Danielle Clark

My laziness just lately is becoming seriously annoying! By “lazy” I don’t mean not bothering to get out of bed or tidy up- although this does prove a problem occasionally.. I mean the lack I motivation I have to do work; whether it’s revising for a test, or actually getting down to do the dreaded maths homework!

For instance, as part of the Silver Duke of Edinburgh, I had decided to make my skill teaching myself Spanish: useful, interesting, and seemingly do-able. Yet, somehow, it’s starting to become difficult, and the thought of it is just avoided. Partly because I know I should be, but I really don’t have the push to start!

I know that it’ll come nigh on the end of the six months, and I’ll regret only just having mastered the basic verbs; but that still isn’t enough to get me interested.

What with it being so close to Christmas, it’s even harder to concentrate and appreciate the closeness of gcses, which really do need to be revised for but “can wait until tomorrow”.

And that’s my problem at the moment, everything always seems as if it can be put off for one more day. Eventually that day turns into a week, and I end up forgetting about it any later than that! It’s definitely not a good attitude to have, but what can I do about it? Hmmmm…..

Something that I often think about is why are we as humans so inquisitive? Probably because I am; and so must you be to be reading this post..

We’re forever asking “why?” or “how?” instead of simply taking the information we have been given. It’s as of we’re not willing to agree to something unless we understand it fully. But why? (of course)…

Due to our superior intelligence, humans are genetically programmed to question everything they are told. No one really feels comfortable with something that hasn’t been explained properly.

Sometimes this is a good thing: questions being asked has led to development across the world, and may even have prevented potentially dreadful things from happening. Although,at other times these questions can be frustrating- especially when they seem to be impossible to answer..

However, despite our discomfort with this, we must continue, and perhaps attempt to work out the answer for ourselves…

Everyone has claimed to be “too busy” to do a certain job they have been asked, at least once before. But are we really too busy? Or are we just using our “hectic schedule” as an excuse.

It’s become apparent to me that if I don’t want to do something, my instant response is that I’m too busy, and don’t have the time. However, I know that really, it’s just an easy way out. Sometimes, i feel bad for making this excuse, and at others, I don’t- even when I tell it to myself.

I know that really if I tried to spread out each job evenly, i would have more than enough time to do everything I need to; but I have the problem of worrying about work, but not doing it, and then when I have very little time left. Perhaps this is why I seem to be constantly busy: because I’m always in a rush.

Also, what’s strange is that I’m never too busy to do things that appeal to me. I’ll easily make time to go out for dinner with friends; but it’s harder to find time to learn Latin vocabulary…coincidence? Probably not…

Missing people is really strange, isn’t it? Sometimes, you don’t even realise that you miss someone until you actually see them again after a long period of time; and sometimes, you stop missing someone when you’ve been apart from them for a long amount of. Also, I find it strange how certain places, smells and sounds can remind you of people.

But what actually makes us miss other people?

Well, the truth is that it’s different for each individual. Some people are missed because of the happiness and joy they used to bring, while others may be missed as they were always there in your time of need- until suddenly, they weren’t anymore.

However, sometimes we even miss people whom we don’t want to miss; we know we’re better off without them in our lives, yet we still yearn for them to be a part of it. Bizarre.

Perhaps, in some situations, even when we don’t want to miss someone, they were such a big part of a life beforehand, they’re impossible to forget. If someone took up a lot of your spare time once, you may miss them because you are unsure of what to do with the time you have now.

What can one do to stop themselves from missing another? The truth is, no one has a perfect answer. Everyone deals with different situations in different ways, so therefore, only time will tell. And after all, time’s the best healer, apparently…

Despite forever being told by parents not to “judge a book by it’s cover, first impressions are definitely very important! Whether it’s how smartly you are dressed, how well you behave, or how firm your hand shake is; people judge us from their very first encounter with us.

I’m a firm believer that everyone gets a second chance (and usually a third and fourth…), yet I know that my mind is made up on whether I think I’ll get on with someone within the first five minutes of meeting them.

However, it’s not just on a personal level that first impressions are important; good first impressions are vital when applying for jobs or in an interview. Usually, potential employees have decided whether or not they’ll even consider you for the placement before you’ve barely said a word.

