The real secret to college and young life success runs through your willingness to explore. I'm not talking about crossing the ocean in a wooden boat to explore uninhabited islands. Rather, I'm talking about spending time and energy over the next couple of years to explore your (if you're the student) deep internal interests, desires, abilities, and passion. 

Exploring includes improving your awareness and understanding of things happening all over the world. This will expand your global mindset. 

Exploring includes listening closely to other people's beliefs and feelings, without imposing judgment. This will expand your perspective.  

Exploring includes participating in a variety of games, events, and activities; carefully scheduling your school electives and planning summer study programs; regularly reading interesting articles; working jobs or volunteering on projects. This will expand your knowledge.

Combining it all, you will build upon your intelligence, better understand your belief system, properly identify your interests, and gain clarity on your path forward. This is self-discovery, a critical phase in a young person's development. It can't happen accidentally, rather, it can only happen by means of a thoughtful, conscious plan. 

Through self-discovery, you will begin to realize all things that are important, relevant, and meaningful to you; what you stand for and what you can't stand; and most importantly, what you love to do. These are profound realizations, the kind that will lead to making good decisions, for the right reasons.

This week, a great colleague of mine told me-

"You can do what you love doing, and still fail. Or you can do what you don't like doing, and fail, but that's much worse!"

A meaningful and enjoyable life, one driven by purpose, is created through the process of exploration, self-discovery, and realization. 

It is the ultimate secret for defining a pathway to success and satisfaction. Without it, everything will be left to guesswork and random chance. 

I know what I can't stand and that's leaving important matters to guesswork or random chance. If you'd like to get on a pathway to college and young adult success, let's talk.