VanArts Radio

We are facing a crisis among students. Based on statistics released in 2012 by the Canadian Community Health Survey, young adults ages 15 to 24 have had the highest rates of mood and anxiety disorders of all age groups.

 

It’s become common that everywhere I go, I hear about levels of anxiety rising. 

 

Students are growing up with oversize expectations of personal and professional success. The pressure to be great at everything is causing them to feel less confident, more fearful of failure and more critical of themselves.

 

By the end of 2017, approximately 22.7 million Canadians had a social media account, a number that has grown by 300,000 annually for the past 2 years. The problem is students are living out their lives through the polished surface of other people. 

 

1. Make a mock diploma that reads, "Having honorably fulfilled all the requirements imposed by the overload of school and life, you are hereby certified to screw up, bomb or otherwise fail" during college "and still be a totally worthy, utterly excellent human,"

It's not about grades. It's about growth. It's about feedback. It's about failure. It's about honoring mistakes as a necessary part of the learning process.

 

2. Make a dream board. Be clear and convicted in the type of life you want to live everyday and the person you want to be. Focus on having one success everyday and reflect positively on it at the end of the night. 

 

3. Put Success Quotes everywhere as a reminder that failure is part of the grind to success. 

 

4. Budget the time you spend on social media, studying, and social life. Take control over your time. 

 

 

Now I encourage you to write this down and put it all over your house because it helped me. Also read it out loud because the impact isn’t the same unless you do.

 

“When you get what you want in your struggle for self, and the world makes you king for a day. Just go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that person has to say. It isn’t your father, or mother, or spouse, who’s judgement you must pass. The fellows who verdict counts most in your life is the one staring back from the glass.You may cut corners and think you’re incredible, but the person in the glass, says “you’re only a bum if you can’t look me straight in the eye”. This is the fellow to please. Forget all the rest, that person is with you right through to the end. You've passed your most dangerous, difficult test, if the person in the glass if your friend. You may fool the world down the pathway of years and get pats on the back as you pass, but you’re only reward will be heartache and tears. If you cheated the man in the glass.”

 

 

Be happy with who you are, be patient with yourself, and never stop dreaming.

 

In the end, life can be simple but we over complicate it, trying to control things we have no power over. The one thing you can influence the greatest, the one thing you can truly change, is you. Speak truth into your life, don’t speak negativity over your life and you can live a prosperous one.