Foundations of Success

I have seen people come of age and try to join society as adults for over two decades now, I have experience working with this population in our incarceration system, and I have an undergraduate degree in Human Services. In my opinion, the vast majority of the time when an individual is not able to make the transition into adulthood effectively, it is because they are deficient in one of the following three areas, listed here in order of importance:

1. First and most importantly is mental health. Crazy people usually don't grasp just how crazy they actually are. If you think you might be even slightly nuts, you need to go seek professional help immediately. Proceeding with a broken mind is guaranteed misery and failure in life. I had a friend with borderline personality seek help and literally be cured after less than a dozen counseling sessions with a good therapist. I had another friend with schizophrenia who had to take his meds every day or the walls would start yelling at him, but otherwise was a model employee. I had another friend who needed help for depression, didn't get it, and once every few months would physically threaten other employees, so that in spite of otherwise being an ideal employee, he couldn't hold a job for a year at a time. If you have had a hard time getting into school or holding down a part time job, there's a very good chance you need to see a shrink.
2. Second is physical health. There is no success in life that will compensate for being addicted to alcohol, tobacco, or other substances. Mental illness can lead to becoming addicted far more easily than others. Nearly everyone needs to be in the habit of regular physical exercise and a reasonably healthy diet, but mental illness can make it difficult to commit to any such habits long term. Meanwhile studies have shown that having a clean healthy lifestyle will help you tremendously in school, and is otherwise very good for your brain's health.
3. Once you have your mental health and physical health in order, you are ready for school. As hard as college might be, it's not as hard as trying to support yourself with the type of work you are likely to do without a college degree. In today's world you are likely to have several career changes, and the right education can help you be taken seriously and be a significant contribution to each new place of employment. To this end, it is important that your formal education have 3 qualities: A) It should be something you enjoy or are very interested in - something you would be into even if your college was destroyed in a tornado over the weekend. B) It should be relatively easy for you compared to other subjects - this is a good indicator that you bring talent to this area of expertise. Also A + B makes it much more likely you will stay in school and graduate. C) It should be affordable. The two factors to consider with affordability is first it's employability: how likely is the degree to quickly pay for itself after you graduate? A nursing degree for example is likely to land you a job at $30 per hour with no experience - those kind of wages will pay off a sizable student loan quickly. Secondly consider simply the price of tuition itself, go to the least expensive school that will still give you the education you are looking for. Expensive education is over rated, and the weight of debt on your happiness is under rated.

In summary the foundation for success in life is to first get into reasonably good mental and physical health, and then get an affordable education in something you are interested in and good at.