7 Habits of Highly Successful Students - Habit VI
Habit VI: Be Disciplined
Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. It requires you to connect today's actions to tomorrow's results. There's a season for sowing and a season for reaping. Self-discipline helps you know which is which. - Gary Ryan Blair
We all like instant gratification. We like to see quickly the fruits of our labour. However, this is often not possible. If you have been consistently failing Maths, it will be highly improbable that you will score better in the Maths test next week simply because you have spend an extra hour a day on Math this week. Similarly, learning ten new words a day will not make you a master in the language within a fortnight.
Lasting and positive changes in your academic performance require time to come into fruition. An extra hour a day spent on practicing Maths will most certainly strengthen your arithmetic foundation and hence improve your Maths results within six months to a year. This improvement is too likely to be permanent, as the extra effort that was placed into the subject will bring you to par with other top performing students.
The process to creating lasting and positive change in your academic performance, however, is likely to be painfully long. You will have to slog through numerous Maths practice questions (worse, if you dislike Maths) day after day without any instant reward in sight to compensate for your hard work. After a week or two, you question yourself if your dedication is worth it and if your strategy is working at all. There does not seem to be an end to all that you are doing.
This is where self-discipline comes it.
Self-discipline is about persevering in tasks that are beneficial to you. Most often than not, these tasks are difficult, uninteresting and not to your preference. But they are important and must be done. Highly successful students know this, and hence they grind their teeth to pull through till they reap the eventual rewards. They will not give up in the process. Neither will they slack off for a breather.
Habit VI is the mother of all the 7 habits of highly successful students. It is the habit that allows these students to strengthen and sustain all 6 other habits. Without this, all the other positive habits and characteristics of top performing students can easily fall apart. In view of these, ask yourself: Are you ready to instil some discipline in your life? Are you more convinced to endure the short term pains in your life for the greater long term reward?
The answer, if you ask me, is apparent.
Questions and Answers
Article Tags:
do better in school
,get better grades
,improve grades
,study smart
,get distinctions
,score better
,cheap tuition
,ace exams
,how to improve grades
,how to study smarter
,seven habits
,how to score better
,7 habits
,successful student
,get best grades
Complacency is one the greatest enemies of students. Complacent students are more likely to take short-cuts in the subject, to take their lessons less seriously and to devote minimal effort in revising for the examinations. Such actions often create blind spots in the short term, hence resulting in inconsistencies in the student's grades. They too weaken the foundation of the student in the long term.
Most students do not possess conscious control over their power to believe. They go through their lives taking minimal notice of their thought processes, such as how the mind moves, what it fears, what it heeds, what it says to itself, and what it brushes aside. They do not question their beliefs, but instead treat them like gospel. These students will remain mediocre and achieve nothing more than average grades. Are you ready to challenge your beliefs?
Reading initiates understanding; practicing enhances understanding; but teaching brings understanding to a new level which transcends the limits of most students.
Do you fear challenges in life? Or do you shiver at the thought of examinations and at the sight of academic obstacles such as tight deadlines and difficult assignments? Most students do. But not highly successful ones. Are you ready to eliminate your fear for academic challenges and instead embrace them?
Failing to plan is as good as planning to fail. Do you already have a game plan for success? Or are you simply going with the flow?
Your high school reunion is one of the most poignant moments of your life, besides your high school graduation.
The days when high school reunions are interesting and mysterious are now all but gone completely.
As wonderful and as exciting an experience as growing up and being a kid can simultaneously be, it is often a challenging time in one's life for a number of reasons.
Anytime you have to attend a highschool reunion it can be a bit stressful.
Taking care of a child can be difficult but it can be even more difficult if you are a single parent. You are burdened by the responsibility of earning money and then taking care of the child.
Have you ever wondered why your child is still getting average grades despite 6 hours and $200 worth of tutoring each week… Or why some of your child's peers are getting straight A's despite having no tutoring?
Reading initiates understanding; practicing enhances understanding; but teaching brings understanding to a new level which transcends the limits of most students.
Do you fear challenges in life? Or do you shiver at the thought of examinations and at the sight of academic obstacles such as tight deadlines and difficult assignments? Most students do. But not highly successful ones. Are you ready to eliminate your fear for academic challenges and instead embrace them?
Complacency is one the greatest enemies of students. Complacent students are more likely to take short-cuts in the subject, to take their lessons less seriously and to devote minimal effort in revising for the examinations. Such actions often create blind spots in the short term, hence resulting in inconsistencies in the student's grades. They too weaken the foundation of the student in the long term.
Discuss this Article
