My Students’ Blog

Taking Care of Yourself While Chasing Your Goals

By Lucia H.-S.

When there is so much pressure, you can easily lose your motivation in college. To add on to that, you forget to take care of yourself. Learning ways to stay motivated and practicing self care is important for you to get through college. Motivation can help you to keep working hard to achieve your goals and practicing self care can help protect your mental health during stressful times.

For starters, figure out what classes you need to prioritize first, which will help you to stay on top of your assignment for your class. You can also make a list of goals for yourself for the school year, like a SMART goal. A SMART goal is a strategy to identify specific, measurable, actionable, rewarding, and time-specific goals. See more. If you start setting goals for yourself it can give you something to achieve and help you stay focused. If you think that your large goals can be really overwhelming, break those large goals into smaller steps. Get a notebook or journal that you can use and write small goals for each month to track your progress. By setting goals and tracking your progress, it can help you get started on staying productive and encouraged in college. If you want to learn more, click here.

You should have a healthy routine that you can use daily and stay organized in college as well. Start using a planner or a calendar, or make a to-do list that can help you manage your time to be more flexible and available. When you think about it, this can help you finish your tasks early, and you can reward yourself by having time for yourself to relax and get some rest. Using these habits can help you be less stressed and make your school work more manageable. Learn more

Melanie Hadaller, who is a teacher here at Mossyrock High School, gave helpful methods for you to stay motivated and practice self care from her experience when she was a college student. She explains how she would have an end goal in mind that would help her remember that she can do anything by breaking each of her tasks into smaller tasks. She shared that one of the habits she used in college for her to stay organized was for her to finish up her assignments right away and use a calendar to track her deadlines for assignments or projects. This shows how you really have to manage your time in order to do well in college.

If you want to start taking care of your mental health, start by taking breaks between study sessions, get enough sleep, and eat and drink healthily.

It’s important for you to take care of yourself while chasing your goals. That’s why you should start practicing self care. Many believe they have to work daily in order to pass their classes and would forget to take care of themselves. If you don’t get enough rest, or have healthy habits, you will experience stress and mental health struggles. If you want to start taking care of your mental health, start by taking breaks between study sessions, get enough sleep, and eat and drink healthily. Taking care of your mental health is as important as chasing your goal. 

Everyone needs sleep. Sleep is the most important part of self care for being a college student. Students would often stay up late at night finishing up assignments before deadlines or studying for finals, but they’re most likely to have a low GPA. Having a lack of sleep can affect your academic performance and daytime focus. You should have at least 7 hours of sleep to maintain your strength and mindset. By having a healthy sleep schedule, it can help improve your focus and academic performance in college.

You get a lot of pressure from grades, exams, and future plans. A few would compare themselves to others who are doing much better than them, which will make them feel less confident and think that they’re not doing well enough. Having these negative thoughts can lower your motivation and self esteem. If you start thinking positively, you will have more confidence in yourself. Show yourself that you are worth more than you think you are. You shouldn’t give up after failure. You need to learn from your mistakes and continue to improve yourself. Click here to see more on how to be more confident and accomplish your goals.

Getting support from others can help with your motivation and self care. Some students would think they have to be independent in college, when, in reality, you don’t always have to do everything independently. It’s okay for you to talk to an advisor or friend if you’re having any struggles. You can join a study group with friends who have similar goals as you, and that can help with your path to your goals. Surround yourself with people who will cheer you on till you reach your goals. Take the opportunities of your college learning support  services on the campus. Click here to learn more.

College isn’t just about earning a degree. It’s about teaching yourself how to manage your time and responsibilities, while figuring out what you want to do in the future. By staying motivated and taking care of yourself, you can succeed academically and maintain a healthy lifestyle.