The sun is out. The pace seems to have slowed down. Life can seem really good some days. Other days, life can seem to go downhill. Nonetheless, summer is a special time. The days turn into more days turn into more days turn to a quick end of summer.

It goes so fast.

What can be done to make the most of it?

Here's three ways to be sure these precious days will (actually) be wasted.

1. Compare

Yep, some of your friends are doing some pretty sweet things. Internships, new jobs, and (uhm) vacations and amazing travels.

Maybe you have some of these experiences this summer, too, but maybe you don't.

One way to waste whatever experiences you do have is to incessantly compare the experiences to what everybody else has.

What they're doing can always seem more exciting than what you are doing.

Who they're meeting can seem way more cool that who you're spending time with.

The places they're going can seem so much more wonderful than where you're spending time.

But somebody else could be sitting on the other end of a screen somewhere and thinking the same things about your life.

Compare, if you want. It's just going to use your mental energy and drain motivation while you head towards a summer ruined from some of the joy and thankfulness that it could have.

2. Excuse

If you get your eyes off analyzing other people's lives and focus on yours, then you can run into another problem. You can find excuse after excuse to not ever buckle down and make your summer all it can be.

Maybe all you want from your summer is to relax. But you can make excuses to not actually do this if you decided to let yourself get mad at your sister and put yourself in a bad mood.

Maybe you have some tangible goals for your summer. You can find every reason to not get up and get it done. It can be anything from the reality that you just don't feel like it right now, that something else is going to be more fun to do, or that a different goal seems like a better idea.

No matter what your hope for your summer is, you can always make an excuse that keeps it from being that very thing.

3. Disengage

You are going to encounter certain people over your summer months.

You are inevitably going to engage in certain activities throughout the days.

You are going to be confronted with different experiences and have the opportunity to learn and develop through what happens in the months.

You can engage with what fills these summer days.

You can make the most of that relationship (even if some conversations and actions are so much harder than you thought they were going to be).

You can make the most of those activities (even if some of them present more difficulties than you thought).

You can choose to learn from all of the difficult elements. You can learn to work hard. You can learn to keep a good attitude. You can learn what it really takes to be an overcomer. You can see what it really means to put in the effort and become more than you were before.

The summer is yours, but the choice is also yours.

Summer can be ruined, or it can be maximized.

It's up to you.