Goals aren't only in Football

Everyone keeps talking about goals.

"What are your goals?"
"Did you accomplish your goals?"
"Did you see how many goals he scored"
What the heck is all the hype about goals? Can't we just go with the flow? Who are we to decide what we want out of our lives?
If you're the type of person that will allow life to decide your future than whatever I have to say after this sentence is of no interest to you.

For those of you who want to be in control of where your lives will go you need to set goals. Setting the goals is the easy part, accomplishing them, now that's the hard part. You need three important things if you have any chance of accomplishing your goals.

- Skills - knowledge, experience, natural talent
- Resources - ownership, money
- Support - people, organizations

- Skills - Super achievers have ambitions and goals that are in harmony with their natural talents. Someone who has natural a talent for composing music will have a low efficiency rating developing mechanical designs. Someone who has natural talent for mechanical designs will have a low efficiency rating for composing music. (There are exceptions, but they are rare.) It is important to discover your natural talent and set goals that are in harmony with it. This discovery may be difficult, but it is generally related to personal interest or what motivates you.

- Resources - Money, money, money, money,.....money!!!( Remember that song? anyways) is a very important resource that must be managed wisely. If you are broke, trust me, it will be much, much harder to get your goals accomplished. You have to learn to live within your means.

- Support - Socialize with people who have similar interests as you. Make connections! People will help you if you ask them to, so don't be afraid of accepting help in order to acheive your goals.

- Besides the three things that help you set accomplish goals you need to be organized and plan as well. Most major goals require mini goals. Acquiring skills can be considered a mini goal. The same could be true for resources. When you see your mini goal accomplished, you get excited and naturally begin setting bigger goals. eventually we get to where we want to be.

" We become what we think about all day." If we are focused on our goal, we will achieve it. If we spend all day thinking about how much money we owe - we will continue to owe money.

A person does not know what they are capable of until they try.

Trying and failing is better than not trying at all.

Remember - Money, power and influence are not goals - they are rewards ONLY for personal achievement.

Set a goal and don't let anybody, even yourself, get in the way of acheiving it!!


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By Dardane

What's Your Motivation!!!

- What is Motivation?
- What Motivates you?
Is it food? Is it a car, a house, or a new cell phone? Is it a hobby you have or a goal you want to achieve? Really, tell me, WHAT MOTIVATES YOU!

Ask any person who is successful in whatever he or she is doing what motivates them, and probably the answer will be "My goals".

As cheap of an answer as that is, setting goals is a must if you want to acheive anything in life. The only people who can get through life without goals are those who win or steal money. Most likely you will not fall into this category so start thinking!!
What motivates you?

Why are you in school? Are you are in school because mommy and daddy want you to be. If your doing something you don't want to do, how the heck are you going to motivate yourself? Sure, I guess you can succeed with someone else providing the motivation for you.

"If you graduate from college, I'll give you a car!"
What is that? Really!!

If your motivations are not coming from within then you lost the game pal!
Really, it doesn't matter how smart you are or what computers or gadgets you have to use, if nothing is motivating you, you won't use those smarts, the computer, or the gadgets to acheive anything!
Think about this analogy.
You have a car with a full tank of gas, a well-tuned engine, good set of tires, quadraphonic CD system, and a sleek, polished exterior. Aren't you flippin cool!
And it's sitting there. Just sitting there gathering dust! Did I mention this car has incredible potential.("You have such potential!" I'm sure you've heard that before?)
The thing is, until a driver sits behind the wheel, puts the key in the ignition, and cranks it up, the car doesn't mean squat!!
To get corny on you, the KEY is the MOTIVATION. (It sounds so cute, doesn't it?)

Where do you find motivation?

C'Mon!! It's easy!
What interests you!
As much as you might not want to admit it, You like to learn!! It's natural to want to learn! You can't get around it!
When you put your interests and your want to learn together in a mixing bowl, you mix up a nice batch of SUCCESS.
And guess what, once you start becoming successful it's like a drug, and you become addicted to it! More succes and more success and more success!!

