Do you feel energized and motivated every day to get stuff done? When you get a school assignment do you jump right on it and get it done right away?

So many students —and adults— put off doing important work. It’s not because we don’t want to get things done. There are many reasons why we do it but one of the common reasons is that we don’t have the energy we need to get things done. Our health plays a key part in this. Our health directly affects our physical and mental ability to get things done. In this article, we share some reasons why good health and wellness are key to achieving success in school.

Have the energy for the things you need to do

Having the energy to accomplish what you need is SO important. If you feel tired or rundown, getting homework done will feel like you’re climbing up a hill, and getting focused enough to do homework will be extra hard. Occasional tiredness happens but regular tiredness is not, should not, be normal.

When our state of health leaves us with little energy, we need to prioritize our health and wellness by:

#1 eating nutritious food

#2 getting enough sleep

#3 drinking water with electrolytes

You don’t need to do all of these but doing any of them can help your energy levels increase. The extra boost in energy allows us to complete tasks with more enthusiasm and productively.

Gain better focus and concentration

In addition to energy, we also need to be able to focus and concentrate to get homework done. These come from having good brain health. Some of the same things we do to increase our energy, like exercise, getting enough sleep, and eating healthy also apply to our brain health. However, focusing on eating “brain foods” like salmon or any fish, vegetables, seeds and nuts, and whole grains are vitally important to feeding our brain with the nutrients it needs to function well.

Good mental health also plays a role in our ability to concentrate. When we take care of our mental health by practicing mindfulness and emotion-regulating activities, we will improve our productivity and have better decision-making. More on that in a future article!

Increase your resilience to overcome setbacks

When we prioritize our emotional well-being, we increase our capacity to build skills in ourselves that are more likely to lead to success. To put it another way, when we are healthy, we are better able to handle the hard things that come our way.

Things we can do for our emotional well-being include doing activities that bring us joy, taking time to connect with loved ones, spending time in prayer or meditation, or taking a walk in nature. Taking care of our emotional well-being makes us better equipped to handle the challenges and setbacks that inevitably come our way when striving toward success.

In short, taking care of our physical, mental, and emotional health through wellness practices is critical to achieving success in school, work, and life in general. Good health enhances our energy levels, focus, and gives us the capacity to build resiliency. We must actively work on our health to make it happen. Taking small steps toward improving our overall wellness is the best way to get started and start achieving success.

Want to read more articles like this? See mental health articles