Going back to school as an adult may seem like an impossible task, especially if you have a full life as it is. But if you are planning on returning to school again, here are some helpful tips on how to make it look easy.

Try to get as organized as possible

One of the first things you’ll want to do when getting reacquainted with school again, whether online or in person, is to familiarize yourself with your coursework and try to get as organized as possible regarding your course milestones. Reading through your course framework as well as jotting down important information such as your tutor’s details and who to contact when you have a query should help you save time should you encounter hurdles along the way.

Getting your home schedule in sync with your work schedule

If you have other obligations to see to, such as family commitments or even another job to work around, then it might be helpful to get all your schedules in sync with each other so that you don’t run into difficulties down the line. Technology can help with this if you want to make sure everyone is aware of what’s on the agenda daily with apps such as Cozi or Flayk.

Track your goals

Keeping track of your goals is all the more worthwhile if you can achieve them in the timeframe you set out to achieve them. Therefore, it is vital to keep track of your goals on a daily and weekly basis. For example, you may want to diarize important assignment dates as well as set weekly goals for yourself so that you stay on track with your syllabus.

Establishing what your ultimate goal is

Speaking of goal setting, perhaps your goal is to achieve your education so that you can open up your own business one day. If so, it would be helpful to look into the various business structures that are available to ensure you select the right one from the start. For example, an LLC might just work out the best for you if you want a business type with plenty of benefits, including tax benefits such as not having to pay corporate federal income tax; more flexibility when it comes to the management structure of your business should your business scale up one day; limited liability, etc. Furthermore, a formation service can assist you with all the ins and outs of registering your business and are even on top of the different regulations that apply in each state if you decide to move one day.

Branch out

Suppose you already have extensive experience in a certain field, then why not take a professional development course rather than going the longer route of acquiring a new or more advanced degree in your field? For example, if you are in the medical field and are already quite familiar with medical codes, then you can choose from among online medical coding courses to help extend your knowledge even further. You can even take an assessment at the end of the course to verify your skill level in this area to ensure that you know how to assign the correct medical codes and what they mean in terms of medical procedures and service claims.

So, if you plan on studying further, don’t let the passage of time prevent you from achieving your dreams. Also, you can help to reduce your length of study by using professional development courses to help save you time in the end.

For motivational tips on various topics, visit the Keep The Fire Lit website for more information.

 

Image via Pexels

 

 

Feeling self-confident is key to success in any area of life. When you feel good about yourself, you’re more likely to take on new challenges and achieve your goals. Sadly, 85% of people worldwide struggle with low self-esteem. If you’re one of those people, don’t worry! You can do plenty of things to start feeling more confident. Here are four of them.

1. Try Power Posing

You don’t need superpowers to reap the benefits of the power pose. The power pose, or superhero stance, is a simple body language trick that can make you feel more confident and ready to take on the world. All you need to do is stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart, hands on your hips, and chin up. As little as two minutes in a power pose can increase confidence and reduce stress.

When you stand in a power pose, it signals your brain to release testosterone or the power hormone. Testosterone makes you feel more self-confident and dominant. It also reduces the stress hormone cortisol. So, not only do you feel better, but you also look better.

Start practising power posing right now, and see how it can change the way you feel about yourself and the world around you.

2. Set Goals

If you feel overwhelmed, try starting small. Set a goal that’s attainable and manageable. For example, making your bed can be a great first step. It’s a simple goal, but it can make you feel good about yourself when you accomplish it. Research has shown that completing small goals, such as making your bed, leads to a greater sense of self-efficacy and improved moods.

 

3. Consider a Career Change

Finally, if you’re feeling stuck and unfulfilled in your current career, it may be time for a fresh start. A career change can be daunting, but it’s also an exciting opportunity to explore new possibilities. If you’re ready to take the plunge, start by exploring different career paths.

Alternatively, start a business or side hustle that aligns with your passions and goals. This can be a great way to gain some confidence and feel empowered in your career. If you choose to start a business, do your research, and create a solid business plan. The business plan acts as your roadmap and helps you stay on track.

