Lee Jackson - Online and Offline Motivational Speaker and Presentation Coach in organisations, businesses and education.

Lee Jackson is an Award-Winning Motivational Speaker and Presentation Coach working in organisations businesses and education to help people Get Good® - his style is engaging, authentic and jargon free.

CALL LEE NOW: 0113 2170081
EMAIL: lee@leejackson.biz
Lee Jackson on Facebook Lee Jackson on Twitter Lee Jackson on Youtube Lee Jackson on LinkedIn Lee Jackson on Instagram
Menu
  • Home
  • Motivational Speaking
    • New season – Lee’s Services Post-Covid-19
    • Get Good® At Work – Motivational Resilience Speaker
    • Get Good® At Work Testimonials
    • Get Good® At School – Motivational/Raising Aspirations Speaker
    • Get Good® At School Testimonials
    • Teachers/Parents sessions
    • Close
  • Presentation Skills
    • New season – Lee’s Services Post-Covid-19
    • Get Good® At Presenting – Presentation Skills Masterclass
    • Get Good® At Presenting – One To One Coaching
    • Get Good® At Presenting Podcast
    • Get Good® At Slides – Presentation Slide Design Service
    • Close
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • About
    • About Lee
    • FAQ’s
    • Close
  • Clients
    • Close
You are here: Home / education / How to pass exams – Part 4 – the ‘YOU’ shaped adventure

How to pass exams – Part 4 – the ‘YOU’ shaped adventure

February 21, 2015 By Lee Jackson blog post

How to pass exams – Part 4

This an excerpt from Top UK School Speaker Lee Jackson’s book “How To Enjoy And Succeed At School And College”   Available in paperback and on Kindle (for only £1.99 during pre-exam time) now.6297475943_c87a4f3b6c

“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.”
Judy Garland

Do you remember the song “Rock Star” by Nickelback, and the video where their fans are miming along to the words?

Every generation has a song that says ‘If I could just be somewhere else or someone else, or have a credit card without limit’, I’d be alright.

My generation had a song called ‘Money for Nothing’ by Dire Straits; they sang “If I could play my guitar on the MTV”. There’s an even cheesier song by a band called ‘Bros’ (ask your parents or carers if they remember that cheese monster classic!), they sang ‘When Will I, Will I Be Famous?’

Have you ever heard people say that the “grass is always greener somewhere else?” That got me thinking about my favourite quotation from Coach John Wooden.

He said: “Success is peace of mind…in knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

John Wooden is the most successful U.S. college basketball coach of all time – he won seven championships back-to-back and coached many of the greats.  Interesting, he doesn’t mention fame, or money.

[ Based on years of research you can read more about Lee’s work at http://leejackson.org/education/howtoenjoyandsucceedatschoolandcollege – how to pass exams ] 

At the end of your exams/course you’ll probably have a two or three month break, one of the longest holidays that you’ll ever get in your life! You’ve got two options in that break, you can relax, have fun and peace of mind because you know that you did your best. Or, you can be stressed out wishing you’d done more work.

Peace of mind is a great thing because YOU know that YOU did your best.

You see there’s a shape in the world that is YOU shaped. My shape’s slightly larger than your shape, but it’s still my shape! It’s Lee Jackson shaped. I can do amazing things as my shape, I bring unique things to the places I visit and the community I live in. I bring unique things to this book.

And that means you do too! You bring unique skills and gifts to your home, school/college and eventually your workplace. But the problem is that, if like in the Nickelback song, we’re always trying to be someone else…we can’t be our shape effectively.

If we are saying – “If I can just be like that person in my class; if I just had her hair; if I just had his money or if I could just do essays like they can,” then we are trying to be someone else – we are comparing ourselves to others and we will always feel worse doing that. And if we are trying to be someone else then…my question is ‘who is being you?’

You bring something unique to your school/college and if you do your best, your school becomes a greater and better place because of the gifts you bring to it. Everyone wins! But it’s never about being perfect, it’s about trying our best and being unique.

Then even if we don’t become top of the class we can still look back and say “I tried my best”. That cures post exam stress and it’s good for us as it’s how we find out what we are really capable of.

More to come…

This an excerpt from Top UK School Speaker Lee Jackson’s book “How To Enjoy And Succeed At School And College” Available in paperback and on Kindle (for only £1.99 during pre-exam time) here now.

How To Enjoy and Succeed at School and College (a.k.a. how to be 'sick' at school) School Book Cover

How to pass exams

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: education, exams, leejackson, motivation, study skills, teens, TESvideos Tagged With: exams, gcse, keep on going, lee jackson speaker, motivational, revision, skills, speaker, students, study skills, teachers, TES

Privacy Policy

© 2021 Lee Jackson. All rights reserved.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website and to monitor usage and traffic. We don't collect any identifiable information through cookies. You can also disable cookies via your browser.That's fine.Read more