Graduation’s over, and so is your life as a student.
Suddenly you realise you don’t hate your studying life at all. If anything, you wish you appreciated the times when you had to study all day, do assignments, and juggle curricular activities all at once.
Because now you’re feeling more lost than ever. You can’t help but wonder, ‘what is the path for me?’ Now I’m sure you’ve heard of all kinds of ‘advice’ from family, friends and relatives. But here’s another one – Don’t panic. You’re not lost. You’re simply in the process of figuring out which paths to embark on. If you really don’t know what to do, I’m here to share my advice. Having been a lost graduate myself, here’s one thing you should do:
Commit yourself to making mistakes. Lots and lots of them. I’m not joking. This is the best time for you to make mistakes, because you’ll never be as young as you are now. So, go out and discover yourself!
Let go of hesitations and expectations. You’re a fresh graduate. You have no obligations yet, no big responsibilities, and nothing to lose. What better time to start making mistakes?
Many of you may not know what will work for you, and you may not even know what kinds of jobs you’ll love, and that’s okay. There’s never a better time to try out things and be 100% sure what doesn’t work until you eventually find IT.
Because no one can 100% be sure their first career will stick around to be their best and last one.
For those of you who can afford the luxury of working without having to worry about sustaining yourself start looking for jobs that you don’t mind working for free for.
Don’t base your life and career options around expectations, goals and salaries. Find something that you love doing, or don’t mind going an extra mile for.
As long as you’re doing what you love and remain true to yourself, you’ll be able to find little joys in your everyday life. Yes, your pay check may not be as attractive, and you may need to sacrifice more compared to the people you envy – but at the end of the day, it is your passion. And where passion takes you, success and joy follows. More importantly, you won’t look back twenty years later and realise you regret throwing yourself into a line of work you hate. And you won’t wake up twenty years later thinking “What the heck am I doing with my life? I can’t do this for another twenty years!”
If you’re doing what you love, or even have interest in, you’re investing in yourself. That’s the best thing to invest in, more than anything in the world. As you will later realise, time passes so quickly when you’re focused in a job or career you love. The hard work you’ve put in is not difficult – it becomes a form of satisfaction.
Now if you’re thinking how will I know I’ve landed on a job I love? You can easily tell when you have found your ‘right’ career if you’re working without looking at the time.
You’re not waiting for the time to clock out, not waiting for public holidays and not looking forward to payday when you’re working. Cause you love every minute of your job.
Heck you’re so thankful to be able to do what you’re doing and you feel surreal at times because you can’t believe someone’s paying you to do what you love. So keep at it, because the more you invest in yourself, the closer you are to happiness and success.
And if you feel like you’ve changed so many jobs but have yet found it, have patience. Some of us need to try more than others before we eventually find our passion. But it will all be worth it from then on.
For me, I am still working on myself, my career and my life. I still get stressed out at times when I think about the future, but I try to calm myself with the present things I need to focus on. And it helps me get through bit by bit, day by day.
For more articles on Career & Skills, read I Wrote a 50,000-Word Novel While Balancing a Job—Here’s How It Helped Me Grow, and How I Quit My Five-Figure Salary Job To Become A Travel Writer.
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