Is it worth it?

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I've had conversations with two different students this week about GPA's.  Both students are exceptional students with a high A in my class, and both are extremely worried about keeping their GPA up.  I can totally appreciate that.  I felt the exact same way about wanting to graduate my doctoral program with a perfect 4.0 since I took several hits from life in my earlier college degree programs. I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else that I was the same honor's student I had been back in high school and that I'm a great academic. Well, the 4.0 didn't quite happen.  I ended up with three A-'s that killed that.  But, you know what?  Nobody cares.  The final diploma is the only thing that actually matters.  So, I let both of these students in on that secret - no one sees your exact grade in a class except for you and your professor (and maybe your advisor).  Everyone else just sees the final grade.  So, it doesn't matter if it's a 90-A or a 100-A.  They show up on your transcript the exact same way.  That's all transfer schools and anyone else sees.  And, your GPA is only to get you into your next college and graduated.  It actually transfers in as a "T" given you a fresh start on your GPA yet again.  And, after graduate no one really cares what your GPA was - just that you have a degree.

So, that begs the question - is it really worth it?  Is the pursuit for perfection and excellence really worth the added stress, time, and effort that it takes to achieve it?  In retrospect, yeah I would have loved to had a perfect 4.0 in my doctoral program.  But, after I got the first grade that ruined that chance, a lot of pressure came off.  That didn't mean I slacked or didn't try as hard in my future classes.  It just meant that I had to come to terms with not being "perfect".  It meant that I'm human.  We are all human.  And, that's a pretty cool thing to be.  

For my perfectionists out there, I urge you to take a breath and to allow yourselves to be human.  And, in general, I encourage all of us to take a look at where we're spending our energy this week and to ask ourselves the following questions:

  1. What are the most important things to me?  What do I truly want to get out of life and to experience?
  2. Am I spending energy and time on things that are important to me?  Is my effort in alignment with what I value and the type of life I want to have?
  3. What makes me happy, gives me joy, or is fun?  Am I spending time each week on these?
  4. How can I make changes to where I focus my time and energy to better align my efforts with my values?

And, as always, don't forget to breathe. ;) 

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