Fall break has come and gone. Hopefully you were able to go home and recharge your batteries during the few days you had away from campus. The time away from campus is a great opportunity to physically and mentally distance yourself from school, reconnect with family and friends from home, and take a beat. If you attend a university that doesn't have fall break - yes, y'all, that is a thing - do your best to find the time to renew.
Mid-semester is a wonderful time to take stock of where you are and figure out where you want to be. Think back to when you first arrived on campus and the goals you had when classes first started. Even if you didn't have concrete goals then, I'm guessing you have them now. Think about whether your actions align with your goals. This applies to your personal and professional goals, along with academic ones. In short, every action you take should move you closer to those goals. Be realistic and create balance, but also be intentional.
As I type this, I am making those same assessments in my life. While I am having a great time with Tassel to Tassel, the reality is that it is still a growing business. Last week, I missed two opportunities that would have put me in front of people who could have made a difference in my business. One was a dummy move - missing a deadline - and the other was because I didn't think about it from an entrepreneurial perspective. What's my point? My point is that I had to step back, think through why my business wasn't at the forefront of my mind, and how not to do that again. Although I can't get those opportunities back, I can take the time to write out my goals and the actions I can take over the next few weeks that will move T2T forward.
I encourage you to do the same thing with your college life. What type of grades would you like to earn? What GPA do you need to maintain your scholarship or apply for a summer program? Think about where you want to be at the conclusion of the fall semester then work backward to determine what you need to do to get there. Then take into account where you stand academically right now and tweak if you have to. Take real time to do this. It something hits you in the middle of the night and you can't flesh it own then and there, write it down and come back to it when you can dedicate the time to work it out. This is being intentional.
As we know from goal-setting, be very specific about the actions, making sure they are measurable. How many times will you go to your professor/TA or help rooms? How many hours will you study? With whom will you study? Then ask yourself the question my business coach - yes, I have someone to keep me on track - asked me, What are you willing to give up to reach your goals? I'll ad to that, What will you gain by giving up those things?
Fall break is a great time to evaluate where you are, where you want to be, and how to bridge the two. You may have to enlist reinforcements - in the form of study partners, help rooms, or even Khan Academy - to make it work. But anything worth having is worth working to get, right? Right. And we'll get there by being intentional, right? Right. Not sure how to do that? Ask me and I'll get you started.
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