5 Easy Steps To Achieve Awesome Results in 2011
Posted on 01. Jan, 2011 by George in Accelerated Learning, Self Improvement
It’s the start of the year 2011 and I’m pretty excited and psyched up for the year ahead because there are so many plans or goals for me to work towards. What about you?
How do you feel towards the year 2011? What are your goals for the year? What do you want to achieve?
Every year, some of my friends and I would set some goals and hold each of us accountable. And I would say setting these goals are very powerful. Sometimes we achieve our goals. Sometimes we don’t. But the fact that we’ve set the goals and take action towards it allows us to move closer towards our goals.
One of the most important aspects of setting a goal is that once you set a goal, you will be able to plan your journey towards your goal.
For example, when I set my goals of achieving an ‘A’s for physics, I would figure out what it takes to get ‘A’s for physics. And I would start planning what it need to do each month, each week, each day and even each hour.
By the end of the year, when I take the exam, I am very confident about my grades. Do you know why I am so confident?
It’s because I’ve start to work towards the goal at the beginning of the year. Consistent action is the key to study less and study smart.
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you 5 Steps to plan and moving towards your goals.
Step #1: Setting Your Goals With SMART
Before we set our goals, you may want to hear about the SMART formula – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Frame.
Specific – Your goal would need to be very specific. You can’t just set a goal of wanting to “get ‘A’s”, instead you need to make a specific goal “getting ‘A’s for all Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics for ‘A’ Level exams”.
Measurable – When we set our goal, it got to be measurable. If our goals are measurable, then we are able to find out what we are doing correctly and what we are not. And from there, we are able to tweak our strategies and work towards the goal.
An example of a non-measurable goal is something like “I’m going to be smarter in 2011”. How do we measure smarter? Unless you made it into a measurable test, we won’t be able to measure it.
Attainable – The goal must be attainable. For example, for most language essay exams, no examiners would give full marks for the paper. In fact, the highest score may be around 90-95 marks. If you set a goal of getting 100 marks for the essay paper, it’s not an attainable goal.
Getting ‘A’s for all your exams are definitely attainable and you would definitely want to set the goal of doing that.
Realistic – You don’t want to set a easily attainable goal either. Easily attainable goal won’t motivate you to achieve it. You would need a bigger goal yet attainable goal in order to achieve it.
But if you are trying to aim for ‘A’ at the end of 2011, when you are now a ‘D’ or ‘F’, it’s definitely attainable if you follow the right strategies and take massive action towards it.
Time-Frame – Your goal would need to have a deadline for you to achieve it. If we don’t have a time frame to bound our goals, we could always delay it over and over again. Having a time frame is to prevent yourself from procrastinating again and again.
Now you know all the 5 important factors of setting your goal, you can set your goals immediately. Feel free to share your goals with us at the comments of this page.
Step #2: Purpose behind your goals
Most people could easily set many goals for the upcoming year, but they never achieve their goals. I was like this a few years back too.
I made a goal of wanting to become a great speaker and getting champion in the toastmasters competition. But I never achieve it. I’m guilty of this particular goal too.
As I looked back and reflected, I realized that one of the main reasons which I didn’t achieve the goal is because I don’t have very strong purpose to achieve it.
To me, becoming a great speaker and winning the toastmaster is not a very important goal for me. And the fact that becoming a top speaker would mean that I need to overcome stage fright, which to me is a big phobia.
As a result, Motivation of moving towards the goals < Pain of moving towards the goal.
Hence I didn’t even move try to be a speaker in the end.
But for getting ‘A’s for my ‘A’ level exams, the reason why I was so compelled and motivated towards moving towards it is because I was extremely determined to prove myself to the junior college that rejected my application.
As such motivation of moving towards the goals is greater than the pain of moving towards the goal. This motivation set me on fire and made me determined to sit down there and study for quite a number of hours a day. Even when I’m feeling tired, bored and sick, I’m still studying on and on.
For yourself, you want to take a piece of A3 size paper, and write down all your reasons of achieving your goals. You want to find out the purpose behind achieving your goals – The reasons/motivations that can set you on fire, such that even when someone points a gun at you to tell you to stop studying, you will still continue on (apologize for such an example but you get what I mean).
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Step #3: Find and apply effective learning strategies
The learning strategies are like the hardware of our computer. Back in those days, when the technology wasn’t as advance as today, our computer was very slow. I can still remember those days where it would take a 8 hours to research and type out a 1,000 words article. Now we can complete the same amount of work within a hour or 2.
