New Beginnings

One of the things I like about academia is that every few months there is a new beginning. At the start of the semester students and professors alike are optimistic, and in some cases they are downright giddy about the prospect of the new truths that will be uncovered. All vow to turn over a new leaf, to keep up with the reading (or the grading) and make the most of this semester. Everyone is passing (or, at least, no one is failing—the fact that no one has received any grades at all seems irrelevant). Hope springs eternal.

That lasts for about a week and a half. Then reality sets in. Good intentions, like New Year resolutions, fall by the wayside. We start to get a bit depressed because we thought this time things would be different.

We shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves, though. A psychologist friend of mine is quick to point out that the single greatest predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Did we really think that through sheer force of will we could alter patterns cultivated over years (or, in my case, decades)?

Well, sure we did.

I think that having goals is important. If we know that our behaviors are keeping us from meeting our potential, it’s admirable to want to change. And keeping that ideal in mind is important, because if we can’t see where we want to wind up, how will we ever get there? We should remember, though, that it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Don’t try to change all your behaviors at once.

We’re just in the third week of the semester. There’s plenty of time. Take some time to do some soul searching. Figure out the one thing that most keeps you from achieving what you want. Maybe it’s procrastination. Maybe it’s being over-involved. Maybe it’s texting during class (do you really think we don’t know what you’re doing?). Make a plan to change that one behavior and stick to it. When you feel confident you’ve conquered that, move on to another. You probably won’t have reached your goal by the end of the semester. You’ll still have some bad habits. But you’ll find that you can see your destination a lot more clearly from there than from where you were at the beginning of the semester.