Find Happiness First and Success Will Follow

In order to reach happiness, you need to step out of your comfort zone and conquer the area of uncertainty inbetween.

Everything that they say will happen to you when you’re a second semester senior, does. Reality sets in and it sets in hard.

In a few months, myself, amongst millions of other graduates, will have to make some of the biggest decisions of our lives… where to live? what career path to take? which job? There most definitely is uncertainty staring at me and all the other grads in the face. What we have to do.... is embrace it.

After becoming undoubtedly overwhelmed at the thought of post-grad life, I had to sit and really think it over. With the help of someone close to me, I was able to take a step back and visualize the path that I need to set for myself for these next four months. What he helped me to realize, is that if I want to be happy with a career choice, I need to step outside of my comfort zone.

In order to do this, I’m setting myself one of the most important goals this semester: pursue my passions. If I do that, I know that no matter what I choose to do, I’ll be happy.

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I can't even begin to explain how often I've put success and security before happiness. I've always pursued things that would advance me in a career that would set me up for sure success.

Even though some may say I'm good at business oriented things, it's not one of my biggest passions. Oddly enough, I chose to go to Towson so that I could pursue both business and performance, yet I haven't really fed my desire to get involved in the arts as much as I should have.

So, my last semester, I'm enveloping myself within the arts. I'm taking a digital art class, which I've been dying to do since high school, a music theory class to further shape myself as a musician, and I'm putting on my own voice recital at the end of the semester to finally let the performer in me come out again.

On the same note (pun intended..), I’m going to apply the same theory to my decisions for after graduation. I’m going to make decisions that may seem out of the ordinary or completely crazy to others, but as long as it puts me on a path to something that I’ll enjoy and succeed at, that’s all that matters. If moving the New York City or Los Angeles to pursue a career is what will make me happy, then success will follow.

Do you have any other advice for ways to make sure happiness is included in your career?