How to: Diligence for Dummies

What I've learned recently is that you cannot be successful in anything if you are not consistent. (Okay, people have told me this since I was five years old, but whatever. I'm learning it now.) Sure, we've all heard the corny  saying that "consistency is key," but the key to what exactly? Everything.

This is the most heartbreaking revelation to an easy going, lazy, 19-year-old like myself. Growing up things came relatively easy for me (Not trying to toot my own horn, but toot-toot!), as I got older and work got harder, I realized that I didn't know how to push through things that I decided were too hard. Now that I'm a sophomore in college, I've been forced into deciding whether I'm going to take control of my life and reach my full potential by working as hard as I possibly can to ensure that I have a successful career and make all of my dreams come true or flunk out and take whatever job I can get. (Maybe a tad dramatic.) In other words, I had to decide whether I was going to sink or swim. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't just decide that I was going to swim as soon as I graduated high school. I sunk.... big time. But that experience has gotten me to where I am now.

Where am I? Well, I'm finishing up my sophomore year in college and reality has officially hit me harder than that poor girl by Sharkeisha. (It's an old video, look it up.) I'm realizing that you can't just "get by" in the real world. If you don't give your all into becoming who you want to be, someone will tell you who you are. Here are a few tips that I'm putting into action in my own life that will hopefully get me on the path to where I want to be and help you along the way as well.

1. Figure out what you want.

It's hard to give your all to a goal that you are unaware of. Throughout my first year in college, I couldn't bring myself to give my all because I didn't know what I was working towards! What changed my previous mindset into the one that I have now is that I realized that I don't have to have everything figured out. But I'll never figure out anything if I don't work towards something. Start small. Try to get all A's this semester. Eat healthy all week. Work out 3 times a week. It may seem like these things don't really matter, but they all help sculpt you into a more driven and disciplined person.

2. Plan it out.

Okay, so now that you've decided that you're going to get all A's this semester, how are you going to it? What are you going to do differently this time that you haven't done previously to get a different result? I saw a quote on Twitter recently that said "Goals without plans are just dreams." No team wins a game without a play book!

3. Write it down.

Don't ask me why this works, but it does. Something about writing down your goals and how you are going to achieve them makes it real. Being able to visualize your goals whenever you question why you're working so hard or if it's even worth being stressed over is motivating and a quick reality check!

4. Make like Nike and JUST DO IT!

This is pretty self-explanatory. The fact of the matter is, you can talk about and write down what you want to accomplish all you want. Results come from actions not intention! Most people talk a good game about what they want but few are actually willing to put in the amount of work that it takes to achieve that goal. If you really want to get where you claim you want to be, you have to be willing to sacrifice time in bed or on Youtube so that you can be your best you!

We're in this together, good luck!

Love,

Kashia Versae