Graduation

Post Graduation Script Deprivation

May 27, 2016 0 Comments

Thinking in nature

When the joy of graduation wears off some graduates enter a period of confusion and malaise, unsure of themselves and unsure of what to do besides making sure they eat tomorrow. I believe one of the shocks these university graduates are experiencing is generated by the absence of a script. They’ve been living off of someone else’s script for years. And it may have served them well. They read the lines and made the grades. But now on this side of graduation there is no script for the drama called life!

 

Did you graduate recently? Perhaps you are experiencing script deprivation.

 

A script gives you a straight-line process or pathway for getting from “A” to “B.” Let’s say you figured out a few years ago, “I want to graduate with a degree in finance.” Then, you paid the school to take care of you by charting out the courses you needed to “get a degree in finance.” You succeeded! But now your point “B” looms “out there” and no one is going to chart the path for you. You are going to have to blaze your own path.

Look, you are not alone. By the time we finish 18 years of school most of us are conditioned to living on someone else’s script. We have had it all scripted for us. It went like this:

Go to school.
Take the classes.
Learn the material.
Pass the tests.
Graduate.


But now… 

There’s not a script for shaping a career.
There’s not a script for starting a business.
There’s not a script for being your own brand.
There’s not a script for creating a social life.
There’s not a script for building significant relationships.

 

Your friends have probably been living the same school script you were on, so they are not much help for living without a script.

 

But you do have some options:

  • Gather some mentors who have been living in uncharted waters for a while.
  • Plan a trip without tour guides and head out on an adventure.
  • Take some personal assessments to discover your genuine desires and strengths.
  • Make your grand life vision of success smaller by aiming at something contained in it (that’s usually called a goal) and then remind yourself, “Everything doesn’t have to be perfect!”
  • Attempt something related to your goal and as you do it, make a personal agreement with yourself that with the completion of each small step you will ask yourself again, “How did this go?” And, “What do I want to do next?”

Soon you will be living your own script and enjoying the rewards of living with purpose through your challenges.

Career, Change, Graduation

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Six Confessions of Successful University Graduates

May 19, 2016 0 Comments

beach

With all the ongoing talk about whether or not a college degree is worth the expense, it seems like good sense to ask college graduates how they are doing. Gallup has done that and more. Gallup now has collected loads of data on what healthy thriving people look like. And then, in a project called the Gallop-Purdue Index, Gallop asked  30,000 graduates how they were doing, what they did during college, and then referenced their answers to a health or well-being index.

It turns out, that what you do in the extra-curricular realm during college, is what may make the difference once you are graduated and living real life. The thriving graduates had six confessions in common. The more of these confessions in their assessment, the better they were likely doing in their career, finances, physical health, community engagement, and friendships. So what were these thriving graduates up to during college or university?

Here are the six confessions of graduates thriving after graduation:

  1. I had a professor who made me excited about learning.
  2. I had professors who cared about me as a person.
  3. I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams.
  4. I worked on a long-term project.
  5. I had a job or internship where I learned to apply what I was learning at school.
  6. I was extremely involved in extra-curricular activities.

Are you enrolled as a college student or hoping to be one? Going to college is expensive. Not making the most of the time may be more costly in the long-run. The issue here goes way beyond your grades. So what’s in your control as a student? You can research your professors and choose accordingly. You can look for mentors. You can volunteer for long-term projects in clubs and community organizations. You can participate in paid internships and co-ops. You can get involved in organizations where you have interests in order to grow and develop relationships.

Want to learn more about the study?

Follow these two links for articles on the Gallop-Purdue index:
http://qz.com/384713/college-is-worth-it-if-you-have-these-six-experiences/

http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/182312/college-worth-depends.aspx

Are you a college graduate? How did you do more than follow the “academic” path laid out for you? Do any of these six confessions apply to you?

Career, Education, Graduation

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100 Days After Graduation

May 21, 2015 0 Comments

Go ahead put a mark on your calendar. What do you hope will be true 100 days after graduation from college or university?

And now I must say “Congratulations!“ Because of my work, I get really excited about the graduates at UBC! You have joined a small and elite segment of the world. If the world population was 100 people, only you only and six other people would have a college education! You have had a wonderful opportunity to learn, make some friends, and build up some identity capital. You are truly blessed!

100 days. That’s a summer break. But this year you may want to be doing something else at the end of it. Unless you are pursuing more education, the pathway is not laid out for you any more.  Maybe you anticipated this ambiguous reality. Maybe you didn’t.

Anyway, look ahead. Mark 100 days on the calendar. Answer the question: What do I hope is true at the end of the next 100 days?

This little exercise isn’t meant to create fear and dread. But it is meant to help you examine your expectations. This self-leadership exercise will help you get a reality check and then reverse engineer your activities for the next 100 days.

For some, having an extended and carefree holiday may be in the cards.

For others though, your desires may require more diligent work.

Perhaps you are having trouble coming up with an answer to the question. Talk it out with someone; not someone who is going to tell you what to do. But instead talk it out with someone who is going to ask questions and then listen for what’s on your mind and in your heart.

100 Days.

Graduation

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