The #1 question you need to ask yourself in college

"Any time you feel overwhelmed, there's a good chance that the culprit is a lack of clear priorities." - Darren Hardy in Entrepreneur Roller Coaster
 
Is college your priority?

Before you answer yes, think about it for a moment.

Look at your calendar. Where are you spending most of your time outside of class? 

College, especially community college, requires you to focus most of your time and energy on being successful in that environment, which requires so much more than just going to class and going home. My blog and book are overflowing with these "other" things to help you be successful in and after college, but none of it will do you much good if you haven't decided to give this college experience your all. 

I have yet to meet a single successful community college graduate who didn't give the experience their all - no matter what very real barriers or constraints they had in their way. They just decided this would be their priority and then they focused all their energy towards that goal.

While it would be nice to just do college on the side, it often doesn't work that way. It requires a lot of you. But the good news is that the people who give their all to their community college experience also tend to be the people who are having the most fun. 

Think about your schedule and your current priorities. Is there something you know you should be doing on campus that you haven't done yet (e.g. meeting a professor, going to the tutoring center, checking out a club, going to the career center)? Is there something you are doing too much of that's getting in the way of you really making college your priority right now?

College costs money and you are a good investment, but only if you actually invest yourself into this experience wholeheartedly. Is this your priority? What dreams will getting this degree help you accomplish? Write out your thoughts and think seriously about a change you can make to ensure college is really a priority. 

Because if a college degree is something you want, then it must be. 

If you find you're having trouble with this, sit down with a career advisor, academic advisor, or trusted professor/mentor ASAP and talk about your current goals and priorities and ask for advice. Sometimes the best thing we can do to re-prioritize is just talk it out and ask for feedback.

You can do this!

"Lack of direction, not lack of time is the problem. We all have 24 hour days." - Zig Ziglar

Do you have Olympic focus?

The Olympics are over, and while for some athletes it marked the end, for many it marks the beginning of four years of training. Four years until they'll see marked results from their daily work. Sound familiar?

It also takes about four years until you walk on that stage to get your diploma. 

There was one particular Olympics commercial about the journey itself that really struck me. While images flashed of the road from the perspective of a cyclist, the blue mat from the eyes of the gymnast, and the splashing water from the goggles of a swimmer, these words played: 

Take a day off? I don’t even take a morning off.
I haven’t ordered dessert in two years.
You know that best selling book everyone loves? I haven’t read it.
I haven’t watched TV since last summer. Hey, I’ve been busy.

Your first thought may be, wow, they have no lives. While I'm a big believer in balancing work and play, I do think there is some powerful truth in this commercial --> If you want to be average, spend your time doing things average people do, but if you want to be great, you've got to spend your time differently. 

Just like the Olympics, we live in a competitive world, and standing out requires sacrifice. However, it's not about sacrificing for the sake of misery, but for the sake of something you want more than what's tempting you in the present.

If you want to be good, that's totally okay - we need more good people in the world. But if you want to be great, you have to work harder than everyone else.

The good news is, what someone else is doing in his or her lane doesn't actually matter - all that matters is what you're doing in yours, and how focused you are on your goal.  

So how do you know if you have Olympic focus? Take a close look at your daily habits and the way you spend your time. Choose one day this week to write down what you do each hour, without judging yourself. Then write down your goals and analyze the way you're spending your time with their goals. Do they align? What could you replace in order to make more time for the things that really matter the most to you?

It's the daily habits (and yes, sometimes sacrifices) that make big dreams come true. Dreams really do come true, but only for those who realize that every spec of fairy dust requires is a drop of sweat. 

The business of dreams is hard work. But the rewards - they're as good as gold.