Secrets of Academic Excellence

Ugo Njoku

• Publisher: NEU Gen Leaders
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780578447681
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Secrets of Academic Excellence lays out a step by step process to becoming an academic high flyer. The material is effectively presented in a manner that is relevant to today’s youth, using language and stories that they will consider goofy and entertaining. In 5 concise chapters, this book unveils the essential process of attaining academic excellence which includes, a discussion on why anybody should bother about attaining it, goal setting, how to predict your grades, how to study, and a colorful discussion on where to go to know more than your teachers! Brilliant and entertaining, Secrets of Academic Excellence will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

Chapter One

 

Why Bother?

 

We Operate by Reason

I would like us to start by examining the foundation of our actions a little. “Reasons” is the fuel that drives our decision making and hence, our actions. We are constantly looking for reasons to justify our actions – i.e. before taking any action, we consciously or subconsciously look for the answer to the question, “Why must I do this?”. If enough reasons are found in favour of the action, we’ll take it. If not, we’ll back away from it.

For instance, what we just described above is why you don’t listen to some people’s suggestions on an issue but pay close attention to others. It’s because your brain has determined that they’ve earned your respect and, therefore, deserve to be heard.

Have you ever caught yourself doing something incredibly outrageous? I mean…something you wouldn’t do on a very good day. Like talking on the phone at 3AM in the morning? Or talking on the phone for about six hours straight? Or worst still, walking for miles to a girl’s house just to save on some money to take her out? I mean…incredibly outrageous things that you wouldn’t do for just about anybody. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t done any of those things; and you’d be lying if you didn’t agree with me. Would you like to know why you did those things? It’s because you felt “something” for the person; and, therefore, concluded that he/she was worth it.

So, we’re constantly asking ourselves “Why?” Why listen? Why bother talking or trying? Why write? (I had to do a lot of this one!) Why study?

This is why this chapter is so important; because we are going to discuss this subject – “why should you study?” It’s important that we do, because when you give someone enough “Why’s,” you can motivate him to do incredible things. And remember, once we find enough reasons to justify any action, we’ll take it…always!

Reasons for Academic Excellence

Here are some of the reasons why I think it’s very crucial that you take this journey of academic excellence to the end:

1. God expects you to:

I am an adamant believer that God never meant for us, as Christians, to be losers. I believe Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with God – our Father. I believe this relationship transforms every area of our lives in a very remarkable way. I believe Christianity – the way God intended it – is very practical!

God expects us to display His glory in the world by our fruits, i.e. by the outward expressions of our lives. So, I don’t agree with those Christians who choose only to pray, but refuse to study believing that God will miraculously appear and help them pass...with A’s. Now, if they truly prayed and listened to God, they’d hear Him say, “Get your lazy bum up and go study!”

Now, on a more serious note, in John 14:26, Jesus said “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Here, Jesus was describing some characteristics of the Holy Spirit. He said the Holy Spirit will teach us all things, and He will also remind us of things. In that verse Jesus was telling His disciples that the Holy Spirit will remind them of the things He said to them. But remember that this is a characteristic of His. It is His “character” – i.e. His personality and fundamental quality.

So, it doesn’t really matter what it is; Physics, Chemistry, Science, Mathematics, English, Statics, Dynamics, Structural Analysis, or the alphabets. If you ask the teacher that God has appointed to you for help, He will teach and remind you! We’ll talk more about this later.

As children of God, we must realize that we do everything as representatives of Jesus Christ. God is more committed to your success than you are! You know why? Because when you are His child and you succeed, He gets the credit! People glorify Him through you.

God is indeed your father. And, oh! The joy and pride a father feels when his children excel! The Holy Spirit will teach you, but you’ve got to be willing to do the work and study. You’ve got to be willing to learn. I believe that if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work, God will break protocols just to make sure that you succeed!

Ben Carson, in his book, Gifted Hands, narrated the story about how he almost flunked a crucial exam, but a few hours before midnight of the day of his exam, he prayed and cried out to God to help him. After praying, he spent the next two hours studying and cramming as much information as he could. As he narrated his experience in the book, God showed up in his dream and gave him hints on the questions that would appear on the exam the following morning; and also gave him the answers! That’s how incredibly awesome our heavenly Father is. But be careful…Ben Carson’s grace may not be the same as yours! God does as he pleases. He might decide not to show up just to teach you a lesson. So, do your work...study!

2. Excellence is a habit:

In life, everything affects everything else. Because we don’t always feel the effect of our actions immediately, we tend to believe that this statement is not true. But indeed, everything does affects everything else.

Excellence is a thing of character. And people of excellent character command great respect. People revere them a lot! If you can push yourself to turn your academics around, and turn your grades around, chances are very high that your success in the area of academics will propel you to strive for success in other areas of your life – say, your relationships, career aspirations, etc.

I heard Jim Rohn – a wonderful life coach, educator, and entrepreneur – once say, “Set high goals for yourself; not for the thrill of their accomplishment, but for what it will make of you to accomplish them.” So, he was basically saying, the goal you set doesn’t matter as much. What matters is who you’ll have to become to accomplish those goals.

The same principle applies to academic excellence. You should work hard to excel academically because of the person you’d have to become to excel. In order to turn your grades around, and become an excellent student, you’d have to change into a new person – adopt new habits and change a few things about the way you currently do things. All these changes that you’d have to make to the person you currently are, are what’s most important, not the grade itself!

