Characteristics of Successful Student

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Laura Kelani

Professor Anna Schmidt

English 1301

May 19, 2020

Characteristics of Successful students

Success is a highly desired goal that can be both quite easy and difficult thing to meet in

life. One of the areas where success is required is school and unless one has suitable features that

lead towards achievement of the end product, nothing much can happen in their life. Jack

Canfield one of the greatest philosopher who wrote the book The Success Principles reminds

everyone that it is a myths to attach great life to someone else. “The real truth about being

successful is that you are responsible for the quality of life you live, income, debts, feelings,

health, and relationships (Canfield 2).”

As such, success is highly indebted in a strong personality who is determined, patient,

persevering, focused, disciplined, mature, and critical individual. They focus towards a set goal,

can go through challenges without becoming hopeless, they strongly desire to succeed hence act

in the best interest of the teachers , parents and friends, they think about everything they have to

do or say, and they are aware that their actions have consequences.

II. Body paragraphs.

A self-motivated or rather determined attribute is a sure sign that someone is a symbol of

success. With self-determination anyone can find purpose in life and come up with appropriate

actions or plans that enhance discovery of personally meaningful goals and dreams. Many iconic

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people that stand in the history managed to be what they are because they were determined that

they would set goals, work towards them and achieve in life. There are a massive people

including Martin Luther King, Barrack Obama, Nelson Mandela emerged as heroes from zero

just because of the self-motivation they had. Self-determination is like faith which can move

mountains. According to Field, Shaw, & Sarver self-determined individuals engage in self-

regulated, goal-directed, and autonomous behavior (340). Self-determination theory proves that

in education, a student must develop interest for learning, value what they learn and have

confidence in their capabilities for it enhances desired educational outcomes (Legault 2).

Therefore, self-determination go hand in hand with academic achievement and a student who is

destined to succeed will obviously have this characteristic.

Successful students exhibit an admirable masterly of self-Management through a patient

and persevering personality. Patience and perseverance are attributes that encourage someone to

plan and act in pursuit of their goals and dreams. Patient people set goals and hardly give up

even when they are not fulfilling it instantly. They never give up or get disappointed even when

times are hard and unfavorable for them. Look as if things are normal, they might be blamed for

mistakes they did not do and wait for the real time when truth will prevail. They may miss a meal

yet Mahatma Gandhi is one of the early people to realize this hence he said ‘there is more to life

than increasing speed (Connolly 33).’ Schooling requires patience, perseverance for one has to

sit understanding concepts work repetitively on a complex mathematical concept before they

master it, or read voluminous books to acquire required language competence through the night

while studying for exams. When I was a student I saw many students who wanted shortcuts and

they could avoid taking time to read, they could them seek a way of acquiring question papers

beforehand. They could even pay for the papers and look for other people to answer these papers

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only to be astonishes with different exams that never matched what they paid for. Thus, with

patience and perseverance a student is able to commit and gain better control of their learning

schedules and content.

It is easy to spot a successful student from a crowd because of the great level of discipline

and maturity they prevail. These are people who are interdependent so that they always build

mutually supportive relationships which enhance their achievement of set goals and dreams. It is

hard to find a successful student making noise in class, harassing others, sneaking out of school

or conducting other mischievous activities. Teacher establish peace and serenity in the presence

of these learners because they focus on what they want. These are the kind of students who want

to be in school all the time, they want to be as close to the teacher and books as possible. They

are role models within a school, a college, or a university and inspire beginners or others to live

and behave like them. They therefore learn school rules and regulations by heart and stay out of

the don’ts. In one study by Ehaine, he realized that discipline encourages students to have good

behaviour and that affects the overall academic performance (183). As such, successful students

are always in charge of their discipline and behave maturely because they target achievement.

Successful students thrive on critical and focused attributes that make them both self-

motivated and lifelong learners. These are students who do not read for exams alone, they use

every opportunity to learn something new. If you get into a challenge with then, they can move

from weather, to politics, to business, and life in general. Such learners have reasons for doing or

avoiding certain ways of life or activities. They have careers which are not presented to them by

anyone, but which they go for because they understand which strengths they have .These learners

discover personal weaknesses and handle them, they can even keep quiet when someone wants

to annoy them. They are journalists at a tender age, doctors in their teenage years and know

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when injustice is due to come to them. Successful students have an outstanding self-awareness

that surrounds them. They think, believe, and behave consciously in a manner which keeps them

on course. Some teachers might think they are boastful or trying to downplay them when in

reality they are just asserting what they know. Indeed, nothing can change the goals and focus on

successful student because it is within their chemistry.

III. Conclusion

Overall, success is one of the concepts in human life that either matures or aborts in the

lives of many people, especially while at school. The fate of success depends on the individual

pursuing it. If they only dream without practicing them, then they remain it be failures in contrast

to those who talk the walk. From the many testimonies and observation of diverse people, the

reality of determining what a successful student is does not lie. A successful student will easily

be defined by their high levels of determination, patience, perseverance, focus, discipline,

maturity and criticality. As seen above, successful student know that they have to achieve in life

regardless of the challenges, they avoid rash decisions, as well as weigh their actions and

reactions. Besides, there are people who act beyond their age and could take charge of others

when no adult is available because of how thoughtful, reflective and critical they are.

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Works Cited

Canfield, Jack. The Success Principles. Harper Collins Books. (2015).1-94. <

https://www.jackcanfield.com/images/stories/the-success-principles-2-chapters.pdf>

Connolly, Mike. The resilient Principles. (2007): 32-35. <

https://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/resources/2/Principal/2007/M-Jp32.pdf >

Ehaine, Stanley. Discipline and Academic Performance (A Study of Selected secondary Schools

in Lagos, Nigeria). International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive

Education and Development 3(1), (2014):181-193. DOI: 10.6007/IJARPED/v3-i1/758

Field Sharon, Shaw Stan, and Sarver Mary. Self-Determination in Remedial and Special

Education 24(6). (2017):339-349. DOI: 10.1177/07419325030240060501.

Legault, Lisa. Self-Determination Theory. In book: Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual

Differences, Editors: V. Zeigler-Hill and T. Shackelford· (2017):1-8. DOI: 10.1007/978-

3-319-28099-8_1162-1