Counsel to Myself by Brady

Counsel to Myself by Brady - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

One piece of advice to give my past self, you say, only one! I do not doubt that I could provide my past self with page upon page of advice, whether it be critiquing small habits or tendencies he had, or offering deep insights into the core of his personality. That being said, I can provide him with only one piece of advice: stop procrastinating.

For most of my teen years, I was a chronic procrastinator. From school work to showing up on time to events, and even going to bed, I would procrastinate. “Pushing things off until a later date” could have been my superhero name for crying out loud. And to fuel the fire, I overwhelmingly got things turned in on time and had good grades, so to my naive mind, there was not too much of a problem. This chronic procrastination manifested itself in almost everything I did, and it did have its consequences, which showed themselves plainly.

My stress and anxiety levels were regularly heightened due to putting things off until the last possible minute, and living in this intensified state became normal to me. Procrastination affected my work ethic and slowly but surely formed me into a lazy person. And possibly even worse of all, it had a major impact on my health, I mean, I was regularly going to bed at 3 or 4 AM! The years added up, and the consequences kept stacking up. Peace of mind, gone. Productive periods of work, what’s that? A healthy lifestyle, now that is a funny statement!

Eventually, as I matured, the harmful procrastinating practice was weeded out of my life. Some changes that I have noticed as a result of this is that I can get more daily tasks done, no matter how big or small, I no longer have anxiety that piles up and is not confronted until the last possible minute, and I overall feel more confident and accomplished when it comes to life in general. A result that happened as a result of tackling tasks as they came and taking the initiative to get things done is that I began to take more responsibility for the things in my life; now when I say this I don't mean that I never had responsibility to begin with, just that I now viewed it as my responsibility to get things accomplished.

With this perspective on procrastinating and having lived a generally anti-procrastination life for 2 years now, I believe that, given the opportunity, I could present an extremely compelling case to younger me. I could present loads of evidence and hard facts to him, but the overarching question he would ask of “why stop procrastinating” would be present until tackled, and only once that is answered will I truly make progress.

“Why would I stop procrastinating?” says younger Brady. Great question, bear with me, and I will get to your answer in a roundabout way. Think of a potter and a fresh chunk of clay. The potter can mold this new clay very easily, changing its shape however many times their heart desires. Eventually, as all clay does, the more time that passes, the more the clay will begin to harden up. Yes, you may add water to the clay to cause it to become more malleable, but eventually you will get to a point where it is more and more difficult to shape, and your “water adding” efforts will not work as well. Where am I going with this? Well, you, Brady, are the potter, and your lifestyle is the clay.

Brady, In your younger years it is important that you tend to your lifestyle well and make it a top priority of yours to shape it into something that is fruitful, meaningful, and will stand strong. Your daily habits are a crucial part of how you will mold your lifestyle into something amazing! And eventually, as you grow older, you will begin to feel more of a struggle in changing your lifestyle, yes, it is still possible, but habits ingrained in you in your youth will prove hard to uproot all of a sudden uproot once you make your mind up that you no longer want them. On top of the broad point that habits formed in your youth are crucial for the rest of your life, there are the more present-time points as well.

Getting things done right away or at a convenient time without procrastinating will allow you to get more things accomplished and allow you to feel confident about the things you are doing daily. Cultivating habits of productivity and even anticipation towards things you are doing will only reap positive benefits in your life. For a final point, you will feel less stressed as a result of not procrastinating because you will not be fighting deadlines or the anxiety that sets in while doing things last minute and as a result most likely rushed.

To wrap up my point, Brady, I truly believe that only positive things will result from you cutting out your habit of procrastinating. By taking responsibility into your own hands as it pertains to your daily tasks, I believe you can achieve a greater quality of life. So take my advice for the betterment of your whole life and begin now by tending to the riding of this detrimental habit of yours.