Academic Confidence

My level of confidence for academics for school is perfectly fine, except when it comes to my classes that I'm not very good at, which is English/Writing and Biology/Anatomy and Physiology. The only thing I lack confidence is in my grades for those classes. When my grades start to go down in those classes I just kind of start to give up and not try anymore, which isn't a good solution at all. Some days I have this feeling to learn and actually get something out of class that day. Those are the days I actually focus and learn a lot in class those days, which have been happening lately. Probably because I've been getting a lot of sleep lately, because I haven't been staying up late doing homework, because we practiced so long or because we haven't been doing morning work outs which make me really tired the rest of the day and makes it really hard for me to focus when I'm extremely tired. I don't know whats gotten into me lately, but I think I've come to the conclusion that if I don't get my grades up I'll lose my scholarships, which means I won't be able to play softball or go to this school anymore, because it will be too expensive without scholarship money. I really don't want to leave this school, because I have so many friends here that I don't want to leave behind. So what I need to keep doing is every time I get unfocused or distracted by someone or something or I start thinking about other things that don't have to relate to my class. I need to tell myself that I need to focus so I can pass this class and get my grade up in these classes so I don't have to leave. It will give me confidence to maintain and improve my grade tremendously. I know I can pass this class, because I passed Anatomy and Physiology in high school I think I can do it again. It's just a little more work here and requires a lot more studying. Thats when my studying habits have to come in. I need better study habits, because its hard to force myself to study unless someone makes me. So I need to get me a studying partner for Anatomy and Physiology or all the classes that I'm struggling in. That will help improve my grades in those classes or go to tutoring if I need it.

Internal & External Distractions

Since I've been here taking classes at Texas Lutheran University. I have noticed that this school is very hard and that my major is the hardest major in Texas at this school, which is kinesiology to be a physical therapist. So that day I pretty much knew I couldn't goof off like I did in high school. I had to actually work my butt off here. I had to get my priorities straight that school comes first not softball and if I don't get my grades up I can't play ball. When I first started studying here I wasn't very smart I would half fast study and I would always get distracted by my phone and text all my friends back when they would text me, which is the worst idea ever, because you will NEVER get any homework done at all. That was a big external distraction I had to fix big time if I wanted to get any sort of studying done. Another big one was trying to study when my roommate was watching tv. I couldn't concentrate, because I wanted to watch tv too and I would get too distracted and always watch the show instead of doing my homework or studying, because I would get too into the tv show. Or I would try to do homework in my bed since I would be in a comfortable area. Don't do that either...because you get way to comfortable that you don't want to do any homework at all or study. All you want to do is just half fast your homework and study so you can just go to bed early and crash especially if your like me a student athlete, that had practice for 6 hours and just took a shower and laid down in a comfortable bed and just didn't want to do any homework or studying and just wanted to pass out. Then thats when I came to realize I have to find a better place to study where there are no distractions and quiet peace, which is the ASC. The alumni student center is open 24 hours for students at TLU to study all night long at any hours, which is perfect because not too many people go in there late at night to study so I don't have a bunch of friends coming up to me to talk to me and distracting me from my homework and studying. Lately I've been going there and it's been helping me getting my studying done and homework. Also if I have friends in my same class that we have to study for. We would meet in the ASC and get all of our homework done or studying. They agreed with me too that this place was the perfect place to get your work done. So now they take my advice and go there too.

Focus and Concentration

My issues that I have since I've been in college is a big one, which is my ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder is where you can't focus on something for a certain amount of time, because you get distracted by something that could be so little or big. With me being a typical student athlete I forget my important things that I need to do in the morning is take that medicine. Most of the time I forget and when I do, it's hard for me to focus in class about the lectures that my professor's are going over. If they don't make them interesting that day then I have a very hard time focusing and concentrating in class. My mind would be all over the place and will be thinking about all sorts of things from my past, in the present, and the future. I would think about softball and my family and friends that I truly miss back home. Also a key factor in my focusing in class and concentrating in class depends on how much energy I have that day. Especially in the beginning of classes when we first started I had 6 ams which killed me on the days I had a lot of classes or had early classes, because those days I wouldn't be able to take a nap before those classes. So I would be so dead when I go to those classes and all I would be thinking about was how much longer do we have in class as I was slowly falling asleep in class which always happened to be the most important lecture days. I also need to stop staying up so late the night before, because if I don't get enough sleep I won't be able to focus the next day in class, because I would be to tired to focus or concentrate and especially if I didn't take my medicine that day I wouldn't be able to get any work done or listen to what the lectures were about that day. I also need to focus on how to let go of what happened in the past. I have a bad habit of letting stuff go, because I like to hold onto things. So if I would learn to let things go and focus on the present and the future that would help me with being less distracted and less stressed out, because it would be less stuff I would be thinking about.