Read the passage and answer the questions that follows :
(1) We all want to succeed. Whether it’s in losing weight learning the guitar,
speed reading, or starting our own business. For those of us who have tried
and failed, success seems elusive. Why is it one person succeeds where another
personal fails? First and foremost, I believe it is in their mindset. But secondly,
I believe that successful people have developed certain habits, either naturally
or through research that the rest of us haven’t stumbled upon yet.
(2) What is important to you? Finding your core values may seem a bit off-topic
when it comes to success, but creating goals that are in line with your values
is key to creating intrinsic motivation. Sit and reflect on what you value most.
Pick a handful of things and actually write them down. Remind yourself of
your values every day, and reflect on whether you are honoring those values
through your work.
(3) Choose one goal to start. Something large enough that will give you a sense of
accomplishment, while aligning well with your core values. Focus is key here.
The more focused you are on one goal, the higher chance you have of success.
Set a date for success. Identify when your hope to achieve your goal. Keep
it realistic, while not giving yourself too much time. By setting a time limit, you
are making the process more real. Believe fully in your ability to achieve your
goal. Visualize yourself having completed your goal in the exact time-frame
you have chosen, although finishing early is also acceptable. You don’t need
to consider the failures that will happen along the way. Success is inevitable.
Others may think you will fail, don’t let yourself be one of them!
(4) Set up negative consequences for missing the deadline. Necessity is the mother
of all invention. If you can manage to keep yourself intrinsically motivated,
that’s great. If not, this will help kick you into gear and keep your eye on the
prize. Prioritize the tasks you have in front of you. Don’t always do the most
urgent thing first. Pick the task that’s the most important. Sometimes these
overlap, which is nice. By always accomplishing what’s most important, you
are making clear progress toward your goal.
(5) Push yourself. Go out of your comfort zone. This is the best way to learn, and
the best way to make progress quickly. If you’re looking for new ideas, being
risk averse will not help. This takes a lot of self-awareness. Try and be
conscious of when you are holding yourself back out of fear. Push yourself to
be courageous, and take that next step. Failure is inevitable when you take
risks, which is what you’ll be doing if you want to succeed. By its very definition,
the desire to succeed at something means you are risking failure. Many people
tend to give up far too early. Use failure. Treat it as a good thing, and march
on!
(6) Take time every day to sit quietly and reflect on your values, goals, and progress
made so far. Where have you excelled, and where can you do better. Is
everything you are doing still lining up with your core values? Always look for
ways to improve. Never stop learning. Know what everyone else is doing,
and what everyone else has done, and how they did it. Search wide for
knowledge that might help you, and any inspiration that may do the same.
Never think you have nothing to learn from others.
(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on its
using recognizable abbreviations (Min. 4) wherever necessary. Use a
format you consider appropriate. Supply a suitable title.
(b) Write a summary of the passage.