Getting Involved: How to Say “NO” so That You Don’t Over Commit

INSPIRE Presentation:Victoria Evans

What is Your Goal?

• What are you trying to achieve in your 4 years at Georgia Southern?

• What are your plans after graduation?

• What will HELP you REACH your goals?

What is imperative to your success?

• It can be very tempting to join every club your freshman and sophomore year of college…

• But what will actually help you?

Can I have the best of both worlds? Join something fun and

necessary?

• Yes!• You want to make sure that your involvement

in college isn’t limited to things that “you should do” but at the same time you want to find a balance between fun and helpful.

How do I know if joining an organization is beneficial to my career?

• Contact your advisor or talk to a professor in your college. Use your resources!!!

• Talk to upperclassmen who are the same major as you, and learn from their experience.

• Go to the Student Activity Center (SAC) and see what clubs and organizations GSU has to offer!

Congratulations! You’re involved!!!

• But how do you say “no” so that you don’t over commit?

• Being a campus leader comes with a lot of expectations, but it does not mean that you have to join everything possible!

Make a list of your commitments!

• Activity:– Look at handout of organizations on campus– On your piece of paper write a goal that you have

post-graduation (i.e. Graduate School). Then under that list off 7 activities that you decided to be involved in on campus. • Ex: 1. Phi Mu 2. Phi Alpha Delta 3. Phi Eta Sigma 4.

Southern Ambassadors 5. Friends etc…

Activity continued…

• Look at your list does it seem cluttered? Are some of your activities competing?

• Now you must decide to cut out 2 of your activities. If you are too heavily involved this may be easy to cut some of the “slack” activities that you are involved in.

Pro/Con List!• What MUST you have in order to succeed? Put

those activities in slots 1 and 2.• What activities do you for ENJOYMENT. Put one of

those activities in slot 3. – With the remaining activities that you may be

struggling with, think about the PRO to keeping them, and the CON to losing them!

Keep in Mind…

• The more things that you commit to the less time and energy you can put into your other activities!

• You can successfully build your resume with one or two activities and build your way through the organization.

Also…

• Just because you join an organization does not mean that you have to stick with it for 4 years.

• You can join clubs after your freshman year, don’t feel obligated to join everything your first year in college!