#2-Learn Something New Everyday(Burnout)
I’d like to start off by saying in no way am I any type of writer and my grammar is atrocious. I wanna mention that there will be times where the commas or semicolons are placed won’t make any sense. To me, that is the beauty of what I am trying to create; something raw, real, and genuine. I just want to share my experiences with people in hopes of helping someone through a hard time and at the same time show that someone who never did well in school can still do something they never thought they would: write...FOR FUN?!? Because if I can do something this out of my comfort zone, so can you.
If I have learned anything this past couple of months, there are at least these two basic kinds of people my age. Let me know if they sound familiar: 1) There’s that person working so much to “chase the bag”, go to school, party and on top of that still manage to do keep their mental on somewhat good standing or 2) There’s that person who doesn’t go to school and all they do is work, maybe shoot some hoops, and party. Although these two types of people have two different life paths, eventually they will experience something called “burnout”. You know that feeling where all you want to do is nothing? That feeling when you just want to stop, leave, and never come back? Or that feeling where you question what you are doing is “worth it?”. Whether we like it or not, we all have experienced this in our lives.
I used to feel like this all the time and I hated it. I would go into class or work without any real intention. I used to tell myself; “I am just here for the check” or “I need to get good grades for my parents”. This was a terrible mindset to have because I knew I was meant for more than just a bi-weekly check or shitty grades I got every semester. As young people, we are meant to be more than just that. We have all the reasons in the world to be able to experience things that aren’t just right in front of us. We have all the reasons to be a part of things that are way bigger than ourselves. But then we get tied down with work, school, and our personal lives, and the things we truly want to do seem to get further and further. We begin to notice our daily routine doesn’t match up with what we really would like to do. We feel there’s so much we would rather be doing.
Recently, I learned a way to minimize the feeling of burning out is to try to learn something new every day. Learning something new challenges you to look at all the little things you are doing differently. These varying perspectives help grow who you are and eventually into the person you can become. Believe it or not, this mentality started to change my perspective on this whole thing called life. Trying to learn something new every day helped me focus on the positive things I can control and limit the negative effects of the things around me. Through these simple and little tasks every day I was able to shift that “I’m only here for the check” mentality to “What knowledge can I pull from all of today’s experiences?”. This is truly the secret to staying focused on the things we do in life. Whether you are trying to become a better student or just working, intentionally trying to learn something new will help you stay focused on the goals you have, and eventually, you will reach them.