Self Improvement and Career Inhancement
As a senior in high school, like many others my age, I am constantly being asked by everyone around me what I want to do with my life. It is a very versatile question, does not help me in my quest to narrow down my answer. Oftentimes I over-analyze but it always comes down to trying to be the best possible version of myself as I can. This applies to my professional and academic career, along with my personal life. Becoming the best version of yourself means getting back to your quintessential self. As straightforward as that sounds, it’s anything but: Authentic self-discovery takes courage and tenacity. To approach your essential self, you must turn away from distracting false beliefs that cloud or distort your self-perception.
There isn’t one “right” way to achieve success as a college student, but there are tried-and-true tips that can help you do your best and make the most of your time in school. Students are handed an abundant amount of resources and with that comes picking what works for them. The resources allow you to strengthen your time management and organizational skills, along with providing you with a positive mindset and confidence. Before anything, I like to practice some positive affirmations and have noticed a significant increase in energy and productivity. It is believed that this process is more effective when incorporating and understanding the negative feelings, or mental programs that you harbor within your subconscious regarding yourself. This first part will help you identify your own negative beliefs. When you shine your conscious light on your negative beliefs and understand that they are merely beliefs and not based on reality, you can then utilize your positive affirmations to overcome such beliefs and focus the rudder of your own life. I like to type as many negative beliefs down as I feel apply to my feelings about myself then create positive affirmations to cancel out those negative thoughts. Now that I have my list of affirmations I repeat them out loud to myself each day. I write them in a notebook and put them as my wallpaper or screensaver. This helps me to continue to celebrate and empower myself to improve!
Becoming a better student and leader consists of two main things: Commitment and Consistency. Leaders make things happen and they actively rely on outsight to seek innovative ideas from beyond the boundaries of familiar experience. Leaders innovate and look outside the box to be great. High achieving students are studious, have focus, and are disciplined. High achieving students attempt to understand not just memorize and they do the work. Good students are studious, which means they commit serious time to their studies. That means reading notes, working on assignments, research, revising past work, or writing notes from textbooks to gain a better understanding of a topic. Success in any area requires continued focus. Being a good student is no different. Good students value achievement. They know the only way to get good results is to put in the work. Exceptional students don’t just memorize data to scrape by on the next exam. They seek to understand the content.
An indication of your level of understanding is your ability to articulate and clearly explain the topic. Success takes effort. Being an outstanding student is no different. The best students put in the work. There’s no other way. Some tips that helped me on my academic self - improvement journey were to be interested in what I'm studying, having a positive attitude, and clearly defining my expectations.
Similar to how every chemical reaction has activation energy, we can think of every habit or behavior as having activation energy as well. This is just a metaphor of course, but no matter what habit you are trying to build there is a certain amount of effort required to start the habit. In chemistry, the more difficult it is for a chemical reaction to occur, the bigger the activation energy. For habits, it’s the same story. The more difficult or complex a behavior, the higher the activation energy required to start it. For example, sticking to the habit of doing 1 pushup per day requires very little energy to get started. Meanwhile, doing 100 pushups per day is a habit with much higher activation energy. It's going to take more motivation, energy, and grit to start complex habits day after day. If you are thinking of starting a similar journey with the upcoming new year be prepared to fall and fail but know that practice makes perfect. Indiana HOSA will be hosting its annual winter rally this year and it includes workshops regarding community service and the student leadership challenge. Attending our conference can give you some more tips and tricks as to how to be a better student and leader. Community service is also a great way to help others and help you. You gain a different experience and are open to more when you volunteer, allowing you to have that to bring to the table.
