When learning something new that perhaps we struggle with, I find that there were many times when I wanted a Eureka moment to just make everything clear in education.
I believe there is no one perfect moment generally for most people, but rather a series of fortunate events. See what I did there? ;)
I think these breakthroughs are points at which we pivot towards the right direction whether that be in life, work, or even our education.
I think a problem that many face is waiting for some perfect special moment to save them from all their worries in school or life for that matter, but in most cases, this so-called "perfect" moment does not exist.
We are the builders of our own lives, but if we keep waiting for the perfect opportunity and perfect conditions to lay the groundwork, then the building (YOU), will never get built.
One Holy Eureka Moment
I found myself waiting for a perfect change to come to save my educational life, but here's the problem, it is MY LIFE. If I want something to change I have to go and make it happen.
If I want better grades, or more importantly a better understanding of the classes I am taking I have to commit more energy and attention to such.
I think the media may have some influence here as we think there is some magical moment that is just about to fix all our problems and make us the best student ever. Unfortunately, life doesn't work this way, and even if it did, would you want it to?
I think there is something to be said about putting in hard work and then accomplishing a goal and or receiving an achievement from that hard work.
Along the way, however, I've found it's not just the achievement, the grade, or the congratulations that fulfills me, but the work I do is what does. What work I do and what I learn has a far greater impact than the achievements.
Nothing Beats Smart Work
Something I heard the other day from a wildly successful entrepreneur Alex Hormozi, he said: "That Volume Negates Luck".
Why I think this is so important is that even if you are dealt a shitty hand, you can still make the best of it. That you have to learn to succeed if luck was against you.
Those who put in more hours, and work smarter and more diligently will outpace those who are lucky and lazy.
Something he talks about is the leverage you get from certain opportunities. And the greater the leverage you have the better output you will receive.
Alex's equation went something like this: Input x Leverage = Output.
Funny enough I always heard something similar from my father which I believe he heard originally from Scrooge McDuck in the original show of Duck Tales.
The phrase was "Work Smarter, Not Harder". In this case, they mean the same thing. Working smarter means just having more leverage on the activity you're doing.
If you are still reading this you are probably thinking, but Anthony what does this have to do with education!?
Well, I'll tell ya.
In education I found the two greatest tools in your arsenal were these:
- Diligence
- The Bullshit Detector
Now Let me explain these.
1. Diligence
This is the hard work part. You still need hard work at the start to get ahead so to speak. In the beginning, you need the volume of hard work to get good enough later for more high-value skills. In most cases, you haven't learned the more high-value skills until you have put in the hours.
This could have been at the start of 1st-6th grade, or simply the beginning of the year when you were doing countless math problems, you were putting in hours after class, and doing all your assignments.
Down the road, however, you would start to receive more and more work with each advancing year. Now here's where the leverage comes in.
2. The Bullshit Detector
The leverage comes from being able to separate items in the class by importance and urgency.
I found that the biggest help throughout the early years of school is that when you get to higher levels you learn what not to study.
This helps tremendously with your time and attention. The greatest students don't just know what to study, but more importantly, they learned what not to study.
This sense of intuition of sorts comes in after doing huge amounts of the volume of work earlier on. Which is why I referenced Volume Negates Luck. You start to realize what is necessary to take notes on and what is necessary to do more problems on than others. You have to put volume in, then learn the leverage to work smarter, not harder down the line.
This is like the meme about the plane with bullet holes, we pay attention to what we already know (the bullet holes), and instead of finding our weak spots (in the other parts of the plane that keep it in the air) and reinforce those by studying that content specifically.
Simply put, focus on what you don't know rather than what you have studied a dozen times.
Conclusion
I think many believe in one all-saving eureka moment for their education. I say this is an illusion.
What is rather a series of eureka moments and hard work put in can look like an overnight success to others, but this is simply untrue.
To do well in education you have to put the time and attention in, to which you then develop the proclivity or the intuition I would say, to work smarter, not harder in your education.
