I knew it would take sacrifices I knew it would take months and years of blood
sweat and tears to reach the grades that I was achieving but that's how you get
to the top 5% no one was doing what I was doing
no one was achieving the grades I was achieving as Gary Vaynerchuk used to say
to be an anomaly you've got to act like one and that was my mantra if you do
exactly what everyone else is doing then by its very definition you will
become average and if you're happy with average then so be it
that's fine but I know you're capable of so much more you only have one life it
doesn't have to be average make the most of it no one at your university has ever
achieved extraordinary grades that didn't have huge obstacles they had to
overcome obstacles that every student has obstacles that you're experiencing
right now trying to stop you from fulfilling your potential at first it's
the motivation and discipline that keeps you going but the motivation and
discipline can only help you short-term it's the passion you have within you
that keeps you going not just the passion for studying and
learning new things but the passion for improving yourself the passion for
striving to become a better person each day
it's the passion to building a growth mindset that will help you become
phenomenal in the long term and if you know anyone with a growth mindset if you
know anyone around you that is focused on pursuing their dreams that is
dedicated to becoming the best version of themselves every day you'll probably
notice they seem a lot happier they have an optimism about them
that other people just don't have and it's something that's so difficult to
explain but when you get there you'll know exactly what I mean I was not the
smartest in my class or the wealthiest or even the most academic but my goals
were clear I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve I was focused in on that 4.0
and nothing can take me away from achieving my goal I knew what I needed
to do I knew where it was going to take to graduate in the top 5% of the
university I knew I needed to study every single night when I got home and
when I started to get tired that was the time when I needed to carry on because
when I started to get tired I knew at that point most of the people in my
class were going to give up and watch TV or watch Netflix but I hadn't come this
far just to be average so I kept pushing and kept studying I knew that if I
missed even one night it could snowball into two nights three nights four nights
everything I did was to take one step closer to achieving my goals I'd wake up
at 5:00 a.m. go straight to the gym I'd be at the library by 6:30 before most
people were even awake by the time classes started at 9:00 a.m. I had
already been studying for two and a half hours and once classes had finished at 4
p.m. I'd go home eat and get a few hours more studying in before bed
it was hard work but I did what it took
your educational journey is going to be hard I can promise you that there are
two paths you can take the easy road or the hard road if you choose the hard
road it means you choose to study when your
friends are out partying you start writing your report when the rest of the
class don't even know the deadline yet you're already awake at 5:00 a.m. on
your way to the library when the rest of your friends are still sleeping if you
can find enough focus and motivation to do these hard things the things that
everyone else struggles with then your educational journey will be easy the
grades will be easy the scholarships will be easy but it's a choice that you
have to consciously make you have to step up and take that path and it will
be lonely at times it will feel like you're the only one doing this but
that's the whole point the whole idea of this is to be standing at the top of the
mountain while everyone else is still at the bottom because you took the path
that so many people are unwilling to take ok so you know where you want to be
at the top of that mountain but why aren't you there yet why is it that
you're stopping yourself from getting there why is it that you just settle for
the grades that you're getting because doing well at school and the University
it's not easy it's difficult to get good grades it takes a lot of focus a lot of
sacrifice a lot of late nights and early mornings but it's absolutely worth it
you are in charge of the life you live and when you are in charge you study
hard regardless of how you're feeling whether you're feeling lazy tired
stressed frustrated bored it doesn't matter this doesn't stop
it's the easiest way to turn your grades around changing your attitude about your
studying it's when you decide that the grades you're achieving right now are
not representative of what you're able to achieve because what you'll notice is
that these students that are getting the top grades their attitude towards their
studying is completely different to those that are achieving the lowest
grades attitude is more important than circumstances more important than
failures more important than successes more important than money it's even more
important than talent or skill and we have a choice every day what attitude
are we going to have when approaching our studying you can't change what
grades you are given up to now you can't change the exams that you failed but you
can change the attitude you have towards your studying today and you know it's
going to be hard you know there's going to be ups and downs but that's what's
going to make it worth it in the end if you really want it enough when it comes
to graduation day you're going to look in the mirror and say I did this despite
all the obstacles and setbacks I did it and that feeling you will have of
accomplishment and triumph will be like nothing you've ever experienced it's a
feeling you will take with you for the rest of your life so when it's time to
study and your automatic reaction is to fight it and procrastinate take a few
