A metaphor is only useful if it helps you approach something with a better blueprint and I can’t say that I am a particularly sophisticated user of them.

But, in the last couple of years, I’ve found myself using the phrase “university is a gymnasium for the mind”. I’m still playing with what value it might have, but I think its main value is that it brings a little more intentionality to the university experience.

To think about training the mind, requires you to ask questions about the training itself. Things like: What am I training, how hard should I train, and what do I need in order to train well?

Now, many questions of the training are answered by the degree itself. Another way of saying that is your degree provides most of the heavy lifting. Through lectures, assignments, placements, exams and research projects, you develop the specialised knowledge and capabilities associated with your discipline.

But these activities also train more general capacities: attention, memory, communication, critical thinking, emotional regulation, project management and the ability to persist when the path forward isn’t obvious. I suspect these might even be more important.

I remember a good friend from my uni days noting that what he got from his PhD wasn’t the knowledge of the PhD topic itself, but the self-understanding he gained from pushing himself as hard as possible. He didn’t go on to work in the area of his PhD but he did go on to push himself to great heights elsewhere.

That means there can be value in leaning into tasks that don’t initially seem directly relevant to your future occupation. That group assignment might be training your ability to work with difficult people (just so you know, most people hate group assignments). That presentation might be training your capacity to communicate under pressure. That confusing assignment might be training your ability to tolerate uncertainty and find a way forward.

The metaphor also draws attention to the wider training environment and the recognition you can train things other than your specific degree whilst you are here.

Learning support can help you develop your academic skills. Careers activities can help you clarify where you are going and prepare for professional life. Clubs, student associations, volunteering and social activities can develop connection, confidence and leadership. Wellbeing programs can help you understand and manage your own mind.

Basically, not all the training you might benefit from will be found within the formal boundaries of your degree. Some will be found in the many other spaces of a modern university.

Oh and then there is choosing an appropriate training level.

Some students are in a position to throw themselves fully into university and pursue ambitious academic goals. Others are fitting study around employment, caring responsibilities, health challenges, financial pressures and complicated lives.

Being intentional doesn’t necessarily mean deciding to work harder. It might mean recognising that, at this point in your life, you can only train at a certain level. And knowing that is okay. It might mean shifting some effort away from grades and towards relationships, wellbeing or professional development. It might mean reducing the load so you can train sustainably, rather than overtraining and risking injury.

And, as with physical training, effort is only part of the process. Rest, nutrition, sleep, movement and time away from study help the mind recover and adapt. Treating recovery as part of the training is very different from treating it as something you earn only after all the work is finished.

I don’t think I approached university this intentionally. I mostly continued the script I had learned at school: do the work, get the grades and move to the next level. Fortunately, my default settings were okay, so I did okay.

But life for many students nowadays is more complex, and default mode won’t always produce the right settings. Approaching university a little more mindfully might help you recalibrate: to choose your level of effort, identify the capacities you want to develop, make use of the wider opportunities around you and build in the recovery you need.

What you put into university will partly shape what you get out of it. But “putting more in” doesn’t simply mean working more hours. It means being more deliberate about what you are trying to build.

If the idea of university as a gymnasium for the mind helps you do that, please use it freely. I’ll be chuffed that my fledgling metaphorical excursions have been helpful.

If it doesn’t, that is all good too. Perhaps sound off in the comments: how do you think about what you are doing at university?