Motivation

It's always tough to admit when you need help. I admit that. I live that. I also admit I am in need of help right now. I know that many of you are too. As the school year begins or is coming around into it's mid semester mark the feelings of laziness will begin to surface and what was so new and exciting will soon become a drag in that same ole class. Everyone goes through a slump now and again. The best thing to do during this time is to see yourself already overcoming this obstacle and moving forward. If you need to try something different in order to spice things up, go right ahead! Change your seat a few times to see how a different view feels, bring small snacks to class for you and your neighbors. Come to class early to meet new people (they will really help for study sessions!). Whatever your slump just remember that you're already closer to reaching your goal than you were the day before! 

Today's Challenge 9/1/11

Today is a day that will never come again. What are you going to do about it? As we are preparing for our last summer visits to the beach, the last smell of barbeque and rushing back to the store for more buns or sauces I ask that you take a moment out to yourself. It's almost time for fall (or autumn for you sophisticated folks out there) and that is the season most people begin to do their hardest work. I want you to take this time to map out what type of work you're going to be doing to reach your goals. Make sure the goal is lined up with the path to get there. We may think that doing X,Y,and Z are going to help us get to where we want to go, but in some cases that isn't true. Take all of the millionaires that never graduated from high school for example. People try and lay a path for us to follow but the steps you take create your own path. Which way are you going?

Monday Madness

So I bet everyone is still tweeting and blogging about the VMA's but as you will see after they finally stop replaying the show... Life goes on. I'd like to discuss your thoughts on responsibility. You may think that your choices only affect you, but that is very small minded thinking and that's OK because I'm here to help you move away from that. I witnessed the heartbreak of ten very talented girls this weekend. They performed at a talent showcase put on by one of the NBA's top players, and they were very close to winning the top prize, until they organizers allowed a group of professional dancers that were only there for side entertainment into the contest. This group won the title and all of the prizes and they took the spirit away from the young girls that danced a few acts before them. I won't place the blame on the children because they are lead by example. It is up to us as the people that they look up to, to set the example for them. We can't give them the same "do as I say, not as I do" speech anymore because it's not working, simply put. We have to show these kids that doing the right thing and hard work really does pay off. Why would a child want to study hard and practice at something if he knows that another child that lies to cover his cheating and bullies others to do work for him will end up with the same reward? We have to do better, not for ourselves but for the people coming after us. They are looking to us for guidance and if they aren't getting the right results they will continue to try and lead themselves and that path is straight to destruction. We can't let them hold the weight of the world on their shoulders anymore. It's time for us as the older generation to stand up and encourage our youth to do more! We have to show them the benefits of doing whats right because they aren't going to be young forever... One day they will be our leaders... and we will have no one to blame for our circumstances but ourselves. 

Welcome Back!

Hello! And welcome back to campus! I hope that you've purchased your text books (and my book :) as a way to be that proactive student your teacher will love and appreciate mid-semester. Remember to only bring the necessary items from home because you don't want your space cramped up. Hopefully you and your roomie have gotten the basic rules together about company, food sharing, and tidy-ness. If not, hop to it!!! Make your move in day the easiest day of the year, trust me the emotions will make it hard enough. Please make your bags and bins light enough and sturdy enough to be carried up several flights of stairs (the elevators are going to take forever!). Here's a thought, how about moving in at a time that most people are either done, or still in bed? That way you wont have to stand in elevator traffic and you wont be in the hustle and bustle of moving in. There are some perks of moving in right in the middle of "rush hour" though. Several on campus organizations help others move in, as well as offer free snacks, and supplies for the school year. It's also a great way to meet new faces and see some familiar ones. Think about it! But don't stress your parents out! Help make their load easier, so they can load you up before they leave, "Wally World anyone?"

Hello New Followers

I am offering all new followers a chance to win a great read. Winner will be chosen at random. We will pick the winner on Monday June 27, 2011. Winner will be notified on Monday!
Thanks for following:)

Raise Your Voice!

