Ready for the Ivy League Challenge?

Transcript

Welcome back to season two of the Ivy League Prep Academy Podcast. Equipping you to successfully pursue the college of your dreams. We believe everyone deserves to reach their full potential, and the admissions process shouldn't hold you back.

It is such an honor and a privilege to be recording again here in season two of the Ivy League Prep Academy podcast. Last week, I promised you that this season we would stay focused in helping you set yourself apart from the field, getting you into a position where you can really reach your potential. And if that includes admittance to a top university, hey, we will help you get there.

And today, I want to honor that. I'm excited because we're going to talk about how you separate yourself from the field. Think about as we begin this new semester, even the new year, 2021, I will have a mini proposition for you, all right? Pick one thing that you'd love to be better at or one habit you'd like to develop, or one habit that you would love to lose.

And I'm going to issue a challenge for you today that you follow two steps, just two steps, in order to develop this new habit that's going to make a huge difference in your life, or drop that old habit that's really crushing you. So if you, for example, have struggled with procrastination, you've struggled with focus, you've struggled with staying on top of things. Or it's something around the way you take care of your body.

You stay up too late, you sleep in too long. Or on the flip side, you want to create a habit that's really going to set yourself apart, really put you in a position to succeed. Starting with the physical is an excellent idea as well, right? Starting new exercise regimes and getting your body into physical shape.

Remember that your physical body needs to have the stamina to support your ambitions, to keep up with your ambitions. Otherwise, you have these lofty goals, these ambitions that are so exciting, but your body can't keep up, and then it becomes drudgery, right? It becomes miserable. Okay, so maybe it's around your physical body or perhaps in your schoolwork, right? In your studies, you want to read more.

You want to read more productively. You want to study more effectively, more proficiently. Okay, so what are the habits that get you where you want to be or the habits that are keeping you from reaching your real potential? Think about one.

Let's not overburden you. So at the beginning of 2021, think of the one that's the most important. Either a habit you want to develop or a habit you want to ditch.

And here are the two steps. Step one, decide the kind of person you want to be. Make that decision.

Make it as clear as possible. Step two, prove it to yourself with multiple wins. All right, so what do we mean by this? Step one, decide the kind of person you want to be.

This is so important. This is why we work on this so in depth at the Ivy League Challenge. So stage two of the Ivy League Challenge is this exploration stage, and this is where we put a ton of work into helping students identify their values, identify who they are at their best.

Right? How would you describe yourself at your absolute best? So what are the words that describe you? What's the kind of person you are when you are living your best self? Okay. Decide the kind of person you want to be. So in the case of developing a new habit or letting go of an old habit, we talked about healthy habits.

I am a healthy person. This is an excellent decision. Okay? It might seem vague, but it's fine.

Decide the kind of person you want to be. I am an athlete. Or you're not an athlete.

You're just in excellent physical shape so that you can support your ambitions. Scholastically, great. I am a healthy person.

I'm a healthy eater. I'm an active person. Any of those are fine.

So shifting from athletically move to academically, if you want to think about the kind of person you want to be. I'm a straight A student. I'm an all star.

I'm an honors student. I'm a top performer. Okay, any of these are excellent descriptions of the kind of person you want to be.

Now step two is where you prove it to yourself with multiple wins. Every time you take an action, you vote for the kind of person that you actually are. So oftentimes, we think that we are some kind of person.

And your language, if you're careful, you think about the way that you speak, the way that you use language, especially the way that you talk about yourself. You are not describing who you actually are. You're describing what you believe yourself to be.

And as you believe that about yourself, your actions begin to conform with your beliefs, and very soon, you look like the person you believe yourself to be. Well, guess what? You can change through the exact same method. So prove it to yourself with multiple wins.

Instead of taking the action that the person you used to describe would do, now you need to take the actions of the person you choose to become. So how do we do that? Well, here's what we want you to do. First, describe the kind of person you want to be.

Second, you want to understand how that person acts day to day. For example, does that person eat the kinds of junk food or the kind of snacks that you eat? Does that person have the same morning routine? How does that person the person you want to become, the person you want to be how does that person make decisions in life? When do they do their schoolwork? How focused are they when they're doing their schoolwork? Do they have rules about who they talk to and how much time they spend doing different activities. Absolutely, they do.

