The main purpose of every student
is to be somebody better in future. Such can only be possible from your
academic performance. These write up aims at highlighting some basic keys of
academic excellence for students at mostly secondary schools and tertiary
institutions.
KEY 1: GOAL AND GOAL SETTING
One of the foremost steps to
academic excellence is goal setting. A goalis anything a person wants to
achieve at a specified time or period. In academics, goals are necessary to
guide and direct a person. Without agoal you become rudderless and chartless in
your daily affairs. Enteringa day without a goal to channel the course of your
life or future, you may not be different from your today in future.It is
necessary that in setting a goal, the goal must be specific and attainable.
Specificity means that the goal must be direct, precise and easily understood
while attainable means it is possible and achievable. For example: a student
can have a short term goal of becoming the best student in his class for the
current academic session and to achieve it he decided to set a goal/target of
all "A" in his exam. From above, the student has a specific goal of
wanting to be the best in the class and this result is attainable if the
student is academically sound and serious, that is a swot. But will be
unattainable if the student spends more time in extracurricular activities and
less with his studies. Also, as a student you can set out long term goals that
can be of a year or more. Such long term goal keeps your interest and mind
focus so that in the course of achieving the short term goals the actualization
of the longer becomes possible. However, it should be best understood that long
term goals of more than a year may become volatile due to uncontrollable global
or local factors, which can disrupt any facet of life.Therefore, in setting
goals, you must limit long term targets within a year and set new and greater
goals when you have reached your expected end but of course let your future be
certain, irrespective of the surrounding conditions that seem to be
setbacks.There is need to have goal either of long or short term but it's more important
to plan or strategize measures in order to achieve your setgoal or
target.Therefore, when you have a set goal, long or short termed, planning is inevitable,
which is the strategizing and creating measures that will help in the achieving
of such goal.
"The most important thing about having goal is
having one"-Geoffrey F. Abert
"All successful people have a goal. No one can
get anywhere unlesshe knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or
do." -Norman Vincent Peale
"A goal is a dream with a deadline." -
Napoleon Hill
"Never again will I greet the dawn without a
map." -Anonymous
"Planning is as natural to the process of success
as its absence is tothe process of failure." -Robin Sieger
" He who fails to plan, plans to fail." –Anonymous
KEY 2: SEEK COUNSEL OR HELP
History is said to keep repeating
itself because events of old have found their way back into the present day but
people have not learnt anything from them. It is necessary to learn from
experience preferably from others rather than you experiencing it yourself. In
order to do this we have to seek counsel by asking the right question and seek
the opinions of adults and experts in the field of questioning or those who are
intelligible because when you labour foolishly, you will produce foolish result
but with the right counsel, the right result is produced: for in the midst of
multitude of counsel there is safety. Therefore, if mathematics is the problem
of a student, the subject tutor is consulted but if a student has problem with
studying and subject tutor is provided, the problem will remain unresolved
rather than the interpretation of the student's problem may cause more damage
than good. Hence, it is necessary to know the academic problem and then seek
appropriate counsel. In school, every teacher has his standard of questions and
how he wants the questions to be answered: unless you ask the right people e.g.
your seniors in school or the teacher himself, you will never be able to give
the teacher what he wants. It
is said that "He who don't know and knows that he don't know and does not want
to know is a FOOL. But he who don't know, knows that he don't know and wants to
know is a WISE MAN".
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives
you the test first, the lesson afterwards."-Vernom Sanders
"It's much easier to point out the problem than
it is to say just how it should be solved." -J. K. Galbraith
"The golden rule is, to help those we love to
escape from us; and never try to begin to help people, or influence them till
they ask, but wait for them." -Friedrich Hügel
KEY 3: GOOD SELF ESTEEM
Self esteem is how a person
feels, sees or regards himself/herself. The way you carry yourself is one
determinant factor to academic excellence, while one destructive factor to self
esteem is inferiority complex, which simply implies disbelief in yourself and
the feel other people are better than you. This view about oneself belittles
one and creates fear in any place of competition. Many young people are scared
to compete with the big wings in their classes these days because they feel
they are not good enough or not necessary. I urge you today; you can be the
best in your class if you develop a good self esteem and become charismatic,
square your shoulder and talk tough even in the midst of the known big wings in
your class but do not stop there rather work harder by studying, play less and
compete more. It is just a matter of time and your performance will definitely
shock others, but you must not be satisfied with that rather, continue and outclass everyone because when
you become comfortable or satisfied with your position, you stop making progress.
