5 Golden Rules to be followed by a Teenager

I am writing this article keeping in mind that some 14+ year's old will seek some quick guidance from it for career goals.

Golden Rule1 - Most precious thing that you own is Time.

We came to this world with our own bucket full of time and it gets over with separate pace for everyone even though everyone have the same 24 hour in a day. This is the power of time, few use it wisely and others float on it without any direction. We have such examples among us who have utilized their time properly and made their life meaningful.

One should learn time management skills as per their daily routine and make it a habit.

Golden Rule2 - Try to get admission in a decent college right after your +2

I don't believe in taking drop for a year or two and prepare for some competitive examination. This happens because folks don't value the significance of time, I understand that getting admission to some top college is not a piece of cake, one has to diligently work hard for securing a seat on those colleges. I want you to plan your journey. Here I would like to share a real story way back from 2003. Prateek Singhal was the boy who secured AIR 6 in IIT JEE, AIR 9 in AIEEE and State rank 1 in MP PET, In all three exams he was under Rank 10. From some of his interviews I came to know that this guy had started his preparation just after 8th std. In 11th Std. he gave IIT and was ranked nearly AIR 3000. When it was asked that why he gave examination in 11th std. his response was, "I want to see where I stand as per my preparation". What an achievement, isn't it?

Even I found a quora link referring to his achievement. Please have a look for better insights.
https://www.quora.com/Can-a-dropper-only-crack-the-JEE

https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateeksinghal1/

I want you to follow his footsteps and plan in advance, this will help you to understand that, what are your road blockers in your career journey. 

As soon as you go to college, then graduating from college will be early and then opting for higher studies/Job will be early. Your paycheck will be early hence your journey of saving will be early.

 

Golden Rule3 - Plan for 10 Years right after your 8th Std.

I feel 8th Std. is the turning point in a students life not 10th Std. because by the time you reach to 10th Std. you will figure out by yourself on which path you can excel. This can only happen if someone is planning early as this require a lot of experimentation and thought process. Better take some career counseling not just advice/guidance. 

Once you figured your career option, create a proper plan and execute it to achieve your first Goal. You have to consider Time as your Car and yourself as the Driver of that car.

You have to divide your span of 10 years into small small achievable goals and time duration to achieve it. 

Let's consider a girl named as Prakriti who's in Std 9th and dream to become IAS. She has keen interest in Science and Technology but to become an IAS officer one has to be graduated and prepare Social Science and other subjects from Arts background for this competition, this seemed like conflicting with the chosen subject as per her interest with science. Also this is the tender age where lot of information is available from various sources however all in vain as it leads to confusion. What should she do now? so that her interest also gets fulfilled and final goal should also be achieved.

Firstly she has to figure out that her dream is genuine and not an infatuation with the status of the dream profile. This can only figured by the help of good counselor* or some expert*.

Once it is figured that she has to study Engineering as per her interest in Science and Technology, she must pursue engineering and follow the path to become Scientist/Corporate Job/IAS as per her dream respectively.

She has to divide her 10 year period into small small milestones. As per above scenario she will divide as below:

First Milestone - Engineering

• 9th to 12th Std -- 4 Years preparation for Engineering Entrance Examination as the competition is tough to achieve good rank to get admitted to top Engineering college.
  
• 9th Std -- Apart from daily school work she has to start doing the analysis of questions and plan the syllabus accordingly. Read articles from the toppers of recent years and about their strategy. Coaching never guarantees success it's the hard work that pays off.
  
• 10th Std -- Apart  from daily school work she should try to finish at-least 50 percent of Mathematics from 11th Standard. Try to learn various short-cuts which can help her in minimize calculation effort. One can easily get one or two hours from busy schedule of 9th and 10th Std. If you are curious then this is achievable.
•  11th and 12th Std. -- Always try to remain ahead that is taught in school. Revise regularly and join some coaching institute where you can get solutions for your questions. Nowadays it's bit easy with the help of various online coaching platforms. And never showoff in front of school teachers as you may get diverted from your first milestone.
  

Second Milestone - IAS 

During college spare some time for preparation of UPSC same way that you have followed during first milestone preparation. One has to just spare 2-3 hours daily for preparation of UPSC examination from their busy schedule and I can guarantee that ones effort will not be wasted.

Similarly you can follow it for various examinations as per your Career choice, whether it is Medicine(MD or MS)/CA/MBA etc. 

Golden Rule4 - Read more non-fictional self development books

Famous quote "Books are the best Friend", everyone knows it. But no one knows why?

A friend is someone to whom one can trust, seek guidance and savior during tough times. Am I correct?

Yes, these all abilities are in books. They can guide you to seek better paths, empower you to become strong, enrich you to be knowledgeable. We all know the power of the knowledge in "Bhagvad Gita", where Lord Krishna showed the significant path to Arjuna which is still true with the modern times. Same way there are numerous authors who have written lot of books and there will be lot many authors in the future who will write as per their experiences and seekers will take help from it and make the world a far better place to live.

Why I am asking you to make Books as your Best friend?

Since my childhood I always struggled to take apt decisions because I was influenced from lot many people around me. They were Parents, Parents friends, Relatives, Elder brothers, their friends, my friends, friend's friends and so on. If you follow from these many people anyone at that age can get influenced and may get confused in taking decisions.

Be smart, and take decisions on your own.

Smartness is not something that you can learn in any class, this is something that come with different experiences as you age. Still I believe that one can become more intellectual by learning from others mistakes however one cannot find someone making such mistake and learn from it. There are so many people around the world who have written books as per their experience. One can easily learn from them by just reading those books. 

Bhagwad Gita is one such book, I am not asking you to read it up front. However I will list out some good reads to start with. 

Atomic Habits - By James Clear
Rich Dad Poor Dad - By Robert Kiyosaki
The Power of your Subconscious Mind - By Joseph Murphy

Take this as request, read more books. Trust me after reading just one book you will definitely become more conscious in taking better decisions in life.

I started reading books and I found that there are so many people who have already showed us the path, we just have to follow their guidelines for our betterment. But we don't do it because we are trying to find savior in our friends.

Golden Rule5 - Make great friends, they are tough to find.

"A friend in need is a friend in deed", its easy phrase but hard to find such a friend.

Lord Krishna is a commendable example of a friendship. 

Whenever I was in a difficult situation I always tried to seek help from my near by friends and always found that they never cared to help me. The same goes during my college times. I was bullied by my most common friends. Then one day I got a realization that this world doesn't have Krishna within people because everyone in this world is Arjuna. They are confused just like me, they all are in jeopardy. They are at the same age or similar kind of acumen. So what's the point in seeking guidance/help from them. 

First try to become your own friend and you will observe that you are getting answers from within which is popularly known as your subconscious mind. Meditation also plays an important role in seeking answers. Try to meditate during free time for the answers and only discuss with the experts.

Note: *Counselor can counsel you properly as per his wisdom, never get counseled from some random guy. Also discuss with field experts to get the insights of particular stream.