Episode: 304

Episode Title: Forever–or Just For Now?

Young people often feel terrified of big decisions—like what they want to do with the rest of their life. Here’s one strategy that can help, next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 304 show:

Hello and welcome—you’re now in The Perna Syndicate! Career exploration is one area where students often feel immense pressure. They don’t want to make a mistake they’ll regret for the rest of their lives, and so they remain inert. They stand still in the tunnel instead of moving toward the light. They’re stuck in static purpose, and it’s tough to get them past that fear and into active-purpose mode. 

Quite simply, they don’t want to make a forever decision. What they need is a for-now direction. 

The for-now direction is simply the freedom to pursue an educational track without committing to it for the rest of your life. If students know that taking a step down one path doesn’t close off every other path in their future, that first step is not nearly so scary. 

This means they can change their mind at any time—next week, next year, or beyond. There’s no pressure. In the meantime, they get to explore something that interests them. Along the way, they’ll likely develop some transferable skills like persistence, communication, leadership, time management, and more. These traits are valuable no matter what career they ultimately choose. 

Even if they feel stuck, the for-now direction can help young people to keep moving forward.

Tomorrow: is the for-now direction just for students picking a career path—or can the rest of us use it, too? Let’s talk about it on the next episode of The Perna Syndicate. See you then!