Most college students are smack in the middle of their winter breaks, but campus wellness experts say the coming semester looms large as students commit to resolutions for 2008. The most popular goals? Improving fitness, boosting grades, and beating stress - because caffeine-fueled consecutive all-nighters is so 2007!
Here's how to make sure you'll follow through with your 2008 resolutions:
Be realistic. If you want to realize your resolutions for 2008, start with realistic goals. Keli Balinger, the director of the Center for Wellness at Harvard University Health Services, tells students to make sure their goals are achievable. If you know you have to work right after classes three days a week, does it make sense to tell yourself you'll go to the gym every day?
Be concrete. Saying you want to do much better this semester is a vague goal. It would be more concrete to decide that this is the semester you're going to learn better studying techniques, attend all your classes, and do all your assignments on time.
Anticipate hurdles. Campuses are filled with landmines that can put the kibosh on the best-laid plans. Most college students live in one room that contains their laptops, televisions, iPods, phones, and roommates. "If you didn't get a project done on time last semester, what were you doing instead?" says Beth Grampetro, a health and wellness educator at Boston University's Office of Residence Life. "Was it hanging out with friends? Talking on the phone? Students have to recognize what distracts them."
Keep track. Research shows that people who track a behavior are a third more likely to follow through than those who don't track it. If you've resolved to attend all of your classes, make a checklist with a box for each class in the semester. Want to eat better? Write down all the food you consume during a semester.
Approach the healthy habits you might want to avoid. "Just because you wake up feeling blue doesn't mean that's a sign you shouldn't go to class," says Karen Hruska, director of the ADEPT program in Counseling and Health Services at Salem State College. "The neurochemistry of emotion is temporary, and action can change that chemistry."
Be patient. "Young adults who are used to the immediate gratification of IM and cell phones don't understand that the people that hang in there are the ones who reach their goals," Hruska says. "It's like putting quarters in a bank. Twenty-five cents isn't really anything, but 20 quarters is five bucks and that's something."
Balinger recommends that students strive to achieve what she calls "one, small positive step" each day - for example, a set of sit-ups in your dorm room when a trip to the gym is out of the question.
Get help. Take advantage of the resources on your campus. Whether it's a physical trainer in the fitness center or tutoring from your educational resource center, your campus is full of resources that are there to help you; if your tuition is paying to make these resources available, you might as well reap the benefits.
Send your campus events to celcik@comcast.net.
