There’s a lot of pressure to succeed, and not all of it comes from your school. You probably feel pressured by friends, family, and even yourself to do what you said you wanted to do: become a nurse! But whenever you set a goal, you need to be very careful to use Step Five to ask yourself one very important question…
Step Five: Is it YOURS?
All too often, we end up living a life that somebody else wants. We’ve all heard the stories about people that go to medical school just because that’s what their parents wanted…then end up “burning out” later on. One big reason that burn-out occurs is because we never make a goal our own. And making a goal your own is probably the most important thing you can do to increase the chances that you’ll succeed.
Identify your “Why”
If you are constantly reminding yourself about WHY you want to accomplish something, then it’s much easier to stick to it. Have you ever seen the movie Shawshank Redeption? (If not, then here’s your SPOILER ALERT! Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want me to ruin the plot for you!) The main character, Andy Dufresne, finally makes his escape by crawling through sewage pipes (aka: poop!). How do you think he forced himself through such an unpleasant and downright disgusting situation? He kept his mind on the ultimate goal: Freedom! By staying focused on what he was trying to accomplish, he was able to endure in a situation where most people would have given up.
Okay, spoiler alert is over. But my point is, if you can identify why you want to accomplish something, then you can withstand just about anything in order to see that dream become a reality.
Quitting does NOT always equal failure
Sometimes, when we ask ourselves if a goal is truly our own, we discover that the honest answer is “No.” And if the answer is “No,” then trust me…you’ll never be able to find a “Why” that is compelling enough to keep you going when the going gets tough.
So if you’re in that situation, remember that calculated quitting is not failure. It’s actually very smart when done strategically. I’ve even counseled nursing students to question whether nursing is the right field for them, especially when they are having extreme difficulties in school. I could actually write a whole article on that topic alone, so I think I’ll have to save it for a future article!
Nicole Whitworth is the founder of Your Nursing Tutor. She has a BSN and an MA in Clinical Psychology, and has been a professional nursing tutor for over 12+ years. Nicole specializes in getting nursing students through school confidently and calmly so that everything finally “clicks”. She is also the creator of the Silver Bullet Study System, an easy-to-follow study method that automatically trains your brain to become a nurse at the same time that you study for your normal nursing classes.