The “Cure-all” Program to Success

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”

Simone Sinek

Introduction

Expectation: Feeling overwhelmed? Hitting that mid semester lull? Can’t figure out how to manage your time more efficiently? Well follow THIS quick and easy three step program that will ENSURE you get straight A’s and are successful for the rest of your college career!

Reality: Don’t we wish it were REALLY that easy? But do any of those questions sound like you? Because I’ve been there… MANY times. I was always looking for the “quick fix” that would instantly get me straight A’s with the most minimal amount of effort possible. I would get frustrated when receiving one bad grade and think the rest of the semester was a goner… If you can relate in the slightest, all is not lost! Now, it’s not going be that “quick-fix” you were probably hoping for, but doable all the same!

So maybe the three step program is a little too good to be true. BUT, I have found three easy tips and tricks that have helped me along the journey of reaching my goals. As everyone is a totally unique individual, the tips that help me may not have the same effect for everybody else. However, this is a good starting point for anyone to experiment with and find what works for them!

The Secret to Goal Setting

One of the best places to start in your journey of transformation is setting a goal. I’ve found that making a short, attainable one to start with is a great idea as it can always be improved upon later. My suggestion is to write it down on a piece of paper or a stick-it note, then place it somewhere that you will see everyday. I’ve found by doing that, I am constantly reminded of my target and am much more motivated if I see a visual of it daily. My ultimate goal for not only now, but the long-term is to form lasting healthy habits. I always thought I was perfectly fine with that I was doing currently but couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t as successful as I always saw myself wanting to be. To form new healthy habits, I chose the areas of:

1. Implementing Positive Self-Talk

2. Monitoring sleeping patterns

3. Tracking my assignments in a write-in calendar

The Book that had ALL the Answers

Expectation: If you just buy this book for a low, low price of $19.99, you’ll never need to pick up another book again! It’ll answer EVERY one of your current problems and ENSURE you’ll never feel overwhelmed again! Your satisfaction is GUARANTEED or your money back!

Reality: Books are great, no doubt about that. They have the power to transport the reader to a different realm, help expand one’s vocabulary, and provide insights that can leave a mark on a person’s heart and mind. But there’s never really been one in particular that could solve EVERY single one of your problems at once. However, I decided to pick up “Teach Yourself How to Learn: Strategies You Can Use to Ace Any Course at Any Level”. I mean come on, that sounds SUPER promising doesn’t it? Ace ANY course at ANY level?! Too good to be true, right? I was so excited to FINALLY have the key to success that I had been waiting for my whole college career anddd… What? It wants me to implement positive self-talk? Well I thought I was already a pretty positive person to begin with so nahhh. Get plenty of sleep a night?? Yeah, five to six hours seems to be good to me… Ok this one seems to be a joke; it wants me to track ALL of my classes, midterms, exams, quizzes, homework assignment, paper due dates, appointments, practice schedule, AND “me” time? Nope… who has time for THAT?

It turns out, I did… I really did have time for all of that. Truth be told, once I decided to just “try-out” all the things that crazy book was suggesting, I had even more time than before!

How I’m progressing towards my goal, and how others can too!

Expectation: Don’t believe me? See the hundreds of people that have tried this program and the success they’ve had in as little as THREE DAYS!

Reality: Ok.. so maybe three days is pushing it a little. But in all reality, to form healthy new habits, it takes long-term commitment and dedication as well as consistent repetition. It’s VERY easy to lose motivation when it comes to keeping up with forming those new habits. A little trick that I’ve found helps (and which is thankfully required for this course which also added a lot of motivation 😉) is by implementing tracking techniques. [As viewed below]

1. The positive self-talk tracker:

                        2. Averaging eight hours of sleep per night

3. Keeping a weekly/monthly calendar of all scheduled activities, block out “free time”, start homework assignments as soon as they are given.

How/Why Those Strategies were Useful

Starting and maintaining habits long-term can be tricky, and many people run into the issue of losing motivation partway through. I HIGHLY suggest using tracking techniques that you can see a compilation of your work all in one place for weeks and/or months at a glance. That way, it is very satisfying to see all of the progress you’ve made and will help you stay motivated to continue on.

At first when I’d started writing down two things I was thankful for everyday I thought to myself, well this is kinda silly… I don’t see anything productive coming out of doing this… I have more “important” things to be using my brain for right now… However, after about two weeks of committing to it, I was astounded at what a difference it was making in my mindset. Things that used to be really stressful became much more manageable after becoming aware of how I approached the situation. I was starting to be much more mindful of my attitude towards negative experiences (such as receiving a bad grade on a test or just life in general). I even started looking forward to tracking those little “snippets” of my day and realized that I would be actively searching for opportunities in my daily life so that I would have something to account for!

Secondly, everyone is guilty of prioritizing daily activities over sleep at some point in their life! However, I used to be REALLY guilty of “putting off” my nightly slumber for “more productive” tasks (ESPECIALLY my first semester of freshmen year)… That’s why this tracking technique was one of the most dramatic and beneficial habits I could have ever fixed! My book had suggested pushing yourself to sleep a minimum of eight hours per night to ensure maximal physical and cognitive functioning for daily life. This one was difficult for me to prioritize at first, but I am extremely glad I stuck to it as I have noticed a HUGE difference in many aspects of my life. After around two weeks of really prioritizing and solidifying my sleep schedule, I found that it was much easier to wake up everyday, I thought SO much clearer during the day and for homework assignments/lectures, and my motivation went up dramatically for my day-to-day tasks!

Lastly, I don’t know if you’re like me, but I REALLY struggle with keeping all of my assignments, exam dates, appointments, class schedules, and practice times all straightened out! So the third tracking technique I used was a real game-changer. All throughout freshman year, I was nearly paranoid every single day trying to check every section of each of my classes, making sure I didn’t miss any assignments (but all too often, one would slip through the cracks…). That’s why purchasing a write-in planner and writing in ALL of my scheduled activities, blocking out free time, and starting homework assignment as soon as they are assigned (or a week before it’s due) has SAVED ME! This has kept me sooo much more accountable and up-to-date when completing not only my school assignments, but also my daily chores as well!

If you are seriously considering implementing tracking techniques into your everyday life but think that it might be more time consuming than you can afford, then perhaps start with committing to just one tracking plan. Then, add accordingly as appropriate or as you deem necessary! Prior to taking this course, I had already been using the sleep cycle and the write-in planner tracking techniques, so adding just one more was a manageable and gradual task. As mentioned previously, everybody is different and knows themselves better than anyone else, so take advantage of that little insight and experiment with what makes you happiest and most successful!

Conclusion

As you can see, there really are multiple “fixes” for each of those problems. But there are a few other key components to that equation that the book doesn’t tell you straight up. The parts that ultimately leads to being successful, or to making the improvements that you’ve always hoped and dreamed of are…. dun dun dunnnn:

Hard-Work, Commitment, Dedication, and Motivation

Now that you know the secret ingredients to success, take them and RUN! Not literally of course, but it only takes a little sprinkle of each of those to create something great (like new healthy habits)! Just remember:

“It only takes one action to start a ripple effect.”

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