It’s time to budget your energy.

When I consider the things that stress me out, most of them are out of my control. That’s how stress works, I suppose - worrying about what happens next because you really can’t decide. As a college student, stress is just a normal a part of this stage of life. ...Or is it? What if you just eliminated the energy that was causing your worry?

Well, you can. By budgeting your energy and learning to stop giving it to the things that don’t truly matter, you allow yourself to give more of it to the things that do.

I listened to this talk at one of the worst points in my summer. I felt like the world was crumbling around me. It wasn’t, but because I cared way too much about people, events and things that didn’t truly matter or weren’t worth my time, I wasn’t giving enough energy to the things that did.

As college students, this happens to people regularly. You get overly stressed about what’s going to fill your time, what extracurriculars you can get involved in, a job, etc. Your relationships with people change. Not to say these things don’t matter, but it’s high time we stop treating them like the only reason for breathing. Budget your energy into the most important things - the things that make you happy, successful and a better human.

The basic lessons are: Don’t give your time or money to people or things that aren’t essential or increasingly beneficial to your day-to-day life. Don’t waste your energy on anything that isn’t showing a return on investment.

Listen to Sarah Knight’s The Magic of Not Giving A F*** here: