Finally, you have entered into the much over rated stage of your life, the college life. It is something that comes with plethora of opportunities, exposures, activities, memories and distractions at the same time. You will meet new people, try new things, make new friends, and encounter new challenges. Overall, college life will serve you with infinite opportunities to develop you own self for better, and will have a huge contribution in your personality. It is up to you, whether you grab the opportunities to take yourself to the next level, or let them pass by your side.
Much often, students are not aware and clear about what they must aim to extract from their college life. Cinemas, web series and social media have painted a very wrong picture of this stage which often leads to wrong expectations of students from their college. In this blog, we will discuss the major aims and goals that a student must have, and achieve, in their college life. These are the things that will eventually set you apart from the crowd, and will act as a catalyst in your way to success.
1. Communication Skills
Believe it or not, the skill to communicate efficiently is the most significant skill that all human beings must possess, and it is also often the most neglected thing by students. The ability to communicate, whether oral or written, can be greatly achieved in the college life itself.
Most of the times, students confuse good communication ability with proficiency in English. It is not so. Communication is not actually about language. It is more about the way you speak and deliver your information to others. It has a great impact and impression on the person listening to you, and you consequently gain an edge in his/her viewpoint.
Why you should learn communication skills?
- It will help you in professional career, interviews, etc.
- A person with good communication is the best leader.
- It will supplement you in all the other activities and opportunities in college life.
- It is the most attractive and effective component of your personality.
- It is required in EACH AND EVERY domain, and at each and every step of life.
How can you learn communication skills in college?
- Interaction. You will meet thousands of new people from across the country with different tastes, preferences, cultures, etc. Interact as much as possible. Try to observe your body language and way of speaking while you interact.
- Volunteering is a very good way to talk to new people and get them convinced for a certain thing. You can volunteer for college societies and cells. In short, never miss any opportunity to speak.
- Participate in every speech and debate competition, or group presentations, or any other opportunity that allows you to speak. Do not worry about the results. You will be a far better version of yourself after each event.
- Self-observation. This is a very famous and effective way to learn communication, especially public speaking. Stand in the front of mirror and deliver a speech to observe your body language. Record your voice and listen to it again and again to analyse your speech. Then point out the areas which could have been better and work to improve them.
- Courses. The most profitable investment in the world is an investment in your own self. Do not hesitate to spend your time on taking a course to learn technicalities and tricks of effective communication. You may access thousands of free as well as paid courses on the internet. Learn from them and implement your learnings.
- Practice and implement the above five tips as much as you can and see the wonder happen!
2. Master a Skill and Let It Define You
If I ask you who you are, what will be your answer? Most probably you will define yourself with your name, institution, course which you are studying, etc. But do these things really define YOU? Probably not. These are merely the traits associated with you. What actually defines you is your Skill. College is exactly the right time to start focusing on skill development and letting it be a part of your personality. Participate in all kind of events that your college is organising and choose one of them for mastery.
Advantages of mastering a skill
- Most importantly, it will be a significant part of your personality.
- Having acquired a skill, you can monetize it for passive income.
- It will add to your resume.
- It will make you a wholesome person.
How to get a skill?
- Observe and analyse what you love doing. It could be anything from cooking and singing to writing poetry.
- Read and learn about the great persons in that particular skill.
- Start working on it today, with whatever resources you have.
- Be consistent. Practice everyday.
- Even 1 hour everyday consistently for 2-3 years will make you a master of that skill.
3. Start Earning and Investing
Unfortunately, we are not taught about the most important life lessons in academics – how to earn money, how to regulate it, how to make friends and maintain relationships and how to invest. Financial knowledge is not a part of your curriculum but it is one of the most significant parts of your life. Earning and investing at an early age can change your life forever. Not only it gives you a sense of pride and independence, but also adds maturity and responsibility to your personality.
To be honest, earning isn’t as much difficult as we think. There are immense opportunities for passive income, provided that you are ready to work hard and have a learning attitude. Freelancing, virtual assistance, social media marketing, content creation, etc, are just a few examples to mention. This will be a topic for our next blog.
Coming to investing, it is something very inevitable in the present world. Every person needs to invest in financial assets to fight inflation. Doing it right from college can give you a huge financial edge and gains in future, due to the compounding effect. Again, this is a very comprehensive topic and will be discussed in subsequent blogs.
- Start earning as early as you can. This will not only make you more mature and responsible but also teach you personal financing and financial discipline at a very young age.
- Even if you are not earning, save some amount from your pocket money and start investing it in stocks, SIPs, mutual funds, etc. after properly understanding the risks and profits involved. Practice financial discipline.
- Another benefit of earning at this stage is that you don’t have much responsibility towards your family. You don’t have to pay your children’s school fees or your house rent. Therefore, this is the best time to experiment with your money, invest it at different places and see the results.
We will be discussing in detail about passive income sources and investment in our subsequent blogs, so stay tuned!
4. Balancing and Management
Yes, it is true that you will get a wide range of activities and things to do, and it is extremely important to gain experience of everything. But, everything you decide to do must have a limit. Be it partying with your friends or watching movies or playing basketball or even studying! Everything must be done with a pre decided limit, which should never be crossed.
- Rank all your goals in terms of priority and set a certain limit for each thing. Remember, extreme excess of anything is wrong.
- Learn balancing and managing your work, activities and studies.
- Have a clear thought in your mind about what are you actually doing and what actually you want to do. Be very honest to yourself.
- This will make you a very organised and well managed person, and such a person owns his life.
5. Don’t forget your Academics
Another misconception created by the cinema world is that studying is not an important component of your college life. While it is extremely important to expose yourself and try new things during this time, this doesn’t mean that academics is not of much importance. Good academic records are as much required as other experiences. Especially, if you are planning for higher studies and placements, your academic records are the first thing to be considered.
So, while capturing memories and enjoying your life to the fullest, do not ignore or neglect your studies. Try to maintain good academic records throughout the years.
All the best!
