This could be applied to anything in life. However, in the case of achieving a great HSC result, just showing up to move some paper around, copy down some words from the textbook to a word doc (aka ‘notes’), highlighting, messaging friends, googling something and not much more is very well intentioned but it’s not going to improve performance. 

If you want to improve performance, your output needs to increase and if you want to improve your performance you must keep yourself accountable to your output. 

Producing output requires thinking, planning, making mistakes, learning from mistakes, trying again, taking on feedback, finding new challenges, failing, deep thinking, immersing and trying again. 

Just showing up represents the path of least resistance which sadly leads to nowhere worth going. 

Producing output is the path of growth which leads to places worth going. 

A COLLECTION OF MICHAEL JORDAN QUOTES ON THE KEY BEHAVIOURS:

“You can practice shooting 8 hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” 

 “The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether it’s proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.” 

ENGAGE YOUR VISION:

“Every time I feel tired while I am exercising and training, I close my eyes to see that picture, to see that list with my name. This usually motivates me to work again.”

TRAIN. DAILY:

“If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.”

“Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.”

PUSH YOUR COMFORT ZONE:

“If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I won’t look back and say I was afraid to try.”

“Failure is acceptable. but not trying is a whole different ball park.” 

GRIT:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” 

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” 

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

“If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit!”

“To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.”

OWN IT:

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” 

“Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” 

Nothing worth having comes easy, and a fantastic HSC result is no different.

In 2020, just as in every year before this, it is those who embrace the struggle, make sacrifices and consistently put in the hard yards who will be the ones who once again achieve the fantastic results.

Let’s keep climbing to the top of Mount HSC 2020 team. You will be at the peak of this mountain before you know it. 

“There’s so much uncertainty and ambiguity around the future of work, it doesn’t matter your industry or job function. That’s why, when anyone asks what the next “hot” skill will be, I say it’s the same skill that will serve people today, tomorrow, and far into the future—the ability to learn. Even if you don’t know exactly what you’ll need to learn, you can’t go wrong cultivating a growth mindset and embracing the idea that you’ll have to learn something. It doesn’t matter if you graduated from college last year or 10 years ago. Your ability and willingness to continually build new knowledge and skills could spell the difference between a continuous upward trajectory and a career plateau.”…. continue reading the article here.

Learning how to learn (and enjoying it!) is an opportunity available to every HSC student and through the application of the HSC CoWorks student key behaviours a student will have the tool kit ready to apply themselves to whatever challenge stands in front of them. 

6 very manageable steps to conquer Mount HSC, then Mount Uni and Mount Life:

1. You must have a Vision Board or some other way of staying connected to your energy source. It is a given that every HSC student will have tasks they don’t want to do in order to achieve fantastic HSC results. If procrastination and distraction are the problem then the answer is a Vision Board. Click here to view a sample vision board which will take a whole 20 minutes to create.

• Energy Source Question 1 – What happens to a car when it runs out of its energy source? It stops. 

• Energy Source Question 2 – What happens to an HSC student when they run out of their energy source? They stop working, get distracted, procrastinate, give up.

  Tip – Need help crafting an inspiring vision? Book a 1-on-1 motivation call with Jesse.

2. Stay organised and effective with time at the desk – While students might have more time available to them than in previous years with less sport and other commitments, it is critical that students remain effective with the time they put in so as to avoid burnout and feelings of being ‘over it’. 3 hours of effective work is much better than 6 hours of ineffective work. We recommend using the HSC CoWorks planning pads daily. 

Tip – Upload a completed planning pad in the student portal for coach feedback and suggestions for extra accountability.

3. Train.Daily –  By doing all of the little things habitually, a great HSC result will take care of itself. Every student is capable of doing the ‘little things’ for each subject (ie quotes, syllabus, definitions, formulas). Without high levels of certainty with these, trying to write practice essays and do exam training will be much more difficult and therefore avoided. 

Our favourite quote of all time from the great Muhammad Ali covers this nicely – “I run long on the road before I dance under the lights.”

Tip – If you are avoiding the more challenging tasks and producing tangible output, it might suggest that you don’t have enough confidence with the foundational content and therefore will seek to avoid those tasks that make you uncomfortable (ie – outside their comfort zone). Maintain a streak on the CoWorks website to ensure you’re putting in the work daily!

