“So it’s time for so long. But we’ll just sing one last song. Thanks for doing your part! You sure are smart. You know with me and you, and my dog, Blue, we can do anything that we wanna do.” – From the exemplary television program, ‘Blue’s Clues’.

I start out this article with such words for comic relief in my otherwise stressful and busy highschool life, and because they, in a way, and however indirectly, apply here.

To the first semester, ‘so long’! Filled with joy sing a song! You did your part! You sure were smart. You know with um, you and you, and um, all the tools you learned from this last semester, this next semester you are going to be able to do anything you set your mind to do!

Hmm. Interesting thought. Think about the following questions to help you plan for this upcoming semester:

REFLECT: How did the first semester go for you? Hopefully you feel brilliantly accomplished and utterly enthused to make this next semester even better. But if not, that is understandable. Most people probably don’t. However, a thorough examination of this past semester might in fact help you to make this next semester even better.

REVIEW: What habits did you develop, either good or bad, that you can recognize now? Did you go to bed at a reasonable hour and get up early in the morning or did you stay up far too late and consequently slept in far too long? Did you organize your day to balance your school work with all of your other duties or was your life a frantic jumble of pressing responsibilities? Did you spend your free time partaking in activities that improved your person all together, or activities that cultivated laziness or other such vices? What habits did you develop? Think about them now. How can either fostering or erasing these from your day to day life improve your next school semester?

REGROUP: What tools did you learn? What methods did you use? How did they either help you or hurt you? Did you use your time effectively and study efficiently with the tools you have been provided? Did you start partaking in activities such as writing notes, or making flashcards, in order to become a better learner? Did you take care to try and become a better student, as such a mentality will undoubtedly help you immensely throughout your life, or did you trudge through this semester thinking only of not wanting to do the school you were being forced to do? Think about this. How can you take what you have developed, the good things you have learned, and incorporate them next semester to bring about fantastic results? I challenge you to try.

We should always pursue personal betterment. To be satisfied with mediocrity is to be marked for failure. To become better will always lead us closer to success, though we may even experience failures along the way.

If you can, by examining this past semester, think of the ways in which you became better, and also the areas in which you were lacking, do so and create a plan by which you will do even better this next semester, in your studies, and even more importantly in your life.

If you try to do better this semester than you did last semester, no matter how well or how poorly you did, I believe that you will do better. And who does not want to do better? School is the task that has been set before you at this time in your life; should you not want to do the best at it that you are able to do?

As you wrap up this semester, look ahead to the next, and think about how you can do better. Because if you set your mind to it, you can do anything that you want to do.

And if you need help figuring out some new habits or goals, be sure to check out this recorded webinar from one of our MODG teachers – SMART Students: How to Build Habits to Achieve Success in Every Area of Life!