A winning business plan needs to include the following:

• A clear description of your business and its products or services
• Your business goals and objectives
• A detailed outline of your company structure
• A marketing plan defining your target market and how you plan to reach it
• Financial projections and funding requirements

This helps you navigate the early stages of starting a company and increase your chances of success. If you’re feeling lost and uncertain about your career, you can always seek out professional guidance.

4. Stay Confident When Things Get Tough

Confidence is a state of mind, and it can be cultivated. Follow these tips, and start feeling more confident today. If you’re looking for more ways to build confidence, check out these blog posts on Motivation for Success.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article should be taken as providing financial or legal advice. If you intend building a business, take professional advice relevant to the jurisdiction you are in.

Thoughts come and they go, the same goes for wonderful ideas capable of changing the course of your life for good. I could liken them to the rain, in due season it falls but if we aren’t witty enough to build dams to retain it then it goes deep into the earth wasted. The sun as well with its magnificent shine and the heat it comes with consistently rises and sets but only those with solar systems can harvest its power. Without the proper infrastructure and organization, it would be impossible to take a day just to go and admire nature’s beauty in animals at the zoo or game park.

All these are natural phenomena that follow a certain pattern engraved in their being; but without human effort to make the best out of them, their full potential cannot be known. See a man leading a confused life, making unwise decisions, and perhaps blaming one person or the next thing for his disadvantaged fate? There is disorder even in his thinking. Disorganized thinking leads to actions and words of the same nature and the opposite is true. There is something about keeping a record of one’s thoughts and plans that helps eliminate grey areas of doubt in their path. This is because naturally when you set out to keep a journal, as opposed to a diary which is often a chronological list of events, you are inclined to note down only important things and so the more you write them down the more you focus your mind on those.

 

1. Journaling empowers you to gain clarity about where you are.

Sure, you may read your diary years later and laugh at some of your folly and immature thinking one day but if you want a fair assessment of where you stand today, start writing down your experiences, your reflections, and your takeaway from these in a JOURNAL. It’s a busy world we live in and without sufficient time taken to analyze ourselves, we gradually lose touch and just blend in with everything else happening around us. Give yourself a kind reminder of who you are and what you represent, your values, your pains, your joys, regularly to make sure you aren’t just existing. A business cannot know how well it is doing and how much improvement it needs without thorough bookkeeping. You also, unless you keep your personal account books cannot be sure of where you stand and what you need to improve to lead a more profitable life.

2. You need to appreciate how far you’ve come.

Going through a picture album with all my photos from babyhood to childhood through teenagerhood gave me an interesting perspective recently. I realized how much I had been ‘mutating’ over the years without even realizing it! It is the same feeling when you read your journals or diaries written in past seasons. You can only look and be grateful for the character growth and otherwise. Sometimes when we are hard-pressed by current challenges, we only need to look over our shoulders and see where we have come from. Reminiscing how we won over the Goliaths of that time gives us the courage to face the present ones. Keep journaling so that you may not forget to be patient and always hopeful in every circumstance.

 

3. Journaling removes the mist around your future.

This is by far the most important part of all this: using the power of writing things down to paint a clear picture of the future you want.  The mind can be a dangerous place to keep important information because it may not keep it all ready for reference at anytime. We may forget. Or time and circumstances change our notions of what we want to be and do. With our imaginations, we see what could be but when we write it down, we cement our imagination thereby increasing the chances of us living to see the dream. Without clearly defined goals written down, one can only hope to stumble upon a favorable future.

Something else very interesting happens when you take the step of keeping a record of your life. You may not be a skilled writer but somehow your level of excellence in writing advances when you set your mind to do it. This then spills over to even the way you execute your plans. It as if your mind hears the message, “We are organized and we are taking ourselves seriously” and so it passes it on to every fiber of your being.

After adopting the winning habit of writing you will find it useful to organize the journals themselves because if they look like trash it’s only a matter of time before you toss them out. Neatly written and well-organized work will make you want to read and keep it. Imagine that day in the future when you will want to tell your story to inspire others, your written work will be most valuable then so keep at it, and don’t forget to insert dates and even times in your journals.

Memories

A trail of memories, one so precious it follows behind you reminding you of who you were yesterday. Just like a picture, a memory frozen in time at times can guide your steps: journaling entails a picture drawn so vividly with your thoughts and words.

