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Tips to Spruce Up Your Life

The birds are chirping and flowers are blooming, but do you feel like your work life is holding you back in the wintry cold of last season? March 20th is the first official day of Spring, and it’s time to get our lives in order for the new season!

Whether you’re a student or a young professional, it’s never too soon or too late to take inventory on where you’re at and to explore opportunities for new growth. Here are some tips to spruce up your life:

For the Undergrad:

Whether you’re a junior or senior preparing to graduate, it’s never too early to start contemplating where you’ll begin your career.

  • Set up informational interviews.  You can conduct these over the phone, but informational interviews are most beneficial in person. If the companies you’d potentially like to work for are out of state, set up a trip to go meet with some of the employees at various companies to find out what they’re really like. Not only could this be a way to get your foot in the door at various companies, but it could save you a lot of time and energy if you get there and learn more about what jobs do and don’t interest you.   Consider taking your Spring Break to travel to several places for these informational interviews.  Click here to learn powerful strategies for conducting informational interviews:  Special Report - Informational Interviews.pdf.
  • Start arranging formal interviews.  As soon as you decide what career most directly contributes to reaching your dream, begin setting up interviews. Even if it seems early, at the very least they will provide great practice for you.  For effective strategies in mastering the interview, click here:  Special Report - Winning the interview.pdf .
  • Research other opportunities that will affect the outcome of your future. When you narrow down some places where you might like to work, begin researching the other factors that follow: where you would live, whether the culture in the surrounding areas suits your lifestyle, and whether you can feasibly afford the cost of living in that area.

For the Young Professional:

Perhaps you’re in your first year at your job, or maybe you’ve been in the working world for several years. Either way, if you’re unhappy or have recently realized that your everyday work is doing nothing to contribute to achieving your dream, it may be time to measure your priorities and start making a plan to bring about new opportunities.

  • Decide whether your job is a stepping stone or a barrier to making your dream a reality. Your response to this could be key in determining your next steps. Perhaps this answer will cause an awakening within you which will help you to get back on the track of chasing your dream. Or, hopefully, you’ll realize the value of your current job for what it does in assisting you in accomplishing your dream.
  • Make a plan for returning to the pursuit of your dream. It may be possible to begin devoting a couple of hours each week or maybe a weekend every month doing something to pursue your dream. This will enable you to rediscover that passion without taking away from your dedication to your job.
    We recommend alumnus Andrew Hewitt’s (LA ’04) strategy – Creating Your Dream Manifesto.  Click here:  Special Report - Creating Your Dream Manifesto.pdf
You can see that no matter where you are in life, it’s always beneficial to assess your current situation and to look for new beginnings that can bring about change for the better. Clean up anything from your life that isn’t bringing you closer to your happiness or your dream. Don’t remain stagnant! What can you start doing now that will lead to you looking back on this year and realizing that you made major progress toward your dream? Change your major, enroll in a night or weekend class, ask your boss for a promotion, research jobs available in your dream city, or set aside time on weekends to pursue your dream. Whatever you do this year, work toward ensuring that next Spring when you assess your situation, you’ll have more growth and less cleaning to do.