Reinventing Mindsets, Altering Perspectives

I'm sure you've all heard that your attitude towards something will define not only whether or not you enjoy it, but also the outcome itself. Right? Right.

Some of you know me well, some not so much, some not at all. As much as I hate to admit this (though a lot of you already know it), I can be very negative when it comes to doing things I don't want to do. I also complain a lot, as my wonderful girlfriend Ali tells me way too often.

The effect of this is obvious when it comes to doing those things I don't want to do. How? I consistently go into these situations with a bad attitude and outlook, and thus no matter how good it could turn out to be, it never will, because I'm expecting it to be bad and all I do is complain about it, thus making me automatically see everything in a bad light. Because of this, I always come out of it having had a bad experience. This of course means that next time I will be thinking along the same lines. On and on this vicious cycle goes, like a sucking vortex, a bottomless pit.

Needless to say, things could be better. A lot better.

Let's take school, for example. I neither like nor enjoy three out of my five subjects. Crunching the numbers I find that about 43% of time at school is spent in subjects I strongly dislike. That's purely inside the 6 periods a day, 5 days a week, spent at school. Dump homework on top of that, and you get about 5-6 hours of home time down the drain on boredom, too. Add in the assignments and you find that in excess of 100 hours throughout the year will be spent on major home assignments from just those three detestable subjects.

That's a lot of boredom.

So I'm setting myself a challenge. I'm going to test out the whole "attitude effecting...stuff" saying and see what happens. Watch this space.

From tomorrow morning onwards I'm going to try my hardest to approach each and every subject and period from a different perspective. Throw out the negativity and pessimism and look at things in a new light. No more--or, at least, less--complaints. This won't just apply to school, I'll try and do it for everything. All going well, things should start looking a lot better.

So, here I go. Off on what could be a very difficult journey.

Starting tomorrow morning with double Physics.

Aberrant Distress

I've been worrying a lot lately about a whole range of different things, for different reasons. It may seem quite reasonable to worry about such things, but when you stop and think about it, does it actually make any sense?

Worry. It's completely pointless. It achieves absolutely nothing. Really, the only thing that worry does is waste energy, waste emotions and make things worse.

So then, why do we do it? It's normal, natural, to worry about things. But just because something happens naturally does not make it right.

If you think about it, most of the things you worry about are completely out of your control. Not all the time, but more often than not. Sometimes you can't do anything about a situation; all you can do is worry. But why would you? Is that not simply a waste of energy? If you can't do anything about something then there is no point in worrying.

Sit back. Relax. Don't distress. Just do what you can and leave it at that. At the end of the day, you can only do what you can do, and then move on. Let's forget the worry. That's never solved anything.

Inspirational Ambitions

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

The clock moves on, the calendar flips over, time goes by.

157 days till exams.

171 days till it's all over.

So little time, so much to do.

With all that, you'd assume I'd have my head down, working away, trying to do my best this year.

Yeah, right. It's not that easy.

There's wanting to do your best, and then there's actually being motivated and doing your best.

I'm the former.

Motivation.

Inspiration.

Goals.

Ambitions.

I have a lot of plans. A lot of goals. A lot of dreams.

As I like to say, most things cost a lot of money (something that I don't have much of). But, dreams are free. So that's what I do. I dream.

But these dreams will never become a reality. Never. Not un

less I actually aim for them, do my best and work t

owards them day in, day out, even if it involves something I really don't want to do. Such as Physics, for example. Now, this may not be a vital subject to my goals, however the general knowledge of it can't help, and the credits certainly c

ould. Everything counts. Everything. Even if you don't see it now.

I'm an avid procrastinator, as anyone who reads this blog (as few of you as there may be) know well. I'm working on it; I'm getting better. Slightly

. It's a long, slow, journey--a work in progress. Add to this mix the fact that I don't enjoy half the subjects I take this year, and that one of them is by correspondence and thus is even easier to put aside than the others, and you end up with... not a heck of a lot.

Procrastination + Boredom and lack of interest = Not a heck of a lot

There's another, good, side to me, though. I never miss deadlines (honestly). I thrive for achievements (proof: Mafia Wars). Goals are excellent motivation for me. If you add these to the mix...

(Bad stuff) + Goals and Deadlines = Ambitions Achieved + Unimaginable things

The bad stuff is no match for my goals and deadlines. Who knows what could happen when these are in place? Self discipline and motivation will, one day, pay off with all sorts of things you could never dream of now. You don't see it? Trust me. One day you will.

When I started the year I was somewhat motivated with a fresh start, new ideas and hopes and dreams. Then it slowly died down. I started procrastinating more and putting things aside. To put it plainly, I just couldn't be bothered. I was lazy.

Then I got a wake up call a couple of weeks ago, and I'm back on track. I set goals, and suddenly I'm focusing and making progress again. It's a heavy workload this year compared to last year. But if I keep at it, slowly chipping away at all the assignments and homework, I'll get there in the end.

Goals are wonderful things. I know that they sure do a lot for my motivation. Set them for yourself, try them out, see if they can do the same for you.

I have a lot of dreams. A lot of ambitions.

There's a heck of a lot to do before I can possibly achieve them. Years of study and hard work. But when I finally get there, it will have all been worth it. Short term goals to get through the year's work, and long term goals for what I want to ultimately achieve. Both will help. Put in the hard yards now and it will pay off.

For now, 171 days and counting.