Ready for the Ivy League Challenge?

Transcript of the podcast

Have you ever wondered if there's like a cheat code or some way to get into your dream college?

Or achieve your biggest goals without working so hard that you lose your sanity and sacrifice your mental health along the way?

If you've wondered if it's even possible, this podcast is for you.

I really want to share a message.

How do we party our way into our dream college? How do you party your way into the ivy league?

It's actually more realistic than you think, and it's really important to understand how to do it.

So let's dive in.

First of all, before we talk about how you party yourself into your dream school, let's talk about what I'm referring to here,  not going crazy and binge drinking or doing high-risk behaviours with other kids.

I know there are different definitions of a party, and I'm being very specific in the kind of party that I'm talking about here.

But still, it's important to know that you can have fun and that you should have fun as you party your way into your dream college.

You should have fun as you pursue your ambitious goals. In fact, if you don't have fun along the way, you're not going to be nearly as successful at accomplishing them.

Ultimately, what we're talking about here is how do we infuse fun into the process?

It's important that we figure this out because the more fun you have, the more successful you're going to be. There's some pretty good research out there.

That is pretty clear that when you're having fun, you are smarter. That's because you can be better focused.

You're going to be more creative. Your ability to remember what you're doing while you're having fun when you're in a state of positivity goes up significantly, and you're more effective.

The very first podcast I ever did on the ivy league prep academy podcast was the Happiness Advantage.

It was a book review that I did about Shawn Achor's work.

When he showed in really clear terms with excellent research that we perform better, regardless if we're students or doctors or salespeople or whatever, we perform better in a state of positivity, compared to an emotional state that's neutral or.

And if you have ambitious goals like getting into a top-tier college, you're going to have tasks along the way that require a lot of focus and a lot of energy, and a lot of grit.

If you don't have some method to infuse fun into this process, you're going to wear yourself out, you're probably gonna make yourself sick.

I talked about that also in a previous podcast episode, the one that's titled what to do when hard work isn't working.

The research is there, the science is there. It's clear that we are at an advantage if we can find a way to make our tasks fun, make it enjoyable.

But also, you're already aware of this, right?

If you can decrease your level of stress, then instead of being cranky and miserable, you're going to be enjoyable to be around, and you're going to get more done.

So let's talk about how to do this. How do we party our way to success?

The first thing I really want to get through to you is this idea that fun and bringing fun into your day and making your activities fun.

That's an inside job. It is 100 % up to you, and no one else can do it for you.

You're the one who decides what is pleasurable and what is fun, and what is not.

You may not have thought of it this way before, but I want to encourage you to begin considering the fact that you can decide that things that previously weren't fun are fun.

Now. You can also decide that stuff that used to be fun is no longer fun for you. That happens all the time. Naturally. As we grow older, we change our preferences, and that sort of thing happens.

But what if you chose to decide what was fun intentionally?

Instead of just kind of allowing yourself to be influenced by marketing, by your peers, by your community, by other people, in determining what's fun and what's not, what if you just decided to take control?

And you realize that fun is an inside job. It's a choice you get to make.

What that can do for you is you can turn that into some pretty impressive results because let me share with you just a quick story about something my parents really got right when they were raising me and my seven siblings. I know that's crazy. They had eight children.

But I was in the middle of these seven siblings, and this behavior has continued even to this day.

But when we were younger, you can imagine the messes that were created.

Just a meal having ten people eating around the table meant a lot of dishes that needed to be done.

And after we finished eating every meal, it was expected that everyone would pitch in and help, and we'd get the dishes done in a relatively short period of time. Instead of asking one person to do the dishes, it would take hours to do that.

But often what we did not always, but when we were at the ball, often what we did is we would turn up the music.

We would have a kind of a dishes party. We didn't really have the language to call it a party. But I encourage you now to adopt that language.

If you need to do the dishes, make it a dishes party. If you need to do the vacuuming or some other housework or laundry, or whatever it is, clean your room, do a cleanup party, and actually determine that this is a party.

Now, what makes a party you get to decide.

First of all, you can turn a study session into a party. It can be a study party instead of a study session.

Remember, when you were younger, you had read a ton at school, and everyone could wear their pyjamas and just sit and read together.