So, place yourself high and tough then work towards achieving that daily.
"Of times nothing profits more than self-esteem,
grounded on what is just and right." -John Milton
"Too many people overvalue what they are not and
under value what they are." -Malcolm S. Forbes
"No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent."–EleanorRoosevelt
"Every living soul has different talents,
desires, faculties. Be yourself. Try to be anything else but your genuine self;
even if you deceive the entire world, you will be ten thousand times worse than
nothing." Anonymous
"There is more credit and satisfaction in being a
first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive." -B. C. Forbes
KEY 4: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
After setting your goal or goals
whether of the short or long term, planning must be done after which it is
execution. In the cause of executing the laid plan, you are bound to face
obstacles. How you are able to overcome these challenges matter and of course
one thing is very clear if you do not believe it can be done it will never be
done. Zacchaeus once asked a question "How is one to know what one can accomplish
unless one tries?" It is only when you try something that you can then
assess your capability whether you can or you cannot. Every individual must
depend on his/her abilities because when you have a little faith in your
abilities, achieving a goal big or small would be possible. Don’t have small
and insignificant goals just because you want to satisfy your lowly rated
talent (ability) when you can actually achieve greater things with bigger
goals. There is always possibility to all things if you know where the answer
is, which is, you. Unless you are able to see beyond your optical sense and
look inwards to your real self and believe all things are possible, you will
forever remain in search of answers that lie within you and find it hard to
achieve your set goals. Believe in
yourself, be confident that you can make it. You can do all things through
Christ that strengthens you (Philipians 3:11). You are not a failure, you are
not made to fail. Accept that success is your portion. Been confidence drives
boldness, which gives you edge to face any challenges or competition.
MichealKorda puts it that “in order to succeed, we must first believe
that we can” and Mary O’Hare Dumas puts it that “confidence
is the hinge on the door to success”. Make now a consistent effort by choice to believe in yourself and
know all solution you will ever need, have been made known to you. Note that
success is of the mind and the constant thought of it and the belief in one's
self will always produce the desired result - success. Although, this result
does not come by easily but it consists of getting up just one more time than
the times you fall. With the mindset that you know you cannot fail, failure
cannot remain in your dwelling but just have to give way to success. Believing
in yourself and also having confidence in yourself guides you against intimidation
and brings you on any attainable platform at anytime for it makes you sure of
the possible outcome of any toss. Confidence drives boldness, which gives you
edge to face anychallenge or competition. Everything in life involves
competition forsurvival and the right attitude and right frame of mind to
competefavourable in any sphere of life is of utmost important. It is therefore
wise to build on yourselfconfidence and boldness to achieve academic
excellence.
"To succeed you have to believe in something with
such a passion that it becomes a reality."- Anita Roddick
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to
succeed, is more important than any other. " -Abraham Lincoln
"If you have the will to win, you've achieved
half your success. If you don't, you have achieved half failure"-David Ambrose
"There are no limits to growth because there are
no limits of human intelligence, imagination and wonder." - Ronald Reagan
KEY 5: BE HARDWORKING
There is a great difference
between struggling and hard work. The love of what you do in any condition
favourable or unfavourable to producing desired result is hard work, unlike
struggling where someone is trying to do something and do not have result to
show for it but just doing what needs to be done for survival sake. But hard
work means diligence, productiveness, conscientiousness or industriousness.
