Dear Graduate…

I’m sure you’ve been asked questions like:

* What’s your major going to be? 
* What are your career plans after college? 

Or the biggest of them all, and the one you’ve probably been asked since elementary school: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Each question implies you should know the answer.

Sure, some people do. But my experience is that most of us don’t.
I certainly didn’t. And if you’re like me and you don’t know either, I just want you to know it’s okay.

It’s okay if you don’t know.
In fact, it’s how life works for most of us.

For most people, the answers aren’t found by checking the box on an enrollment form. The answers are found by living your life.

One of the best graduation gifts you can give yourself is to release yourself from the pressure of having to figure out the rest of your life. You simply need to figure out your best, next step.

To do this, you’ll need to give yourself another great graduation gift — step down from the role of a Judge over your life and assume the role of an Investigator in your life.

This simply means to become more curious about how you’ve been created — your strengths, interests, weaknesses and life experience. Let me give you a quick example.

My first marketing job was with the Atlanta Braves Promotions Department. This was three stadiums ago and long before the Braves were really good. It was an entry level role and a great opportunity to try a lot of different projects.

I quickly discovered I was terrible at advertising sales. Not just terrible. Charles Barkley “turrable.” My palms would sweat while making cold calls. It was an overall horrible experience. On the other hand, I discovered I was really good at coming up with creative promotional ideas, working with sponsors and writing TV/Radio scripts.

At first, I was really disappointed with myself that I wasn’t any good at sales. But that’s when my Dad said, “What you just discovered was a gift. The way you find your path in life is through trying. You might not be good at sales but you’re great at communication and coming up with ideas. Keep moving in that direction.”

This graduation season, if someone asks some long-range question about what you’re going to do for the rest of your life, give yourself the gift of simply saying, “I don’t know. But I’m going to figure it out by trying to take my next, best step.”

And trust me. If you’ll take on the role of an Investigator, becoming curious and reflective of your gifts and strengths, and if you’ll do your best to simply figure out your next step, you will eventually find your way.

Congratulations!!

FOR You,
Jeff Henderson

P.S. If you need help figuring out what to do next, it’s why I’ve written What to do Next. Preorder HERE