making progress

One thing that I've learned throughout my years of being in school—this is not to say that I've followed through with this tip because I am such a procrastinator—is to not let things pile up. It's such a simple concept, yet so hard to put into action. (Unless you're one of those people who have amazing willpower, and for that I congratulate you. I'm not one of those people.) It takes me a while to get started on being productive for the day, and when I do, I work very slowly. But I have realized that even if you don't get something done in one sitting, it is best to start something early and keep on chipping away at it until you're finished rather than rushing to do it all the night before. And I guess it's something that can be applied to any situation, not just schoolwork. With anything; even if the progress is merely thinking about ideas or jotting a few notes down, it is still a step further than not doing anything about it at all. With that being said like I've mentioned, I'm a procrastinator. (I like to call myself a 'PROcrastinator'...get it?) However, I would like to stop rushing and starting making progress. Baby steps, am I right?

j.j.

...and life goes on!

There may have been a moment in your life where you—as Coldplay put it—try your best but you don't succeed. These moments can be stressful and nerve-wracking. You start to have thoughts of 'you aren't good enough', and, 'if only you put in that extra hour to study or an extra hour of practicing,' you might have made it. You might not have made the mistake. You might not have felt like a failure. But listen. That mistake you made doesn't define you. The world is still going on all around you. And there are only two options; to keep on going and not get left behind, or to get caught up in the remnants of lost hopes and missed dreams. Maybe you didn't get the score you wanted on a test. Or maybe you only got second place in the music competition. So, what? It may sound cliche´, but the thing that matters most is the effort that you put in. You gave it your best shot. And even if you didn't give it your best shot—maybe you were too busy focusing on other tests or you weren't even passionate about winning that competition but still felt bad about not—you still tried. I know that an 'E for effort' isn't what people want to hear, but just know that there are many more important things to fuss about than getting caught up on one bad thing that happened to you.

j.j.