Until you come to the realization that your own actions are what condemn you to
a place where there is no one smiling - a world of failures, you will continue
to blame others for your plight or circumstances instead of recognizing you are
the cause of your problems. As student you blame the tutor for your failure
based on the fact that he/she did not pass the rightful information, yet on
your own, you never for once bordered to consult textbooks for more
information, neither did you asked questions where you were confused. Stop
casting blame on others and from now become very hard working in your studies
else your future and the beginning will be the same - failure. One thing you
must know is that it's how you do, not what you do that determines the course
of your life. When you perform all that is required of you and more for your
academic, then your reward will come. If you are unwilling to pay this price of
attaining success and distinction in your life, then be ready for a lifetime of
mediocrity and poverty as it regards your academic. As a student, know now that
nothing comes easy but getting it may also be easy only if you do the right
thing, which is working hard at your highest level and potential leaving
nothing untouched with the knowledge that nothing is irrelevant. Hard work and
diligence, is a quiet and steady continuation of a task pays off but idleness
will destroy your future with unattainable goals or your satisfaction with
achieved small insignificant goals, where others are making great impact and
success.
"Action is the foundational key to all
success." -Pablo Picasso
"As is the case in all branches of art, success
depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and
cannot be achieved except by dint of hard work." -Anna Pavlova
"To take action is always dangerous, but to sit
and wait for the good things of life to fall into your lap is the only calling
where failures excel." -Unknown
"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have
tried is the true failure." -George E. Woodberry
"Those who follow the part of themselves that is
great will become great. Those that follow the part that is small will become
small." -Unknown
"The formula for success is simple: practice and
concentration then more practice and more concentration." -Babe Didrikson
Zaharias
KEY 6: BE HUMBLE
To be humble
according to advanced learner’s dictionary means not proud or not believing
that you are important. Humility is a virtue given by
God. It is a strategy that promotes learning from both the high and mighty in
the area of interest. Many students today are so proud that they see themselves
too big to consult their tutor or classmate in times of problem yet would want
to ask questions during examination. When your attitude towards a tutor or
classmate suggests pride, insolence or flippancy, there will always be a
reciprocal reaction from them. It is also wrong to set up an argument with a
tutor during class unless you are convinced beyond any reasonable doubt with
support of literature that the tutor is making mistake. However, in doing this
make your point clear and not in an insolence manner. This of course will make
that tutor to prepare very well before coming to your class next time because
if such mistake reoccurs, it will be obvious he is not good enough to handle
such a class but on your part planning to correct your tutor will make you
never learn or gain anything from every class because of your sole interest in
looking for faults in your tutor rather when it occurs and you observe it do
well to correct it before others suffer from it and also do not say it does not
concern you because you know the right thing others do not, hence it will pay
you in exam. This attitude has not favoured any student because it makes it possible
not to gain any academic knowledge from others. A common adage says "pride goes before a
fall" meaning pride will often lead to a fall. One very significant way to get the
attention of others is humility. It gives you access to many who may consider
you fool. But be discipline and tactful, learning always in the midst of the
brilliant students, talkless, listen more and ask question when opportune or
confused. Even Jesus understood the power of humility and bible puts it that “he humbled himself
unto death” and because of that (humility), He has been highly exalted and given
a name above every other name (Philipians 2:3-9). Humility brings honour
(Proverbs 15:33b). Don’t brag about because you know something instead humbly
help those that no not.
"The only reason pride lifts you up is to let you
down."–Johnmason
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and
accomplishment" -Jim
Rohn
"Egotism is the only disease where the patient
feels well while everyone else around him feels sick." -John Mason
"The value of a man resides in what he gives and
not what he is capable of receiving" -Albert Einstein
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with
humility comes wisdom”-Proverb 11:12
“For everyone who exalts himself will
be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”-Luke 14:11
KEY 7: CONSISTENCE IN STUDIES
Many
a times we would notice that whenever we suspend reading our books for like a
month, and we bring it again to read, it will seem that everything you knew
before have disappeared. You will approximately forget about 40% of what you
knew before. Imagine what will happen if you didn't read/study for two or three
months. The more gap you give to your studies, the more you forget what you
knew before. As a student, there is need to be consistent i.e studying
unceaslessly, or better still studying constantly, every day. Show me a man
that is consistent in his studies and I will show you a man of excellence. Why
some people perform poorly most at times in exams is as a result of
inconsistency in their studies. How can a student pass an examination well if
he/she started a month to the exam to study. It's approximately impossible.
