Where do you want to be five years from now?

Do you still want to live with your parents? In a small apartment? Worried about paying your bills? If that’s what you want, fine, it is your choice. However, if you want more, you need a few things to get there.

If you want a car with no payments, a home you can be proud of, bills on auto-pay, and savings accounts that grow every month, you need the same things every successful explorer needed: a map, a compass and a burning desire to get there.

The map is one that you get to draw. It is your vision of your future. Just being in college indicates that you want a better future. Do you know what that future will look like? Have you done the math? Are you really willing to do what it takes to claim that lifestyle?

Many choose to go to college because it may lead to a better paying job. Better pay is one possible ingredient for a better life. If you stopped doing research there, you might be in trouble.

Will that better paying job give you the lifestyle you want to live? Is it the lifestyle you want for your children? It’s time to do homework in the most important class you can ever take; personal development.

Your personal development sharpens the one tool that makes all your other classes easier and gives your life direction and focus.

You won’t find it on TalonNet. Cerritos College does not offer it. This is your class, your curriculum, your research, homework assignments, projects, text books, everything. This is personal.

It’s about being a better you, a better man or woman, a better human being and friend. It’s an ongoing and never-ending quest for knowledge about oneself and our interaction with others.

You might be thinking, “I’ve never designed a curriculum before.” The cool thing is, that’s exactly what you get to do and it starts with your own treasure map.

What’s important to you? What do you want your life to be like every day, five years from now? That is the point on the map of life that far too many people don’t even look for, let alone find. The reason so many people “barely get by” is because survival is the default setting of our instinct. Don’t worry, you will get by, even if that life includes reliance on charity. But if you want more, enroll.

Try this entrance exam. On a piece of paper write down, in present tense, what you want a day in your life five years from now to look like.

Mine starts with, “I wake to the smell of coffee and the sound of ducks. I open my eyes see them landing on the lake in my back yard.”

Take some time and explore your heart’s deepest desires, whatever they are. Figure out what it will take for you to look back five years from now and smile at your progress.

Then do the math.

Take your time, and do it right; your future is worth it.

If your dream lifestyle costs more than the money you will make at your next job, congratulations.

You qualified to enroll and you have a map with a destination marked on it. Now you got to figure out how to get that and for that, you need a compass.

A compass points the way, from where you are to where you want to go. This “compass” is honest self-examination and evaluation. Look at your strengths and weaknesses and examine each in light of your destination. Are you the person you want to be in relationships, attitude, spirituality and self confidence? The categories and subjects of self-improvement cover the spectrum of human experience.

Make note of those areas that you wish to improve.

That is where you will get your homework assignments.

The next and final thing you need to get started is a burning desire.

Unless that desire is consuming, it can not motivate enough to stay the course.

You need to respect yourself and respect your vision enough to take action on a daily basis. When a teacher tells you to read a chapter by a certain date, you do it. Why is it so hard to do it when you give yourself homework? Get past this hurdle and you will be among the few. The top percent of any society that rise to the top do so on purpose.

Having a vision helps you make better choices in every area of life. If being strong and healthy is part of your dream, a course in nutrition or fitness will move you in that direction. Most importantly, the hundreds of small, seemingly unimportant daily decisions either help you achieve or hold you back.

Beyond this point, you are your own professor. You are accountable to no one but the person in the mirror every morning. Chasing your dreams or settling for less is entirely up to you.

Start by finding a good book or seminar or meeting or whatever that works on one of your weaknesses and start working.

Many choose to start with the most popular self-help book of all time, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, by Dale Carnegie.

If making real lasting friendships or helping others is an area you want to work on it’s a popular place to start.

I hope you choose to explore this. I can only speak from experience. The way I was before I enrolled myself in my own university of personal development, would not have worked. You might not have liked who I was just a few years ago; and It’s a fair bet I would not have liked you. I needed to change in order to succeed.

The choice is ours. Grow or shrink. If you want to live your life adrift or in charge. It’s your life. If you’re serious about your life, appoint yourself as dean of “Your Name University.” Good luck.