To the fine folks who populate SFU: do you have a five-year plan? If so, congratulations on your ability to be good at stuff. You can probably stop reading here, and get back to doing bicep curls while you write your thesis, or whatever it is that you do to entertain yourself.
If, like me, your current five-year plan consists of merely trying to stay alive, read on!
When people ask me what I’m doing after I graduate, I genuinely have no idea what to say. Last week I realized I’m only ten courses away from finishing my degree, which resulted in a short episode of internal screaming that I quickly drowned out with three or seven cocktails.
But then, I got serious. Goals are important. They give us structure when Canvas schedules no longer can.
After much introspection, no research, and a fun makeover montage, I have come up with a plan that I like to call the “Do Cool New Shit Pretty Often” plan.
The basic tenants of the DCNSPO lifestyle are as follows: 1. Try new things. 2. Don’t compare yourself to other people. 3. Expect to fail miserably sometimes.
This plan works great for millennials such as myself who typically need structure to function and often suffer from an immobilizing fear of failure. I’m not saying that everyone is like me but if you have ever found yourself reading the “Top 25 People Under 25” lists and wondering why you spent so many years collecting Beanie Babies instead of practicing your networking skills, you might want to put a copy of the DCNSPO plan up on your fridge.You will probably royally fuck up a number of things in your life; believe you’ll get through them.
Trying something new can mean anything — for me, that could mean eating a new, interesting fruit, or maybe trying heroin. Just kidding. Seriously though, it means doing whatever you want, as long as it challenges your personal status quo. This way, in case your life flashes before your eyes, you won’t die out of boredom before you die from whatever else is about to hit you.
Making sure you don’t compare yourself to other people too often allows you to focus on your strengths. Just because you showed up at job interview with a chocolate chip melted onto your shirt doesn’t mean you don’t have important skills to bring to the company. So what if everyone else showed up in a suit? Pretend they don’t exist and you’ll be way more confident.
Accepting failure as part of life is by far the most important part of the plan. Fear of failure stops us from experimenting and traps us in our comfort zones. Stepping outside of yours might bruise your ego a little bit, but bruises build character. Maybe you’ll need a tetanus shot afterwards but you’ll have some great stories.
Getting used to failure is liberating. And, at the end of the day, we’re all human; accept that you will probably royally fuck up a number of things in your life, and just believe that you’ll get through them. Don’t let your fear stop you from trying things.
You can’t make five-year plans for the unknown and that’s what makes not having one a bit frightening. But the “Do Cool New Shit Pretty Often” plan has really put my mind at ease, so if you need the structure right now, feel free to plagiarize it.
TL;DR — I suggest you throw caution to the wind, and write something for The Peak this week.