There is every need for students to study daily. An average student should
1.Sleep for 5-6 hours
in the night.
2.study for at least 4
hours daily.
If
you can meet the above criteria, excellence is yours. You can make a
comfortable first class iff you can stick to those criteria. (Even though you
may adjust the time in examination
period as follows
1. sleep for 4-5 hours
in the night
2.study for at least 5
hours daily).
It
is also advised that every student should revise what they did in the class(lecture
notes) before going to bed daily. The things you learnt this way can hardly be
forgotten. So, be consistent in your studies.
“Consistency:
It's the jewel worth
wearing;
It's the anchor worth
weighing;
It's the thread worth
weaving;
It's a battle worth
winning.”
Charles Swindoll
“The secret of
success is consistency of purpose.”
-Benjamin Disraeli
“Getting an audience
is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought,
of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.”
-Bruce Springsteen
“Consistency is what
matters the most in triggering something important to your life”
-Abdul Rauf
“Success is the sum
of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
-Robert Collier
“Daily, consistent,
focused, faithful expectation raises the miracle power of achieving your dreams”
- John Di Lemme
“It's not what we do
once in a while
that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.”
- Anthony Robbins
“Success
is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is
the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals”
Jim Rohn
“We are
what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
-Aristotle.
“Success isn't always
about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work gains success.
Greatness will come” -Dwayne Johnson
“Consistent action
creates consistent results” - Chritine Kane
“It's not about
perfect. It's about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day.
That's where transformation happens. That's how change occurs “- Anonymous
KEY 8: USE YOUR TONGUE RIGHT
The tongue is a fire power
because death and life are in it. Many young and old people today do not make
good use of their tongue rather it is channeled to the wrong things e.g.
raining of curses, abuses and swearing consciously and unconsciously knowing
that their words have power especially by the old folks while some young folks
may just do it cause of anger or defeat. You must understand that in the principle
of life, the words we speak either create or destroy what had been created.
Whatever is spoken will always come to pass. This is a spiritual law to show
you that your mouth does not only have bodily function butalso to direct the
issues of life. When you talk success, you will get success and also makes you
more confident, bold, boost your self esteemand reminds you of your target to
keep you on course and finally strengthens you on your strategies toward
actualizing your pursuit. The more you say you are a success, the more
successful you become; the more you say also with your mouth that I am the
best, the more the best you become. So start now and talk yourself to the top
of your academics. Although, people will talk you down or tell you to shut up, do
not be discouraged just keep talking: one day they will see you where you want
them to see you as your words and actions would have placed you there. Keep
talking.
"Others can stop you temporarily, but you are the
only one who can do it permanently." -John C. Maxwell
"The tongue of the wise uses knowledge: but the
mouth of fools pours out foolishness." -Proverbs
"The tongue is like a sharp knife; it kills
without drawing blood." -Anonymous
"The way we communicate with others and with
ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives."-Anthony Robbins
"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch
your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your
habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your
destiny."-Unknown
KEY 9: DON'T FEAR OR THINK FEAR
Fear is a conscious and
subconscious feeling that something bad is about to happen or something will
not work. It is a state of mind where things are not going the planned way
rather against them. Fear eats up every good thought, every good seed and
destroys any beautiful edifice created in the mind when given the chance to.