The same goes for your strategies as well. We would need effective learning strategies in order to attain our goals. Using lousy strategies could mean that we will never achieve our goals. Or it will take a long long time before we could see any results.
When I was made the ‘A’s goals, I couldn’t have done it if I never had discovered the top learning strategies. After all at the point in time, I’ve never ever do well in any exams at all. It was as if ‘A’s were far far away.
Do you feel this way too?
This applies to all kinds of stuff like building business, training for bodybuilding, learning a musical instrument and many more. We always need to find the effective strategies for us to attain our goals.
This would either involve discovering the effective strategies, or it would mean to get a mentor to help you. For example, I couldn’t have set up this website without the help of a few mentors teaching me how to set up a website.
The aim of finding the effective strategies is to help you to optimize your brain such that for every hour you’ve studied, you will be 2-3 times more effective than your peers who are not using the effective strategies.
For instance, your peers could have spent 3 hours to study and master a chapter of Mathematics, but you only need an hour for you to master it. In the long run, using these effective strategies and study consistently, you will be much ahead of your peers.
Step #4: Create positive learning habits
In my previous post, I talked about the 7 habits of super learners, and in this section, I’ll go deeper and share with you more about habits because I believe that it is extremely important and it has shaped my life tremendously. All successful students come from having positive learning habits. Habits from ‘being consistent‘ to ‘never give up’.
Our habits define our lives, our success and who we are. Habits are so powerful as they are fixed into our daily lives that and became routines. As we set new goals, we would inevitably require to take certain actions in order to achieve the goals.
Like if we set a goal to learn to play piano, we would need to spend time practicing on the piano each day or each week. Spending time practicing on the piano would be a new behavior we need to schedule into our time. We can’t just know how to play the piano without any practice at all.
These new actions (practicing) must be acted upon deliberately at the start and over a course of time, if we consistently practice, the act of practicing will slowly become our habits. If we don’t set our mind to practice consistently, we will never be able to learn the piano fast.
If you think deeper about it, habits are like the little voices in our head. When external events happened around us, our reactions or actions are based on the little voices that talk in our head.
For example, when your teacher told you that there are additional homework for this weekend, what is the first thing that comes into your mind?
For most students, the little voice in their minds would say, “oh shucks, not again… I want to play during the weekend and this homework will ruin my weekend”.
Does this happen to you?
Guess what?
When I was taking my ‘A’ level exams, whenever the teachers gave us more homework and papers for practice, what goes on my mind is “oh yes, I have something additional for me to practise and I’m going to see how much I know”.
Well, the truth is what my teachers gave wasn’t sufficient for me, I even borrowed past exam papers and tutorials from friends’ from other junior colleges.
Another habit I developed was to wake up early in the morning. For most days, I woke up at 7 am in the morning and went for a morning jog before I started to do my revision. My mind was very fresh in the morning and I had more hours for revision every day.
You may also want to develop the habit of finishing every single thing you’ve started. I felt this is a very important habit in life as well. Most people don’t have the determination and perseverance to finish what they started. In fact, in today’s world, we are distracted with so many things that we become a hopper. Hopping around from one thing to another.
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When we study, we want to clear off of all these distractions for most of the time. You don’t want to study for 5 minutes, and then go Facebook to chat with your friends for another 5 minutes. Instead, cultivate the habits of studying for 45 minutes to an hour before taking a break.
Now, after sharing with you about all these positive habits, how do we cultivate them? How do we turn our behavior into a habit?
The trick of making a habit stick is to perform the same action or behavior consistently for at least 21 days.
For example, I started off by reading a chapter of the textbook every day for an hour for each of the first 21 days – no matter how tired, sick, or busy I am. After the 21 days, it became much easier for me to pick up the book than when I first started.
But before you can make it a habit, how exactly do you need to do to study?
Step #5: Break it down
Besides making a detailed schedule on what time you are going to study every day, you would need to break it down to the details.
The top students usually break down their studying plan into the following plans – They used accelerated learning techniques in reading and writing notes, memorizing, and practising questions.
Their time could be divided into something like
Day 1, 1st & 2nd hour – Chapter 1a, Reading and writing notes
Day 1, 3rd and 4th hour – Memorizing
Day 1, 5th and 6th hour – Practising
Day 2, 1st & 2nd hour – Chapter 1b, Reading and writing notes
Day 2, 3rd and 4th hour – Memorizing
Day 2, 5th and 6th hour – Practising
They typically have such detailed planning up to the day of their exams. Sometimes you may need more time for certain topics or chapters and that’s fine. You can just change accordingly and tweak your plans when it’s necessary.
Start setting your goals, create your action plan and taking action towards it!