And how fun could that be, just manufactured fun? That was just adults telling young impressionable kids that this is really fun, and so it was fun.

Guess what?

You can tell yourself that your study party is a real party and actually find ways to be super effective with it.

So for most people, what does that mean?

That means instead of taking stretch breaks or social media breaks, you take dance breaks, turn up the music, dance for a few minutes, and think of what else you can bring to the party right for some people, that's going to include food.

I know there are all kinds of different parties but think about a Superbowl party.

The only difference between a Superbowl party and a regular football game is the fact that everyone decides to make it a party. So there's lots of food and lots of fun and amazing commercials.

But the real party is in the people and the fun and the food. They're accomplishing a task.

Now. Obviously, it doesn't take focus or effort to watch a football game.

Even if you don't enjoy the football game, you can enjoy each other. But the point is, if it's food that makes it a party for you, or if it's a particular person who can encourage you and support you, or if it is the dancing and the music, whatever it is, be strategic, ask yourself the question, how can I make this fun?

How can I turn this 2 hours study marathon into a study party?

Because the truth is you have everything you need to make these events a party for you.

Allow me to summarize this point in a way that just makes sense in my mind, the power plant is the place that generates the electricity that powers your home and powers your school.

The power plant doesn't just have energy. It doesn't just have power. It takes resources, takes raw materials, combines them in a certain way, and it creates power.

In the same way. You don't just have fun, you don't just have success, you don't just have an enjoyable demeanor, and whatever else you have to make the fun.

So it's you who decides that this is a party and not something less enjoyable.

As you can see, turning drudgery into fun is completely up to you. It's nearly always accessible.

And here's the thing, teenagers. You are still at an age, you're still at phase of life where it's relatively natural for you to be spontaneous.

If you're really ambitious, which is if you're listening to my podcast, probably where you're at.

If you're among those super ambitious and really goal-driven people, the goal-driven teenagers, you might be trying to suppress that tendency to be spontaneous and to find fun throughout your day.

I strongly recommend that you shift your mindset and shift your approach, leverage this tendency to be spontaneous, and take advantage of that extra energy.

Because when you've lived your life, according to Brawny, where who's the author of the top 5 regrets of the dying?

One of the most common regrets among people on their deathbed, right? Before that last breath.

Is this regret that they didn't have space for fun in their lives?

They didn't allow themselves to be happier.

In your teenage years, you have no excuse.

I realize that there's a lot that can suck the fun out of your life.

You don't have choices, you don't have total responsibility.

Your prefrontal cortex hasn't finished developing, so you don't have as much control over your emotions and over your thoughts.

You have some advantages, too. And you can leverage those advantages.

Instead of considering your homework to be drudgery and considering yourself to be too busy to get everything done, and then approaching everything with the exact same question, which is do I need to do this too?

How am I going to fit it in? And then you answer that question.

As soon as you ask the question, your subconscious mind will go to work finding the answers.

Too often, the answers are I'll sacrifice a little bit of sleep. I'll skip lunch.

I'll do this during that activity, or I'll try to multitask. I'll just work harder, I'll work longer, I'll do more.

As we've discussed before, if you've listened to this podcast, that is going to lead to diminishing returns, eventually,

I'll just work harder. Is a mantra that's not going to get you where you want to go.

Instead, take advantage of the advantages that you have, take advantage of this tendency to be spontaneous and to look for fun in your life, and apply that to your goals and your ambitions, aligning the best of who you are with the best of who you want to become.

And as you work together and leverage your extra energy, your spontaneity, and your capacity to create fun in your life, you're going to see greater success.

As we talked about. At the very beginning. The research is clear.

If you're having fun and in a state of positivity, you're going to remember things better. You can focus better.

You can your learning centers are turned on instead of muted if you're sleep deprived and in drudgery, and frustrated at the amount of work you have to do.

That mute your learning centers, it's harder to learn new materials, and it makes it nearly impossible to remember them.

So you have to go over it over and over and over again. It's just a much harder path.

Take advantage instead of the natural skills and the natural tendencies that you have as a teenager, leverage the spontaneity, leverage your ability to create fun, and go do it, party your way through life, party your way to your greatest ambitions, party your way into your dream college.