Why we never end up doing what we envisioned we would do

In many of the emails I receive from lawyers looking to change course and leave the law, there is one phrase that is repeated often:  “I had always envisioned getting into _______.â€Â  It could be advocacy, policy, public interest law, hi-tech. But without fail this fill-in-the-blank is not what the lawyer is actually doing now.  They are doing something other than what they envisioned they would do. It’s not the job or position or role that is important to focus on here.  Many of us are doing jobs or have titles we never knew existed or could picture ourselves doing years ago. Rather, what is important to unpack here is that for many of us, we are performing tasks and taking on responsibilities for our job that we never envisioned because many of these job duties are not in alignment with what we are good at and what we enjoy doing and what comes naturally to us. We envisioned doing something else than what we do now because simply what we do now is not really what we are best at. Sincerely exploring what this is (not outright finding it necessarily, but searching for it) is without fail the sine qua non of our happiness and satisfaction.