How to Stay Motivated When College Is Hard

 By Frederik Kreijmborg 

 Photo: collegecandy.files.wordpress.com

Each year thousands of students don't survive college because they think it's too hard. They can't motivate themselves so they give up early. The following three motivational advices have helped many students even through the most difficult times at college.
1. Have the end in mind
One of the most powerful mantras is this tiny sentence by Stephen Covey, a grandmaster of efficiency: "Have the end in mind."
Don't forget why you started studying in the first place. You had dreams, wishes, visions, ideas - remember them and think about the outcome of these grueling times you're currently going through.
You will survive this much easier if you concentrate on what you want to achieve in the end instead of focusing on what's bothering you right now.
People who have the end in mind are much more successful in life because they simply don't have time to worry. Yes, sometimes college is hard. Sometimes life is hard in general. But with the end in mind it's easy to stay motivated.
Think of the bad times as clouds which hide the sun behind. The sun is still there, even if you can't see it right now.
2. Benefit from going the extra mile
Try to change your point of view. How will you see your current situation in five, ten or twenty years? Will you think that it was the hardest time you ever had? Probably not. College is a cakewalk if you compare it to the "real world".
So, how could you stay motivated by altering your perspective? That's easy: you should turn your passiveness into activity. Challenge yourself with the stuff that's giving you a hard time at college.
Overcome your fear and confront your weaknesses. Conquer your mind and get back in control.
You'll benefit from going the extra mile. People who drop out of college because they couldn't stand the pressure won't get far with their whiny attitude. Of course it's okay if you just don't want to go to college anymore - but you should have an alternative at your disposal. Dropping out into nothing is exactly that: devastating.
You'll stay motivated if you challenge yourself with the things that you currently perceive as "hard". Over time you'll realize how easy "it" was.
3. Relax, it's not the end of the world
What's the worst thing that could happen? You get kicked out of college. Is that really the worst thing that could happen to you right now? You won't get a job. Is that really the worst thing that could happen to you right now? Your parents would disregard you. Is that really the worst thing that could happen to you right now?
Think. Think hard. You'll then realize that - even if you fail miserably at college - it's not the end of the world.
Going to a college is a great opportunity. But there are dozens, hundreds, thousands of opportunities out there. College is not for everybody. If you're still unsure about that you should search for people ("made men") who dropped out of college and made a fortune doing something else.
Learn to relax and you'll easily be able to stay motivated when college is hard.

Frederik Kreijmborg is a personal growth coach and motivational speaker at www.salaazy.com.
Especially young people respond well to his ideas. Get involved today - you can read all of his blog articles for free!

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How To Easily Increase Your Self-Confidence

By Martin Hurley  

Photo: img.ehowcdn.com
 
If you suffer from a lack of self-confidence or low self-esteem, you may struggle with an inability to achieve your goals and reach your full potential. Fortunately, there are some ways that you can feel more confident without having to change your whole personality. Use the following advice to feel better about yourself right away.
The healthier and more fit you are, the better your overall attitude about yourself and your life will be. If you are out of shape, start working out right away so that you can get fit. Of course, there are more benefits to being healthy than just getting a boost to your confidence. You will also live longer and enjoy a higher quality of life.
One good tool for boosting your self-confidence is coming up with a few motivational speeches or mantras that you can use in a pinch. Just listing a few of your good qualities can be enough to make you feel better about yourself. Tell yourself that you are a smart, strong, capable person who is just as good as anyone else. If you repeat these speeches to yourself often enough, you will soon come to believe them, which will therefore raise your base level of confidence.
The better dressed you are, the better you will feel about yourself. You do not have to be dressed to the nines whenever you head out, but try not to look slovenly, as if you just pulled whatever smelled best out of the laundry pile in the morning. Find a personal style that suits you, and then dress nicely within that style. Pay attention to your personal grooming as well. Keep your hair and nails neatly trimmed, and shower on a regular basis.
Your posture and the way you walk say a lot about your level of confidence. If you slouch and shuffle your way through life, no one is going to take you seriously or treat you with respect. Stand up straight and walk with an air of confidence. You will soon find that doing so becomes second nature, especially once you see how people treat you with newfound respect once they recognize the changes in your posture.
When you are in a group, do not hide in the back and never say anything. Instead, try to sit or stand in a prominent location and do not be afraid to express your ideas and opinions. It may be difficult at first, but you will soon be able to overcome your embarrassment and state your beliefs in a clear and forthright manner. Do not be overly aggressive or confrontational, however. Try to be respectful and open in your statements, and other people will be equally respectful of you.
Low self-confidence can really hold you back in life, but the good news is that it can be fixed. Feeling more confident will help you do better in life, and the better you do, the more confident you will become. Start using this cycle of positive feedback in your own life so that you can achieve your goals and reach your ideal self.

