Study Coach

Set Your Vision High December 5, 2007

“Yes!  I passed the exam!”

“I wish that I will pass the final exams tomorrow.”

“It’s okay if I don’t score high on my paper.  I’m just after a passing mark.”

Have you heard these statements before?  Have you said something like them before?  I have and I’ve regretted it.

It’s not the statements in themselves but the attitude behind why they have been uttered that matters.  It is the attitude that has kept a lot of people from excellence and greatness in their performance.

It is the attitude of mediocrity that has kept a lot of people from living out their true potential.

It has been said that the enemy of great is the good.  It is not the bad.  The reason why a lot of people do not become great is because they settle for just being good.  One reason why some people do not get excellent grades is because they settle for just passing the course or even just getting a good grade.

What happens when we just aim to make the grade?  Why don’t we excel?

This is best illustrated by the game of archery.  No matter how good you are at archery, you don’t always hit the bulls-eye or what you aim for all the time.

It is the same with our exam scores.  If we just aim for a “just passing” grade and hit our mark then that’s just what we will get – a grade that is just passing.  What if we miss?  Then we will likely fail.

On the other hand, what if we aim for a perfect score?  If we hit our goal then that would be just great!  If we miss then we still might hit 95%, or 90%.  That would still be high.  We could even get a low score or even fail but that would be okay since we did our best.  There would be no regrets at all since we did our best and that’s just the score we got, then that’s just the score we deserve.

This happened to me once.  I studied well for a course only to have a grade that is just passing.  One third of my class got a failing grade.  I got a low but passing score but since I know I did my best, I didn’t regret the grade I got.

What’s tragic is not doing our best and getting a failing score or even getting a high score like 95%.  Imagine, if we didn’t do our best and still got a 95% mark, how much more if we did our best?  This is regretful.

This also happened to me once.  There was a subject that I didn’t like when I was in college.  Because of this, I rarely attended class on time and was absent for a few times.  However, I still got a grade of about 90%.  I scored higher that my classmates.  However, looking back I can’t help but wonder what grade I could have gotten if I took the class more seriously by coming on time and by studying harder.  I could have gotten 100%!  I’ll never know and that is indeed regretful.

You see excellence is not about being perfect or being the best; it’s about doing your best.  As long as you know that you did your best then whatever score you get reflects your actual ability.

The lesson?  Aim high and do your best and you will lead a life with fewer regrets.  And, while you’re at it, get a very good study coach to help you reach your full potential.  This you will never regret.

The Refined Focus of Specific and Holistic Visions December 5, 2007

In the previous articles, we learned a few things:

1. Attitude is equally important if not more important than our ability in determining our performance and potential for achievement.
2. A vision can be defined as a mental image or picture of a desired future condition or event. 
3. We can become highly motivated in whatever we are doing now if we can relate it to our overall vision.
4. Our vision focuses our efforts because it helps us decide on what and what not to do.

Since our vision can be so powerful because it highly motivates us even to the point of overcoming obstacles and because it focuses us by helping us decide what to spend our time and energy on and what to ignore or prioritize less, it is very important to define even more what a good vision is.

First of all, a good vision should be specific.

For example, don’t just say, “I want to have a high-paying job.”  Geographically, where do you want to work?  What type of job would that be?  What field of specialization?  For example, if you want to be a doctor, what kind of doctor?  A pediatrician, an ophthalmologist, a surgeon, etc.?  What would your ideal working ours be like?  What perks?

Don’t just say, “I want to have a nice family.”  What do you like your spouse to be like?  How many kids? How many boys and how many girls?  How would you describe your ideal family relationship?

Do you get the point?  Be specific.

Why?  Because, being vague would be like chasing after the wind.  How would you know if you have attained the vision already when you can’t describe it?  The more specific, the easier it is to visualize.  The clearer the image, the more it inspires you and motivates you, the more it fuels your desire.

Relating it to the previous article, the clearer the vision, the more focused you will be.  It would be easier it is to help determine your decisions now.

On the other hand, while a good vision is specific, it should also be holistic.  This means that it should encompass all the different areas in your life.

There is a danger in having a very specific vision in only one area of your life while not having one or at least a specific one in the other areas of your life.

For example, let’s say your vision only covers you finances and job or business.  Giving flowers to your spouse or gifts to your parents could be considered an expense and, therefore, something to be avoided if you are to save a lot of money to improve your financial condition. 

