“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
A quote made by Alexander Graham Bell and till today, is one of many famous quotes.
Looking back, I was indifferent to this famous piece of advice and planned to take things as they come. Such was my attitude when I first entered university as a freshie, naïve and careless.
Like a man going through a mid-life crisis with full of regrets, there are many times that I wished I could go back in time to advice my young gullible self.
As a person who understands the trials and tribulations of going through university education, these are the five things that I would tell (and warn) my past self.
(A pretty accurate description of the roller coaster that is uni life)
1. Keeping an open mind
Gone were the days where we can get away with ignorance. Unlike our past selves in Junior College or Polytechnic, staying ignorant will hasten your downfall. Survival means flexibility, adaptability and changing the way we think.
Keeping an open-mind is important because one must understand that no matter how sociable or intelligent one is, everyone has their short-comings. It is imminent that you will clash with your peers on various matters, ideas and even beliefs.
By opening yourself and internalising these new exposures, your perspective on university life will vastly change and improve for the better.
“Much of the success of life depends upon keeping one’s mind open to opportunity and seizing it when it comes” - Alice Foote MacDougall
2. Staying consistent
The most common situation that many students face, would most definitely be a last-minute grind for an examination with just one week left, having little to zero preparation for it. Like throwing a Hail Mary, hoping to get an A for your examination without considerable preparation is almost impossible unless you are gifted. If that is the case, this article is certainly not for you.
Excellent results are the culmination of consistent effort throughout the semester, this requires discipline, hard work and planning. There is a reason why semesters are created to operate on a thirteen-week basis, they are designed for students to commit the necessary number of hours weekly to master the topic taught each week.
By setting aside a number of hours for each module per week and committing yourself to it, luck will no longer be a factor in your quest for that elusive placement on your dean’s list.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne Johnson
3. Avoid over-committing
God gave the world 24 hours each day and that does not entail working throughout. One of the biggest mistakes that first year students make, would be committing themselves to too many club/hall activities when they clearly cannot handle the workload.
Often, fresh university students feel that they have overcame their life’s greatest challenge merely by entering a local university of their choice. Little did they know, they have only witnessed the tip of the iceberg, and actively seek out the university lifestyle that they were long yearning for.
By over-committing to many activities, less time will be spent on their studies and importantly, the necessary number of hours required each week on each module. Students will begin to lag behind, and the vicious cycle of last-minute grinding ensues.
To succeed in maintaining a good work-life balance, know how long you are required to study each week, the commitment for each activity and lastly, whether you are getting sufficient rest to perform effectively at tip-top condition for the next day. Long story short, some advice for my past self would be: “work smart, play smart”.
“Either run the day or the day runs you” – Jim Rohn
4. Choosing your friends wisely
As much as people refuse to believe it, the company you keep defines your personality and influences the choices you make in life. Entering university, we are given the opportunity to meet and associate ourselves with a wide spectrum of people of all ages.
Like a child searching for a sense of belonging. I, myself, gravitated towards that group of popular kids that always hang out together. It is not uncommon that we are normally gravitated towards people whom are popular for various reasons such as their status, their personality, their academic ability or even the number of followers they have on their Instagram. However, one must understand that popularity should never be the overriding factor that stops us from choosing the right friend.
Unless that popular friend is David Beckham, popularity never last forever, personality does. The right friend is someone who influences and guides you to the right direction, one who understands your priorities in life. A true friend is somebody whom is willing to stick with you through thick and thin, no matter what that could be.
These are the type of friends that you need to hold tight today, tomorrow and always.
“Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave and impossible to forget.” – G. Randolf
5. Staying disciplined
Have you ever promised yourself that you will get back to your studies after five more minutes of scrolling through Instagram, only to find yourself slacking for over an hour? If your answer is yes, you are a victim of the most classic example of procrastination, the thief of time.
In today’s modern society, we are constantly subjected to endless forms of distractions. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Netflix, video games, text messages and the list goes on. There is no point in setting aside a number of hours to study for each module if you are going to slack off on them.
In order to ensure that your work life balance remains unhinged, you must be prepared to sacrifice these distractions. For procrastination, it is a destructive behaviour not only for our productivity, but our mental and physical health as well.
As a university student, nobody but yourself can control your actions. Your fate is in your own hands.
“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.” – Hunter S. Thompson
This article was contributed by Nico Wong, a Year 3 Banking and Finance student from Nanyang Technological University. He's an avid reader of Mitch Albom and footballer since 2010.
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