It's OK To Not Have It All Figured Out...

In today's day and age recent college graduates put a lot of pressure on themselves to be extremely successful right out of the starting gate. This pressure comes from a multitude of things; uncanny amounts of student debt, the urge from parent's to make enough to pay that debt, cost of living, all while trying to support yourself independently and be able to have fun and live your life at the same time.

We're in our early 20's, we're young and free. We have our jobs that we are attached to, but we don't have children, many of us are single, or in a relationship, or living with someone who shares the same sense of adventure as you do. People 30 or 40+ years our Senior always advise that we live our life to it's fullest and do all of our traveling and exploring while we are young and can. Once you start a family and have a settled down lifestyle, it gets harder to travel the world, let alone go across the country to vacation.

We still have this sense though that we need to make our parent's proud, our grandparent's proud, aunts, uncles, professors, friends, alma mater, and degree programs proud. Like we owe them something. Don't get me wrong, we do owe many of them something. Without their unconditional love, support, and encouragement we probably would not be where we are today or have made it through. But we also need to realize that the real world is harsh and less forgiving than college. Less forgiving than that first summer job you had that became you're "job" on the weekends, during college breaks, and maybe even after you graduated college if you hadn't landed a job in your field yet. So here are a few things that I think we all need to remember when you're 23 and feeling like you should have it all figured out....

1.) YOU DO NOT NEED TO HAVE IT ALL FIGURED OUT....you're 23. You just graduated college. You have minimal experience. So you may not land that dream job, but, start looking at how to work your way to that dream job. The person who is now a CEO probably started out as an intern or assistant, fetching coffee, copying documents on a fax machine, booking appointments, and operating a customer service phone line. They didn't just hop to the top because they had excellent grades, lots of extra-curriculars, and was super involved in school. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I think that working your way up is a more humbling experience and makes you appreciate the position you eventually end up in.

2.) YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PROUD...personally I found this line out of a song from Disney's Hercules. Megara was too proud to say that she's in love, because she said she would never fall in love. Most of us say that we are never going to fetch coffees and run a Xerox. We're too proud to do such things and expect to be working much higher wage jobs with a sense of a title that makes you feel proud, empowered, and like you're somebody. I'll be honest and say, that was me at one point. I wasn't going to be someone's personal errand runner. I had a job that I worked hard at over the years between weekends and college breaks. I came back and was able to jump right into my role like I never left. I picked up on things quickly, and became an instant go-to for people who needed assistance or help. I was working a retail job that wasn't in my career field whatsover. I had no job when I graduated in my field, so I went back. I kept applying and interviewing, with no luck. This company saw my potential and wanted me to move-up. To be honest, I did it for the experience, because that is what I supposedly lacked, and because I needed more money and it was a pay raise to move up a little bit. Working hard to move myself up the chain, was humbling. I knew when my fellow employees were upset and I could understand what they were going through because I had been through it first hand. Although I was able to see the other side of some situation's that I couldn't before because of my status within the company, it just enabled me to better help them. The experience's where you work hard to get where you are and make a name for yourself, are the kind of experience's that make you who you are and good at what you are doing.

3.) LIVE YOUR LIFE THE WAY YOU WANT: Travel when you can, save for that place you want to visit when you get to take some time off from work. I finally have a job where I do get vacation time and I take advantage of it! I pay my bills, support myself, and save for that vacation. I do it on a budget but it's not impossible. So if you want to go somewhere do it. You will regret all the chances that you don't take.

4.) YOUR STARTING JOB MIGHT BE THE BEST JOB EVER: I am currently an Inside Sales Representative at the company I work at. I can't say enough good things about my job either. It's certainly not the role I want to be in for forever, but it has seriously been the best job ever. They reward you for your hard work i.e; my territory took 1st in a challenge at the sales center twice and I got two day trips out of the office with my team, and I have been selected to spend a week riding along with my field reps...in Colorado and New Mexico since that's my territory!! There's a lot of perks sometimes to that starting job.

5.) HAVE A JOB THAT SUPPORTS YOU, BUT SUPPORT YOURSELF TOO: I can't say it enough, but support from both yourself and your job makes you a better employee in the end. Both jobs I had, my high school/college summer job and my current job both of my bosses have been super supportive and so have other members of the company. At my current job there are supervisors who are responsible for a team of employees, but each supervisor is also supporting everyone as a whole as well. There are other key members within the center as well, such as operations managers, trainers, commercial analysts, resource consultants, etc. who all support us. We get heavily trained on our products and on our mission as a company. They make sure that each rep has the support they need to be the best they can be. We have sales and customer experience coaches who rather than scold you on a mistake help you work over that error and provide a better experience. They welcome your feedback and any criticism is always constructive. If you aren't getting support and you don't feel like you are motivated to support yourself to move up, you need to look for another job. Being supported and motivated is the key to your success.

6.) LASTLY, IT WILL ALL WORK OUT: I have come to terms with the fact that in life, everything will work itself out. You have to be positive and work towards what you want and you will get where you want to be in life. There's a reason you landed that job you interviewed for and didn't think you'd get. There's a reason you were given extra responsibilities at your current job even though it didn't necessarily mean a promotion or raise. Everything you do and every opportunity you are given and take is another step towards where you want to be. Again, you don't need to have it all figured out right now. It will all work itself out in the end, seriously. Relax, enjoy this life, because you are only given one.