Improve your studies by turning down the volume…

Don’t be clouded by the noise of others

“The greatest fear in the world is of the opinion of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom”

Ohso Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously

How many times have you let the opinion of other people stop you in the pursuit of your goals? Have you ever let other people direct or influence your decisions, only to discover that you lack fulfilment on that path? If so, you most certainly will not be alone, it’s something which is common among many of us…and especially students.

Jay Shetty, who is one of the world’s leading life coaches says that we are often ‘clouded by the noise’, of others. He explained this is often the expectations of society, family, and friends amongst other things. Jay describes himself as being born into a family where you were “either a lawyer, a doctor or a failure” and that’s because of the expectations shaped from their beliefs. However, Jay discovered for himself that he didn’t want to follow such path, and as a result he was initially met with significant resistance.

After initially saying no to the “noise of others” and pressures of societies “status-quo” Jay is now one of the most successful and influential life coaches in the world. This goes back to our previous blog on finding your why and pursuing that, rather than just fulfilling the dreams of others for their satisfaction…not your own.

There are many examples we could list here but the point in today’s blog is to try and direct you towards the importance of going against such ‘noise’ and instead dancing to the sound of your own song.

One of the key aspects of personal growth that is linked to not being influenced by the noise in your environment is self-discovery:

“I think self discovery is the greatest achievement in life, because once you discover yourself and accept what you are, then you can fulfil your true potential and be happy”

Marco Pierre White

Part of fulfilling your true potential is living a life true to yourself. This for example could be finding a career path that you wish to pursuit, as Jay highlights above, he had to go against his family traditions in his personal experience. This does take strength, grit and a whole lot of determination. And don’t be scared, because building these values doesn’t happen overnight, it takes daily work, but you can definitely get there.

Other examples of ‘noise’ may include other people’s opinions, which could hinder you in pursuit of your goals. The founders of Semester have experienced this ‘noise’ themselves on occasions both during their studies as well as while beginning to start this movement of providing personal growth and wellbeing to students:

“Do you really think you are smart enough to complete an engineering degree when you didn’t do that course at college?” 

“If your already failing why don’t you just quit, university is a waste of time anyway” 

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to start a business?” … “I think you’re making a mistake” … “I think you should do this instead” 

No matter what it is that you are striving towards in life, you will always come across the ‘noise’ of others on occasions, and this could hold you back if you continuously listen and do not manage it correctly. If you read back the above statements a few times, you will quickly be able to see how a lot of the time, these comments are someone just speaking of their own experiences and attaching them to YOU.

We have experienced all of the above comments and we can tell you right now…they were all way of the mark! I (Nathan) completed my engineering degree with a first…and yes I did do a BTEC in Sports Science at college. Pretty unconventional right? fast forward five years and I am now building a personal growth and wellbeing brand to help students overcome the stress and pressure of modern day university life…another far cry from the previous version of myself. This just shows that YOU can be whatever you decide to be and achieve whatever YOU want to achieve. You just have to sometimes turn down the noise of others…

We are not saying that other people’s opinions cannot be helpful on occasions (because they actually can), but it’s important that you can distinguish between whether it is those supporting words of wisdom or just more ‘noise.’

The point of today’s blog was to highlight this to you. It was designed to serve as some motivation for you to chase your goals. 

One of our mottos is to help you ‘exceed your greatest dreams’ and you can only do this when you follow your heart, live a life true to yourself and not let other people sway you from your path. This is the true way to obtain an academic life of fulfilment.

We hope you found this blog helpful, as always if you want any further support please reach out to us and we would be happy to help. You can do this by messaging us via the contact page here.

#LetsGrowTogether 🎯