4. Pushing your comfort zone is the only way to improve your capabilities. Will you need to leave your comfort zone consistently in order to achieve your HSC goals? The answer of course is yes. A human will only have the resolve to leave their comfort zone if they have their goals in front of them, they have broken tasks down into smaller more manageable chunks and finally, they have trained their brain with the foundational content required to complete those tasks outside their comfort zone.

5. Grit: Resilience training – When we leave our comfort zone it is inevitable that we will encounter setbacks, obstacles, mistakes and failure but this is the universe’s way of telling us that we are outside of our comfort zone and that we should embrace these setbacks, obstacles, mistakes and failure and continue to show up for more exposure to the tasks that will expose the gaps in our performance.

Tip – No one was born a great mathematician, no one was born a great essay writer but with the mindset of continuing to pick ourselves up off the ground after setbacks and continuing our climb to the top of the mountain will produce the desired result no matter the challenge. 

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

6. Own it! – Another favourite quote of ours is ‘You can have excuses and you can have results but you can’t have both’. Excuses and blame are the enemy of improved results and given there is only one person who can make an HSC vision an HSC reality it is critical that a student takes responsibility for the results they produce. Another reason that the Vision Board must be in place to generate commitment to creating the future with their present actions.

“If you want something bad enough you will find a way. If you don’t you will find an excuse.” – Jim Rohn

In 178 days from now the first HSC exam will have been sat.

It’s April today but soon it will be May and then it will be June.

Right now is a significant moment because right now there is a choice available.

YOUR CHOICE:

Option 1: – Finish 13 years of schooling with no regrets and throw everything you have at conquering your Mount HSC.

OR:

Option 2: – Say ‘it’s too hard’, CoronaVirus ruined my HSC, ‘I just can’t get motivated’.

This is more than a significant moment.

It’s a choice between becoming

1) An accomplished mountain climber or

2) Someone who doesn’t know how to climb mountains.

Life is full of mountains so embrace the struggle and learn to climb mountains would be our advice.

Setting Up your Study Space

Next, you’ll want to make sure that your study space inspires motivation and productivity. It has been proven that productivity is increased when desk clutter is minimised, so it’s important that you keep your desk tidy and organised throughout the day.

Make sure the essentials are effectively organised and easily accessible; your textbooks, your laptop, your mindmap and planning pads, a notebook and some stationary. Having some healthy snacks and a water bottle handy is also a good idea. Most importantly – your study space should be distraction-free. This means that your phone should not be on your desk and should instead be in a different room. Out of sight, out of mind!

To ensure that your study space is not a place of distraction or procrastination, it is also important that you surround yourself with inspiration. A vision board is a critical tool for visually representing your goals and keeping you motivated, helping to drive your energy, creativity and progress. You need to be reminding yourself daily of what you’re striving towards.

Look the Part

Keeping up your usual routine, including by getting yourself dressed, is critical for maintaining productivity across the day.

Our brains tend to associate sleepwear with rest and relaxation so wearing pyjamas throughout the day will likely prevent you from switching into a ‘study’ mindset. For this reason, many experts suggest that studying productively from home necessarily entails dressing as you would if you were going to school or the library.

It is also important that you maintain proper posture, particularly if you are spending long hours working at a desk. This will support blood circulation and prevent fatigue.  

Plan Your Day

You should be making a to-do list at the beginning of each day. This will provide you with an all-important sense of structure, enable you to focus on the tasks that matter and ensure that your study is targeted and balanced across your subjects.

Use the HSC CoWorks planning pads to plan what tasks you will work on for the day and upload a photo of your planning pad so that. one of our virtual coaches can give you feedback on your plan as well as provide added accountability. Time allocation and identifying your ‘frog’ tasks (i.e. the tasks you least want to work on) will ensure you are most effective with your time.

It is highly recommended that you PLAN daily to remain on track.

While it is important to plan out your work, it is just as important to plan out your breaks. Leaving time for lunch, exercise, entertainment and relaxation is absolutely vital. Students should be looking to maintain their usual routine as much as possible during this period to maximise certainty and focus.

Teach your brain to believe that it is capable of overcoming challenges and watch the magic that happens from there. We implore you to think positively throughout this time and are excited for our students to harness the power of online learning and modern technology.

Above all, we wish you health and safety during these difficult and uncertain times. If you have any questions, concerns or challenges, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team. We are here to support you.

Read our next blog on the dangers of cramming.