Good life management starts with being organised at home and in the office. To help you plan, manage and organise your day, visit my http://www.great-printable-calendars.com site to download To-Do lists, free day and year calendars and free calendar software you can personalise to your heart's content!

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Get Rid Of Shyness Even If You Have No Self Esteem

By Reem Jones  

Photo: 4.bp.blogspot.com

In order to get rid of shyness you need to know what it really is. Shyness is not what you are but a state of mind and how you feel. When you suffer from having no self-esteem, all you want to do is crawl into a ball and disappear. This makes you extremely uncomfortable to be around other people... especially people who have very high self-esteem. When put on the spot, you get all nervous and turn beet red, wishing you could hide. Some people get so nervous they end up running away. These are cases of people who are extremely shy. You can get rid of shyness and it's fairly easy to do. All it takes is a little work.
You need to understand what makes you shy in the first place. Some people are confident talking in small groups but get really shy talking one-on-one or with the opposite sex. Men are known to be shy around women they like and vice versa. Actors get shy when they have to do interviews and get a little personal. Musicians get shy when they have to go on stage and perform one of the best shows of their career. The thing is, these people found a way to get rid of shyness and accomplish a particular goal. When a person has no self-esteem, they only see reasons why they should run away and hide. When a person has a high level of confidence, they learn how to overcome this. Get rid of shyness and you'll see how much power you'll have within.
A really good way to get rid of shyness is by moving pass the fear. If you're shy around women, it's good to surround yourself around women. If you're shy speaking in public, it's best to start speaking to small groups until you can start speaking in bigger groups. That's another funny thing about shyness. A person could be one of the greatest speakers in public, but have a fear of speaking to someone and asking them out on a date. Once you're exposed to your fears on a consistent basis, your body starts getting use to that particular situation. You stand a little more firmer. You tend to do a little better knowing that you have the situation under control. When you have no self-esteem, you'll have a decent amount of confidence in this particular situation. If you can do this in many areas of your life, you'll start to gain confidence and improve self-esteem. Little do some people know, all it takes is a slight discomfort in the beginning and pretty soon you'll feel like you're in your comfort zone.

Get rid of shyness and gain confidence simply and easily. Stop living your life in fear and live a life free of shyness and a lack of self-self esteem

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How You Can Get The Most From Your Natural Talents

