THE GREATEST SECRET OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE 5

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for sometime now, I have been talking about the principles of academic excellence. Today, I will show you how to implement the principles. Success requires effort, your efforts determines your result. You will get more from this article than someone else, if you put in more efforts in implementing the principles.

1. Focus on reading

Focusing one's attention on reading alone helps in assimilation. Do not read your books and watch a film at the same time. If you want to read your book, read it. If you want to watch a film, watch it, don't combine both. If you do so, you will loose on both sides. You will not understand what you are reading, depriving yourself of knowledge. You will not enjoy watching the film either, depriving yourself of the fun.

You will achieve less by having divided attention, when you combine reading your book with something else. If you chase two rabbits at the same time, you may loose both. When you are reading, a hundred percent, undivided attention is what you need.

2. Be result oriented

one academic myth is that the more you read the more you will understand. That is not true. When reading, remember that activity is not equal to achievement. It is not how long you read that counts, but how much you understand, and can recall from memory. By gearing your reading to a result, you achieve more than gearing it to a time frame.

To be result oriented, you have to be truthful to yourself. If you longer understand what you are reading, do not pretend or deceive yourself. Drop your book and give yourself rest. Or catch fun. When you are tired, you can watch a film, go visit a friend or play music. Being result oriented means that you will set study goals for yourself.

3. Understand how your brain works

We all have the same brain. There is no such thing as a white or a black brain. Provided they are no anomalies in the brain, or health problems, our brain works in the same way. What distinguishes people however is how they nuture and use their brain. Every human brain has about ten to fourteen billion cells in its cerebral cortex, and these cells are arranged in definite patterns. These arrangements are not haphazard, they are orderly.

Scientists have realized that most people do not use more than five percent of their brain's potential in their lifetime. Albert Einstein, arguably the most brilliant person in the 20th century was a genius. It was said that he did not use more than seven percent of his brain's potentials.
Your brain is more than capable to help you graduate with any grade you desire, if you nurture it for that purpose.
One research revealed that the brain do not get tired. We are the ones that get tired. Those days that you felt your brain was full, it wasn't. You were probably tired. The more you use your brain, the better it will function.

I once read of a school in the United State of America , where candidates, as part of their requirements to gain admission into the university, were required to memorize the New testament Bible from the book of Mathew, down to Revelation. In the history of the school, more than a hundred thousand students have achieved this feat. Your brain Has unlimited potentials. All you need do, is to give it responsibility. Give your brain a mighty problem to solve, you will surprised that it will solve it.

Learn how to run your brain. It will function better when you know how it works. Take for instance, people learn in different ways. Visual people want to see or picture in thier mind what they are being taught. Auditory people are okay with just hearing the lecturer speak, while kinesthetic people want to feel what the lecturer is saying, they don't just want to hear. Some students learn when the lecturer is funny, while some learn when he/she is strict. We can all be taught the same thing, and yet, some people will understand it more than others, because we don't run our brains in the same way.

4. Develop the habit of succeeding

Excellence is a habit. If you study people who pursue excellence, you will notice that excellence is pronounced in everything they do. In the way they work, talk, read, sleep, and all that, you will see excellence. The principles of academic excellence are meant to be habitualize. You won't expect to implement them once, and get extra-ordinary result. You have to implement them over and over to get meaningful results.

Excelling in school can be achieved easily, once it is an habit. It is said that we succeed by what we do habitually, not by what we do occasionally. Do implement these principles passionately for the next twenty one days. Fact is anything you do for 21 days becomes a habit.

5. Take small steps

implementing these principles will be easier if you can start by taking small steps.It is said that inches make champions. Right now, pause and reach for a pen and paper. jot down seven simple steps you will take towards having the best grade this semester. Be as specific and simplistic as possible.

As a success coordinator for some secondary schools, I usually tell students that if they read the Bible for one hour everyday they will finish it. Please read your Bible, but imagine what you will achieve by reading your textbooks for at least one hour everyday?
By Implementing these principles, I am convinced you will see a positive change in your 'acada' Remember, if nothing stopped you from being born, then nothing can stop you from achieving your wildest dreams.

Agbolade Omowole, runs Interpersonal Skills Training for corporate organizations. He is also a financial adviser with Aims Asset Management Limited.

Contact: 08020777803/agboolaa_coach@yahoo.com
Blog: www.101youngentrepreneurs.blogspot.com