minutes to think about it think about what you're doing that small decision of
choosing to procrastinate is you choosing to settle with what you have
push pasta study one of the big differences is that
the eighth grade student goes to work he sits down and overcomes resistant it
doesn't matter if he's feeling tired or he's had a long day it doesn't matter
how he's feeling he sits down and he goes to work and he has pride in that
you've got to ask yourself why do I want to become an eighth grade student I'll
tell you the reason why it was important for me when I was at university it was
because I wanted to be the best version of myself so I could train myself to be
wiser think faster work more efficiently and ultimately I knew that all those
challenges that came up were training for the next challenges in life as
Anthony Chi once said if your goal is to get an eighth grade overall in your
exams in six months time and you're only working at C grade level right now than
the amount you need to study needs to increase by at least 50%
if you continue studying the way you are you'll continue getting the same grades
you're getting if you're studying two hours at nighttime then you need to move
up to three hours then 4 then eventually 5 if you don't train the muscle when it
comes time to do the actual exam you're not gonna be able to achieve that a
grant an A grade student takes full responsibility for what shows up in
their life there's a whole load of problems that show up daily in our lives
that we have no control over the weather the economy the
government illness a lot of that we can't control however would you not
agree that becoming the best version of yourself upgrading your skills obtaining
the best qualifications you can would that not put you in a better stronger
position to deal with everything that gets thrown at you do you think that
upgrading yourself and becoming a wiser smarter more driven and successful
person would benefit the people around you that you love of course it would but
I'm not so easily convinced and naive to think that getting good grades is as
easy as pressing a button and within seconds you're getting a grades and your
life is better you may not be able to get to this level of studying in a
matter of seconds or minutes but it's easily possible to achieve it in a
matter of weeks or months if we just consciously choose to face what's in
front of us and the first step is to just get things done
get your studying done if you say you're going to study three hours tonight then
do it because when you start to get things done you'll realize that you'll
start to have more success
and sometimes a big part of success is just not being lazy and just doing what
you know you have to do 90% of it is just showing up just show up and do the
work you're not going to feel perfect every day and it's the same with every
student in your class that's achieving a grades right now if
those students only study when they felt in the mood to study they'd be getting
c's and d's right now because everyone has those days where we just don't feel
like studying there's got to be those days that you just have to push through
there might even be more days when you don't feel like it then when you do but
that's okay we've all been there and the top 1% they push through it if you're
chasing grades then you might as well just give up now the grades are nothing
there's nothing there it's not the grades you should be chasing it's the
individual that is capable of achieving those grades that you should be chasing
those students that are achieving a 4.0 GPA you've got to study their character
because that's when you'll start to see exactly what it takes the daily habits
that are followed religiously the hours of studying late at night while everyone
else is sleeping the 100% attendance in class and when you study the characters
of people getting poor grades you'll see failure everywhere you'll see it all
falling apart the procrastination taking control the lack of drive and focus
skipping classes when they just don't feel like it's your choice you have to
make are you moving forward on a journey to better yourself or are you sat down
and giving you throwing in the towel making do with what you have not willing
to take the risk because that's what most people are doing they don't give a
damn about achieving anything in their life you can see it in their actions in
their behavior so don't be most people edie Milan one of the top peak
performance experts on the planet explains it like this failure and
setbacks students quitting failing the exams having retakes dropping out it's
all going to happen just get ready don't give in to that stuff don't give in to
the fears don't give in to the setbacks you're gonna have failures it's part of
the journey and when you get weak when your classmates give up when your
friends tell you you shouldn't be studying so much or that you're not good
enough or that there's something better or whatever they tell you you remember
why you're doing it you gotta have a persistent attitude that you're gonna
wait you gotta have a positive outlook you gotta be optimistic you gotta know
you're gonna win right now you need to believe you're gonna win because listen
to me the price you paid for not being the best version of yourself is too
extreme you'll have to carry the burden of failure for the rest of your life
start to stand up a little taller start to walk more confidently start becoming
the best version of you you can do it quietly in your own way you can do it in
the way you want but somehow they gotta look at you and think okay I ain't gonna
mess with that one you're gonna have to put up with some failures you're gonna
have to put yourself into some uncomfortable places listen to me do it
put yourself into an uncomfortable place don't negotiate
don't try to navigate it in your head unrealistic people the world