Hey people from all over, welcome to the last blog from
Athlete's Planet. It's been a good run but I think it's time to take a break
from the blogger life. Anyway though, this week I’ll talk about something I
haven't mentioned yet in my blog; and that's being not only an athlete but a
student athlete. Balancing getting good grades, practicing and playing sports
regularly, having an outside life and even for some having jobs is not an easy
task at all at balancing. That's what makes being a student athlete one of the
most respected and difficult types of lifestyles out there. I'll be giving you
some tips on how to make the most of your time and how to survive the life.
1. Manage your time wisely:
The biggest and most important thing you need to remember is
how to manage your time. You need to realize you’re in a race against the
clock, and once time has been wasted it can't come back. 90% of the time there
is something you should be doing for work, school or sports. However that
doesn't mean that you'll never have any free time, it just means you have a lot
more to do than the average person. If you make sure to plan ahead and manage
time without slacking, you'll find yourself with enough time to enjoy yourself
and just relax.
2. Don't procrastinate:
Procrastination is the enemy of student athletes everywhere.
When you already have so much to do, putting something off when you have the
time to do it now will just come back to haunt you in the future. You need to
get into a mindset of do it now and have fun later. It may seem tough to do in
the beginning but once you get used to it you'll realize it's really worth it.
Remember: Work hard then play hard.
3. Be ready to sacrifice some things:
As hard as you may try to do it all, you'll learn that a lot
of the time you'll have to sacrifice doing something and won't have time for it
all. That's why you need to have your priorities straight on what's most
important for you. Sometimes you'll need to lose sleep, another times practice
time, and sometimes your schoolwork will slip a little bit too. It's OK for these
things to happen from time to time, but if it's happening almost every day you
may want to go back to tip #1 and better organize your time.
4. Make sure this is what you want:
This lifestyle is not easy, and if you are not dedicated to
it and really want it, you're going to probably want to quit it early on. If so
that's OK, it is not for everyone, especially when you reach the college level.
Take time to ask yourself why are you doing it and how bad do you want it. If
the answers are you don't know and not that much, than it probably isn't the
lifestyle for you...
Now that you have these few tips to help you, you should be in good shape of balancing all these things in a student athletes life. Most of these tips are already known to most, but it's about applying them and not just knowing them. I myself can't say I follow these rules perfectly, but I'm trying to improve on it everyday. I realized that the first tip is probably the most important, and is the one that gives me the best results and allows me to balance everything the best.
This concludes the Athlete's Planet blog, it's been fun!
Sources: Me