“Finding yourself” - if ever there was an over-used excuse for screwing around with your life, this has to be it. In my article, 5 Signs You Are On Autopilot, I suggested travel as a method for switching off the autopilot in your life. Whilst I still believe that traveling the world is one of the best ways to find yourself, it should be done in a certain manner. The same goes for being a student.

A key point in 5 Signs You Are On Autopilot, that I know some people missed, was that to disengage the autopilot in your life means to begin to live consciously. I am currently working on a proper follow-up article that will give clear, practical ideas on how to do this. In the meantime, it is enough to know that to live consciously is to be committed to awareness as a way of existing in the world. Awareness of your beliefs, awareness of your own power, and awareness of your freedom to choose your own destiny.

With this in mind, it should be easy to see why the following 2 examples are ways in which people often delude themselves into thinking they are finding themselves. I should point out here, by “finding yourself” I mean the search one undergoes for their true beliefs, values, and purpose in life.

The Traveler

It is a rite of passage for many young people to grab a backpack and head off traveling around the globe. Indeed, I was lucky enough to be one of them. Many young travelers, however, are under the mistaken impression that they are finding themselves overseas. Often the only thing they are truly searching for is hedonistic pleasure. And rather than finding themselves, such ventures usually involve losing a lot of brain cells.

I should point out here that such trips are usually a lot of fun, and I have nothing against fun. In fact, fun and I are good friends (although we need to hang out more often). What I am suggesting here is that traveling can be a much richer and rewarding experience when it is done in a conscious manner.

Young travelers will undoubtedly discover something about themselves during their adventures. But when I refer to “living consciously”, it is important to realize that it is not a black-and-white case of either being conscious or unconscious. People live on different levels of consciousness, which explains why I believe young travelers can be discovering more about themselves, without actually finding themselves.

One of the most powerful realizations that we, as human beings, can have is that we have the choice to take the road less traveled. With this in mind, here are 3 tips for young travelers:

1. Don’t travel to the opposite side of the world only to congregate with people of the same nationality.
2. Don’t do all your research on the local culture from the inside of a pub (unless you are in Ireland).
3. Don’t just record your trip using photographs. Keep a journal so that lessons you do learn along the way aren’t forgotten.

The Student

Many students automatically believe they are finding themselves because they are at college. Wrong. I spent fours years at college and I can tell you that many of the people there resembled zombies. Heck, I was probably one of them.

As I wrote about in 5 Signs You Are On Autopilot, many people automatically go on from school to college. There are, however, often flawed reasons for how a student picks their course and/ or college. These may include:

• Choosing a particular college because it is where their friends/ boyfriend/ girlfriend will be going.
• Choosing a particular area of study because it is what their parents want them to do.
• Choosing a career path because it is what is expected of “smart people”.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point: many students have chosen a particular path without being fully aware of their range of options or the underlying assumptions driving their choice. The result of this is that there are a lot of students enrolled in courses that bore them. This will often lead to the following: 1) they will do enough to pass (they may even do very well), but they will not learn 2) they will go onto jobs that bore just as much as their field of study.

Here then are some of my tips for students:

1. Don’t confuse a degree with learning (see this article from Scott H Young)
2. Be aware of the different types of pressure that may influence your decision. Parents often have great advice, but don’t mindlessly follow a career path they have planned for you.
3. Listen to the little voice inside your head. You will be surprised at how often this voice is right.
4. Don’t be afraid to take some time off to explore different interests before committing to a particular career path. Or, maybe begin with some Arts units (eg philosophy, psychology, history, etc) that will help you better understand both your inner and outer worlds.

A Final Word

Travel and study are two of the best experiences one can have in his or her lifetime. I write this article as someone who has done both, and wish for others to learn from my experience.

Put simply, my experience at college and traveling in other countries would have been far richer and rewarding if I had been more conscious at the time. I wanted to find myself, but I mistakenly believed that I was automatically finding myself by traveling and studying. I now believe that it is not so much the activity that you do, it is the level of consciousness you bring to it, that determines its value in finding yourself.

Tags: Life, Meaning & Purpose //