BARRIERS TO DEDICATION

“If you really want to do something you’ll find a way, if you don’t you’ll find an excuse.” – Jim Rohn

As a student, you have to accept that you will not achieve success without dedication to your academics and personal development. With this fact settled in your heart, you also need to know that commitment does not come by just saying the words. Many justifiable reasons will come up along the way that will make you not stay dedicated to achieving success. 

From experience, I have seen students giving me very valid reasons why they can’t study their books as planned, why they can’t get better in a particular subject or why they cannot achieve their dreams. The truth is that as much as they feel their reasons are good enough, that does not excuse them from turning out a failure for lack of dedication; this is because commitment is no respecter of excuses. If you are dedicated, you will succeed and vice versa. While planning for success, also plan for how you will stay dedicated irrespective of the distractions or barriers that will come your way daily as you execute your plans.

Barriers can come in the form of a very valid excuse like I am tired, so I can’t read today. It is excellent to rest as a student, but I have seen too many students over rest than those who do not have enough rest. When this kind of excuse sets in and you allow it to continue over time, you will find out that instead of spending at least 21 hours to read every week, you might end up reading for just 10 hours. You will only see how much of a barrier this is to achieving success when we multiply this by four weeks. You would have lost forty-four hours in four weeks because of resting too much, which could translate to poor performance during exams. 

Shola Akinlade, the CEO of Paystack (a Nigerian fintech company), did not give an excuse why he can’t achieve success here in Nigeria. Instead of giving excuses, he and his team are more focused on solving the many problems they see in how Nigerians buy and sell things. He once said that before he founded Paystack in 2016, he has previously founded two other businesses that failed due to one factor or the other. But he never saw those factors as a reasonable excuse to stop his dedication to pursuing his career dream of founding a successful company. In October 2020 an American company called Stripe bought Paystack for over $200 million. What a success story and more to come because he never gave in to justifiable reasons that will be a barrier to his dedication to becoming a successful entrepreneur here in Nigeria.

From now on, keep telling yourself that, like Shola Akinlade of Paystack, no barrier in the form of justifiable excuses will stop you from being dedicated to your academic and career success.

I love to hear your story, questions, and comments on overcoming the barriers to dedication via the comment section. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Adimah is an entrepreneur and the Project Manager of B2SL INITIATIVE, where he manages the vision. He is a great believer that a prosperous Nigeria is a product of successful Nigerians. You can reach him via email at charles@b2sl.org.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]