It has been nine weeks since I set my three goals for the semester, and since Thanksgiving break is only two days away, that means that the semester is almost over. Working on my goals throughout the semester has really helped me to more easily adjust to college life. Being able to open up more easily has helped me to talk to people, which essential considering the large number of people here at college. Studying for my classes has really made the transition to the college workload a lot more manageable. Clearing my mind has also helped me to focus and to maintain my sanity when certain stressful circumstances.
I think that my first goal of studying for classes has actually been accomplished because I can’t think of anything more that I can do to study for my classes. I’ve been making flashcards, reading ahead, taking notes, flagging passages, studying in “adverse” conditions, and starting my work ahead of time among other things. These techniques have worked for me so far, so I have good reason to believe that they will continue to do the job. I guess I now have to modify my goal so that it now is to finish out the year strong. This means that I have to keep putting in the big effort studying outside of class as well as the effort of paying attention and participating in class. I basically just have to guard against growing complacent and I should be fine for the rest of the semester. I have to make sure that I relax over Thanksgiving break, but I have to be ready to work again once break is over.
Although I have largely accomplished my first goal, my goal of being more open to others has continued on. Once again I have met some interesting people while working out in the dance room. I was doing a plyometrics (jump training) workout and was about halfway through, which means that I had just over thirty minutes left, when two guys walked into the room. I had talked to one of them in the dance room while working out before, but I don’t’ think that I had ever seen the other one before. I turns out that they were in the dance room to do an Insanity workout. Insanity is a lot like the P90X program that I do, in the sense that they are probably the two hardest workout programs currently available. It was nice to talk to these guys because we obviously shared a common interest: challenging workouts. It was just nice because everybody finds their own little niche in college, which is usually based on their hobbies and what they like. Considering the fact that working out is a big part of my day-to-day life, it was nice to fall into my niche with some other people for a change.
This week it has actually been pretty easy to work on my goal of clearing my mind of negative thoughts and focusing on the positive. This has been the case because whenever I had a bad moment this week (which were few and far between), I would simply think of Thanksgiving break, which starts on Friday night for me. Once I’m all packed and I hit the road on Friday, I instantly start to relax and instead of homework and tests, I can begin to relax and think about how much I will enjoy myself over the break. True, driving for six hours isn’t exactly the most relaxing thing, but once I get home and go to sleep, the relaxation begins. I also try not to think of the fact that I will have to get up at four in the morning on Saturday for opening day of shotgun season, because nobody wants to think about getting up that early. Instead, I will think about possibly harvesting a deer, which makes me very excited to go hunting, and therefore clears my mind of negative thoughts.
Well, we’ll see how my goals go for the rest of the year. Hopefully I will be motivated enough to continue to pursue them rather than letting up too soon. This reminds me of a quote by my high school basketball coach Mark Ryzda. He said, “There’s no point in playing the first 31 minutes hard if you don’t play the last minute just as hard as the first.” This not only applies to basketball, but to my academic goals this semester. I have to continue working hard until he finish, or all my work so far will be for naught.
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