Where do you want to see yourself in 25 years? Doing what? Self empoyed or working for a company? Which one? Living where? Married? Children? Big house and car?

Remember the three Reality Check question? If not, they are:

• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to go?
• How am I going to get there?

This is the hardest question to answer in life. It is better to do this before graduating than bouncing from one job to the next after graduation until you figure it out. The younger the age that you can get focused on a career that you will be passionate about, the better! If you do something you love, the money will usually follow. If you know where you would like to be 25 years from now, the key will be to build a plan to help get you there. Here are some questions to help you better focus on the future:

• Which do you think is better: a job or a career? Why? Would you prefer to have a job or career?

• Think about goals for a minute. Have you ever set one? What was the goal? Did you achieve it? What led you to achieve, or not achieve, your goal?

• Which goals do you prefer: ones you set for yourself, or those that others set for you? Why?

• Which is more important to your future: formal learning or informal learning? Why?

• List three things you have learned from formal learning and three things from informal learning. How have they helped to shape who you are?

• Draw the Like/Dislike T-Bar and look at the Like/Dislike Model. Take a few minutes to write down things you like regarding your formal learning and informal learning.

• Can you think of a 1-3 possible career areas that relate to your likes?

• Do a SWOT analysis related to your possible career area. What are your strengths? Weaknesses? Opportunities? Threats? Can you leverage your strengths to be successful in an area you like?

• Set one short-term goal to accomplish within the next 6 months. What do you wish to do by when and how?

• Set one new goal for yourself regarding your future career plans. How might you be able to challenge yourself to achieve that goal by listing three specific activities? If you accomplish that goal, what is the next goal that might follow?

• What if your parents object to your career choice or your friends object to your choice of a college you wish to attend? Should you take their advice as ‘law’ or ‘input’? In 25 years, will either care if you have been getting up for years to work at something, or live somewhere, that you hate, just because you wanted to keep them happy when you were 18?

• Think of one situation where networking has helped you? What was it? What were you trying to accomplish?

• Can you think of a situation in the future where networking might be able to help you? What steps will you take moving forward from today?

• If you were to graduate today and applied for a position with 10 other students also graduating from your school who have an interest in the same area, how confident are you in your grades and experience that you would get an interview?

• What if you were competing against 10 students whom you knew nothing about from across your city? From across your state? From across the country? How confident are you that you would get an interview, let alone the position?

• What if you were up against these same students, yet you graduated with a degree or diploma related to the field, had good grades, and also had built strong experience related through activities and part-time or summer jobs. How confident would you be in your chances of getting an interview and landing the position?

Answering Reality Check Question #3: How am I going to get there?

Everything you do for the next few years ought to be geared to one thing and one thing only: building a strong resume for graduation day! If there were 100 applications for a position, will yours be in the top 10? Now that you have an idea of what you want to do, here are some more exercises to help you build the plan to get to where you want to go:

• Having an idea of what your desired career area is, what colleges offer related programs?

• Do you have the grades to get in?

• Do you have the funds to pay for college? If not, what ways can you get enough money to pay for college if you have not saved enough from your summer/part-time jobs and your family can not contribute?

• Once in college, do you wish to bear education opportunity costs? What are the risks of being a Christmas Graduate or being convicted of Academic Dishonesty?

• What types of skills and experience do employers look for? Do you have these skills and relevant experience to make yourself more attractive to them as a prospective employee?

• What steps can you take today to help you build relevant experience and critical skills?

• What cocurricular and extracurricular activities can you get involved with today to help build your competitive advantage for graduation day?

• Do you think it is better to get involved as you start college and pace yourself or wait until your senior year and risk burning out to try and stack your resumé? Why?

• List three summer jobs you would love to have and three employers you would love to work for. Are there jobs advertised with these employers currently? Are the jobs related to your desired field? What steps can you take today to try to secure one of these jobs with one of your desired employers, even if no openings exist at present?

• If given the choice between a higher paying summer job in an area not related to your career of choice versus a lower paying summer job in a related area, which one would you take? Why? Moving forward, which do you think would be better to help you build a competitive advantage?

As it relates to the first question you answered, being “Where do you want to see yourself in 25 years?”…are you prepared to get focused now, apply yourself, make some sacrifices if necessary over the next few years, to set yourself up for a rewarding career to help you get all the things you want out of life?

Life also has a way of making a path for those who know where they want to go. Life is about choices. Sometimes they are easy, sometimes tough. In my life, I have always subscribed to six simple principles that have helped me when I needed to make choices:

1. Honesty and integrity in dealing with the good, the bad, and the ugly
2. Do unto others as I would have them do unto me
3. Do my best at everything I try and strive to set the ‘gold standard’.
4. Do the right thing by trusting my gut instincts
5. Family matters. Keep life and work balanced.
6. When I get to be 80, I never want to start a sentence with “Geez, I wish I would have…”

In life, you will regret the things you did not do more than the things you did. My best wishes for your future success! Good Luck!