The Happy Student: 5 Steps to Academic Fulfillment and Success

The Happy Student: 5 Steps to Academic Fulfillment and Success by Daniel Wong 

Publisher: Write Editions

Year: 2014

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 192 

Genres: Motivation, schools, and teaching  

Book Review: 

The Happy Student is a book written by Daniel Wong who is graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2011 with a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Economics. This book is about providing advice for students struggle for academic achievement with clear goal setting. Meanwhile, this book contains the ways of setting goal, quotes from influential people, the journey of the writer in study life, balancing life, and smart ways to study.  

Summary of the book: 

Steps to form your meaningful life: 

1. Decide to run your own race 
2. Decide what kind of race to run
3. Start running and stay on track
4. Keep running despite your fear 
5. Stay motivated, stay strong

Race with respect: 

• Decide exactly what issue you want to address
• Set up meeting time in advance 
• Start by thanking him
• Focus on how you feel, not on what he did 
• Use an object if necessary
• Ask for support

Decide what kind of race to run

• Personal definition of success

In this part, you have to identify yourself about the true meaning of success in your life. Through this way, you can know that the purposes of forming the blueprint to achieve long term and short term goal. 

• Life sentence

Forming life sentence is inspiring yourself to become another better person so that you can stick to the works and responsibilities to refine yourself. 

• Core values

In this part, the writer mentions about there are two kinds of person in this world which are people with values and people without values. To become a better person, it is necessary that to find the core values about yourself for long term fulfillment. 

30 practical ways to stay motivated: 

1. Time everything.
2. Work in thirty-minute blocks.
3. Use 30-5-30-10 method.
4. On a rough day, set the timer for five minutes.
5. Put up some motivational quotes on your wall.
6. Change the quote every month.
7. Find out when you work best.
8. Smile when you wake up😆😆😆😆😆😆
9. Review your daily goals at the end of each day.
10. Celebrate everything.
11. Read uplifting books.
12. Do something social every day.
13. Surround yourself with positive people.
14. Have some alone time every day.
15. Review your four tools during alone time.
16. Take a walk- and look around.
17. Get a desk toy.
18. Limit your TV watching time to an hour or less a day.
19. Get on an exercise program.
20. Get on sleep program.
21. Eat right: nuts, fruits, veggies, meat, and fish.
22. Resolve your relationship issues right now. 
23. Pick up a five-minute hobby. 
24. Write with a nice pen.
25. Smile. Again.
26. Keep everything important but not urgent.
27. Find a mentor.
28. Write a thank-you note.
29. Take a complete break once a while. 

10 Ways to Enter the State of "Flow" 

1. Listen to Baroque music while you are studying.
2. Listen to Mozart music before tests and while you're doing work.
3. Imagine a time when you felt exceptionally confident. 
4. Imagine the relevant and goal.
5. When you want to be productive, tell others that you are going to be busy for the next few hours.
6. Remove all distractions from your workspace. 
7. Maintain a clutter- free desk.
8. Schedule your "in the zone" time.
9. Learn to associate a physical action with positive emotions.
10. If you feel like you about getting distracted, take a deep breath. 

My thoughts: 

In my opinion, the writer strongly accentuates that academic achievement is not everything in life by structuring the ways of forming life planning and goal setting in this book. Meanwhile, this book also sharing the competitive life of students in Singapore about academic struggling for better future. Last but not least, every better person behind has their own tough period, perseverance is the key to success. 

Actually, it is impossible to maintain a happy student in every semester in university life. This is because you have to deal with academic pressure, relationship issues, poor result achievement, and conflict between group members. Therefore, the meaning of a happy student in this book is not about finding joy and happiness in studying but is actually finding your purpose of life and achieve it. Through this way, you can light your path to success even though facing adversity in life. 

Recommendation: 

I think this book is suitable for teachers in guiding pupils, students in primary school, secondary school and college, and undergraduate going to find suitable courses or careers. This is because the writer has shared a lot of problems faced while studying and wise solution to deal with it strategically through this book.  

If you are interested in this book, you can check this link: 

https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Student-Academic-Fulfillment-Success/dp/161448127X

Daniel Wong's speech: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIQqHa9JjbQ