Knowing Who You Are
The most important thing about your future is that you do things that fulfill you and give you satisfaction. It sounds simple. It can be.
The two words in this entire simple idea most central to happiness in your future are YOU DO. Let’s begin with the you. Source: Your Future is Calling. Today’s adult student can’t afford to “figure it out” as he or she goes. Education is just too expensive. You do not have the luxury of endlessly exploring degrees and majors in the hope that you will eventually “figure it out.” My advice to you is to “figure it out” before you begin studying specific subject matter or selecting your major. The investment you make before you enroll (or re-enroll) in higher education will be far more productive than simply jumping in and beginning to take courses.
What I do, outside of sharing ideas with you, has virtually nothing to with your future happiness. Your future, and the satisfaction it brings, is all about you – most importantly “who you are”.
I like to trout fish with dry flies. Most of you would probably find that boring and some might even find it cruel and inhumane to set a hook into a living creature. But for me, I (you) like to fish (do). Fishing appeals to my love of nature, the outdoors, the challenge of performing a difficult task well, the camaraderie of a day on the river with an experienced outdoor guide, the sharing of tales and past experiences like the grizzly bear episode in Alaska.
The point is that dry fly fishing for trout on a mountain river is about “who I am”. For you to get pleasure and have satisfaction in the future you have to do what matches “who you are”. Sadly, many go to college, get a degree, look for a job, go to work. This is what I would call the hope plan. The hope is that in the end the future that eventually emerges from all of this doing matches up with the “who you are”. In this sequence the “who you are” is the last thing in the journey. If, in the future all this doing aligns with who you are you are you will be happy and satisfied. If it doesn’t you won’t be.
Don’t wind up in a struggle trying to figure out who you are at the end, especially after you have done all the work, made all the sacrifices, incurred all the debt to get a degree. There is another way. Put understanding “who you are” first.
Finding out “Who you are” is a bit like an old Fram oil filter television commercial. The key line of the commercial was “you can pay me now or you can pay me later”. The point is that finding out “who you are” is key to a fulfilled future. You can put it off into the future and pay later. Or you can step up and find it out at the beginning. Pay now. Some people try to figure it out along the way. In fact, an important part of traditional campus based college education is give the student space to help the young men and women of our society “learn who they are”.
The point I want to make here is that discovering “who you are” is a very important part of your future. In my book Your Future is Calling I start with “who you are” before giving detailed guidance about selecting a career, a major, and/or a college. The most important thing about a fulfilled future is the right do of today. You need to begin, not end with “who you are”.
And, oh by the way, here is the rest of the story about the grizzly bear. I got away with my life humbled and grateful. In the end the bear got its way. She ran us out of her favorite fishing spot. Fortunately she didn’t want to eat us. All she wanted was to let her fish for the spawning salmon in that narrow stretch of the river. And what did I learn from this about “who I am”? I learned that I am not the top of the food chain while standing in fast flowing rivers in remote regions of Alaska.