Building the Habit of Success
Where does success come from? To paraphrase Will Durant paraphrasing Aristotle, we are what we repeatedly do. Success, then is not an act but a habit. Too many imagine the accomplishment of their most ambitious goals as a deviation from their normal routines, when such achievement is actually the culmination of what a person does day after day. Do you want to be successful? The surest way to improve the quality of your life and work is to emulate the example of other successful people: Read a lot Practice deliberately Work every day Minimize distractions Take care of your mind and body Obviously, successful types also follow more specialized strategies based on their fields; Olympic athletes train differently than, say, world leaders. But regardless of the scope of your ambitions, you will go much farther by heeding Michael E. Angier’s advice: If you develop the habits of success, you will…
Eight Elements of Academic Persistence
One of the most influential voices on the power of persistence has been that of Napoleon Hill. The author of classics like Think and Grow Rich delivered quotable quote after quote on what he saw as the root cause of all success: Willpower and desire, when properly combined, make an irresistible pair. Failure cannot cope with persistence. Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it. Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. But Hill didn’t expect that everyone was born with or naturally developed equal measures of persistence. Instead, he framed persistence is a state of mind that could be cultivated. The first step involves understanding the essential elements of persistence: 1. DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE Knowing what…
What is the Common Denominator of Success?
Success–particularly massive success over incredible obstacles–is understandably difficult to achieve in any field. If you accept the wisdom of the bell curve, you see that any sufficiently large group of people ranked in any complex skill like fencing or juggling will naturally huddle within one standard deviation of the mean with both highest and lowest performers charting an increasingly sloping path to either elite performance or utter uselessness. True success eludes those not fully dedicated to earning it. This lesson plays out time and again in business, which is why an insight first shared in 1940 still resonates today. That is when insurance professional Albert E. N. Gray identified the common denominator of success in a memorable speech at the annual convention of the National Association of Life Underwriters. He may have been speaking about selling insurance but his words should hit home with anyone seeking success in any field…
Fight Your Fears
Happy Halloween! As we’ve learned so dearly in 2020, some years are scarier than others. But we must not let fear be the reason we fail. So how do you handle the terror of a big test, an important task, or the first step on a journey that will change your life? 1. Don’t let stress make you N.U.T.S. 2. Take a deep breath. 3. Just begin!
A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Sailor
When the school year started, nobody–and I repeat, nobody–could have predicted that Spring 2020 started with school closings across the United States and utter cessation of all sports and activities. But this really is happening. Take heart! Now, how will you use your social distancing downtime to pursue all the dreams you have for when society reconvenes? Stay strong and never stop working towards what you really want!
How Much Should a Tutor Cost?
Rational choice theory in economics assumes that individuals use rational calculations to make rational choices and achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own personal objectives. When it comes to making decisions about tutoring, however, rationality tends to go out the window. We generally understand how to connect standard pricing to durable goods like SUVs and iPhones as well as more fleeting fare like Big Macs and Frappacinos. We also accept–often grudgingly–the hourly rates for common service industries like medicine, law, and home repair. Once we drift from those structured areas into the open country of educational services, though, we fall prey to every awful assumption in the book, the main one being, “No teacher deserves that much an hour.” That arbitrary maximum hourly rate each one of us sets in our heads for fair teacher pay can vary widely. Some of my colleagues charge upwards of $400 per hour…