Just do it

I am all about self improvement.

I make resolutions for myself not only at New Year's, but also at the beginning and end of each quarter at school and at various times in between.

I even have a whiteboard hanging in my bedroom on which the phrase "summer goals" is written and six major goals are enumerated below. These include exercising at least five times a week and relieving my room of the junk I have accumulated over the years.

However, setting these goals, which I call being productive, my friends call being insane. They ask what reason I can possibly have to keep busy while others are settling into a summertime stupor.

As an answer to this query, I offer up one of my favorite quotes taken from the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide: "You can't make footprints in the sands of time by sitting on your butt. And who wants to leave butt-prints in the sands of time?"

The way I see it, a person can sit around all summer, wasting time off from school by watching countless hours of TV and eating endless empty calories -- or they can use time wisely working toward a personal goal.

During the school year, these same friends argue, at least we stay productive for a reason. Grades are an obvious motivator. If we don't intrinsically motivate ourselves to keep working, keep reading and keep studying, grades drop and we jeopardize our chance of earning a degree.

But summer, by design, is the notorious time when college students across the nation are free from the constraints of self improvement. Three-and-a-half whole months to let go and to forget about responsibility.

Many college students look at their summers as a last hurrah before entering the professional work force. They see their time to play and be lazy growing short, and as a result, end up spending their time off in a wasteful fashion.

I say, we should spend our "last hurrah" accomplishing the things we will never again have the chance to do instead of sitting around, all the while allowing our butt prints to get deeper.

Everybody has different aspirations, but what we have in common is that we all have goals we'd like to achieve.

So instead of saying you would like to work out more often, actually do it. Go hiking on Mount Rainier or take the scuba-diving lessons you've always wanted to take.

Instead of desiring to see the country or the world, go camping or take a road trip rather than watch the travel channel all summer long.

Of course, there will be no negative consequences for letting a summer pass wastefully by. There is no fear of failing a final to keep us motivated during our time off.

But I don't think the motivation to improve at something needs to be tangible. Whether we are trying to improve ourselves or a skill, we don't need a clear-cut reason to do so. Let the motivating factor be pride in attempt or accomplishment.

Setting a goal or two for the summer and working toward that goal is what's important.

So it will not matter, at the end of the summer, whether or not I have actually exercised five times a week. Maybe I only managed to exercise three times a week.

But at least, for those three days, the butt prints on my couch did not get any deeper.