Arianna Pal, 10F
School starting made us all think about how we are going to get through the year once again. With all the stress, upcoming tests and heavy workload, there aren’t that many options to get through it without hard work and plenty of hours spent in front of your notebooks. Nevertheless, there are options for making your studying easier, maybe even more practical. Along with them comes starting over.
The beginning of the school year is a great way to start over. You may ask yourself: “What is starting over?”. It isn’t a hard concept, it consists of beginning from scratch, now that you learned from your mistakes and know how to do better. Although going all the way to where you started sounds tiring and maybe useless, it is a way to perfect yourself, fix your mistakes and give you a head start.
“Starting over is opportunity informed by failure, which is opportunity made intelligent,” said Craig D. Lounsbrough, author and licensed professional counsellor. By that, he inspires the readers to rework their past mistakes, reevaluate their life and embrace changes. Failure is a start that goes on to success, and from there you can only go up. Don’t be upset if you make mistakes and take them for granted, as it can’t go down from there.
Knowing the main idea of starting over, one can ask themselves how this can be applied in a day-to-day situation, specifically a studying-based situation. Starting over does not have a definition, so everyone can relate to it in any way they find useful. It can come in small actions, like rewriting your lessons, reevaluating your past grades and what you did wrong, or completely changing your schedule.
Just like the beginning of a new year, a new chapter of your life, changing your schedule can be crucial to your grades. Not only that, but staying organized in your day-to-day life increases your productivity and helps you stop procrastinating.
In doing all of the above, the main key is motivation.
How does one actually start reworking on their life?
1) Reorganize your desk and files and look through notebooks. Though this can be really time-consuming, the time spent on finding out what you actually need and want to keep is really significant. Throwing out whatever you find purposeless can make it easier for you to find what is important.
2) Try to remove the unnecessary extra-curricular activities you have in your schedule. Ask yourself what you really plan on continuing and what you don’t find useful for your future.
3) Practice mindfulness. Meditate and clear your mind. With all the stress accumulated during the week, getting rid of the negativity and bad energy helps you focus on the positives.
Remember that your past is not a lead-up to your future. Past mistakes are significant only in perfecting yourself. Your future is in control by your state of being and the inspiration you have on doing what you love. Starting over is just a 2nd chance to fulfil your happiness and find what is truly principal in yourself.
Helpful links: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/mindfulness-exercises/art-20046356