In my last post, I wrote that finding success on your study skills journey often means doing more than simply looking for ways to make progress with your work and being motivated to do so. When I wrote that what you just might need to do is find a way to feel inspired, many of the examples I gave for finding inspiration involved going places and doing things that help you feel relaxed and centered, and how those places and things can also help you feel inspired if you let them. You may already do some of the things I mentioned, or other things that have a similar effect on you, and you may even have already figured out how the inspiration these places and actions give you can be applied to your studies and the challenges they present. If that’s true, great – just keep it up and use this post to find ways to build on what you’re already doing. If you haven’t already found places and/or activities that inspire you by providing the mental and emotional break you need so you can renew your focus and belief that the progress you are making with your studies will pay off, this post will provide suggestions on how to cultivate the types of interests that can become the sources of inspiration you are searching for.
Whether you are inside an inspirational building or out in nature, whether you pray, meditate, or do yoga, whether activities such as baking or knitting or running or biking relax you to the point of allowing you to feel inspired, remembering to go where you need to go and do what you need to do to feel refreshed and renewed is an important part of becoming more successful, because each time you can bring that energy back to your studies, you will increase your chances of feeling positive about what you can accomplish. This is true because these activities are positive in and of themselves, but it is also true because they provide you the time and space to think positive thoughts while you focus on the task at hand. While you certainly can’t pray or meditate in place of making the proper preparations for a test, and taking a break from your studies to bake brownies won’t decrease the amount of time and effort you need to put into writing a paper or completing a project, doing these things does allow you to find a better balance and relieve the stress your studies can cause. Obviously, they can’t take up too much of your time when you have pressing deadlines, so having several activities of differing lengths available to draw on, and doing them on different days or at different times based on the amount of time you can spare for them, is ideal. You can also take the same activity and vary the amount of time you spend on it based on the time you have – say a quick prayer before a test and take a short run between after-school homework sessions, but attend a full-length service and go on a longer run on the weekend, so that the activities you choose allow you to get the most positive value possible without compromising the time you need to do your schoolwork.
In order to cultivate the types of interests that allow you to find inspiration to bring to your studies, it is important to choose activities that interest you as an individual, as opposed to always and only looking to do things that are of interest to your friends. As tempting as it is to think that the only activities you need are highly social ones, such as team sports or plays, hanging out with friends, or going on social media, making time for an individual sport or artistic expression or hobby, whether in addition to or in place of one or more of your group activities, not only provides you the time and space you need to find inspiration to bring to your studies, it also gives you the confidence to be yourself, not just in school, but also in life. As wonderful as it is to be able to make time for friends, teammates, and/or castmates, it is just as important to make time for yourself by choosing to pursue activities and interests that may not interest them. Though I know it has been hard on all of us to be separated from family and friends for so long, the pandemic has provided many of us, young and old alike, the opportunity to cultivate new individual interests and/or make more time for individual interests we already had. Hopefully, if this is true of you, or if you are inspired by my posts to find something new to try, you won’t let it go completely once restrictions have eased – instead, take the advice I gave in the previous paragraph and find time to make the interest(s) you’ve cultivated a part of a more balanced approach to life.
In addition to the need to find the time and space to cultivate interests and the need to look toward individual rather than group activities at least some of the time, another important aspect of cultivating interests is a willingness to be creative and think outside the box, both in terms of what you choose to do and in terms of how, when, and where to do it. Be willing to take chances, not only to do things your friends aren’t interested in doing, but also to do things that not only they, but parents and teachers, too, either assume won’t be of interest to you, or haven’t even considered suggesting to you. Take inspiration to try something new wherever you find it, and if you can’t get to a class or afford to take a class, find another way to pursue it – look for a class or information online, find a book to read that offers suggestions, and/or contact someone you know who might have ideas or ways to help you get started. Once you’ve figured out what to try, focus on the how, when, and where, remembering to keep in mind the need to balance what you wish to do to feel inspired both with your studies and with other activities you enjoy. This, too, may require some creative thinking and planning – maybe you can pray or meditate while driving, as long as you can also remain focused on the road, or knit while watching television, or bring a journal to write in while waiting for an appointment if you’ve scheduled study periods at other times. Just as I say that flexibility in both scheduling and study methods is a key to success, so too is flexibility in choosing, pursuing, and scheduling activities that inspire you. Sometimes, the most important thing about activities that inspire you is that you don’t schedule them at all, because many of them are the perfect things to turn to when you have time available that might otherwise be spent on negative and/or stress-inducing thoughts about your studies. Balancing finding time for inspirational activities, making time for them, and turning to them in otherwise non-scheduled moments is perhaps the best way of all to insure that they will not only become a part of your routine, they will also truly make a positive difference in your life.
As important as finding ways to make progress with your study skills and to feel motivated to do so are to your success, finding inspiration and cultivating interests that will help you do it are just as important, if not more so, because they can help you feel relaxed and refreshed, and can provide positive energy that you can bring to your studies. No matter how many challenges you are facing with your work, bringing positive, inspirational vibes to it can help you overcome the negativity and stress you may feel about it, because they can increase your ability to believe in yourself and focus on your goals. Progress, motivation, and inspiration can all work together to help you achieve greater success, and cultivating interests that can help you feel inspired is a great way to make sure you will do your very best to make that happen.