Being successful in your job could entail that you work late nights, weekends and holidays to get ahead of the rat race at the expense of spending time with your family.  Spending time praying and reading the Bible could be considered a waste of precious time in building your business.  So would be going to the gym.  That is, if your vision solely encompasses your financial and career life only.

However, if your vision were holistic also encompassing your spiritual life, your family life and physical health as well, then your decisions would change.

Giving flowers to your spouse and gifts to your parents would no longer be considered as an expense but as an investment in your relationships.  Prayer and reading the Bible would be considered as an expression of love to God rather than as a time waster. 

Going to the gym would be an investment in your health rather than as a cause for loss of time and money.  Going home early would not be considered as time off work but as more time investment in your family.

This would mean that you probably would have to think of more creative ways on how to be financially free or among the different ways you know of how to become financially free, you would choose the methods that allow you spend on other important parts of your holistic vision.

Thus does a holistic vision focus you even further.  As your vision becomes more specific and yet broader in scope, the more focused you become.  There would be more factors affecting your decisions now but the quality in life and the degree of motivation it would produce would be even better.

Are there areas in your life where you have not yet defined your vision?  Why don’t you start on those areas of your vision now?

The Focusing Power of Vision December 5, 2007

Have you ever been flooded with a lot of urgent things to do that you become paralyzed with indecision on which activity to prioritize?  Or have you decided not to prioritize and just do everything that requires your attention only to find yourself burned out in the end?

Have you ever experienced uncertainty in deciding which course to pursue, which school to study in and which subjects to include in your plan of study?

With all the organizations within and outside your school both academic and otherwise, which should you join?  Or should you really join any?

Or maybe it’s as mundane as where to sit in class.  At the front near the teacher? At the middle right portion beside your cute classmate?  Or at the back row with your buddies?

Decisions, decisions, decision! Which option should you take?  Should you just quit making decisions and let things happen by themselves?  Well, that itself is also a decision.  What!?!

What should be the basis of your decisions?  Right or wrong?  Sin or righteousness?

Of course that should be one of the major factors but what if the choices you are faced with are not morally black or white like do you major in business or biology?  Or do you spend your free time in the gym or hanging out with your friends or working part-time in a fast food chain or apprenticing as an intern in your family business?

A wise man once said that without a vision, people cast of restraint.  In other words, without a vision, people do not set personal boundaries.  They just run wild and just do basically anything.  Therefore, a vision helps determine what you should and shouldn’t do.

For some people the word “restraint” is a negative word.  It sort of conjures images of shackles, handcuffs and anything that would hinder you from reaching your goal.  So for them, throwing off restraints is a good thing.

However, in this context, there are restraints that are beneficial and are there to protect you.  For example, there are bars on the sides of bridges to prevent you from walking or driving off it.  In a marathon, there are signs laid out to tell you where to go and the track is marked out so that you won’t go amiss.

I usually say that a person without a vision is like a person running a race without knowing where the track and the finish line are.  Imagine wasting all that energy running and you don’t know if you are anywhere near your goal and worse you don’t know if you’re still running on the right course.

If you don’t have a vision, you will just basically do anything and get nowhere.

What a vision does is it helps focus your energy.  Ask yourself if the choice you are making contributes to getting you where you want to go.  If not, then that’s probably the wrong choice.

In our own unique version of study coaching and life coaching differs from the average run of the mill tutorials and study coaching.  While others focus mainly on your academics, we focus on your life goals.

For example, you’re already a good student and are faced with a decision of whether to spend more time after school going to the gym or studying in the library or joining the Toast Masters’ Club.  Our study coaching advice for you will depend on your vision and what you want out of life.

If you plan to take a PhD in one of the top private universities in your country because you plan on being a very famous academician and consultant later on but have little finances we most likely coach you to spend extra time in the library without totally neglecting your social life and your health.  This could help you get the extra high scores to merit a scholarship in your desired university.

However, if you are planning on becoming the next basketball star because you have the physique and talent for it.  Since you already have good academic standing, we would probably advice you to spend some more time at the gym.  Why?  Because it is your vision to become a star athlete and we are study coaching you to study on how to become one.

Likewise, if you probably plan to be a politician or maybe a motivational speaker, the Toast Masters’ Club could be a viable option as your after class activity.

It all depends on your vision.

Can you picture your life where decisions are easier to make because you have a vision?  Can you imagine having peace of mind and being guilt-free in turning down certain “urgent” tasks because they do not contribute to your overall vision?

If this is a desirable picture for you, then let that be part of your vision by defining your vision now.