In The English Major’s Guide to Getting a Job, I explain how you can get years of experience before you graduate. This takes discipline, planning, and strategy – but it also takes honest self-examination. Willpower simply isn’t enough.
This may sound scary: “You mean I can’t achieve whatever I want if I simply try hard enough?” But the truth is this attitude is very liberating.
Acknowledging Weakness to Achieve More
It’s counterintuitive, and it flies in the face of Pinterest’s endless pile of motivational quotes. But by acknowledging our limits, we can make clear, actionable plans to work within those limits. This actually allows us to achieve more.
How are some of the ways we can acknowledge our limits and become more productive?
- Realizing it’s better to get a good night’s sleep instead of pulling constant all-nighters
- Limiting our work to short bursts, then planning breaks (forced distractions to get them all out of the way at once)
- Planning breaks so we can rest on our terms – not when our bodies (or minds) force us to stop
The following infographic from 24Slides explains how we can stay at our mental and physical peaks required to produce top work:
Plan Ahead to Stay Creatively Inspired
By acknowledging our human limitations, we can plan ahead. Instead of pushing ourselves to the limit, then crashing, we can carefully recharge as needed and accomplish more.
This means more:
- Real job skill development during your semester
- Freelance opportunities to graduate with experience
- Practical experience to help land a better job after graduation
If you haven’t read it yet, check out The English Major’s Guide to Getting a Job. It’ll show you specific, actionable ways you can develop specific skills employers actually want while taking your normal coursework. (The Semester Skills Worksheet in our Members Area is perfect for this.)