you can pass your exams you can be great at whatever it is that you choose to be
great at but you have to put in the work you have to want it bad you have to want
it so bad that you're willing to lose sleep for it you have to want it so bad
that you're willing to lose friends over it you have to want it so bad
that you never ever give up giving up is not an option if you couldn't dream it
you can do it if you can think it you can do it and when you fail you get up
and brush yourself off and try again you'll continue even if you're laughed
at you'll continue even when you lose but guess what life is not always about
where you end up it's about the journey it's about the attitude it's about the
discipline it's about never giving up it's hard to outperform everyone else in
your class very few people are willing to endure the pain and sacrifice for
what it takes to be great they settle for average average is dangerous
averages for the week you can be great you can get to the next level you can be
the best in your class or the best in your university you want to do great
things but your actions need to match your words you need to invest in
yourself don't let yourself be average average people waste their lives away
every weekend for what not me I'm in charge of my own life everything that
I'm not happy with in my own life is completely my fault
it's my responsibility to fix it no one else's don't let your friends deter you
don't play your friends distract you develop yourself show them that there is
better show them that you are different improve yourself every day just small
actions every day that build up over the course of the year
study hard increase the amount of time you're studying for each day if you're
studying six hours a day then aim for seven tomorrow but study smart too and
ask your professor questions and get help when you need it read the marking
criteria carefully these things add up successful people don't get to where
they are by following their friends or continuously trying to impress them
instead they lead they don't care how other people judge them they commit
themselves to self-development they learn continuously study continuously
they pass their exams only you can do it for yourself nobody can do it for you if
you're not prepared if you don't work hard you will lose you will not win you
will always be behind working hard is so fundamentally important for success
anything you need to work hard because part of you knows how good your life
could be if you got it together and just studied whenever you needed to
study but another part of you wants to feel good right now and studying doesn't
make you feel good right now you have a part of you deep inside
that wants to excel in your exams succeed in life
not just in your career but with wealth health love and happiness but then and
there's another part of you that constantly wants to sacrifice studying
and educating yourself and making progress for instant gratification it's
a part of you that doesn't care about the long-term it doesn't care where
you're going to be in 10 years time a lot of people look up to and idolize
those who are motivated and disciplined with their studying but you don't need
to do this become motivated yourself people say close your eyes visualize
yourself where you'll be in five years time if you stay focused and disciplined
every day if you live in a mansion you wake up you go to the gym which is in
the next room then you go for a swim in the pool outside you drive to work in
your Lamborghini you walk through the door everyone says hi they all know you
of course they do you're the CEO but wait what will happen if we continue to
let procrastination take control of our life what will happen if we keep failing
and keep failing and get kicked out of university and get a basic job but get
fired within a few weeks close your eyes where will you be in ten years time or
20 years time if you continue being lazy and doing nothing how many jobs have you
been fired from how many partners have left you how much debt are you in how
much weight have you put on where are your friends and family now because you
didn't chase your dreams and you just gave up if you're okay with that if
you're okay with the outcome and the life you will live if you don't sort
your priorities out then great go ahead no one's stopping you but if it scares
you if it instills a sense of fear within you then you better do something
about it because your life can be every bit like
you dream it and even if you fail well at least you made it halfway there at
least you put in the effort and you can look at yourself in the mirror and say I
tried my best but I lost to the better man and I'm okay with that and you can
sleep soundly at night knowing that you gave it everything you've got that's how
I see it I want to see how far I can go I want to see what kind of life I can
live I want to see how high I can climb I want to see how much I can accomplish
and once I reach that level of success when I have wealth health love and
happiness in my life I can give I can be the best father or mother I can be I can
support my family I can spread the love and joy that I have radiating from me
I can financially help those less fortunate than me I can be the person
that I have always dreamed of being imagine this grade 10 student always
been a great student now starts to disengage in class they begin to fall
away attention drifts they don't like it it's too difficult too easy
too distracting too much pressure for now forget the reason let's examine the
result statistically that student will begin to
have lower marks maybe hard to stay in the same class next year they'll have
more trouble getting the grades to enter the next level of training or get into
that post-secondary and even though they may be smart enough to get ahead they
begin to get stuck behind they may be full of incredible potential but the
system starts to overlook their promise so what's the solution well that's the
beautiful part no matter which side of the path you're on the answer remains
the same dig in today pick up speed now no one
else is permission but yours is needed you are in control of your own
engagement I know PhDs who failed high school the
world is full of millionaires the traditional system left behind Stephen
Hawking wasted countless hours at university before finding his focus
I can recommend theoretical physics as a career for a disabled person Mark
Wahlberg was once going down a bad path before turning things around here's what
happened they didn't let disengagement when they fought back to get on track
they found that thing that would excite them focus their attention motivate them
in the future they found a way it changed everything
imagine a student who began to disengaged a critical time in their life
imagine how that could have held them back until they decided it wouldn't
work out more often earn more money stop procrastinating this drive to be better
as part of being who we are self-improvement is not just possible
