The Extra's in Extracurricular's

Want to get into the college of your dreams? ... Spend some time rethinking the role of extracurricular activities.

Most people who have the desire to attend a decent college stay on a predefined path, whether they are in high school, college, grade school or the working world. People will always try to set themselves up for success. However, if you are looking to do something more unique and meaningful, and you want to stand out, I would advise you not to follow a predefined course.

For example, a high school junior named McKenzie had an amazing passion for soccer. She played ever since she was at least 5-years-old. Towards the end of the school year she was invited to attend a camp that college soccer players were conducting. She went out of her comfort zone and went to the camp. She did the best she could, made new friends, and just wanted to have fun during her time there. This spontaneous action worked to her advantage. A scout from Harvard happened to be impressed with her performance and offered her a full ride to the university in order to have her on their team.

McKenzie made her own luck by taking a chance and exposing herself to a bit of randomness. It only took taking one opportunity to make the cut for excellence.

How can you reach this goal? First of all, don't compete with people like yourself, and do not do what everyone else is doing. Instead, explore your interests, use your skills, and do things outside of the box. Things other people aren't doing. This gives you the freedom to do things that will not only sound impressive, but will actually be impressive. And you'll eventually get to do something that will leave a mark on the world.

ProcrastiNATION

pro-cras-ti-na-tion

noun

the act or habit of putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention

Examples from the web for procrastination: Avoid procrastination and be prepared

Who would’ve thought after so many decades of procrastination in our society, that the all reliable dictionary.com had the solution to the problem all along. But you see, “avoid procrastination” is advice only given by those that are considered fake procrastinators. The people that say “I totally go on Twitter and Snapchat instead of doing my homework, because who needs homework anyways?” Those are the words that come from the individuals who for some odd and unknown reason, think that procrastination is “cool” ?

The real procrastinators usually deny the fact that they are procrastinators and give the advice by saying, “Just don’t procrastinate, it’s that simple.” The dictionary or any form of procrastinators do not know that procrastination is inevitable, it’s something they don’t know how to not do.

As a junior, I recently earned my license, giving me the opportunity to go out with friends and get a job as a lifeguard. I work five days a week… leaving right after school and not getting off until eight o'clock at night. This has definitely consumed most of the dedication and time I used to give to school projects and homework assignments. Coming home exhausted, I lose all motivation in attempting to do homework and end up crashing on my bed instead. I end up doing my assignments the morning they are due… which ends in me not showing my full potential, or just not doing the assignment at all.

The only way to get out of this constant state of procrastination is to embrace the point in time when panic mode kicks in. When you realize you have a D in your English class just because you were lazy, you know something has to change… but the question at hand is: how do we beat the want to procrastinate?

Well, a big thing about procrastination is the act of planning and not actually doing. Instead of wasting most of your time making a vague plan that sets you up for failure, go straight into the hard work. Planning is only acceptable when the time to do it is used wisely...make sure you know what your priorities are. Now as for the doing part, like the motto for Nike, JUST DO IT. Once you start a task, things will work out more smoothly and the time for more enjoyable things will come and feel more rewarding after your accomplishments. It all comes down to knowing that everything you do is a choice and coming up with helpful methods to defeat temptation will set you up for success.

Why is this topic so important?

Well, defeating procrastination is the same as gaining control over your life. Everything that makes people happy or even unhappy, such as, the level of fulfillment, self esteem, regret, or freetime; these components are affected by the simple mistake of procrastination. Why would a little short term satisfaction be worth your happiness? This is something worthy of being taken seriously, and the time to start improving is now.