Article: You can spend all day staring out at the horizon, but you won't get anywhere until you start swimming. Find a new job, set out on an adventure, start taking classes, or try out a new lifestyle. Throw all of your energy into something, and work at it until you find something else that's more appealing. Remember: you can always, at any moment, change directions and try something new. It can be paralyzing to stare at a huge list of possibilities. Until you try things out, for better or worse, and make them real, everything will only ever be an abstract possibility. It may feel safe to live in a world where everything is theoretically possible, but eventually you will need to choose something--or choose nothing. You don't have to stick with this job, journey, or lifestyle for the rest of your life. The point of getting started is to figure out what you can and can't do with your life. Choose something that you enjoy; something that feels real; something that leads somewhere else, and makes you grow as a person. You may find that the very act of working toward something--even if it isn't your be-all-end-all "life goal"--gives you perspective on what you want to do with your life. At worst, you'll know what you don't want to do with your life, and you can scratch something else off the list. Forget about when you're 80: where do you see yourself in a year? In five years? The rest of your life will happen, whether you like it or not, but you can only ever act in the here-and-now. It can be paralyzing to try to plan everything out 30, 40, 60 years down the line--so try to stay grounded in the present. Your life will unfold as you live it. Consider Americorps, the Peace Corps, WWOOFing, volunteering at a nonprofit, or getting certified to teach English as a second language. These are great programs if you don't know what you want to do for the rest of your life, but you want to work and grow and feel productive in the present. Your experience might run anywhere from one week to two years, it will look great on a resume, and it will help you learn about your place in the world. Apply for AmeriCorps. You can sign up to work for anywhere from two months to a year; you must be 18-24 years old. Projects range from trail-building in state parks to working with disadvantaged inner-city children in urban elementary schools. Volunteers receive a small living stipend, usually several hundred dollars, each month, and alumni can receive scholarships for higher education. Join the Peace Corps. You will spend two years helping to stabilize an at-risk or underdeveloped community. Openings range all over the globe; you could serve in Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, or Ukraine. You can work to teach English as a second language, or help small businesses grow in an underdeveloped economy, or help boost food security in a rural village. You will work with a community, use your time to make the world a better place, and maybe figure out how you want to spend the rest of your life. Volunteer on an organic farm with WWOOF: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. You work on an organic farm for anywhere from a week to forever; in return, the farmers feed you, give you a place to sleep, and teach you about farming. For a small registration fee, you can access a network of thousands of organic farmers who are looking for help--some are looking for seasonal workers to come and go, and some are looking for long-term commitments. You can contact a farm that sounds interesting and be volunteering there within a week. The choices that you make now will lead directly to the choices that you make in a month, a year, a decade--but that doesn't mean that you have to settle for a job or lifestyle that you hate. "Stuck" is a mindset. At any point, in any situation, you can either stay the course or break the course. The important thing is that you start swimming.

What is a summary?
Jump into something. Focus on the next few years, not the rest of your life. Try volunteering or joining a service organization. Remember that you can always change course.