Managing Stress As A Goal In Life And When Working To Attain Other Goals

Essays, quizzes, tests, projects, friends, deadlines, sports, clubs, meetings, grades, peer pressure, weekend plans, pop quizzes and sleep.  These are some of the daily stressors experienced by a high school student, just to name a few.  I know all too well how working to reach a goal can cause stress in life.  I constantly find myself in a state of needing to slow down, assess a situation, and then calmly continue in the best way possible.  I feel like I must talk to at least one person a day who is stressed about what is going to happen in the future and how this will affect a dream of theirs.   When people work towards an achievement or goal that they have in mind, they can often worry themselves so much that they are actually stinting their ability to succeed.  I think that it is very important to set reasonable, healthy and attainable goals that push and encourage us, but don't put us over the edge.  Stress is a very dangerous and important issue to understand and control, especially at a young age.  Because many people find themselves stressing when working to fulfill a dream, I feel that this topic is extremely relevant and close to my heart.  Not only is it important to set goals and work hard to obtain them, but it is also very important to take time in life for ourselves. I believe that a simple, yet wonderfully important goal and dream that we should all have as human beings is to be the happiest and healthiest person that we can be.  As high school students, we all find our own outlets to rid ourselves of stress.  These can include working out, playing video games, practicing a sport, listening to music, reading, writing in a journal, talking to friends, watching a movie or maybe even taking a quick nap when necessary.  Equally important as working hard in our everyday lives is giving ourselves the time that we need to decompress, and that should be an attainable goal for everyone.  Recently, I have been learning a lot more about stress in both school and at home.  The effects of stress on both our physical and mental states can be truly devastating.  So many stressed-out teenagers don't even understand how their daily stressors can negatively affect them.  When I'm stressed out about anything, the first thing I do is take a deep breath and think about the worst possible situation.  This often helps me to put things in perspective.  We all need to find healthy ways to manage stress, especially when stressing out about long term goals or dreams.  Being stressed for our entire life about our ability or inability to achieve a dream is simply not a healthy and happy way to live.  As we grow, our dreams change.  We must accept this as truth and grow with our changing minds.  Below, I have posted a link with some helpful stress-relieving techniques.  Hopefully, in stressful situations, these may help you out a little bit. http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_relief_meditation_yoga_relaxation.htm

Childhood Dream #4: To live on the moon.  Who knows...maybe some day.

My Greatest Accomplishment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-FqJh4fzUk&feature=youtu.be

Fulfilling your dreams is often a multi step process.  There are many tasks and achievements that we all strive to concur in order to get closer to a dream.  I have always enjoyed public speaking and the performing arts.  A personal dream that I have for myself is to always be a supporter and advocate of the arts.  I have been competing in debate competitions for about a year and a half now, something that I very much enjoy.  I consider debate to be not only a hobby and a passion of mine, but also a performing art that I must continually practice at to perfect my performances in competitions.

Last year, after participating in about ten after school and weekend debate competitions of which I did very well , I decided to take a big step and register myself in a state championship competition.  Going into the competition, I had the mind set of doing my best and simply trying to offer myself the most challenging and exciting experience as possible.  I was by no means expecting to make it to the finals round and had not even considered the idea of making it into the top six.  Arriving at the competition, I knew that I was up against about 30-50 competitors and would have to get through five rounds of pretty draining recitation.  After eight hours of a long and hard day of debate, the list of the six top competitors in the final round was posted.  I was completely and totally shocked when I saw that MY name was on the list!  I knew that no matter what I would now receive at least 6th place in a state championship competition, and I was thrilled.  I calmed myself down and went to my final round where every single competitor was fantastic.  About an hour later, I sat with my family and team as I waited for my category of debate to be called up during the award ceremony.  The top six competitors were called to the stage and lined up as they called out the awards in reverse order.  One by one, I watched and listened in amazement as my name was continuously not called for sixth, fifth, fourth or third place.    The moment came as the announcer said, "And in first place, we have...Jordan Paurowski!"  I couldn't believe it. I had just become the top declamation competitor in the entire state of Florida.  After the awards, I congratulated my fellow competitors and celebrated with my family for the rest of the night.  Winning that competition was a huge accomplishment, and kept me right on the path of following my dreams.

I have posted a link to My Greatest Accomplishment video at the top of this post. 

