Choices you make in college can affect every part of your life. The following list is from Skip Downing, author of On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. Take a few moments to consider which characteristics you already have, and which you need to develop.
Successful Students |
Stuggling Students |
| … accept PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for creating the outcomes and quality of their lives. |
… see themselves as victims, believing for the most part that what happens to them is beyond their control. |
| … discover a MOTIVATING PURPOSE, characterized by personally meaningful goals and dreams. |
… have difficulty choosing a purpose, often experiencing depression and/or resentment about the meaninglessness of their lives. |
| … consistently plan and take EFFECTIVE ACTIONS in pursuing their goals and dreams. |
… seldom identify the specific actions needed to accomplish a task. And when they do, they tend to procrastinate. |
| … build MUTUALLY SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS that assist them in pursuing their goals and dreams. |
… are solitary, seldom requesting, even rejecting offers of assistance from legitimate resources. |
… GAIN HEIGHTENED SELF-AWARENESS, developing empowering beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that will keep them on course.
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… are slaves of disempowering life scripts that carry them far off course. |
| … BECOME LIFE-LONG LEARNERS, finding valuable lessons in nearly every experience they have. |
… tend to resist learning new ideas and skills, often viewing learning as drudgery rather than mental play. |
| … DEVELOP EMOTIONAL MATURITY, characterized by optimism, happiness, and peace of mind. |
… live at the mercy of their emotions, having their success hijacked by anger, depression, anxiety, and a need for instant gratification. |
| … BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, feeling capable, lovable, and unconditionally worthy as human beings. |
… doubt their personal value, feeling inadequate to accomplish meaningful tasks and unworthy to be loved by others or themselves. |
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