Month: February 2010

Have fun taking life seriously

“A joke is a very serious thing.” – Winston Churchill

“Serious sport is war minus the shooting.” – George Orwell

My last post gave 20 reasons why you should take university seriously.  But what does it mean to be ‘serious’?

The easiest way to put it is this: If something is significant to you, even a teeny-weeny little bit, it’s serious.  End of story.

The laughs, the fun, the food and drink, the friendships…it’s all serious.  Geddit?

Why so serious? (photo by House Photography)

photo by House Photography

Don’t get me wrong, your outward character can be as eccentric and as crazily happy as you want.  It’s the way you drive your character that needs to be taken seriously.

Enjoyment suffers if you take flight every which way without giving your actions proper thought.  A more determined and less casual approach will help you shine.  Practice this approach regularly and the mindset will begin to come naturally.

Giving due attention to every aspect of your life is not strictly about success.  It’s about attempting to take control and allow you to make your own decisions.

“You can’t control life.  It doesn’t wind up perfectly.  Only…only art you can control.  Art and masturbation.  Two areas in which I am an absolute expert.” – Woody Allen, in the film Stardust Memories

Okay, life is so chaotic that random events regularly push us off course.  Chance dictates huge amounts of our time, even if we don’t spend our day to day lives considering the abundance of chance in every last thing we do.

Funnily enough, as I was about to post this piece up, the electricity went out.  That random event changed my day.  It wasn’t scheduled and there was nothing I could have done about it.

I was unable to get on with my scheduled work.  I’d been writing blog posts at the computer (including this one).  I could have given up and just waited for the electricity to come back…but it took two hours to return!  I needed to either find a way to continue as planned, or change my plans in order to accommodate the new circumstances.  I chose the former, picking up a pen and pad to write blog posts in a different way.

As soon as unavoidable change comes your way, that’s what you’ve got to decide:

  • Find a new way to keep working as planned;
  • Alter your scheduled plan so as not to waste time.

As soon as you shrug your shoulders and stop taking the situation seriously, you suffer as a consequence.  Ignore the situation completely and chance doesn’t even come into play; you’ve let go before taking any chances.

I’ve done this in the past and I’m sure I’ll do it again.  It can’t be avoided completely, because it’s another way the dreaded ‘comfort zone’ lulls us into a false sense of security.

But you can train yourself to be more attentive.  It’s not difficult to recognise the ‘switch-off’ moments.  You just have to deal with it as soon as possible.

When you find yourself going off the boil, or you begin to ignore the importance of every second of your life, don’t let yourself off.  Take the matter into your own hands (i.e. seriously) before you lose even the chance to be where you want to be.

And with that, have yourselves a fun weekend!

Get serious about university

I’m in the process of putting together a new 20-part series of posts over 20 days, which are all lists of 20.  As a taster, I want to give you 20 reasons why you need to take the student experience seriously every single day.

I had wasted days at uni.  These weren’t just relaxation days (which are necessary), they were a complete waste of time when nothing worthwhile was done at all.

Luckily, I didn’t waste many days.  But I still look back and shudder at what I could’ve done with those precious hours I did waste.  I can’t get that time back.

photo by billaday

photo by billaday

20 reasons to get serious about uni: from Fresher to finished

  1. Because, quite simply, every second counts.
  2. The first year does matter to grades – If your first year grades don’t count toward your final degree award, many students take it easy. Who cares? But you should care, because a serious effort from the outset means you’re likely to have much better grades when the marks do count.
  3. Fun is serious (when done right).
  4. Serious is fun (when done right).
  5. Your future is better managed in advance… – Don’t wait for life to bite you on the bum.  Half the fun is chasing life for the goodies!
  6. Each year is different – With each new academic year comes a new set of possibilities.  You’ve moved on, the learning structure moves on, and priorities change.  Taking each year as a different stage in your experience helps ground you and make the most of your time.
  7. Each term/semester is different – Another time of change, whether it’s modules or activities.  The start of every new term is time to take stock and appreciate how you want/need to move on.
  8. You can start planning your career right now – The sooner you take this seriously, the more time you have to show off your potential and talent.
  9. You can actually start your career right now! – Why not go the whole hog and start a company or reach out to businesses and make your degree a deeply vocational dream?
  10. Don’t have a career planned? Even if you’re studying mainly for the learning, like I was, you should still consider your future plans and dreams.
  11. ‘Careless’ is different to ‘Fun’ – You can go absolutely crazy having fun.  It’s when you stop thinking about your actions that you’re liable to do something careless.
  12. A careless past can come back to haunt you – Still don’t think it’s worth taking fun seriously?  One day you’ll wish you did.
  13. The later you take life seriously, the more opportunities you’ll miss.
  14. This is a unique stage of life. Cherish it.
  15. Blink and you’ve missed it. I’m warning you.
  16. The quicker you focus on the student life, the quicker you’ll settle.  That goes for everything, not just study.
  17. You’ll have more time to think of a great postgraduate route.  You may never need leave uni again. 😉
  18. You don’t want to give anyone the excuse not to take you seriously.
  19. A lot of issues that you’ll encounter again and again in life can be experienced at a more relaxed pace, or in a less demanding way at uni.
  20. It’s costing you money to study.  A wasted day is wasted money.