Nonetheless, I believe that it’s never too late to make an attempt at changing someone’s opinion of you and that even though at first, you may have given someone the wrong impression of you to begin with, you should get another go at showing them who you are…

Is it just me, or does everyone else find decision making one of the toughest tasks to deal with? I mean, decisions are at the basis of everything we do and say; and somehow, without even realising, we make decisions that are going to change are life hugely.

Of course, many decisions we are aware of making, and they are the most difficult…

I’m not talking deciding whether to have ham or cheese in your sandwich; or whether you should wear the same top more than once in a week. I mean decisions that actually mean something. Decisions that won’t just affect what happens to you or how you feel that day; but decisions that will actually affect a lot of your later life.

A big decision- although it seems relatively small at the time- that is made fairly early in life is choosing what options you’d like to take at GCSE. These options will be your GCSE grades: the scores deciding which college or sixth form you attend, and eventually, which university you will (or won’t) get into. Seriously, at the end of year nine, aged 13 or 14, who is really old enough to decide this. However, it is something that is, and has been done for many years; and it can’t have worked out that badly, otherwise the system would have surely changed.

So perhaps we’re better at decision making than we realise? Why do we worry about making them so much?

In my opinion, it’s because we worry about what others think about us far to much. This is not the first time I’ve reach this conclusion; however, I think it’s definitely true. It’s not so much the decisions themselves that we worry about, it’s the consequences of what people will think of us and how they will judge us based on our decisions.

Surely all of this pondering and panicking about what people think, means that we never make decisions on what we really believe to be right; instead, they’re based on what we want others to think that we perceive as right…and this must mean that even when we think we’re happy with what we’ve decided- we actually aren’t- or at least, not for the right reason.

Maybe the saying, “trust your gut instinct” has it’s point! Or failing that…research has shown that you make your best decisions when your bladder is full. This means that next time you can’t decide what you need to do, ignore what other people may think of you and just drink a lot of water….

When someone mentions the word hero, who comes to mind? Martin Luther King, leader of the African-American civil rights movement? Florence Nightingale, known for her nursing throughout the Crimean war? The suffragettes and suffragists? Or perhaps Winston Churchill, the prime minister who gave Great Britain the courage and determination to go forth and end up winning the second world war. Maybe you even see the soldiers fighting for our country in Afghanistan currently as soldier.

However , I believe it’s important for us to remember that although these people were and still are massively important figures in our lives, and we would probably live in a very different world without their actions, being a hero is about more than making a huge difference to the world.

Something as simple as being there for someone when they need you can be seen as being a hero, you may be a real help at that specific moment in time. If someone regards you as their hero, then you are one, despite what it may be for. Although the small inconvenience for you to print another copy of the English homework once more for your friend doesn’t quite compare to starving yourself in prison in order to get more rights for women; it still can mean a lot to someone….and stop them from getting a detention, of course.

My main point is that anyone can be a hero, a historical figure, a musician, me, you; all you need to do is make a difference to someone’s life- no matter how small…

Lately, it’s become increasingly obvious about how many reality television shows are taking over the television, and as a result, taking over many of our lives.

Shows such as ‘The Only Way is Essex’, ‘Made in Chelsea’, ‘The Xfactor’ and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ are starting to become to focal point of a lot of our conversations, and perhaps not for the right reasons’

It seems that these shows are based more and more around finding ways of embarrassing people and laying their emotions bare for the rest of the nation to see, and we feed off of that…but is it right?

As someone who watches these programmes, I’m not saying they should be taken off air, it’s just perhaps we, as an audience, should be more aware of the truth behind putting these programmes together for our entertainment, and about the people involved in making these shows entertaining.

Although it may seem that the Xfactor auditionees haven’t been judged before, they definitely have been. Maybe not by the judging panel itself, but by other judges nonetheless. This means that seemingly hopeless acts, have been put through simply to raise viewing numbers; their hopes were built up to believe they stood a chance in the competition, only to be told they couldn’t sing a few months later in front of thousands of people.

‘Strictly Come Dancing’ is similar in the way that they always include a celebrity who is a lot less talented at dancing than the others in order for the public to be entertained, and while the celebrity may be aware that they are being laughed at without complaining, it still can’t be fair…

Even though ‘Made in Chelsea’ and ‘The Only Way is Essex’ aren’t focused on building up people’s dreams and dropping them, the shows still invade the stars’ personal life. The difference is that the people in the show are more aware of what will be shown and said about them, they’re still unsure of what the producers will include and how it will be presented. This means that despite giving consent, the stars aren’t completely sure what they’ll be made to look like, until they see the show when it’s been aired to the rest of the public.

