How to pass exams – Part 8 –  Time to focus on the adventure

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
Alexander Graham Bell (Inventor of the telephone 1847-1922)

The next key is FOCUS… all successful people develop this, and at school we have to focus too. (Oh just hang on, I need to switch off facebook!).

Right, focus Lee, come on…

The first few episodes of the X-factor are among my favourite shows, the interview starts and they always say the same thing, ‘If I don’t get through to the next round my life will be over’, and just to lay it on thick they usually say, ‘Oh yeah, and my granny is very poorly’! Then their big moment arrives and they walk on stage and have a quick chit-chat with Simon Cowell, the music starts up and they start to sing and everyone in the UK shouts together, “You can’t sing mate!” You can’t sing and not only that, you haven’t got any friends that have told you that you can’t sing! It’s painful to watch. Why is it painful? Because they’ve focused, but on the wrong thing. Focusing on the right thing can have a massive impact at school. Maybe there’s something you’ve got to focus on now which has been your ‘not so great area’ in school? Maybe you need to focus on that for a bit? Maybe it’s a simple thing like getting to lessons on time? I meet young people whose biggest area to focus on is simply bringing in a pen!

So what is it you’ve got to focus on in particular? Because when you focus it helps you to succeed and concentrates your energies. When teenager Tom Daley won the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in 2010, it was all down to his last dive.

He focused hard on the edge of the 10 metre platform and came away with the medal after a great dive. His Australian competitor didn’t focus as much, lost his nerve and the gold medal, he must have been gutted.

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

Focusing on a piece of work for school will make a big difference. Even just switching off all distractions for an hour or two can mean the difference between passing and failing. I challenge you to do your work with your phone and facebook / MSN etc. switched off, the off button is the same button as the on button btw 🙂
If you do I’ll guarantee you two things:

1. You’ll get on better with your work

2. When you do switch on your phone again you will still have friends!

Trust me on this. It may sound very radical to some but it is worth it and more importantly it does work.

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.