So, be honest with yourself! Do you REALLY want to be in school? Are you setting goals for yourself? When it comes to motivation, it isn't KNOWING, it is DOING.


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By Dardane

THE ETERNAL MATH “PROBLEM”

For some people, taking a math class is entering the deepest, darkest pits of hell. It is a place that has haunted you all of your life. Constantly, you are being asked to pass math class after math class, each time leaving and having kept no knowledge of what you learned in your memory. "Why?", you ask, "why another math class!"? Now you are in college. Here you have classes that you choose and you major in business, which has only to do with basic math! But still, there it is, a requirement for math classes. You ask people who are in the semesters above you, "Should I take the classes, is there a way around it?" They say, "Eh, just take them at the end." Do they really care about my future though?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but math will never go away. Just suck it up and take the classes as soon as you can to get them over with.
At this point, I have the ability to say that. Before I was the person I described above. To me maths was always a bunch of numbers. I just could not understand it! My view on math made a self fulfilling prophecy. The more I told myself that I was bad at math , the worst at Math I became. So try and get past seeing a bunch of numbers, see it as a problem which you need to solve. Unfortunately there is a bit of math in most, if not all, subjects. So try to understand it NOW!
When I started at NYC I was terrified about the algebra, statistics and accounting courses but when I took them I realized that everything is a matter of how you choose to see things. I tried to see it as an opportunity of learning things and I started to listen to the professors, pay attention in class, etc. The most important advice about math courses is DON’T miss classes because then you will break the “chain”. To me, math is like a chain, everything depends on the previous class; on the previous chapter. Don’t be afraid of math! You'll see that you did well and you'll feel great!!

I'm taking a test, and I can't remember S***....

Because I am a student, I have taken exams hundreds of times! Still, every time I feel like it is the first. I feel anxious! It's like I have forgotten the material I have read; that I am going to fail! You know, all the familiar “student thoughts” before exams. If you're like me here are some ways to help keep your stress level at a minimum:


1. Arrive early. Make sure you know the where and what time your exam is. This may seem obvious but you'd be surprised how many people don't know! Get there early to give yourself enough time to settle down before the exam starts. There's nothing worse than being late for a test that you don't even feel you know what you are being tested on.

2. Be awake for the test. It doesn't matter if you drink coffee, take a NoDose, whatever, try not to be asleep when the test is in front of you. Drool on the paper doesn't add to your grade. Ideally, you would have slept well the night before and not be tired, but realistically, we all know that can’t always happen. Other options are to shower in the morning, chew gum, to have a caffeinated drink. Not too much though! Be careful when consuming caffeinated drinks, you don’t want to be jittery for the test and write like your on crack!

3. Eat a small breakfast. You’ll want to minimize any possible distractions during the test. You can't concentrate if you’re hungry. But, don't over do it! Don’t eat anything that may upset your stomach.

4. Bring extra writing utensils. You never know when your pencil’s going to break or run out of lead or your pen’s going to run out of ink. And you know that whenever you ask for a pen, nobody ever has one!

5. Bring all essential test materials. There’s nothing worse than forgetting to bring a calculator or notes to an exam that you are allowed to use them. You fell really stupid then because you can't blame it on anyone but yourself!Professors also don't usually have extras or allow you to share with another classmate.

6. Go to the bathroom. Self-explanatory. This is another precaution to minimize distractions during the test.

7. Wear comfortable clothes. You’ll want to be comfortable taking the test. If your pants are too tight and you can't breath, your test isn't the only thing on your mind.

8. Bring any necessities. Bring a water bottle, tissues, cough drops, etc. Whatever you need!

9. Look over your notes. Review important information again before the test to refresh your memory.

10. It’s just a test. Remember that you studied hard and have confidence in yourself.

By Anastasia

Do you WANT it, or do you NEED it?

What is the difference between wants and needs? Is there a difference anymore? Everyone seems to need things that at some point, they simply wanted. They now want things, that before, they couldn't imagine existing. Soon those wants somehow become needs. Whoever isn't quite sure what the difference is anymore, pay attention!! This one's for you.

