Great Reasons to Complete your Degree

A university education is one of the best possible ways to insure your earning power upon graduation. There are all kinds of fields and all kinds of majors, some paying higher than others but as a rule, college graduates will earn more money over the course of their lifetimes than those who do not have a college education or degree.

We live in a world that increasingly demands more of its citizens. We need to have the ability to hold academic conversations on the corporate level that go well beyond the score in last nights basketball games. Companies' want well-rounded employees that epitomize all the great things that a four-year degree has to offer. For this reason, even those who have labored in order to gain an associate's degree are getting left behind in favor of those who have a more 'complete' education.

If you have already entered the work force there is still the time to increase your earning potential by seeking higher education. Colleges and universities today are offering more options for students wishing to return to college than ever before. In fact we are seeing an increasing number of college students that are classified as non-traditional students. We are seeing many more adults returning for the education they didn't receive the first time around, which is good news. It also means that more and more options are becoming available at night and on the weekends for those adults.

Even better is the fact that more and more often we are seeing courses being offered online for those who are seeking to complete their education. This allows even more options for those students who are desperately trying to balance careers, family, and education. As more and more opportunities such as these arise we will also see a growing number of graduate studies opportunities being offered in a similar fashion.

If you are thinking of returning to school after years of absence or perhaps attending for the very first time while managing an existing career there is no time like the present in order to do so. Not only will a college education give you greater earning potential in your lifetime it can also qualify you for promotions within the company for which you currently are employed.

The truth of the matter is that you really can't go wrong when it comes to going back to college and getting or finishing your degree. You can increase your earning potential, your promotion potential, and most importantly your self-image. There is something about having a degree that makes you feel better about yourself and your ability to provide for your family. Even if you never actually use your degree for anything other than a plaque on the wall, you will have the knowledge that you accomplished something that only a small percentage of the population ever gets around to completing.

If nothing else, your college education is worth every penny you will pay in order to have it for the wonderful sense of accomplishment that goes along with getting it. Your college degree won't make you a better person; just give you a better opinion of yourself as a person in many instances. If you need a confidence booster in your professional and your personal life, getting your college degree is often just the bump of confidence you need in order to accomplish many great things.

Plus Size Fashion: Is There Really Such a Thing?

Are you considered to be a plus sized individual? If you are, what do you wear for clothing? If you are like many other plus sized individuals, you may respond with something off of a store rack. While it is more than possible to shop at a department store or a traditional clothing store, do you know that there are stores designed just for plus sized women, as well as men? There are and if you haven’t already, you may want to think about visiting one.

When it comes to shopping at or at least browsing at a plus sized clothing store, there are many men and women who wonder why they should bother, especially if their clothes are already bought from somewhere else. What you need to remember is that plus size clothing isn’t what it used to be in the past. Due to an increase in the need for plus sized clothing and fashion accessories, there are now many fashion designers who are starting to focus on individuals out there who are just like you.

As previously mentioned, plus sized fashions aren’t necessarily what they used to be. In fact, some would be hard pressed to refer to the old style of plus sized clothing as fashion. The same cannot be said for today’s plus sized fashion clothing and accessories. It is now possible to look and feel like a beautiful model, despite being a plus sized women or even a man. There are a large number of plus size clothing pieces that are designed to make you look great for a day hanging out with your friends, a day at the gym, a day at work, or a night out on the town. No matter what occasion you would like to dress for, you should be able to find beautiful pieces of plus sized fashions to get you there.

If you are interested in finding a plus size clothing store to shop at, you may want to consider visiting one of your local shopping malls or shopping plazas. It is not uncommon to find a plus size clothing store located inside these shopping centers. If you are looking for plus sized women’s clothing, you are more likely to find specialty stores than men are, as they tend to be more popular. You may also be able to find other local plus size clothing stores to shop at by using your local phone book, online business directories, or recommendations from those that you know.

In addition to shopping at local plus size clothing stores, you may also want to examine the online retailers who run plus sized clothing stores online. What is nice about shopping online is that you are often given a larger selection of retailers and products to choose from. This means more clothing choices and clothing accessories for you. It is also important to mention that shopping online allows you to do so anytime, day or night, from the comfort of your own home. You can easily find a number of online plus size clothing retailers by performing a standard internet search or by asking those that you know for recommendations.

