searching using the tips from this talk..

I like how the next video is "stop searching for your passion"

Damn, I usually zone out during ted talks even when I only listen with my eyes closed but this time, I was also playing a game with this video in the background and I stopped the game. I started focusing on this video and visualized myself and my future based on what he said by the end of the video... Something in my mind actually clicked. Thank you! I enjoyed this video so much... Crowd was kind of lame though.

Okay, wow. Just discovered this video and THIS LITERALLY MADE ME REALIZE WHAT I REALLY WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE!! Just... just like that. Like magic. That's crazy. For so long I've been trying to be a nurse, taking the college classes and going through the motions. But, I always have some sort of crisis where I doubt and rethink everything I'm doing, like, at least once a semester. I think this is because I never really wanted to be a nurse as badly as I've always wanted to be a writer or an artist, a storyteller. I've been dabbling in writing since I was a kid (I'm talking elementary school where I wanted to write my "life's story" lol), but writing is rocky and might not pay the bills-- so I turned to nursing. Enjoyable enough, but not as fun and exciting as getting a new story idea or finding the perfect character art on Pinterest that reflects a scene I created. So, just WOW. I'm so happy I watched this video. I don't know how, and I'm not sure how long or when exactly... but I want to tell a story just like the one's I've always loved. Thanks so much Charlie Parker. (':

Wow this really helped me finding out what I want to do I'm just going into high school so I really have no plan for my future but I kind of really want to start my own studio and work on animation projects because I really like drawing and making music and making up stories and I feel like that's just the perfect thing for me but my inner doubt me otherwise. But thanks to this I can dismiss those thoughts, and even if that fails, I have other things I'm good at that I love doing!

I'm stuck too... I'm 23 yrs old and I have no idea. I'm on my 3rd yr of college and just taking classes to take them. I need to pick something but also needs a good pay. I dont want to be that person that hates their job but gets paid very well. Its hard to balance the two out :/ very lost.

You made me realize what I want to be! Thank you Charlie!!

I remember prospecting this univerisity for a partnership! Love what they are doing there

Surely one of the best Ted Talks I've watched so far. Thank you for this.

WOO! I love this. I'm a filmmaker and when he said his dream was film i got chills. this makes me so happy

Thank you so much for creating this video I feel the encouragement to achieve my goals. I am now going to create a journal of my inner voices wants so I can narrow down my path in life. Thank you.

Like others, i also searching what my dream is. But watching many ted talk, i realise that waiting/deciding for the RIGHT dreams is the hard part. Becase nothing is right or wrong. I have a good career teaching kids but i do have a dream to learn more speaking skill with people, to have friends, and be a wonderful wife at home. The problem is i have to arrange my time, before i get carried away by the work.

Thanks for sharing your insights, especially the idea for getting the answer for what I want in life. Cheers !!!

You're such a great speaker. You portrayed everything. Visualizing is the key. Thank you so much

I love this! My goal is also to be a filmmaker and screenwriter. Thanks for inspiring me! 💯

Great lecture, but what a horrible crowd

This is one of the best TED/TEDx talks I've seen in a while. and the comments are also worth reading. :)

Know i have the vision to get what i really want in life and turn it to reality! Thanks for your meaningful story bro!

Good humour , wonderful build up and amazing mental exercise.

As I did the mirror exercise, I went into this deep concentration of who I was on the other side of the mirror. I was dressed in business attire, somewhere in China, in a nice 5 star hotel. It made me tear a little because I’ve always wanted to be a business woman and travel and I forgot what my dream was all along. Now... it’s driving me crazy in not knowing what steps I need to take and that’s something for me to figure out. I have my B.A. that’s a start I guess! Thanks for this. Any suggestions/ advice are welcomed!

Really inspiring words. Really appreciate it

So inspirational❤️✨

Well said! Well said! Really had a huge impact on me. But it truly matters how I want that impact to affect me

I'm shocked people don't know what they want? My problem is I DO and I want it too badly...it's painful to wait. And the worst thing, is getting it. It's been said "The only thing worse than not getting what you want is getting it and finding out you still aren't happy." I totally agree. It turns out, you may know what you want...but one can never know what one needs. That's the struggle!

Damn that was powerful…From believing you could be iron man to dreaming about being a farmer!

