Most students are aware that post-secondary education poses greater challenges than the more obvious and straightforward ones of excelling academically. Many factors act as barriers that stand in the face of achieving that aim.
For example, many college students are living away from their homes and families for the first time, working side jobs to support themselves financially while studying, and are stretched to the max on time so that they aren’t pursuing their hobbies or engaging meaningfully with communities and social groups.
Needless to say, this sampling of struggles and more increase the difficulty of academic prowess. Instead, they increase the incidence of homesickness, anxiety, and depression among university students.
Not only have I noticed these trends in my own experience as an undergraduate, but I also witnessed them in the life of my peers. It is a problem of epidemic proportions.
The good news is that there are solutions. In addition to the countless practical and scientific tips to address specific academic topics that you can find on this blog, you will also find a huge emphasis on cognitive psychology models to approach these issues.
This is because mindset and mental perspectives fundamentally influence and shape our reality, not simply our emotional experience of it. As a neuroscience student, I can assure you that reality is created, not simply experienced, by the individual.
That said, upon my own reflections on the first half of my university experience, I have come up with 15 mindset shifts in different domains that helped me overcome those common problems and actually excel.
I encourage you to adopt from these suggestions the ones that you think speak to your tendencies and will benefit you the most. Also, please share these with any friends, peers, or colleagues who are going through the same experience.
Mindset Shifts About Learning
1. Let Curiosity Fuel You & Optimism Lead You
Nothing says “I don’t care about this” like studying with no interest in the topic or making an effort to cultivate a liking to the material. Nothing says “I will not do well” like a negative, pessimistic spirit going into any class or exam. Be curious about the intricate webs of knowledge you encounter. Be confident about your ability to comprehend and master the material. Equally, be optimistic about its relevance to your life and its impact on the trajectory of your future.
2. Dig Deeper
When you are tempted to give up studying because the volume and intensity of the material is almost impossible to comprehend and apply, please roll up your sleeves and press the gas pedal just a tad bit harder. A breakthrough is bound to occur if you do. You will finally make a connection or get a new idea. This will only happen if you dig deeper and do not succumb to the discomfort of coming up empty after many hours of trying.
3. Prime Before Learning Content
It is important to scope out the topic and main ideas of your lectures before you internalize the details and attempt to use them. This is because your brain needs to build a mental framework where this new information can fit. It will save you both time and confusion during your initial exposure to material and strengthen future reinforcements (study sessions).
4. Practice AS You’re Acquiring New Material, not After
As a neuroscience student, I can also tell you that your brain throws out information it does not need faster than you can imagine. New information that is not used gets discarded incrementally (it is termed “The Learning Curve”). All learning, therefore, can be reduced to working against this Learning Curve. This happens by practicing content while you are learning it, not waiting until you are studying for an exam to do so. If you truly care about optimizing your cognition and time, you must implement this way of viewing your education.
5. Consistency Over Intensity (All Day, Any Day)
If there’s one thing I can tell my freshman, overly-ambitious self, it would be to cut-out the perfectionism. There is no need to complicate your study sessions, take elaborate notes, or only study when you have a four-hour block to spare. The truth is that simplicity is king. A little at a time goes a long way. If you can only listen intently because you’re too exhausted to take notes, just listen to the lecture and process the material instead of worrying about writing it down. If you only have 20 minutes between classes to work on an assignment, pull out the assignment wherever you are and work on it instead of scrolling on your phone. You do not need all the stars to line up and all the circumstances to be perfect for you to get going on a task. Do what you can, when you can.
Mindset Shifts About Goals
6. Always Set Goals
As a young adult undergoing an experience as life-altering as Western universities, clarity about life can be hard to come by. You may be pulled in different directions, involved in various endeavors, and unsure about your long-term pursuits. That is completely normal and okay. However, it is important to set your sight on a particular destination so that your boat can more or less sail in that direction. Always set goals. Always aspire. Do not settle. Do not compromise. Do not be complacent.
7. Be Committed to the Process and Detached from the Results
You cannot control the outcome of your actions no matter how hard you wish that wasn’t the case. All you have control over is the process: the daily actions you are committing to doing to get you to where you desire. Break free from holding yourself hostage to a certain idea of your life. People change courses all the time. Things do not always happen the way we want or expect them to. Put your stock in the process. The results will take care of themselves.
