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! 

💙💙💙

Stick To What You Say You Will Do

Hello everyone! We are back for Motivation Monday ♥

Today, we'll be tackling sticking to whatever you plan to do. This is a problem that I have myself. This problem is also one very closely related to consistency.

The solution is quite simple: JUST GET STARTED.

Now, you may be thinking, "But it's too hard," or, "I have no time." Fine then; let's dismember those excuses, since they are the most common.

The level of difficulty something has just requires you to modify the way that you tackle the problem or task at hand. For example, something along the lines of a project will require you to break the major task down into several smaller parts. In the case of a task being to clean your room, you could break that down into sections of the room or mini tasks like "put away clothing" or "place shoes back in boxes" or "file mail". This will make your major tasks much less daunting and much more satisfying as you check off each individual task. A smaller task that would require you to break it down further would be something like "go to the gym" or "check email".

Having or not having time is a matter of organizing your day in a way that lets you have a time for everything that needs to get done. The key words there are organizing and needs. This calls on our skill of prioritizing. I've said it before in some posts, but it only helps to be repetitive: taking up a time management method is the most efficient way to organize your time according to priorities. I have a preference for the Spiraldex method but there are tons of others out there (Tumblr has helped me see that) and they are all just a google search away. You could also develop one that works best for you.

However, these two excuses have the same starting point. JUST GET STARTED. That may mean siting at your desk or at the place where you study. Maybe it means picking up your pen and just beginning to write that article or novel you've been meaning to get to. Perhaps it means opening your textbook and beginning to read. Or, in the case of the room in need of cleaning or tidying up, it may mean that you start by picking up the pair of shoes that have been lying around your bedroom floor. 

I like to write down the tasks I have to do as they come or at the end of the day, when I can write a note to do with each task, if need be. The perfect system for me then is the Bullet Journal.

Here is what my current week looks like:

Finding the tools to make sure you keep track of your progress is probably the most arduous part. However, you don't need a Bullet Journal to get your tasks started. A Bullet Journal can come up later, once you've gotten your practice moving through your tasks at hand. A Bullet Journal is just something to look forward to.

For now, JUST GET STARTED ♥

Don't Let Yourself Mentally Block Yourself

I know some of you will probably read the title and ask, "What the heck?"

To those of us who know exactly what that means, we know it also happens more often than we care to admit; starting with me.

That's why I had to share an amazing experience I had just yesterday, Monday. Which will lead into a big announcement... but first thing's first.

I’m taking a class called Logic & Philosophy and it’s proving to be a major challenge for me especially since it has nothing to do with my career path. Abnormal Psychology has also been a challenge, but I've been able to justify losing nights of sleep over that class because it's within my field of study. However, that is not the case with Logic & Philosophy. 

I have felt myself mentally blocking myself when it comes to this class. I was unable to attend our only two hour session last week (the other hour of the class is composed of online assignments which I have been ACTIVELY and PURPOSEFULLY neglecting). I’m admitting that because it forces me to take any responsibility for any consequence that can come thereafter. So, I walked in to class a little early, I began to settle down... I also began to freak out and panic. I was well aware I was rapidly falling behind and I knew that, to some extent, I was going to be lost. I just felt it.

Truth be told, lost didn’t even begin to encompass the depth of the complete disorientation I was feeling in the first hour of the class. It felt as if the professor was just blabbing a string of words that had absolutely no meaning to me, whatsoever. It was almost as if he was speaking a different language. I could feel the walls closing in on me. I could feel myself willing the walls to block incoming information.

He's speaking too fast. You're recording the class, you may as well check out now and figure it out later. You can't understand him, might as well stop trying to because you're not going to get it now. Don't bother approaching him about your struggles, you're gonna make yourself look like an idiot.

That is the kind of string of thought that was going through my mind throughout the first third of the class. The mind can be your biggest bully as well as your saving grace. I was compelled to follow the rationale of my bully of a mind and just not even try. However, I saw that I had NOTHING TO LOSE in trying. That's important. You can only gain understanding if you feel yourself stuck at zero for whatever reason. You, literally, have nothing to lose. 

Therefore...

I FOUGHT FOR THOSE WALLS TO STAY THE HECK OPEN!

I was not about to check out, especially since the professor kept repeating that the truth tables we were working through were going to be essential to everything else we will be doing in the course.

I willed myself to not block all the negativity out and, instead, try to understand the material; and what-d-ya-know, I got it in the end. The second hour, I could grasp a hell-of-a-lot better what he was saying in the first half of the class. I was even giving him answers. I felt so proud of myself.

This goes to show that you can do it, too, if you really set your mind to success mode and fight back when your mind wants to check out. 

DON’T CHECK OUT BECAUSE THE SATISFACTION YOU FEEL IS LIKE NONE OTHER.

And now on to the huge announcement...

The first Monday of every month, like yesterday, I will be posting a blog post intended to motivate you to get done what you thought you could not. Sometimes, they'll include personal tie-ins and sometimes they won't. Either way, they are assured to give you the extra umph you may have been looking forward to.

