When choosing what college you will attend, you aren't just choosing which school's dorm room is the most livable or which dining hall has the best salad bar (ahem, pizza, anyone??). You aren't just deciding if you want to live on the beach or the mountains for 4 years.
You are essentially deciding what you want to do for the next 40 years of your life.
That. Is. Huge.
Deciding where you want to live coupled with determining what you are going to do every single day for the next 4 decades? No wonder so many high school juniors and seniors struggle with the decision.
I truly believe that every high school junior or senior should do two things before starting their college search: know themselves and ask why.
Know yourself
One of the biggest things I learned in 2017? It wasn't a new technique with lighting or how to ensure that my clients enjoy their sessions more (though I id learn these!). I learned about me.
Just me.
Me as a person. Not mom-me. Not wife-me. Not business owner-me. Just me.
Learning these crazy details that I didn't realize impacted so many of my decisions and why I do the things I do helped me to understand me and moreover, why certain things resonate with me. It helped me to understand why I like things. It revealed that I like things that I didn't even know that I liked.
How did I learn about me?
No, I didn't attend an exclusive conference on a private Caribbean island (though that sounds amazing). No, I didn't hire a private coach to mentor me through self actualization.
I simply took a personality test.
Ok, I took 2. And I really, really studied the feedback. It made so much difference in me being able to love me and really appreciate who I am.
You as a junior or senior should do the same. Discover who you are. Learn about you. Know what you like and dislike. Know what moves you. Know how you learn. Even better, these tests give suggestions as to what fields would probably interest you.
My 2 favorite personality tests:
16Personalities (free with the option to pay and get way more info)
Gallup Strengths Finder (paid)
Take these seriously. These can- for real- make your next 40 years something that you absolutely love.
Why
A few years ago, I revamped my photography business. My goal was to really solidify what the purpose of my business was. Why does my company exist? Yes, I want to take drop dead gorgeous pictures of seniors, I love the process of photoshoots, and I really enjoy being my own boss, but how does that serve any value to you, my clients? I realized that I couldn't articulate why I wanted to own this particular business or why I wanted to take photographs. During the process, I discovered Simon Sinek.
Mr Simon rocked my world.
He gave a TED talk several years ago that I believe completely revolutionized the business world. And what he said was not a cure to cancer. He didn't discover a complex mathematical formula solving all our questions. He simply asked the question, "Why?"
This talk is on the list of top 20 watched TED talks of all time, and for good reason. This talk doesn't just resonate with business owners; it resonates with people doing all types of things: organizations digging wells in Africa, groups of people fighting to make a social change, a family adopting a child, a senior trying to decide where to go to college.
Essentially there are 3 parts to everything we do:
Why: our core beliefs
How: how you do it (how you fulfill your core beliefs)
What: what you do (what fulfills your core beliefs)
The best part? Your ONE why never changes. How or what you do might change, but your why - what drives you - never changes.
Homework
To make the most of these resources, I want to give you a little homework. Please don't just read over this post, shrug your shoulders, and say you'll come back to it later. Plan a time. Plan a specific time when you will sit down and do these action steps. These can seriously make all the difference in your college career. I wish I would have had someone show me these ideas before I started my college search. I would have saved a lot of roaming and taking useless courses.
Do one or both of the personality tests.
Pay for the extra info. Just do it.
Read over your results.
Study it. Discuss the results with your parents, school counselor (if they are actually available and useful), or other trusted adult.
Watch the Simon Sinek video above
It's less than 20 minutes.
Answer the following questions
Spend some time on these. Answer them in depth and truthfully. No one needs to see them but you.
What gets me up in the morning and gets me excited? What motivates me? Make this list as big as possible. Don't limit yourself.
What am I working towards? What is that one thing that I have to do? Basically, at the end of my life, what will make it all worth it?
If money didn't matter, how would I spend my days?
What are my strengths? Taken from the personality tests you did.
What do I believe? Using "I believe..." statements helps. What do you stand for? Does it feel compelling? Go into several areas of life: political, religious, financial, arts, sciences, business, medicine, people.