Make This Your Year of Preparation
One topic I never tire of hearing, learning, talking, and writing about is preparation. What makes the principle of preparation so compelling? Simply put, all of our wildest dreams and aspirations become possible and perhaps even easy to achieve with the right preparation. Do you have big goals for this new year? Have you resolved to be better than you were last year? The path to everything you can hope for lies through preparation… We hope you choose to make this–and EVERY–year your year of preparation!
Meditations on Preparation: Effort
Results don’t materialize simply because we want them: we have to work for them. Hard work alone doesn’t guarantee success, but you can be certain that you won’t achieve your wildest ambitions without it! Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative EFFORT.
Meditations on Preparation: Ambition
Is it hubris to want to be the best you can be, to scale the heights of accomplishment to reach its pinnacle? Our most audacious goals are driven by our most fervent desires. Embrace your aspirations in order to make them reality. Achievement results from work realizing AMBITION.
Meditations on Preparation: Goals
All true preparation begins with the end in mind. Define your desired objective or outcome. Place your future self there, then look backwards and consider all the hard work, the training, the coaching, and the sacrifice necessary to achieve that victory. Before preparation even begins, commit to your GOAL.
If It Doesn’t Challenge You, It Doesn’t Change You
Working in test prep is often inspiring because so many of our students are striving to surpass their personal bests to redefine what they are capable of achieving. Admissions exams are, by nature, challenging, in the way that all great tests are. The process of studying for a test should instill greater competence and understanding, just as rehearsing music cultivates virtuosity and practicing sports develops athleticism. If you’re feeling challenged, get psyched… that’s where real growth begins!
Stay Positive. Stay Fighting.
Any effort we undertake to improve or excel invites both the possibility of failure and a guarantee of struggle to surpass current limits. Don’t give up! What doesn’t challenge us cannot change us, so expect to be tested. Even better, pursue these sometimes painful growth opportunities with enthusiasm and excitement! Norman Vincent Peale may have popularized the power of positive thinking, but you don’t need to read the classics to master their essential lessons. Our words, deeds, and even thoughts determine our direction, so always stay positive.