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Have you ever watched a flock of geese flying across the open sky? They move in a huge V, each one in the slipstream (an area with lower pressure or less turbulence) of the one in front. Cyclists do it too, to make it easier and to help them go faster. Researchers estimate that in formation, the geese fly about 70% further in any given time than an individual bird would have done.
Now here’s a question for you: are your friends flying in the same direction and towards the same destination as you are? Do they share your goals, your values, your priorities? If they do, you will support each other, and you will all get further with less stress and less effort. If, on the other hand, you and your friends are aiming in different directions, you will find yourself constantly battling against the flow of their energy. You will tire yourself out and you may never reach your goal, instead being pulled off course by the power of the group.
Think about it for a moment: what are your most important goals for your time at university? People come from different backgrounds, with different values and different visions for the future. Where do you want to be in ten years’ time? What does that mean for these years at university?
And if you think of the people you spend most of your time with – what are their goals? Do they have a vision for the future, or are they marking time, waiting for life to happen?
You may want to write it down:
| My goals | My friends’ goals |
| Achieve my degree in the minimum time | |
| Be fit and healthy | |
| My values | My friends’ values |
| Hard work | |
| Kindness | |
| Support for family |
This gets even more important when you fall in love, because love is so intense and all-consuming. At least for a while, that person becomes the major focus of your thoughts, your energy, and your time. You want to be together all the time and do everything together. That’s perfect, if “everything” includes studying. If on the other hand you have an engineering degree on your vision board and he/she only wants to party, things are going to go wrong.
Talking of vision boards – have you ever made one? It’s a very good idea in order to help you keep your eye on the prize. Find pictures and phrases that depict the future you are dreaming of. Perhaps it’s a corporate career with international travel; or teaching, while making a home for a family and your mum; or building up a business of your own. Make a composite picture which will remind you of that dream every time you see it, and stick it up above your work space or, if it’s digital, on your home screen.
The geese know where they’re going, either to protect the flock against the winter cold or to return to their breeding grounds. They have a clear destination, and everyone works together to get them all there safely. Are you part of such a flock? Can you trust your friends to honk loudly to cheer you on (think of our hadedas!), or do they mock you because you’re so boring, such a goody-goody? If your goal is academic success, that will not support your journey.
One more thing we can learn from the geese is that they take turns to take the lead, in other words, to work the hardest. When the lead goose gets tired, he or she falls back and someone else takes over. That is a definition of the best kind of study group, where the strongest person in every subject takes the lead, but everyone steps up in turn. There are no passengers, only active participants.
Find your flock early in your journey. Find people who will be the wind beneath your wings, and for whom you can be the same. You will get much further, with much less effort.
Happy studying!
The GRAD team
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