The greatest enemy to success and progress is fear. Therefore, to attain any
level in academic excellence, you must not fear or think fear because when fear
comes in confidence leaves and boldness leaves. When your faith in your ability
is engrossed by fear, then it draws all sorts of negative thoughts especially failure
and defeat and when you allow it the result shows up. An American philosopher
once said"Courage is not absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something
else is more important than fear."It is therefore more profitable not to
fear or think fear, but to see your success to be more important than the seeming
limitations or obstacles, taking courageous step to compete and look forward to
your success.
"Success is the ability to go from failure to
failure without losing your enthusiasm." -Sir Winston Churchill
"It is the small doubts of timid souls that accomplish
their ruin. It is the narrow vision, the fear and trembling hesitation that
constitute defeat." -Alice Foote MacDougall
"I felt nothing, nothing but fear; I could
neither eat nor sleep – fear clawed at my mind and body and shook me."
-Anne Frank
KEY 10: DO NOT FEAR FAILURE OR DEFEAT
Failure is the unsuccessfulness
of an act, a state of internal defeat, which may be of words or actions. There
are different levels of failure; however failure is failure because in any case
it simply means the desired result was not achieved. But failure can lead to positive
or negative result. Talking about the positive aspect it had made many
successful, while negatively it had led many people to either stop in their
search for success or kill a great idea that could have been fruitful due to
the assumed lack of patience and persistence. In academic, when you fear
failure, you will never see your mistake to correct them but rather will
provide constant mediocre result, which could have been better with an initial
failure. Do not get me wrong about failure but you must take advantage of
failure rather than mourn to death due to it. John Mason said"Failure and
mistake can be a bridge not a barricade to success because it is not how far
you fall but how high you bounce back that makes the difference."It is
also worthy to note that nobody and nothing can keep you down unless you decide
not to rise again. Success has made failures of many people because they did
not go through the rigour of failure as also failure has made many successes
today. According to Mike Murdock,"Stop looking at where you have been;
start looking at where you can be."Therefore, never let your yesterday use
up too much of your today rather face your today and look ahead. When you fail
at doing something, it does not mean you are a failure and do not call yourself
such, because it can make you or bury you forever. Also, every warlord is a man
withstrategies at war and do not give in to defeat, because when one strategy
fails another is created and used. Margaret Thatcher once said:"You may
have to fight the battle more than once to win."This is so true because it
does not matter the number of times a manfalls but how many times he stands.
Abraham Lincoln the most celebrated America President suffered defeat several
times before he became the president. He was not deterred by defeat but kept
modifying his strategies until the day he became the President of America. The defeat
or fear may just be what will shape you for the greatest result, so keep fighting
until you win the battle of being in the level of academic excellence you
choose to be. Do not give up the quest to conquer your class, study and compete
favourably until you reach that set height don't stop and when you get there
set greater target. The more battles you fight the greater your experience and
victory.
"Failure can become a weigh or gives you
wings" -John Mason
"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have
tried is the true failure. " -George Edward Woodberry
"You
failed doesn't mean you are a failure. It just means you haven't succeeded
yet."- Robert Schuller
"Develop success from failures. Discouragement
and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." -Dale
Carnegie
"All my successes have been built on my
failures." –Benjamin Disraeli
"Make failure your teacher, not your
undertaker." -ZigZiglar
"Success is the ability to go from failure to
failure without losing your enthusiasm." -Sir Winston Churchill
KEY 11: AVOID PROCRASTINATION
The reluctance to do something at
a particular time and postponing it to a near or far future or to delay
something that needed to be done now for later is called procrastination. This
is a regressive factor to success because the time you should have worked on
something may be finally wasted and any time lost can never be reversed or
gotten back. When you spend most of your time deliberating, chatting or
procrastinating, important things become late to be done due to a consistent
suspensionof something that should have done before the future. A student who proposed
to read by 5pm found out an interesting movie is been aired on television and
preferred to watch and to read later. After the movie, the evening chores
begin; he becomes tired at the end after eating, then goes to beg at 9.30pm and
wakes up 6.30am the next day. The 2hourshe had on the previous day's reading
time table is gone and will never come back. Therefore, since no pain no gain,
it is necessary to take advantage of every opportunity. In another case, a
student whose home tutor was to arrive at 4pm but did not show up at all may
decide to play the time instead of investing it in other academic works. You
must learn to use your time judiciously and do not procrastination else failure
will surround you always.
