It’s that “resolution” time of year — time to see if any of us can keep all the well-intended resolutions we may have made on New Year’s Day.
I have never been skilled in keeping resolutions. I have always been, however, incredibly talented in hauling around suitcases of guilt when I didn’t keep my resolutions, which led me to then resolve to get tougher and ditch the guilt.
This year, I abandoned the entire endless cycle of resolution and guilt and resolution and … well, you get the point.
Instead, I adopted the following mantra: “Begin as you mean to go on.”
For me, this means cleaning my office and my home, keeping them reasonably clean, improving my deadline-driven personality, paying more attention to everyone and everything in my sphere, completing tasks that should have been completed eons ago, and always being thankful for the many blessings in my life.
So far, I have a halfway clean office and a much cleaner house, my spring syllabi are done, and I am working on a newspaper that must be printed tomorrow. My success is relative, but at least I have begun the year in the way I intended. Now it’s up to me to keep everything going.
As a teacher and adviser, I also would like to remind students to begin this spring semester (and all their semesters) in the way that they mean to finish it.
My recommendations on how to do that, especially for those who want to finish well, are pretty simple:
Go to class the first day, regardless of whether you’re there five minutes or the full period.
Buy or rent your books as soon as possible and invest in a planner if you don’t already own one.
Read the syllabus, preferably more than once, and then do not hesitate to ask relevant questions.
Take notes. I’ve heard other faculty members bemoan the fact that note-taking appears to be a dying art, and then students wonder why they get low grades or don’t seem to know what’s going on. Writing down what you hear in class can certainly help you learn the material better, as well as help you keep up with important dates for tests and projects (hence the planner).
Do not wait until the last minute to study for tests, write papers or complete projects. I am a journalist, so I know all about getting everything done on deadline and not before. However, it’s not healthy to live that way, as I can certainly attest, so start working on assignments as early as possible.
Finally, find balance among classes, jobs and personal time. Eat and sleep regularly, relax when needed, and stay positive.
Happy 2014.
