Life after college
The first post-college year is a weird. Such has been my experience since graduating and entering the workforce. I now understand why so many of my peers chose to pursue additional education opportunities following undergrad. That said, I am confident in my decision to leave academia (at least for now) and strike a path out there in Corporate America.
With increasing lifespans and changing social norms, I am currently part of a demographic that didn’t really exist just a few decades ago: young, professional, unmarried adults. In some ways, I love this phase in my life: I am independent, I live comfortably, and I have the freedom to focus on personal development. In some ways, I am terrified: my life is full of unknowns. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on this over the last year and I’ve come up with a few theories on how to optimize this phase of life.
Surround yourself with people you love. This one seems obvious, but it deserves mention. As a child, and even to some degree during school years, you have external forces influencing your circle of friends. If you’re extremely lucky, everyone in your friendship cloud will bring you happiness and lift your spirits. For the rest of us, there are always those hangers-on who travel in a cloud of pessimism and contempt, and serve as black holes of energy. At some point, you have to cut the ropes and let these people drift on. Surround yourself with the people you love and you will be happier and much more content with life.
Minimize low-value activities. My shining example of this theory is a simple one: ditch the TV. I’ve been living sans-television for about 6 months now and I love it. I still watch a few TV-shows throughiTunes , but I’ve entirely eliminated the classic time-waster of channel surfing. (Advertisements are also removed, saving about 10 minutes per show.) We each get the same 24 hours per day, so why not optimize your time by reducing low-value activities. This is not to say you have to be working or doing high-intensity stuff all day–to the contrary, rest and relaxation time is very important. The key is to be conscious about how you spend your time, and seek out those activities that add richness and depth to the shared experience we call life.
Be passionate about your work. If you’re lucky, you are extremely passionate about your 9-to-5 job. If you’re like the rest of us, you find your work interesting and enjoyable, but you need to look outside the normal work day to fuel your passions. The important thing in feeling fulfilled in life is identifying what you are passionate about and incorporating that into your work. Hopefully you can incorporate your passion with your 9-to-5, or at least find a happy balance. Don’t know what you’re passionate about? Here’s a quick and easy test: if you read about a subject matter in your leisure time, chances are you’re passionate about it.
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So there you have it. Three nuggets of wisdom from someone with scarcely 23 years under his belt. Take them or leave them. I’d love to hear what your experience has been–add a comment!
Filed under culture, education, work : Comments (3) : Mar 6th, 2007 by tadfad
April 2nd, 2007 at 21:14
Are you extremely passionate about your job? Maybe my IMLP experience is different than yours. Or maybe I’m just crazy.
May 13th, 2007 at 22:04
Based on your criterion, I am passionate about celebrity gossip, fantasy worlds, wedding cakes, and quilting. I agree that minimizing low-value activities is a great step, although I’m still working on figuring out which high-value ones to replace them with. I spend a lot of time reading magazines, but is that really high value? I don’t own a tv but I still watch four shows obtained from the internets (Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, The Office, and America’s Next Top Model). That’s not exactly a high-value activity, either, but if I enjoy the shows enough then should I keep them on the roster? I think browsing the interweb – yes, including blogs – is actually my biggest low-value time waster.
May 15th, 2007 at 20:26
I may be a bit biased, but I think that blogging is a pretty good use of your time. Personally, I find that by going through the motions of thinking critically about something, forming a cogent thesis, then writing a brief blog post is very therapeutic. Plus it keeps my writing skills sharp (in case I ever drop out of corporate america and hole up in a cabin somewhere to write).