Motivation Monday: Take A Beat

We're back with Motivation Monday! Sorry that this is a day late, but yesterday became hectic with my great-grandmother ending up in the hospital. She's stable now but keep her in your thoughts and prayers. This post will be modeled after advice she's given me before...

While all other Motivation Monday posts tend to be about pushing onward, I would like you to check-in with yourself. It can become very easy to overlook what you've already accomplished when you're constantly looking toward the next thing that needs to get done.

For college students, this struggle is all too familiar. As each semester winds down it can become very easy to feel like you're slowly drowning in a cup of water. You can slowly feel the energy drain out of you, words are not so easy to find when you're pounding out an essay or three a day. In those moments, it is a good idea to take a beat and realize how much you have done to give a little extra umph in getting through the finish line.

Part of being able to do this successfully is understanding that all your hard work is portion of a process. Good things comes to those who wait, is what they say. I have had to learn this the hard way. Those of you that have been following me for a while know that I finished my first semester of college with a 1.166 GPA. 

Here are what my semesters looked like, successively:

Fall 2014

Spring 2015

Fall 2015

Spring 2016

It's been a process, and there have definitely been trip-ups, but they become much more than that when you use them as motivation. I am learning to do that and can attest to its success, I can now say that I have finished at LaGuardia Community College with a 3.139 GPA. I am so happy and I know I have a lot to go, but it's all a process.

The next time you're feeling like your school, and all the work that comes with it, is slowly draining you. Take a moment to breathe in and out deeply, it would help to use this visual to breathe as profoundly as possible. Think back to your accomplishments, think about all the work that you put in for them, think about how much you felt in those moments that your stress went on without end. Think about how you pulled through and you're a better person and more skillful than you were then. Once you are reassured in your ability and perseverance, you can then continue on with your work because you can absolutely do this!

I'll be moving these Motivation Monday posts to the second Monday of each month.

Join me for the next one! 

xoxo

2/100 Days of Productivity

I am absolutely thrilled to be back! What better way to kick this off than by bringing back the 100 Days of Productivity series. Seeing as I am so far behind with the catching up (did any of you follow that?), I'll be posting as many of these as I can during the weeks that follow. However, if all else fails, I'll be giving one on every Friday, no matter what.

Let's jump right back in with a throwback to Day 2 of the 100 Days of Productivity Challenge!

Pictured above is what my day consisted of on Wednesday, 21 October 2016. I had stayed up a little late the night before to finish the case notes peeking out from behind my bullet journal. Seeing those case notes brings warm memories because they were part of the moments I really began to feel psychology being a perfect fit for me. There is always a concern with the material being learned as opposed to being applied or, at the very least, seeing how it can be applied. My Abnormal Psychology professor found a way to help us apply the material we were studying in class with the case studies, the PTSD case study was the first case study I chose to do. 

We could choose from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Disorder, Hoarding Disorder, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. We did have to read them all but we had to choose one to write our case study summary exam on. In other words, we chose one to delve in depth to, to basically memorize and then write about in an in-class exam. Each one of the case studies were impactful in their own way. For example, we learned that there is a very big difference from the way OCD is colloquially and the way it is used medically. The difference and severity of the condition known as OCD was so incredible that I chose never again to joke about someone being OCD.

I finally felt like I was soaking up psychological knowledge. This, despite the love-hate relationship I had with the professor, was what kept me going. It goes to show that you do not have to "like" the professor to do well in a class. I communicated insecurities and uncertainties with her whenever they arose and she was very keen on making sure I stayed on track. My problem with her was the workload, it was not anything personal. In the end, I loved her and her class and find myself missing it, more often than not.

The other thing I got done that day was get advised for my Spring 2016 semester. I have to say, I was more than excited to do so because it would be planning my final semester at LaGuardia. It feels like it was just yesterday I was planning, but I can say now that I am officially done with LaGuardia Community College. It's bittersweet. Regardless. The classes I planned to take are listed in the first picture of this post. Unfortunately, I ended up not being able to take Psychology of Women and opted to take First-Year Seminar for Psychology instead. I am glad I did so! More on that some other time, though.

Next Up: Day 3!

Let me know what your experiences with psychology classes or professors have been in the comments section. Or simply say hi!