 By Martin Hurley 

photo: blogs-images.forbes.com
 
While you may be perfectly competent at many different activities, there may not be any one thing that you are really skilled at. If you want to master an activity and make it yours, you need to devote enough time and energy to truly become great at it. The following tips will show you how to develop your natural talents and achieve greatness in any field.
To master a skill and improve your abilities, you need to practice the skill on a regular basis. Just doing something intermittently when you feel like it will not give you the results you seek. You need to have enough self-discipline so that you practice even on bad days when you feel tired and unmotivated.
Being aware of your weaknesses is important when you are trying to improve your abilities. You need to know which areas need the most work, and you can only do so by listing your strengths and weaknesses. Be honest with yourself and do not sugarcoat things to make yourself feel better. Taking an objective look at yourself, no matter how painful it may be, is crucial to effective personal development.
Staying motivated is one key to self-improvement. It is all too easy to let things slide if you do not feel very motivated on a certain day. Try to find ways of staying focused on your goals. Remind yourself of what you will get out of improving your natural talents. Picture all of the amazing things that you can do once you reach your goals. Doing so will help you reinforce your dedication.
A coach or mentor can be a big help when you are trying to improve a certain skill. Finding an experienced coach who has gone through the same process of development can make it easier to progress quickly. Your coach can help guide you along the path of improvement and help you avoid any common mistakes or errors that you might be unaware of. He or she can give you pointers so that you make more progress than you could on your own.
When you are feeling unmotivated or discouraged, giving yourself an incentive can get you back on track. It can be something as simple as a favourite snack, or as big as taking a dream vacation. Whatever you choose should be significant enough that it will make you get up and start moving again even in the face of adversity.
It is important to have good sources of support in your life when you embark on a journey of self-improvement. Without a good support system and plenty of healthy relationships, you will be less likely to succeed. You need to have people in your life who can encourage you and give you the support you need to keep making real progress toward your goals.
Many people have talent, but only those who are willing to put in enough hard work can turn their talents into something truly amazing. By working to develop your natural talents, you can give yourself a boost of self-confidence that can spill over to the rest of your life. Use the tips from this article to help yourself achieve your full potential in life.

Want to make the most of your precious time? To help you manage and plan your day with ease, visit my http://www.great-printable-calendars.com site to download free To-Do lists, handy week and month calendars and free calendar templates you can personalise to your specific needs.

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Memory Loss and Its Causes

 By David Starks 

Photo: steadyhealth.com
 
Generally, people accept the fact that their memory will fail them especially when they grow old. Most often, people associate growing old with mental illnesses like Alzheimer's disease, dementia and other mental problems. However, people need to understand the underlying causes of such problems because they can prevent it from happening. There are some things that they can do while they are still young in order for them to preserve their memory improvements and other brain functions at its best until they grow old.
As people approach their old age, their arteries and their veins get clogged because of plaque deposits. This contributes to the narrowing of the passage of blood which could restrict the blood flow going to the heart and to the brain as well. When there is not enough blood circulating in these important areas of the body, people may expect problems. The brain needs as much nutrients and oxygen that is delivered through the blood. Failure to provide sufficient supply to the brain may cause lesser efficiency rate when it comes to memory functions. People may not even notice that they are experiencing some form of very mild strokes which can cause damage to their brain cells.
The presence of free radicals in the body may also cause damages to the brain cells. When the body is not able to protect itself from this, there will be health as well as mental problems that can occur. People who are also deficient with the needed minerals and vitamins like B6 and B12 may also suffer from memory loss. In order for people to combat these problems that may affect their brain functions, they need to include antioxidant as well as vitamin B rich foods into their diet. They may consult with professional dieticians as to the amount that they need in order to keep their bodies and their brains working with the highest efficiency rate.
Aside from the right diet, people also need to do some regular exercises and to get sufficient amount of sleep. Those who are able to keep their bodies healthy may also have better cognitive functioning. They may also make some modifications in their lifestyles for them to enhance their memory and to keep it intact until they grow old. Although there are supplements available for those who would like to enhance their memory, they need to ask their doctors how to improve memory. People can prevent the occurrence of memory loss and they can also look forward to growing old without necessarily losing their memory.

There are lots of ways on how to improve your memory. There is a lot of information that you still need to know with memory improvement programs. If you are looking for more information about a memory improvement you can find it at http://www.memory-improvement-techniques.com.

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How To Cure A Slump Of Confidence

By Dawn Redd  

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Slumps are unexplainable. Sometimes it hits just a single player, while other times it hits an entire team at once. The worst part is that, by its very definition, a slump has to attack a vital member of the team... someone on whom everyone is counting. Is it a slump if a bad player continues to perform poorly? I don't think so.
One thing is for sure, slumps are frustrating for everyone involved. While the slump manifests itself as a severe drop in skill level, I happen to believe there's an equally (if not more critical) dip in confidence that affects slumping players. Imagine the player whose identity is wrapped up in being the best at what they do and what would happen to their confidence when they stopped being at the top of the heap.
So what can coaches do to help this player revive their confidence and regain their top skill level?
4 Steps We Can Take To Address A Player's Slump

1. Don't talk about confidence. I wouldn't suggest starting the conversation with, "So you're lacking confidence... ". An elite athlete will almost never admit to losing their confidence even if it's true. Beyond that, confidence and skill are intertwined so addressing the skill will more than likely take care of the confidence issue as well.


