Well, the start of school is upon us. Our county begins next Monday. Colleges and universities are opening in some parts of the country while others will start later in September. Here at Valencia Community College, the professors report on Wednesday for a big “welcome back” meeting and then students report on Monday.
Have you taken any time to refresh yourself?
Are you ready to take next steps towards your goals?
Steven Covey, in his masterful book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
Hopefully over the past few weeks you’ve taken time to refresh yourself before diving into the next season of your life. Of course, the idea of staying fresh and sharp is ever-present. You should take time during your week often to stay fresh, whether that is through doing some physical activity, reading for personal pleasure, performing some service for others or merely taking a nap (seriously, most of us are far too tired and would do better to simply get more sleep).
The hope is that as you begin your new semester or, if out of school, then as you begin your new season of life, starting fresh. There’s nothing worse than coming to what should be that exciting first day and already being exhausted, bored, dull.
How can you do this?
Here are three simple steps that can help you:
- Take some time (maybe an hour or two) and get alone, get silent, remove all electronic devices, and think. Listen to your own soul. Take a pad of paper with you and be ready to write down anything you hear from your inner voice.
- Write down (probably again) what your top 3 goals are for yourself right now. These could be long off, say graduating or gaining a certain job. That’s fine, but also make sure you bring the focus closer to this next 4 months, this next semester. What goals can you have, do you have, for this coming period of time?
- Write down one activity, one thing, that you can do now, or starting now, that helps you accomplish this goal. Do this for each goal you list.
- Write down or make clear to yourself how your class schedule (or work or activity schedule) is connected to your goals. Make it clear that you see the connection between this goal you have and this thing you have to do.
Let me give you an example of what this could look like.
Susan sits alone in a park just listening. She enjoys the sounds of nature around her, children laughing at the nearby play area, but she is listening deeply for her soul. She’s been dealing with some relationship issues, a work issues also. School is starting this week, so she is centering down for a quiet moment to ensure she knows her path and embraces who she is.
She lists her main goals that she believes is the path she should go. She still sees pharmacy school and life working in a drug store as her future. She’s always liked science and the idea of helping people get well excites her. Since she has volunteered some in this arena, she knows that a lot of her clientele are older people and mothers of young children. Helping these people find comfort through their medical distress really excites her still and she is eager to complete school to start this life.
In this one goal (she has 3 others that she writes down), she knows she needs to bring it closer into focus for this semester since finishing school is still 2 years away. She has a tough semester of 5 classes and is still active in her sorority. She joined the service fraternity also and is active in a spiritual club. She sets a goal of making at least 3 A’s, she’d prefer 4, but 3 of her classes are really hard. And one of her classes is in her minor of English and while she loves it, it’s not exactly her strong suit. Making a B in that tough Later Shakespeare class would be very good in her mind.
She writes all this down. Lastly, she gives herself 1 specific thing to aid her quest (in reality, she knows there are about 6 or 7 things she must do well at to nail this goal). She needs to be disciplined in getting sleep. At age 20, she now knows that she really doesn’t do well on less than 7 hours, and really needs 8 hours. So, she writes down that she plans to be in bed by 11 PM each night and will get up between 6:30 and 7 each morning so she can go run and have some more quiet time for herself. But, she adds a note to herself that in order to get into bed by 11, she must stay focused on what she does earlier in the day and be ready to say “no” to her friends wanting her to hang out in order to say “YES” to the goals of her life.
In this, Susan has stated the obvious that passing all 5 classes, and getting high marks if possible, is directly related to her accomplishing her goals for the semester and her future. Thus, with this clear to her, it will not be a challenge to go to class faithfully and do her work in the class on time, perhaps even early to be even more organized.
You too can do this! Find time now. Don’t wait for some random day when you just don’t have anything to do. You can start fresh with this season, this semester.
Get pumped. You are going to be that much closer to goals you have set.
http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=numinous&o=1
