You are almost one week into the new year and can now officially say you made it through your first semester and by now you should be reflecting on your grades. For some, all of the hard work has paid off and you are basking in the glory of your achievement. For some, you are assessing the level of effort you put in and how just a slight push or an extra hour of studying each week could have moved you up on the grading scale. For some, you are questioning all of the hard work you put in and the end results. All of these thoughts are normal and should be surfacing at the end of each semester.
Similar to New Year’s resolutions, you should focus on New Semester Resolutions. Each semester is an opportunity to reflect and evaluate how your classes ended, new relationships built or conversely old relationships lost, and areas for your personal growth and improvement. The nice thing about college is each semester gives you the chance to have a “do-over” and improve next semester. While you are enjoying your break, take a few minutes and reflect on how things turned out, the things you would like to change, and the things you would like to continue. Create a list of reasonable resolutions and approach them the same way you would a New Year’s resolution.
So you didn’t get along so well with your roommate, you did not get as involved as you hoped, or you neglected your personal wellness. Identify your list and focus on a plan to do better in the new semester. When it comes to resolutions, we often times start off with good intentions and lose steam and ultimately fail at achieving the goal. In order to be successful at goal setting and achieving the goal we must look at how we approach resolutions. Below are a list of things to consider when it making/achieving resolutions for the new semester.
- 1. Brainstorm and define your resolution; being too broad can make the goal a daunting task to take on. Don’t just say I want to lose weight; better define the goal with how much weight and where this will help in step 2.
- Create a plan with clear steps on how you plan to achieve the goal. Now you can easily identify how you will achieve the goal. I will do 50 crunches a day.
- Immediately create the plan; do not put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Do not wait for the sun to shine just right and all of the stars to align before you start. If you are sitting there watching TV, throw in crunches on commercial breaks.
- Write down the resolution and plan to bring life to it; until it is written, it is merely an idea. Create a dream board, put it on your mirror, or journal about it.
- Think semester-long and not just the first few weeks of the semester; incorporate the entire semester into your plan. By the end of the semester I want to do 200 crunches in a day.
- Be flexible as plans are not always executed as intended; bounce back and go back to the plan, revisions to the plan are okay. I had to study for a test so tomorrow I will do 100 crunches.