“Balance is key to everything. What we do, think, say, eat, feel, they all require awareness and through this awareness we can grow.” - Koi Fresco. Keeping a healthy balance between your schooling and extracurriculars will help you maintain great relationships with everything you do.
Most students, like myself, are involved with many extracurriculars outside of school including sports teams, academic teams, dances, community service, meetings, clubs, and jobs, and they need to have good social, family, and mental habits on top of their activities and schooling. Teens taking on so much, even if they believe they can do it, can and will be very draining and lead to a decline in mental health. The more drained and stressed we get, the higher the chance their anger and irritability will be taken out on the wrong person and destroy some friendships/relationships, potentially causing depression, diet, and appetite changes, and more and more trouble concentrating and even sleeping. This can all track back to a lack of balance.
There can be many roads a person can take to find a balance between what they have to do for school and what they have to do for their extracurriculars. As students, we should use a tool like a calendar to write down important dates, homework, or deadlines, and a planner to write when they may or may not have practices, study time, and/or their other commitments. This will create organization and make life feel less overwhelming. It is also very important to allow yourself to take breaks when your body needs them because it is very hard to try and function normally when you feel like you have the world's weight on your shoulders every minute.
Another way to create balance is to eliminate distractions in your life. If you believe that something isn’t good for you and is not benefiting you in any way, then you probably do not need it. Letting something or someone go might improve how you feel, making tougher situations easier. Think about how distractions impact your daily life, and even look into ways to decrease your digital dependence with tools like TextLess Live More's GetLiving Guide.
By setting limits and goals you can become more involved with your studies and activities. Push yourself to be the best you can be and keep trying, but don’t always try to be perfect. The more you focus on perfection, the more you will lose yourself. When someone starts to honestly believe in themselves, they will do anything to make themselves better. Everyone must understand that it is okay to push themselves and become the best version of themselves. Keep studying until you believe you can get a 100% on your test, learn all of your lines for the play, score an extra goal or make an extra basket in sports, and share more of your ideas during the meeting, but don’t expect not to fail sometimes. When you fail, it will show you what it is truly like to succeed. By searching for and setting your limits, it will allow for a better balance in life, school, and extracurriculars.
In order to keep a healthy balanced lifestyle between school and extracurriculars, you mustn't forget your struggles and successes. It is all a part of the journey. It can be isolating, lonely, and hard at times. Keeping organized, taking breaks, setting limits and goals, and not being afraid to ask for help will lead you in the right direction to success. The more you keep trying to be the best version of yourself the more you will make yourself better than you were before.
You are never alone, so do not hesitate to ask for help. Many people feel they could never get away from what they are currently feeling, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. No one is ever truly alone. There's always someone who has gone through very similar situations that can help guide you from your doubts, stresses, and negative thoughts. Trying to balance everything as a teen is hard, but it is not worth giving up. Everything will be worth it in the end, you just need to follow the steps to bring balance and harmony into your life.
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