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Take a Break

In this post, I want to emphasize the importance of stepping away and taking breaks, whether it is in failure prevention or recovery, taking a moment can make all the difference when it comes to failure. In a preventive measure, taking a break and coming back refreshed can lead to greater success. Sometimes we all get caught up in hurrying to finish things and that means that sometimes we rush, or do not give proper effort to said things. The amount of time or kind of break depends on what fits into the situation. It can be in the middle or anytime, and it simply serves as a small distractor to come back and focus once more on the task at hand. This practice is seen in many instances. Take for example, large tests like the ACT, SAT, MCAT and many others, these tests all offer types of breaks ranging in the number of minutes, and the number of times they are taken. Those small breaks can give the needed time to reorganize thoughts and give time from constantly looking at the words on the paper packets. While people want to argue that the tests are unnecessary and too long, that is not my point here, my entire point of using tests as an example is because they provide breaks. Taking breaks in the middle of something can prevent failure, while maybe not a completely effective method, it is something that can be of great help. 

Taking breaks can also be after failure has already happened to help in the recovery. It can serve as a distractor and give some breathing space. The goal of a break in this sense is to not overthink the failure, or worry about the next step but take a moment and just comprehend. I have done this many times throughout high school, and even now in college. I will share a story from my time in high school. Our schedules like many were back to back classes for seven hours with lunch in the middle. It was the 2nd period of the say and our teacher was handing back tests. When I saw the score on the top of mine I was not happy at all - even though most would have been - I had gotten an 83, and needed an 87 to keep the A I had in the class. I was freaking out, I wanted to start working on extra credit, and retakes, and I had not even finished looking through the marks on my test. The bell rang and I was still tense about the score. The next class, 3rd period, was orchestra, and our teacher gave us a free day/ homework day, as we had a concert the night before. I wanted to do everything I could to fix this grade, however my friends had a different idea. They told me to take a break, and just hangout and calm down for a little while. It was painful at first to just sit and not work, but soon my mind was distracted and we were having fun talking and hanging out. I realized that taking a break let me come back to the situation with a clean mindset, and I was able to figure out a solution that put me at ease. Taking a break is what helped the situation and led to success when I tried again. 

The photo features my friends and I from the day I got the test score back.


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