I’ve talked quite a bit about academic validation here on the Diary of the Mind. I’ve covered pretty much everything about it, from reasons for it, signs of it, and, most importantly, how to overcome it. It’s all in the ultimate guide to academic validation, with all the information you need on academic validation. But why exactly is it bad? After all, it might seem to be pushing you to strive for better grades, and high academic achievements? That’s a good thing, right? Well, the pushing and striving is good, but the need for academic validation is not. So, here are the 5 reasons why academic validation is bad for students.
#1 : Terrible for Your Self-esteem
As you can imagine, relying on academics for your self-worth is a pretty terrible thing. Your perception of self is built on something so external, and fragile. Grades are not a part of you, they are outside of you. That letter in the gradebook is not engraved under your fingernail, and your GPA is not etched on your forehead. It’s not really a part of you, even if it might seem like that. And they’re ever-changing. They’re never the same at once, and will never truly be stable.
Guess what? Self-esteem requires stability and internal connection, none of which academics and grades can provide for you. It’s so external, and constantly changing, that your own self-esteem becomes external and unstable. Instead of looking at you gradebook to feel self-validated
#2 : Cultivates Bad Habits
When you struggle with academic validation, grades take the forefront of your mind. Everything is just anticipating and preparing for an A on that next test, or a 95%+ on your next presentation. It can take all night for you to feel the most “prepared” you can to get better and better grades.
Unfortunately, this amount of importance you’re putting on grades, everything else gets ignored. In a study on workaholism, it was found that people you struggled with often neglected their physical health. Workaholism isn’t exactly the same as studyholism or academic validation, because it does relate to people of working age, but it’s very similar. Studyholism and academic validation are both almost a precursor of workaholism, and they all result in very similar effects.
Neglecting your physical health is most definitely terrible. Sleeping at least 8 hours a day, eating healthy and nutritious meals, and keeping yourself active are all essential to living a fulfilling life. It’s especially important during teenage years, because you need to keep up with your physical well-being to physically grow up to your potential.
Unfortunately, when you think about nothing but studying, you forget about taking care of your body. You spend all your day buried in textbooks instead of getting some movement, and you spend all night in front of a computer, with 10 cups of coffee, instead of getting a good-night’s sleep. Well, surprise surprise, these habits that you’ve piled up chasing those grades have only degraded your physicality even more. Your physical health is only declining because of the lengths you’re taking to validate your academic validation.
#3 : Tense Relationship with Peers
Comparison is the thief of joy, they say, and it’s true. When you keep comparing yourself to others, you make your faults seem worse than they actually are, and those others’ accomplishments bigger than they actually are. It makes you compete with them, to finally feel like you’re better than them, and as I’ve outlined in my article on signs of academic validation, this comparison and competition is a known part of academic validation. That’s not really great to have when trying to sustain friendship.
If you constantly compare yourself to others and compete with them, it’s hard to actually maintain genuine relationships with your peers. When they have an achievement, especially an academic one, you will automatically think, “why wasn’t that me”, and when you do better than them, you unwillingly think, “I am better than you”.
Academic validation should control your friendships as well. Unfortunately, it does, and that’s why academic validation is bad. You want to validate yourself based on your grades, and for that to happen, you need to be better than everyone else. But that’s not the point. Your friends aren’t your competitors, they are your supporters, and you should be the same for them.
#4 : Unhealthy Relationship with Learning
Another, and probably one of the most obvious reasons, why academic validation is bad is because it ruins your perception of education. You see learning just for those grades that you’re chasing, and study only for those tests, you forget the real reason for being in school.
It’s not for getting straight A’s on your report card, or getting everyone to tell you how smart you are. It is for bettering yourself, your mind, and your abilities. It’s to educate yourself to develop a deeper understanding of the world around you. Unfortunately, that academic validation is preventing you from doing so.
In the future, you won’t be able to see education in the way it is meant to be if you don’t recognize and fix your academic validation. You will constantly see academics as a competition, a need to be better and better with letter grades and percentages, rather than truly learning and expanding your knowledge.
This is so much more important than you think it is, because your education and ability to apply it can determine your life. If you see yourself thinking like this with your academic validation, make sure to check out my article on the steps to overcoming academic validation so that you can begin your journey away from this terrible mindset you have developed.
#5 : An Irrational Fear of Failure
Finally, academic validation often brings you an intense fear of failure. With academic validation, success should be the only thing on the menu. Test after test, paper after paper, and project after project should be A’s. Anything less than that will leave you a nervous wreck. And that’s really bad.
Nothing should bring such fear of failure. It’s okay to feel a little anxiety and adrenaline, anticipating an important grade. It’s alright to be a little nervous about not doing as good as you want to. But if you are so afraid of failure that it makes you want to gouge your eyeballs out over a test, there’s a problem.
You don’t want to fear failure, especially not irrationally. The healthiest thing you can do is embrace failure. It’s another step to success, and an experience to learn and develop your abilities and character. Your terrible fear of failing is just another reason to prove why academic validation is bad, and just another reason why you should do everything in your power to get over it.
Conclusion
So, essentially, what have we learnt? Well, academic validation is most definitely terrible. On paper, it seems great. Straight-A’s honor-roll student, perfect all around. However, beneath all those academic achievements, is an extremely unhealthy body and mind. Your academic validation is eating away at your health, taking all your energy to be put into some letter grades that may never matter in a while.
If there’s one thing you take for this, it’s that you have to change your understanding of life. It isn’t a competition. It isn’t about failure and success, whether it is in school or outside of it. Our society loves to put people up against each other, sweating like dogs just for that little step forward.
But, if you want to be happy with your life, you need to forget that mindset, which has been ingrained with your struggle with academic validation. You need to look deep down within yourself and figure out what you want to do with your life. You need to see yourself out of that terrible mental place and truly be happy with yourself.