A good education brings us opportunities to advance into a brighter future. This, while true, often means that in our modern life, that we may not take the time to process everything around us. Success can be valuable, but we seem to miss that success requires time to develop. As students, it is just as important for us to take time to think about how to cultivate our values and needs. In the spirit of finding these, here are four ideas to help students see they don’t always need the keys to success.

1. Get acquainted with a sustainable future

A lot of cool technologies, techniques and strategies have developed over time to help us organize our resources and handle waste. Being familiar with these impacts how we think about the future and can help us better understand our community’s infrastructure.

2. Money is finite, but your ideas are not

It doesn’t require a paid position or career to have a positive impact on society. It’s not difficult to think about what other people need or want. We do it all the time. The more creative we get, the more possibilities there are for what we can do.

3. Develop historical awareness

Thinking about the big picture of the United States’ development over time offers enlightenment, especially today. Resources and information that travel between cities create a highly functioning, intercommunicating web. This realization allows the chance to take a deep breath. There is always a place out there for you.

4. The more you communicate, the more other people can respond

We’re all aware that communication is key, but the real question is: What are we supposed to be communicating? When asked what class he wishes was taught to all college students, Thomas Wilson, an associate professor in the soil, water and environmental science department at UA, said “networking skills.”

Students hear this phrase so often that many don’t take the time to consider what it means.

“[Networking skills] involve being comfortable talking to complete strangers, to be comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings and to be able to convey interests in a clear and enthusiastic way,” Wilson said.

Practicing these ideas better allows us to put our energy into what we believe and let our ideas out to play. Creating healthy habits is not restricted to practical things like getting enough sleep and studying hard. Healthy habits involve the way we see ourselves and our environment and believing that our own well-being shouldn’t break easily or come from a place of pretense. Do yourself a favor and try some of these out. They just might change the way you see both yourself and the world around you.

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