Hardest challenge for College Students today! 💁🏻‍♂️

I’m in touch with a lot of college students, one common problem with a majority of them is the lack of FOCUS.

They are in a constant FOMO.

A snapshot of thoughts running in their mind:

• Solving 500 Leetcode problems can help me crack coding interviews, I should start this today. A few days later…
• I should focus on building good creative projects, otherwise, my resume won’t stand out. A few days later…
• Competitive Programming builds the basic foundational skills and it’s fun, I want to be a candidate master. A few days later…
• I should write blog articles and share what I learned with the tech community, that will help me improve my writing skills. A few days later…
• LinkedIn is the new resume, I should build a great profile & a strong network!
• Contributing to Open Source and cracking GSoC will get me a great exposure
• People have made millions in Cryptocurrency, I should start investing today

and a few days later…

• I should practice DSA, being good at problem-solving is a must for interviews
• I should make new connections daily, it will help me get Referrals for interviews
• If I get a good Internship, it will be a rich industry experience while studying
• Making money while in college is so cool, Freelancing and side-hustle is a must
• Participating in Hackathons is fun and learning, let me ask my friends & make a team

and a few days later…

• I should invest in the stock market & mutual funds, the best time to start investing is Today
• Personal Branding matters a lot in today’s social media age, let me try this while I have time
• I should start practicing Mock Interviews, it would help simulate a real interview experience
• I should start reading books daily, this is something common in every successful man in the world

and many other such thoughts…

The major problem is,

Every other new thing that college students come across, we just leave everything and start exploring that.

We are in a constant FOMO.

I’m not saying any point mentioned on the top is bad,

I’m not saying hustling is bad,

I’m not saying doing multiple things at a time is bad,

I’m not saying that exploring new things is bad,

I’m just saying that we have forgotten the importance of focusing on one thing at a time.

I repeat,

we have forgotten the importance of focusing on one thing at a time.

In the hustle of being good at everything, we end up doing nothing.

We are being constantly distracted!

A Youtube video, a LinkedIn article, a tweet, an Instagram live is just enough to create a FOMO.

Few examples:

• Top 7 Mistakes you make in a Job Interview
• How I Made My First Rs. 1 Lakh as a 19 Year Old College Student
• The Effect of compounding- Start investing while you’re in college
• College Student 1 crore journey | Android Development
• and the list goes on…

Disclaimer: I’m not targeting any creator here, everyone is doing amazing and every other person creating videos/articles like this is somehow trying to help the community.

But the problem is after watching every such video/article,

we feel that if we don’t do this today, we are missing out on something really very important, a big FOMO.

The rate at which information is injected into our heads today is insane. We are just unconsciously setting up our expectations extremely high, just because of these intelligent distractions.

And another big problem is, we attach all these professional accomplishments directly to our happiness.

We feel low and sad if we are not able to fulfill our insanely high expectations.

I know what you will ask me now,

So should I leave everything and get disconnected from everyone?

Should I stop exploring new things around and become a bookworm?

Should I not watch/read anything?

Should I not hustle and should I just settle for less?

Is that the solution?

TBH, I don’t know the right solution to this.

What I know is:

We don’t have control over the information which is intelligently pushed into our heads.

We don’t have control over what things we come across on social media.

But what is in our control is our consciousness.

The best solution which I can think of is Realization.

First step is just to realize and accept that all this is happening to me.

I should understand how important it is to consciously avoid FOMO.

I should realize I’m not a superhuman.

I should realize that not everything new thing which has made someone successful will also make me successful.

I should stop running after every other new thing I come across.

Realize the importance of focusing on one thing at a time. 🙏

to sum this all up,

The hardest challenge for students today is to fight ‘intelligent distractions’

Cheers,

Akshay Saini

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