Focus and Concentration

This week is homecoming week! In highschool that meant that school was put on hold while every student focused on finding a date, concentrated on the homecoming game if you were an athlete, and trying to get nominated for homecoming court. Now that I am in college it feels so different. I want to geet into the homecoming spirit but I have test and essays and school stuff that was never important in highschool. I always thought that homecoming was basically a school-wide excuse to blow off work and focus on other things. Now I realize how when we reach the real world how things that are important to me may not mean anything to someone else. Keeping my focus with all of the spirit days and families coming down is more difficult than I thought it would be. I studied for a test last night and every five minutes I would get caught up in a conversation about free t-shirts or the game on saturday, all because homecoming is the only thing that the students are focused on. I just could not concentrate on any of the material that I needed to. That is why I think it is important to prioritize your focus. Focus on the things that you do not want to focus on because they are the not fun things. If tyou have to choose between focusing on getting a good start on an essay, or focusing on beating your friend at a new video game choose the one that you do not want to choose aka the essay. Concentrate on one thing at a time, I learned first hand that while studying it is nearly impossible to comprehend the material if you are trying to talk about your relationship with your girlfriend at the same time you are reading Socrates' "Allegory of the Cave". The one thing I have learned about focusing is that if you focus all your conccentration on one thing it will go by quicker, so you can have more time for other things. So today I challenge everyone to prioritize their focus and concentration.

PlayMaking 101

I have been an athlete for fourteen years now, so I have heard so many things in my life that I have heard and learned from. I can contribute most of my accomplishments off of the field to the fact that I am an athlete. So when I hear people talking about wanting to make a difference, I just picture being a play-maker. If you watch or play sports you have heard this term before. In sports a play-maker is someone who can make a positive impact in a game for his/her team. In life a play-maker to me is someone who can change a life or an aspect of a life, whether it is theirs or someone elses, for the better. So when you need to change something about your life for the better think of it as making a big play, the more big plays you make the closer you are to becoming a play-maker. Now I have been called a play-maker numerous times on the football and baseball field, but when it comes to my life I would have to ponder if I was truly a play-maker. I always try to brighten peoples days. I would honestly say I genuinely care if certain people are having a rough time or not. So in my opinion when it comes to friends and family I would call myself a play-maker. But, what about my life? Do I make changes to my life when I need to? These are the tough questions that I believe everyone should ask themselves. When it comes to my life, I would say that in many aspects of my life I am truly a play-maker, but when it comes to my academics I am not. I have always skated through school doing half of what I could have truly done and making "okay" grades. When I go back and think about high school there are definitely times when I regret slacking off. I know that if I gave full effort I could have done something really good with my academic career. My biggest problem is studying. If I was truly a play-maker in my life and outside of school I would change my study habbits and learn from my experiences, so until I am able to do these things I am not a play-makeer in life. So my question to evveryone today is, Are you a play-maker in your life?

Pushing Myself

When most people think about setting goals they always focus on big picture. They will set a goal that takes them a year to complete and at some point throughout that year they will completely forget that they even set a goal for themselves. Most people also like to set broad goals. Something like "I want to be a better dad", or "I want to lose weight". I have learned through many different teachers of "Goal Setting" that big picture is great but to actually complete these goals it is important to take them one step at a time. I like to set daily or even weekly goals for myself. The way I see it is, if I complete my goals every week I am getting closer and closer to where I need to be as a person. Even though I am setting small goals they are the foundation for my ultimate goal. So my reason for the introduction of goal setting is to express my goals for this week. Right off the bat, so to speak, I start off my week with a football game on Monday. For my first goal of the week I would like to score two touchdowns in my game. Understanding that in college I cannot only focus on sports, my second goal is an academic goal, I would like to spend at least six hours this week studying and doing homework. For my final goal of the week I want to focus on being social, so my third goal is to introduce myself to at least three new people before the weekend. I understand that these goals may seem small to the naked eye but if I can do this every week I will have accomplished bettering myself as an athlete, as a student, and as a friend. If I choose not to try at these goals then I am failing myself in three major aspects of my life. I understand that my goals could possibly not be possible based on what happens but as long as I try I know that I am bettering myself as a person. If I am not able to achieve my goals then I must figure out what I have done wrong and set new goals the next week. Even though this may seem petty to some people setting goals for yourself can completely change your life for the better.