Your personal health is a big priority. In fact, arguably your health is your biggest priority, not just some bonus result when everything else has fallen into place.
Marks256 said:
I do know for a fact that half the problem of my low math grade is that it is at the end of the day, and i am usually pretty burnt out come precalc time.
Because of the resilience of their bodies, teenagers are rarely fully aware of how both extremes and even nuance in their diet, sleep, exercise, study, and recreation can materilize as significant effects on their achievements.
In my first year of university, I slept 6 hours a night, drank 6 pints of beer a day, exercised 2 hours a day, had an active social life, and still pulled down some of the best grades in my academic history. But I was all over the map when it came to making some sort of plan for my life, and realizing that I was an adult and as such no one had more responisibility for my life and its direction than I did, I decided to make some changes, to make some priorities. I decided to become more aware of how seemingly distinct activities in my life had in fact a great deal to do with one another in terms of my success in any area.
Knowing that you get burnt-out by the end of the day, realize that the course you have then is a priority. Treat and prepare for your math class with the same respect a hockey player has for a game or a musician has for a performance. As a priority, determine what you can change in your routine so that when it's time for math class, you're at the peak of your energy. Many people make the mistake of presuming that change means sacrifice, but it doesn't have to be and there's really no point in doing things that way (e.g. if by changing something you have to sacrifice something and consequently the net effect is nil, what's the point of changing in the first place?).
You want to look for a change that's a win-win solution, like eating more fruits and vegetables for lunch and less fried food and caffeine. The win-win there is that you'll discover more variety in what you can eat (so you'll enjoy more the experience of eating), you'll have more of the right sort of energy to get you through the day, and you'll be laying the foundation for a better quality of life for the rest of your life. Being aware of all those benefits should help keep you buzzed enough about making that change, getting you over the hump of, "But junk food tastes good!" It doesn't, by the way: you're just another victim of market conditioning.
Know that success is within your grasp, and that only doubt is your greatest impediment to success. Make a priority of the things you want to succeed in, and make available to yourself the resources you need to support your priorities.
dknguyen said:
Again, this is a real and practical health issue, and ought to be addressed with the due respect it deserves. The limits of institutionalized education are realized as people approach their late teens and early twenties. As the capabilities of your conscience expand beyond the scope of what can be articulated and meaningful to you by any institution (public education, university, church, prison, etc), your conscience is initially poorly prepared for the independence and responsiblity that operating with full mental health requires.
Do what we all do: blame the institution. You're right to do that, although you should recognize that reaching the limits of what the institution could provide is an accomplishment, not a punishment. In school we continuously satisfy individual egos by creating hypothetical criteria and then rewarding individuals when they satisfy that criteria. Late teens and twenty-somethings often feel rudderless: Where is my hypothetical criteria? Where is my reward? Who am I? What's the point?
Here are some of the amazing answers to those questions. There is no encompassing, hypothetical criteria - this is reality, not pretend. The is no reward, no final prize, no ceiling to accomplishment - virtue and the journey are the reward (the saying "Virtue is its own reward," is too often misinterpeted in the negative sense, as in, "There is no benefit to being virtuous other than being virtuous," but the latter is not accurate).
Who you are, and what the point is, have more specific answers. Search deep within your soul for those answer, and give yourself the benefit of time to discover your own, very personal answers to those things. For some people, they're fortunate these answers come early on in their life, for others it takes more time, but it's not a race, and it's something better done properly rather than quickly.
Be absolutely honest with yourself, and really look for that spark, that passion, that thing you love and will have energy for despite any adverse conditions you may have to endure. Realize that it's okay, even desirable, to have a dream and to pursue that dream to fruition. Realize that the key to success, the key to happiness and out of the funk of depression, is in knowing that there is meaning in discovering your passion. Realize that defining that thing you love above all else will bring you more than halfway to your goal. Realize that the remainder of the journey to your goal is merely a matter of recognizng that the goal can be manifest in reality.