These changes will alter your character and make you a person of excellence. And here’s what’s magical about this process: once you’ve grasped this concept and changed your character, you’d have become a whole new person! A person who will then begin to do everything you set your hands on with a measure of excellence that you never thought possible! You would have revolutionized your entire life by using your academic life to cultivate that character of excellence. This is what’s important…not so much the “getting straight A’s” aspect!

I hope you’re getting excited about all the things you’re going to take away from this book. Hang on! We’ll touch more on these changes later.

3. You build a reference point for your brain:

You know, once you’ve walked through the fire without getting terribly burned, every other surface you walk on won’t seem to be that hot! Or say, if you fight a UFC fighter and live to tell the story, then, that bully in school that walks around giving people wedges will become a wimp to you.

The same thing applies to your academic performance. If you can get yourself to turn it around, there is no other problem you’d face in life that you won’t be able to rise and solve. Academic struggles might seem so little, but if it were, how come a lot of people are still failing? How come those people who aren’t doing so well in school won’t get themselves to pick up a book such as this one to figure out how to turn things around? So, you see? It’s not as easy as it sounds!

When you get yourself to excel this time, it becomes your brain’s reference point for turning a poor performance around. This attitude will help you when you face other obstacles in the future. You can then say to yourself, “I’ve done it before and I can surely do it again!”

4. You owe it to YOURSELF to excel:

This is the most important of all the reasons why. It’s that one piece of the puzzle that holds all the other pieces together! This is very crucial because even God will not force you to shine. God will never force you to do anything! So, ultimately, the ball is in your court. I mean… it’s always been.

I said in the introduction that you’re smart. I know this because everyone is smart, but very few of us take the time to cultivate and reveal that genius in us. The fact that we don’t all make the effort to reveal that genius in us doesn’t erase the truth that it is there – within each one of us – waiting to be awoken. And I’m not trying to sound deep or anything. I really believe it. As I type this, it’s about 2AM in the morning. My eyes are burning, and my body is doing all it can to let me know that I need to “hit the sack”, but I keep pushing myself because I believe you need this! I believe in that genius you have trapped inside of you. I also believe that following the practical steps outlined in this book will, hopefully, help you unveil it.

You owe it to yourself to excel! I mean…if you can, then why not?! It’s a different story if your academic excellence was a total impossibility. But it’s not! It’s possible! You can turn your grades around. You can cultivate the character of excellence. You owe it to yourself to discover the boundaries of your abilities. You owe it to yourself to stretch to the limits of your abilities to become the best you could possibly be. If all it will take is your commitment to excellence and following the practical guides given in this book, you owe it to yourself to discover how smart you really are, and how far your intellectual capabilities can really take you.

Moving Forward

I hope you’ve gathered enough “Why’s?” Please feel free to add more to the list we’ve discussed above. You know yourself. You know what reasons might motivate you even more effectively. The reasons we’ve discussed above are the ones that I know will strike a nerve in all of us – we can all relate to them.

Having gone through the reasons why I believe you should study and apply the techniques and practices given in this book, let’s get to work!

 

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“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.”

- Earl Nightingale

 

 

Key Question:

Do you have a target you are trying to hit?

 

Chapter Two

Setting Goals

The Drift Zone

Let me ask you a question; and please be very honest in your response. How many times have you caught yourself drifting along in a class - i.e. going to class just because you must be there, skipping some classes to log a few extra hours of sleep after a long night of doing “only-God-knows-what”? I remember a guy back in college who showed up for an exam hung over! This dude very well knew that we had an exam that morning. But then again, why blame him, right? Why would a lecturer schedule an exam on a Friday morning – after the officially appointed clubbing night!? It was the lecturer’s fault for sure - I blame him, too!

So, back to answering my question...Yes! I found myself there several times. I still remember some lectures that I gladly passed out in. The lecturer kept going on and on...and on, saying things I couldn’t understand, so I put my time to better use – snoozing! We’ve all been there, and I am no exception.

Why We Set Goals

What are goals really? Goals are simply targets that you set for yourself and commit all your energy to meet. For us to feel alive as human beings, we need to have a sense of growth and progress towards a set objective! Setting goals gives us just that. It gives us something to look forward to and work towards.

Setting goals – whether academic or otherwise – helps you to define exactly what you really want and will also help you know when you’ve achieved it. You know, saying, “I want to do well in school” is good. However, when it is said without knowing exactly what “doing well” means to you, it becomes pointless. You must properly define your “objective” so that you can align your efforts and know clearly what you’re working towards – and know when you’ve achieved it.

Back in middle school, I never set goals. I’d go to school just to catch up with friends, play around and try as hard as I could to get the attention of the ladies. That’s basically what I was all about - and I really sucked at the “getting the attention of the ladies” part! I’d give girls my lunch money – or in some cases, my cab fare – and then walk home! Can you believe that?! I’d give them my money to enjoy themselves, and then have to walk home! Oh, and just to give you an idea, we lived more than 25 miles away from my school! But then again, you wouldn’t expect anything less from a middle school boy who desperately wanted to be liked by the ladies. Girls cost money!!

But you see, all that changed in high school. In high school, I met some of the most intelligent minds I’d ever met. These people helped me with the inspiration I needed to turn my academic performance around. We’ll talk more about this phase of my life much later.

So, setting goals and academic targets every semester gives you a target that you must check your performance against, during the semester. You must keep your eyes on your target in order to make sure you hit them!

How to Set Goals

Again, this is a crucial step in the process of achie...

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTION
• Chapter One
• Why Bother?
• Chapter Two
• Setting Goals
• Chapter Three
• Keeping Score
• Chapter Four
• Don’t Just Read…Study
• Chapter Five
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR