HOW TO ACHIEVE ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

TIPS FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Excellence is a quality of being outstanding; it is not a trait, hence it cannot be inherited.  There is no one way of achieving excellence academically; it is how you apply the principles governing it that determines the outcome.  Excellence comes with a price, only those who understand its worth can pay for it.  I will like to share with you some tips that can help you in your quest for success; they are relative but I am sure you will find them interesting. 

• Put God first

God Himself is a God of excellence, no wonder he made all things perfect and endows His children with an excellent spirit.  He has given you all that it takes to succeed at whatever you do, it is just for you to believe and tap into His abundant resources. Do not allow your studies to compete with God’s time in your life because you need Him to sustain and see you through. I understand the place of prayer in your academics but it is not enough; remember that faith without work is dead, play your own part and do your best; pray as if you will never read and read as if you will never pray. 

• Prioritize

Many people have problems of misplaced priorities because they find it very difficult to order things according to their importance.  You have to understand that your primary reason for being in school is to study in order to come out with good grades that will give you an edge in this highly competitive world; every other thing is secondary such as clubs, associations, parties etc.  How you channel your resources and apportion your time is a function of what your scale of preference is like. If your academics is important to you, you will invest your time, money and energy; you will do anything to get the right materials and textbooks to upgrade you and make you a better student, but if you pay more attention to trivial things; you might soon be on your way to failure. 

• Set a target

Don’t start your semester without having a sense of direction; if you do not set an achievable target for yourself, you will discover very late that you are studying aimlessly.  Be ambitious and always aspire to be the best because you deserve it; don’t settle for less, believe in yourself, set out plans and develop strategies to accomplish them.  Setting targets ignite your passion and that is the driving force that will propel you towards excellence.  For example, when I got into college, I was determined to make a First class; even when it seemed difficult, I kept assuring myself I could do it and kept pressing on until I achieved it and today I am sharing my success story.

• Be disciplined

Discipline is a very essential principle of excellence that is lacking in the lives of so many youths hiding under the shadow of freedom to do anything.  Self discipline is a conscious control over your lifestyle and you need to nurture it because it is one of an achiever’s greatest weapon.  Some students have worn indolence as a robe, nonchalance as a footwear and procrastination as a hat getting dressed to travel the road of shambles; they look into the mirror of stupidity with so much satisfaction and bid their studies goodbye.  They get to the end of the road only to see an ocean of failure; they skilfully dive into it and continue to swim in confusion until they are being swept away by a tide of destruction.  You should be disciplined enough to have a study timetable that guides you like a map in a journey; be punctual for all lectures and complete your assignments without waiting for deadlines; be committed to your study time and you can be sure of remarkable results.

• Stay focused

I’m not talking about a gaze, I mean conditioning your mind to one important goal you must achieve.  Know what you want and go for it with all determination, enthusiasm and optimism.  Distraction can come in any form such as businesses, relationships, friends, families and so on; note that not so many things can travel with you on the way to success; a lot of unwanted baggage have to be dropped because they might slow you down.  There are things that can wait because they will always be there; however if you cannot make sacrifices for your academics, then don’t think about excellence. Excellence is not plucked from a tree or picked on the road; it takes a lot of commitment and discipline to achieve it.  When your eyes are fixed on something, you can hardly miss any detail and even when there are times when you are tempted to shift grounds, return as soon as you acknowledge it because the farther you move away from your goals, the lesser the chances of achieving them.

• Manage your time

As endless as TIME is, you cannot hold onto it; as the clock ticks and seconds count, you’re getting closer to your end no matter how old you live.  Time management is the act of controlling and organizing events as they are being influenced by time; this has become a skill because many people are guilty of mismanagement.  Even if 24 hours were increased to 48 hours in a day, many will still complain it’s not enough.  There is time for everything; time to admitted and time to graduate, time to study and time to write exams.  Procrastination has eaten deep into the minds of some students such that everything is always for a later date, they start their day without proper planning on how to apportion their time and instead of controlling the events, they end up being controlled by them, they slump into their beds at the end of each wasted day, wake up the next day worthlessly and remain the same.  At the start of each semester, many busy about with frivolities and when exams draw close; they start expecting miracles, rush and muddle up things, write exams ill-prepared and expect fantastic results.  Instead, make a deliberate effort to plan your day, make a list of events and appointments and make sure you are disciplined enough to meet up. Time is a free but non-renewable resource, so spend each moment wisely.

• Keep the right Company

You are who you move with, there are different kinds of companies you can keep in an academic environment but the choice of those that can make or mar you is entirely yours to make.  Students form cliques for different reasons; to some, it gives them a feeling of importance while for others; it’s a way of being a part of something. 

For good companies, it has to do with mingling with people of similar interests and goals, people of like minds, passion and vision who have excellence as their watch word, people who believe in your dreams and are ready to push you through.  It can be a study group where you exchange ideas, learn and also impart others.  Although you must develop yourself independently, you cannot be an island because the more you share your knowledge, the more you know; don’t be scared of making mistakes, you stand to be corrected but remember that your clique can only help you outside the examination hall, so maximize the moments you share with them. If you ever develop any form of academic apathy, the best thing to do is to talk about it; let people with positive thinking advise you and deliver you from misery.

For bad companies on the other hand, your circle of friends are like viruses that corrupt your mind, becloud your thinking and cause you to lose yourself and your purpose for living.  They lure you into all forms of vices such as drugs, gambling, prostitution, cultism, internet fraud, examination malpractices and so on.  If they determine the kind of life that you lead, so mighty will be your fall and guess what - you will be falling alone; some are in complete jeopardy and are looking for partners in failure.  Quickly identify bad friends and dissociate yourself before you become entangled. Evil and Excellence both start with the letter ‘E’ but they are two separate roads you cannot travel at the same time.

• Don’t copy others

Carve out your own niche; know what you are capable of doing and the extent you can go.  Be yourself and never try to study like someone else; understand your pattern of learning and develop your style of studying.  Never compare yourself with anyone because people apply principles of success differently; this is what I mean, for example, students in the same class receiving the same lecture under the same condition cannot assimilate at the same rate.  Know your pace, never give up, try to catch up and you will soon be up.  Recognize your time of maximum assimilation, day or night and fix up your study timetable; never follow friends to study when it is very inconvenient for you, you might just be the greatest loser, so be wise.

• Prepare adequately

Examination is a test designed to measure the academic aptitude of students to ascertain their level of understanding of a particular subject.  Knowing fully that you have to pass it to be promoted to the next level, why won’t you give it your best shot.  Don’t start studying too close to exams, you will only be tasking your brain too hard, denying yourself of enough rest and putting your entire body system in a state of higgledy-piggledy. Information is being stored over time and not spontaneously, no magic will magnetize answers to your brain, so why don’t you make sacrifices, burn the mid night oil, go the extra mile and do your best, stay healthy with a good diet and be punctual for all your exams . You don’t have to cheat if you have played your role well because you will be destroying your image and peradventure you get caught, the consequences are very severe, so beware!

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The A-Z Attributes of Highly Effective People

Effective people are known for being productive in all ramifications of life. They are successful and produce strong or favorable impression on people. They influence people positively and impart their generations. They follow certain principles and pay close attention to the following characteristics;

A - ASPIRATION

Aspiration is born out of AMBITION. It is a strong feeling or desire to be successful in life and to achieve great things.

B - BRILLIANCE

You have to learn how to put your brain to use effectively. Being intellectual is built by absorbing useful resources and utilizing them to produce exceptional results.

C - CURIOSITY

The more questions you ask, the more answers you get and hence, the more knowledgeable you become.  Your yearning for information and your eagerness to discover new things will keep you on the path of success.

D - DISCIPLINE

There is no successful person that has ever made it without discipline.  Discipline is having a conscious control over your lifestyle.  An attribute close to it is DILIGENCE which is persistence and hard work even in the face of challenges.

E - EXCELLENCE

This is the quality of being outstanding.  This is an attribute successful people don’t joke with.  Being the best and standing out always and consistently.  Excellence is not a trait, it is developed. This is the quality that distinguishes you.  Your ability to outshine your contemporaries makes you unique and exceptional.

F - FOCUS

When your concentration on a particular thing is high, you can hardly miss any detail just like a properly focused beam of light.  Having a TARGET and going for it with all your resources is an important key to effectiveness.

G - GROWTH

To be highly effective, know that success is not a destination but a journey.  No matter where you attain in life, there is always room to do more. Refuse to be stagnated by your past glory and keep moving on. Keep growing!

H - HARD WORK

You will agree with me that gold is not picked on the streets, neither is oil scooped by the river banks.  If you want an exceptional result, then you must be willing to pay the price. You must dig, toil and perspire.  Though hard work comes with pain and sacrifices, the gain thereof is immeasurable.

I - INTEGRITY

If you trade your integrity for the smallest amount, then you are worth the cheapest commodity money can buy.  Honesty may not put food on your table, but it will save your name.  Do not soil your REPUTATION no matter the temptation.

J - JUDICIOUSNESS

Successful people are good managers of time and resources. You must be prudent enough to maximize resources so as to avoid wasting them.  You must be accountable for every action taken.

K - KNOWLEDGE

This is the most powerful tool needed to remain relevant in your generation.  Seek it, find it and apply it.  Every other thing may be stolen from you but a man who will steal your knowledge must be able to cease your breath first. Guide it jealously because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

L - LEARNING

Learning should be an endless process to remain productive. The day you stop learning, you start dying. Learning keeps you contemporary.  Reading is one way of learning, as a matter of fact - READERS ARE LEADERS, so do not joke with your personal LIBRARY.

M - MOTIVATION

Most successful people are self-motivated.  You have to believe in yourself and in your dreams.  There must be a drive from within that will fuel your passion for productivity.

N - NOBILITY

You need to possess an excellent moral character. Noble people are true to their words and they do whatever positive thing they determine to do.  They exude a charisma that is worthy of emulation.

O - OPTIMISM

You have to develop a positive attitude towards life and hold on to your hopes and expectations.  Condition your mind to remain confident about the steps you take.  It is the oil that will keep your lamp burning.

P - PURPOSE

A man of purpose is a man of VISION. When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. Purpose defines your direction and keeps you focused on your desired goal.

Q - QUALITY

Highly effective people set standards for themselves that cannot be compromised. Everything about you should reflect your genuineness.

R - RESILIENCE

When challenges come because they will definitely show up, your ability to exhibit courage in the face of obstacles guarantees your success story.  You just have to the tough to approach the problems that life poses to you and seek ways to overcome them because you are a PROBLEM SOLVER. Never give up!

S - SENSITIVITY

Your response to your immediate environment and how you are being influenced by it depends on how sensitive you are.  Changes will definitely occur but how you maneuver your way through them will determine your level of productivity.

T - TIME MANAGEMENT

Only a fool thinks that he has all the time in the world to do whatever he likes. Effective people do not joke with their time because every moment is important and should be well accounted for.

U - UNDERSTANDING

Your ability to comprehend issues and situations goes a long way to determine how effective you will be especially in the area of management of people.  Your approach to life and living must reflect clairvoyance.

V - VALUE

Your value system is what projects your personality.  It is what reveals the stuff you are made of.  It shows who you are and what you stand for.  Developing good values is inevitable for effective people.

W - WISDOM

Mere men can rule but only wise men can lead.  Wisdom is not inherited; it is acquired over time through experiences.  Effective people use this tool to approach life issues with a good sense of judgement.

X - XTRA-ORDINARINESS

Going the extra mile, taking the extra step and doing the extra thing differentiates effective people from ordinary men.  You must be ready to BREAK RECORDS, set paces and establish your uniqueness.

Y - YIELD

Effective people are result-oriented.  They are interested in measuring their level of productivity at all times and challenging themselves to become better in all they do.

Z - ZEAL

You must show great enthusiasm and optimism. You have to be proactive to get results that are worthy of commendation.

These are not all the attributes of highly effective people, there are many more but the ones mentioned above were chosen to be captured in this article.  EFFECTIVE PEOPLE ARE WINNERS; 

Why not join the winning team now?

THE MONSTER IN YOU

There is a monster in every man.  It is only a matter of time and event before it is unleashed either by self, people or other means.  It is like the negative photographic film of a beautiful picture. 

Your monster is just like the negative film of your beautiful picture

You will agree with me that no one wants to appear the way he/she is in the negative film – it looks ugly, evil and horrific; nobody would like to upload it as a profile picture. The negative photographic film is the direct opposite of you and so is your monster.

The angry mode of every man when activated is destructive no matter how gentle he used to be. If you don’t believe me, ask some people who ended up in court, prison and hospital about the anger-provoking situation that led them there.

You cannot destroy the monster. It’s like the slogan in the ‘Peak milk advertisement’, ‘IT’S IN YOU’ and is always there. Just like you always need the negative film to print more pictures of the same kind. You can only do one thing, ‘SUPPRESS IT’. No matter how hard you are pushed, DON’T BE TEMPTED TO UNLEASH YOUR MONSTER.

The urge to drift to your negative part is a strong one. It’s a tendency you need to check. You have to fight back and fight hard to overcome it. If you were shown a video of yourself in a destructive state, you won’t probably like a playback. Usually, the monster in you is louder than the angel in you. When you do something wrong, it’s never the work of the devil, it is the suggestion of the devil; you only choose which part of you accepts it. When you are facing the consequence of your actions, the devil will be innocent.

For instance, when you observe most of our leaders, you can tell which part of them is in charge of funds - the monstrous right? Yes, that egocentric part that always wants to amass the wealth and starve the citizens. But they were once followers like you and I, craving for equity and justice.

In the heat of a dispute, imagine you saying to a barren woman, “no wonder you never had kids” or to a dull kid, “you can never make it” or to a jobless man, “you can never succeed” or to the sick, “you’ll never recover”. Even when they forgive you, they will never forget such cruel words. The only good thing is - only God’s words never fall to the ground, yours can, so stop wasting your saliva. Just like the CPU of a computer, humans use their brains to process words and unlike the CPU, we interpret it differently. The words spoken are indestructible and even when scores are eventually settled; the wrong words continually linger and hurt the recipients.

When a lady says, “I hate men”, find out if she was a rape victim. When a guy says, “I dislike women”, find out if he suffered multiple heart breaks. When a young girl says, “I will distribute this HIV to all men”, find out how she contracted it. These people are acting on the basis that the monsters in them have been unleashed.

result of anger turned violence

Let me paint a scenario; if someone hits you hard and you bear the pain and walk away, you may live peacefully for another 50 years or more. If you retaliate on the other hand and you both resort to a higher degree of violence which escalates into the use of weapons, you’ll probably spend the next 50 years of your life in jail or be bedridden and that is if you manage to escape death. Why not let’s leave the probabilities for the mathematicians to solve and move on with our lives.

If you want to be remembered by someone forever, hurt him/her enough to imprint a scar that cannot be erased. Your name will always crop up anytime the person has to narrate his ordeal throughout his/her life time. Unfortunately, you will only be remembered for something gruesome.

I could remember my childhood days when playing as kids led to the accidental knocking out of the front tooth of a friend who boasted that he wouldn't fall down no matter how hard I pushed him standing on one leg. Unfortunately for us, it was a permanent tooth and now when he smiles at me, I weep in my heart. It was an unintentional incidence that led to an irreparable loss, I am only grateful he stays miles away from me to free me from guilt.

So friends, now that you know the consequences of unleashing your monster, it is imperative for you to learn how to deliberately put it under subjection, you have to TAME THE MONSTER in you. Ask God to help you, smile always and STAY POSITIVE!

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