My entire life people have always told me "Oh, you need to relax before school starts." I'm coming to this realization that every single person that has EVER told me this is not happy with where they are in life. These are people working the typical 9-5, coming home depressed as hell because they went for the money and fell short of their goals, and are entitled to have some rest all the time.
See, this notion we have to relax and party in the summer is part of this poisoning entitlement we have as Americans. "Yeah man, we worked all through the winter and into late spring, let's take two weeks and blow all the money we saved." Or, better yet, let's bank off of mom and dad's money because we are so privileged to do so!
This mentality we have to slack off and enjoy some "vacation time" just like everyone else is a part of this failing scheme of entitlement. We think that, because everyone else is doing it, we should do it too. To make it worse, we try to one-up everyone by showing off how much we can relax and not work. "Oh, she went to the beach for three days? I'm going to the Bahamas for a week!" You get my point.
While 99% of people out there have this August mentality to soak up as much sun and alcohol as possible, the other 1% are doing something incredibly different.
It's something that goes off the business adage "while you're sleeping, someone out there is working." Take that, and blow it up to the scale of an entire month. For an entire month during the year, people out there forget that work, hustle, grinding, ambition... it's 24/7.
Success doesn't wait on you while you take a break. Most college students are getting drunk by a pool and messing around for the first few weeks in August because school starts soon. If you've learned anything of value in college besides your bullshit coursework that doesn't mean anything, then it should be this — the best time to hustle your ass off is while other people are not.
When you see that the trend in our culture is to sit around with your thumb in your ass and "enjoy what's left of summer," you have to craft the hustler's mindset. July, August — hell, even September — these are the months where you should be putting in those full 16 hours a day. From a pure business standpoint, you're blowing your competition out of the water.
It's not a crime to enjoy the summer months. You simply need to have your priorities in order. When you know that you've taken care of your business to the fullest extent and you have done all you can do, take your time and enjoy the leisure of the summer months. But, if you are truly doing all you can to further your future, you'll quickly find out that there is always more to do and you don't have as much free time as you thought.
August is the month to grind, not to relax by the pool. Then, when all of your friends are stressing out in the dead of winter, you can sip hot coffee with a smirk on your face.
