Ken Blanchard offers students tips for success
By Darryl Geddes"Don't quack like a duck; soar like an eagle." That's the advice visiting faculty member and author Ken Blanchard offered to incoming Cornell students and their parents on how to achieve success. Blanchard has helped more than 9 million people better manage their time, and lives, through his best-selling "The One-Minute Manager" series. Ducks, he said, are always complaining quacking about something not being right. He suggested that students should instead soar above the fray like eagles. "Duck mentality travels with you for the rest of your life; don't be a duck," he told the crowd of more than 400 attending faculty convocation Aug. 24 in Bailey Hall. Borrowing advice from his colleague and friend Norman Vincent Peale, Blanchard urged his audience to "program your mind with positive thoughts." And, he said, students need to match their physiology with their focus. He compared his own performance as a Cornell student with that of a student who comes to an exam after having stayed awake all night studying. "The student who pulled the all-nighter is bleary-eyed. His hair's uncombed. He's unshaven. He smells, his clothes are a mess and he sits in the back row," Blanchard said. "I, on the other hand, woke up early, showered and shaved, wore a jacket and tie and sat in the front row. Now," he asked his audience, "who do you think was going to do better on the exam? Who was in a better frame of mind?" Blanchard argued that the oft-heard student complaint that there is not enough time to do anything is an excuse for poor planning. And to prove that time is plentiful at college, he offered a daily time-management list. He allowed students: ·eight hours of sleep; ·three hours to eat; ·five hours of class; and ·two hours for any activity other than studying, such as watching TV or working out. "Given all that, you still have six hours left," he said. "What are you doing with that time?" He advised students to develop a routine, to plan their day as a way to ensure that each hour would be spent wisely. "You need a system, so you are on top of things you are supposed to do," Blanchard said. The student who doesn't plan is late for class, carries the wrong notebook and forgets to bring the day's assignment, he said. But he warned students not to be focused solely on the task of achieving. "You must connect with family and friends," he said. "Anyone who only wants to achieve will lead an empty life." Blanchard, a visiting professor at the School of Hotel Administration, said the most important advice he could offer students was to go to every class.
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