What’s the university speech you’d give to your children?

I was sitting in the sun yesterday enjoying a cloudless blue sky and brilliant sunshine, staring lazily at the world around me, thinking about nothing in particular, just letting my mind rest and my body enjoy the warmth of the sunshine. 

Sometimes I think Superman and I must be related, a good dose of sunshine recharges me too, it's a remedy for everything and gives me life. 

As I was sitting there, all empty head and morning stares, my thoughts drifted over an endless flow of different things like cool water over pebbles in a mountain stream. 

I thought about my friend's children who'll turn 18 and 21 later this year and remembered when I was that young and how back then, especially at 21, how mature I felt, like I'd arrived at adulthood. 

I was doing all the things that I’d equated with maturity, working, driving, and living with my boyfriend of the time, keeping house and generally being an adult in every way, no longer looking to my parents to take care of my needs. 

Nothing about how I was living or who I was as a person then offered any glimpse of how I am living now or who I have become. 

It got me wondering what I’d say to graduating university students. 

We've all read or listened to all the great speeches by famous people to graduates and it’s always so wise and inspiring, and I wondered what mine would be? 

So here it is, 

MY WORDS OF WISDOM TO A GRADUATING CLASS; 

Well done on getting to here. 

You’ve studied hard, applied yourself, and had to work things out on your own. 

I hope you’ve had a great mixture of family support and being left to stand on your own 2 feet and discover life for yourself because we learn the most about ourselves from the hardships and challenges we have to deal with in life. 

This is when we have to find our mental, emotional, and sometimes physical, resourcefulness.  

Those moments when you have to ‘get off the couch’, pull something new out of yourself, and show yourself who you are and what you can do. 

If you were a Ferrari, you’d see that you’re life so far has been just getting you ready to leave the showroom floor. 

IT'S TIME NOW TO GET OUT ON THE OPEN ROAD AND GET A FEW BUGS ON YOUR WINDSHIELD. 

You’re mature and responsible. 

You’ve grown through your awkward teenage years and you’ve blossomed into your twenties. 

You’re making choices and decisions for yourself.  

You’re in the driver’s seat of your life. 

Now you can look back on your teenage years and see how far you’ve come and how much more mature you are in this moment and feel the strength of that growth. 

Right now, life’s just getting started; it’s all just kicking off for you. 

LIVING LIFE LARGE 

No one knows what will happen between now and the rest of your life. 

But the 2 most important things to have with you always is your plan and the wisdom to know the difference between planning and controlling. 

Think about the big BIG picture.  

It’s not about the house you live in or the car you drive. It’s not even about the career or job you choose. They’re only the results of the life you choose to live. They are the vehicles that give you the experiences that you want in your life. 

The reality is that if you think about all the elements of your life, it will help develop the bigger picture. 

If you want to live in the country, then the kind of work you do will have to fit that lifestyle. If you want to send your children to private schools, that’ll impact the kind of work you do as well as where you live. If you want to be a stay at home dad/mum, you’ll want a partner who wants to be the provider for the family or a job that allows you to work from home. 

What you’re planning for your life is all mixed in together so continuously asking yourself good questions is the best way to create your life. 

WHO YOU ARE EVERY-DAY OF YOUR LIFE 

Of course it’s impossible to in your 20's what you'll want when you're 40 or 80. There is no way you can tell at 20 what experiences you’ll have along the way or how they’ll shape you. 

So the most important thing to know is that the person you become through your life is decided each and every day of your life. 

You’ll have different experiences and adventures; you’ll meet thousands of different people, consume media, books, movies, play sports, and have hobbies. All of them will shape who you become. It will be your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to them that will shape your future.  

THERE WILL BE LESSONS ALONG THE WAY 

There will be times you’ll question who you are and the choices you’ve made. It’s so important to do that. If you don’t question the choices you make you are on a fast path to places you may not want to go. 

CHECKING THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR 

I don’t know where you’ll end up but every time you look back over your life, I hope you’ll see where you’ve had courage, confidence, determination, resilience and persistence. 

I hope you’ll see that regardless where you find yourself you’ll know that there wasn’t any place that you took a wrong turn, no time you turned left but should've turned right, that you'll see that where you are is exactly the place you need to be and if there is any uncertainty about where you find yourself, that you can not only find comfort, but clarity as well, that life is a journey, ultimately out of our control. 

Your only responsibility is to make the best choices you can on any given day about everything. From how you spend your spare time, what you eat and drink, how you behave, how you treat your body, who you have or don’t have in your life, how you treat the people and the world around you, what you say or don’t say, what you spend your money on, how you earn your money and who you are in every aspect of your life. 

Be open to new information, be flexible, keep an open mind and take care of your body and brain, they matter the most. 

How you start’s not how you finish. 

Where you began is not where you are now. 

Where you are now isn’t where you’ll always be. 

Nothing is fixed. 

The most important thing is to keep going. 

It’s your ability to keep going, to keep looking for the next right thing to do, the next right thing to allow into your life that keeps you motivated and forward focused.  

Keep picking yourself up by your bootstraps if you have to, keep moving yourself along and continuously revise any plan you have because no one knows how things will go, you can only look in the direction you want to go and keep moving towards it. 

LIFE IS DISCOVERY 

You didn’t come here with a map in your hand. 

You create the map as you go. 

Only in hindsight, when you step back and look at the whole picture will you be able to appreciate the valleys you’ve crossed, the mountains you’ve climbed, and the places you’ve discovered, the tribes you’ve been a part of. 

You’re the shapeshifter; you get to choose who you become.   

Personal Health Leadership™ is about what you do today that will lead you to what you will enjoy tomorrow.