8. ENJOY the Process
Most university students have this idea that life must be grueling, hard, and unbearable as proof that they are in fact working hard to deserve the outcomes they hope for. What a sad waste of precious life. You do not need to suffocate the joy out of your existence to achieve your goals. If you think you do for some reason, I urge you to reassess the importance of those goals. Live your life. Pursue your hobbies even if they do not professionally move you forward one millimeter or pay you one penny. Joy and satisfaction with life will not happen once you reach a certain milestone or accomplish a certain feat. You will be happy when you decide to be happy, not when you arrive at some imaginary destination.
9. Live Like the Person You Want to Become
Your mind is not oblivious to your contradictions. Your subconscious picks up on the things you say you want in the future and the things you do right now. If the two don’t align, your mind will hold you back from obtaining your desires. If you envision yourself in a particular way, act like it right now. Live like your future self. For that is the way to become that person.
10. Limit Everything that Limits You
You must be absolutely scrupulous and unforgiving about the things, people, and situations you allow into your life. This is because everything seeps into your personal beliefs, your subconscious narratives, which ultimately birth your actions and lifestyle. Be careful what you consume, physically and mentally. Minimize or eliminate that which does not serve your aims.
Mindset Shifts About Life
11. Be a Producer, Not a Consumer
As a university student in the 21st century, you are prime picking (the target audience) for all kinds of campaigns and markets. It is just too easy to fall into the trap of buying everything that is aimed your way, from energy drinks to school merchandise. The problem with this habit is not necessarily the monetary wreck it can cause but that it forges a particular mindset that is not conducive to achievement or productivity in any domain: consumption. As a student and aspiring professional, you want to cultivate the opposite of that: production. Put value into the world instead of taking it, whether that is through your school work or the tangible labor of a job or creative endeavor.
12. Life is Abundant
When you plant a single seed into the ground, it grows back as a plant with much fruit, not just one after its kind. Nature is abundant. Nature gives. It nurtures and supports all life. This is not a poetic point for you to contemplate, but an example for you to fashion your life after. Model this joyful, carefree giving. Lack is a mindset. It is the product of fear. Sometimes that fear is logical and other times it isn’t, but in both cases, it hinders the flow of life through your palms. Give and you shall receive.
13. No One is Owed Your Experience
Many university students live their lives for different audiences, from their parents to their professors to future employers or universities. All too many students do things for the sake of something else, often far off into the future: getting a certification in a certain skill to seem competent for a particular role, piling up experiences to plop on a resume, and crafting personal statements or cover letters that exaggerate or deflate certain aspects of their experience. While you may gain specific acquisitions by doing so, you will most certainly lose yourself. Your own voice becomes muddled with the voices of other people, telling you what they value and don’t value, what you should do and not do, who you should be and not be. Do not live for that. Do what you must for the things you desire in the most authentic way possible. And if that is impossible, then do not do it at all. It is simply not worth it. Your life is your own. Your happiness is not a commodity to bargain with universities, work places, or societal expectations.
14. What is Meant for You Will Find You
Comparison and Competition are a nasty, nasty disease plaguing many university students and young adults in general. Seeing snapshots and highlights of other people’s lives has become far too easy. It is also far too easy to wish those same things for yourself, sometimes out of envy and sometimes out of self-pity. Social media or not, this is sadly the human condition. The remedy, I have found, is to hold fast to the mindset shift that what is meant for you will find you, no strings attached. You do not have to live in fear of missing out on opportunities or experiences. Trust that the train of your life is stopping at all the right stations and it is right on schedule.
15. See the Soul in EveryBODY
The masses and masses of people walking through a single college campus at any point in time is a sight to behold. Biologically, our physical senses get too overstimulated that they resort to shutting down by labelling the outside world and everyone in it as “insignificant.” Socially and psychologically, we become our own “in-group,” while everyone else is the “out-group.” It is a very practical, survival mechanism. But it isn’t very kind. I implore you to counter this tendency by opening up to the people around you, noticing their uniqueness and individuality, appreciating their humanity, which is nothing but a reflection of your own.
Conclusion
My friend, I hope you had a culture-shock of new ideas and perspectives. I hope that my experience and reflections were able to help you in any way.
This time as a college student is a glorious one. But education does not stop there, nor is it only limited to formal schooling. Life is a great teacher. Your own experiences are the lessons. So lean in and listen closely. Happy learning, my friend!