“Oh, the places you’ll go…” (Photo credit: Grace Church)

Week #142 – It’s Graduation Season!  (What’s the best/worst advice for grads?)

Happy June!

It’s graduation season — and a quick stop in the greeting card aisle is going to render some pretty trite advice to graduates:

• Follow your dreams…
• Find your calling…
• Pursue your passion…

My partner, James, and I often joke that there should be a “realistic” greeting card section with blunt advice, obvious statements, and realistic responses to really hard situations (“Heard your cat died…that sucks!”).

Why is it that we need to talk in hyperbole when wishing students well for the future?  Why not think about what we needed to hear — or wouldn’t listen to — when we were in that same position ourselves?

Our world is moving faster than ever.  Today’s graduates have more options than any other generation before.  Their world is much bigger and wide open than any other time.  They were born into the internet, social media, and missions to Mars.  There’s no telling what opportunities or challenges the next year — let alone ten years — will hold for them.

And yet, some things will remain the same: their secret wishes for themselves, that thing that lights them up on the inside, the values they hold most dear.  In short…their “why.”

So…rather than give vague advice and pleasantries, why not share what you really know?

Your Happyness Challenge for the Week Ahead: Share what you really know!  What is the best (or worst) advice for graduates?  What was it that you needed to hear — or didn’t listen to — when you were graduating?  Can you find a way to talk about these things with a recent grad — without talking down to them?  They are more overwhelmed than you think.  Most might be relieved just to have someone truly interested in helping them build their future, rather than just telling them “how it is.”  This week, reach out and share what you really know: the good, the bad, and even the obvious!

My best advice?  Our prognosis is all the same: our days are numbered.  Big moments or little — do your best to make them count.

Spread Happyness — share your best (or worst) graduation advice in the comments!

6/2/17 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com