Today morning I was browsing TRP when I stumbled across a post, it caught my attention immediately since it is something that isn't being touched on very often in this sub. Based on the work of /u/Geetsly I will try to expand his Guide and add a few more important points, based of my experience as 17 year old on how to incorporate TRP in your life as a sub-18. The topics I will touch on are School, books, looks, fitness and nutrition, free-time activities, sleep and attitude. And they will be up daily and the formatting will improve.

School and Education

While most of you think that school is boring and that you shouldn't be there wasting your time nearly every day in the month it's the one thing where the results determine the lives of many teenagers in most of the cases. I'm saying most of the time because some people will and are successfull while they sucked at school big time, but I'll explain why the "I'll become rich despite my bad grades"- mindset is destructive and shouldn't be internalized because it's a rather easy part to get good grades and why it is so important.

  • The myth of Zuckerberg

"Meh my grades suck, but I don't give a shit since I'm really good at playing football, programming, insert any other free-time activity here and I will become a great blank "

While yes, it may be true that you will be successful despite your bad grades and create a business off of it, but lets be real:

The Odds are astronomically low, if you can't even achieve good grades at school. That being said, I'm completely aware of programmers which can become rich by writing one program but betting all your time and money and ressources on one horse that early on, to leave you with no choices later on? That doesn't sound very healthy considering you're forced to do something you like, not because you like it but because you have to because you bet all your money on that single horse. In that case I can see the burnout pre-programmed.

So to keep all options available there is one easy and simple task to learn, which will lead you to success, not only in school but in life:

  • You gotta learn to learn.

Sounds weird, but it's the key component to being an good student, not only in school but in university, too. Learning how to learn is simple:

1. You got to write down everything you want to learn

Can't stress this enough. If you prepare for an exam or a test get 5 blank pieces of paper and write down every key-aspect of the topic and explain it below it. Once you did that you can read trough it again and again, be sure to not leave anything out at all. This way you force yourself to learn actively, to think about what you're writing and how you're writing, try to differ in sentencing from the original text and voila, you'll have a sentence construction which you now burned into your brain by writing it down.

2. Cut down all distractions when you learn

Another point that o so many people dismiss when learning: Don't listen to music while learning, don't watch a series while learning, learning should be the only thing you do when learning because as I said, you're actively learning when writing things down, so don't try to multitask by listening to music simultaneously, reward yourself with a nice song after you finished your learning pages.

3. Optional: Get Omega-3 Fatty Acids

I don't know it if was a placebo but I saw an article about how Omega-3 Fatty Acids help the brain form new connections, so I got myself a bunch of them and now I take them regularly and it really feels as if they give me a really incredible edge. Also they're good for your health generally but that's something I'll touch on later in this series

  • The early bird catches the worm

Another point to getting better grades is to impress new teachers early in semesters with raising your hand permanentely and answering all the questions he or she is asking you, it will definetely put you in the top 5% of the class instantly and the impression will last as long as the teacher teaches you.

Once you internalize all these aspects, you will notice that you don't just learn better, but more effectively. You will notice that you can achieve the best grades with only 10% of the time other students use to achieve similar grades. Since you worked smart and not hard and the same applies to your future when you have good grades using these techniques, since you worked smart and not hard, you can now work smart too, and you don't have to do things you don't like. With good grades everybody assumes you worked your ass off and that you're determined to achieve your goals while all you did was trick the system and get good grades with minimal effort while other people worked their asses off to achieve less than you did in school.

This was the topic School and Education, if you have questions feel free to drop a pm, I'll prolly add more stuff if I feel like I forgot something. Also feel free to comment on my writing style and formatting, it will help me improve it in a way that I can incorporate it in future posts.

Cheers!

TL;DR:

Write down everything you want to learn and focus on learning only, optional: get omega-3 fatty acids, try to be the best early in the semester to leave an incredible impression which will keep your grades high without much effort in school. Work smart not hard