hello Steemians, if you might be wondering what the picture depicts, It's all about had work.

I will try to be as comprehensive as possible but at the same time I will do my best to pass on the message because if it can change my life then definitely it can change someones else's life too.

The quote

I know you must be waiting to here what this almighty quote is, well here it is.

You must have heard of this quote many times, but how well do you really make use of it, I will share my own story of how this well crafted quote got it's meaning into me for a better me.

It all started when i got admission into the university. I'm from Nigeria and here in Nigeria it can be quite difficult getting admission into the university sometimes you might try again and again due to the required process and due to this most students might end up taking up courses they never intended to study, It happened to me and that's why i could talk about it.

After battling through the process of admission I finally got in but i found myself studying physics instead of the actual course (computer engineering which i intended to study), I wouldn't bore you with the entire process, let's get straight to the point.

At this point I'm already in my first year, although very exited but like some of my class mates I was also being distracted with the fact that I was studying what i never Intended to. at he end of the first year our results were published and guess what, It was terrible. I had a CGPA of 0.9 out of 3 not a joke at all, I was very lucky here because those who had 0.5 or less had to repeat the year.

I got really disturbed but i never approached the problem the right way, not until after the second year, by the end of the second year my point went up to 1.5 but i got even more discouraged because it was a four year course and i was afraid of graduating with a pass, for those of you who are Nigerians you know what it means to graduate with a pass.

I thought i could avoid all the challenges by quitting and starting with a new course, so i decided to park up my stuff and head back home to meet my parents, I tried all i could to convince my dad and mum so i could start afresh, but they reminded me of how difficult i was for me to get it. and my dad and mum collectively encouraged me with questions which i couldn't answer but to go back to school.

He said

In your whole class is there anyone who had a resealable CGPA?

And i said

yes of course dad, someone had up to 3.8

He asked again

Is he also a human being like you?

At this point I was speechless, because i got really touched with the feeling that why am i running away from what a fellow human can do.

And this was the most interesting part that got me straight back to school.

He then finally said

Your successful classmates are not better than you, You are not just putting in enough hard work to complement their knowledge.

And mum simply said

Son, please you should go back to school

At this point all i could think of was what exactly is hard work because I was studying as well, so i told them i will be going back to school first thing in the morning, I believe my dad and mum must be filled with joy being able to convince me to go back.

while going back to school, I couldn't stop researching and reading about hard work, while doing this i came across this interesting quote by Kevin Durant

hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard

I then recalled my dad's statement that I'm just not putting in enough work, when i got to school, It was the beginning of the third year, so i said if i had to work hard i need a base like a reference point to target, at this point i had some other classmates who were already on 3.0 and above but they where very much relaxed as they never had to do much work.

My approach

with the point i was having I already have some courses which we call carry over courses, so even if i had to work hard it will be so much extra work, I decided to approach the Class rep as we call him, he is the class representative, He had the highest point in the class. I went very close to him and observed his study strategies, I also did same with the other students with very close point to that of the class rep.

After a close work with them with much research, I realized that they actually give little time in studying and they understand quite much but my case was directly the opposite, I have to give so much time to be able to understand much. having gathered all these details i decided to get to work, I decided to triple up my study time to be able to scale up with their knowledge level, while i was doing this most of them whose points were already good took advantage of there knowledge in the wrong way, they would wait until close to exams before actually studying to approach the exams believing that they required just a little time to study.

I wouldn't go into too much details but at the end of the fourth year even though i didn't get up to 3 points I got up to 2.5 which is a tow two 2nd class lower and i was among the few(9 of us who actually graduated without an extra year out of the 60 students in my class) , In the Nigerian educational system this is not a bad point to have, and i escaped the pass i was so afraid of and this point of my actually gave me the chance to study my masters directly though not in Nigeria, I was much more happy and satisfied as compared to the rest of the class.

For those who were too comfortable with their points, some of them came right away down below 2 points and had to stay back after graduation to clear up the extra courses.

Since then, It has really been a great strategy for me irrespective of where i find my self.

food for thought

1.

No challenge is too big , instead of running away or quitting, look for the best strategies to approach the problem, don't just work hard but work hard with a reference or a target.

2.

making a particular state of your existence your comfort zone will prevent you from learning more, no matter how comfortable you might bee explore more opportunities to grow further so that you won't be overtaken by surprise.

I hope you've learnt something interesting today from this.

thank you and stay tuned for more.