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From the post college years up to your early 30′s, you are bound to encounter hundreds of thousands of opinions about who you are and what you should do with your life.  Ultimately, the decision is up to you, but it will take determination to eliminate the numerous distractions and stay focused on your own dreams.  To get started on blazing your own path in life you will need your own dreams.  This may sound silly, but I was one of those people who had a great story to tell about my big plans for the future, but the truth was that I really had no clue and didn’t want anyone to know that.  I basically piggybacked off others’ dreams and touted them as my own.  In the end, I was the one who suffered because I lacked any direction and ended up graduating from college with two unrelated and seemingly useless majors.

The reality is that my college experience was incredibly beneficial, but I left school without a sense of belonging or ownership of any specific niche in life.  So, I have listed some useful ways below to help you blaze your own path, assuming you are now as clueless as I was then.  These ideas are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what you can accomplish but use these a guide to get started today.

Creating Your Identity – Start Here

1. Start a Blog and/or Podcast – Sound familiar?  You’re reading a blog right now that was started because the author wanted a forum to express what’s going on in his head.  Blogs and podcasts are wonderful technological advances that have given every individual, with access to a computer, the chance to have a voice and establish a unique niche, you.  Start a FREE blog today on WordPress.com or buy a cheap microphone and start recording your own podcasts.  Use Garageband if you have a Mac or Audacity on a PC.  Podcasts are basically online radio shows and you can record whatever you want, submit it iTunes, and begin a worldwide following within minutes.  If you can’t tell already, I’m a HUGE fan of blogs and podcasts because I know the potential they have to create an identity when you thought you had none.

2. Start a Business – Once again, sound familiar?  You’re reading a blog on a business website, started by a guy who created it online in a matter of days for under $75.  Yes, this website is my business and it was really that cheap to get started.  If the idea of being an entrepreneur sounds intriguing but you’re scared off by the thought of huge business loans and years of hard work before you turn a profit, you’re in for a lovely surprise.  Starting a business is the perfect way to blaze your own path, create your own identity, and make way more money than you could as a middle-manager in a paper warehouse.  Utilize the Internet and get going now.  Businesses don’t start themselves.

3. Study Abroad – This is a more indirect way of defining your own existence, but it works wonders.  I spent 4 months in Eastern Europe during college, primarily because I wanted to explore.  I got the opportunity to see more in those 4 months than most people see in their lifetime.  I met thousands of people from all walks of life and found many aspects of other cultures fascinating because they did many things better than the US.  That’s right, the rest of the world thinks differently, and that’s a good thing.  You can help establish what you really believe by seeing life from a new perspective.  Get out and see the world.  Even if you don’t “discover” yourself, you will have some awesome stories to tell.

4. Find a Bizarre Hobby – When you meet someone new, generally one of the first questions asked is, “What do you do?”  Typically, this means where do you work?  Or, how do you earn a living?  Imagine if your answer was something more startling than, “I’m a receptionist at a large corporation.”  What if it was, “I skydive in the Rocky Mountains.”  Or, “I’m a professional tango dancer.”  The point here is not to brag about yourself or ignore answering what you actually do to earn money by distracting someone with crazy stories.  The point is to create a unique characteristic about yourself that others will find fascinating, because you’re doing something they might never consider.  So, start mountain biking, do stand-up comedy at a local night club, play Wii at every retirement center around town to entertain the residents.  Get creative.

5. Do a Social Experiment – Remember Super Size Me?  The creator, Morgan Spurlock, decided to try an experiment and use himself as the guinea pig.  He created a documentary and later wrote a book to share the adventure with the world.  The result?  He won an Academy Award, started his own TV series, and defined his existence as the guy that took on McDonalds.  This is a great way to try some ridiculous stuff and get crazy media attention in the process.  So, pick an experiment with yourself as the subject, and create a way to share the experience and the outcome with as many people as possible.  If anything, the process will be a lot of fun and will create a unique story to help you find your passion.

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Don’t forget to check out my new revolutionary eBook for conquering life after college!

The Clueless Graduate,

Jeff & Tessa Sanders

Jeff Sanders


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