The single most important thing you can do in today's world is to stop operating from the old paradigm. If you need to be told what to do next (go to school, get a job, retire at 65) the outcome of your life will always be in someone else's hands. You must learn how to direct your own work. You must learn how to tolerate and mitigate risk and uncertainty. You must figure out what you want and teach yourself everything necessary to get it. It's extremely difficult, but not as difficult as the silent suffering people learn to accept as "normal."