Welcome to Broke Grad Student’s 5-step guide to doing it. What is it? In this case, it can be something, anything, and everything — paying off your credit cards, starting an emergency fund, asking a girl out, calling your parents, asking a guy out, eating something other than ramen, paying your bills, balancing your checkbook, creating a budget, cutting your expenses, getting a hair cut, getting them all cut, planning a vacation, eliminating your debt, finishing your thesis, or walking your dog.
Step 1: Admit that you need to do it.
The first step is to simply admit that it needs to be done. This is easier said than done. It’s really easy to put it off until you’re not as busy, or any of the other excuses you can come up with. However, the truth is that it will never get done until you face the reality that you need to do it.
Step 2: Convince yourself that you can do it.
Now that you’ve admitted that it needs to be done, the next challenge is convincing yourself that you can actually do it. To do this, you have to overcome your fear of failure. The key thing to remember is that there’s a 100% chance of failure if you never try doing it in the first place.
Step 3: Start doing it.
The previous two steps were just mental preparation for this step. Now it’s time to start the physical act of doing it. This is probably the easiest step of the entire process. A lot of people start doing it, but many people never make it any farther.
Step 4: Keep doing it.
You have to keep it up once you start doing it. Beware of this step though because if you blow it here, you may end up falling back down to Step 1. You will experience obstacles along the way, and it’ll be tempting to take the easy way out. However, instead of giving up, remind yourself of why you need to do it and the fact that you can do it.
Step 5: Do it until it’s done.
You can finally see the finish line, but it still seems so far away. Well, put on your glasses, throw in your contacts, or get laser eye surgery! You’re almost done, so just keep doing it. Finish what you needed to do and what you know you can do by doing it until it’s done.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks . I think that was great advice.
I had to create a 10 step guide like this when I was in 9th grade. Kind of a response to the great habits of highly effective people.
Great little guide. I have had to make outlines to make sure I stay ontop of things at times.
Step 3 is always hardest one isnt it