The 3 lessons I wish I was taught in my late teens

The world was complete different when I was a teen. No social media. No smartphones. No endless TV show binging. I had to figure out on my own what I wanted to do with my life without really having a search engine to use as a guide. The possibilities are endless right now and I want to share with you the 3 lessons I wish I was taught when I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

Please don’t get me wrong, everything happened the way that it was suppose to. I just took a few detours along the way. What started out to be a desire to go to med school has led me to sales and business coaching. The reason I wanted to be a doctor was because I wanted to be financially free and I wanted to feel stable in my job. The other reason was because that is one of the choices the system tells you that you have. Some other ones include law school, teachers college, nursing, police school, fire school, or paramedic school. I am here to tell you that you have choices. Lots of choices outside of this list. So here is my goal for this blog post, I want to teach you the 3 lessons I wish I was taught to help me make a decision as to where I wanted to go in my career.

The first lesson being SMART goal setting. I didn’t hear of this concept until I went to school to be a personal trainer. SMART goals are a huge part of the process of figuring out what fitness programs are appropriate for different clients. These are important because they ask us the deeper questions. SMART goals are designed to help a person go in the direction they want to be on. Setting SMART goals gives us an opportunity to get clear on exactly what we want and when we want to achieve them. Please use the diagram below to get the acronyms for the word SMART.

Specific: It’s very important to get specific about your goal.

Measurable: It's important to have measurable goals, so that you can track your progress and stay motivated.

Attainable: it should stretch your abilities but still remain possible. When you set an attainable goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can bring you closer to it.

Relevant: This step is about ensuring that your goal matters to you, and that it also aligns with other relevant goals.

Time Based: Every goal needs a target date, so that you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward.

Take this time to set a SMART goal and you can always refer back to the video lesson to receive more guidance.

The second lesson I wish I was taught in my late teens is about mindset. Mindset is the way that we look at things and accept things. Mindset around the events in your life can sometimes make you or break you. I believe that mindset should be taught at a young age and is everything when it comes to decision making and managing stress. When an event happens in my life that feels scary and uneasy, I ask myself, what is this here to teach me? I try to come up with different perspectives on the topic and most of the time I end up feeling at ease with that particular outcome or I come out with an idea on how to move forward in the situation. Personal development have been a huge part in helping me understand mindset. I encourage you to reflect on things in your life that give you stress and uncertainty. Can you research a book you can read to give you more of a perspective on the things that bring you stress and uncertainty? I guarantee that when you change the way you look at something, that something will change.

Now last but not least, meditation. Meditation has been one of the most impactful lesson out of the three. It might feel like somewhat of a controversial modality but universities like Harvard are now doing research in the field of meditation. Meditation has shown to improve memory, increase since of empathy, strengthen sense of self, improve cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure and cholesterol. This modality helps us to go inward. It helps us to release new thought and lower stress. Anxiety and stress are feelings developed in our body based on the worry we have about what is to come. I encourage you to explore the world of meditation. It has made a huge difference in my life and I am forever grateful for taking the leap of faith and exploring this method. Please make sure to watch the lesson associated with this blog and take the opportunity to experience meditation with me.

I hope that the ideas I expressed to you today have given you more tools to put in your tool box of lessons. If you would like to reach out to ask questions, please don’t hesitate to do that. You can visit me at www.olesyaoligradska.com or email me at hello@olesyaoligradska.com.

Blog written by: Olesya Oligradska