It’s graduation season. I am past those years now; in terms of my kids, my sights are now set on when will one of them give us a grandchild. But for those of you who have a “gradchild” it is one of those monumental, special times.
There is a lesson or two that could apply to you in all the advice that the grads are receiving.
A graduation is a natural springboard to what will come next, your Next Great Next as we call it here at ExecuNet. For high school grads it likely means off to college. For college grads it means what’s next is their first “real” job and step one on a, hopefully, meaningful, and prosperous career.
But what about you? You’ve passed the graduation milestone and don’t have that natural push to jump into what’s next for you. But all the advice given to the grads about having goals, keeping an open mind, and exploring the possibilities applies to you, too.
You see, the opening of the door to new possibilities is one of the things that’s so exciting for grads; it’s that exciting step into the future. But as people get further along most stop seeing possibilities as, well, possible. We become set on a course and often feel “tracked in” to whatever path we are on, like a train that’s got to stay on its rails.
It’s a world of limitless possibilities right now for the grads. That’s so easy to see as we tell them to “go for it” and “work hard but have fun, too.” But while we may be on a certain track, we actually do have the option to jump to a different set of rails that’s moving along a different track.
Commencement speeches usually urge grads to do meaningful work and never lose the passion for what they do. Just because you are far down a path, what’s said at commencement still applies to you! Are you doing work that’s meaningful to you? Are you having fun doing what you do? Does it excite you?
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it would be a good idea for you to follow the advice given to the grads and seek out new possibilities. It’s hard to get up the motivation to make a change, but you can take that first step, get some momentum, just like a train, you’ll be barreling along those (new) tracks faster and faster. It just takes those first few steps to get going. And if you’d like a little help, we’re here for you.
