It’s Okay To Be A Beginner At The Things You Are Interested In. There Is No Reason To Feel Intimidated

i kinda think life is about finding those people you can do anything with. like you want to share your life with them and feel like you could do anything together. anything from lying around in bed binge watching shows to going on an extremely long road trip to calling each other at 11pm to complain about life. pretty sure that’s one of the meanings of life.

“he covered his face with his toga”

I'm not lying when I say this tweet brought a tear to my eye

Personal growth becomes so addictive once you realize that it’s always possible to improve your experience of being.

This may be a vague question but, how can i give my life structure after school ends? I work best when im forced to follow a routine, deadlines etc and being “free” makes me lazier and unsatisfied because of that. I want to keep learning, reading, working out and generally improving myself but i dont know how to stay motivated and set my own goals

What Do I Do With My Life When School Ends?!?!?

1. Make a Routine. As you said, routines motivate you and help you to achieve goals and feel productive. Just because school has ended doesn’t mean your routine has to stop. Keep waking up at the same time in the morning and chunk your activities throughout your day as you would if you were still in school.

2. Find Your Hobbies. If you have hobbies already or are wanting to try out something new, schedule time in your day to do so. If you like to read, set aside an hour in your routine to read. If you want to learn how to knot, set aside a time in your routine to watch some knitting techniques on YouTube.

3. Work Out. Add working out at the gym or at home to your routine. I like going to the gym for an hour and a half or so. Add it to your routine.

4. Learn Self Defense. It’s never too late to learn some good ole self defense techniques, no matter who you are. See if your local gym offers some classes.

5. Get a Job or Internship. If you don’t have a summer job, look around your area for places that’ll be hiring in the summer. Fast food, retail, movie theatres, bowling alleys, skating rinks, libraries, etc. See if local colleges are offering internships and apply for any that might interest you or are related to your degree if you’re in college.

6. Volunteer. Volunteering makes you feel good and it’s good for your community. See if local animal shelters or nursing homes are taking volunteers.

7. Take Summer Classes. See if you’d be interested in taking summer classes and your local community college or even online. Learn something that you’re interested in or something that will look good on a resume. Learning to code, learning a second language, and learning how to use all of the MS Office Suite applications are all good options.

7. Take Day Trips. Take a day or a half a day to go somewhere that you’ve never been. It doesn’t have to be in another country or even another state. It can be a local restaurant you’ve never been to or a town you’ve only ever driven through. Drive until something catches your eye.

8. Hang Out With Friends. Obviously, the summer is about spending time with people you care about. Remember to spend time with your friends and family. And remember to keep everything within your routine so you’ll feel as productive as possible!

Good luck xx

for people taking ap gov/apush this year i would 100% recommend watching adam norris on youtube! he has videos for literally everything that will be on the ap test because he bases his videos off of the college board's material outline. to study for my ap tests all i did was watch his videos and take notes on the info he talked about it. i studied a lot but because of his videos i was able to get a 5 on both my apush and ap gov tests!

oh hey thanks so much for the info!!!

What do you think about gap years and do you have any resources related to them? Thanks xx.

I think gap years are a great idea IF you do something that will support your future academic or career goals during the year. I didn’t know many people that took gap years between high school and college, but many people take them between college and graduate school/medical school/etc.

For example, if you’re planning on going to college but want to take a gap year, can you get involved in some sort of academic tutoring, internship, or research experience program? Also make sure you take any required exams i.e. the SAT, ACT, subject tests, AP exams, or GRE if you’re post-college. You could also take some community college or night-school classes to get some requirements out of the way in a more relaxed atmosphere.

If you’re planning on getting a job, what can you do during your gap year to build up your resume? Think volunteering, internships (paid or unpaid), part time work (ideally in your desired field), and any credentials or licenses you might need for your job.

You can also use your gap year to work on your professional skills, make money through side hustles, and consider big life changes like moving out, getting an apartment, etc.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t enjoy your gap year! Spend some time recovering from school and rebuild your interests and hobbies. Just don’t get too comfortable that your gap year turns into gap 3-5 years!

Hope this helps!– Mimi

MOTIVATION VS SELF-DISCIPLINE

When studying, most people try to find motivation thinking that this will get them through their study session, or they will see their failure as a result of a lack of motivation. But motivation isn’t always what we need - what do you do on the days you have no motivation? This is why we need self-discipline.