it's powerful yet studies tell us only 8% of people will actually reach their
goals 8% so we have these dreams but for most people they simply remain as dreams
so how can you be part of the 8% Margaret Mead puts it perfectly what
people do and what they say they do are entirely different things most people
can't make it happen I love this quote by Maya Angelou if you don't like
something change it if you can't change it change your attitude she puts
personal change so clearly makes it so accessible if it's easy to make a change
in your life then do it but if you can't make the change if it's harder than
simply making a decision if you've tried to reach this goal before and failed
perhaps what's needed is a change of attitude a change of mindset you see
this is the hard part about change if it's easy we just do it but if it's hard
that's where we fall short so our goals are never the easy things we've already
done those our goals focus on what's hard confucius wrote it does not matter
how slowly you go as long as you do not stop don't stop the change you're
looking for is inside what everyone else can see will come later 8% reach their
goals be in that group I've not been put on this planet to have an average
education and average income and average family average health as Steve Jobs says
I'm here to make a dent in the universe you will never hear me complain that
it's someone else's fault why I'm not getting the grades I have the potential
of achieving if I don't like where I am I'll work harder my current situation is
a perfect reflection of the hard work or lack of work I put in when you look at
the all-time greats there's one thing in common among them all
they all have relentless sickening work ethic to get to the top you have to skip
watching TV going to every party scrolling through social media and
wasting your time on unproductive things because while the average student is
sleeping you are hustling while they're playing video games you are working
while they're partying and doing things that don't count you are studying if you
go through life trying to stay comfortable life will send you more and
more discomfort you'll come across more and more problems life will keep trying
to drag you down don't let that be you push yourself work hard stay hungry you
have to get to know yourself you have to know who you are you have to know what
your strengths are you have to know what your weaknesses are what your learning
styles are what you study best what makes you motivated what makes you
procrastinate learning about yourself will change your behavior you'll study
more efficiently you'll learn more quickly you'll pass your exams easier
you will get you places where you've never gone before you will take
determination it will require that you never give up never give up on your
dreams never give up on your goals life will throw things at you professors will
throw exams you your friends will throw problems at
you your health will throw problems at you even your family will inadvertently
throw problems at you no one promised life will be easy but what is promised
is that you can't do it you can become great whatever you want to be I can tell
you I'm going to make my dreams become a reality and it starts right here with my
studying the work ethic and discipline that I practice will carry me not only
through university but through the rest of my life I don't care how much I have
to invest how much time I have to invest how many hurdles I have to jump through
I'm going to continue doing this until unsuccessful
I love how Eric Thomas talks about his show-up rule he says you can pretend
that you care but you can't pretend that you're there the only way you can show
that you care is if you show up and what I'm asking you to do for me is to show
up every single day it's easy to miss a class on Monday morning when you're
feeling tired the problem is you'll miss that one class and you'll get away with
it then you'll miss another class and then another and then another it's human
nature if we can get away with it and gain instant short-term satisfaction
from it then we keep on doing it and it's an easy trap to fall into that's
why it's so important to not miss even one class because it can quickly
snowball into something more dangerous and it's funny because the more obsessed
you get with your studying the louder the haters will get the more they will
try to drag you down and pull you back down to their level and when I say
obsession don't get me wrong your health and well-being should always be put
first exorcise evil sleep eight hours a night and then study like a madman
throughout the entire des people will think you're crazy why
are you studying so much what's the point why don't you ever leave your desk
why do you always spend so much time reading textbooks if people don't think
you're crazy you're not yet operating at the outer limits of your potential
you're not there yet and that's the difference between people that are good
and people that are great the good are passionate the great are obsessed
obsession is a necessity but in order to make that change you need to be real
with who you are if you're disappointed with your grades what could you have
done differently did you really study to your full
potential did you really not procrastinate it at all when you're
revising and when you look deep within you it can get raw and it can get ugly
sometimes when you're looking in the mirror but if you're not real with who
you are then nothing's gonna change but you will be bold and courageous enough
to look in the mirror and fix what's in that mirror and how you address it is
you deal with it head-on you deal with it every day you deal with it every
single day of your life where you say okay I'm not performing as well as I
could in math so I'll allocate an extra one hour a day towards that and that's
when growth happens that's when life really begins that's the thing success
and failure are generally slow processes either slowly building things up or
gradually tearing them down
and that's why I say you've got to pay attention
you have to watch you have to watch every single second because those
seconds they turn into minutes and minutes turn into hours and hours turn
into days and days turn in two years and so that second that second that just
went by that counted and so did that second and so did that one
and in those precious seconds you're either building or you're decaying
you're either gaining ground or you were losing ground in that second
and in every second
every second counts so make every second count
all right so rome wasn't built in a day we all know that everyone's hears that
but rome also didn't fall apart overnight either it took hundreds of
years for Rome to reach its peak but it also took time hundreds of years for
Rome to decay and fall apart and that is representative of life because you don't
achieve worthwhile goals quickly or easily they take time they take struggle
they take relentless pursuit day in and day out that's what it takes