is your goal realistic?

ANY goal is realistic.  The question is if the time frame you give yourself is realistic.  We as humans never fully realize our genetic potential.  If I wanted to take my guitar skills to the professional level, that would not be an unrealistic goal.  But if I said get to that level within less than a year, that would be unrealistic, but the point remains that I have the potential to get there.  If we believe it to be possible and likely, we are more likely to work hard to get there.

Breaking the Cycle

I read Wong's passage about Self-Esteem cycles and thought it was very interesting.  Low achievement leads negative perception of self and others, which leads to bad relationships, etc.  Low self-esteem is a cycle just like high self-esteem is a cycle.  High achievement leads to a high view of one's self and so on.  Both cycles can be broken.  For me, failure can really break a high self-esteem cycle.  For instance, in Latin freshman year, I got an 'A' on the first test.  On the next one I got a 'C'.  I incorrectly felt that Latin just wasn't for me and that I should blow it off the rest of the semester.  Bad move.  I should not have let my low self-esteem get me.  You have to take yourself out of a bad cycle by working hard and positive thinking.

Caffeine

Does it have its place among students?  Health experts and students would probably have all sorts of different answers.  For me, it does.  When I wake up, if I don't feel well rested, the difference caffeine makes is huge.  Sometimes I'll fall asleep in class and take a 3 hour nap mid-afternoon, no bueno.  One early morning caffeinated beverage changes all of that.

What to do about?

If you make a schedule and can't adhere to it.  Sometimes I'll tell myself that I am going to get a certain part of a project done by a certain time.  If i fail to get that part done, it is tough for me to get on it because I get easily overwhelmed.  I guess I need to capitalize on that stress and get to work.

Morning work

I've found that homework in the mornings is primo.  Why?  Afternoons and evenings are distracting.  You turn on the TV at 8am you aren't gonna find anything worth watching.  Turn it on at 5pm and you may as well give up on homework.  Also, there is no one to hang out with.  If you call your buddy Billy-Bob at 8am he is gonna curse you then go back to sleep.

Highlighting/Note taking

So I'm torn whether or not to take notes or highlight or neither when I'm reading.  Short passages I can highlight and take notes over, but if a passage is long it simply takes too long.  Even highlighting seems to slow me down because I have to take a break from reading and put the highlighter to the paper.  On the other hand, both highlighting and note taking encourage rereading and studying and both increase reading comprehension.

Morning focus

Setting an alarm and working in the morning versus other times of day seems to help me.  In the afternoon and at night, I can't stop thinking about other things, so sometimes I'll just hit the hay and wake up early instead.