Belated Advice

A friend is speaking to high school students next week for Career Day. He asked if I had any thoughts about what he might say. I responded with some things I wish I had heard in high school. I entered the adult world unprepared and with no idea of what to do.

So, here is advice to myself, forty years later.

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The skills you will need to succeed in any career are basic, so basic that they may not seem relevant at first.

· The ability to think (keep the mind focussed on a task or problem.)
· The ability to solve problems (to state them, research solutions, implement the solution.)
· The ability to learn new things (you have to keep up with the changing world.)
· The ability to work with other people (to share ideas without conflict and resentment.)
· The ability to communicate well (so others will clearly understand what you mean.)
· The ability to accept change comfortably (nothing in your life will stay the same, get used to it.)
· The ability to stay healthy (good nutrition and healthy habits enhance mental and physical endurance.)
· The ability to relax (not just sleeping, it is important to just kick back and recharge your batteries.)
· The ability to have fun (to play and laugh, especially at yourself. Having fun makes work worthwhile.)

In addition:

Find a purpose for your life; define it for yourself. Make that purpose something other than simply to make lots of money, to feel good or to gain a sense of self-importance. Choose a purpose that centers on something outside of yourself; like, to help ease the suffering of some less-fortunate person around you, or to leave your little corner of the world a better place than you found it. Then, each week do something that contributes to that purpose. Most importantly, do that thing anonymously. Let no one know that you did it. This will have two effects; 1.) You feel good about yourself without inflating your ego (a good thing) and 2.) The beneficiaries of your action will be living in a world where any one of the strangers around them just might be the person who performed that act of kindness without expecting a reward (also a good thing.)

Finally:

Accept that you are not the center of the universe. This will not diminish you in any way. On the contrary, it will make you a part of something much greater than yourself. To understand, contemplate this verse from the Desiderata by Max Ehrmann:


You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.