What Does Our Grade Mean
I hope you got an excellent grade on your report card regarding your dreams. That means that you are on the right track, and if you maintain this, you will soon see your dreams come true. However, if you were more like me and didn't see the grades you wanted, it is time to make the adjustments. It is never too late for a fresh start.
Luckily, most of us have moved beyond school, so these grades don't have nearly as big of an impact. We don't have to go home to get our bad grades signed by our parents. And we don't risk being rejected from our favorite college because of this. We need to take these grades seriously because they put us further from our dreams, but we don't need to fear punishment.
I don't know how your family handled bad grades. I know people who were grounded, lost trick-or-treating (or some other holiday-specific activity), or were forced into a remedial activity they hated. Fortunately, my parents didn't really do anything, but that was mostly because they knew I was already beating myself up too much. The perfectionist in me wants straight As, but in the real world, getting straight As means doing things worthy of an A.
School always came relatively easy for me. I had to study, for sure, but most of the time, I found my teachers engaging, which made the content stick better. Studying for most of my life looked like reading through my notes and doing practice quizzes. That all came to a head during my junior year of high school when I took a Biology weed out level class at the local college. I had no business taking this class. While I was essentially a full-time college student at this point, I should not have been taking a course designed to separate the serious from the curious.
I didn't know that at the time, though. I entered the class hoping to check off a science credit and continue to grow my passion for the medical field. I was met with a rude awakening when my first test score came back in the mid-50's range, which included a fairly significant curve. As much as this grade (coupled with a few other things) opened my eyes to the fact that enjoying medical dramas was not enough fuel to make me a doctor, it was also the kick in the butt that I needed to figure out how to actually study.
That skill carried me through college, and it's still with me today as I research and work within the military and insurance communities. I probably would have figured out that skill later in life if I hadn't taken that class, but how much further behind would I have been? We aren't comparing where we are at to someone else's progress. Instead, we check ourselves against who we know we should be and who we are striving to be in the future.
I want to talk about righting the ship when we realize we are off course, but before we do that, we need to talk about what these grades mean and what we should be doing with the information they give us. If we got a bad grade, it can mean a couple of things:
● It could mean that we are chasing the wrong dream
Sometimes, we will realize we were just heading down a path that wasn't meant for us. My dream of being a doctor didn't have strong roots. I wanted to be a doctor because they made good money (I know that's not a great reason). I liked school, so extra schooling wasn't really a concern, and I loved watching doctor shows. But those roots could not bear the weight of what it would actually take to become a doctor. The older I get, the queasier I get, which definitely means the medical field wasn't right for me. At the end of the day, if our heart isn't in something, then it might be time to walk towards something that we are passionate about.
● It could mean that the plan we created was not truly functional for our lives
Training for a marathon by planning to wake up at 5 am every day to run X number of miles might be an excellent strategy for some. But that may not be a viable plan for those of us with children who do not sleep through the night while simultaneously dropping a nap. It doesn't mean that the plan was wrong because running a marathon requires going out and running miles almost every day of the week. It just means we need to take a more realistic look at how we implement the activity that needs to be done. This doesn't mean we need to change our dream. We just need to reexamine the plan.
● It could mean that life is untenable at the moment
Sometimes life is just hard. We have a lot thrown at us at once, and there isn't much else we can do besides dealing with the punches as they come. Thriving is going to look different in each season of our lives. And for some seasons, the most we can do for our dreams is keep them alive. This should not be a permanent state for our lives, and this could be the blueprint we need to make changes, but if we find ourselves in this season, just press on because the time for our dreams will come.
● It could mean that we need to get ourselves together and get back to work
This is absolutely where I fall. I've made some excellent strides with my dreams this year, but ultimately, my work ethic has not been where it should be. There aren't any serious or negative reasons for this. It is purely that I haven't been doing the things I need to and instead chose to do something significantly less productive. When I prioritize my work, I find the time to do what I need, and the only things that fall to the back burner are things that really belong there in the first place. If we are in this camp, then righting the ship will be a simple (not easy) process.
If we had a report card that we are proud of this season, then that is amazing. That is a sign that we are on the right track, and while we probably need to make some adjustments, there aren't any significant changes to note. It's the equivalent of getting a "pleasure to have in class" as a teacher's note. Keep doing what we're doing because it is obviously working, but there aren't any clear notes on improving.
Please remember that this report card is just a snapshot. It is a chance for us to acknowledge where we are and evaluate that clearly. We shouldn't bury our heads in the sand to hide from reality; it isn't a reason to beat ourselves up. We face the reality honestly and then make adjustments as needed. We get back on course way faster when we handle this simply and clearly, and the faster we get back on track, the quicker we see our dreams come true.