So, join me every first Monday of the month to see what's in store :)

My Summer of 2015

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well.

I missed blogging! I haven't been able to do so in the past month because... well, for several reasons. It's kind of what I wanted to share with you all.

On to the main event...

From August 7th to the 16th, I was upstate in Camp Berkshire, camp grounds owned by the church conference I belong to. Every year, Hispanic Camp Meeting is a week-long event many youth and adults look forward to. I've now been staff for two Hispanic Camp Meetings and this year was better than the last! My father was excited for me to leave too because he said that so far, I'd just been in and out of school, work, and church. I hadn't really enjoyed my summer yet. I got the beginning of my summer enjoyment at Berkshire. I left to Berkshire Friday afternoon and got there roughly two and a half hours later. I saw friends I hadn't seen in a long time, caught up with them, laughed with them...

I also connected with new people. The very first night, I was paired with 2 extraordinary girls, Kim and Em. I jokingly told them a forewarning of my liking to sleep in the cold (inwardly, I was desperately hoping they felt the same way!) and, to my joyful surprise, Kim backed me up! 

Unfortunately, I didn't have a blanket that first night to keep me warm. I was freezing! I couldn't fall asleep completely. I checked the time on my phone... 1 AM... 2:47 AM... 3:26 AM... and then at 5:36 AM I looked out of the window and saw this:

After waking up (for the umpteenth time that night) to this, I felt a calm wash over me. I was ready to listen to my surroundings, to feel in touch with everything around me: the trees, the air, the people. It was refreshing to get out of the chaos and hectic lifestyle in the city. One of the days at camp, I was in charge of the boating activity, I had to kayak out to tell our boaters they had gone too far for us to see them. I decided to just stay out at the limit so they knew what point to return to the shore at. Sitting in that kayak with the sun beaming, the smell of fresh water and trees at its intoxicating peak, I decided I'd have a talk with God. I felt an overwhelming need to thank him for everything, the good and the bad. I wanted to be able to be in that same spot, physically and spiritually, every day from there on out. However, He helped me understand something at that moment: I didn't have to be in total isolation to feel that He was with me... He would always be with me and remain there for whenever I wanted to talk, no matter where I found myself. That was such an amazing experience and one that I am unwilling to ever forget.

Sometimes, we need to stop our rush and just contemplate on where we are and be thankful that we've come that far, appreciate and enjoy those moments and all the moments in between. We often forget how blessed we truly are to just get up in the morning and we spend so much time making the most of every day and we don't stop to truly enjoy it. That's my challenge to you. The next time you are in a tight spot or you find yourself having been successful in a task, stop and thank the powers that be :) pat yourself on the back, reflect on where you once were and where you are at that moment, relish in the feeling because you worked your butt off to get there, and thank those that helped you on the way.

The rest of the week was full of blessings and horrible food (haha), but that's part of the deal, right? It was bittersweet when the moment came that we all had to part ways. I miss them all but we'll be seeing each other real soon.

Then, I spent 3 days over at one of my dearest friend's house because she was leaving for college later on that week. It was relaxing, and I got to catch up on my sleep! When I got home (FINALLY!) on Wednesday, I checked my summer semester grades online. I knew I had aced all my classes because I sent my professors a "thank you" email and they replied with their own "thank you"s and my grade for their class. I was just worried about my GPA.

You see, I had ended my first college semester with a 1.166 GPA. Yes, that's right, a 1.166 GPA. I was (obviously) placed on probation for my Spring semester (which includes the summer semester). I was prepared for it to have gotten better because I knew how hard I worked but I was still worried. Bouncing back from a 1.166 is not an easy task. Then I saw it...

I have not seen that many A's and B's in a REALLY long time; Especially, in the same marking period. I went from a 1.166 GPA to a 2.936 GPA from one semester to the next. That's about a 250% increase! It was right there before my eyes and I could not believe it. I knew then that the experience I had undergone in camp was preparing me for realizing all that went into pulling this off. Philippians 4:13 (NKJV) says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,"** and I now stand testament to that fact.

I cannot even begin to express the happiness I feel and new-found confidence.

The week after I came back from my best friend's house, I went on another camping trip to Lake George with some friends from church. That was the icing on the cake that was my summer. 

There was absolutely no service at the camp site and that went for about a 5-10 mile radius. It was so relaxing. I let my phone die on Thursday, August the 27th, when I got there, and did not charge it again until Sunday, the 30th, before we started taking the tents down. I didn't take very many pictures but that doesn't bother me. The memories are ingrained. Everything was breathtakingly beautiful and relaxing. 

Here are two of the three pictures I did manage to take:

These were taken in the nearest town. It was also the first place we could get service haha.

I will forever cherish this year thus far. Every experience I've had, every late night, early morning, serene moment, and chaotic moment, too. I am so thankful for every single one of those memories and for having the opportunity to share them with you all!

I hope that you feel the same way, too.

With love,

xoxo