You have taken some time to read this entire post and I definitely hope that you have gained something out of it. Please start applying what you think it is useful to you and I hope that you will achieve your goals in 2011.
Share with us your goals below and your action plan!
I wish you a happy new year 2011!
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53 Responses to “5 Easy Steps To Achieve Awesome Results in 2011”
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SHERLAND
02. Jan, 2011
THIS IS SOOO HELPFUL HNESTLY IT WILL HELP ME IN THE NEW YEAR THANK U ALOT
princess arthi
03. Jan, 2011
i think its very useful n helpful 2 me tis year..i can do it..
miriam
04. Jan, 2011
i think its very encouraging and will help not only me but other people in this year yes we can
lamViolet{3}
06. Jan, 2011
I really feel that this is a very good way to achieve good result in my exam 2011,I think I can do it very soon. By the way,Thanks and Happy New Year!
gem
07. Jan, 2011
very good
but i think implementation of all
these points should not wait a new year to start .
Aaron
13. Jan, 2011
Thanks~! i wonder if it is effective enough ? cause i think i tried before~ only for the last 3 months before my MAJOR exam ! but it fails 🙁 result doesn’t shows ! ANW thanks for the tips!
George
13. Jan, 2011
@Aaron: What are the reasons you’ve failed the exam? Only when you know exactly what kind of mistakes you’ve made, then you are able to improve on it. Mistakes can be classified into different categories –
1) Carelessness
2) Lack of understanding
3) Forgetfulness
4) Inability to apply
sabarimani
18. Jan, 2011
I started today….Thanks for giving tis kind ideas for us.
Vanessa
18. Jan, 2011
This is really helpful as i have just started a new semester. I hope that by following the steps i would be able to have great results! George, thanks for sharing! 🙂
Tim
22. Jan, 2011
i think i will started with nthose step every day… thank you very much !!!
samay
24. Jan, 2011
i realized that upon reading this steps, i have to accept any ideas which could help my studies and showing movements in implementing such steps in my life..i am very thankful to those who maid these website..
thank u so much..
from:
samay17
SALAWUDINI
06. Feb, 2011
This is my first time here so i will start practicing today I think it will be helpful .Thank you
Mustapha
16. Feb, 2011
Thank you so much my grades are all full marks till now
George Smith
16. Feb, 2011
But am not careless,honest..!! I try hard to read and write night and day but what do I get? A very clean 0 in my examinations but I hope this works…
krishnadas
01. Mar, 2011
wow! george that was amazing…………………………….
sumeet
01. Mar, 2011
thanks for the tip.
helped me a lot
gitansh
08. Mar, 2011
thanks was very useful
cheliz
09. Mar, 2011
I really want to get A+ however I dont know the study habbits know I read this article I have my own idea in order to achive this semester thank you for your info about this strategies.
bhavani
25. Mar, 2011
this is very large to understand so try to reduce this as short one
nikita
31. Mar, 2011
Thanks for sharing this article. I really want to know what should i do to improve my grades.But there is a problem I am still not able to concentrate properly.please help me
tricia
01. Apr, 2011
i want to get all a’s. i’m working very hard . god’s blessings is with me always.
mona
06. Apr, 2011
Thanks alot. this article is awsome for all A level students. i’ll tell my friends about it. i want A* in physics chem and math. i AS igot one A and B. i did planned last year but i was careless and wasted alot of time. it would also be helpful if you could tell about some books and precize way of studying chemistry and physics.
HAPPY
07. Apr, 2011
THATS nice… THANQ
but how 2 undrstnd the topics … Picture perfect!
how 2 know the acctd. strategies
HELP ME PLS!
Holly
11. Apr, 2011
that was awsome!!!!!!
and guess what i will try mt best for the test coming up!!!!!
thanks a lot
cat
16. Apr, 2011
I love this but i still can’t focus on my study… LOL ;(
I HATE FACEBOOK…. It’s all its fault…. (I blame a lot)
kazr
21. Apr, 2011
Great website. Have exams coming up shortly and the tips on these are really helpful!!
Nichole
28. Apr, 2011
Professors always tell us to read over the notes within the 2 hours after class ends.
I think reading the chapters before class and then again before the exams could also help.
