there was not one person in my class that had consistently beaten the grades that i was getting
it had nothing to do with talent it had nothing to do with luck it wasn't because i was naturally
more intelligent than anyone else because i certainly wasn't it had everything to do with
effort that was all it was my bachelor's degree took three years if you want numbers
52 exams later 27 assignments later 8 powerpoint presentations later three straight years and i put
100 effort into all of them every single thing that i handed in to be marked by my lecturer
i gave it everything i had and that's the only thing that kept me at the top because that's
all i was interested in i had no business coming in second or coming in third there was no other
person in that class willing to give up what i was willing to give up there was no other
person in that class willing to sacrifice what i sacrificed i'm just sharing my story to tell
you all that it can be done you need to destroy the self-imposed limitations i hear it every
day from people just like you they tell me i'm just not smart enough to get the highest grades
and i'm just not wired that way but it's that exact mindset that is the only thing stopping you
it's the only thing stopping you from achieving phenomenal grades and i would know i've been there
i used to play self-limiting restrictions on myself all throughout high school i didn't think
that i was clever enough i didn't think that i was able to perform among the top students in my class
and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy because i didn't believe i could become a high performing
student so i didn't study like one which resulted in average grades my whole educational career
throughout my whole time at school i was only getting average grades because i didn't believe
that i could get phenomenal grades it wasn't until university that i was able to remove those
self-limiting restrictions i started to actually believe that i could achieve incredible things so
i started putting more effort into my studying significantly more effort instead of coming
home and turning on the tv i'd come home and go straight to my desk to study instead of watching
pointless youtube videos and series on netflix i'd watch documentaries and educational programs
it was the effort that i knew would take me to the top it was the effort that i knew would get me the
best job after graduation it was the effort that i knew would take care of my family financially
it was the effort that was between me and success and i knew that i knew that no one could give me
that effort it was a waste of time trying to find it externally extraordinary effort can only come
internally my family couldn't give me my lecturers or friends couldn't give me it was all down to me
as les brown puts it you have to say yes to your life yes to your dreams yes to you yes to
your studying it doesn't matter how many times you failed it doesn't matter how many mistakes
you've endured it doesn't matter about your defeats it doesn't matter about what you've done
you know you can do more than what you've been doing you know that there's some exceptional work
ethic within you that you haven't brought out of you yet see if you look at your life and if you're
not getting what you want you owe it to yourself to do something differently if you're not getting
the grades you want if you're not performing where you think you're capable of if that's
what it is then you owe it to yourself to start strategically working to change your direction
and you know what most people will do most people will fight changes if change is worse than what
you're experiencing most people will not challenge the unknown they just won't step out there
but life isn't like that it's not how you grow so as you look at your life you think i'm not
getting what i want begin to know that whatever it takes for you to create that
you've got that within you you've got that you've got that genius in you you've got that
intelligence in you you've got that creativeness in you you've got that self-discipline in you
if you decide to take the initiative to change the current quality of your life
then you will find that the universe is on your side now will it be turbulent yep
will it be easy absolutely not will it take a lot of mistakes yep but you owe it to you you owe you
there are two sides of pain that i don't think a lot of people really understand
there's one side of pain that's the suffering and discomfort side of pain that's the side of pain
where you force yourself to wake up in the morning where your whole body is telling you to have a lie
in we all know that feeling every single one of us it's a sign of pain where you have to force
yourself to study when your friends are calling you to hang out it's the side of pain when you get
your exam results back but you're disappointed because you felt like you deserved better
but then there's another side of pain and that's called effort it's called success it's called if
you can find a way to push through the pain there's something great on the other side
of it and if you've never tapped into it it's because the first time you felt it you back off
the first time you felt it your natural reaction is to back away it's just too much we rationalize
with ourselves to where we automatically stop as soon as we begin to feel the pain it's why
so many of us give up in life so quickly it's why a lot of students have a problem finishing things
because as soon as they feel a small bit of discomfort or things they don't immediately like
they're gone i can't do it anymore they say but suppose i told you the craziest pain of my life
is the reason why i'm sitting here today so i dare you to take a little pain you're not going to die
just because you have to study it's not dangerous it's nothing compared to what our ancestors
had to go through it's nothing compared to what people are experiencing in war zones so
go through it embrace it it's the only way you're going to reach success the guys that have already
reached success jeff bezos elon musk oprah winfrey every successful person you can think of they've
all experienced phenomenal amounts of pain to get where they are today because the pain is temporary
it might last a few minutes all day or even the rest of the year but eventually you'll come out
the other side stronger than you were before but if you quit that pain is going to last forever
and you can make that decision today right now as soon as this video ends go and get your textbooks
and spend an extra hour studying just one hour studying tonight spend a bit less time watching tv
tonight spend a bit longer preparing for tomorrow studying it's these small actions that if taken
on a daily basis accumulate into big results the small wins throughout the day consistently
and then these actions turn into bigger actions maybe you start studying an extra two hours a day
or an extra three or four hours a day and you've just got to start and that's the hardest part but
once productive habits start to form you'll see the results for yourself
like i said i wouldn't be here right now where i am today if i didn't have the obstacles and
adversity and all the setbacks that came at me throughout my life and let's face it we all have
setbacks and failures and things that just don't go the way we want them and they bring us down
and maybe they make us depressed and maybe we feel like we can't go on any longer
but using these obstacles and adversity as motivation to study is one of the most
powerful things you can do because that's exactly what i did and when i graduated from university
i was twice the person i was before i started and it's funny because i spent forty thousand
pounds in three years of my life to graduate with an economics and finance degree but
i'm going to be honest with you i have absolutely no intention of using that degree none whatsoever
but i didn't do it for the degree i didn't do it for the piece of paper in fact i made a video on
why i spent 40 thousand pound on a degree that i'll never use you can click on the video on the
screen and i'll explain why i have absolutely no regrets it was probably one of the best decisions
of my life and i'd do it again in a heartbeat if i had the chance so i'll see you over there