College is stressful. Like, really friggin’ stressful and sometimes the biggest thing we’re tested on is our patience and peace of mind. Everyone has different ways of relaxing or motivating themselves, and if you’re the type of person who uses quotes to relate to and keep you centered, here’s some that might be worth knowing.
“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.”
~John Wooden
My high school swim coach loved this quote so much that she made my entire team memorize it. In fact, now years later, when I told my old teammate about this article, she immediately started reciting this quote back to me. However, it doesn’t have to pertain only to athletes. When you’re prepping for a big test, know that you’ll feel a lot better afterwards if you know that you put in the effort you should have.
“You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.”
~Unknown
You can’t give what you don’t have. Take time to recharge and destress when you can, You won’t be at peak performance if you’re running on four cups of coffee, two hours of sleep and sheer willpower.
“God put me on this Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind I will never die.”
~Unknown
Hey, you may be stressed, but you also might be immortal, so… bonus.
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.”
~Natalie Goldberg
Stress is dumb! It’ll tell you that you have five thousand things to do that will take twenty hours when in reality you have four things and they’ll take maybe four hours if you focus. Also, not everything is the end of your world. One bad grade won’t ruin your life plan.
“A little stress is good for you. A lot of stress is bad, so only worry if you need $10 but don’t if you need $10,000.”
~Unknown
Don’t overload on stress. Student loans are a big deal for most of us, but we can’t be thinking about them every minute of our lives. Student debt will be dealt with slowly over time. For right now, worry about paying your roommate back that $20 you owe her.
“My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.”
~Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling)
We can never ignore the sage advice of J.K. Rowling, especially when it comes from the mouth of Newt Scamander. Why make everything more insufferable than it already is? Go into that test as best prepared as you can be and don’t worry about the results until you have them. Hopefully, you needn’t even suffer once.
“Screw it.”
~Every college student ever
Look, sometimes you have to just give up on perfection, say “screw it” and just get something done because anything is better than nothing. “Screw it,” is probably the most motivating phrase for any college student.
Maybe quotes help you, and maybe they don’t, but the important thing is that you find some way to help you manage your stress. Stress and college both suck, but you don’t let them win.