After three weeks of family fun, gifts, and sleeping in late, it’s time to come on back to Ohio State. Spring semester is upon us and in my opinion, it’s fantastic! I know for some the lack of football games and cold weather can be a damper; however, for me, second semester has and always will be a time of growth and expanding friendship! For most of you, I assume that with the new year comes one thing: New Year’s resolutions. While cliché, resolutions have consistently kick-started my motivation and led to major growth. The reason for this is primarily centered around the approach I take not only to New Year’s resolutions, but also to spring semester in general, which I break down into four simple steps.

What are your goals?

This is the starting point, what are your goals, really? If it’s just to lose weight or to increase your GPA, that seems incredibly oversimplified. I would suggest getting a sheet of paper, and writing down specific goals you have in mind for this semester, and how you plan to achieve them. For example, instead of listing, “raise my GPA” as a goal, write instead the specific GPA you wish to achieve and the steps you are going to take to do so, such as going to tutoring on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3-4 and going to office hours. This will allow you to have a realistic expectation of the time commitment and work necessary for your goals.

Start right away!

Everyone wants to wait until tomorrow to do things. It’s logical–starting a new journey is hard, it’s full of fear, anxiety, and doubt. However,

It’s important to just do it! Go to office hours these first few weeks to get in the groove of going. Go to the gym at Monday morning 6 a.m. Whatever you have set as your specific goal, do it as soon as possible to avoid delay and quitting.

My motivation is fleeting

Everybody can go to the gym in the morning during this first week. However, as the weather gets colder, you have more and more work to do, and more and more of your clubs start to ramp up your time commitment. Your motivation may begin to diminish and it may seem really hard to get out of bed to do your workout, or go to office hours at 8 a.m. While motivation isn’t always there, discipline can be there. Routine is a magical thing, and if you can just push through the harder periods, you will reap the rewards tenfold. Remember to stay the course, and that hard times are only for a little while.

I missed one time…it’s over! (Nope.)

Let’s say you snoozed your alarm at 5:50 so you could get an extra 7 minutes of sleep after a really long night of studying. Then you wake up, your roommate’s gone, and its 1 p.m. You freak out, and it’s as though all your hard work has culminated into failure. You missed a day and that’s it, why bother continuing to go? Well, if we were all machines this would be a fair statement. However, life is difficult and mistakes happen. You didn’t go one day, THAT’S OKAY! Things come up, stuff happens; however, it’s important to stay the course. Get up just like you normally would the next day.

Overall these are my four steps to have a killer second semester! I hope this semester will be among the best times of your lives!

Peace and Love, Nick Pavelec