Archive for the 'Broadcast' Category

Bring the Confidence Back to the Students

When I was a little girl, I used to talk to my father on the drive to school about what I wanted to do when I grew up. At that time I wanted to be a lawyer. Although I didn’t become a lawyer, I was always instilled with the confidence that I could do ANYTHING I wanted to do. And I found it. I decided to become a life coach, focusing on education. It take confidence to put your own business together. It takes confidence to make business deals and really believe in what you are doing. Why are there any dropout rates at all? Some students don’t take the education seriously and don’t realize the impact that a lack of education will have on their lives. Some don’t have the confidence that they can do what they really want to do with their lives. Some don’t have the confidence to even be in school because they keep hearing that there’s no jobs out there for them, even is they excel with their education. Teachers, parents and students, create an environment where students can dream again and know that they can do anything they want to in their lives.

Published on Tuesday March 8, 2011 in Broadcast, Choosing a Career and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Judgement

In the second week of this teleclass I’m doing with Jana Fleming, we’re practicing non-judgement. It is a practice that allows us to not judge anything that occurs. Since we were children, we were always taught to judge that something was good or bad based on beliefs we were taught from out family, friends, society, etc. Believe me, it’s easier said than done.

In the nine years I worked as a professor, I’ve observed judgement all of the time. Students would judge themselves as stupid if they got even a B on their assignment. Being as though I was teaching basic skills courses, students were very judgemental about how they did not needed the course.

For others not to judge us, we grow up trying to fit into certain circles of friends. This creates us to loose who we really are and who we really want to be. We judge other people to fit the roles we expect them to play.

Today I encourage you to be the observer in your classrooms and when you are hanging around your social circles. What are you saying about yourself? What are you saying about other people? The more you judge yourself, the more you judge others.

If you catch yourself judging, don’t judge yourself for that. Just be mindful that today you are setting an intention to not judge anything that occurs throughout your day. The more you practice this you’ll be less judgemental of your teachers. You’ll be able to communicate with your teachers and your social circles much better. Because you have made the decision that right and wrong don’t exists. All that exists is the story being played out in front of you.

Take the non-judgement challenge today!

Published on Friday March 4, 2011 in Broadcast, College Success, Self-Discovery and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Choosy Job Seekers in a Weak Job Market

According to an article that ran recently in U.S. NEWS, a recent survey conducted by the job search engine SimplyHired.com revealed that over 80 percent of job seekers prefer a job they love over a job that pays them well. While some job seekers will take what they can get, Chief Executive Guatum Godhwami of SimplyHired.com said that those in certain job industries can be a little more picker than others. These industries include Nursing, Technology, and Engineering.

http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2010/10/20/what-todays-job-seekers-want.html?PageNr=1

This is no surprise. Statistically, a person is more likely to leave their job if they feel unappreciated rather than for pay.

 In my classrooms we do an activity on the first day of class so that everyone can get to know each other. One of the topics they share is their degree major. An overwhelming amount of students are in the Nursing program. It’s in high demand. However, some students are still sticking to industries that they think they will enjoy – education, fashion designers, public relations, and business.

When asked what type of business these aspiring owners want to run, they desire to become a part of an established family owned business or just choose business because it opens up their choices for any industry they choose.

My advice is to stick with what you love. First of all, the economy will turn around eventually. Also, you can make money doing anything you want as long as your are creative. I’m a writer and an educator – both careers that are not known for paying high salaries. But I picked a passioned that embraced both of them, and the high salary is sure to come soon….very soon.

Published on Monday November 8, 2010 in Broadcast, Choosing a Career, On the Job and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Making Tough Decisions

I once taught a student who was being evicted from her house, knew she was going to miss a lot of school, and still wanted to remained enrolled in the class. She ended up dropping out because she realized that it was too much to remain in school at the moment and that the overwhelming priority was to find a place to live for herself, her disabled mother, and her toddler. I also had another student whose infant daughter died in the beginning of the semester. He completed the semester through until the very last day.

As the famous saying goes, “life happens.” And when it does, sometimes we feel forced into a decision we do not want to make. But as individuals, we always have a choice, even if  the decision in front of you is a tough one. And when you listen to your inner self, you realize that you know the decision that is best for you.

One of the activities I do with my clients when they have a tough decision in front of them is to write out the pros and cons of each decision. I have a particular format in which I set up all of the choices in front of them. We go through a series of questions as we fill out the exercise. Not once, in my three years of coaching, has anyone been unsure about their decision once we’re done with the exercise.

The exercise is really not that complicated. All the client is doing is writing down the assets and liabilities of each decision. But what makes the activity so effective? When faced with a tough decision, many people panic and convince themselves that they don’t know what to choose. They don’t realize that if they choose something that doesn’t work for them, there is always an opportunity to make another decision that works better.

The questioning I do as a Collegiate Career Coach simply makes people conscious of their feelings towards the options they have in front of them, and the resulting impact of choosing each option. In panic mode, people are not able to think clearly and therefore make their choice out of fear.

Choices out of fear never work. Why? Fear-based decisions are based off of what you do not want to attract in your life. But making a decision from that mind frame will only bring what you do not desire into your life.

Choices made with a clear and centered mind always work, because you can see all of your options and evaluate the risks you are or are not willing to take in making a tough decision.

Published on Sunday September 26, 2010 in Broadcast, Life Management and Self-Discovery. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Tackling The Negative Voices in Your Mind

Thousands of people wake up in the morning and dread getting out of bed. Automatically, the mind is filled with all the things that “have” to be done and dread of completing it all. This starts the day off with negative energy that continues throughout the day. We then get bent out of shape about every little annoyance we encounter throughout our day: the car that cuts us off, the rude person or people at work, teachers who may seem like they are trying to mound a ton of work onto your already busy schedule, etc.

These negative thoughts completely cancel out the thoughts of the good stuff that’s happening in our lives. So, when I’m faced with a challenge, I have learned to practice a gratefulness exercise.

Just recently, my laptop crashed and my hard drive was completely corrupted. As a writer, this was my worst nightmare. One of the things that made it even worse is that I always planned to back my information up, as all tech professionals suggest, but I just kept putting it off because I felt I was always too busy to just stop by the store and get it.

The day after I found out that I would have to pay $1,095 to get my data recovered and purchase a new laptop, which was another $1,000, I noticed my thoughts were only focusing how upset about the entire situation. As I was walking into school the next day, I acknowledged my thoughts and chose to turn them into something different. I started thinking of all the things I am grateful for in my life: my family, my friends, my recent move to Florida, my new job at Seminole State College, etc. All of a sudden I could feel my face brighten up and feel at ease. The positive energy transferred into my classroom. My students were upbeat and ready to learn.
If we are not conscious of our negative thoughts, we can easily fall into a bad mood. When we encounter other people with our bad mood, what’s the likelihood they will want to be nice to us or even be around us?

Sometimes the voices in our head are implanted by other people telling us what we can and cannot accomplish. But remember that you and only you can control the limits you set on your abilities. If someone else is telling you what you are not capable, that has nothing to do with you. It is only a reflection of the limits that person has in their own mind.

Always remember the principle that being happy does not come from having a perfect life and things always going our way. It’s focusing on what is going well in your our lives and building off of that. If we truly believe, accept and practice this principle, our challenges will be resolved with ease.

Published on Friday September 24, 2010 in Broadcast, Life Management and Self-Discovery. 0 Comments