Gaining personal success

/

As we near the end of winter term, students who arenโ€™t facing graduation are at the very least starting to think more and more about what they will do after Laurier, as they move one year closer to completing their undergraduate degree.

Itโ€™s this mounting pressure that makes it necessary to start considering oneโ€™s career destination and how to get there. While facing these stressors, itโ€™s difficult to know whose advice to follow.

While everyone is different, The Cord has spoken to several successful alumni, asking them about their specific experiences and advice for students in the hopes that their stories can offer some assistance.

โ€œSee where your feet are and take the next stepsโ€

Determination and focusing on specific goals is often named as the key to success. But as Chris Kardol, a counsellor and performance coach at Counselling Services, pointed out, itโ€™s not always about having a narrow focus.

โ€œI think some students in first year really have a good sense of direction and where they want to go. I think that can be helpful and that helps them stay focused,โ€ said Kardol.

โ€œAt the same time I think itโ€™s okay for students who need to sort of โ€ฆ figure out what fits for them and what doesnโ€™t fit. I say to students, sometimes we figure out what we want by finding what we donโ€™t want,โ€ said Kardol.

Alumnus and Kitchener Centre Member of Parliament Stephen Woodworth agreed, noting that while itโ€™s beneficial to have specific and recognizable goals, itโ€™s important to remember that you may need to take unexpected paths to get to your final destination.

โ€œItโ€™s sort of like, you know your destination, but you canโ€™t get to your destination unless you look directly down and see where your feet are and take the next steps,โ€ said Woodworth.

Woodworth graduated from Laurier with a joint degree in psychology and political science over 30 years ago, going on to law school, working as a lawyer for 30 years and eventually becoming a politician.

โ€œWhen I wanted a job I always cast a very broad net. And so for example, before I got to law school I worked in any job I could get to pay my way. I sold shoes, I delivered pianos and I worked at a car factory. I worked at a lawnmower and snow blower factory, and I did what I had to do. I was a security guard,โ€ said Woodworth, noting that he often had to make realistic decisions in order to achieve his end goal of being a politician.

Andre Talbot, a former varsity football player and communications student at Laurier who has gone on to play for both the Toronto Argonauts and the Edmonton Eskimos, explained that in the off-season, he has taken on other jobs to gain experience and expand his resume.

โ€œMy first internship was the Score television networkโ€ฆ. And from there I worked at Chorus Entertainment in their kids marketing division, so YTV and Treehouse. And the past couple of years I was working in sales,โ€ explained Talbot.

โ€œBe present and focused on the things that make you happyโ€

While the willingness to do what it takes is important, often your chosen life path can receive criticism or negative feedback from those around you.

Kardol explained that many students face outside pressure to be in math or business.

โ€œItโ€™s tricky because a lot of students do kind of go in the direction their parents think they should,โ€ she said.

Laurier business graduate and Juno-award-winning rapper Shad explained he had voices telling him not to go into music, but that they were mostly internal.

โ€œOutside pressure, inside pressure. I think inside pressure was more than outside pressure. Itโ€™s unconventional. Itโ€™s certainly unstable. It can be a pretty bad idea, practically speaking,โ€ said Shad.

โ€œItโ€™s been really cool to see that sometimes when you have something in your heart you are passionate about or believe in itโ€™s there for a reason,โ€ he added.

On top of being a musician, Shad is also a masters student and joked, โ€œI think I just hate money or something because Iโ€™m in music and Iโ€™m also a student, so I must just have some deep-seated hatred for it.โ€

Shad explained that he decided to do his masters in liberal arts because it was โ€œan opportunity to study something else.”

โ€œI really think Iโ€™ve formed the basis for a lot of my education going forward, whether itโ€™s in school or not in school,โ€ he added.

Talbot explained that while the job security and availability are important, itโ€™s important to be present.

โ€œWhatever interests you or whatever even vaguely interests you, go and find some like-minded people and pursue it furtherโ€ฆ. Whatever it is push things further and broaden your perspective,โ€ said Talbot, regarding not only career opportunities but also extra-curricular opportunities in university.

Cindy Eadie, a former goalie for the Laurier varsity hockey team and an economics major who helped open a hockey training centre called The Zone Training, explained that in her case it was because she was so well-known in the community that she was offered a role in the new business.

โ€œItโ€™s all about networking in the community and making good connections,โ€ said Eadie. โ€œItโ€™s about making yourself known and what youโ€™re interested in.โ€

โ€œDonโ€™t let the tyranny of the urgent overcome the necessity of the importantโ€

As a small-business entrepreneur and an athlete, Eadie explained that she is familiar with the difficulties of having to balance oneโ€™s personal life with oneโ€™s career.

She explained that when one opens a small business, there are huge time commitments involved because if employees are absent, it is your responsibility to ensure business runs smoothly. She noted the importance of making personal time.

