By Andrew Fuller

Make this the year that you will remember for

the rest of your life as the time you really set

yourself on the pathway to success. There

are several sure-fire ways to make this the

best year so far.

Build Positive Relationships with

everyone you know

Parents, teachers, friends, everyone! One of

the ways of reducing your stress levels is to

set out to have as many positive friendships

this year as you can.

Challenge yourself

You are much, much smarter than you know.

If you practice doing your best in life you will

succeed because very few people ever

practice doing their best.

Discover your learning strengths at

www.mylearningstrengths.com and build on

them to steer yourself towards success.

To do your best you have to get out of the

habit of predicting that things won’t go well

for you. Success in life is about doing more

of what works for you. If you look for what’s

going to go wrong, you will always find it. If

you look for what works, life often gets a lot

easier.

Prepare yourself for learning.

Thinking positively isn't enough for

successfully achieving goals. Implement

ways to reduce distractions, at least for some

time every day, otherwise learning will

become a frustrating experience.

Sadly, not everyone in your life will be a well-wisher

in your self- improvement and

learning plans. They may intentionally or

subconsciously distract you from your goal.

Get enough sleep.

Getting enough sleep helps you to manage

stress, stay happy and also increases your

marks. You need at least 8 hours and

sometimes as much as 9 and a quarter hours

a night.

Eat breakfast

A lot of people skip breakfast, but you often

learn best at school in the morning, and it

helps to have some protein in you, to feed

your brain. A lack of protein can actually

cause brain fog.

Do the most important things first.

Get into the habit of being effective. Make a

to-do list each week. Ask yourself the

question, ‘What is the one thing I could do

this week in each subject area that would

improve my results?’ Then do it.

Your time is valuable.

Many people muck around in school and

then wonder why they have to do so much

work outside of school. If you can focus and

listen well while at school you can save

yourself endless hours. Some people find if

they sit at the front they are less distracted.

Teachers want their students to do well.

Watch your teachers closely. Observe the

things that they emphasise or repeat. Take

notes of these things. It is a fair bet that

these things will feature in tests and exams.

Small Shifts Create Big Effects.

Do a little bit often. Succeeding at school can

be easy if you do a little bit each day. The

best learning occurs when you do repetitive

interval training. This means do a little bit of

practice every day. Interval training is

especially powerful in subjects like maths

and the sciences.

Focus and immerse yourself.

For at least some time every day switch all

forms of technology off and focus on

whatever you're studying.

Don't try to watch TV, listen to music or gaze

at a screen at the same time as learning

something. Technology is not going to be

there in exam rooms, so you need to be

practiced at performing without it,

Don’t try to predict the future.

Most students are really bad at predicting

how well they are going to do. In fact, they

are hopeless at it. So don’t spend the year

thinking how awful your results could be. Just

do the most important things first and do

them regularly.

Be curious.

Think of someone you know who always

seems to know interesting things- weird

facts, strange occurrences, funny jokes, and

whacky stories. Try to be one of these

people. Look out for and learn things that are

fun and interesting.

Play more.

Get active, break out into a sweat now and

then. Lack of blood flow is a common reason

for lack of concentration. If you've been

sitting in one place for a while, stand up and

stretch or bounce one of your legs for a

minute or two. It gets your blood flowing and

sharpens both concentration and recall. Even

if you are really busy three twenty-minute

bursts of exercise a week makes a massive

difference to your stress levels, happiness

and sleeping.

Decide to be happy.

Lots of people wait to be happy. They wait

for the situation to be right. Or they wait for

the right friends to show up. Some people

spend their entire lives waiting to be happy.

Decide to be happy now. Have a look at the

things in your life you can feel lucky that you

have. Appreciate the people who like you

and love you. Make the most of the moment

and seize the day. Have a fantastic year.