One of the most crucial phases in an individual’s life is the time when she/he finishes school and steps into college. There are several decisions to be made. From curating the courses that promise a glorious future to finding the right college, there is an entire world out there. Colleges and Universities can be viewed as a microcosm of society at large. You get a hint of what the world has in store for you and all the experience you gather, prepares you to embrace the brutalities of the world. Therefore, while you are in college or university, you must absorb everything that surrounds you and build the skills that will help you take on the challenges of the world. Days of rote learning are forgotten lore. What you need now are real skills and not just knowledge acquired from textbooks. Let us take a look at all the skills that you might require to survive the years in university and those that shall help you build a future for yourself as you step outside the confines of your university life.
Managing Every Minute of Your Day:
While talking about university life, the first thing that you must imbibe into your lifestyle is the practice of managing time effectively. Your professors might not harp much on its importance, but this is something that you cannot do without. Start with preparing a schedule. It does not have to be on a daily basis. A weekly schedule shall work just fine. But, make sure you have a schedule ready with you where you have the entire plan for the week laid out in details. This way, you will know which work needs to be done when and exactly how. You shall have managed time and put every minute into the best use.
Build Essential Skills:
Like we have already mentioned, rote learning and living by the dry pages of your prescribed textbook is a thing of the past. You cannot hope to build a career out of it, or at least not a promising future without any practical knowledge and only theoretical learning. In order to thrive in this fiercely competitive world, you have got to build the skills that are absolutely essential. For instance, when you first apply for a job, you need to know how to write a cv with no experience or qualifications. You also need to learn the art of communication and building social relationships. These are essential qualities that pursuing a course at a University would not teach you. You need to acquire those yourself.
Learn How To Manage Stress:
Stress management is a key skill that one must learn from an early age. You do not have to wait until you study at a college or university. Life shall throw several challenges at you. You have to learn to manage all of that and as effectively as possible. Though, stress is entirely a biological reaction to combat the consequences of certain situations, yet, it is important that you know how to not allow it to get to you. University life will, by default, be extremely stressful. You need to understand how to manage all your exams, your assignments and all the other extra-curricular activities lined up for you. If you do not handle stress, you will never be able to sustain; not just in the university, but elsewhere too.
Know How To Manage Money:
It is human nature to go with the flow and want to give in to the material temptations of the world. This temptation to have it all grows by the minute when you are with friends. And this, thus, leads to spending more money than you should have. University is just the right place to learn the art of managing money. Keep a ledger. Enter all that you spend every day and see which accounts are necessary and the ones you can do without. The habit you inculcate in yourself today shall lead you to a better and frugal life in your future.
Build Assertive Skills:
There is a difference between being aggressive and being assertive. You can either make a team or break a team with how you choose to live. While aggressiveness does not work in most of the situations being assertive is sure to yield the desired results. You must work on your assertive skills if you do not seem to have that as an innate quality.
Conclusion:
All that you learn in theory only works when you put it into practice. University and colleges are the places where you must use every opportunity to put all the acquired knowledge to trials and see how that pans out for you. This shall help you brace yourselves for what life has to offer beyond the boundaries of your university life.