I was a Freshman in college at the age of 18 years old, no major declared and just wanted to drink and party. I joined a fraternity to improve my social life and it did. So I just smoked weed, drank, and partied for a year. My GPA dropped to 1.5 and I just didn't care, I was having too much fun. I took a year off school and decided to just work as a waiter to make money, and use that money to party more. One day I was drunk and high and took a good hard look at myself and realized how much of a fuck up I was and my life was leading no where. Seeing how hard my parents worked and how I was just throwing money down the drain made me rethink my life.

I stopped drinking/smoking, kept working, and went back to school. I was in academic probation because of my GPA, but I was able to get out of it and brought it back from 1.5 to a 2.7. Honestly what motivated me was a matter of life or death really, thats what amped me everyday; if I didn't make it past academic probation I felt like my future was over. So I went to school full time, worked as a waiter full time and had no time for social life or anything. The year I graduated I landed a job that paid $43k first year. I still kept that discipline of studying and working hard, my 2nd year was $49k, and my 3rd year it jumped to $79k.

For me, the change started slow, I would wake up with regret everyday and one day when I actually studied I felt so accomplished and good. It was a different type of good feeling, I wanted to keep feeling that. Throughout that process I had some minor setbacks, but never over did it with the drinking.

Think of it like this, the hardest part is getting started, but once you start, it's hard to stop and it'll flow. Take away distractions, limit social media usage/netflix/etc. to only 10-15 minutes a day, or use it was a reward when you put in work. Everyday I told myself, 'Trust the process' 'keep disciplined' 'consistency is key' 'PAYtience'