How do you know what you want to do with your life?

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I don't know what I want to do with my life; sure I’ve got a job and am being paid a reasonable salary. However I feel that I am wasting my life and want to do something worthwhile. However cannot make a decision as to what. How do you make a decision as to what you want to do with your life?

When is say worthwhile I mean doing some sort of scientific research, coming up with new ideas, changing the world etc.

Android

Life is a journey, not a destination. As you travel through life, you will discover that each path you take will open up to other paths
you may decide to turn your attention to. Always keep an open mind...and these days no one ever stays in the same type of job
for a lifetime.

Life is like the unfolding of a flower...we need to nurture the flower, be patient and continue to grow.

Sometimes its all I can do to figure out what I want to do today, let alone for the rest of my life.

Very few people get the opportunity to make a big splash that makes global headlines and many of those are for negative reasons anyway, but you can make big changes to individual peoples lives by thinking about how to do even the smallest thing to help someone around you.
Regarding scientific research it is usually now team efforts that can't be credited to one person and the managers in charge often get most credit.
Most scientific research is also motivated by market concerns not humanitarian ones and I think that being remembered fondly by a small group of people for helping at a shelter or talking to someone destitute when everyone else shuns them is worth more than your name on some piece of paper.
Do you want to do a great thing or be a great person?

I had to take a career test a couple of months ago to discover what I was truly interested in.

Tim

This is a great question, though I think you'll be hard-pressed to find someone who can truly answer it.

I admit that I share your view of what is "worthwhile." I aspire to be a scientist and to hopefully, one day, have some groundbreaking new ideas. I have a rough idea of what I want to do, which is why I'm majoring in biology, but I still don't know what exact branch of science I want to devote my life to. Maybe molecular biology, neuroscience, or bacteriology, but I have still yet to decide. However, the one thing I do know is that I'm good with science and interested in it to an almost obsessive extent, so I know I want to be a scientist, but I have still yet to decide what kind.

I think it boils down to interest. What are you passionate about?

no, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I have enough trouble trying to keep body and soul together from day to day.

Merle

I am now surprisingly doing what I wanted to grow up to be when I was a kid. I lost interest in it, got a Bachelors in something else, tried a career not related to my degree, took other dead-end jobs, then regained interest and got a Masters in the field, then burned out before I finished my degree. But I got my degree, pursued yet another career, took other lame non-career jobs, and finally came back to my original childhood dream... Turns out I love it. But I might pick yet another career someday - who knows?

There are good books out there called "What Color is Your Parachute?" for anyone who wants to get an idea what job would match the skills you enjoy being good at, and help on how to get that job (Amazon page here).

And I think it helps a lot to not expect your career alone to fulfill your life. Just as you should not put all your eggs in one basket in expecting your mate to fulfill your life. Volunteer work or taking someone you know under your wing is another very fulfilling thing. And hobbies, and good relationships, and taking good care of youself. I find it too easy to get one of those many things right, think life is great and then when the novelty of it wears off and I notice that all the other things are off-track, I get depressed, and lose the one thing I did have right. It takes effort for someone as obsessive as me to put energy into more than one of those at a time, but I've learned it's what I have to do to have a chance at lasting happiness.

I think I would feel the same way if I was in your situation. I can't see myself in most jobs and feeling fulfilled. Why don't you just try new things. Travel to a foreign country when you have a vacation. Being exposed to new places and people might invoke something to be passionate about. I would rather work a mediocre paying job if I enjoy it then a high paying one.