I like to relax as much as anyone else, and I live by stress relief articles and YouTube videos, but I think it’s just as important to acknowledge my busyness and to pat myself on the back for it. University is ridiculously hectic and a lot of the time I’m sad about my tiny sliver of social life in between big chunks of work and school, but reflecting on all that I’ve accomplished in the past year alone has me cheering on my ambitious inner busy bee! There’s a fine line between being hard working and getting burnt out and I’ve been walking along it for a long time, but I think the difference lies in your attitude.
Optimism is hard to achieve and it’s something that I feel a lot of people need to coach themselves on before they truly view their lives through its lens, but it’s the key in being proud of yourself. You could accomplish a ton of your smaller goals and still end up disappointed if you view not completing your biggest goal yet as a failure. It’s kind of like the satisfaction you get from crossing things off of a to-do list. Throw yourself a party for all that you’ve done already and use that to energize for the next challenge.
Keep track of everything you have done. I like to keep mine in a little journal that I get to flip through when I need to remind myself that I am progressing. When you’re inundated by a never-ending stream of homework, projects, assessments, and grades, it’s easy to get lost in the rush. If you can keep up with it, that’s awesome, but sometimes it’s too much and you can feel like you’re not doing as much as you should be. Go back to your accomplishment journal and say ‘hey… I actually did a lot this week’!
There’s value in motivation and there’s value in the commitment it takes to keep on keeping on. We live in a fast-paced world and we don’t stop enough to congratulate ourselves on all that we’ve done. Take a moment and reflect on all of the things – big and small – that you have done within the past year. I’m sure that it’s more than you would realize. Now, move with the flow of traffic in your life and learn to embrace the run-and-go! It’ll make life a little more manageable and a lot more exciting.
Image courtesy of Giphy.com