SO YOU’RE STARTING SERIOUS STUDY
7 Steps FOR SANITY THIS Summer W
hether you are the obsessive adult scholar, such as myself, the coming-of-age teen moving in to the final years of formal schooling, or the parent forced to assess a post-pandemic resume and involuntary career changes, one thing is assured, there are ways and means to get a head start and begin the 2021 academic year with confidence, life-balance and energy to spare. So how do we adapt and evolve to SERIOUS study? And what is it anyway? It is important to note that we have all studied before, and whether we saw ourselves as proficient learners or hid in the dark recesses of backrows, coming into a new academic semester ensures that everybody has the opportunity to start out on top. To be serious about study is to realise it is a means to an end. It is more than something thrust upon us by overzealous parents, authoritarian government departments or company mission statements. It is our own personal choice as adults, or soon to be adults, to partake in an activity that will assist our future goals. Gathering knowledge and skills to better resource ourselves to be experts
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in our field, being our best selves and through this, inspiring and uplifting those around us. If this is not the reason for your serious study your first task is to re-evaluate why you are doing it. Life it too short to be giving hours, months and years of your precious time to something that is not meeting the key priorities of your heart and soul. It is important to define your goal, define what constitutes achievement and the steps that will secure this. Ultimately, whether you call it a game plan, a mission statement or vision; we need to create a picture of the best possible version of 2021, taking the positives and strengths from 2020 to refocus, redefine and recreate the future.