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You can study in two ways: either you let yourself be told what you have to do and allow external influences to determine your path, or you take your studies into your own hands and become a change agent.
The advantage of self-determined studies: freedom. The downside: work. But most of the work arises because the mechanisms of successful change are not clear. Yet these basic principles are ridiculously simple and thoroughly pragmatic in their application.
Stick to these four ways and you can tackle, transform, and improve your student life right away.
Do Something More!
The level of success and happiness is mostly determined by the things you actively do. If you just passively wait all day for something to happen or for someone else to do your work for you, you will never grow and be happy. You will then not even stay at your current level but will fall behind and continuously deteriorate.
The first possible path to change is therefore to do something more often or longer that is beneficial to your personal development during your studies. Do more of something that gets you ahead and makes you happy in the long run – even if it’s just five minutes a day.
Examples:
- Learn five minutes more every day for your next exam!
- Read a textbook five minutes longer every day!
- Get up five minutes earlier each day until you reach your favorite wake-up time!
By the way, following these simple tips, you may finally find that additional time for creating a good quality essay for one of your core subjects. And just in case you would still need some help you could find yourself a paper writer online.
Do A Little Less!
This type of change is just as possible the other way around.
Many students ruin their lives by engaging in activities that take up time and energy with no tangible benefit to their happiness level. I don’t mean that you have to work every free minute for your academic success, but if you waste your time day after day with small stuff and unnecessary tasks, you throw stones in your own way. And those rocks can be really annoying.
So, if you feel like your student life is being plagued by time wasters and energy sappers, you need to start doing fewer distracting things.
Examples:
- Spend five minutes less in front of the TV every day!
- Use your smartphone for five minutes less every day!
- Read five minutes less every day in online newspapers or social media profiles!
Devote yourself to a different source of disruption for your personal happiness every day. This will make you more productive and happier – and you will also have more time for new things.
Start Something New!
Do you feel that something is missing in your student life? Or do you think that a certain activity would do you good and could lead to more happiness and well-being in the long term? Very good, because today is the second-best time to start (the best time was yesterday).
Dare to start something new that promises you great, positive benefits in the long run. Don’t be satisfied with the current status and be ready to take a new step. I promise you: you will manage it. Somehow. And for starters, just five minutes is enough.
Examples:
- Try a new learning technique for five minutes! (More specifically: create mind maps for your lecture material for five minutes!)
- Learn a new foreign language for five minutes every day!
- Do five minutes a day of exercises you’ve never done before!
If you want to add something to your life, then do it. Make a bold decision and go for it. You don’t have unlimited time and you can’t wait any longer. No one else will do it for you – you must act yourself. And you can act. You just have to trust yourself.
Quit With Something Old!
If you want to start doing great things, then that also means that you have to somehow make room for them in your life. And the easiest way to do that is to break bad old habits.
You can either proceed step by step and slowly but steadily banish the old from your student life (see point 2), or you draw a hard line and stop it right away.
Examples:
- Immediately stop wasting your time with people who make you feel bad and want to keep you small!
- Stop complaining immediately and take responsibility!
- Stop drinking alcohol during the week immediately!
Quitting something old overnight takes a lot of self-discipline and a strong will. But the effort will be worth it. Because if you gradually work on yourself and your bad habits, you will quickly (and above all permanently) reach a level of high satisfaction and self-esteem.
