Before watching the webinar recording, I honestly thought I wouldn’t hear

much that’s really new to me. When I think of preparing for my career, I find myself
wanting to immediately jump into the unknown—what’s something I need to do in
preparation that I have not a single clue about? And, in doing so, I tend to overthink
and overcomplicate things for myself that even if I’m not entirely sure of something, I
sometimes feel myself just wanting to rush in, go through with it, and deal with any
unforeseen circumstances along the way. That’s how I generally feel about preparing
for my future, and it’s mirrored in the steps I’ve taken thus far towards it (i.e.,
choosing what degree programs to apply for, deciding on which one I’ll really take).
There’s a lot of things I need to consider, and it feels too complicated to try and plan so
far ahead, especially when I’m burdened with the fear of making a mistake I can’t go
back on.
However, in all honesty, I have come out of this webinar with what feels like a
slightly clearer head. Sure, there were ideas and concepts I was already familiar with,
but there were also things I hadn’t thought of doing or heard of before, like really
visualizing where I want to be after x years—what is my dream situation? It’s simple to
just say that I want to be happy and rich and content, and so far, that’s the only way I
have visualized my dream future life, but how do I get there if I don’t know what being
happy and rich and content means for me? To achieve that, I would have to be more
specific, but my initial thought process was that if I didn’t have very specific
expectations for myself and the way I live, I wouldn’t have to face disappointment
when I don’t meet these goals in the way I had expected or wanted. How can I make a
mistake when I’m not really sure what would constitute a mistake? It wasn’t a fear of
being imperfect, but a fear of regretting making a certain decision. I didn’t want to box
myself in and realize later that it was the wrong thing to do.
I’ve realized now that long-term goal-setting wasn’t really what I had an issue
with. Like what I’ve mentioned earlier, I’d rushed too far in and started overthinking
again (it’s hard to avoid). If I wanted to be happy and rich and content, I’d need to plan
out how I could possibly achieve that. It would involve really looking inwards,
establishing what it is that I really want, and identifying the kind of targets and
decisions I could make to get there. An especially big takeaway for me from the
webinar is to break that big long-term goal into smaller, bite-sized pieces. That way, I’d
remain focused, attain little moments of victory, and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

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