How to Stay Motivated

By Rachel Ramsdell

Imagine this: it’s the beginning of the new year. You’ve made your New Year’s resolution and are confident that you will achieve it. You start the year off strong, doing what is necessary to achieve your goal. However, once February rolls around, you realize that you didn’t stick to your resolution. Then you feel despondent and start to despise yourself. To add to these unpleasant feelings, the dreary weather lowers your spirit and school isn’t exciting anymore. Does this sound like you? If so, don’t feel bad about it; it happens to most of us, even the most motivated people. While all hope seems lost, there are ways to get your motivation back, even in the midwinter. Here are some tricks to stay motivated in the winter months.

• Remember your goals and don’t lose sight of them. Create a vision of who and where you want to be in your head. Remember this vision whenever you are feeling low. While it is great to know what your goal is, it is even better to know what your goal looks like, so it seems more real and, therefore, achievable.

• Find a role model. This can be a friend, parent, teacher, coworker, or book/movie/TV character. Think about what they would do in your situation. You could even surround yourself with motivated people who push you to do your best. If you spend time with people who are “better” than you, you will strive to be more like them.

• Get competitive. Healthy competition is an effective way to stay motivated. Find someone and think, “I want to do better than them.” As terrible as it sounds, being competitive really works. While beating someone else shouldn’t be the sole reason for doing something, it can be a great way to trick yourself into putting forth more effort. However, don’t get discouraged if they do better than you, for you were just using them to push yourself.

• Use positive self-talk. If you truly believe that you can do something, you will be more likely to do it. Even if you aren’t confident, just repeat positive affirmations in your head. If you do this enough, you might trick yourself into believing that you actually can do it. It is also helpful to spend time with the people who believe in you.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that everyone around you was doing better than you? Does it seem like everyone else is put-together and successful while you’re struggling? The truth is that while it may seem like everyone is doing great, everyone is struggling in their own way, even if they don’t show it. Often we don’t see the full picture, just what we believe it to be, which is usually catered to our fears. While it isn’t easy to simply “not compare yourself to others,” it is a good thing to strive for.

Now you have an urge to do that thing that’s been on your mind. Now what? It depends on your goal. One approach is to dive right in. If you want to improve your grades, get off your phone and do your homework. If you want to lose weight, work out. However, if you are someone who likes to have direction, consider making a plan. I find plans helpful because they make it so you don’t have to make decisions or rely on sheer willpower when you are tired or in a bad mood. I would recommend spending five minutes before going to bed to listen to your favorite songs and create a plan of what you want to do tomorrow.

While motivations aids in the achievement of goals, sometimes you will fail, no matter how motivated you are. No matter how many times you fail and how discouraged you may become, remember that you will make mistakes. Everything is easier said than done. Nevertheless, don’t give up. In order to persevere, you need to believe in yourself and want to achieve your goal so badly that giving up isn’t an option.

Should we Stop Lying about Santa?

By Rachel Ramsdell December 13, 2019

Most of us have figured out that Santa Claus is not real. Doesn’t it seem wrong to have a significant part of Christmas based on parents lying to their children? Or is it acceptable since it is a tradition?

Before sharing my opinion on the subject, it is necessary to know the history of Santa Claus. The legend of Santa Claus is based off of a monk from modern-day Turkey, St.Nicholas. St.Nicholas was an exceptionally generous person who “gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick.” In America, Dutch families celebrated St.Nicholas’s death and then “ John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society’s annual meeting.” These woodcuts showed St.Nicholas with stockings full of toys. Then stores began to use this image of Santa in Christmas promotions. The story of Santa Claus going down chimneys and riding a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer became popular when Clement Clarke Moore wrote “An Account of a Visit from St.Nicholas,” a poem more commonly known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” This is just a very brief history of Santa Claus. If you want to learn more, click on the link to read the History.com article that I used to gather my information.

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/santa-claus

To be honest, I changed my opinion on this topic multiple times before making up my mind. I just need to say that this is my opinion, so please don’t hate me for having a different opinion from you. The opposing arguments are just as valid. I believe that while lying to kids about Santa is part of our culture, it is wrong.

We are taught that lying is wrong. Parents typically punish their kids for lying because when they get older, lying can have negative consequences. By lying to their kids, parents are setting a bad example when they should be leading by example. Also, Christmas celebrates Jesus’s birthday and having lying being associated with that is ironic. Even if lying about Santa is widely accepted in America, that doesn’t mean that it’s right. We shouldn’t blindly do something just because it’s tradition, especially if it feels wrong and goes against our values.

Saying that the presents in the stockings and under the tree on Christmas morning are from Santa devalues the effort that parents put into Christmas. After stressing over finding that popular toy that never seems to be in stores and taking time out of their already busy lives of work and parenthood to go shopping and wrap gifts, parents never receive a “thank you” from their kids because “Santa” brought the presents. Parents deserve more recognition for their work during the stressful holiday season, even if the smiles on their children’s faces are worth it. Also, kids could be more grateful for their Christmas presents if they knew their parents were the ones who bought them. Often kids think about the toys they didn’t receive, even when they got most of the toys on their lists. If a kid verbalizes their disappointment, it would make the parents feel bad, especially after working so hard. A kid who does this shouldn’t even be on the nice list. The kid may find focusing on what they didn’t get acceptable since “Santa” chose not to give them the gift, not the parents. However, if parents were known to be responsible for the presents under the tree, their children would probably show more appreciation since they wouldn’t want to hurt their parents’ feelings after they bought them a lot of presents.

While I believe that parents shouldn’t lie to their kids about Santa, I still love Christmas. It is definitely the best part of winter. I love the joyous and romantic sounds of Christmas music, the white lights on the Christmas tree in my dark living room, the two-week long break from school, and the excitement of unwrapping my presents. I actually enjoy Christmas more now than I did when I believed in Santa. I appreciate the feelings and images associated with the season, rather than just the gifts under the tree (even though I like receiving gifts as well). While the season would not be as magical for kids without Santa, Christmas would still be a magical time of year.

Are New Year’s Resolutions Effective?

By Lauren Pollock December 10, 2019

In a couple of weeks, 2019 will be behind us and we will venture into the new decade: 2020. Every New Year, people from all around the globe make goals or promises they want to fulfill during the year. This has become a very popular tradition that most people participate in. However, it’s massive popularity begs an important question: are New Year’s resolutions actually worth making?

Most people who make New Year’s Resolutions do it in hopes to improve something about themselves or their lives. This reasoning puts great motive behind the goals, but if you look at it realistically, will people actually follow through with them? I say no, they won’t. Society as a whole seems to not be able to follow through with projects or goals they’ve started. In fact, it’s become a societal norm. People think it’s “relatable” to say you’re going to start a diet and then binge on candy a week later. This is exactly the case when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Personally, every time I’ve made a New Year’s Resolution, I’ve failed at following through with it. I will admit, there are some people who have found success in their resolutions. New Years just seems to be an excuse to create promises to yourself with no true meaning behind it. If someone truly wanted to follow through on their goals, there are 365 days where they have the opportunity to start.