"You will find the key to success under the alarm
clock."–BenjaminFranklin
"He whose ambition creeps instead of soars, who
is always uncertain, who procrastinates instead of acts, struggles in vain against
failure" -Unknown
"Tomorrow I'll begin, I told myself day after
day. I did not know then that tomorrow is only found in the calendar of
fools." –Unknown
KEY 12: CHOOSE THE RIGHT COMPANY/FRIENDS
The saying "show me your
friend and I will tell who you are" , may not be 100% true, however to a
great extent it is true because of the influence the members of a unit have on
each other, this cannot not be faulted. It is actually untrue to be in the
midst of bright students while you are dull and would not want to strive to get
close as bright as the others. This is due to the influence of the bright
friends around. Likewise, you cannot be friends to smokers and drunkards and
will never be tempted or influenced to smoke or drink one day. Therefore,
because
of peer influence and pressure
that may emanate from friends, it is very important in making friends. The
choice of friends should be those of positive influence not negative or evil.
If you make friends who you are better than in academics and they are dullards
who are not keen to be better, with time you will deteriorate in your academic
because their influence may tell on you in time since they do not take pleasure
in academic work rather, want to party, play games and other extracurricular
activities that do not add knowledge or better their understanding of what they have been
taught. But you should find yourself in the midst of very bright students, who
take delight in their academic, their lifestyle would prompt you to work harder
as you will find yourself learning from them. Hence, I will counsel you not to
make friends with academically unserious students if you do not want to end in
the same pit of being a bus conductor, park ticket. Spend less time if at all
you must commune with them because whatever their discussion is will never
profit you at all rather spend more time with those you can tap knowledge from.
Be wise.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible
struggle." -Edmund Burke
"Success makes success, like money makes money."–SebastianRoch
Nicolas Chamfort
“A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the
way of the wicked leads them astray”-Proverb 12:26
“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a
furious man thou shalt not go:”-Proverb 22:24
KEY 13: MAKE SACRIFICE
The difference between the rich
and the poor, the brilliant and the dullard is information. Both the rich and
the poor may have information but the quality of the information is not the
same. The same thing goes for the brilliant and the dullard. You must learn to
make sacrifice that will give you edge over your mates. Time is of essence and
that is one factor that cannot be compromised for anything. Note that the
difference between a success and a failure is the result. To attain a greater
level of academic excellence, you must learn to do things a little bit better
than any other person in that category. This may be achieved by spending more
time than others, make more researches than others, ask more questions than
others and/or be more analytical than others. Many teenage students today spend
more time with PS games, sports, novels,movies, chatting on social networks,
e.t.c. in their spare time and leisure; at the end begin to read a day or two
to the start of their examination. Researches have shown that this is the cause
of average or below average performance in examinations. For example, a student
called Emmanuel will return from school between 4.10pm and 4.30pm,then get set
for his home lesson tutor to begin lesson by 5pm to end by 6.30pm every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday and afterwards begins evening chores as soon as the mum
arrives at 7pm, goes to bed by 9.30pm and wakes up 6am due to tiredness he got
from the previous day. What time does he have to read, when he spends between
5pm and 7pm in Christianschool every Tuesdays and Thursdays after school? This
means that the only possible time he has is in the period of sleeping.
Therefore, he needs to sacrifice some time he spends sleeping to read or will
remain a struggling student. This is his sacrifice to achieve his set goal
-academic excellence.There are also some people, who do not have home lesson
but use the precious time between their school closing hours and 7.30pm
prattling, chatting, reading novel or watching film. Are you in this category?