Woodworth agreed, stating that one of his biggest regrets in life is working six days a week because he wishes heโ€™d spent that time with his family.

โ€œYou canโ€™t let the tyranny of the urgent overcome the necessity of the important,โ€ said Woodworth, explaining that maintaining personal relationships are generally the most rewarding part of oneโ€™s life.

โ€œI was 22 when I got to law school and met my wife on the first day, and that was an unexpected gift but itโ€™s brought the most joy,โ€ he stated. โ€œWhen you do plan out your life, leave room for those relationships of love that will sustain you through the down periods.โ€

Shad also testified to the importance of relationships because they are so crucial to forming who we are.

โ€œWe have these insanely massive networks of people that only expand and we have the capacity to keep in touch with them all, everybody you met from basically the maternity ward,โ€ he said.

โ€œSuccessful or not successful, thatโ€™s something we have to deal with in this day and age. What are the relationships that are important? Who are the people that you can trust and count on? Who are the people that make you the best version of yourself?

โ€œI really think weโ€™re not as individual as we think we are. Weโ€™re largely a function of the people that we choose to hang out with, so I think that who you choose to invest time with is probably the most important decision you can make,โ€ he added.


Practice yoga. That would be my biggest advice. I think itโ€™s an important part of life that helps to bring balance. Yoga, the practice and the Western version of it, is looked at more as exercise but itโ€™s actually just a step towards a greater understanding of your true self. Enlightenment brings peace and happiness. It can offer anyone an incredible amount of balance in their life.โ€ โ€”Andre Talbot, former varsity football player at Laurier and communications student who has played for the Toronto Argonauts and the Edmonton Eskimos
Think about what you want to see when you look back on your life. Among other things, a big motivator for me for sure is that youโ€™ve exercised your faculties and your efforts as strongly as you can. You donโ€™t want to be a couch potato. Can you imagine looking back at your life and seeing nothing but an endless parade of TV shows and potato chips? Thatโ€™s not what you want to see.โ€ โ€”Stephen Woodworth, former psychology and political science undergraduate at Laurier and current Kitchener Centre Member of Parliament
โ€œIโ€™d recommend a summer term. I think I had a good time in the summer term. Iโ€™d always had an inkling as a kid that if we went to school in the summer weโ€™d have more fun. You can study outside, you kind of have free run in the city. Thereโ€™s a lot of hang-outs and the porching and just really a fun environment.โ€ โ€”Shad, a former business student at Laurier who is currently an internationally renowned rapper. He won an award for best rap recording at the 2011 Junos.
โ€œAs a student, I would recommend enjoying Tuesday nights at Wilfโ€™s. Make sure to go out and be with your friends when you can. You think youโ€™re really busy but you donโ€™t know what busy is until you leave university and work for your own company, so make sure to enjoy it as much as you can, while you can.โ€ โ€”Cindy Eadie, a former goaltender for the womenโ€™s varsity hockey team and an entrepreneur who works at The Zone Training in Waterloo


Other notable Laurier graduates

Bill Downe
Bachelor of Arts
A Canadian bank executive at the Bank of Montreal who became president and chief executive officer

John Estacio
Bachelor of Music in Compositions
A contemporary Canadian composer who has been commissioned to write works for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and has been nominated for
several Junos

Jon Melanson
MBA in Finance, Marketing and Strategy
The executive director of Canadaโ€™s National Ballet School who was appointed special advisor on arts and culture for the City of Toronto in 2010

Keegan Connor Tracey
Graduate of Social Psychology
A Canadian actress who has starred in movies like Final Destination 2 and Blackwoods

Ian Troop
Bachelor of Business Administration
Chief executive officer of the Toronto 2015 Pan-American Games Organizing Committee


Psychology experiments regarding success

Over the past few years, psychology professor Roger Buehler has conducted a series of experiments regarding goal-making behaviour and the prospects of success.

The first experiment, entitled โ€œFinishing on time: When do predictions in๏ฌ‚uence completion times?โ€, was done by Buehler, Johanna Peetz and Dale Griffin.

It showed that optimistic predictions about oneโ€™s projects were more likely to be beneficial if the projects were short term.

Thus, being optimistic about oneโ€™s goals can have an impact when goals are more immediate. However, it is less likely to have a role in determining how quickly career or long-term goals will be attained.

The second experiment, called โ€œSeeing Future Success: Does Imagery Perspective Influence Achievement Motivation?โ€, was done by Buehler and Noelia A. Vasquez of York University.

It shows that imagining future success from a third-person perspective makes one more likely to be successful.

In other words, if one imagines future success from an outside point of view rather than the first-person point of view of imagining oneself completing the goal, one is more likely to be successful because one can then envision the self-relevance of the goal, which makes it seem more significant and important.


Serving the Waterloo campus, The Cord seeks to provide students with relevant, up to date stories. Weโ€™re always interested in having more volunteer writers, photographers and graphic designers.