Strategies for University Success III — Dragon Fighting.

Dragons. Dragons everywhere.

Things are going to take a drastic turn for you when you enter college. What you will find is that up until then, all your problems were broken down into digestible little chunks for you. Between the teachers in school and your parents at home, you probably had very little say in the matter — and it probably pissed you off but the problems you faced were more than likely things that you could handle. People were always making you go do things — chores, classes, practices and so on but at least these tasks didn’t eat you alive.

College is a bag full of snakes in a forest guarded by a man-eating dragon.

Truth be told — no body gives a shit about you in college. No one is going to call you up and check if you’re working on your assignments — unless you’re unfortunate enough to have a mum who just absolutely cannot help herself and if you do, I’m afraid I can’t help you.

It’s going to be a “jump off the cliff and learn how to fly on the way down” situation. Everything you’re going to have to do in your semester is going to overwhelm you. Your brain will react to the challenge of “Do really well this semester” the same way it it will react to a sudden black out — anxiety and fear.

The problem of “Do really well this semester” is too big of a problem. It’s the final boss fight. It’s the dragon that is hiding in the forbidden forest. You have no idea how to kill that dragon let alone where the forest is. It’s too complicated and anything that your brain perceives as “too complicated” is categorized under “too much too handle” which is what causes you to lay awake at night and hide under the covers when the alarm goes off in the morning.

How to fight your dragons.

Before you even consider the intricacies of dragon fighting, you’ve got to find a pair of boots to wear and a map — those are things you can manage, let’s forget the dragon for now. Finding a pair of boots to wear and a map is a prerequisite to killing a fire breathing, maiden stealing dragon. So even if you don’t end up finding the forest or the dragon, if you get the boots and map — you at least have a pair of boots and a map! You’ll still be better off than before you started — a shoddy peasant with no boots, no map and no hope of getting the girl.

The thing about the “old college try” is that if gone about properly , even if you don’t finish first in your class, you will still end up better off than when you started. As far as I can tell, the best approach is to aim at admirable goals, like slaying a dragon and saving the girl, that can be broken down into smaller, less terrifying tasks that when completed, leave you better off even if you never get to the end result.

Sometimes I think about writing something and I stumble into a wall. I realize that I don’t know what the hell I’m going to write about. A certain progression of actions need to happen before I start writing. 1) I need to have something to write with or a computer. 2) I need a place that is quiet and comfortable for me to sit and to think. 3) I need to open a document or get a piece of paper. 4) Now I can start writing. The first 3 things absolutely have to happen for the 4th thing to happen. They are prerequisites. So I think to myself: Can I find something to write with or a computer? Yes, I can do that — Done. Great. Can I find a place that is quite and comfortable to sit and to think? Yes — Done. Great. Can I get open a document or get a piece of paper?

Yes — Done. More often than not, what happens at this point is that I actually end up coming up with something to write about. I understand that coming up with something to write about may or may not happen in that sitting. However, there are things in that complex series of events that I can absolutely control and execute to increase the likely hood of the final desired outcome of “writing something” manifest itself.

Often times it looks like we’ve done everything we can do because we haven’t broken the problem down into small enough pieces.

Once you can break a goal down to it’s constituent parts, you might notice that of all the parts, only the final 10% is unknown to you and if you complete the remaining 90% of tasks, you increase the probability of figuring out how to do the 10% that is not yet clear to you.

Do things that increase the probability that you will achieve your end vision — whether or not you reach that end result is irrelevant — you must become outcome independent because nothing is a guarantee.

Let’s imagine a common sceneario.

Ah, it’s Fall. Arguably everyone’s favorite season. The leaves are turning gold, the football is on and the temperature is a cuddle inducing, sit-around-under-a-tree 74 degrees F. It’s your third week in your introductory chemistry class and you spy with your little eye a cute girl that you would like to spend time with. You imagine said girl and you, under the aforementioned tree, embraced in an idyllic cuddle session.

First thing in your head : How the hell are you going to accomplish this?

BOOM — All of a sudden, you’re anxious and terrified. Your heart rate has sky rocketed, palms are sweaty, knees weak and arms are heavy — the “bro” next to you leans over and inquires as to your sudden change in “chill”.

Now, if you’ve never spoken to a girl in your life, imagining the perfect romantic life together with the cutie in your class elicits the very appropriate reaction from your brain — anxiety and fear. The end goal is too huge and way too complicated. That’s a massive dragon and you owe it to yourself to take a second to identify if this dragon is actually made up of smaller dragons that you could easily dispatch.

A prerequisite for living happily ever after with her is , surprisingly, actually having spoken with her. For anything else to happen, this absolutely has to happen and you can absolutely manage that step. To accomplish that step, you may actually have to make an effort to sit next to her which you can also accomplish.

So you forget about the overwhelming, incomprehensible grandeur of getting old together , actually go, sit down next to her and say something mind blowing — “Hi”. Why? because those are things you can manage and they have to be done anyway so you might as well get them out of the way. In this scenario, she might want nothing to do with you. The point is that by doing these two simple things , you’ve vastly increased the probability of reaching your end goal whereas before, you were sitting close to 0.

Increase the probability of you doing something.

You have a better chance of seeing Jesus Christ doing some interval training in the recreational center than you do of Purdue cancelling classes — for any reason.

Somedays, you’ll pull back the curtain of your room, look outside at the windy, white, calamity blowing outside and think to yourself — why? why am I doing this to myself? What’s the point of going to class right now?

It’s at times like this that you have to remind yourself why you’re in college and what the hell it is that you’re paying for. You may , in your infinite wisdom, believe that you won’t get anything out of the lecture but by not attending, you make that an absolute certainty.

However, if you decide to go to class, on the off chance that you are wrong and that something useful manifests itself out of the ether, you have a much higher probability of learning something. If you just do that — just engage in opportunities that only simply increase the probability of you learning something, you will be far better of than most.

You may have a work out plan — all filled out neatly with sets, reps and weights written out for 5 weeks. One of those days you will find yourself coming up with a million excuses as to why you shouldn’t go to the gym.

Oh, I didn’t sleep enough, Oh , I didn’t eat enough yesterday — there is no way I can hit all these sets and reps.

Well, maybe you can’t hit those sets and reps — but can you go to the gym? you know where the building is right? Just go to the gym and you can go back home if you’re still not feeling it.

Alright, yes I’m at the gym.

Okay, you’re in the gym. Can you do one rep on your first set? You can go back home after that if you’re still not feeling it.

Yea, probably.

You get the idea.

It’s a pretty big deal.

There is no two words about it — college is a big deal. However, it doesn’t have to be such a big deal that it squashes you under it’s giant paws and burns you into a crispy McFreshmen.

You don’t have to let the complexity of it all — the sheer magnitude of years, effort and tears that it will take to finish your degree — come crashing down on your head. It will if you let it.

Focus on finding your prerequisites — the leather boots, the map, the shield and sword before you run off head first into a forest looking for a dragon to slay. If something is overwhelming you in it’s complexity, the odds are that you have not deconstructed it enough into its constituent parts. If you feel a crushing sense of doom mixed with a lack of direction and dash of despair, you may well be seeing “too complicated, needs more refining” not “I’m fucked” — your brain doesn’t know the difference.

Now, go forth — and don’t forget your shield.