In life, there are always going to be those big decisions we need to make. Some of them can be a lot of fun, and some of them feel like they carry a lot of weight. Your career choice is one of them! It can feel like a lot of pressure to make a decision that could be with you for the rest of your life. But, at the same time, it can also be really fun and exciting too. And that’s always the best way to look at it! Careers come in all shapes and sizes. You can go corporate or creative, freelance or technical–the choice is entirely yours. But if you’re not sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place. Here are five ways to make that choice.

1. Think About Your Life Goals

First of all, you need to focus on your life goals. Your career and what you do every single day for work make up such a large part of your life. It can also shape your everyday life and set you up financially. So, you need to focus on what you want for your life, and out of life. That way, you can start to get a sense of the career choices that might work.

2. Lean into Your Skills

Another simple way to look at this is by focusing on your skills and interests. What are you good at? Where do your strengths lie? What comes easily to you? While you don’t have to choose something that feels like a natural fit, sometimes this can make your career enjoyable and feel like a quick win for you.

3. Focus on Making a Difference

But then we have the idea of making a difference. If you know you want to help others and contribute to the world in a positive way, looking to help your community is a great idea. For this, careers at Royal Ambulance or going into the public sector could work. It’s all about choosing a path that helps you to have an impact on society.

4. Consider the Lifestyle

There’s also the lifestyle to think about too. This goes hand-in-hand with your life goals. It’s important to know how you want to live your life and what you want your lifestyle to look like. From there, you can make a career choice that both supports that and enables you to create it.

5. Do Something You Love

And for some, the only thing that really matters here is doing something that you love. Ultimately, we spend such a large amount of our lives working–both during the week and throughout the length of our lives. So, the last thing you want is to be doing something that you don’t enjoy or that brings negativity into your life. If there’s something that you’re passionate about or you love to do, why not invest your time and energy in that? Sometimes, this is an obvious career path and choice for you. But sometimes, it needs to be something that you create for yourself or pursue as a passion project outside of a standard 9-5 first!