Mapping The Way Forward

It is thinking aloud, projecting the conversations in our head in an organized manner to map our path forward.

Journals Are Tools For Mindfulness.

Keeping a journal creates an opportunity for one to channel their inner selves, to converse with oneself, and get a clear picture of what is within. It allows you a chance to get to know more about yourself. Just like when we get to have dates with people we are trying to get to know, journaling can be equated to going on a date with yourself, writing the different facets that make you who you are. It is meant to be a collection of your ideas, observations, and even to record anything of importance you wish to get back to at a later day. Day after day we find our perception of life, our thoughts, and even our beliefs evolving and we need to keep these on the record as they show us how much we have grown.

Keep Track Of Your Decisions.

A journal is a tool to keep track of the important decisions that you make, and serves as a reminder of why you made them in the first place. It allows you to lay down your goals in a clear and organized way. When goals are not written down, they forfeit their importance and just remain in a realm of dreams. To realize your goals, you need to keep track. For a goal to be realized there is a need for a plan to be put forward and constant journaling allows you to make step by step plans to reach your goal.  By journaling, you can ensure accountability and make it possible to go back and re-evaluate the progress of your goals concerning the plan detailed in your journal. Having a written plan of the path to your goals also allows one to be able to re-strategize.

When you keep a journal, it is fairly easy to sort through the mental clutter and be left with what really matters daily. It also allows you to understand your coping mechanisms. It allows you to improve mental clarity and focus by emptying your mind as you are writing down your thoughts. Giving you a better insight of how things are supposed to be.

Growth and progress cannot be seen when there is nothing to compare them to and journals facilitate that growth. The person you are has been built over a long period, being molded together from your experiences and decisions. A journal is a way to document your experiences, the hurts, mistakes, joys, and lessons that have brought us to be where we are. Being able to go back and get a reference from your past experiences when your memory fails you is priceless. You get to refer to past lessons to give you an idea of how to handle the situations at hand.

Help You Keep Your Life Organized.

A journal enhances your organizational skills. They can be structured in a way so that things are written in order, maybe in chronological order or perhaps in some order that makes sense to you. This in turn can help you to plan and structure your day, your week, your life. Knowing when to do what, in turn helping you escape from procrastination. You get to structure your life into a clear vision on paper making it easier to follow through.

It is more beneficial to brainstorm when you are recording the thoughts flowing through your mind. When you keep a constant journal you rarely go through instances where you lose an idea to the wind because the very moment it crosses your mind you write it down before it fades from your mind. Journals expand your mind and keep you creative and innovative as every moment of writing down your thoughts gives you time on your own to discover what you really think and feel.

A Journal Can Be A Therapy Tool.

Journaling is therapeutic. It can serve as a way to heal oneself from different kinds of trauma. It allows you to be free, to open up about your feelings, to embrace those feelings, and get to understand them. It allows you to be vulnerable even without having to share your thoughts when you find it uncomfortable or having witnesses during those moments of vulnerability. You allow yourself to delve deeper into your relationship with your own feelings and reactions, in turn, it can help you be more in control of how you react to situations. For instance, you could work on anger management and strategies to control your temper by resorting to writing down why you are angry and why you feel that way and then how to deal with it and cope with it.

Our minds are not computers so we tend to forget stuff. Journals serve to improve our memory and to keep us self-aware. When you feel like you need a boost of inspiration and motivation, getting back to your journal always gives you an opportunity to push you forward. Not only do you improve your mental health by decreasing stress but you also get to perfect your writing skill from the constant writing. Be intentional about keeping a journal and watch yourself grow every day you self-reflect.

 

 

 

 

Fed Up Of Resolutions That Don’t Work?

Click here to see the saving idea of plus one penny a day.
It’s almost New Year’s Day, the traditional time for creating resolutions you want to achieve for the incoming year. Have you made New Year Resolutions before? Did you keep them? How long did they last? What goals did you set? If you didn’t achieve them, did you consider what happened and how you could change that?

OK Enough Questions

You probably wouldn’t be reading this if you always kept all the resolutions you made! So if there are things you want to do (goals to achieve) work you want to do, and targets you want to reach, how do you do it and still keep going, day after day, after week?

