What’s the Point?

By: Phil Ortiz
www.collegelifeplanning.com

What’s the Point?

What do I like to do? What would I be good at? How do I even know if I will like what I do? What about college? Should I even go? I don’t even know what i’m going to major in. Would I be wasting money? Maybe i’ll just figure it out when I get there. How am I going to pay for college? Should I just take out loans? What if I don’t like the classes? What if I don’t like the college? How do I know what college is right for me? What am I going to do after I graduate? How am I going to pay off my loans? How do I even know what I would be good at? All my friends are going to this college, maybe I should go…if they like it then I might… My family went to that college, I should just go to the same one. There is no way I could go to college, I could never afford it.

Sounds pretty hectic, but that is exactly what is going on in students heads while in high school and right after they graduate. The facts are that these questions are so difficult to answer and students are so far off from anything they can call an answer that they don’t even think about trying to find an answer. So on the outside it looks as though they don’t care, but in reality, they do, they just don’t have the tools to answer these questions.

Deep within every student there is an immeasurable amount of potential to succeed. Yet that will never be unleashed unless the student knows where and how to apply that potential.  Every student coming out of high school was born with strengths.  Every student, your son or daughter,  or even you holding this book, were defined and wired for a specific purpose. But what is that purpose? What are these “things”? What are these “strengths”? How do I tap in this potential? Are you sure I actually have strengths? Yes, absolutely everyone has strengths. Our strengths were not given to us simply to achieve our own goals. Our strengths were given so we can fulfill God’s purpose and plan for our lives and bring His Kingdom. This is the concept of vocation, or calling. “A job is what you are hired to do, a calling is what you are wired to do.”

What students first need is for someone to “draw out” these inner talents, strengths and gifts then they can be “poured” into with personalized, focused and applicable education according to their strengths.  The object of students in high school is to identify these strengths then develop, cultivate and test these strengths in college.  Once you better understand and appreciate your personal strengths, you can get a clearer focus on your identity with a more specific direction for your future.  This will create a mindset that will not make work seem like an actual task. When you sit down to start a project, or a paper, it won’t feel like a burden, hanging over your head like those fill in the blank worksheets, research papers, or boring reading assignments about topics you don’t understand and subjects you don’t really care about.  You will begin to study subjects that excite your mind and will instigate your desire to learn.

How do you select a major in college?!

By: Nathan Cornett

www.collegelifeplanning.com

www.collegepreparationhelp.com

The first thing you will want to do is take a deep look inside… who are you? What are you passionate about? If you don’t know these answers, what about these- What subjects are you good at right now? Are there any subjects that you like? If you find a particular interest in biology, or history; you might find that that interest is more lasting than just a brief high school fling.

Start to seriously ask yourself what you may be interested in now. It may take years to develop those interests into actionable items, but if you start asking now you will have the answers sooner than if you wait.

Start with your interests and then move to your skills. You will want to like what you do (that’s your interests) but you’ve also got to be good at what you do (that’s your skills). Once you can see how your interests and skills work together in harmony, then you can start to develop a plan for your life that is lasting.

I spent a good part of my life very unsure of what I was doing. In fact I still have questions about my direction. But I know for sure that my passion is to ‘help’ people become who they were designed to be, and to live life to the fullest.

If you’re interested, I would be happy to meet with you through the MAPS profiling system we created in conjunction with Mike Adams. This profiling system is very affordable, and we can help to use your talents and strengths in conjunction with your interests and passions to develop a plan that you can use to guide you through the college planning process.

Call me! E-mail me! Text me! IM me! Whateve. I am available.