What’s up? Thanks for checking in! Having good habits as a student will set you up for whatever you want to do with your life. It’s been said that habits are formed after a certain number of days and while this may be true, habits should be taken one day at a time. Think about it this way, let’s say someone said after 21 days a habit becomes a routine. To keep it REAL, complacency can sometimes set in and you might chill on that 22nd day. You might lose that sense of commitment because you feel like you’ve accomplished your goal, when in-reality, you’ve just done something for 21 days straight. Why not take it one day at a time so that you never feel complacency?
Now let’s bring this back to being a student. The whole point of being a student is to use education to get where you want to be. What’s the point of going to school and putting yourself through that if you don’t take advantage of it? We get that most of what’s taught in school is boring, but if we create good habits for ourselves, we will come to realize that all we have to do is commit to our purpose and the rest becomes easy.
We also understand that we want results from our actions. We sometimes get impatient and forget about the habits that got us as far as they did. To keep it REAL, there’s no way around it: you have to use these habits consistently to see results. How long? Well, if you take it one day at a time and commit to your purpose, eventually you’ll see results because you’ll give life no choice but to reward you for your efforts. The best part about these habits is that they require no risk, but when you commit to them and do them consistently, you’ll receive all the rewards that come with them. Here are four habits that have been proven to provide results after committing to them on a consistent basis. Try to commit to these for at least a year (Yes, a full 365 days) and let us know what happens…
Write Down Four Specific Goals
It’s extremely important to keep track of your goals. Not only that, but to make them REAL, they must be extremely specific. For example, if you set $1,000,000 as a goal, what do you specifically plan on using that money for? After considering this, is it a big enough goal? These are the kinds of thoughts that start to come up when you get specific about your goals.
We chose four goals (at least) because this will help you figure out different ways to achieve all of them. You might use one goal to help you achieve another goal. Write all of your goals down and put them somewhere you’ll see them every day. Just by doing this, you might think of things that will help you achieve the goals faster. You’ll begin to form the habit of thinking about your goals, which will only help you achieve them. Try it!
Let’s keep it REAL, we get so caught up in life sometimes, we forget about why we’re doing whatever we’re doing in the first place. We could use that reminder to help us understand why we’re studying in the first place. It helps to have something or somebody to remind you of your purpose. You’ll always have the motivation to study when you see your goal right in front of you. Make it a priority to use these reminders as fuel when you don’t feel like opening that book or reviewing those notes. Realize the purpose of why you’re learning. Then, when you’ve achieved those goals (which you will) you’ll create a new set of goals and the process continues!
Create A Strategic Schedule
A schedule is meant to hold you accountable. It keeps you on the right path toward achieving your goal. A schedule is like a road map. Without a road map, we can get lost. We can also get distracted if we don’t have a schedule. The same thing can happen without a schedule for our life. Let’s use time to our advantage instead of feeling like time is always against us. Keep it REAL, how does it feel when you’re sitting there and randomly remember the assignment you forgot to do? Yeah, we know… but what if you scheduled the assignment for earlier in the day? You would have knocked it out by now and can chill without the lingering stress of finishing something you could have already got out of the way.
Think of a schedule as a game plan for winning the day. You can even prepare your schedule the day before; then you’re ahead of the game. The best coaches have the best game plans, regardless of the sport. Preparation is the key to success when it’s game time. Let’s keep it REAL, you have a lot more confidence going into the game when you have a plan. You can think of a test for class as the game. Creating a schedule of when to study (and what to study) is the game plan. Studying is practice. The more you practice, the more prepared you are. When the test comes, you’ll thank yourself for taking the time to prepare.
Research And Reach Out
This might not apply as much to studying about education as it does to studying people and what they do. Think about what you want to do with your life. Be specific. Now think of a couple people who are doing what you want to do. Wouldn’t it be cool if they told you everything you needed to do to get to where they are? Why not make it happen?
If you want to be a teacher, find the best teachers and ask them how they got there. If you want to be a professional basketball player, shoot your shot! Reach out in any way you can; you just never know. If you want to become a doctor, the next time you have a check-up, ask your doctor how he or she got to where they are. Of course, everybody’s journey is different; but there are certain steps that everybody has to go through depending on what they want to become. Make your life easier by finding a mentor and using their advice to your advantage. It will make the process much easier and you’ll even believe it’s possible because you have a mentor who’s doing what you’re preparing to do.
Of course, there’s social media. Direct Messages (DMs) can go a long way, especially when you’re humble enough to ask for advice. There are also so many random opportunities where you’ll just come across someone who does what you want to do. If you want to own your own business, a business owner could be behind you in line at the grocery store. Don’t take these moments for granted. There’s so much value in approaching someone you admire and simply just asking them how they got to where they are. Even if someone has the car you’ve always wanted; if you see them with it, just ask them questions about it; how they got it, how it drives, etc. You never know, they might just lead you to the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
Create REAL Vision
If you can see it, it’s REAL. If you can feel it, it’s REAL. The more you interact with something, the more REAL it becomes. A vision board is where you put all of your goals, visually using pictures or words. It’s the place where all of your dreams become reality before they become reality. It’s meant to remind us of our vision every day. Why do we need to be reminded? So we can remember the steps we need to take to get to where we want to go, which are the goals we wrote down of course. Not only is it important to create a vision for your life, but it’s even more important to put the vision somewhere where you’ll always be reminded of it, just like your goals.
It’s also important to use this vision board to dream big! Don’t limit the vision you want for yourself. For a dream to become a reality, the first step is to believe it’s possible. The next step is to act on that belief. Use the vision board to dictate your actions. Make it the motivation for why you decide to study and get your homework done. Use the vision board to be smart about the decisions you make because you know that your decisions will impact your future. It’s a powerful tool that you should take advantage of!
Thank you for keeping it REAL. We appreciate you for being a part of this culture and embracing the responsibility of a student. We are all students, whether we are in the classroom or not. With that being said, these habits are good for wherever you are in life. Again, building these habits will lead to the results you want, as long as you stay consistent and aware of the purpose at all times.
Keep it REAL.
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