by Paul Nabhan

Avoid These Five Habits of Mine to Stay Healthy

As I sit here by my computer sniffling and trying not to cough, despite a modest accrual of phlegm, I think to myself that this is my own fault. After successfully avoiding my October Cold for the past two years, I find I regressed back to my freshman habits this semester and can probably pinpoint exactly what accumulated to this minor obstacle.

You probably don’t need me to tell you why it’s important to stay healthy, even if it’s just a cold; nevertheless, lest you find yourself doing what I’m about to describe, you can correct it before all of your assignments are due.

Thus, as somber as I will probably ever sound in this column, I present five of my habits you should avoid in order to stay healthy so as to not fall behind in class. For those of you who know me, enjoy the reticence while it lasts, since I don’t stay sick for long.

First though, here are some thoughts since the last column:

Mark Twain publishes his autobiography

Yup, he just finished it.

No, of course not.

He wrote it a century ago, and his wishes were that it not be published until 100 years after his death. The weird thing? Twain told his story out loud, and someone took dictation. Moreover, the piece is not a chronological story from beginning to end but more like a journal, skipping around to what he thought at the time. Robert Hirst, the curator of Twain’s papers at UC Berkeley, actually described the piece to “a kind of blog.”

This might be interesting to read at some point when there is no class, but probably more so because of Twain’s stand-up comedy approach to very serious matters.

Congratulations to Longhorns for Defeating Nebraska

Job well done, and I’m looking forward to supporting the team this Saturday against Iowa State at home!

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Habit to Avoid: No Sleep

Along the way, I developed this reputation for being someone who pounded the books at all hours of the night. While yes, when work needs to get done, I will push myself and sacrifice the hour of sleep here and there, in reality this could ultimately be a dangerous trait to develop into a habit.

One, extreme fatigue just makes your body weaker. Two, if you’re tired, your mind is not going to be absorbing the information you hope it does. And finally, like with food, you “binge sleep.” (Yes, I made that term up, but here’s what I mean.) Think about how when you don’t eat all day, you then gorge a huge dinner; you run the risk of doing this on a Friday or Saturday if you don’t have a regular sleep cycle. This abrupt change in your biorhythmical system can make concentration for the rest of the week difficult as your body is trying to figure out why it’s still tired.

Habit to Avoid: Malnourishment

Speaking of binge eating, proper nourishment is essential to good learning. As any finance professor would say, “garbage in-garbage out.” As I would say, your body is a car, so might as well give it Chevron with Techron…

Lame, I know. But it works. Hopefully, it helps stress the point that one should eat three meals per day that actually add some sort of value to the body.

Can’t I just take a vitamin?

I’m going to say no. My stance, because I like to eat, is that you might as well try to eat foods that give you the same nourishment as a vitamin! Food is delicious for a reason, so enjoy a diverse selection of foods and construct your vitamin intake that way. Baba ganoush is around for more reasons than just for pronouncing cool-sounding words, you know!

Habit to Avoid: Studying Too Much

Now, before the MPA Program Office pounces on me for this, let me explain. I’m not saying not to study. What I’m saying is that if you don’t interact with people, you’ll be lonely and possibly depressed. When you’re emotionally distracted, learning will pretty much be impossible. Eat with people. Talk with people. Call your mom and dad. I have found that my overall happiness level contributes to my grades and learning; plus, it helps keep school in perspective, so you realize that the 97 you received on your exam is not the catalyst for the pending Apocalypse.

Furthermore, studying too much may cause your mind to become tired. There’s a fine line between mental toughness and mental exhaustion. How can you function on test day if your mind is exhausted? Plan study time ahead and leave some time for your mind to absorb the information and be relaxed on test day. This is why I’m an advocate against all-nighters the night before the exam. You might as well put that time in three days before, leave a day to let it absorb, then just refresh for a couple of hours a night. You will learn the content more intuitively that way.

Habit to Avoid: Becoming Too Involved

I got out of this rut in high school, but I feel it’s worth mentioning. There’s something to being a “jack of all trades,” but the whole being a “master of none” thing is a problem. Do what you can handle and do that the best you can. There’s no sense in trying to compete with the guy that can do “everything” because you’re your own person. Concentrate on what you’re good at or what you’re trying to learn, and master it! Otherwise, you’ll spread yourself thin, without enough time to devote to any one thing, and find yourself trying to climb out of the middle-of-the-pack.

It’s unknown whether Andrew Carnegie or Mark Twain first said, “Put all your eggs in one basket–and watch that basket!” Either way, both seem credible enough to consider the idea.

I thought finance teaches us to diversify…?

Yes, it does, and I’m not saying you should limit yourself to only a couple things. As a violinist, pianist, accountant, financeer, football fan, etc., person, I should be one to talk, right?

What I am saying is be focused and try not to worry about doing everything. If I’m losing sleep and can’t figure out why, I should know my priorities and be able to focus my attention to what needs it.

Habit to Avoid: Worrying Too Much

I’m pretty sure I’ve embedded this in the other habits, but this really deserves its own plug. Worrying can cause undue stress, which can adversely impact your health. I worry about everything. A friend of mine even told me once that he’s less stressed when I’m around because he knows I do enough stressing for the two of us. Yikes!

Now, there is an optimal level of stress for everyone. If we had zero stress, nothing would probably get done. Personally, I’m unlucky enough to have done better during my 19-hour semesters than my 15-hour semesters. This doesn’t mean that you should pack on the stress and take on the world. Find your optimum stress level, and let stress help you in lieu of hurting you.

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You broke your promise of brevity…
Meh! I’m sick. Give me a mulligan.

I’m mad because this column was boring and told me nothing new!
Well, leave a comment, and I’ll write about whatever you want. I can be interactive. I promise.

Final thoughts:
So yeah, this was a bit of a lecture, and I know I didn’t really tell anyone anything new (except maybe the Mark Twain tidbit…) (…and I’m still against a FAS of the Week segment), but as a busy MPA myself, even two days of feeling too sick to really do anything productive can prove to be a significant obstacle. And once you fall behind, you may find yourself committing these very habits in trying to catch up! Circular disaster!

Hope this helps somebody. *cough*