Self Discipline

Self-Discipline: Success in School Staying focused is always the hardest thing to do when there are so many distractions around: television, internet, cell phone, and food. I’m always curious to see what’s on television, or what the big topic on Facebook is. My cell phone is always buzzing from text messages and calls. Food is my biggest distraction; when i’m bored, I eat. I get up and check the fridge, then the pantry, and the fridge again. I always get distracted when I have homework or have a big project due. In school I had to teach myself not to get distracted by the things around me. I would sometimes unplug the television and internet so that I would have to get up to turn them on and catch myself before I got the chance. I would also turn off cell phone, and make myself a snack that I can munch on. When students learn self discipline, it can help them succeed in school by helping them understand requirements, manage time, and sacrifice whims. I first learned that asking questions in class can help me understand the requirements in high school. One year in my English class, there was a boy who would ask questions about everything. His name was Michael; he was a senior in a junior English class. At first I thought that he was dumb, and he asked these questions in class just too waste time, but that wasn’t the case. Michael didn’t pass junior English because he and his previous teacher had different ideas about how to do the assignments properly. I learned that by asking questions in class he was not just helping himself but the other students who didn’t understand how to do the assignments too. By asking so many questions in class he usually passed every assignment with flying colors. His questions even helped me when I was too shy to ask questions openly in class. Now I have learned that asking questions in class, it helps not only me but other students that may have the same question but are too afraid to ask. Time management is an important part of being a successful student. I learned this freshman year of high school. Weekends were always filled with excitement. Being a freshman, I wanted to make friends right away and try my best to fit in. Doing homework on Fridays after school was the lame thing to do. After going to the movies and hanging out with my friends all night, the only thing I wanted to do was to go home and sleep until noon the next day. But then come the Saturday activities, more parties, movies, friends, and little trips to the amusement park or beach. Knowing I still have Sunday to start my big project that’s due Monday, I go and hangout with my friends, adventuring around town and going to parties. Not realizing that i’m exhausted when I get home at 1am Sunday, I drag myself to bed hoping that I can get up in time to do my entire project. Being ignorant, I don’t set an alarm to wake myself up at a reasonable time to do my project. I awake at 1pm, calculating that I only have about 9 hours to do my entire project and get my 8 hours of sleep for school the next day. After rushing to finish my poorly put together project, I get to bed 3 hours late. I wake up the next morning tired and dreading that I have to get ready for school. I learned that I should manage my time and put more important things before the things I want. Staying healthy as a teenager is difficult. We always want to get food that’s fast, easy, and cheap; we hardly exercise because we’re too lazy, and we don’t learn that our health is important until it’s too late. During high school, I was sick with pneumonia almost every time we had finals. Freshman and sophomore year, I went on a weekend trip to Tahoe with some of my friends, we went up the week before finals. It was our first time camping without our parents, so we didn’t really know what to bring. The one most important thing we forgot was supplies for food, so every breakfast, lunch, and dinner we went out to eat at some of the local restaurants; most of them were fast food restaurants because our parents gave us all a spending limit and we wanted to go shopping. When I got home that Monday, I felt exhausted. All the fast food, hiking, and running around in Tahoe made me feel sick, but my mom sent me to school anyway. That whole week my sickness got worse and worse that it turned into pneumonia. Junior year, I stayed home from the trip thinking that I could prevent myself from getting sick again. But for some reason I caught the flu the week of finals, and went to school to take my finals, my flu turned into pneumonia again. Senior year, I learned. Before finals started, I ate healthy every day, stopped drinking soda, and started exercising on a weekly basis. These changes to my life-style kept me healthy and focused on the finals that were approaching. I learned that being healthy can help me do better in school because I can hold it more information and use it effectively. Learning to understand requirements, manage time, and sacrifice whims is very useful lesson; it can help students better in school and keep them focused. Michael in my English class taught me that asking questions in class can, not only help me, but other students too. So that understanding the requirements will not be a problem for me when I don’t understand the assignment. I also learned that managing my time, and putting the important things first is a big life lesson. Setting priorities is a difficult thing to do, especially if there are things you have to do and things you want to do. Staying healthily is also a life lesson. Staying healthy can not only help you do well in school, it can help you do well at your job and stay healthy when it’s most important.