Success mostly boils down to this: Do the real thing. Stop doing fake alternatives.

If you are a student, instead of creating multicolored folders for your class, sit down and study. If you want to get in shape, don't only plan your workout gear, start exercising.

We are all guilty of this at some stage. We spend months dreaming up elaborate projects that avoid the real work.

The truth is that we often think we are practicing one thing, but later find that we are not really accomplishing our goal.

Several studies show that students are not able to perform on tasks that their classes should have prepared them for. For example, studying economics, but then not able to do better on questions of economic reasoning. Physics students that fail to solve a problem that differs slightly from those taught in class.