Top 5 key skills to be successful before going to college

April 6, 2023
Most of you reading this must be young adults. You’re almost done with school and are all excited about the opportunities in store for you. You have that burning desire to be the best version of yourself once you enter college. After all, most of us must have heard from grown-ups that college days are one of the best times of our lives.
Have you heard that before?
Then, this blog is for you! Guess what, there is no secret hack that can transform your life in a jiffy! LeBron James, Serena Williams, Lionel Messi and many others didn’t become famous overnight. They put in efforts, day in and day out, to become the best version of themselves.Similarly, if you want to see change and be the best version of yourself, you will have to hustle for it. Once you are done reading this blog, you must try to inculcate the ideas, to slowly shape your life. It’ll give you a head start in approaching college in the right direction.
Just like the saying “Good things take time, nothing happens overnight”
We want YOU to make every day count and be ready to face challenges by preparing beforehand. College may seem like a daunting thing at first, but once you’re armed with these fundamental skills, you are sure to have the best time of your life. Trust us! So, do you want to stand out from the rest of the crowd by the time you enter college? Here are the top 5 preliminary skills that’ll set you apart!
1. Find a mentor –

It isn’t that hard to find a mentor, but finding the right one for you is what matters. A mentor could be anyone who has excelled in your field of interest. It could be your teacher, your boss at your

A good mentor teaches you “How to fish rather than giving you fish”

To get started, you can spend more time with your mentor to see how they work and handle different situations. Maybe discuss challenges that you are facing and get some advice on tackling them.

If you are a young techy who is interested in coding, you can check out Techmentry. They provide a 3 months mentorship program for young techies who are interested in knowing what lies ahead in the world of coding.

You can have different mentors at various stages of life. But don’t sweat! For now, it could be your own parent or senior who has prior experience in being to college and studying in the field of your interest.

 

For example, if your intent is to get more disciplined and to focus on your body strength. A gym trainer or yoga instructor is more likely to suit your current goals. Or, if you are interested in coding, you could connect with a computer science graduate/professor, to get help in implementing your ideas and create something new. If you want to code and create something new, Techmentry has a remarkable history of fostering some of today’s leaders across various industries. Their alumni consist of employees who work in leadership roles for global tech companies such as Facebook, Accenture, Amazon, etc.

2. Have an entrepreneur mindset –

In college, you have an abundance of freedom to explore your career path, to find out what truly inspires you and gives you a purpose in life.

“The mind is everything. What you think, is what you become — Buddha”

Entrepreneurship is a state of being. There is no syllabus or exam to become one. They are the kind of people who are ever curious and want to understand how everything around them functions. They have the ability to make decisions and most importantly take action on them. They are eager to learn and grasp as much knowledge as they can, from their surroundings.
But if you are not in that headspace right now. Don’t worry!

Start by questioning daily tasks and things around you. Interact with more people and learn more. Start doing things on your own and becoming more responsible. Something as simple as making your bed every day, and helping your parents with chores on your own will showcase such qualities. Decisions can be hard at first but know that no one becomes a master in a day! Practise, make mistakes, learn from them and build your character.

Here is a test to see how strong your mind is and how well you cope with a situation when given choices.

For example, You’re hungry, you want to catch a quick bite. You go to a restaurant and place an order for a meal with a beverage as an addon. The beverage menu looks something like this.

You obviously go for the small drink to compliment your meal as it’s way cheaper, right? But what if we change the menu slightly. And now it looks like this.
The pricing on the large size makes more sense as it is only 50 cents more than the Medium size. Do you agree?

That’s where you need to stop and think. Is this what you chose initially? You just wanted a quick bite and now you have suddenly started changing your opinion based on the circumstances. That’s how tricky it is to decide. You need to clearly understand “why” and “what” made you change your decision and stay focused.

3. Socialize more:
You might have been an extrovert and had many friends in school or maybe you are introverted and have a handful of them. Wherever you are right now, you need to start learning to socialize more often, to develop your network. This improves your communication skills which play a vital role in your personality. This will help you adapt to an open college atmosphere.
4. Time management –
Homework and assignments may have been your only task in school. But it’s important to learn to set deadlines to complete them and take your leisure break during other times. Managing your time is essential as you will have to attend classes, meet people, travel, make time for hobbies, socialize, complete assignments, submit reports etc. So, by setting up deadlines from now on, you can get accustomed to becoming more organized in doing your work.
5. Money management-

For most of us, till now your parents must have taken care of us and bought you everything. So you had little to no idea about the money spent. But as you step out and enter college, you will slowly become independent and will need to create your own source of income or get “Pocket money”!

Maybe, you could start by asking your parent’s for some pocket money to learn to manage money. Once you do, it is important that you start tracking all expenses, debts, income, passive income, savings, etc. Learning about taxation is a plus.

Once you’re done with that, you will be able to manage any amount of money however big or small they may be. You surely want to track all those parties that you might be attending once you enter college, right?!

Now that the cat’s out of the bag!

Conclusion:

Remember, reading this was easy, but imbibing them is the tricky part. You need to have that drive, to make a change and become the best version of yourself.

Sadly, we don’t have an article like “Top 5 things to instill a drive” yet.

Now, it’s up to you to take control of your life and gear up.

Which of these listed skills can you get started with right away?

Good luck!