10 Things Successful High School Students Do

  1. Set Short-Term and Long-Term Goals
  2. Master Time Management
  3. Select a Balanced Course Load
  4. Be Active Outside the Classroom
  5. Participate in Class
  6. Take Good Care of Yourself
  7. Find Your Passions
  8. Learn to Say No
  9. Earn Leadership Roles
  10. Build and Use a Support Network

Those are all good things to do. Working hard and being active are important. Being enmeshed in dynamic networks is important. Self-directed time management skills are important for college.

I’d like to expand on 7. Find Your Passions. I think that can be taken even more broadly, not just one’s passions but a deep understanding of who one is and where they want their life to go. Ages 14-18 are very important in our development. If you are older than 18, think of yourself at 14 and at 18. We grow a lot. We hopefully begin to focus less on who other people think we should be and more on who we want to be. Being able to that question is extremely important to success in college . . . and in life.

Again, working hard is obviously crucial. AND taking time to reflect, doing things on a lark, because something inside inspires us to do that, sitting down with someone different from ourselves and having a conversation, getting outside and SEEING nature and the world where we live–all of these are important.

Taking a long view on life, what seems more important, spending a lot of time in tutoring getting an SAT score up from 1200 to 1350, or going into “college years” (if at college or not) with a clear understanding of what interests you, what you like to do, what kind of people inspire you to be your best, how you can live with a healthy connection to the world. Nothing wrong at all with maximizing an SAT/ACT score, just suggesting some of these other things are really crucial.

I have an addition:
Grit and perseverance- Failure and adversity are opportunities for growth not the end of the world.

Have fun.

Understand that this is a process. Even the superstars are generally not at the peak level of every single area in their life. Know what your strengths and weaknesses are and instead of beating yourself up or giving up, keep working to grow and improve.

This is huge. No One Is Perfect Or Does All Of These Things Fully. So do what you can when you can, adjust as you learn, stay with it and know that you won’t master all this by the age of 16 or 18 (or 53, so far…) Not having some particular PASSION is normal. Slipping in one class or another happens to most people at one point or another. Feeling swamped or slightly overwhelmed is not something you outgrow: you just keep your eyes up and your feet moving and deal with each day as it comes and work through as best you can. Realize that these are goals, not minimums, and that you’re working on improvement rather than trying to attain some plateau where it all snaps into place. That’s not how life works.

Advocating for yourself! Also take some chances. Bet on yourself. If you really want something don’t take no for an answer. Figure out a way to get to make it happen.