2. Address self-talk. Many times, I'll ask athletes who are consistently struggling in a particular area, what they say to themselves before they perform the skill. Without fail, they're telling themselves, "don't do this" or "be careful"... some sort of passive or fearful self-talk. Our goal has to be to get them to say what they will do correctly instead of filling themselves with doom and gloom over what could possibly go wrong.


3. Work on a specific, tangible skill with specific goals. Most likely, our slumping player thinks everything they're doing is awful and they're just a hot mess. Our job is to pick one tangible skill that can be worked on and give our player cues to replay in their head when they're performing that skill. A specific goal combined with a tangible skill could be something like: "I'm going to come to practice fifteen minutes early to practice every day for two weeks and work on keeping my elbow high when I serve."


4. Visualize success. The next thing we can do for our athlete is to give her steps to visualize her success. There is all sorts of research out there that says that our bodies react the same to a realistically imagined event as they do to the real thing. Meaning, if our player visualizes herself serving an ace on game point, cheering with her team, and the officials signaling the end of the game... her heart rate will increase just as if it were happening in reality.

Most of us will have to deal with a player going through an unexpected slump and they'll be looking to us to help them figure things out. Check out this post, How To Fix A Slump, for more information... the comments section was particularly festive.
Dawn Redd is the Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College. Come visit Coach Dawn's community of coaching nerds and team leaders over at her blog, http://www.coachdawnwrites.com, where she teaches how to become an excellent coach, motivate individuals, and build successful teams.
Her book, Coach Dawn's Guide To Motivating Female Athletes, is available for purchase on her website.
Follow Coach Dawn on Twitter: @CoachDawnWrites

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How to Improve Your Innovative Skills

By Paul Baker  

Photo: workawesome.com
 
Start by deliberate innovation practices
Don't wait for innovation to strike you as you go about your daily life. Innovation is a skill that needs you to practice it all the time. If you read these tips and make yourself a promise that when you wake up tomorrow you will try and do all of them, you will have started being innovative.
Challenge the ways things are done
This is a big one and is the easiest way to identify innovative people because they are always looking to see if things can be done better. They are always challenging the traditional way of performing and unfortunately fired from their jobs because of this.
Employers should embrace these people because it is only by challenging how things are done that we can do them better. If you hear anyone tell you "It has always been done this way." then you know this is an area that desperately needs some innovation.
Practice by looking at all the steps involved in the activity and see if any are wasted or done better with current technology.
Become a child again
Children have a great knack for getting to the heart of the matter quickly, and so can you. If you follow this simple technique.
When faced with an activity or task ask why it is done this way. Then for each answer they give you, ask why at least four more times.
This will drill down to the real reason why something is being done and surprisingly it is not always what you think. This type of questioning is useful in uncovering and removing the "always has" responses.
In some cases even giving the product or items to children and allowing them to play with it can highlight factors that adults miss.
Break your own routines and habits
To become innovative you need to freshen up your creative juices and experience new things yourself. This means you need to stop doing what you always do and apply the following practices in your daily activities.

• Change the way you go and leave work
• Travel to another nearby town for the day and just watch people do what they do
• Eat at different restaurants or dining rooms
• Find a recreational activity that you haven't done before and go do it this weekend
• Read a book that you normally would not ever read
• Open the dictionary to a random page and memorise at least five new words you did not know
• Join a social group that you wouldn't normally join and listen to their ideas

Overall innovation is about experiencing different and new ways of doing activities so you can see if any will cross over to your activities.
Get involved in learning for life and challenge yourself to do at least thirty new things every year.

Information supplied by Paul Baker
Over twenty years of business development & change management strategies successfully used in National organisations across Australia. The focus is on continuous improvement of business systems to stimulate growth through our principles of Initiate, Inspire, Innovate.
Customer-centric focus using our extensive experience in consumer behaviour and business process operations to find ways to help business owners manage their organisations.
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