Fri Aug 29, 2025

Why do most people fail school or online classes?

A combination of factors like low personal motivation, high distractions, financial issues, and a lack of support can contribute to inability to succeed.

Here are things that I do to ensure a higher probability of success:

Why?

To quote Nietzsche “He who has a why can bear any how”

Why go through the suffering of a stupid class?

You will suffer whether you fail or pass this class, so what is it?

Nietzsche wondered how people are able to perservere through extreme suffering.

It’s not the suffering that is the main problem, but rather meaningless suffering that crushes the human spirit.

People who posses a strong sense of why they are enduring pain, they are able to tolerate even more than they ever thought possible.

The Story of the Three Stone Cutters

A man sees three stone cutters and asks them what they are doing.

The first stone cutter: “I am here for a paycheck.”

The second stone cutter: “I am cutting the best stones around.”

The third stone cutter, smiling: “I am building a cathedral for the kingdom of God that will inspire generations long after I am gone.”

All three of them are doing the same back breaking work, but one is able to do more.

Viktor Frankl: Surviving the Holocaust

The Jewish psychiatrist who lost family, endured starvation and extreme cruelty.

He was able to find meaning in the most horrific attrocities in history.

Overcomed by wanting to: reunite with his wife, complete his manuscript and share his work called logotherapy, and helping others in the concentration camp.

So now what?

You might think: “I am just a student, I’m not doing anything crazy like going to war, working on an oil rig or training for a triathlon. I’m not literally going through brutal suffering."

Well you have to go through the work yourself and figure that out.

Go down the rabbit hole of: Why am I doing this?

• Are you young and trying to leave home to become independent?

• Are you trying to support your family?

• Are you stuck in your current job?

I don’t know what I want

Even if you don’t know what you want to do with your life, just pick one thing so that you are learning something at least.

Take it as an temporary experiment, it doesn’t mean you’ll do it forever.

What matters is that you get some experience/skill and maybe a project to show for it. Which you can use as leverage to find a better job or open more doors.

What I Do

The environment matters because your brain associates behaviors to certain places.

It’s easy to go to the gym, if you are magically plopped in there.

We find that the resistance or hard part about going to the gym is the decision to start the process of getting ready to go to the gym.

Same thing applies to studying.

If you get plopped into an area that is quiet, is low in visual and auditory distractions and the area is associated with studying, it becomes really easy to start studying.

I don’t study in my room. I study in a coffee shop or at a library.

My ideal area of study, is somewhere that is visually boring, no stimulating sounds and easy to go to.

I know not everyone has the luxury of being able to find a dedicated area study.

For those who must study in their room: designate a portion of their room dedicated to ONLY studying.

When I had to study in my room, I had a desk and lamp that I specifically ONLY used to study.

When the study lamp was on, I played white noise in my headphones and completed my pomodoro and then turned the study lamp off.

It takes a lot of willpower to do this and I highly do not recommend it.

Remove Distractions

Delete games, social media and YouTube.

If you have things that are more stimulating than going to school to improve your life, what do you think will happen?

It is obvious that most people are unable to overcome the expertly engineered and highly addictive products big companies have created.

I admit that I am an addict from these things and do not want to waste any more of my life on these things.