Childhood Dream #3: Winning a big trophy for a competition.  I have now achieved that dream. :)

Changing Dreams and Following Your Dreams When Choosing A Career

My younger brother, Ethan, recently turned 10 years old.  I can remember when he was little and someone would say, "Ethan, what do you want to be when you grow up buddy?" My brother's responses would usually be something along the lines of Superman, Batman, Spiderman or the ever so cool astronaut.  When I asked him the other day what he wanted to be I received very different responses.  Ethan told me that he would enjoy being things like an actor, a lawyer, a talk show host or an architect.  When I asked why he no longer wanted to be a superhero, he responded by telling me that that was a "crazy idea", and that he has matured since he was little.  He's pretty smart for his age I might add.  The point of this is that our dreams can and do change quite often, and that's fine.  I think it's a good thing actually.  As we grow, we all want and strive for different goals, achievements and dreams.  These are probably very different from the dreams we had when we were five years old.  I find very often that people are almost afraid of altering a dream, perhaps because they feel like they're giving up on something.  I have very recently decided that my lifelong dream of going to an Ivy League school is not necessarily something that I want anymore for multiple reasons.  Dreams are fluid, and we have to allow them to be.  For example, I've been told since I was about 6 years old that I should be a lawyer.  All throughout elementary and most of middle school, I was sure that I would be a lawyer and was doing everything I could to get myself on the path of success.  However, as I was entering high school, I thought more about my interests and passions.  This led me to discover that I really wanted to be a doctor, not a lawyer.  Now, one of my biggest dreams is to be a heart transplant surgeon and save lives.  This brings me to my next point: following your dreams when choosing a career.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to wake up every single morning in the future dreading going to work.  That's why it is so important to follow your dreams when choosing what you want to do for a large majority of your life. While it's important to think about things such as salary, hours and benefits when choosing a career path, I think that doing something you love is equally as important.  I hear people all the time saying, "I wouldn't do that, they don't make enough money."  It almost saddens me to hear this, because I know that someone is giving up on a dream that they could love.  I recently found an interesting article describing the most common dream jobs and what they actually pay.  We each get one life to live the way that we want to.  Why should we not be that astronaut who discovers aliens? Or a writer who sells millions of books?  Or a veterinarian who saves animals?  The answer is...you SHOULD. With hard work and dedication I truly believe that anything is possible.  My mom is still constantly telling me that I should be a lawyer, but she says it with the knowledge and hope that I will do whatever makes me happiest in the end.  A paycheck is a piece of paper.  Being happy in life is priceless.
Here is a link to the article I was discussing.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/12/14/what-common-dream-jobs-actually-pay/

Childhood dream# 2:  Having the ability to read minds.

The Importance Of Following Your Dreams

A dream is defined as a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal. While this may sound simple on paper, being able to follow one's dreams tends to be one of the hardest things to do in life.  When I was a kid, my parents always used to tell me to follow my dreams.  This cliche line never really hit home for me until I began high school.  I think this is because I started to realize how my actions could affect my future once I began high school  In life, there are so many amazing opportunities that we can choose to be a part of or miss out on.  To me, following my dreams at any cost is not only a goal in life, but a priority and a necessity.  I feel like everyday I hear about people giving up on something because it's too hard, time consuming, or boring.  What these people don't realize is that giving up on that one simple task could influence the rest of their life.  We all have different dreams.  Personally, I dream about getting into medical school and becoming a successful heart transplant surgeon.  I also dream about having a family of my own and being a happy and healthy person.  What are your dreams? How do you work everyday towards achieving those dreams? 

My mom attempted to make me watch an hour and a half long lecture on Youtube when I was about 11 years old.  At the time, I had no absolutely no interest in the video.  However, I now realize that it is the single most inspirational lecture I have ever seen.  The lecture I am taking about is Entitled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, also referred to as "The Last Lecture."  This was a lecture given by Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Randy Pausch on September 18, 2007.  Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September of 2006. On September 19, 2006, Pausch underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy to remove the malignant tumor from his pancreas.  In August 2007, after doctors discovered that the cancer had recurred, Pausch was given a terminal diagnosis and was told to expect a remaining three to six months of good health.  I know what you're thinking.  That must have been the most depressing speech ever to watch, huh? But you're wrong.  Pausch was upbeat, happy, hilarious and insightful.  He went through many of his childhood dreams and how he managed to achieve each and every one of them through hard work and dedication in life.  This speech truly opened up my eyes to the absolute importance of following my dreams, at any cost. I highly recommend watching this video for an inspirational and insightful take on dreams.  There is a shortened version of the lecture at the top of this post. 

To end with, I'd like to share one of my childhood dreams at the end of each post.  

Childhood dream #1: Be a Disney princess.  I'm still working on that one...          

 “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” -Les Brown

Go make your dreams come true.