I basically treated my freshman year of college like a joke, and now I am paying for it (literally, college is expensive.)

Fast forward to my sophomore year, and I had a choice to make. It was either drop out and join the real world or step up, retake some classes and give college one more chance. I looked at my first year and how that went, and then I decided how I wanted my second year to be.

Freshman year:

1. I procrastinated until the deadline had passed.

2. I blamed my instructors and fellow classmates.

3. I missed a lot of class mentally (I was physically there--mentally, not so much).

4. I chose to self-reward instead of doing homework.

5. I never studied, period.

6. Social media became my best friend.

Sophmore year:

What did I want to change my second year?

1. I wanted to get better grades.

2. I wanted to start studying daily.

3. I wanted to take better notes and actually be mentally in class.

4. I wanted to earn self-rewards.

5. I wanted to turn things in before the deadline.

6. I didn't want to procrastinate anymore.

Did I achieve this?

The answer is yes, I did a lot of work and cultivated self-discipline.

I started off by finding a study spot, one that the school offered on campus. It was quiet most of the time and wasn't ever really crowded.

Then, I set up my planner by writing down due dates and giving a week's notice. I discovered that my planner was my savior for beating those nasty deadlines.

So enough of the generic just-go-study crap.

Self-discipline. What is that?

To me, it is when you put what is important first and move down the list of things, changing it accordingly. Once you reach your goal for the day, reward yourself--but only when you have earned it.

For me, this means I spend all week chugging through my list of things to do like the little engine that could. Once the weekend hits, my books get put away, and I can do what I want to do.That is the key: finding your balance between success and failure and meeting it in the middle.

Is it hard? Honestly, it was extremely hard at first to go from being a slacker to an A+ student. It didn't happen overnight, though; I promise.

After a few months of keeping this up every day, doing homework, not missing class, and taking good notes, it became a habit. It felt wrong to be lazy on a weekday or to not take notes. The more I did it, the easier it became to fall into a routine.

Overall, I know that by changing how I viewed college and how I approached it, I saved my college GPA.