Navigating College With the 7 Habits
A Digital Book to Help You Succeed In School and in Life
Sean Covey
Mango Publishing
Coral Gables
Copyright © 2019 by Sean Covey.
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Cover Design: Morgane Leoni
Cover illustration: Tortuga - Shutterstock
Layout & Design: Roberto Núñez
Illustrations: MicroOne - Shutterstock
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Navigating College With the 7 Habits: A Digital Book to Help You Succeed In School and in Life
ISBN: (ebook) 978-1-64250-178-0
BISAC category code SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Success
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Habit 2
Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3
Put First Things First
Habit 4
Think Win-Win
Habit 5
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6
Synergize
Habit 7
Sharpen the Saw
Mastering the 7 Habits
About the Author
Congratulations! You’ve made it to college. That’s great. Now your next goal is to graduate. After all, you didn’t come all this way just to get in, right? You came to finish. For you, finishing might mean two years and an associate’s degree, four years and a bachelor’s degree, or six years and a master’s degree. Or…who knows? Maybe people will be calling you “doctor” in a few years.
Regardless of how long it takes, graduation will be a great day. But the path won’t be easy. College can feel a lot like a marathon. I remember coming home after my first day at college feeling completely overwhelmed. The campus was huge, I didn’t know anyone, and I wasn’t sure I could succeed there.
Starting college can be a shock, whether you’re eighteen or twenty-eight or eighty. Once you make that big step, life becomes much more complicated, especially if you have a job and a family and money issues. So, what I’m here to do is to help you succeed, not only in college but also in life.
Let me tell you about my friend David, who started at a state college less than a year ago. He doesn’t want to just put on a cap and gown and march across a stage at some point. He wants to make the most out of school. He wants to learn from great thinkers, meet people from all over, expand his mind, and be well prepared for his future job. But he also wants to do it all effectively. He doesn’t want to fall behind, take longer than needed, or waste time and money. He wants to do it right.
My guess is that you feel the same way. You’ve worked hard to get here, so now you want to do it right. So, how are you going to succeed in college? For starters, I’ve learned that successful college students have three things in common. First, a compelling reason for going to college. Second, solid academic skills. And third, effective life skills. These things make up what I call the College Success Formula.
Why are you in college in the first place? If you have a burning “Why,” you’ll be far more likely to finish college. Take the example of Isaac, who grew up in a neighborhood where few students made it through high school. Rarely did anyone think of college. Every day he felt pressure to go down the route of gangs and crime, but, somehow, he caught a vision. “I wanted something different for my life,” he told me. Isaac saw college as his path to a better life. No one in his family had ever done it, and, when he shared his dream with his high school counselor, he was told he wouldn’t make it unless he had a sports scholarship or joined the military. When neither of those options panned out, Isaac refused to be stopped. At age eighteen, he left home to fend for himself, got a job, and immediately began setting aside a little cash for tuition. After four years and much personal discipline, he enrolled in college.
Today, Isaac is as committed as ever to graduating. His compelling why—to attain a better life—keeps him working hard and making sacrifices. I think these experiences will make his why even more compelling over time.
That’s not the only thing you need. It’s just as important to know how to succeed in college as to know why. For that, you need two sets of skills: academic skills and life skills.
Academic skills include writing, reading, test-taking, studying, note-taking, critical thinking, researching, and presenting. Of course, you also have to know how to navigate the campus, use the library, get help from your professors, and use online resources. Some students already come to college with solid academic skills, while others need to develop them. Most colleges know this, so they set up academic support centers—most at no cost to you—for tutoring, mentoring, and testing. There are also lots of resources on the Internet. Many colleges have college success courses you can take that will help you build study skills and life skills. (You may even be using this e-book in one of these courses!)
If you haven’t developed good study skills, it’s not too late to start.
Jeri had lousy study habits in high school. After two kids and a divorce, she decided to go back to school so she could qualify for a better job. That was when her study habits came back to haunt her. Reading in bed put her to sleep, and trying to study on the busy train to work was pointless. Then there was procrastination, a lifelong hobby for Jeri. Plus, the two kids were her darling little distractions.
A few changes were in order. Jeri moved out of her bed into what she called her “study home,”