I’m Claire Diaz, and I’m writing this after finally putting myself in a position to fulfill my dreams. Sounds ideal, right? Well, the road that eventually got me here was far from ideal and very nearly led me to failure as a college dropout before I got myself in gear. That’s what I want to help you avoid by writing this today.
I’m from a small, rural town where the pressure on girls to marry basically right out of high school and start having babies is intense even today. It’s one of those things where everyone else is doing it, so you feel like an outlier if you don’t follow the trend. Well, as far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to get out there and experience the world for myself. I had no desire to stay home and raise kids.
Fortunately, I did very well in high school, so the fact that I wanted to go to college out of town was at least understandable by most people. Unfortunately, my high school guidance counselor wasn’t one of them, but I was able, after some effort, to send that old guy packing and find a woman who would do her best to help me achieve my goals rather than constantly trying to change my mind about what I wanted to do with my life.
The Big Leagues
So, high school was easy. I had a great memory, and our school’s courses weren’t super challenging to me, so I got out of there with close to a 4.0 GPA. This allowed me to earn scholarships to a prestigious university that had a top-tier science curriculum, which is what I wanted.
But once I got there and started taking college courses that required hours of study and meticulous attention to detail, I was a baby in the woods. I couldn’t cruise by through memorization and telling my teachers what they wanted to hear; I had to put in the time and use analytical and critical thinking skills that had barely been addressed in my high school courses. This quickly led to problems for this small town girl who suddenly found herself at a big-time university in a city which had more going on than I could have ever imagined.
Quitting and Coming Home
Yeah, that’s what I was hearing from some of my friends and even my parents when I told them that college was ten times harder than high school. I had no support system, no one there to tell me to persevere. So, as things piled up, and projects couldn’t be completed in a matter of an hour or two but instead required days of effort, I began to let things slide. Putting in the energy required to do what needed to be done would leave me with none for anything else, and I had to work if I wanted any spending money. I felt all alone and ill-prepared to succeed in my field. Despite the scholarships, my parents had put up a significant amount of money to send me there, and so I started to feel like maybe going home was the most responsible thing I could do.
Frustration and Inspiration
Then, I went to a guest lecture series by a woman pioneer in my field of geospatial physics. Her energy and passion rekindled mine. Over the span of a month, I was captivated by what she had done and how much there still was to do – things that I could be a part of if I could only apply myself.
I talked to my professors, but I was one among many freshmen physics students. They barely had time to teach the material, let alone the good study and work habits I needed to adopt in order to even begin to climb the ladder in this field.
I got a couple tutors for the most challenging subjects, but they were so far ahead of me that they had trouble putting things in language that I could understand. My peers weren’t helpful either, because half of them wouldn’t give me the time of day and the other half wanted me to let my hair down and party. I kind of dabbled in that scene, but I knew that would only make things worse in the end.
Learning How to Live
I was able to limp my way through the rest of first semester without failing anything, but it was clear to me that if I didn’t figure out a new way to approach my college life, my first semester might very well be my last as a passing student. When I was home, I looked at all kinds of websites and books about study habits and maximizing productivity, but none of them really grabbed me. Then one night, I came across a website that started asking all kinds of probing questions about how I lived my life. In a matter of minutes, it forced me to lay out my day-to-day approach, and I could tell even as I answered the questions that this was the crux of my problem. Once the quiz was complete, it generated what it said was a three-month, fully customized plan to allow me to overcome my procrastination. Yeah, the P word. I didn’t even think of myself as a procrastinator, but there it was, right in front of me. The score it gave me left no doubt that this was, in fact, a large part of why I found myself on the brink of quitting school.
I knew that if I was serious about changing my ways, the time to start was right then and there. I had about a month before I would have to return to school, so there was no time to waste. That’s what led me to actually push the button and enroll in the program.
Opening My Eyes
As days turned into weeks, I began to realize just how ineffective my current approach to my daily tasks actually was. Slowly, but surely, that routine was replaced with one which allowed me to maximize what I could get done in one day. When I headed back to school, I was still following my daily plan. Fortunately, I had another two weeks before things would really ramp up. I had know idea how this new routine would work when push came to shove, and the only way to find out was a trial by fire as I tried to navigate my second semester.
My Time Was My Own
As the work got harder, I realized I didn’t feel that overwhelming pressure I had experienced first semester. Though I certainly was challenged, I was able to work through each challenge methodically until I was done, then move on to the next. It never got to be too much for me, and I finished second semester in a much better position than I had finished the first. Finally, I was getting the right kind of attention from professors who were starting to see my potential.
None of this would have been possible without the Virtue Map Anti-Procrastination Plan. It was meticulous, giving me tasks to do every day, and it was effective at rewiring my brain to enable me to pursue higher studies. I can safely say that without Virtue Map, there’s a good chance I would have given up and gone home, and I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today.
Sometimes, procrastination can be holding you back even if you don’t recognize it as such. So, if you’re not sure why you’re struggling, it’s well worth your time to at least click below and take this quick quiz from Virtue Map. If you follow the plan as I did, you’ll be able to eliminate the barriers that are preventing you from making your dreams a reality!