Figuring Out Your FUTURE!

DEAR DIARY, December 2008, by Nada Adams


Figuring Out Your
FUTURE!


Dear Diary,
Sometimes I feel like I can never measure up. I’m not that pretty and my grades are average. Some people I hang out with are really smart and stuff, but I never really got into sports or anything like that, you know? Like I never made a team of got an A no matter how hard I tried. I would say my life was great until I started worrying that one day I’ll have to pick a career and I’m not ‘really good’ at anything. What should I do?
~ Lanna, 13, British Columbia

Dear Lanna,
Thank you for writing to express how you feel! I acknowledge your courage to reach out and ask for advice. Let me start off by saying I can relate with your feelings of not measuring up. Girls and boys thrive on different things. When a girl is young, she thrives and feels supported and encouraged with positive praise; however boys need to feel challenged to thrive emotionally. I will venture to say that you could have received more support and positive praise to help you feel better than ‘not good enough’.

For starters I would invite you to start looking at all that you do that is ‘right’, and stop comparing yourself to anyone else – not even siblings if you have any. There is only ONE of you in this world and no one will ever be exactly like you – EVER! That make you special. You have a special combination of skills and talents and you are here on this earth for a greater purpose – that is my promise!

It sounds like you have quite found your passion or purpose yet and guess what? When I was your age, I didn’t have a clue wither but I certainly had a liking for certain things (for me it was teaching… I wanted to teach the kids in the neighbourhood when I was 10). But if you asked me then what I would do or be when I grew up, I didn’t have an answer.

I encourage you to START PARTICIPATING more in your life. Catch yourself when you say, “I’m not really good at this or that” and make sure you participate in lots of different (positive) activities especially if you haven’t tried them before. For example you could try all kinds of sports, cooking, Pilates, sewing, etc. Your mind set will then be, I’m good at trying many things.” You will have fun and get closer to figuring out what you love and are great at.

So, if you give yourself permission to have fun and simply learn as much as you can (especially from your mistakes), you will discover your passion and purpose.

“The key to success is to fail quickly.”

What do I mean by that? Well, when you participate in many activities, you will quickly discover what you like and don’t like. The sooner you find out what you don’t like the closer you will be to finding out what you do like. Did you know that the famous golf player Tiger Woods started swinging a golf club at the age of 3? Do you think he was good at first? He wasn’t! But he liked it and his dad encouraged him to practice every single day until he perfected his skill set over the years. How about the famous basketball player Michael Jordan? Did you know he didn’t make his high school basketball team? As a result he practiced everyday for 2 full years until he perfected his skill set. We all know where he is now! Anyone who ever told you that achieving excellence is effortless and without work is sadly mistaken. Every level of success in any area you desire is achieved with persistence, effort and practice. We’re all born with a predisposition to achieve excellence in at least one major area of our lives. This doesn’t mean that the moment you start something you’ll perform at your best right away. It simply means that if you practice and persist doing that you want to excel in, you can and will achieve tremendous success while making plenty of mistakes along the way. So start loving your mistakes and learning form them right away without beating yourself up!

I look forward to hearing all about your future success…

I believe in you!
~ Nada

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