MOTIVATION VS SELF DISCIPLINE

Motivation - a willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. A goal or reward that you look forward to that will encourage you to study - while this is useful, what happens on a day when you just don’t feel like studying?

Self-Discipline - making yourself do things you know you should do when you don’t want to. Being trained to routinely study regardless of how unmotivated you are - this is what will get you out of bed on a day you don’t feel like studying.

So if motivation is ‘why we should do something’ - self-discipline is more ‘what to do next’.

HOW TO BE SELF-DISCIPLINED

Make a commitment with yourself that you will make studying as your habit. This is super important. Commit yourself to make this as your new habit. Don’t half-ass any of these suggestions or any other suggestions that other people give. Don’t give yourself silly, illegitimate excuses in the process. For this, you can do it by remind yourself on what your long-term goals in life are. Or if they don’t sound rewarding enough, remind yourself what failure feels like/ could feel like.

Set yourself a routine and stick to it

Never have a zero day - try and study every single day - even if you feel absolutely awful - 10 minutes is better than nothing!! Do flashcards from your bed or watch youtube ted talks if you can’t physically study. This will help help develop a routine and make it easier for you to cope. Also, by studying everyday your brain will know that the content you are learning should be stored as long-term information so this will benefit you in the long run!

Avoid long breaks. Unless you know that taking an hour long break means only an hour, then you can ignore this. But fo the majority of us, once we’ve taken a while out of studying it can be hard to get back into it again. One minute you’re taking a 20 minute break for a snack and some phone time and the next thing you know you’re on Youtube and four hours have passed! To avoid this, try stick to shorter breaks - five or ten minutes for a snack break, toilet break and to check any phone messages. A good method to try for this is the Pomodoro Method!

Build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once. Start things slow and in steps.

Set yourself smaller deadlines for your goals like monthly and weekly deadlines - e.g. if you are doing a project, due 27th June, set personal deadlines, like have the introduction written by the 8th, have your literature review written by the 15th, have project complete by the 25th. 

Break down the things that you must do into smaller, concrete activities and put those smaller activities in that to-do list; allocate specific time periods to do each smaller activities and put it the to-do list as well; set an alarm reminder for each smaller activities. Say you have to study for English on Tuesday, because for whatever reasons you just decided to dedicate your time this Tuesday to study English. However, I’d suggest that you break down that specific activity (or “daily goal”) before putting it in your to-do list. So, instead of just putting “study for Physics”, try putting “read and highlight Chapter 9″, because putting very general/broad activity like “study English” can actually make you too confused on where and how to start doing it, and make you very prone to distractions in the process. 

Know your limits. Self-discipline isn’t doing as much as you can until you break - it’s about having control, knowing what you can realistically manage and getting that done.

Give yourself rewards! I love to have something to look forward to as I get work done! This means mixing motivation and self-discipline. I tell myself after this lecture I can have an animal crossing break or check some messages etc. 

Track your progress – don’t forget to put a checklist on your to-do list after accomplishing a task. It would relieve your stress a bit and motivate you to continue doing the remaining activities on your to-do list. 

Remove distractions from your study space! Personally, if my phone is out and I notice a notification…I’m gonna check it. It’s human nature! So to combat this, I use apps like Forest that force me to stay within the app while I study. If I know I might get hungry during a study session I’ll keep a little snack by my desk so I don’t have to get up and somehow find something else to distract me.

Just do it isn’t that easy. I find to get myself in a ‘work boss’ mood I need to feel good about myself so I put on a nice outfit and maybe some eyeliner and hype myself up so I know I can do my tasks and get stuff done! It feels so much better than lazing in my pyjamas trying to study.

Be patient. It’s going to be a rough journey, it’s going to be hard but you’ve got this! Take it one step at a time. Start off by completing one task a day, then move to two, then three, and the next thing you know, you’ll have a regular routine where you will constantly be ticking off your to-do list everyday! But remember to be kind to yourself, know when your body is not in the right state of health to study and don’t force it. Only force yourself to a limit, you’ll know when to stop and that’s okay. Just try again when you feel better! Your health is much more important!

(x)