cadet blogs

Set Small Goals

(Overcoming Challenges, Class of 2015) Permanent link All Posts

It is the beginning of November, which is arguably the hardest part of the year thus far. While sports and extracurricular activities continue to take up time, the academics are becoming noticeably more difficult. At the Academy, tests for all subjects come in waves, and this next one feels like a tsunami. Projects and papers continue to the added stresses.

Because there are a million things happening at once, I have learned a very important lesson: set small goals. Especially as a 4/c it is very easy to get flustered knowing that all these things need to get done on time. Instead of panicking about each objective, I set smaller and easily achievable goals that ultimately lead to the completion of a big project or paper.

Another lesson that I cannot express enough is getting an adequate amount of sleep. It is very easy to catch yourself staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning, and while some cadets can survive like this, most end up spiraling deeper into a hole. Although that Math assignment may be 10 points, it is probably more worth it for you get to sleep if it is late in the night. The way I like to think about it is, if you stay up later, then you will not be as attentive in class the next day, and you will have to end up teaching yourself that material later on. Therefore you will need to stay up even later. Which is a scary formula.

It is now a little further along in the year, so my classmates and myself are learning the different strategies that do and do not work. I hope these points can help you if you come to the Academy or not!

Aloha.

More about Kody.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/16/2012 4:21 PM