Speaker 1: Okay, in this video we're going to talk about strategy and mindset that you'll need to make it all the way to graduation. And a big part of that is avoiding burnout. It all really boils down to one word. Sustainability. Sustainable. Able to be maintained or kept going as an action or process. Able to be maintained or kept going. That seems like a pretty tall order nowadays. In this day and age of on-demand everything and instant results everywhere, you know, I kind of fear that as a society we're starting to lose our ability to be patient and persistent. We want things fast and now and immediately, right? I mean just think about it, right? We got fast food, same-day delivery, DoorDash, Siri, Alexa, Google, all these things that technology has provided us to basically get anything we want almost right when we want it. It's awesome. It's great. Except when something comes along that doesn't have any shortcuts and that cannot be sped up. So as you may have guessed, an engineering degree is kind of one of those things, right? It can't really be sped up and there aren't really any shortcuts. That doesn't mean that a lot of students still don't try. They'll take more courses than they're used to and overload their schedule with the thought that, oh, I'll speed up my graduation. I'm going to now graduate earlier. Bless their little hearts. Now don't get me wrong. Most students who do this, you know, have good intentions. They want to get stuff done. They're motivated to start knocking stuff out. I get it. But from my experience, from the times I've seen this happen, even myself, you tend to be blinded by your own impatience and you end up taking on more than you can handle, right? No thought is given to sustainability. What's that word mean again? Able to be maintained or kept going as an action or process. So in our case, the action or process will be you getting good grades consistently all the way to graduation. So if you're looking to maybe take more classes than you're used to or kind of overload your schedule a little bit, you really need to ask yourself, can you maintain your grades throughout the semester with that schedule? And if you can, is the potential gain, right, is it worth the potential cost? So what do I mean by cost? So number one, obviously there's grades. So, you know, you don't perform as well as you thought you would. You're too overloaded. There's just too much on your plate and your grades suffer. That's kind of an immediate cost. Then there's also a thing called burnout. So I'm sure you probably heard that phrase before, burnout. But if you haven't, it's basically exactly what it sounds like. You know, all your motivation kind of poofs into thin air and you start to feel really defeated and you start to question why you started down this path in the first place. And that's, that to me is the more serious cost, serious potential cost of overloading yourself and not really implementing a sustainable mindset to your schedule. So by neglecting sustainability and attempting to overload yourself, you may in fact be setting yourself up for some burnout. You know, you're super motivated in the beginning. You think you can handle it. But once a few exam scores roll in that aren't very as good as you thought they'd be or once your schedule starts to kind of whittle away at your sleep, once something starts to affect your sleep, right, and you're not getting as much sleep as you need, the burnout is almost inevitable. You think you're being productive by taking on more but you may end up creating a counterproductive version of yourself. Trust me, it happened to me. When I first started school, I failed several courses and it was the worst feeling. I, you know, got pretty burnt out into my sophomore year. It wasn't until I really started applying a sustainable mindset and strategy to my schedule and lifestyle that I really started to figure out and my grades got a lot better. And I can't tell you how many friends I've had and co-workers and peers that I've seen that have tried to speed things up and try to take on more than they can handle. You know, some of them get away with it but more often than not, it just bites them in the ass. So in the beginning, I made the mistake of approaching school like it was a race, right, like let's see who can finish first. The more I can take on the better. When in reality, as long as you finish, you win. Even if it takes five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years, you finish, you win, right. And that's why sustainability is so important. As long as you implement a sustainable schedule lifestyle mindset, that represents the ticket to your diploma. So you want to start off slow, conservatively, right. You know, two A's is way better than three C's and a D. So you got to be really objective with what you can handle, you know, with all the other stuff in your life. Boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, whatever, friends, hobbies, exercise, mental well-being, and your work. Figure out a load that can fit into all of that sustainably for many years. And you can't forget about your mental health and just happiness. They're so important to you maintaining your productivity and motivation and self-discipline that you really need to prioritize them. I mean, they're so important. I'll probably do several more videos on just those subjects later. But for now, just realize that, you know, your mental health and happiness go hand-in-hand with your productivity. And you have to prioritize them with whatever schedule you come up with. You just got to remember that all you have to do is finish. You finish and you win, right. Doesn't matter how long it takes. I mean, it took me five years to get my undergrad and it's the same story with most of the people that I went to school with. Took them five years. So it's not abnormal at all for it to take over four years to get your undergrad. So don't feel bad if other kids are going faster than you or, you know, you're not following the exact flow chart that your school suggests. That's all just a suggestion, right. You find the sustainable pace for yourself and you lock in. You want to find a pace that you can maintain your performance but also challenge yourself, right. That's kind of the sweet spot there. As long as you find that and you lock into it, you'll be just fine. I hope you liked that video. If you did, make sure you hit that like button and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any future videos. And maybe leave a comment with your thoughts. I'd really appreciate it. And if you're looking for like a deeper dive, you want to know more about how sustainability and a sustainable mindset and lifestyle can be developed, check out my book. I'll put a link for that in the description. But until next time, thanks for watching and keep up the good work.