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Related Discussions
On Happiness While Studying
FoolProofFun
Alum Member
I saw this recent post where folks were posting photos of their study spots.
It makes me happy to see that studying, or at least the concept of it as embodied in the "study station," can make people happy - even if only in that fleeting sense of happiness you feel before embarking on a difficult yet rewarding studying session. I must say as badly as I want to get into a great law school, I have a hard time looking at my studying positively, even though I know it is helping me and I know it is like medicine for low scores (sometimes we hate to take medicine, but it helps us, and that knowledge makes it easier to take). Which, in my opinion, brings to mind a deeper question. Should we be happy while studying? Or should we accept that happiness in studying is simply a luxury we cannot all have?
If so - if at least a fleeting bit of happiness once in a while is a necessary pre-requisite for one's studying being "healthy" and "good," etc, - does my inability to find happiness in my studying, despite being someone who likes intellectual challenges, despite wanting very badly to go to law school, indicate that maybe I am not meant to be doing what I am doing?
Does anyone ever have these thoughts?
- Are you worried that you aren't enjoying LSAT enough?21 votes
- Yes - I usually enjoy any kind of intellectual challenge. I'm a bit worried.19.05%
- No - no one ever said that studying the LSAT would be easy. Suffer today, champion tomorrow.80.95%
Comments
I thing an analogy that might explain how I feel about the relationship between my happiness and LSAT is how I feel about my workout. I look forward to finishing it and feeling the happiness from accomplishing something and having a body that feels fit and happy. To make it interesting, I like to switch locations around. It makes the run more interesting and something more enjoyable than it otherwise would have. But the actual happiness comes from the feeling of accomplishment. During the workout, a bit of it is pain. But as time goes on, it doesn't bother me as much. But it's still a struggle.
I think people who are actually good students and are smart but do not start with high diagnostic scores may have the hardest time with LSAT. In schools we have so long gotten away with not always performing our best and still getting A's that its pretty much a blow to our ego and hard emotional thing to deal with when we dont' do well on LSAT. This just means, we have finally met our match and we gotta step up our game. Not each high scorer is created equal, in a sense that some do have an easier time with it and start out with a higher diagnostic score, but I am sure a lot of them were just like you and kept going and got their goal score.
I don't think this indicates you are not meant for law school. It however can mean if you study LSAT for a long time, your performance may be affected by it. Negative emotions can make us not perform our best and at worst can make us fearful of making mistakes on the test which can actually lead to low scores.
If we are unhappy, it just means we have to actively try balancing that unhappiness with happiness and learning how to see things anew. For example, the hardest thing for me to learn was happiness shouldn't be dependent on my LSAT score but the progress I make. I took it even further and now I get happy when I miss questions or at at least I get excited about it because it means I have been afforded an opportunity to learn about my weakness and a chance to not repeat it on actual test day.
I find the lack of the middle ground in your poll disturbing. What happened to inner peace?!
Same. I couldn't answer the poll because none of them reflected what I feel.
I think it comes down to perspective and knowing yourself well enough to make sure you are happy. Mindset and attitude is important in pretty much anything you do. I remember hearing that stress can have a positive or negative impact based on your feelings toward stress.
For me, I am studying full-time. I have the luxury to do this, and I definitely take advantage of it 100%. I can balance study and social life pretty easily. I know that studying the LSAT is much harder if you have a lot of obligations such as school/work; however, with the right mindset, you can be challenged and happy at the same time.
I remember I was discussing the mindset of champions with a mentor not to long ago. He mentioned Jordan. Jordan would basically think to himself that he is a god on the court and that nobody could stop him. Did he actually think that? I have no idea, but I think there is something to learn from that statement. Your mindset determines your training, your health, how you take your challenges and your outcomes.
So, to answer your question, you most definitely can be happy while you study. You might have to make some arrangements to ensure your happiness. I actually believe it’s imperative that you approach the lsat with a positive attitude. Imagine trying to read a passage, while having a voice in the back of your head saying that you hate the lsat. Anyways, best of luck! Stay happy. Stay breezy.
