Typically, I start every semester with some pretty lofty goals. I think I’ll wake up at 6 AM every day, go straight to the gym, eat a great breakfast, have the cutest outfit, and be early for class. The start of a school year is my personal New Years. However, I don’t ever follow through with these goals. By the end of the semester, I am hanging on by a thread and you would think I have never set a goal in my life. My number one goal this semester is to change that, with everything I have learned about myself so far in my college career.Â
My biggest goal this year is to not be late for class, or worse, wake up late and end up not going at all. I realized that this comes from me trying to force myself to get up way earlier than I need to, which means I was not getting enough sleep. There is literally no reason for me to be waking up at 6 am. I can wake up at 7:30 and make it to my 8:30 class on time. If I use 10 minutes of time wisely before I go to bed, I can totally get ready in 30 minutes. I set out one or two outfits, socks, shoes, and make sure my backpack is ready to go. I also know that getting to bed by 11 completely decides how the next day will go for me. Naturally, I get about 10 hours of sleep if I don’t set an alarm, but 8 works. Anything less, however, is a no-go. I can still go to bed late-ish and wake up early-ish.. Setting that unrealistic goal sets myself up for failure, and once you’re discouraged, it is hard to get back on the goal wagon.Â
Another goal of mine this semester is to prioritize myself. Previously, I’ve been trying to do as much as possible to check class requirements off the list and bulk up my resume. But, I have a lot of leadership roles this year, which means that I need to show up for myself first so I can show up for other people. I dropped a three hour class (that I was actually really excited about) because it meant that my day would be 12 hours of class. I decided to do less hours at my internship, so I could have a little more time to study during the week. Opening up this time for myself allows me to do the simple things everyone needs to do in order to keep running. If I hadn’t dropped that three hour class, I wouldn’t have had time to eat lunch on Tuesdays. That is the definition of unhealthy. Showing up for yourself even means taking rest from your healthy habits. Do I need to go to the gym everyday? Do I need to go straight from class and to the library until it closes every night? The answers are no. I can go to the gym every other day, and go on walks on my off days. I can give my body time to heal. I can hibernate in the library every once in a while, but I can also study with friends at home, or take a nap and then go study. Despite every bone in my body screaming at me, I am abandoning “grind culture” this semester. Â
It is super important to recognize these things about yourself, and use them to set yourself up for success, instead of feeling bad about them. So, be productive, realistically.Â