From student to professional: the challenge of change

Recommendations to enter the world of professional performance without wearing yourself out psychologically.

We live in a world that is taking giant steps at different levels, and every context seems to change with unthinkable speed, leaving the educational system always below expectations.

As young people, we are required to know at a young age what we are going to do for the rest of our lives, and it seems that once we have learned what we are going to do for the rest of our lives.And it seems that once decided, everything changes: we change, and we find ourselves in that sea of doubts that invades when we are close to finish the chosen project, if not before.

The leap into the professional world

Many of the young people who embarked on a career after high school have doubts about their choice and end up dropping out and becoming frustrated; some choose and find satisfaction without major complications but do not manage to finish their thesis or the last subjects, others are encouraged to change careers and try different approaches, and many others find themselves in a spiral of doubts for several years.

The elaboration of a professional project is an important step in life.It involves a lot of time, expectations and the desire to complete the journey.

What happens to us when we are so close to finishing and something starts to tell us that we are not doing well? What happens to those people who, three subjects away from finishing a career that has been going on for years, simply stop? And of those who, once they have finished, do not stop studying for a master's degree, a doctorate, a technical degree, and never practice, remaining in the place of the eternal student.

There is a change of symbolic position when we are about to finish a project, in this case an educational project. And it is that we stop being the student, passive, receiver of information, and become the professional we imagine..

Not only that, but once we have finished our degree, the next step is full of uncertainty: often with the degree, parental support ends and we must enter the labor market, understand the functioning of the various institutions and take on new responsibilities. new responsibilities..

With all this overwhelming panorama, it makes sense that many are left at a standstill, wanting to give up or run away.

• You may be interested in, "What is responsibility as a personality trait?"

How best to cope with this situation?

First of all it is important to understand that all the emotions I feel are valid, and that there is nothing wrong with them.There is nothing wrong with them.

1. Acknowledge fears

It is basic to to identify which are the fears or doubts that I have and which are the thoughts associated with them..

Many times a "I don't know if I liked what I chose" when I am very close to the end, actually hides a "I don't feel capable of doing what I chose".

Being able to talk about your fears, put them down in writing and organize them by intensity is often a good way to be able to visualize what is happening to me and act accordingly.

2. Knowing how to share and ask for help

Having someone else with whom I can share my doubts is usually a great tool, people outside my emotions can offer new perspectives that allow me to rethink my desires.

3. Be realistic with your demands

Taking the time to identify which thought is associated with that intense emotion that destabilizes me, can help us to recognize how much there is of reality and imaginary in them.

4. Ask yourself if you are being fair with what you expect of yourself.

Reducing expectations will allow you to think more clearly, and reduce the mental noise when approaching the goal. Speaking to yourself in a compassionate and accepting way that the path will inevitably be different will help you better manage the stress and frustration that the process can bring.

5. Time to time

In these transitions we tend to forget that what is expected of us is nothing more and nothing less than being a recent graduate, with all that this implies, and that it will be the same path that will provide us with what we need to improve in our work and guide us towards the path with which we most identify ourselves.

Aspiring to be an excellent professional can be a great motivation, but it can also make us prisoners of an eternal perfectionism, in which the only thing we want to achieve is to be a good professional. in which the only thing we are left with is the feeling that we will never be enough.

There is time to learn, to make mistakes and to rebuild ourselves; the key is in how we accept, trust and choose to walk that path, which will cease to be that of the university and will continue to be that of our life itself.