I've always been a firm believer in former President Theodore Roosevelt's famous saying, "Believe you can and you're halfway there." Self confidence is truly key in any situation, whether academically related or otherwise. Understanding that you are capable of accomplishment means that you can accredit your self worth. But how far can this mantra truly carry you in life?
I've recently been tossing around the term "millennials," a term coined to describe young adolescents. With the vast use of technology and social media, self worth, for many, can most precisely be described as how one carries themselves online paralleled to real life. I scroll through Instagram and tend to see a pattern; school struggles throughout the weekdays, partying on weekends, the traditional post during holiday festivities -- the usual. Self worth thus can be described as how often we appeal to this adopted social construct, which I think is completely normal. Because, let's face it, we're human. Our socially driven behavior is hardwired into our DNA. Why seclude ourselves?
I decided to conduct an experiment to find out myself if this "do good, feel good" state of mind is simply a myth. Like any American, the turn of the new year, and this upcoming election, is accompanied with a wave of determination and energy. During early January, there seems to always be a line at the organic vegetable section of the grocery store, the gym machines are always taken, and inspirational quotes are scattered on the Internet. In a sense, it is a way of starting over. The significance of taking a step back and looking at the big picture has been pivotal to society ever since its origin in the Bible, where God prescribed Sabbath for His followers.
But what if we took a step back and began to view every morning as a new beginning? What would begin to happen to our confidence and level of self worth?
To begin my experiment, I woke up every day and broke tradition of mindlessly scrolling through my feed on every social media site in the world. We're all guilty of turning our snooze button on and lazily lying on bed with our phones. It's practically a ritual. It may not seem like a bad habit, but ever since I stopped having the urge to check my phone, I've been waking up less groggy. I stopped allocating my self worth to keeping up with every new trend. The result? I had more time to myself, and throughout the course of the week, I woke up a few minutes earlier. These few minutes were used to go over packets or just review notes, which, in turn, prepared me for lecture. My old habit would be to just laze around until fifteen minutes before my class began, then I'd run to class all flustered and have to quickly glimpse at my notes to catch up.
The latter part of my experiment was focused more on my physical health. Going to the gym sounds like such an excellent idea. Having a gym buddy helped me maintain a schedule, but after a while, I was so preoccupied with work and friends that I stopped going so frequently. To counter this, I set a goal for myself, and monitored my diet and workout routine every day. I started going to the gym more often and maintained my routine. I was less likely to down a cheeseburger and say, "Yeah, I'll go hard tonight," and not set foot in the gym it until a week and five burgers later.
It just goes to show that microscopic changes can lead to immense improvement. Each progression has a ripple effect. Our President back in the early 1900s had an excellent maxim that we should all live by. Whether you think building a wall is a good idea or not, (it's not), we should all shed a little light on this belief that with a clear mind, a blue sky is the limit.
