It's totally possible that you're right, and it's an outlook and past experiences and head-space issue, rather than something that someone can just walk in and point to in order to say, Yes! If you just flip that switch, all will be well. But, someday down the line you may want to make sure to rule out biology as a factor, especially for peace of mind regarding your dad's current situation. Still, no reason to bust out the big guns before you try on your own to discover what "it" is.
I would definitely say that interests are really tricky to narrow down. After all, I have a fabulous example with my mom's teaching career. For one thing, she majored in English the first time around, and wanted to teach high school. However, when she TAed for a classroom as part of the qualifying for credentials and the like at 21-years-old, she felt as if she'd picked the wrong path entirely. She felt that she wasn't "old enough" to teach anyone, and that it wasn't right for her. Turns out that she would later go on to become a teacher in all levels EXCEPT high school (elementary, middle, and college), and that she'd teach the two subjects that were the most boring to her in school (science and math) and LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. And one of the things she loved MOST was teaching Special Ed, and it was the class that she had to take in her Master's Program that she complained about needing to take A LOT (the mature woman version of "Why do I need to take this? I don't have retarded children, nor do I plan on teaching any" attitude).
So, sometimes you won't actually know what interests you until you do it...and do it at the right time, in the right place, with the right mindset. I know that having children made my mom feel a lot more confident and happy about teaching, and it showed her that she was good at it, too. She also didn't know how great she'd be with animals until she signed up to be a dog groomer, and ended up helping to retrain damaged dogs as well. You can examine my mom's interests and find that a huge majority of them weren't there until she did them at the right moment, and sometimes she just spontaneously lost them (she loved gardening as a 20-something-year-old right up until she hit about 40, then all interest in it dropped off the face of the earth).
What I'm really trying to say is to make sure that you give yourself a break in your search to find That Thing That Makes You Tick, and to acknowledge in the same way that there may not be The One True Love in our lives, so there may also not be that One Career for us either. Even though it may appear to others that you flit from one interest to another, and get bored or burnt out easily, just think of yourself as the career equivalent of 60s Free Love Flower Child (XD).
As for plan, I think you guys should totally do whatever is going to work for you, especially here and now. As you can see, I'm a believer simultaneously about being clear about what you want, and having a plan, as well as being open to whatever floats your way and working with "guidelines" rather than rules. And the real factor that you and I both know is what counts is how much you really want to do the thing you're saying you'll do--oh sure, you can write on your calendar your goals of doing 100 squats, 30 minutes of yoga, and 45 minutes of jogging every other day, but if you don't really intend to do more than just do a few sit ups and push ups before bed a few times a week when you find the extra time and energy, then you may as well have just made the goal "Exercise some during the week" and left it at that. Just because your goal is specific doesn't mean it will magically come true, right? (Oh, if that were true, I'd have been wearing a size 3 in jeans, and had serious man-gun-arms before getting pregnant, haha.) So, as long as you're doing what it is you want to be doing, I don't think there's any need to change how you two are going about it. =D
no subject
I would definitely say that interests are really tricky to narrow down. After all, I have a fabulous example with my mom's teaching career. For one thing, she majored in English the first time around, and wanted to teach high school. However, when she TAed for a classroom as part of the qualifying for credentials and the like at 21-years-old, she felt as if she'd picked the wrong path entirely. She felt that she wasn't "old enough" to teach anyone, and that it wasn't right for her. Turns out that she would later go on to become a teacher in all levels EXCEPT high school (elementary, middle, and college), and that she'd teach the two subjects that were the most boring to her in school (science and math) and LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. And one of the things she loved MOST was teaching Special Ed, and it was the class that she had to take in her Master's Program that she complained about needing to take A LOT (the mature woman version of "Why do I need to take this? I don't have retarded children, nor do I plan on teaching any" attitude).
So, sometimes you won't actually know what interests you until you do it...and do it at the right time, in the right place, with the right mindset. I know that having children made my mom feel a lot more confident and happy about teaching, and it showed her that she was good at it, too. She also didn't know how great she'd be with animals until she signed up to be a dog groomer, and ended up helping to retrain damaged dogs as well. You can examine my mom's interests and find that a huge majority of them weren't there until she did them at the right moment, and sometimes she just spontaneously lost them (she loved gardening as a 20-something-year-old right up until she hit about 40, then all interest in it dropped off the face of the earth).
What I'm really trying to say is to make sure that you give yourself a break in your search to find That Thing That Makes You Tick, and to acknowledge in the same way that there may not be The One True Love in our lives, so there may also not be that One Career for us either. Even though it may appear to others that you flit from one interest to another, and get bored or burnt out easily, just think of yourself as the career equivalent of 60s Free Love Flower Child (XD).
As for plan, I think you guys should totally do whatever is going to work for you, especially here and now. As you can see, I'm a believer simultaneously about being clear about what you want, and having a plan, as well as being open to whatever floats your way and working with "guidelines" rather than rules. And the real factor that you and I both know is what counts is how much you really want to do the thing you're saying you'll do--oh sure, you can write on your calendar your goals of doing 100 squats, 30 minutes of yoga, and 45 minutes of jogging every other day, but if you don't really intend to do more than just do a few sit ups and push ups before bed a few times a week when you find the extra time and energy, then you may as well have just made the goal "Exercise some during the week" and left it at that. Just because your goal is specific doesn't mean it will magically come true, right? (Oh, if that were true, I'd have been wearing a size 3 in jeans, and had serious man-gun-arms before getting pregnant, haha.) So, as long as you're doing what it is you want to be doing, I don't think there's any need to change how you two are going about it. =D