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Selected English readings for recitation: Cal Newport
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Successful, interesting college students are definitely a varied bunch. Yet there is one thing many of them have in common: a wonderful sense of possibility. Whereas most students are content to stay the course, winning students love to get excited about big goals. They crave the thrill of pursuing opportunities that very few people have attempted before them. An average student does well in a science course; a winning student gets involved in original research.An average student sends a letter to the school newspaper; a winning student writes a regular column. An average student wants to join a club; a winning student starts a national organization. If you want to stand out at college you should foster an attitude of “anything is possible.” And one of the best ways to develop this attitude is to constantly be working on a “Grand Project.”
To begin with, reflect on your most heartfelt aspirations. If you could be doing anything five years from now, what would it be? Then design and follow an ambitious Grand Project that moves you toward your answer. For example, if you get excited about the idea of writing for The New Yorker, you might create a Grand Project to first publish a series of intelligent nonfiction pieces for your school paper,then a local paper, then a second-tier national publication on your way to the big time. If you dream of screenwriting in Hollywood, you might research a list of every upcoming student-film-writing contest, tack the deadlines on your wall, and work on finishing an original screenplay in time to be submitted to all of them. Or, if you are motivated by young entrepreneur success stories, you might jot down a clever business idea, create a Web site, and launch your very own dorm-room corporation.
Your Grand Project should consist of a group of achievable, nonacademic accomplishments that, when combined, move you closer to an exciting aspiration. Think big. Be ambitious. When you explain a Grand Project to someone it should elicit a response of “Wow!” Working on such a project will keep you constantly excited and energetic. It will keep the pressures of course work in perspective, and make it easy to brush aside the little bad occurrences that pop up now and then. When you work on a highly ambitious project, you feel invincible, like you are a step ahead of the rest of the world, forging unique paths to great success. It doesn't matter if you don't always succeed. The novelty and thrill of taking chances is a powerful force.
This may sound like a bunch of psychobabble, but if you actually try pursuing a Grand Project, you will understand. When you finish that screenplay, see your article in print, or receive your first check as an entrepreneur, the sensation is indescribable. You just accomplished something exciting, and you did so for no other reason than you just wanted to see if it was possible. Once you accomplish one Grand Project, anything seems achievable. This sense of possibility will fuel your rise to becoming a standout.
Exerpt from "How to win at college" by Cal Newport
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-286797-596915.html
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