So think about in detail what that kind of person is, all right? The kind of person you choose to be. Think about what they do and how they do what they do on a daily basis. Then think of yourself as that person and notice you have become a role model to others around you.

Okay? Watch yourself as you envision this kind of best version of yourself. Once you have developed this new identity, the identity of the person you want to be, look at yourself and look at how other people honor you and how they respect you and how they envy you, right? They think you're so diligent, you're so focused, you're so capable, right? Watch how people respond to the best version of you and notice how you have become a role model. Notice now that your decisions and your actions are influencing people all around you because people look up to you.

Now, what I want you to do is choose to become that role model today. Start now. Take the actions that you as your best self, you as the role model that you will come to embody.

Take the actions that that person takes. Start doing the things that that person does. Every time you have a choice, make the choice that you, the role model, is going to make.

The role model who knows that their choices influence people around them, the role model who knows that they are destined for amazing things in life. All right? So rather than create a whole bunch of rules and set smart goals and write out detailed plans and do all kinds of detailed work, I want to start 2021 with a mini challenge, a mini proposition for you. Pick that one thing you'd love to be better at, that one habit you'd love to lose.

Let's keep it simple. Keep it to one. Decide the kind of person who has already adopted that habit or who has already dropped that habit.

Decide what kind of person that person is, and then think of yourself as the role model. Begin to prove to yourself that you are that kind of person with tiny, tiny action steps. Okay? Now that you have done those two steps, you've decided what kind of person you want to be.

You've thought about how that person behaves and how you are that person and what kind of role model you are for people around you and the kind of activities or actions you're going to take. Now, as you are taking these little actions, some days you're going to be highly motivated, you're going to be excited, and you'll do the right choice. You'll make those choices.

And some days you'll think, man, I am sick of eating raw carrots, or I'm sick of this diet. I'm sick of not drinking dairy or whatever your thing is. I'm too tired to get up and run or I'm too, whatever.

You're going to face times when you don't want to be the role model anymore and you'll be tempted to revert back to your old self. So before that happens, what I'd like you to do is realize that, just like we talked about, not only do your beliefs form who you become, your language and the way that you describe yourself and describe things play a huge role in the kind of activities you take and what you do and what you become. So what I'd like you to do is take yourself as the role model and describe with at least ten levels of description.

So at least ten things describe how this person you as the role model is making the world a better place, including your own life. Things that you are grateful for that this role model version of you is able to bring to the world that the old you wasn't able to do. So instead of focusing on what you can't do and how life is miserable as this new, disciplined, focused version of yourself, shift your focus to the gift that you bring to the world.

The gift that you become when you are the role model, when you prove it to yourself with multiple wins, when you are the kind of person you want to be. All right, so lay out with at least ten items, at least ten reasons, ten things that make the world and your life better. When you choose to be this role model, it can be anything from the increased stamina that you have in your life, how great you feel, how much more you trust yourself, how you feel, more integrity or more congruent with who you want to become.

You can all the way to little things like strangers that don't even know who you are. Will see you walking with more confidence will see you walking with more self assurance and might be inspired to be more confident themselves or may choose to make a better choice for themselves after seeing your excellent example. It can be any or all of these things.

But choose at least ten things, ten ways that the world is better because you choose to be the role model. Adopt the role model mentality. Okay? From this day forward, in 2021, from the time that you listen to this podcast moving forward, I want you to make the decision that you are the role model.

And with this first habit you're beginning or you're kicking a bad habit, either way, you are showing to yourself and to the world that we can make improvements, that we can be better. I believe in you and I'm excited to see you step up into this better version of yourself. How do you separate yourself from the field? This is it.

Rather than try to play the games and tick the boxes and cram for tests or try to cram for life or cram for college admissions. That's silly. And that's not the way to live life.

That's not the way to play this game. The better way to play your game is to build your confidence, reach your potential by stepping up and taking on the mantle of role model. Decide what kind of person you want to be, and then prove to yourself that you are that person.

You got this.