For me it’s laziness, I would do it but I’m always really tired after class. It’s time for me to just push myself
anne
28. Apr, 2011
FACEBOOK is very influential. so.. it means it can disturb any study U have.. but thnks anyway.. 🙂 but iits not quite motivating :: Translate from Latin::
“Quod est omnium non iuvat ars studio.” 🙂
mbongeni
01. May, 2011
well thanks George i will start implementing the strategies hope it works out
dede
03. May, 2011
this year i’m gonna having an SPM exam ..
and now already may,
i feel stuck
my result always FAIL in BIO, ADD MATH , CHEMY,PHYISIC
i hope u can help me ..
i realy want to study but i dont who else can help me..
mayank
10. May, 2011
this is the best article i have ever read .i class 9 my grades were
maths b1
science b1
english b1
hindi b1
social science A1
from now i try my level best to get A1 in all the subjects.
Clyde
23. May, 2011
Fortunately, I still have time to prepare for this before semester starts. Thank you, George! It’s nice to know people who are willing to share stuff. 🙂
Swapnil
26. May, 2011
I think that this should work.
Actually my main problem is concentration. My concentration is not good. I get distracted from my studies very often.
But still i m good in studies but i want to achieve more. i plan but cant do according to it.
I think that this must help me.
I m in 10th the board exams.
Mirmo
07. Jun, 2011
how do we know if our goals are attainable?
For example,i aspire to score 6As for Alevels is that possible?Im a J1 is going to take his mid year exam.Pls help me..Ive been stuck with this since secondary sch.I have aspired to score 7A1s in Olevel but i scored 3A1s and 3A2s. I didnt really got my target.Can someone help :(?how do we know if our goals are attainable?if we do our best,is it possible?
George
07. Jun, 2011
@Mirmo: Our goals are attainable when we want to attain it and believe that we could do so. It is not by doing your best, but by knowing the strategies and techniques to do so. It’s the same in life as well. If you aim to become a millionaire, you need to find the strategy to become one, and work towards it. If you want to become an Olympic swimmer, you need to know how does the athletes train and train like them.
The same for A’s for your ‘A’ Level. You need to know exactly what are the strategies to achieve that.
Ras Nakisa
09. Jun, 2011
Thank you for all the tips George. I hope to apply them and to attain my goals. God bless you
Arif Rasheeed
17. Jun, 2011
My son has just now landed in O level so I wanted to advice him how to study. Well it helps me a lot and I really thanks to all.
melica
23. Jun, 2011
wow! thanks george! well,this year im going to a school which i know ALMOST EVERYONE!! is better than me& i CANT sleep cause im so afraid that i might lose & not be able to adjust my self! my grades are like C but every one there is like A! but i need to go there cause the only thing that motivates me is to see others are studing harder than me!! so i beg you to help me out & tell me how can adjust my self to the new place?? and have better results soon enough? thank you so much
soma
28. Jun, 2011
hi dude it is very useful for me ma….now i have got some idea to study.I will hope to folleow your idea…thanks a lot
apeksha
07. Jul, 2011
nw i’m gonna apply these techniques.and iam sure that its gonna favour me a lot…
Sanju
09. Jul, 2011
Thnk u sir…vry useful…..I’ll practise dis…..again thnk u…god bless u….
Sam
13. Jul, 2011
Thanks very much , ill try this out and hopes it works and ill come back with my results thanks.
Paras Gupta
31. Aug, 2011
Thank you so much sir for giving us such wonderful techniques n i’l surely started applying it from today….
Rohit Kumar Sharma
19. Sep, 2011
Thank you so much for such tips. I study in BCA(Bachelor in Computer Application) Now I want to share my goals.
My goal is to top in the BCA exam. Overall I am having good marks in last four semesters. Now I have to get highest ’95+’ marks in the last papers. I will definitely achieve sir. Thanks for tips again sir.
dnyaneshwar
07. Oct, 2011
thank you very much .i am so happy, it prienciple help me, i am tudent of civiel service
bell marasigan
20. Oct, 2011
awesome. sent a copy to my sons, surely it will be of help. thanks for sharing;)
kingKOY
16. Nov, 2011
thanks.. i will try this one.. i think this techniques are very usefull.. thanks again.. hope all of us can be successful specially to those students who will be taking their exams.. also me.. may god help us to achieve what we wanted.. 🙂
shawn
22. Nov, 2011
it really good cos i just started learning and i find it effective
i pray i achieve what i want early next year, God bless . 🙂
Grace
03. Jan, 2012
Am grateful to God for seeing this, thank u george but d issue is that i think it is late now… Pls can i still make it? God pls help me
samuel asamoah
07. Jan, 2012
Thanks for ur advice and am gonna try harder about ur steps for better grades.
lina
08. Jan, 2012
OH god i love this guy he is just amazing, thank u soooooooooooooo much may God bless u
whetuy
12. Jan, 2012
tommorows my result guys pray that i get good grades