as Eric Thomas says you have to give it everything you've got
no more TV no more partying no more playing if you don't have a 4.0 what you
need to be doing is studying get off the phone sorry I'm not available until the
end of this year you've reached the right number but
you've called me at the wrong time I'm about to start studying now I dare you
to keep retaking your exams over and over until you pass I dare you to have
100% attendance I dare you to stop missing classes like you're soft that's
the problem with a lot of students it's a soft generation so they quit
everything and if you create a culture of losing if you keep going through life
and not even caring whether you lose or not if you keep failing and failing your
exams because you're making the same mistakes again and again if you keep
letting it happen then it's going to become a culture you need to stop being
a victim and start creating the life that you're capable of there is no
excuse for not living up to your full potential this will only happen when you
stop waiting for good things to happen to you and you start taking action to
make them happen that means stop waiting for the right time to study stop waiting
until you feel ready just study straight away
stop letting negative people influence you and drag you down with them push
forward I'm going to learn I'm going to fight I'm going to do what
it takes to get the highest grade possible in these exams I'm going to do
everything in my power every single day to stop being a victim and start making
something of my life in the words of Eric Thomas you get from being a loser
low self-esteem doubt in fear but if you can find your way to this side guys it's
sweeter on this side greatness it's about getting better never settling
never saying well I got a PhD now so I'm finished
you know at the end of the day when you lay your head down and sleep
if you've pushed yourself as hard as you could or if you just took the backseat
and let life do what it wanted with you
most of you won't be successful because when you get tired you quit there's no
motivation or drive there to push you through the tiredness you always want to
blame other people you always want to hold other people accountable you're so
quick to point out other people's flaws but you never look at yourself and point
out your own flaws and if you don't do that then you're not going to improve
them and grow there's a lot of potential within you a lot of talent but you need
to realize that your talent is not going to create itself your talent isn't going
to nurture itself 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 could
take me away from achieving my goal I knew what I needed to do I knew what 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 we're 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 4:00 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 okay 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 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 you
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 act 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 past it
study you will come into obstacles you probably already have whether it's
procrastination friendship problems family problems money problems whatever
it is it's not going to be easy a pain is just a byproduct if you haven't
experienced pain then you will not have the motivation to become the best
version of yourself the pain is what will fuel you the most successful people
on the planet have had to overcome catastrophic obstacles and they came out
on the other side stronger and wiser Bill Gates's first business failed
miserable Albert Einstein didn't speak until you as four years old Oprah
Winfrey gave birth at 14 years old to a baby boy who died shortly afterwards
Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before creating the light bulb
Franklin Roosevelt became partially paralyzed at the age of 39 for the rest
of his life he went on to lead the United States as one of the most
respected presidents in history so it's not only you that is facing obstacles it
happens to everyone but how you deal with them is what will set you apart
from everyone else and as they say after the rain comes the rainbow there are two
sides of pain that a lot of people don't really understand there's a side of pain
that most people can relate to the difficult side the uncomfortable side
you always remember what that feels like but then there's the other side of pain
it's called effort it's called winning it's called if you can push through the
suffering there's some great things waiting for you on the other side but
you don't get to see them if you give up right now and that's why a lot of people
don't get to see this side of pain because they give up before they get
there it's not easy to continue studying when every part of your body is telling
you to but it's so easy to give up but it's at
this point you need to give it everything you've got
it's about pushing yourself to the point where you feel out of your comfort zone
because it's outside your comfort zone where the growth happens no one has
become successful while staying within their comfort zone absolutely no one the
first three seconds that you start studying that's the hardest part but if
you can push through that if you can push through the first few seconds of
studying it gets a lot easier you realize it was the thought of studying
that you were more bothered about than the actual studying itself it's never as
bad as you thought it would be you've got to stop complaining you've
got to stop the negativity complaining has zero benefits
it doesn't help anything it just pulls others down with you you've got to take
action in your life what are you doing about it you've got to find a solution
to your problem don't be the problem I see it so many
times where someone is getting bad grades but they blame everyone else but
themselves believe me that person is going nowhere
nothing's going to happen in their life and if that's you if you're the person
that is blaming everyone else for the situation they're in and not taking
action for their own responsibilities then this is for you take action take
control if you keep studying at your full potential and if you keep reading
and keep learning and keep asking questions you'll see the results for
yourself you'll see your grades increase significantly
you need to make studying something worth fighting for something that gives
you a purpose when you wake up in the morning human beings are all forces and
that force needs to have an effect you need to have a reason why you're moving
in a certain direction and when all our needs are met
everything is relatively easy we don't need to hunt for food we don't need to
fight to survive we've lost a lot of basic purpose and we haven't really
replaced it with anything we need a purpose we need a mission because when
we have a mission human beings are happy I'm here to tell
you that if you make studying your mission if you make it your purpose your
educational journal will be taken to a whole new level let me tell you a story
Russell Burchard talked in his book in the 1800's about the happiest person he
knew the happiest person he could find was a groundskeeper on a farm and every
day he was at war with the rabbits of the farm
he just declared the rabbits were the enemy and he went out with his gun and
he would hunt as many as possible and he would go from morning until night and he
would kill as many as he could because the rabbits were his enemy and he was so
happy for one simple reason he had a mission he had a purpose his purpose was
to destroy the rabbits and you can see the lack of purpose and people that are
unhappy they seem aimless they don't really know why they're there my mission
at university was to achieve a first-class degree and at times I got
this I don't care attitude maybe there was something going on in my personal
life or I had a few bad days in a row and at that moment that's when I lose
momentum because I lost my mission and then I get depressed because I lost my
purpose but when you have your purpose when you have your mission as Les Brown
puts it you begin to realize that your life is not over and the game does not
stop just because you failed an exam or came into some difficulties with your
studying to feel pain and rise up anyway and say the fight is not lost just
because I failed in the first round the game is not lost just because I got
tackled or ran into an opposition and many of you have ran into something got
some bruises and some cuts and you're sitting on the sidelines and nursing
your wounds when you need to get back up again and get back in the game stop
wasting valuable time if you want something you have got to be
relentless you've got to learn how to be creative you've got to learn how to be
resourceful to hold on in spite of everything the power to endure this is
the winners quality what this power is I cannot say all I know is that it exists
and it becomes available only when a man or woman is in that state of mind and
has a clear purpose and is fully determined to not quit until they find
it you deserve this don't let anyone stop you decide that
you're going to push yourself you're in full control don't give up on yourself
and live your life with purpose
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