How The Sun Does It

In the northern hemisphere at December 29th, the sun has just completed the longest night of the year (and of course, the shortest day). It’s the opposite way around in the southern hemisphere. They have just had their longest day (shortest night). In the northern hemisphere, the days are now very gradually getting longer. When I say gradually, I MEAN gradually. Looking at a local table of sunrise and sunsets (ask Google), the 23rd of December had a day that was 5 seconds longer than the previous (shortest) day. Just 5 seconds. Did you notice that? Me neither. By 29th of December, the day was a whole 2 minutes and 30 seconds or so longer than the shortest day. I didn’t notice that amount of extra time either. Yet, by early February, the evenings will have lengthened by about an hour and the mornings will be lighter earlier as well. Those few seconds each day add up gradually, but inevitably, to a huge 9 hour difference in the amount of daylight EVERY day, 6 months later, by the time of the summer solstice. The actual amount of extra daylight varies by how far north or south of the equator you are, of course. But who would think that a few unnoticeable seconds every day could make such an enormous difference inside 6 months?

Tiny Steps Every Day

It takes just a tiny step every day to reach the biggest goal eventually.
Save Plus One Penny A Day

Saving $600+ For Next Christmas

I read a great idea today about saving for next Christmas, that follows exactly the sun’s gradual change from winter solstice to summer. Get a jar, add a cent on 1st January. On 2nd of January, add 2 cents, on 3rd January add 3 cents. Keep adding one more cent a day, each day to your jar. By the end of 3 months, you will be adding about 90 cents a day to the jar and will already have reached $22 in savings. Once you reach 99 cents, then add a dollar a day to your jar, plus the cents. These are tiny amounts at first but they add up over the year. Even by the start of December, you will be adding only about $3.30 a day to your jar, perhaps the cost of a cup of coffee in work. But by Christmas, you will have over $600 in that jar.

What Is A Goal

A goal is something you want to achieve in the future and that you are willing to work towards getting. While a dream is not a goal, often a dream is something that starts you off on the work that is needed to achieve it. At that point, where you start doing the necessary work, the dream becomes a goal.

Goals To Set For 2020

Your goals depend on what you want to achieve. Maybe you want to :

• Lose Weight
• Pass an exam
• Declutter your mind or your home
• Change jobs
• Become Self Employed
• Write A Novel
• Improve your health
• Get fit or fitter
• Improve your IT skills
• Improve your game of golf or soccer or other sport
• Learn to dance
• Learn to draw or paint or improve your artistic skills
• Learn circus skills
• Earn more money
• Make the team in your chosen sport

There could be any number of goals you might want to achieve. There is an argument that you should choose one goal to concentrate on and if you want to pass an exam or make the team, that may take most of your energy for a time. There is also an argument that you could set smaller goals in a number of areas and enjoy reaching several goals. For instance, if you want to improve your drawing, you could draw a  single doodle each day (like in Inktober) and this would allow you time to achieve other goals as well.

SMART Goals

Any goal you choose to work towards should be set out as a smart goal – it should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound.

A specific goal says what you will do, specifically, so rather than “lose weight”, you pick an actual amount of weight to lose, say 10 pounds, or 20 pounds.

A measurable goal can be measured. So it might be to lose 2 inches from your waist measurement.

Achievable means that it can actually be achieved. No point in setting a goal to lose 20 pounds weight in a week, if you have only 20 pounds you need to lose anyway. There may be little point in setting a goal to run 1 mile if you suffer from injured knees, for instance.

Realistic means that you will make sure you have the time and ability to dedicate to your goal. If you are already working a 40 hour week and spending another 20 hours on your commute, plus more time looking after a house and children, then finding 10 hours a week for additional study may not be a realistic possibility.

Timebound means setting a time limit on when your desired goal will be achieved. This could be 6 months or a specific date, eg for an event you want to attend.

A SMART goal for losing weight might be, “To lose 20 pounds and 2 inches from my waist in 3 months.”

A SMART goal for improving your writing or drawing might be, “To write 1000 words / draw one doodle, each day for the next 30 days, using the spare hour I have after dinner each evening.