Ur speech reaches to the deepest of my heart , thank you for your presentation im glad that I'm here. Bless u all and pls include me in ur prayer, I'm From Philippines give my regards

Even if the crowd didnt then lets cheer up for him, he spoke really well.👏👏

The crowd sounds like they were high schoolers who were forced to come watch a presentation in the auditorium.

I loved this. So imaginative!

Wow, he is so good!! Great talk❤️

the lunch time punchline is sublime. made me crack up. wish he could hear me. brilliant message. altho i know what i love, i dont know what to make a profession of... watching videos like this are guiding me a bit more.

All i want to do with my life is live a simple and quiet existence, working a humble and modest job that pays decently, have someone i love to care for and care for me, and just be free to explore and learn and grow emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Unfortunately whenever i hear "what do you want to do with your life" i attach money or contribution or status to it, like others do aswell, and this stops me from expressing what i really want to do. I just want to be happy but i feel like i have to come up with a grand answer and plan and stick with it. ... if you asked me what i wanted to do or be when i was a kid, id say all sorts of things. Animator, dancer, treasure hunter, heck a model on a commercial selling cereal. But now i think about what will pay the bills, what will relieve my family from concern, what will be in demand.

Brilliant. Well played for getting through that!

this crowd SUCKS. Hes feeding you GOLD

Thank you, Charlie! I really enjoyed your talk.

I have a big passion for graphic design, and I've received alot of praise for my work. I'd be happy living a life as a designer, but I have this feeling that I'm not going to live my life to the fullest, or give myself any legacy. The thought of living a quiet, content life, and dying for nobody outside of your close family to ever remember you had always scared me, and I feel like I'm falling into that trap. If anyone else has had feelings like this, I'd love to hear something to make this all clearer, thanks.

What you decide to 'do' in all aspects in life dosent make you who you are. You are you. Yourself is your identity not what you do to give yourself your identity. 👍🏼

I really wanted to jump into the screen and be there to applaud and say that he was amazing when he said that he finally did it. gosh this crowd was half asleep

Fantastic speech from the heart, thanks ...I am that farmer ....but not yet farming ...refreshing and honest, thanks

Thank you, you helped me putting together a conclusion understanding a part of life

This question is unique for each person. There are questions that we can ask ourselves that will help us on our own unique journey. A channel called Align and Inspire did a nice video on this. I found it helpful. She breaks this huge question down into smaller questions, that are not so overwhelming.

I agree with his analysis for the most part. But I think the inner voice can have more possible dreams and sometimes u just got to choose one. There is not one 'perfect' dream.

When I closed my eyes and crossed into that mirror, I imagined myself on a stage as a live producer in front of thousands. I can visually see a massive crowd jumping to the sounds of my EDM, and I mean i've always seen that since the start of 2016. That's why i've been an active producer for 2 years, in hopes to make that dream one day come true. And even though I chose to aim for a degree in psychology, another one of my past times, I have to remember, it doesn't take a degree to play on stage.

Thanks. I really needed to make that decision, and you really helped me with that visualization stuff.

I low key wanna be a writer, but I’m too scared to write because I know it’ll be cringy...but when I do try to write a really short story I accidentally write like 7 pages when I wanted it to be like 2-3. I also read like 1-2 hours a day I’m obsessed. And it’s funny really because when I was in kindergarten/first grade I wrote books for my teacher and she was my number one supporter. Then she retired the next year, but to this day she’s still my favorite teacher😂😂😂

Inner voice - tells you what you enjoy most and what you enjoy least Inner doubt - creates mental barriers, he creates the excuses that stops you doing those things you want to enjoy Those 2 are in constant collision with each other

I'm a freshman in high school and I have a passion for music. I decided to join band a little over 3 years ago and it has turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I consider myself to be a fairly decent player, given how few years I've been practicing, but I still have many questions about getting/having a job in the music industry, most of which I still can't verbalize. I just hope this talk will help me make a decision and do what is best for me.

What I took out of this was that fear is one helluva motivational emotion.

خلاصة كلامه بالعربي : 1- وقف مع نفسك بصراحه قول وش الي يعجبك ووش تستمتع فيه لما تسويه 2 - لا تسمع لذيك الشخصية تعطيك اعذار تافهه توقفك عن حلمك هو كان له احلام من قبل لكنه تخلا عنها بعد ما حس انها صعبه و مشوارها طويل . لكن لما قرر انها ما يسمح للعذار توقفه قدر يحقق حلمه وصار يسوي افلام وكذا

This literally made me cry. Thank you I needed this

Thanks so much!!!! I have the same situation! And your video helped me!!!

