3 Ways to Prepare for Your Future

As a student, you’ve probably been told that you need to start preparing for your future. You may be wondering how you can do that, or what your future should even be.

Often when people say that you should start preparing for your future, they mean that you should start preparing for a career.

In this blog post I’m going to go through some of the ways that you can prepare for your future.

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1. Finding Potential Jobs

One of the concerns you may have is finding a job that you love. After all, many people say that when you have a job you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

In my opinion, that’s a lie. There are always going to be aspects of your job that you don’t enjoy, as there are many different tasks that jobs will require you to do.

Nothing in life is perfect, and that includes work.

Instead of looking for a job that you would love to do for the rest of your life, try to find a job that gives you satisfaction.

Even if you dislike parts of your job, if you feel very satisfied when you complete work, you’ll enjoy your job much more.

How can you find jobs that give you satisfaction? By trying them out.

As a student you have a wonderful opportunity to try out different jobs without committing to them in the long-term. It’s kind of like being in a clothing store, where you can try on different outfits to see what fits, before you make a purchase.

When you’re home educated you’ll have plenty of opportunities to try out different jobs. You probably won’t get paid for them, but they’ll give you both practical experience and an opportunity to find out what you enjoy doing.

Last year, around this time, I wanted to know what being a freelance artist would be like. For a few months I worked about 8 hours a day on art. On top of that, I was learning the fundamentals of art from a professional artist, and I had joined a critique group.

By doing that I improved my art skills tremendously, and I also learned that being a fulltime artist would stress me out too much, and so being a hobbyist or a parttime artist would be better for me.

I’ve also studied lots of other subjects to see if any have a long-term resonance with me.

Writing has had the most resonance with me, as I started writing for fun 4 years ago, and I continue to do so to this day. In fact, I write much more frequently than I used to, as I now blog consistently on top of my novel writing.

Because I have tried out writing, I know that I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of it, and my regular practice means that I have a lot of skills built up for a future of being a professional blogger or author.

So try out the jobs that interest you, to see if any give you long-term satisfaction.

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2. Learning Money Management

Another thing you’ll want to do to prepare for your future is learn how to manage your money.

A good exercise to do this is to pretend that you are moving out and need to make a budget for rent, food, amnenities, etc. This will give you a chance to figure out how much you’re willing to spend on things, and how much you’ll need to make to live comfortably.

Another exercise to do is seriously consider any purchases you make, no matter how small. Think about how much you truly need that item, and consider how much you’ll actually use it.

Doing that will train your mind to analyze the cost to use ratio of items, and it will also help you avoid buyer’s remorse.

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3. Build Up Your Skills and Portfolio

The last thing you can do to prepare for your future is to build up skills and a portfolio.

A lot of skills are transferable, meaning that they are good for all sorts of different jobs. The problem is that we often aren’t taught to think of those skills as skills, we’re taught to think of them as talents.

What’s so bad about thinking of skills as talents? When we think of skills as talents, it gives us the excuse to forego development and growth.

Instead of thinking that we’ll get better with practice, we think that we just weren’t born with it, and so we shouldn’t even try.

In reality, almost anything can improve with practice.

Here are some transferable skills that are often seen as talents:

1. Problem solving
2. Listening
3. Time management
4. Leadership
5. Communication
6. Public speaking
7. Motivational skills
8. Goal setting
9. Planning
10. Explaining

It may seem as some people are just born being able to give speeches or resolve any fight that arises, but they probably just learned those skills through parents or other family members when they were young and impressionable.

The truth is that most things can be taught, and if it can be taught it can be learned.

What about a portfolio?

When most people think of a portfolio, they think of an artist’s collection of their best work, which they show to potential employers, schools, and customers.

A portfolio is a way to display the projects that you have worked on, and so they are good for things outside of art.

From a website that shows the video games you’ve made, to a YouTube channel that showcases your architectural projects, to a blog that demonstrates your writing skills.

Portfolios can showcase your skills and talents in many ways, so sit down and think about what you want to show potential employers, customers, and mentors, before you start making one.

After you’ve made a portfolio, keep it up to date with all of your best projects so people can see your improvement.

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If you found this post helpful or interesting, consider leaving a like, a comment, or sharing it on social media.

I blog about home education every Monday, and I blog about other topics, such as writing and art, on Wednesdays and Fridays, so check back soon for a new post.