Survival Skills

Before learning about survival skills in this topic, consider the following questions about how you have survived school thus far:

• How would you rate yourself on your academic performance?
• How would you rate yourself on your involvement in various extracurricular activities?
• How much of a genuine effort have you made to be successful in school?
• What is your greatest obstacle to performing at your full potential?
• Do you feel equipped with the right skills and tools to be successful?

Survival is doing what it takes to remain strong, confident, happy, and at peace especially when faced with a challenge. As you continue on your journey to self-discovery, you must ensure your survival in order to excel. When it comes to surviving high school, some things you can do include staying on top of your progress, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, fostering resilience within yourself, and being proactive.

Stay on Top of Your Progress

As you continue to turn in your assignments and take your quizzes and tests, you should make it a point to stay on top of your grades. Do not leave it to the teacher to inform you about your progress. As you transition into adulthood, you must hold yourself accountable. Remember that your grades belong to you and are representative of your progress as a student, so it is in your best interest to know what your grades are and earn the best grades that you can.

You should never be surprised when you receive a report card. Constantly communicating with your teachers makes you aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and current status. If you feel that you are struggling with a course, communicate that with your teacher and ask what you can do to improve. Your teacher will be able to guide you back onto the right path by offering feedback on how you are doing so far, advice as to how you can improve, and extra practice or tutoring. You can think of your teacher as a survival tool to learning, so take advantage of that "tool" by staying on top of your assignments and grades.

Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Survival comes with being in tune with yourself and knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Staying on top of your progress allows you to observe your strengths and weaknesses as well as take the time to reflect. Reflection reveals your strengths and weaknesses because it gives you an opportunity to be honest with yourself and scrutinize who you are and your capabilities. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is essential to survival because it reveals your capabilities and provides you with insight on how to navigate through high school.

Identifying strengths and weaknesses takes time and can be very difficult because you must be ready to be honest with yourself. If the thought of acknowledging your weaknesses sounds unappealing, just remember that the sooner you understand your weaknesses, the sooner you can begin to improve on them, and that feeling of progress can feel very rewarding.

When trying to figure out your strengths and weaknesses, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What do I do well? How do I know this?
   
2. What do I struggle with? Why?
   
3. What can I do to strengthen my weaknesses?
   
4. What can I do to enhance my strengths?
   

Foster Resilience

To be resilient is to remain strong despite your circumstances. Situations may arise that test who you are and make you question your decisions and goals, but it is with resilience that you can overcome any feelings of defeat or hopelessness. Not having resilience can be an obstacle to achieving your dreams because if you suffer a setback, you may feel discouraged and lose motivation to keep trying.

So how can you be resilient despite a disappointment or setback? Because it is natural to feel discouraged when things do not go as you would like them to, it may be easier to start fostering resilience by choosing a positive role model who you feel is resilient. That role model may or may not be someone whom you know personally. Think about someone who has faced a difficult situation or a disappointing setback and yet rose above it and succeeded in the end.

There are many successful sports figures who exemplify resilience in order to make their dreams come true. For example, basketball player Michael Jordan carried his team to victory in Game Five of the 1997 NBA Finals, known famously as "The Flu Game." Early in the morning on June 11, 1997, Michael Jordan became seriously ill with the flu or food poisoning. Because his team at that point had tied with his rivals for the championship, he knew that winning Game Five would be a decisive turning point, so he gathered the willpower and determination to play in the game later that same day. Although Jordan could not play as well as his usual self, the many points he scored during the game were crucial to helping his team defeat their competitors and ultimately win the championship, all because Jordan tried his best and stayed resilient when things got tough.

Believe it or not, people all around you could be potential role models for resilience. Maybe a friend, sibling, neighbor, teacher, parent, or guardian of yours has also remained strong despite great challenges. The advantage of knowing such a role model personally is the ability for that person to talk to you and encourage you directly when you need motivation. So look around you and find those role models. Every person at some point in life has a story about staying strong and overcoming obstacles. Find inspiration in their stories and remember them when you need encouragement. There is always hope, so never give up.

Be Proactive

Proactivity is preparing and taking action. It is anticipating what is to come so that you know in advance how to handle whatever issues or problems may arise. To be proactive is to research and stay knowledgeable of things that will affect you in the present as well as in the future. If you stay on top of your progress and understand your strengths and weaknesses, it will be easier to predict some potential difficulties that may come your way. When you are proactive and can anticipate possible problems in advance, you are able to strategize. When you have a strategy, you have clarity and confidence. Without strategy and proactivity, it is easier to feel overwhelmed when a problem arises because you do not have a plan yet on how to handle the situation. 

Even though you will inevitably encounter problems in life, many of them can be avoided by taking action before the situation worsens. A big part of being proactive is taking preventative action to solve an arising problem before it has a chance to become something serious. Think of it this way: if you hear from the weatherman that a hurricane is approaching, you can wait until the storm knocks out the electricity and you are left with no running water, or you can be proactive and stock up on bottled water before the hurricane arrives and thus avoid the problem altogether. At the first sign of a potential problem, be proactive and avoid waiting to take action to solve the problem no matter how minor it may appear at first. 

Here are some ways to be proactive while in high school:

• Stay abreast of teachers' expectations and deadlines.
  
• Visit your guidance counselor regarding grades and your grade point average, course schedule, colleges and admission requirements, and enrichment opportunities.
  
• Visit your career counselor and discuss your skill set, college education, career plans, and résumé writing.
  
• Talk to your parents or guardians and keep them informed about your ongoing progress; this enables them to be ready to support you when you need it, and they can also help you come up with a plan or strategy if a problem arises.
  

Survival Skills Review

Now that you have learned about numerous survival skills, see if you can match all of the tips on implementing those skills. In this non-graded interactivity, drag the tips on the right and drop them next to the skills on the left. Once you have matched all of the tips with their skills, select SUBMIT to check your answers. Click the player button to get started.