Life Improvement Tips For The Wise Few

Image by thaisilvestre via FlickrYour final exams are closing in and students from all walks of life are showing many stress symptoms, some don’t even have a clue that it is stress that is causing all their aches and pains. For a student to pass their final exam, they will have to learn how to deal with stress, and this is simpler than it sounds. managing stress should be your first goal, you need to get yourself in relaxation mode or else you will definitely have a hard time focusing, and that would be a sure sign of failure.

A lot of the stress symptoms that these students are facing can also be related to the adopted strict principles that their parents are putting on them. Let me elaborate on this for a moment. During the school year, many parents let their children do as they please, and as the year start gearing up towards exams, they make drastic changes and implement new laws that the children are not accustomed to. I think, that is really hard for your child, and they have no clue how to deal with this, and that brings on more stress.

Many of these children are coping with stress in their own way, and the parents are not trying to clam and relax them, but put on more pressure as to keep them captive and enclosed, as if this will improve their studies. You should have implemented the strict rules during the year, and not towards the end.

Another hard blow that the students facing exams has to deal with are those teachers, who naturally take away the kids chances, and make them face fair and failure head on. No matter how bad it is, I don’t believe no teacher should be putting down their students and telling them that they will fail. Are the teachers their to motivate and help or steal dreams?

The parents on the other should be there showing their children how to deal with stress, and should be doing research online to figure out ways to relieve stress. I know many of you have no clue how to cope with stress and the many ways to deal with stress, so can you picture that your child is even more lost in this stressful world than you are.

To help you and your child relax and get rid of stress, I will give you a couple relaxation techniques that will help you deal with exams stress:

Stress Relaxation Techniques

1. Believing That You Will Pass - What you think about all day long, is what will come to pass, and you have to keep your mind set on getting that diploma.
2. Listening To Music - A little music is good for the soul and will help calm the nerves
3. Relaxing The Mind - Focus on something positive, smile and keep only positive feelings flowing through your mind at that moment, breath slowly and try not to think about the exams.
4. Peace And Quiet - Find someplace quiet, where your alone, and try to really get some sleep, not getting enough sleep brings on even more stress.
5. Exercise - This is the best stress reliever that I know, if your mind is focussed and your muscles are active, your body will relax. Try to do some type of exercises, like yoga, tai-chi, kick boxing, stretching, body-building or any type of sports exercise that involves mind body and soul.

All students stress, even the one with high grades, they stress to remain at the top, and is even more scared to loose that spot then the struggling student. Even your parents deal with job stress, but exam stress is a killer, and spotting the signs of stress is of utmost importance.

Spotting The Signs:

• Concentration problems
• Not eating
• Constant worrying
• Negative traits
• Tense behavior
• Sleeping too much or too less
• Skin problems (discoloration of the skin)
• Nail biting
• Headaches (or any type of ache)
• Constant nagging
• Cold symptoms
• Depression
• Swollen Glands

There are many more, but those will be the easy stress signs to spot, and should help you see the signs and know exactly what to do and how to deal with your child stress symptoms. Here is a great article that deals with managing stress, it covers the signs, symptoms and causes of stress…
For me, there is only one way to fail, and that is to not try, go for it, do your exams as if it’s just a ordinary school test. Stop putting emphasis on the fact that it’s a exam. Go out there and break a leg…

As you get closer to ending this school year, many of you will be sitting exams, sorry, but this article goes out to the students of the world, who are in their final stage of their final exams. For those that were working all through the year, congrats, there is no doubt that you have a big smile on your face, your sure that failure is not an option for you.

But, what about those that are still struggling?

For those who are having a hard time, I won’t say I told you so, or I told you to work hard from the get go. You already knew that. Sometimes, you let things slip through the cracks and get lazy and you end up paying the price with another year. But, look at the bright side, to fail means you get to start all over again, now isn’t that fun, isn’t that what we call seeing things from a positive point of view.