As a reminder, it is more than possible to find plus sized fashion clothing pieces and accessories available for sale. If you haven’t updated your wardrobe in some time, you way want to think about doing so. You may actually be surprised with the plus sized fashions that you can find available for sale.

Is Your Relationship Castle Under Siege?

E-Book: Relationship Building, Marriage Helps, Dating Ideas, Avoid Divorce, Increase Love, Partnership, Are you growing apart, having a hard time communicating, or battling each other rather than loving each other? Then this is for you!

Check it out!

Change your attitude? Will it change you?

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” – Winston Churchill

It’s amazing how your attitude can have so much to do with how successful you are in life. Yes it will make a difference to your business and work opportunities, but I’ve also discovered there are other ways my life has undergone some serious improvements due to some changes in attitude. This has also affected how ’successful’ I am in other areas, such as my relationships, my motivation, and my overall feelings of fulfillment or hapiness.

Recently I have been through some money difficulties which were partly due to poor decisions.  I’ve read a lot of books on motivation and attitude, and the concepts should be ingrained in my psyche by now! It’s funny then that I found myself in a situation that caused stress, anxiety and particularly financial hardship, and I had forgotten how to take a step back and reassess the situation and see things from a different perspective. I was guilty of letting my negative attitudes affect my personal life, which led to a cycle of a bad situation becoming worse.

As my situation worsened, I began to feel the emotions that are associated with being poor: stressed at the thought of working more than full-time.. Sad that I had made poor decisions.. Worried that I might not make it back out of the slum I was in.. Anxious that my family would suffer.

I’m still on the road to recovery from the money side of things, however my life has turned around completely from those previous feelings – and it all began with an attitude change.

Why is attitude important?

There is a motivational speaker named Sam Glenn that has some great ideas on why attitude is important. He offers up the following thoughts:

* Attitude is how we treat others
* Attitude is the way we approach life
* Attitude is contagious
* Attitude is how we respond to challenges
* Attitude affects our health
* Attitude affects our relationships
* Attitude is our personal trademark
* Attitude determines if we fly or fall
* Attitude creates experiences for you and others

It’s difficult to recognise the importance of attitude without seeing the evidence of it in your own life. I have found over the last few years that when I have been caught up in situations such as the poverty slum from moving, no changes of any significance have happened in my life without me taking some deliberate measures to readjust things.

How do I go about changing my attitude?

Changing my attitude was the first step in taking control of my life again, and for me it started with a conscious decision. I didn’t like feeling the way I did, I wasn’t being good company or productive at work, and my negativity was bringing other people down.

My conscious decision to change my attitude started with making changes to how I looked and felt, and concentrating on finding solutions to move forward. Because of this decision, over the first week I began to see changes – first small ones, then larger ones as I formulated a plan to get through my problems. At this point, I began to see a snowball effect – my change in attitude filtered through my family, who also were being more positive. This helped us to not only get through some tough times, but also become closer as a family.

I highly recommend reading some of the fantastic books by Justin Herald, founder of ‘Attitude Gear’. After starting from scratch, today Justin’s business is a multi-million dollar company, with products sold throughout the world. Justin’s business line initially sprung from encorporating quotes onto clothing, such as “If you think you’re beaten you are!”, and “It’s not whether you get knocked down it’s whether you get back up.” He has adopted these quotes into his own life and business practises, and offers some great ideas on how we can make changes to our attitudes and enhance all aspects of our lives:

“Never underestimate the power of your attitude. How you view things will have a direct impact on how you handle the next day or the next crisis. You need to make sure you are constantly checking your attitude to ensure it is on track.”

David Holmes also puts it into perspective when he says:

“Consider this, if you wait for someone else to change before you allow yourself to have a winning attitude then you’re giving control over to others for how you feel. Why would you allow anyone to control you in this way?… “


“…The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past …we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude …I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you …we are in charge of our attitudes”

How is your attitude? Is it having a positive or negative influence on your life? Can you make some changes to your life by changing your attitude?

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz

How to Jumpstart Your Confidence

      We all have been denying ourselves opportunities and chances in all aspects of our life due to the fact that we are too afraid and we do not have enough self-confidence and self-esteem. We cannot keep up with a healthy relationship as we cannot afford to do things that needed to be done as we are completely shadowed by our low confidence.