Happiness is massively conducive to success on the LSAT. I doubt anyone here would contest that. As such, I think that sometimes you should be happy when you study or when you have finished studying or are about to study. That isn't to say that everyone who is happy while they prep for the LSAT is happy because of the actual test. They are happy probably because they are generally happy. They are happy when they prep for the LSAT because they like to see progress. They take pride in the little things, like scoring a perfect game for the first time, or not writing any rules incorrectly for x number of games, or correctly eliminating x number of answer choices on a section. Some are happy just to read words correctly. The beginning is usually rough because the learning curve is so steep without proper guidance. It was for me, and it is considerably worse for many others. For others it is incredibly emotionally difficult even to admit that they ever scored below a 160. These folks, I tend to think, are not very happy when they study but they are driven by something else like rage or insecurity or whatever you want to call it.
tl;dr: Happiness helps, but I think a healthy lifestyle is the only real way to sustain happiness, and so you need to find happiness external to the LSAT to find happiness on the LSAT.
This is a really interesting perspective. I have never ever once, even back to kindergarten, considered my mood when studying or, because I never really studied(bad student), doing any academic work. Based on your post I'm assuming you have been a diligent student thus far and I think the reason I'm so interested in what you're saying is because I was the complete opposite.
Happiness seems irrelevant to me. Beyond just an academic scope, I think there is an unfounded social belief that people should be happy while existing. I mean what made everybo[UNNECESSARY TANGENT OVERRIDE]
lol whoops
Having such a different temperament than you, I think, I'm having trouble coming up with something helpful and productive to say.
I think definitely not.
Definitely yes. Although mine are of a different content, they come from the same feeling of insecurity.
this post was accident, please disregard.
I think you can be happy while you study. I remember learning about intrinsic and external motivation way back in first year psychology class - so,don't quote me on this. When it comes to the LSAT, I think intrinsic motivation and subsequent happiness just comes from knowing the progress you've made. Seeing questions you struggled with in the past and being able to breeze past them because of your reasoning and not because you remember the answers is a great thrill. I think the external happiness is when our progress is marked by the numbers - PT improve, timed section improve, BR score improvement, etc. Which is great but I think a lot of that use that to measure our progress and then use that as a basis for happiness; which when you're struggling just leads to a cycle of sadness and self-hatred. I've never really hated studying just the pressure that comes with it. I had to teach myself a lot in undergrad because some profs never did, so it's really fulfilling to figure out something you were stuck on. There's a lot of subject matter on RC and LR that I wasn't familiar with before so it's nice to learn those new tidbits - like what geographically quiet zones are for nuclear plants.
I think there's definitely a middle ground of some sort. In the last year or two, I've been doing some self-reflection and learning more about what I need in general, and particularly to be happy. And the answer to that a lot of times revolves around the relationships/friendships in my life. LSAT studying was really, really hard on me for quite a while. But I realized that I think it came from the fact that I spend all day at a job I'm burned out from, then come home and spend hours studying by myself, go to bed, repeat. It's a crappy life.
In order to maintain my happiness and sanity, I have to make sure that I don't spend all of my free time studying, but carve out time to connect with people that I love. That means at least 1 weeknight per week, I don't touch the books and I'm doing something fun with friends. On the weekends, I take a PT or BR it, but the rest of the day I am focused on recharging and, again, connecting with people. If I'm feeling fulfilled in that area of my life, my happiness is increased even while doing things that I don't enjoy. Like putting gas in the car tank, you know? It carries me through.
And like many others, I don't enjoy the actual studying, but I do enjoy the results. It took quite a while to feel like I was making good, solid progress. But once I did, it became really satisfying to see improvements. So I do think I can have happiness while studying, but it comes from being happy outside of studying, and focusing on improvements that are being made.
Yeah I agree happiness is overrated and I think in certain nations it’s something really overly promoted and it’s detrimental to people’s emotional wellbeing. Like the American dream. You have to be deliriously happy all the time otherwise there’s something wrong and you need to be put on Xanax. Everyone’s in pursuit of this conceptual end goal instead of just enjoying their day to day and taking life as it comes with all its ups and downs.
You can just be content that you’re working hard and appreciate the small gains and look forward to your future and be proud of the investment you’re making.
I get super nervous breakdown-y every so often over LSAT studying (like holy shit I’m never gonna go to law school bc I can’t figure out this one LG) but I would probably get like that with anything important that I’ve been working on hours a day for months without necessarily having a set-in-stone end goal in sight.
Just keep your goals in mind and find joy and contentment in the little things and make sure to maintain hobbies and take care of your emotional/physical well-being.