- 1). Learn the income payoff for being successful in school. Examine the relationship between levels of educational attainment and income earned during one's working life. Education is the best investment a person can make. The higher one's level of attainment, the more income they will be likely to earn and the better life will probably be. Students should make the effort to get the most education they can, and work hard to be successful in school at every level.
- 2). Establish long-term education goals.
Long term means five years or more in the future. Do you want to graduate from college? Get into medical school? Get a Law degree? Get an MBA? Get a master's or PhD.? Try to define concrete but realistic long term goals for yourself. Then focus on them, thinking about them every time you're tempted to not do your homework. Make your long-term goals motivations for your behavior every day, because every day does count when it comes to being successful in school. - 3). Establish intermediate and short-term education goals. Intermediate goals cover a period of one to less than five years while short term refers to under one year in length. Do you want to get into a good college? Graduate in the top 10 percent of your class? Graduate from high school? Make the honor roll in high school? It's important to have short-term and intermediate goals that are stepping stones to your long-term goals.
- 4). Develop a strategy and plan for success in school. For each of your education goals develop a strategy and an action plan. A strategy might be to get math tutoring or to study with a group of friends on a regular basis -- guys with guys and girls with girls so that romance doesn't interfere. An action plan will include several individual tasks with timing and any cost that might be required. If you are a student, start now to understand how to generate goals, strategies and action plans that work; this skill can help you to be successful in school and later, in life.
- 5). Develop good study habits to be successful in school. One of the most critical keys to being successful in school is to develop good study habits. Habits are predispositions to act in certain ways. Habits are formed by practice, by doing. Good study habits are formed by studying on a regular basis for the amount of time required to learn something. Good habit formation can be facilitated by studying at the same times most days of the week. The brain's plasticity allows it to be programmed by repetition to become more readily disposed to the activities and actions that you do over and over. The effort required to initiate study is reduced and regular studying becomes the norm. Once good study habits are ingrained you will find that learning and success in school become easier.
- 6). Defeat procrastination to be successful in school. Procrastination robs you of productivity, success and ultimately, of self respect. Avoid the pitfalls of this horrible vice by taking care of assignments, homework and papers on time if not early. "Misery loves company" -- so don't let procrastinating classmates who brag about their delinquency pull you down. You should be a role model for others in the way that you take care of your work and in the way that you are successful in school.
- 7). Stay in control to be successful in school. If you are a teenager or young adult, don't let your hormones or other people lead you into irresponsible actions. Self-indulgent behavior and abusive behavior toward others are self-destructive and unworthy of mature individuals. Work hard to develop strong character by cultivating the virtues of courage, temperance, justice and prudence.
- 8). Seek out other winners to be successful in school. Winners are those who make the best of their potential through diligent effort. They don't have to be the smartest, but they should be on their way to being the best they can be. Make friends with such people so that you can support one another in a mutual quest to be successful in school.
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