A need is a basic requirement that a person wants to satisfy. As much as some people think, a product like is cell phone is not a need. It is a want that fulfills a need. I'm I confusing you. Let's start slow.
People have basic needs for food, shelter, affection, esteem and self-development. Many of these needs are created from human biology and the nature of social relationships. So, there are few real needs. Pretty much anything that keeps you physically and emotionally healthy is a need.
Now wants are things that help you fulfill needs.
Here's a basic example. I need food. Everybody needs food, right! That's the need. I WANT sushi! See i'm fulfilling the need, which is food. The want is sushi. Same goes for clothes. I Need shoes. I want prada.
Go ahead, think of some examples!
Here's some more, I need shelter, I want a mansion.
Get it? Good!
Now here comes the juicy stuff. Wants are individual. Everyone needs food, shelter, and so on. Everyone wants something different. Someone may want B.M.W. while the other wants a Jeep. What determines our wants?
Consumer wants are made by social and cultural forces, the media, and marketing activities of businesses. As much as you don't want to admit it, the things around you affect the way you think.
This leads onto another important concept - that of customer demand
Consumer demand is a want for a specific product supported by an ability and willingness to pay for it.
Oh, so here's the catch. The ability to pay for it. Everyone has unlimited wants, its the $ that makes stops you from attaining your wants. I'm sure many people would like a nice Italian car that I know, but very, very few people in the world can afford it.
Businesses therefore have not only to make products that consumers want, but they also have to make them affordable to enough people to create a demand that will make you money.
Now this one kills you when you hear it. Many people believe that Marketing creates needs. Hey, I was one of them! I got shot down and nobody could not come up with a need that marketing has come up with. Everything on the market was created because people need or want it. Can somebody sell something that is absolutely useless? If you can think of something that marketing created, please, feel free to go into the challenges section of this blog and tell us. Really, it's a challenge. Name something, anything, that we can't shoot you down with!
Now, nobody is saying that marketing is innocent. They deffinetely play around with your needs and wants. The may make an advertisement that makes you feel like you need something. But, sorry to say, they don't create the need.
So, what have we learned? May be nothing, may be alot, but hopefully you have at least understood what the difference between wants and needs. From then on, to each their own.

By Dardane

Grab a Coffee, It's Last minute Studying Time!!

Unless times have changed and I wasn't aware, most students who will even bother studying, will do it either the entire night prior to the exam of even the hours before the exam. While you're studying you tend to think, "Damn, I should have probably started studying earlier than this!" But every time, the book opens the night before. As much as the following goes against our nature as students, here are some ways I feel, ease the pain of studying.

In order to avoid frustration of last minute studying, I always make a “things to do” list. I write down every deadline of the projects, assignments, mid-terms, and final exams that I have. This can certainly help a student manage their time. It also has the extra benefit of clearing your mind and saving you energy and stress.

I've found that if I spend 5-10 minutes each day on planning my activities with a daily to do list, I get a lot more done within that day. Give it a try! It sounds corny, but it works. Even better, every night, write a plan for the next day, listing your daily things to do. It is important that you actually write your tasks. That way you have a hard copy to see whether you decided to be lazy or actually accomplish the tasks you set for your day.
Nobody said that you have to write this list on paper, use your computers, cell phones, whatever you have. Try and see what works better for you. After you've listed what you want to do during that day, go over your list and put what is most important first; prioritize the list. Give higher priority to the tasks that get you closer to your goals.
One important tip to keep in mind!
If during a day some new unplanned task comes up, don't do anything until you put that new task on your list and rate it by priority. See it written along with the other things to do and put it in perspective. Once again, sounds corny, but do it, it helps!
Also don't forget, when making a to do list, break down your harder tasks into smaller manageable pieces, and focus on them one at a time.
Finally, after completion of a task take a moment to look at the result.
Did you get what you wanted to get done that day?
If you did, pat yourself on the back! You have written proof that you weren't useless that day!
If not, you have written proof that you are lazy!
You will see that if you organize yourself you will have time to study just a little bit so that when it comes time for the test, at least some of the things that you studied, stuck in your mind.


By Anastasia