Overcoming Obstacles: Top 4 Summer Struggles by Hajra Salim

Overcoming Obstacles: Top 4 Summer Struggles
by Hajra Salim

When I think of summer, the first thing that pops up in my head are watermelons! Mangoes too. (God, I cannot stop thinking about food) Nevertheless, those mouth-watering fruits and smoothies might just be the first thing, but they are not the last- the next thing is school. The back-to-school phase gets me down every single time. No matter how much I try to cheer myself up to find something appealing about going back to school, my mind comes back to getting a day off and munching some Doritos- you can tell how much food means to me- but oh well, I look forward to the library lessons and push myself out of bed every morning. Summer vacations homework and additional summer camps aren’t the only thumbs down things about summer. There is so much more! Let’s talk about a few obstacles and I will share how we can try to overcome those hurdles together.

1. Laziness

   
   
   Oh, where do I even begin? I am an extremely lazy person. One night, I was up watching Booktube videos and I was starting to feel hungry. Unfortunately because the fridge is in the kitchen and I am again, a sloth, so I starved myself the entire night instead of getting out of my room to get something to eat. Another story, fast-forward to winter. I had a long day and desperately wanted to get a nap. So I did, I went straight underneath the blanket, turned the fan on maximum whilst I was shifting from one pose to the next,finding it hard to sleep as I was cold. Why? I left the fan on maximum and I was shivering. You know, what my lazy-self did as to go to sleep a little comfortably? Coiled myself inside the blanket, shutting air from every corner and went to sleep while I trembled rigorously with cold. Now, everything aside, why did I turn on the fan in the first place in winter? The answer remains a mystery but laziness takes over my brain making me want to make strange decisions.

   Here comes the overcoming laziness part, first of all, it is not a piece of cake (Wow, food is all I’m thinking about right now.) My remedy is to set achievable goals and give yourself a lot of you-can-do-this talks. It works! Laziness leaves us into this illusion of ourselves being good-for-nothing, I recommend busting this bubble and telling yourself what little things you can achieve today and how; that way you can work yourself up. Trust me, you can do this! Another useful tip might be to pay attention to who inspires you or motivates you easily, listen to that one motivational speaker, blogger, youtuber or maybe somebody from your family to push you away from the couch to your work-space. I hope this helps.

   Sam Keen once said and I quote, ‘Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability’ and I cannot agree more.

2. Boredom
   Summers without boredom?! Error 404- file not found. Summers and boredom, these two go hand in hand and laziness plays a little part as well. Especially when you are in your teenage years, because of the things that are yet to be discovered and search of something creative builds up the foundation for boredom.’Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.’
   -Robert M. Pirsig

   The only advice I can give from all the summers of boredom that I have suffered through is to try. For instance: I always thought I couldn’t draw but last summer I bought an elegant journal and started lettering, which later progressed into drawing and I found out that my drawing was satisfactory and it kept on getting better with more and more practice. Just like that, pick up an instrument, perform a science experiment, polish yourself in something you feel like pursuing in future, could be anything. Enough dreaming. Work for it!

3. Summer Stress
   Summer stress is oddly common. We all have some quite preconceived ideas of our never-to-be-forgotten vacations, our motivation to find a summer internship or a day job, picking up on things we are behind in, working on our academics, setting up a healthy routine and just being organized in general. All these notions are knit together into one shape, a lack of spontaneity, or in other words: excessive planning. Stress is caused in a lot of cases due to the misunderstanding of the situation one is going through and setting high expectations. Pre-calculating everything might not be the best idea, especially if you are not bothering to give a rough outline to your summer. It might be equally damaging, physically or psychologically. It is always best to find a balance.

   Now the question is: how to decrease the level of anxiousness that summers come along with? Let’s just relax and take everything day by day. Putting today’s work to tomorrow, is of course, not a wise option but it might just be better to take a day off or focus on just one thing. You wouldn’t even have to plan your next day, your mind will automatically jump to the next task when one is accomplished a day before. Take all the time you need but keep moving.

4.    Lack Of MotivationThe causes of lack of motivation are frequently mistaken for laziness which might not be the case, most of the time. One usually encounters lack of motivation when acknowledging the worth of the task, but prolongs it because of the feeling of not being good enough to undertake the particular task. When the importance of the task is recognized and the urge to get it done creeps in but it feels like an additional chore to muster up the strength, determination, and focus to put effort into it, it is a lack of motivation. It does not always come from laziness. Laziness is the care-free leisure mood of procrastinating, whereas sadness might be the seed that grows out lack of motivation because the mood drifts towards an unexplainable unease.

   Overcome lack of motivation by being gentle to yourself and reminding yourself about the things you have achieved so far. We all have achievements but we aren’t good at counting them or maybe our standards of defining successes are too high. Change that! Remember it is never easy, you get tougher. So, the simplest tip I can share is to keep an eye at the broad view that way you remain concentrated and influenced.

   Summers can be a beautiful time of the year when we finally get to explore ourselves and step out of our comfort zone. I wish you all a wonderful summer with a lot of visits to the scenic beaches and to exotic places you have never been to!