Life After Graduation: The 1-6-4 Method for Living Intentionally

Dear Graduate

You did it!

And before reality beggins… can we just take a second?

You're standing at one important part of your life where everything is open. Take advantage of it, here´s how.

The world is going to hand you a résumé template. Don't start there.

Everyone's first instinct after graduation is to build a professional résumé. But there's another type nobody talks about.

Your life résumé.

This one asks you the right questions… What have you lived and enjoyed? What did you do that scared you? What do you know now that you didn't know four years ago?

That résumé doesn't fit in a template. But it's the one that shapes every decision you're about to make… what you say yes to, what you refuse to settle for, who you work for.

Before you open your LinkedIn, spend ten minutes on that one first.

Intentional living as your survival skill

For most of your life, someone else built the container. Class schedules, deadlines. You showed up and filled it. Now you have to build your own.

That's where people get lost because nobody taught them how to design a life with purpose.

Intentional living involves taking control of your time, energy, and priorities to create a life you don't feel the need to escape from, rather than just working towards a future vacation.

You need the 1-6-4 method

The pressure to have it all mapped out at 22 is one of the most unhelpful things your generation inherited.

The people who seem like they have it together aren't following a perfect plan… they're just making deliberate small actions and adjusting as they go.

So instead of stressing over a five-year plan, try three things.

One Misogi. One year-defining thing. Something big enough that when someone asks what you did the year you graduated, you have a BIG answer. Not "I got a job.”

Six mini adventures. Every other month, do something you normally wouldn't. A 5K. A cooking class. A random road trip. Six adventures a year times 40 years is 240 things that wouldn't have existed in your life otherwise.

Four new habits. One per quarter. Small and winnable.

Write it down somewhere you can see it. Then go live it.

The comparison trap is real, and it will steal your first two years if you let it.

Someone from your graduating class will get a job at a company that sounds impressive. Someone else will move to a new city. Someone will start something cool. It will all show up on your feed looking effortless and certain.

It's not.

Everyone is figuring it out. The path that looks straight from the outside has just as many detours… you're only seeing the highlight reel.

Your timeline is yours. Protect it.

Put it on the wall

Write things down somewhere physical, something you can see.

There's something about putting your intentions on paper that makes them real in a way a notes app never does. Your goals, your next move, your non-negotiables.

This chapter is worth being intentional about. You've spent years working toward this moment.

The Big A## Calendar is a good place to start and big enough to see.