Be Back Soon, My Lovelies! ♥♥

1/100 Days of Productivity

Reading a case study

It seemed perfectly fitting to start the 100 Days of Productivity Challenge. I had seen so many of my fellow studyblrs take on the challenge and it seemed to make them all more aware of the amount of work they got done and how they went about it. These were two things I definitely felt I needed to hone in on. It was also daunting and exciting that I would be held accountable for 100 days. While I have chosen not to make them 100 consecutive days, the significance and the impact these days have had on my life have not been diminished. As someone who strives for academic success, but who struggles with motivation and self-doubt, I could have just as easily said that this task was too hard to take on.

What I seem to have forgotten is that it is absolutely okay to have a lack of motivation and self-doubt.

It seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it? When has anyone ever directly admitted to their weaknesses, their shortcomings, in order to achieve success? However, we all should. Most people don't tell us that those "negative" feelings are normal; even more so, necessary to address and be held accountable for when in search of the efficient and successful path(s) toward your goal, or goals.

Logic and Philosophy workings...

Failure can and will happen at least once in your life (for those of you that think you're infallible). Failure is a reality I am very familiar with. I say that with a certain sense of pride. While, yes, I have more potential than that, and, yes, I perfectly capable of having a good academic track-record (or at the very least, just better than the one I've had), that has not been how my decisions have paved the way toward my goals. You see, two things that must be outlined in those thoughts.

1. Acknowledging your strengths
2. Taking responsibilities for your faults

It is highly crucial to constitute both those in order to move along your path. Without those two working together, interdependently, then it becomes extremely difficult to walk most of the time along your path. You will find yourself just sort of tripping, crawling, and panting your way through, and, let's face it: life is hard as is, no need to make it any harder on us than it has to be.

Take the class from which the picture above is taken from: Philosophy & Logic. Firstly, I went into this class thinking it would be more about philosophy than logic. I never thought it would have this "equation" formatting for reasoning your way through philosophical questions. This class was teaching us that math was really everywhere. Someone decided they wanted to be able to prove verbal arguments in some mathematical way. Always interesting. I was overwhelmed 3 or 4 classes in. I felt, however, and was aware that I was drowning in a cup of water. I understood that part of that feeling was caused my utter un-enthusiasm in class and my lack of effort to work past confusion and sort of waiting to catch some sort of break I could consider "masterization" of the material. It sounds utterly pathetic, now that I write it. I also know that I was probably better of actually working at the class. My response was dictated by my fixed mentality (I'll be referring to this term in other posts as well, you can here Dr. Carol Dweck give a TEDTalk on this concept here and here). One of the problems with a fixed mentality is that we really don't take challenges in stride. We see challenges, not as potential for new or better understanding, but as a challenge to our intelligence.

However, it is absolutely possible to change mentality. For me, the 100 Days of Productivity Challenge was absolutely a way to change that mentality. I have not regretted it... yet (this joke will make sense once you see the linked videos above lol).

And, I'm happy that I'll be on this journey with all of you right there by me :)

So, Day 1 was Tuesday, October 20, 2015. Here it began.

Bullet Journal: Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Two Big Upcoming Projects

Hello to all you lovely blog readers! It has definitely been a while since the last time I posted anything. It is such an overwhelming joy to be making my way back! 

Today's post will be super short, just to brief you on my upcoming projects for this blog.

To kick things off, I thought I'd pick up the trend from Tumblr: The 100 Days of Productivity Challenge. I just published Day 23 and it's been wonderful so far. Sometimes, I feel there is more to say than what I put up on Tumblr, so I'd like to go a little more in depth on this here blog with each post. For now, I will be "catching up". There will be one day from the challenge posted each week, every Friday, until I'm all caught up, and then I'll continue with each other day I post on my Tumblr as they come in. You can see them all through my Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

The other big project will be "Motivation Monday" posts every first Monday of the month. Those will begin this upcoming Monday, April 4th, 2016. Lawd knows I need extra boosts for Mondays when they come along. What better way to kick of the month each first Monday than with a motivational stance? 

As always, I encourage each and every one of you to reach out to me—by any of the means linked above—if there is anything in particular you'd like to see here. I am more than willing to please my audience :)

With that in mind, I can't wait to see where these projects take us!

See you all back here Friday! 

💙💙💙