I found out that I love writing a long time ago. One day, a person came to my school and told us to close our eyes and whatever we saw ouseleves doing is what we want or something like that. I saw myself writing. I didn't even have to think about it. I saw myself sitting down, writing. The same thing happened when he told us to close our eyes and look at ourselves. I didn't mean to myslef writing through the mirror. I just did. Makes me question if majoring in biology in college is the right choice. Biology is interesting to me. But I love writing, and I love playing the cello and learning new languages. But there are no jobs in English that interest me except being a teacher. But I don't even know if I want to do that. Biology is difficult, complex and requires a lot of studying. I was going to go to med school or get my masters to work as an autopsy technician. But I'm not passionate about it. I like art. I like to binge watch movies and shows. What should I do? I was thinking maybe I am just weak and need to sucker up and put in those hours of studying biology. I am only in my first biology class. Maybe the future classes will be better? I don't know what to do with my life. I was thinking about being a movie critic or screenwriter or playwright or a director or editor. Anything to do with films and writing becauae I can watch anything all day and night. But I keep second guessing it because everytime I talk to my mom about changing my career choice, she talks about the negatives that come wih it that makes me think that maybe it's not the best idea. For example, last night I was expressing to her thT maybe I want to be an architect and she was just talking about how there's math and stuff in it. I was telling her thT I have to take hard math classes with my major already but she was adamant, saying that I won't actually need math and saying all the math stuff that has to do with architecture. That made me go back to biology. I wouldn't even know where to start to be a movie critic. I'm in theatre appreciation and I'm not even that interested in everything my teacher is teaching us. But maybe it's only that. I'm not sure what goes into it. I was also interested in psychology, but I don't think that'll work out for me. So? Should I be a movie critic? Or an editor for magazines and stuff like that? I like to create my own stories and I don't want to have a job filled with writing, then come back home to write even more. But I also don't want to edit other people's awesome works. Maybe if I am an editor, I can easily just edit my own stuff?

This came at a time where I really needed it.

When I started working on my career. I just only knew that money was important to earn and that's it. I didn't even know either back then that what I wanted to do. Till the last year I used to see all these video and would think I don't even know what I like but I did one thing in all time. I tried everything that my heart desired and it eventually took me to a place where I know what Im passionate about but deep inside Im scared and in doubts what if I won't be able to make a career out of it? Should I not concentrate on the jobs that Im currently doing because thats paying my bills? So yeah. Im in a phase of fear and doubts but Im gonna give a little time every day to my list that Im passionate about, we'll see where it will take me. I hope this helps.

Was he rehearsing, or were there actually people there

Great talk . I'll be 17 this june looks like I got a way to find what I truly want

WOW, awesome talk! really mind opening!

Wow. Total eye-opener. I never thought about it like this before.

He's a good speaker. I enjoyed the talk. Thank you :-).

I think the question "what do you want to be..?" leads the response to be "I want". As adults, we are educated enough to recognize the format that a question wants to be answered in. A better question to ask is "what are you going to be?" this way people can respond "I don't know, but I want ..." and then you can make the same conclusions.

I can't believe that when I visualized what I needed to do before I died, cooking and baking were the most important to me.

When you are gonna die tomorrow, think about what you gonna do today. That is what you wanna do. That 's what you care mostly! You will find out feelings from family, friends, your partner is what matters.

The crowd were great. The talk was great. The connection was real.

I’ve always wanted to do more traveling, move to another country, eat more delicious food, explore different cities lifestyle and more but my inner doubts keeps telling I can’t do all of these. I’m in the age where I have to think about my future, having a family, earn money, duties to my family, what kind of job/career I should get and so many more. All of these comes to my mind whenever I want to try something. I want to do be with my partner but we are thousands of miles away and only got to meet every 4-6 months though video chatting is very convenient, I still feel so different when I’m with my partner. I want to move to his country but there are so many barriers that hinders us to be together and here I am still doesn’t know what to do with my life but all I know is that I want to be with that person.

Great lecture!!!!!

I'm so down right now, cause i feel so useless, so i searched "what i should do in my life" this video motivated me

I’ve looked myself in the mirror my whole life. I feel only what can be described as intensity as I stare back through my own eyes, into my soul, reflecting on my existence, and searching for a purpose. Searching for answers. Fantastic speech. Thank you.