Something to readWhat's next
What Should I Do with My Life?
A book of true stories about people who faced the title question and answered it their own way
Why it’s worth your time
Po Bronson's book answers its own title question with true stories instead of a method, told with real sympathy for how hard the question is. It suits someone who learns more from other people's choices than from frameworks. The question can feel less lonely afterward, and more worth asking out loud.
Finding your work when the answer comes slowly
The book · About 9 hours of reading · Buy or borrow
How to get it
We don’t earn anything from these links.
- Read a few stories, not the whole book.
Pick the people whose situation sounds most like yours. Listen for where fear or old habits were doing the deciding, and for what changed when someone stopped letting them, or didn't.
- Write down the pull and the fear.
On one page, write the thing about your work you keep half-wanting, then the fear or belief that keeps you from it. Next to the fear, write one small way to test whether it's true.
Good moments for this: at a crossroadswhen a hard year forces a rethinkon the first quiet day of a new year
Keep going with Truest
Small actions add up. Truest helps you find the next thing worth doing, make the space to do it, and keep a record of your progress. It’s a private place to work on your career, and it’s yours, not your employer’s.
- It actually happensWe’ll put it on your calendar and remind you before it starts.
- Part of the check-inThe end-of-day text asks for two scores and a line; this fits in it.
- It’s yours to keepEach thing you do is saved to your private record, there when your next review or job search comes around.
Anything else we can help you with this week?
Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Bronson says he didn't choose stories to prove a point and let their meaning surface as he wrote. Reading with your own question in mind, rather than hunting for a rule, may get you more from it.
What might make this harder
Keep the page and skip the test for now. Naming the pull doesn't commit you to anything, and a small test can wait for a steadier season.
Questions people ask
What is What Should I Do with My Life? about?
A 2002 book by journalist and novelist Po Bronson, built from conversations with more than 900 people about that question. He tells the stories of dozens of them, from people just starting out to people in second careers.
Does What Should I Do with My Life? work as self-help?
Not in the usual sense. It has no program to follow; it's a collection of true stories, and Bronson writes as a journalist, not a counselor.
How do I figure out what to do with my life?
Start with what you already lean toward, then test it in small ways before you change anything big. Talking with people who made a similar move tends to help more than thinking it through alone.
What it says, and how it holds up
Po Bronson, who had changed careers himself to become a writer, began this book after the dot-com bubble burst, and he ended up talking with more than 900 people, many of whom found him by word of mouth. He had expected a large share of them to have no idea where they belonged. Instead, he says, most had good instincts and had been scared off them by fears and wrong ideas about how the world works. He chose stories for a spread of ages, classes and kinds of work.
Some of what he heard ran against his expectations. Change was the norm: of the 900, only one had kept the same employer his whole adult life. Immigrants and working-class people took the question seriously more often than he expected, not only the educated and well-off. He also stepped into the stories, sometimes helping the people he wrote about and telling his own story alongside theirs, a choice he admits was controversial.
It's a book from 2002, built on people willing to talk about the question, so it shows what turned out to be possible for them more than how likely it is for anyone. If you'd rather have a method for testing a pull than more stories, Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity argues that you find out what you want by doing, experimenting with new kinds of work before you commit to a change, and it can pair well with the small test you write next to your fear.
You might like
More in What's next
See allRead this alongside your role page
Tell Truest what you’re dealing with
We read every one, and we write guides for the things that come up most. Leave your email if you’d like to hear when we do.
Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.