A SMART goal for improving your fitness might be, “To be able to lift X pounds weight 10 times in one session by (date)”, or “To enter and complete a 5k run by the end of (date)”

Outcome Goals

Outcome goals are end results, such as losing 30 pounds in weight, getting a novel published, getting your painting hung in a public gallery, making the team or setting up your own business. These are more difficult goals because you don’t always have control over whether you will achieve them. You may improve your fitness greatly but might still not be picked for the team. You may want to start your business but can’t get a loan from the bank.

Process Goals

Process goals are what you do to try and achieve your end result. So, if you want to lose weight, you may set yourself a diet allowance of 1500 calories a day or decide to cut out all soda and candy or set out a walking schedule of one hour a day. If you want to start your own business, you may set yourself goals of creating stock to sell, finding premises, setting up a mailing list.

You are more likely to be able to control achievement of process goals more easily.

Fun With Process Goals

During 2019, one person I know decided they would achieve 20 goals in several different areas (20 for 2020). They liked writing, drawing, losing weight and getting fit and wanted to improve themselves in all those areas. So they chose their process goals to help with that. One of these goals was to write 20 articles and publish them. She chose several different sites on which to publish, some of which pay money if people read and interact with the articles. She ended up creating a new website on which to publish certain of her articles. Another goal was to walk a set number of miles in the year. This goal had to be abandoned because of an old injury, so she chose another one that still contributed to her fitness goal. If you want to achieve several goals, then choosing process goals that contribute to one or more outcome goals is a fun and motivating way to achieve this, even if the outcome goal is a worthy one instead of fun. While she did not achieve her target 20 in all of her 20 categories, she felt she was more productive than she had been the previous year. As they say for those taking up the “couch to 5K” program, which can be downloaded as a podcast (at least in the UK, it can) “no matter how slowly you run, you are still lapping the couch potato”.

Motivation

To get and keep motivation, you need a clear method, setting out your action plan for achieving your goal. You will need one or more outcome goals (e.g. lose 20 pounds weight, make the team, complete a novel, pass an exam) and the process goals for getting there (choose a diet plan, cut out soda and candy, make a healthy lunch each day, attend training sessions, choose to take up the couch to 5k program, work out at the gym 3 times a week, write an outline, write character studies, write for 1 hour a day, etc). The process goals could be a step by step plan for achieving the outcome. For instance, if your outcome goal is to make more sales calls or to keep up to date with  your laundry, you may not be terribly excited by that, even though you know it is vital for your well-being or for your job. That means you may not always have the motivation to keep doing it after the first flush of enthusiasm has worn off. If you use process goals and keep a motivation chart, seeing the points mount up can provide good motivation to keep going. By the way, if you want to take up the “Couch To 5K challenge”, there is a great guide available on this.

Process goals for making sales calls could include:

• look up the number to call and write it on a list;
• write down the name of the person you are calling;
• write a brief note on WHY you are calling
• write a brief note on the benefits of what you are selling
• write a reminder to ask for a purchase to be made.
• dial the number

Write down each of these process goals on a motivation chart and make a check mark each time you complete one. Give yourself a bonus mark when you complete all the steps and make a sales call to someone.

Process goals for keeping your laundry up to date might be:

• Put washable dirty clothes in laundry basket. Do not add dry clean only clothes;
• When laundry basket is full, put a load in the washing machine (purists might mention here about sorting laundry into different piles, I just get it done);
• Add the washing powder to the drawer;
• Select the program;
• once laundry is finished, hang it on the line or put it in the tumble dryer;
• Once dry, remove laundry from tumble dryer or bring in from line;
• Check laundry is dry, if not, return to dryer or hang on airer;
• Fold laundry and put in airing cupboard.
• Clean out lint and empty water from tumble dryer;

Write down each of these laundry process goals on a motivation chart and make a check mark each time you complete one. Give yourself a bonus mark when you complete all the steps to have a clean dry set of folded laundry.

For some goals, finding a buddy to workout with you can be very motivating, especially if it involves getting up early in the morning for a jog, perhaps. Buddies keep each other motivated and it’s always someone to talk to while you workout.

For Writers

There are various writing habit calendars available for writers. You can find a 2020 writers’ calendar here.

Time To Get Motivated

2020 is now. Set your goals or aims and work out your action plan to move towards your goals. Remember you have more control over process goals and you can create motivation charts or get motivation calendars to keep you on track.