College Success Tip – Learn How To Be Completely Independent

As a college student, you have a tremendous amount of freedom.  You are also independent and on your own, which means you need to take care of yourself.  Challenge yourself to be truly independent and manage your entire life, without being reliant on anyone else.  Some of the things you can do to be independent include:

• Paying your bills
• Managing your bank account
• Doing laundry
• Grocery shopping
• Cooking for yourself
• Cleaning up after yourself
• Creating and tracking a monthly budget
• Servicing your car
• Going to regular doctor checkups
• Building professional relationships

There are many others, but the basic idea is that you can handle everything on your own.  Does this mean you can’t have your mom do your laundry over a break?  Of course it doesn’t, but make sure you know how to do it and can take care of it yourself when your at school.

Also be an independent thinker; make the right decisions for yourself, and don’t do things because other people think you should.  This doesn’t mean you should ignore everyone else, but at the end of the day you need to make up your own mind about what is best for you and what will make you the happiest.
The Bottom Line: Put yourself in a position where you don’t need to rely on anyone else to do anything for you.  Be independent and capable of running every aspect of your life – you’ll be years ahead of many adults who still can’t manage a bank account or clean up after themselves!