I once heard that late-risers are mainly those people who do not have any goal in their life. They are those who are not in a hurry to start the day--because they are not looking forward to anything! They do not have that reason in their life for which their eyes would pop open with the first sound of the alarm clock. Now if you go and ask a late-riser ‘Dude, did you wake up late on your wedding day?’, then in most of the cases the reply would be NO. In fact some would probably admit that they woke up even before the alarm clock started singing!! Why? Because on that day he had something to look forward to --he had a purpose for the day. So he didn’t need any alarm clock. His own spirit, his own will power forced him out of the bed!

Having a goal in your life works in the same way. It does not let you lose a single moment in waste. It wakes you up from being lazy and doing nothing--from just moving but not progressing! This is what A P J Abdul Kalam, the famous missile scientist and the for President of India meant when he said ‘Dream is not what you experience while you sleep. It is that which doesn't let you sleep’. The truth is when you are focused, when you know what you want from life, you know your dream, your aim, you do not need any alarm clock in your room, a nagging mother to make you study, or a private tutor to check your updates in home task and assignments. You guide yourself. You glue yourself to the study table. You won’t need anyone to drag you there!

I really admire those students who know what they want from life. For most of us the problem is we don’t really know what we want from our life. Once I tried to list 19 things I want from life before I die, and the strangest thing happened. I just couldn’t go on after listing eight points. But all of the successful people knew from the beginning what they wanted.They had that big picture in their mind and that’s why they reached there.

Now try to remember this, can you recall the essay ‘Aim in life’ you wrote in junior school? Yes, we have all written it! It’s kind of a big hit in the English syllabus. But how many of us have given that essay a real thought, a good shot! As far as I remember most of my classmates copied it from a good essay book or took the help of an elder. We all wrote it with long words and impressive sentences to score an ‘A’. Sadly, we didn’t realize the value of it! But look at the exceptional case. The current President of U.S.A Barrack Obama was asked to write the same essay in his school in Indonesia. Sitting there, he wrote with great determination that ‘I want to be the President of United States’. At that point there were millions of reasons why his dream might not come true, but he believed in it. He saw that big picture and he worked for it, and we all know what happened next. If you look back at his student life, you’ll see that he had a very successful student life. He graduated from well-known universities like Columbia and Harvard, which proved to be a great plus point in his career.

Actually whatever you may want to achieve in your later life, it’s really important that you have a successful and impressive student life --be the best in your class or stand first in your year. Because that way it becomes easier to stand first in your life too--it gets easier to catch success. Naturally when you stand first in your class, your options get better and wider. People give you preference over others. The stairs that lead to success turn into an accelerating lift.

So as a student always remember that your aim should be to stand first in class and in life. Try to visualize how you want to see your student life, which subjects interest you, which university fascinates you. Then try to stand first in your class or to be the best in your batch. If you are aiming to graduate as the student of the year from the university then your aim should be to get best CGPA or at least ...% CGPA in every semester. Make a series of goals.

Then whenever you get tired of working so hard with studies, think of your goal. Imagine the glorious and successful career for which you are preparing. Surely, you’ll get inspired. Determine your goal and believe in it. Work hard to achieve it. Surely your hard work will be rewarded. God is just too kind and merciful with us. Our hard work and expectations sometimes look so small in front of His reward!!