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The month of February brought a little bit of a shock to my system. Our golf season just started, and I forgot how rapidly the pace of the team/season/practices pick up once it begins. I started remembering and bringing back old fears from last year about the school I have been missing and am going to miss for the next couple of months. I had put a ton of pressure on myself to not only keep up the grades I had, but also that I needed to be a star golfer.
To be honest, I have not been playing very long. Because of all the other work preoccupying my brain, there was just no way it was achievable. Nonetheless, I still beat myself up immensely for not doing well in golf. It seemed like such a waste for me to miss all the important stuff in school just to not shoot what I wanted. But how could I have done that if I never really believed it was possible?
I think many people, like me, put this great pressure on themselves to do something they do not even truly believe they are capable of. Even if the score was well above par, I never saw the positives of what was happening with my golf game. The learned experience after every game is the only way to properly improve in the game of golf. Even if the memories from last season are not great, this year I now know the courses that I am playing and sometimes even the people I am playing with.
Finding my Balance.
I also have developed some better strategies for myself to balance out work and activities. Nothing is worse than coming back from missing long amounts of school and having to make up extreme amounts of work. As much as I hate to acknowledge it sometimes, the little things really do count!
This semester I have to truly cherish the free period I have and any spare time in my classes. It is crazy when I reflect on my most productive days and see just how much I was capable of doing during school hours. Believe me, I am not the world’s best manager when it comes to my work, but I have come to realize just how much more effective the outcomes are. Being able to recognize the opportunities I have to make the most of my time has become a vital part of my everyday life.
Forget the Pressure. Believe in Yourself!
The difference between me this time last year and me now is I have not already hit panic mode. I strongly suggest that you all take a deep breath and realize how much ability you really have. Teachers are understanding! There is no need to put extra pressure on yourself inside and outside of school. Maybe you don’t even care about school as much as I find myself worrying over it, but I still suggest finding a balance. Make sure that you have free time, but also time to succeed.
My worst efforts, whether in school or golfing, are always after I have overloaded myself to the point where I am not able to focus. That’s why I suggest using all the time you have during the day to take off that extra load when you get home. I hope that you and I are able to recognize our potential if we give ourselves the space to succeed in the first place. The first step to success is believing in yourself, and you can’t believe in yourself if you do not give yourself the resources to succeed.
A great video, my old history teacher once showed our class, by Jocko Willink, talked about the importance of discipline over motivation. At first I thought it wasn’t really true, but I have come to see how disciplining yourself is much more crucial to success than just feeling motivated. Maybe one of your teachers has already done this same lecture, but I encourage you to look into it to just at least get a new perspective.
For more on time management and study habits, read these effective techniques.
