The commencement speech is over, the graduation caps have been thrown, and now you’re officially an alumni at your beloved college.
Graduation is a bittersweet time where you feel mixed emotions.
On one hand, you’re going to miss your college friends and the freedom to go out on a Tuesday night. But on the other hand, you know graduating is inevitable and life is all about change.
As one door closes, another door opens, right? But my question is, what’s the next door for you?
As you enter the real world, promise yourself that you’re going to follow your dreams and passions. Because there will come a time where if you don’t do it now, you’ll regret not doing it.
Maybe your regret comes 10, 20, or 30 years later, but this is the time where you can make the right decision to choose yourself and your happiness.
The word selfish has a negative connotation and people don’t like it. But give yourself a pass to be extremely selfish with your time and choices right after graduation. Because soon you won’t have the opportunity to be selfish when you have a spouse and kids pulling for your every second.
So don’t settle for a job that your parents or society tells you is good, if you know it’s not what you want. Find work that is true with your interests. If you start working there and it’s not what you thought, get out and find different work. No harm, no foul.
Be more loyal to yourself than any company or external expectations.
The time is now to do what you want and take risks.
Busting A Cliché
While the cliché “college is the best time of your life” is nice to say, it’s simply not true if you’re committed to personal growth and happiness.
How could it be true? You’re telling me four years from ages 18 to 22 are better than the rest of your life? There’s no way.
I believe this cliché is only propped up by the people who are not happy at work and live in complacency. Unfortunately that’s 70% of adults or more, so of course they say college is their best years and overstate this message.
But that’s not going to be true for you. Because you read this site so you obviously have some interest in personal development and making choices to find satisfaction. And I’m here to tell you that your life only improves after college.
The real world is tough, but it’s a lot better than studying for a subject you don’t need to know, being hungover more days of the week than you’re not, and answering to your parents when you do something wrong.
In the real world, you actually have money to do things that cost more than $10. You don’t have to drink nasty alcohol. You can travel or move to any city you want in the world, no questions asked. You go on to learn about yourself more and discovering what you want and don’t want to spend your time doing.
Most importantly, if you try at it enough, you can find a job you love doing that doesn’t feel like work. No more going through the motions doing what others ask of you, because now you can choose to follow your curiosity and do what you want.
The real world is great if you do it right. And after college is where you put the tools together and make major strides to fulfill your potential.
So congrats on graduating and I hope you look back on your college career with fond memories. But don’t get stuck in the past and cast this negative foreshadowing that you’re life won’t get any better.
After graduation is where things really get fun and dreams are made. You were meant to do great things, so I know you can do it. Now go off and do it!
My Graduation Present For You
To celebrate your graduation, I decided to cut both the ebook price of The Golden Resume (a guide to finding your dream job) and Freedom Money (a guide to reaching financial freedom) to $0.99 for this week. This special price goes on from May 17 to May 24.
So if you graduated without a job locked up, I truly recommend ordering The Golden Resume and following the job hunt strategies laid out in this book. You will find the secrets to making hiring managers love you by mastering your resume and acing interviews. If you follow this system right, it works every time.
And if you have a full-time job lined up or want to be prepared for when you do, make the most out of your new income by buying Freedom Money. This step-by-step outline details how to master your money by crushing debt, setting up a savings plan, and creating an investing strategy so your money grows for you. The earlier you start your journey of getting rich and reaching financial freedom, the sooner it becomes a reality.
Since I designed these two books to go in tandem with one another, a perfect college graduation present idea is to order these two books for yourself or someone you know who just graduated. Knowledge is power, that’s why I love buying books and giving them as gifts now or in the future.
(If you do want to buy the ebook for someone else, make sure you click the “Give as a Gift” button on the Kindle version page. This way you can email them the book or print out a voucher to place in a card.)
Congrats to the class of 2016!
