One Thing Your College Professor Won't Teach You
“Peace begins when expectation ends”.
In life it’s important to not set expectations because more than likely you will be let down. But in the workplace and as a professional there’s something always expected of you. And to be honest, that can be super overwhelming.
Hi, my name's Nicole Sanchez, if you haven’t gotten that from my website by now. I’m a recent graduate who majored in English with a specialization in Professional Writing and double minored in Marketing and Multimedia Management.
Now, I’m a young professional working as a Digital Content Assistant at The Laker-Lutz News where I produce content, run the company’s social media accounts, write short articles for the newspaper, and produce videos for our advertisers.
Going into the real world and becoming a professional at the young age of 21 has opened my eyes and helped me realize that even though we write so many research papers and sit through so many lectures, there’s still so much that our professors haven’t been able to prepare us for.
It’s obvious that you’re going to have to complete specific tasks on a weekly basis at your job, but no one really talks about what happens in the workplace when you don’t finish your tasks for the week.
I’m here to tell you that those tasks don’t just go away and no one else picks up the slack for you, they simply move to your to-do list for the next week. And that happens. Almost every week.
One thing I've had to learn to help myself overcome the constant, disappointing feeling from not finishing your work is to prioritize. Sitting down, writing out what I have to do, and figuring out when I will do those things has been the easiest way for me to feel accomplished at the end of the week.
I’m a person that absolutely loves checking off lists. I normally work harder and longer just to get the satisfaction from completing a list. As I’ve spent more time working in the real world, I’ve realized that having these unrealistic expectations for yourself makes it harder to complete the expectations that your job has for you.
Even if you’re like me and you want to finish that list, you have to realize it’s just not going to always happen. As long as you do work that you’re proud of and your supervisor is happy, that should be enough.
Meeting your deadlines is way more important than worrying about that one task that had to get pushed back. You can’t forget to praise yourself for what you did complete instead of focusing on what you didn’t.
In reality, it’s not easy to stop being hard on yourself. As someone who struggles with this not only personally but also professionally I can assure you that avoiding this in the workplace will make your job and the tasks that you have to complete more enjoyable and easier.
Let me know how you’re dealing with your responsibilities as a young professional in the comments below. I can’t wait to hear some of your advice and continue to work on the daily struggle myself.
Stay tuned for next week's blog post on fast fashion and the advantages of thrifting. Personally, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about as an avid thrifter and I can't wait to see what pieces you've picked up at your local thrift store.
