You may be in a situation where you are looking to either change your career focus or the direction of your life. Some of you may have entered into college confident in your major and then graduated and have no interest in what you studied anymore. What to do, what to do?

Don't panic! It's okay to rethink what career you want to pursue. Your parents may be disappointed or upset that they paid all that money and you decided you want to go another direction, but they'll get over it.

Honestly, your parents want the best for you and they most likely have their own vision for what they believe your life should be and are set on you following it, whether you originally told them or they had the vision when you were born.

What they are really afraid of is when their friends ask: "So what is your son or daughter up to?" If you are lost and confused they'll have to create an answer. And let's face it, your parents want to have bragging rights when it comes to their children so they can compare, compete and swap stories with other parents. So if you went to college to be an accountant, they were probably bragging about how skilled you were at it and that you will soon be doing the family taxes. Then you graduate, deciding you really want to study art design and your parents' look like storytellers.

Our parents are not familiar with these terms so to them it is a non degree. They can't figure out how you are going to make a living with an art design degree without becoming an art teacher.

Your job is then to sell them the idea because they are not as knowledgeable in your field. Some people are skeptical and negative on things they don't know about. But if you can give your parents examples of what you plan to do with the degree, I mean bombard them with information, eventually they will see it your way. Then when you are doing your chosen profession, involve them and show them samples of your current work. They'll be more excited with what you do. Let's be honest, at the end of the day, whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we all seek our parents' approval.

Other than the above mentioned, I don't have a universal solution to this obstacle, but what I'd like you to do is stay true to your desires. Think about all the other great people who've come before you that no one believed in but they ended up achieving - and sometimes exceeding - their goals and rubbing the non believers noses in it. I found this website that lists accomplished people who failed in the beginning of their endeavors but triumphed or had people who thought they would be better suited to do something else with their lives.

"I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure; which is: Try to please everybody." -Herbert B. Swope

Now that you have decided that you are going to pursue your dream, you have to decide how you are going to get paid for your passion. Create a plan. It really may take awhile to find your dream job. Let's say you are going for the publisher position of a major book publishing firm. You might have to take little nothing jobs just to pay the bills such as filing or administrative work or editorial assistant, because hey you have bills to pay and if you are still living at home with your parents they are only willing to carry you for so long.

Or maybe you can't even get your foot in the door yet. While you're waiting to get in there, sign up with three or more temp agencies. I suggest signing up with more because you have a better chance of getting placed somewhere. Don't take it as a failure if you end up doing temp work for a while. Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com says, the benefit of working for a temp agency is that most times they may be able to place you in a company that ends up keeping you on permanently. "Even if that doesn't happen to you, by being in new workplaces and doing new work you will gain new experiences that will help you land a job and you'll also gain new contacts. Network with those with whom you're working with even if you're there as a temp. Find out what they did to get their jobs and ask them for the names of other people you should talk with. Don't ask them for a job. Keep repeating the process and soon you'll have dozens of people helping you find a job," says Rothberg.

Use the opportunity at temp jobs to network because you never know who someone else may know who can help you. That's why all those motivational books say when you are planning to do something tell it to everyone you meet. So start networking.

I personally love staffing agencies. They have always kept money in my pocket when I've been in between jobs. I've also learned a host of other skills and gained much knowledge on a wide array of subjects such as book publishing, recipe creation, food photography, computers and electronics, marketing, and medical terminology. I learned to work with different types of people and age groups all while finding out which type of career I wanted.

For me it took being in those types of situations to really decide I hate going into someone's office. I thought at first if I found a place where I was competent at the job and enjoyed the people, I'd want to grow with the company. When I did finally find such a position, I still didn't want to stay.

You may get out there, get a temp job and it may lead to another career you never thought of before. It's happened to many people.

Ultimately, this is your life and you only have to follow by your own rules. I am a firm believer in living your dreams and to saying to heck with what anyone else thinks. If you want to be president of that car manufacturing company, go for it. Don't listen to anyone who says you can't do it. How the heck would they know?

Whatever you decide to do with your life, you'll get the hang of it, in time. If you stumble along the way you can always refer back to http://www.twentity.com and contact me with any questions, and together we can set you on the path to a successful life.

ChaChanna Simpson is the Life After College expert. Visit her website http://www.Twentity.com to get her FREE Report on 3 Obstacles You'll Face After Graduation and How to Overcome Them and sign up for her FREE e-zine, Life After College, spilling all the secrets your parents and professors never taught you.

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