Now, to be honest, I hate failing as much as I hate repeating a class. In my life I had to repeat the fourth grade, and you know why? Because of attitude and over confidence. I had a great report but the teachers told my Mom that it would help him to stop touting his own horn. Did it really work? I can’t say for sure, but it did slow me down, but it didn’t take away any of that positive belief I had in my own abilities to get things done.

Many of you out there look at failure totally wrong, I got a chance to repeat the fourth grade and made it sure that I would plan better. Did I hate my Mom for her decision? Hell, I can’t even recall what I did, I was only nine years, and I honestly don’t know what took place. All I know is I was repeating that class. I can’t say it happened overnight, it all started when I was 20 years old.

What did I do to turn things around?

I created a more fail safe secure environment that would guarantee I pass all my classes. I adopted a go getter attitude, not the geek type, but that of a more calculated person, who did calculate his average score for all his grades, and decided before hand, exactly what grades I needed to pass, and what grades I would go slow on.

Let me give you an example: If I had three tests, depending on how many the professor had scheduled for that school year, usually the amount was very low, no more then six. I would calculate exactly what grades I needed to pass with just two test based on three, and then would work really hard for the first two, and then pay more attention to other subjects that I was weak in, yes, you will always have one or two your not good at.

That way I was always sure all would work out, and I was in control, and it always did.

Now, let me run this by you, today I got an email from “Lilo”, and she stated how well she was doing, how much fun she was having, happy belated B-day by the way. And to be honest, that really touched me! She is one of those persons that has the ability to achieve so much, but she got lazy, she began to complain. Her attitude was set for catastrophic failure. All she did was complain and blame everyone for all that was going wrong in her life, she never took responsibility for anything, and would never look within for her own faults nor flaws. Why she complained so much, I don’t know, but what I do know is she won’t ever forget the words I spoke to her on my dining table. hey No hard feelings “Lilo”, I love you just the same.

Much success to you “Lilo”, like I said I believe in you, and know now, you believe in yourself even more. Go for gold and have fun, leave complaining to those who don’t know that: “To fail means that you get to start all over again.”

It doesn’t matter if you fail, once you don’t blame yourself and call yourself a failure, you can never fail, it is either the system that fails or your plan that failed. Talking about plan, make sure you have a plan while studying, if you don’t know how to study, ask your neighbor, just kidding, ask someone who is doing great in your class how they study, it’s that easy.

And read my article: Studying For Success.

Many of you will be all nervous and banging your head against the wall right now, but you have to learn how to relax and get a grip of yourself. You can still make it, and you know the other option, it was mentioned above. Just tell yourself, I don’t give a dawn if I fail, I knew I worked hard and did my best. Now, don’t fool yourself if you been doing nothing, because you will fail.

Pay close attention, I will only say this once…

…if your grades are shaky, and you still feel you have a chance, then here is what you have to do. First , thing first… Carnival is right around the corner, you will have to make up your mind and tell yourself; “I will miss out this year”. Lucky for me, I can’t afford to miss out, but, your the one with the plan, and who is still in school, so you have no choice.

And from the minute you finish reading this article, you will start putting a schedule together with all your subjects, and decide how you will tackle all those subjects, You have to study for one hour, then take a half hour break, and then study for another hour. Then take a hour break,  eat a meal or something to much on, and then back at it. Don’t take no long breaks until after you have studied for at least two to three hours. Do this for at least four consecutive hours. Ever time you have studied a chapter from one subject, you switch subjects. At least two subjects per day.

The objective and goal your thriving for is to prove that failure is not an option. You can only fail if you quit, and no one reading this blog is a quitter. Sorry for those who haven’t found this blog yet.

Don’t allow no distractions, no internet, no girl friend boy friend, blah, blah, and if your studying in groups or with a friend, make sure you stick to your time limits, no “pussy footing” (just wanted to write that word, don’t know why, it just sounds great), nothing that will keep you from your books. You now have a plan, and it’s better than no plan at all. Your MIA for a couple weeks, Missing In Action. You have to eliminate that single point of failure and study every subject, even the ones you dislike.