       Now just chill, there is no need to worry as it is quite simple to overturn this problem and this can be done by starting to be a bit more optimistic and try not to relate too much to the past including these painful memories. So let us just create a new stimuli for you to go on ahead into changing the way you see yourself and to rebuild your own confidence.

Here are 3 strategies to bring you out in a more confident way:

1. Fake it until you make it.

As we know, old is gold! This is an ancient method, but obviously it can work surprisingly well if you pitch in enough efforts. When you “pretend” that something is true, you perform a mental shift from one state to another. You are, in essence, moving yourself from one “reality” to another. While this usually won’t bring about long-lasting change, it can definitely help to put you up a notch and help you to get the feeling of how being confident is!

The next time you’re out in public, pretend you are the most confident person in the world. Imagine that you are completely secure in your own capabilities and completely accepting of yourself as a unique and valuable person.

Consider how a person with these beliefs would act, and then make an effort to act that way. Pay attention to what happens when you do; how others treat you, how you feel about yourself and so on. You may be surprised to discover just how much attitude has to do with self-confidence.

2. Affirm your good qualities.

While faking confidence can be an immediate help, you will also need to address the underlying beliefs that cause your low self-confidence if you want to create lasting change.

One good way to do this is by forming a new habit of building yourself up. Take time to acknowledge the good things you do, the achievements you’ve made in the past, and even the effort you give to something new.

Speak kindly to yourself and develop a healthy appreciation for your skills and abilities. If you stop beating yourself up because you’re not the most perfect person in the world, you’ll probably discover that you’re not half bad, either!

3.See yourself as a work in progress.

Remember that there will always be people who are more talented, smarter, braver, and better than you are in some way. If your confidence is suffering because you are trying to measure up to some impossible standard, learn to adjust your thinking a bit.

Affirm that you are a work in progress, and you get better every year. With each passing phase of your life, you grow in mastery. You are smarter than you were yesterday, better than you were last week, and more talented than you were last year.

This is a process that will continue throughout your entire life. If you can keep in mind that you’ll never be “done” growing and learning, you’ll be able to see your capabilities as ever-evolving aspects of an ever-evolving you!

Zen in our life

      

Sometimes it feels like the older I get, the less I know. How is this possible! We’re supposed to be getting smarter, wiser, and more fabulous as we age, right? (Okay, the part about “fabulous” might only be true for Jennifer Anniston, whose body could inspire the sequel to Benjamin Button!). But it seems like, as we age, we are bombarded with messages from advertisers, family, friends, and the media about how we should live our lives.

      For instance: I’m sure your mother would do cartwheels if you were married by 25, lived within two miles of her, and granted her exactly 2.5 grandchildren. But that might not be your cup of coffee. When the world dictates how you should live your life, it can actually become harder to be true to your authentic self. In my last Something Different for Women class, we talked about aligning with the powers that be: Your True Self.

     Jennifer Maculoso said: “Success will always find you when are authentic. Follow your bliss and you will always feel joy, and when you feel joy, success finds you.” It sounds like she picked up and cracked open the perfect fortune cookie.

     Why do so many of us wear masks to hide our true selves? Everyone is born authentic, but as we grow up we spend too much time separating from who we are, acting like we’re something different. Acting is stressful. (Especially, when you’re bad at it like me.) Being true to who we are takes time and effort. Here are some things to help you on your way:

• To be authentic means to find the key to happiness and success within one’s self, not within society.
• When you live an authentic life, you are living the life that resonates with your soul! As the saying goes, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
• It takes courage, honesty, and a desire to be free of other’s opinions. I love the line, “What you think of me is none of my business.”
• To be authentic, you have to stop putting other’s needs ahead of your own, and you have to stop compromising your dreams to please others.
• Don’t be such a yenta with your friends, either! Allow them the freedom to chose their own life plan.

      This is all great and dandy, but how do we get down to the core of who we really are and stay true to ourselves? Here are questions to ask:

• What in life already makes you happy?
• What, if added to your life, would make you happier?
• Where do you already feel successful?
• Does the life you are living resonate with your inner being?
• Do you have the courage to live more authentically?
• What habits do you need to let go of in order to be more authentic?
• At what point, during each day, can you make time to connect with yourself?

Have an authentic moment every day. Whether it is telling your friend what she can do with her opinion of you, or directing your mother to the adopt-a-grandchild in Africa non-profit. Take a stand each day, and you’ll be happier, healthier…and attracting the life that you really want.