So, even though I don’t disagree with these programmes existing, I disagree with how everyone feeds off all of the drama that comes with seeing other people’s emotions laid bare. I think that watching these shows is perfectly fine, as long as we realise when to draw the line at enjoying the drama, when the producers clearly don’t.

Twitter, facebook, Tumblr, blackberry messenger, Bebo…the list of ways of ways to contact each other without actually speaking is nigh on endless nowadays! Is this affecting our relationships with people for better of for worse?

In many ways, this wide ride of communication devices are fantastic! They allow one to communicate with people who live on the other side of the world with very little fuss- which is very useful and economic when it comes to business. It means that companies can hold meetings with people living on every continent, without any of them needing to spend a penny on travelling, which is also very time saving!

Additionally, social networking allows us to reconnect with old friends whom you would otherwise never get to catch up with. In the same way that it allows you to stay in contact with those who may be leaving your life, meaning that they don’t really leave your live completely..

These reasons are all very well and good, but what if the obsession with social networking becomes too intense and we,as humans, forget how to talk to one another without typing out our message. What if talking face to face becomes a too daunting prospect and we are unable to hold proper conversations?

The phrase “I found out on [fill in appropriate social networking site] is starting to become too familiar; and it’s definitely causing trouble, which is proof that social networking is taking over our lives! A lot of people that i know have been led to believe things that are untrue due to a misunderstanding of something that someone else has said online and have ended up causing unnecessary upset. Surely this isn’t a good thing?

According to http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-data/communications-market-reports/cmr10/ 40 percent of people in England use social networking, which is apparently the highest percentage in Europe. Are we as a nation becoming far too reliant on technology to do our communicating and scared of speaking to people in person?

I believe that we need to do something about it before it’s too late! As a personal user of Twitter and Facebook, I don’t disagree completely with the idea of communicating this way; I just think that the use is becoming far too obsessive and more than moderate.

So, perhaps next time you need to speak to someone, pick up the phone or arrange to meet them in person to help prevent yourself from becoming totally reliant on the Internet to do the speaking for you!

Personally, I think one of the most important things to have in life is an aim and ambition…something you wish to have achieved by a certain age. Whatever these aims may be, however small or however big, I believe them to be vital in feeling satisfied with life!

It would be almost impossible to be pleased with an outcome, or think you’d done a good job at something, if you had no foresight about how you wanted the result to turn out. For example, in an exam, you aren’t going to believe you did well achieving an A if you really had no idea of what you wanted the result to be. Even though you would have done well, you didn’t want to in the first place, and so no real desire is fulfilled…

As someone who is constantly setting myself aims, whether it’s short term, like to have finished by coursework by the end of the week, or longer term, like wanting to teach myself Spanish, it’s easy to feel satisfied with a task that I have carried out- although, it’s not just the feeling after finishing something, it’s the determination that is built during a task that I enjoy.

When carrying out a particular something, having a preferable outcome at the end tends to make me even more determined to do it, and do it well. If I don’t manage to, then I feel as of I’ve let myself down. However, the determination I have gained as a result of achieving many of my past goals has definitely helped for me to set targets for me to eventually realise in the future.

Take the Duke of Edinburgh award as an example: earlier this year I started the Bronze award, building myself up to finish it and enduring 2 days of seemingly endless walking whilst carrying a rucksack weighing around a third of my body weight. It was definitely difficult at the time, that’s not arguable! But that difficulty made me want to complete the expedition successfully even more so, and to feel as if I’d done my best to get there! Well, I managed it, and I felt fantastic for it! The feeling I felt after completing that expedition has led me to want to take part in the Silver award, which involves even more walking and hard work- but because I know that taking part in it will make me feel even more fantastic and self satisfied, I cannot wait to do it! And it’s very likely that this drive and determination will carry me into taking part in the Gold award; all of which will help others along the way- which brings another type of satisfaction in itself!

In my opinion, ambitions and aims are important for us to achieve in order for us to reveal our true potential. Not just to everyone around us, but to ourselves as well. There’s no greater feeling than realising you are able to push yourself and do whatever you want to be able to do; the trick is having the right frame of mind and attitude to get there in the first place!