Follow this routine religiously for the next 4 to six weeks before exams and you will be on your way to a nice and secure fat payday… your “Diploma”. Did you hear me say it won’t be stressful? Nope, it will take a lot out of ya, but nothing in life will ever be easy, so learn to live with that idea in your head. And if it was easy, everyone would be able to do it, your not everyone, your you, and that means your different.

I notice something wrong here, your still reading, didn’t I say ” No Internet”, get off the computer and go study… duh, duh… (got that from my kids)

When your studying, you will get to a point where you will feel that you want to give up, you will not know what to do next. At that moment it all seems to be going wrong, and you just can’t seem to figure out what to do to make it. It doesn’t matter if it’s your final year in school, or your first year. It can be a business of your own or a simple goal that you have set.

At one point in your life, you will reach a point where you will want to give up. At that moment my only advice is to stay the course and keep your focus. It will all turn out just fine. Don’t ask me why this works, but I have been there myself and at that time I felt like giving up, but for some reason it just works out.

Don’t ask me why it works, but all I can say is it works, once you don’t give up.

I will give you an example when I was in my final year of Engineering. I was at a point in my life where this one subject just plagued me, I just couldn’t figure out how to pass this one subject: “Information Technology.” It was not the most difficult subject, but for some unknown reason, I just didn’t understand this subject. I would fail if I got a bad mark, and we only had one exam for this subject.

I honestly didn’t get it, I studied and studied. The day came and I had to do that exam, I felt very anxious and couldn’t understand why, this was a feeling that was foreign territory for me. I went into the classroom, and for some unknown reason, I had this feeling that this test was going to fail me.

As I sat down, and started with my test, I saw no light, I couldn’t figure out what to do, I was skipping question after question, it seemed that I couldn’t answer anything. I just did what I could, and I knew that I would surely fail.

A couple of weeks went by, we got the results, I passed all my subjects except this one subject, I got only 30%. Can you picture that. I failed miserably, and had no clue what to do next. I just sat there staring at my grade, and thinking: What’s next? Would I be able to turn this around and still pass, I had one chance only and I had to stand strong and focus. I had to keep my self calm and pep myself up, encourage myself to be strong and prove that I can make it.

To make a long story short, I honestly felt like giving up, but then at that moment I said; “You came so far, you just can’t give up now.” Those were just words, because in my head I was thinking that I can’t make it, and I honestly had no clue how to go about passing this subject, but at that moment I had this little voice inside of me telling me to honestly hold on, get the courage and take that test one more time.

I listened to that little voice, I decided to take that test over. When it is all going wrong you have to learn how to boost your self confidence. To be honest I really didn’t have a choice, because I would fail if I didn’t.

It was the first time that I had actually failed a important exam, and I honestly didn’t know how to deal with that type of defeat. At that time I was wishing that someone was there to give me a boost, and I couldn’t find that person. I had no one to turn to, but myself, if it was to be, it was up to me. Those words stuck in my head.

Giving up is sometimes easier than we think, but it is the easiest path, and the most obvious choice. And failing is no big thing, many have failed before me, but for some reason I didn’t realize it was a choice. So I made the choice to do it over again.

I didn’t study as hard as I did for the first test. I just went into the class room, saw the test and said, wow, this is even more difficult than the first test, but this time, I had no plan on skipping any questions. I wrote to my hearts content and I finally finished the test, and left, didn’t bother to discuss it with anyone.

A couple weeks later, I got my results and realized that I did pass, it was a happy moment, and it made me realize how often in our life, we quit too soon. Had I quit, then I would have never know how I could have made it by just sitting out the test.

With that I would like you to listen to an audio from Stephen Pierce that really captures this moment. It made me think back. In his words, all you have to do is hold on, don’t give up. A word of encouragement.

If you have a goal or a dream that you wish to accomplish, please remember to hold on and be strong, it will turn out right. Just don’t give up.