Here at ALHS we have a lot of activities to do and a lot of ways to get involved and it can be hard to figure out what you want to be a part of. Or you can have the opposite issue where you have a million things you want to do and you also have work and school and there is just not enough time in the day or enough days in the week for you to do it all. That’s why it’s important to understand your limits. With so many opportunities it feels unfortunate to not take advantage of all of them but at a certain point you have to know when enough is enough. Saying no to things can be a hard thing people struggle with but it’s a very important skill we need in life. Limits are hard to set and even harder to follow but if you don’t set them you risk a number of things.

The first risk is burning out, the common phrase of “gifted kid burn out” is running rampant with teens self identifying themselves as previously gifted kids that have lost that motivation to perform above average. 

The second being the chance of losing interest in something you love, everyone says do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life, but that saying is far from the truth. When you’re doing an activity and you don’t have the time you need for it so you have to shove it into your schedule you begin to lose the passion you once had for it. 

The last being while teens want to enjoy their teen years and get the most out of them sometimes you need to do nothing, just stay at home and rest up; over packing your schedule with no “rest days” or extra freetime you start to become drained and overwhelmed. A lot of teenagers feel a fear of missing out or a need to be in everything but there is a time when you need to know when enough is enough and you’ve reached your limit. At that point you aren’t even enjoying your teen years although you want to make the most out of them. 

Finding and setting your limits is hard. Here are a few tips to follow to help yourself out.

• Listen to your body.
  • When your body tells you it’s tired and it’s late, listen to it and the notes for class can wait a day.
• Keep track of your assignments, activities, important events and test dates in a calendar or planner.
  • The hardest part of balancing your activities and assignments is not knowing when things are happening. If you keep a planner or calendar with all the dates of things you not only can keep track of when things are due but also help yourself from over scheduling.
• While people hype up the teen years, it’s important to understand that they’re a time for learning and growing and you have the rest of your life to enjoy other things. 
  • You don’t have to do everything and try everything right away, you have your entire life ahead of you, you don’t have to do everything now.
• Media is a false portrayal of the teen years.
  • The non-stop parties and epic tales of love aren’t true. It can be hard to be happy when you compare you and your life to a fictional story; just remember your life is exactly what you want it to be, you have control over your own destiny. 

At the end of the day life is about having fun and enjoying it; so don’t try to do everything just do what you love.