Hello?Hello? Can you hear me now?

If you’re speaking in that inside voice, no.

It’s me again and I am here to offer another opportunity to put a positive word in your ear. I’ve been wondering how I can continue to speak to you from behind a closed comfort zone and allow others to be comfortable in letting life pass them by. I have tried to come up with the best answer I have, but I can’t. Everyone in life is different. That is the outline for the coloring sheet of diversity and if you haven’t noticed, the world is as diverse as anything can be. People may be sitting in the same room reading the same passage that you are, but you all have different backgrounds and will return to your prospective lives but if all you are doing is taking a back seat there will be no good news to look forward to.

 “$**t happens.”

Yeah that’s a quote that everyone knows from experience, but it’s what you do after the unfortunate circumstances that makes you stay in control. You can’t allow the views others have about you or your beliefs change the way that you feel about your own beliefs and morals. For example, if people are talking bad about you or your friends remember to raise your voice and be heard. Let them know that they may not like you, but they will respect you and you won’t tolerate that behavior from an “adult”. Remember “to have a real friend, you must first be a real friend.” No one wants a friend that they can’t trust.

Another example, don’t be afraid to speak up in class. The teachers already have a stereotype about you, so prove them wrong. Read the material, take good notes, and visit their office hours! Besides, during class everyone is waiting on that unique statement that will drive the point home, and maybe that statement is coming from you. Some people are so overwhelmed with what the world is throwing at them that they get lost in the shuffle and take a back seat and allow things to happen, don’t. Stand up for yourself and what you know is right. Make a name for yourself as being someone that is wiling to take a chance and speak up when everyone else has lost their voice. Don’t be afraid to make your voice count. Don’t lose your voice.

The Beginning

So, here you are! At the place where dreams are born, friendships are made, weight is gained and you learn more about yourself than in the classes you pay for. I’m here to offer mild suggestions to make the transitions through life easier and perhaps a little funnier. I have some experience with being new to campus. I was not prepared for college mentally or emotionally. I wasn’t ready to leave home, nor was I ready to grow up. As you will learn the more you live the more things will come that you are not ready for. You have to learn to live and just adapt to change.

My first message is for those of you that want to make your mark on campus and in the world. I can only encourage you to be yourself. Life itself is so unpredictable and change comes so unexpectedly that there is no need to change your-self to conform to some social norm. Many people spend their first years trying to pretend to be something they aren’t. Buying the latest clothes and shoes does not make you the “big man on campus.” You’ll look like the biggest loser on campus because you can’t afford your books, or you’ve run out of money on your meal plan and you can’t eat. Don’t spend your time trying to impress people. Chances are if they don’t like you for who you really are, they don’t need to be in your life anyway. You don’t have to fit in to a specific “crowd” in order to make college life successful. When it comes down to it, college life is about the experience, not how cool you were so don’t be afraid to be different. Learn how to try new things; like join a Registered Student Organization, get involved within clubs for your major, go out and make friends, stay in and keep the friends you have. There is no need for you to try and be everyone’s best friend because we all know that not everyone is going to like us, and we have to be mature enough to accept that and keep it moving forward.

Go to class! You might as well; you’re going to pay for it anyway! While you’re in class learn something, find a major that suits you so that you can actually be awake in class. Learn how to live outside of the box, and if you have to… build your own box. Someone is eventually going to come along knocking asking to borrow a cup of sugar, so while you’re at it get to work on yourself. How can you improve someone else’s life without taking a step back and realizing and correcting your own faults?

SO… the lesson for today is don’t be afraid to be yourself, for when we are no longer concerned with other people’s thoughts about us, we have reached a new level of maturity. Besides if you change into someone else then who’s to say the people you’re trying to impress are going to like the new you anyway? Too much change and you’ve lost the one person that appreciated and honestly liked you for you…(YOU)