Then for you to attain academic excellence, you need to cut the time spend on extracurricular
activities. Make that sacrifice today so you do not need to make a greater
sacrifice in future. This may be hard initially but know anything you practice consistently
long enough will get into your system and becomes part of you.
"The important thing is this: to be able at any
moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." -Charles Du Bos
"Striving for success without hardwork is life
trying to harvest where you have not planted"-David Bly
"You must pay the price if you wish to secure the
blessing." -Andrew Jackson
"Sweat plus sacrifice equals success."
-Charles O. Finley
KEY 14: LEARN FROM PEOPLE'S MISTAKE
There was a man with three
children (sons). The man asked the eldest son how many times will you make
mistake and you will learn a lesson. The eldest replied two times Dad after a
deep thought. He asked the second son the same question and the second said once Dad after a critical thinking.
Then the man finally asked the youngest son the same question and he replied
that he will not even make mistakes at all, that he will use the mistakes of
the eldest and the second to learn a lesson(be wise) and this man said to the
youngest son, you are the true son of your father
In the world today, there are
three kinds of people. The first learn from their experiences - the wise. The
second learn from the experiences of others - these are the happy. The third
neither learn from their experiences nor from the experiences of others - these
are the fools. Mistakes are inevitable at any point in time in life but history
keeps repeating itself in some areas not because the effects were not great enough
for someone else not to do same but because humans have not learnt from it in
anyway. Before you, so many people had experienced whatever you are experiencing now, but
if only you had avoided the same mistake done by those before you, it would not
have happened again. Some
keep on making the same mistake others have made. Some don’t listen to advice
at all. However, whether you've made same
mistake does not really mattermore than the next step or the effect of the
result, that is, what you do when you fail as a result of your mistake, do you
stay down or pick up the pieces you left. In your quest for academic success,
you may make several mistakes from not doing the right thing or not putting your
best that does not mean you will not get to that pinnacle you seek but it means
you need to modify your initial strategy or create a newstrategy that will help
you do things better.
"The greatest mistake a man can make is to be
afraid of making one." -Elbert Hubbard
"If you have made mistakes, even serious ones,
there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the
fallingdown, but the staying down." -Unknown
"Every failure brings with it the seed of an
equivalent success." - Napoleon Hill
KEY 15: BE SPIRITUAL
Another point worthy of note is a matter of
being spiritual. Without God, you can do nothing but with him, everything is
possible (Luke 1:37). If you leave God in your academics, you have left
everything. Prayer is very important for your academic excellence.
It is indispensable for academic
excellence. Everything seen
or manifested in the physical is controlled by a much stronger controller,
which is the spiritual aspect that in turn is controlled by a supreme being or
a supernatural force whichever you want to call it. One way to engage this
Supreme Being (GOD) to help you is through prayer. As a student, you must learn
how to pray to God for help and understanding in your academic. Another process
is to have knowledge of spiritual laws and principles applicable to success and
prosperity and applying them e.g. the principle of giving and sowing. The
difference between your today and tomorrow is your seed. We sow different types
of seeds daily e.g. seed of love, hatred, money, kindness, bitterness, wickedness,
greed, lust, honour, e.t.c. consciously and unconsciously to create our future
because there is a seed-harvest principle. Your seed is peculiar to you. Another
important spiritual principle is that of giving. Be a giver in monetary terms
by tithing (10% of all your increases), offerings and alms to the poor or the
prophet according to your religious principles. However, note that not every
ground is fertile for sowing, hence you must qualify the type of soil (life)
you sow your seed in, learn to say NO to the wrong soil without feeling guilty.
This will help you not to sow your good seed in a bad soil, which will
automatically damage your seed or worse bring unwanted evil fruit. I urge you
today to sow academically into your classmate and you will never regret it
because your knowledge will be widened and increased.
“For nothing is impossible with
God”-Luke 1:37
“If ye ask any thing in my name, I will do
it”-John14:14
Preparation is the
mother of good fortune, daring is the father
Prepare for your Academic
Excellence
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