I have a plan with absolutely no clue if it will work out.
A couple of days ago, I finished my last course in my 6-year long undergrad. It was surreal but frightening because I don’t know what the future holds. However, I’m also somewhat excited because for every new journey, one can learn something new. I think I have a rough idea on how to prepare for it and by no means is this the only way or even the right way.. lol. But hey, you are here, so you might as well check it out.
Before you embark on any journey, you should commit to the following;
1- Identify and Solidify what you value and by extension; your identity.
I took a couple of undergraduate courses with themes in self awareness and leadership and one of the key class activities that we did was to identify our personal values. A lot of people don’t really know what they value. They know what they WANT to value, but very few people know what ACTUALLY value and have their actions that consistently validate and confirm them. Personally, I’m still struggling with this, and I don’t think it is an over-night knowledge that you can gain, but a process you have to actively follow and commit to.
What do you stand for? What do you value, and what actions do you take that prove you valuing what you say you value? What makes you happy? What makes you sad? What makes me anxious? What makes you angry? What makes you confident? What makes you lose confidence? What is it that keeps you going?
Those are “some” questions I plan on deeply reflecting on over the next couple of weeks and possibly months, and I recommend that you do the same. For Aristotle said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”.
2- Know and accept what you will have to sacrifice to maintain that identity
Most of us, including myself, have learned one or two things about about ourselves. As a result of knowing ourselves, generally speaking, we identified something that we want to do or stop doing, but don’t want to give up other things that stand in our way. As we go through the journey of learning about ourselves, we have to take action so that we are putting that awareness into productive use.
My plan (which is completely not science backed at all, maybe it is, I don’t know, this is a personal blog not a scientific journal :’) ) is to write down everything that is standing in the way. Then, using my future self that is biased to a better version of me as a judge, I will write down why everything that is standing in my way is not worth it. After that, I will reflect on what I wrote, until I genuinely accept the sacrifices and compromises I have to make to achieve that. Finally, the last part of accepting it, is to actually follow through on doing it. For Umar ibn Al-Khattab once said, “He who does not live in the way of his beliefs starts to believe in the way he lives.”
3- Adopt a Wayfinding mentality
This one is not necessarily sequential to the previous two, but extremely important. I got introduced to this concept in one of my elective undergraduate courses as well, but had to obviously google it to better explain it in this blog. Wikipedia page says the following about the wayfinding process:
“The basic process of wayfinding involves four stages:
- Orientation is the attempt to determine one’s location, in relation to objects that may be nearby and the desired destination.
- Route decision is the selection of a course of direction to the destination.
- Route monitoring is checking to make sure that the selected route is heading towards the destination.
- Destination recognition is when the destination is recognized”
Adopting this approach to handling life can reduce a lot of anxiety regarding the future by embracing the uncertainty as part of your planning. You may currently have certain tendencies or orientation towards a particular skill, or interest, and if not, you are likely to uncover those by answering the questions I presented above. This will help you identify what your initial desired destination may be. For example, if you find yourself happy in a kitchen cooking, then you may be oriented towards experimentation, process-based type work, seeing and being validated for the end result.
From there, you should start doing a lot of research into what things fit with what you are oriented towards, what kind of careers, volunteer work, or hobbies that can engage you with what you are oriented towards. Then, you should have a plan as to how those things would fit into helping you achieve the initial final destination you identified.
Although the process lists destination recognition as the last step, I think it is precursor to monitoring. You need to develop a criteria or identify some markers that will confirm when you have reached your destination. Don’t limit your destination to particular job or a role, but rather a more general type of work with certain elements that you are oriented towards.
Lastly, you should be always doing route monitoring and looking out for two things. The first is to make sure you are headed towards your destination, and the second is evaluating whether that initial final destination you thought you wanted is actually what you still want. The more you become self-aware, the more likely it is that your final destination may change, that’s totally fine, you just review what you are newly oriented towards, come up with a new plan, and repeat. A disclaimer though, don’t confuse being bored of something as a reason to re-orient yourself, everything has its ups and downs, so.. use proper judgement I guess..
Conclusion
Just because some people around you “sound” like they know what they are doing, doesn’t mean they actually know what they are doing, and just because someone tells you exactly what their plan for the future is, it doesn’t mean this plan will stay valid by as soon as next month. Don’t worry about other people’s convictions and journeys. Listen to your heart, play to your strengths, and work on your weaknesses, and you should be good to go.
