Senioritis…. Deal With It Now Before It’s Too Late

[the following article came about following a discussion with my son, a high school senior, after he came down with a mild case of “senioritis”]

Senioritis… Deal With It Now BEFORE It’s Too Late!

As the 1^st Quarter of the school year draws nigh, it is highly likely that most, if not all, of you are feeling the effects of the plague commonly referred to as “senioritis.” After 12 LONG years of disciplined schooling, and with graduation visible on the near horizon, it is normal to reflect back on your education thus far in an attempt to make sense of it all. In many respects, you may feel that there have been way too many senseless, stupid rules to follow. And certainly, academia’s emphasis on punishment for non-performance can leave you feeling discouraged and even bitter at times. Add in the sense of overwhelm brought on by schedule overload via extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs, family obligations and so-on and many of you are likely to be left feeling that you just don’t care any more. After all, mandated schooling, with all of its rules, requirements and possible punishments is just about over. Then, you can finally get on with the business of actually living your lives, right? In the meantime, what’s the harm in only doing the bare minimum requirements? Coasting feels good, doesn’t it?

Motivational speaker and author T. Harv Eker states, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”(1) By allowing the plague of “senioritis” to infect your thinking, you are setting yourselves up to lead lives of struggle and lack. Believe it or not, high school is a microcosm for life. Once you graduate, you are still going to have to deal with people you don’t like, “senseless” rules and duties you don’t agree with and busy schedules that overwhelm. Only then, the punishment system for non-performance is far harsher. What happens when you are 23 years of age and you get fired from your job because of your bad attitude; meanwhile you or your girlfriend/wife is pregnant and you are a month behind on the rent or mortgage? Talk about punishment for non-performance!

Doing the bare minimum and not caring is living life at the lowest rung on the ladder of personal development. After high school, the responsibilities (family, career, cost of living) and potential punishments (getting fired or passed over for promotion, homelessness, losing children to protective services, prison) grow exponentially. And yet, if you would merely focus on being all you can be right now, doing your best in any and every situation for your own personal development, any potential punishments for non-performance would be a non-issue and you would easily rise to the top of whatever field you chose, living at the top of the personal development ladder.

You are all welcome, and encouraged, to grow up and develop a better plan of your own to bring back and implement. However, in the meantime, you have to deal now with how it currently is. Focus on being the best you possible! Every choice you make has consequences now and in the future. Excellence is nothing more than the habit, consistently applied, of always doing your best.

Robert Frost writes in his poem The Road Not Taken, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”(2) Those two roads are “senioritis,” no longer caring vs. doing your best always and applying yourself in spite of seemingly stupid rules and punishments. Your senior year should be filled with hope and dreams for a brighter tomorrow. For the first time in your lives you are approaching that summit that actually enables you to plan out your future. Up until now, most of your schedules have been dictated to you by your parents, teachers, guidance counselors and coaches. That is all about to change. You are about to have the biggest say you have ever had in the direction of your life. What will you do with it? Defer it to someone else or rise to the occasion and actually become who you have always longed to be? Who you choose to be today sets the standard for who you will become tomorrow. Choose wisely!

Dr. Jon M. Ketcham

Author “iContractor 1” & Dream re-Kindler to Earth-bound Travelers of Light

Bibliography:

(1)  Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker p121

(2)  Robert Frost’s Poems, New Enlarged Pocket Anthology p223