Short term goals are often looked down at. After all, it is the big dreams that we are after. However, as we keep our eyes on a prize, it is important to remember that any BIG success is always a result of many small successes and likewise any big failure is a result of repeated small failures.

It is impossible to change your career, get in shape or learn a new language overnight. Whatever you strive for, the safest, the smartest and the least time-consuming way to achieve it, is by setting clear short term goals.

Benefits Of Setting Short Term Goals

Whether you are trying to excel personally, succeed professionally, prosper financially or grow spiritually, properly set and executed short term goals can help you do that.

Here are just a few benefits that you might want to consider when setting smaller goals:

• They are simple and easy to accomplish
• They do not require long-term commitment
• It is a great way to create momentum
• They allow you to stay on track and keep your motivation high
• They help to boost your self-confidence
• They provide you with instant feedback to measure your performance and progress

… Read the rest

With February just beginning the thought of sticking with your New Year’s resolutions might sound as appealing as scraping wallpaper off of drywall. It’s understandable why: The vast majority of people make and break their resolutions within a few weeks’ time. They fall back into their old ways, and they convince themselves their resolutions were too hard to keep anyway.

You don’t need to be part of the vast majority. In fact, 2012 can be the year that you separate yourself from the masses and keep every resolution you make.

Here are five ways to help you stay on track:

1. Set realistic objectives.

You probably can’t change jobs, launch a nonprofit organization, revamp your kids’ parent-teacher organization and start a community garden all in one year. You can always keep certain goals on the back burner, but chunk down your goals into just a few that you can realistically meet within a year’s time.

For longer-term goals, such as how to plan for retirement, choose a few to-do items that get you closer to your goals. For example, you can commit to putting more money in your 401(k) and creating a retirement planning guide with your financial planner. Establish… Read the rest

If you are a graduate student, then you have too much to do and too little time to do it. At least, that’s what you’d believe if you took an eavesdropping stroll down the hallowed halls of grad student offices at any institution of higher education in the country.

Between teaching, attending seminars, writing papers, lab hours, and, oh, yes, bathing and eating, it is hard to find time to both pursue a master’s degree or doctoral degree and have a life. But there is hope for the harried: with a set routine and some tolerance for imperfection, you could make time management look easy.

One of the hardest things to reconcile as a graduate student is the nontraditional schedule. While 9-to-5ers might have some late nights at the office or even some weekend workdays, a student’s work is truly never done. Finish reading for seminar? Then you could be working on next week’s presentation. Lesson plans set for the week? What about grading those exams that have been weighing down your desk for the past couple days? Found time to squeeze in some visits to the gym this week? What about checking your OkCupid account? And even when the… Read the rest

Did you know walking is the most efficient and inexpensive way to a healthy life? Walking is a good exercise for your entire body. You need not spend hundreds on workout equipments, or gyms. Just walk daily to get a flawlessly shaped and healthy body without spending money. You need some mandatory daily exercises for your body, which you are unaware of. Walking alone gives you the advantage of a number of exercises, as well as many other benefits associated to it. Take a look at a few given below:

1. Get that healthy weight

Walking is an amazing exercise. It helps you burn those extra fats on your body. Burning fats and building muscles is what everyone wants. This is the right exercise for you as it will help you build and strengthen your muscles. Now, you know the secret to tone your body and get back in shape. Just follow your low fat diet and walk for 5 miles daily, and you will get back in shape. Cancel those daily schedules of your gym, it is not required anymore.

2. Walk for a healthy heart

As you walk, your heart beats faster in order to pump blood a… Read the rest

We enter the world as babies bursting with confidence, happy, and totally free to be ourselves. The world is our oyster; we’re eager to explore and life is one big adventure. Every time we fall over, we pick ourselves right back up and keep just going, never worrying what other people think about us. We are born into a world full of opportunity and with the potential to achieve incredible things; let somehow, this potential gets unwittingly crushed between birth and adulthood.

From the very day we are born, we’re subjected to social conditioning from our parents, teachers, the government and the media. We’re taught that in order to succeed in life and be happy we must get good grades at school, go to university and get a well-paid job. If we’re to be accepted within certain social circles we are expected to drive expensive cars, own a big house in an exclusive area, and wear designer clothes.

It an unfortunate reality of the modern world, that in order for a girl to feel beautiful, she’s led to believe that she must look like a model on the cover of a glossy magazine. It’s no surprise then, that gradually over… Read the rest

Goal setting is an essential drive of our life and an important factor of motivation. Some people consider it as the fuel of our daily and everyday living. This becomes even more important when the goals are set by us, thus transforming us to self-driven individuals.

One of the goals set by millions of people every day is the loss of weight. Our goal should be the loss of weight that can be achieved through a healthy way of living and this can be definitely achieved by setting SMART goals.

SMART Weight loss goals

Setting goals is an art. In order to see the best results, the goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely, SMART. The weight loss goal cannot be an exception to this rule. Following the SMART guidelines enables us to achieve our goals, feel happy and repeat the exercise setting higher and more ambitious goals.

How can a weight loss goal be SMART?

In order to explain the idea let us assume that at the end of the summer period after a lot of abuse, you have gained 11 pounds and you are now 187 lbs. You want to lose 11 pounds, this is Specific.… Read the rest

If you’ve often wondered if there’s a way to make yourself smarter and more creative, good news – there is! In fact, there are many different things you can do to enhance your creativity and increase your level of intelligence.

Never Stop Learning

If you have a life filled with learning new things, chances are your creativity and general intelligence will be higher, too. Taking a college class in something you’re interested in, or something you don’t know much about can help your mind expand in new directions.

Reading is also an important component of learning. Those who read a variety of things, from biographies and fiction to trade publications and newspapers, are more likely to have the creative areas of their brain stimulated. Reading on your own is always a positive thing, but you can also take a literature course at a local college or join a book club if you enjoy discussing what you’ve read with others.

Take Risks

It’s well-known that taking risks in your daily life can make you smarter and increase your creativity. When you get out of your comfort zone, you’re more likely to learn new things, interact with people who challenge your assumptions,… Read the rest

One remark that I always get is: “You look good for your age.” That is always followed up with a question: “What’s your secret to looking young?” Well, my secret does not come in the form of an elixir; in fact it is widely-known and practiced all round the world: exercising.

Nourishing Your Mind Through Exercising

Since young, I have always had a passion for sports. Any opportunity I got, I would be out there pitching on the field. Exercising regularly has more benefits than sculpting an attractive body; it helps you become the person you want to be. It is through exercising that I

• Know I can achieve what I want

• Build my confidence level

• Enjoy success in all aspects of life

• Channel others’ negativity into a trigger to achieve something productive

• Count myself among the ranks of an elite group of Americans who exercise every day

Jumping Through Hoops

Of course, setting aside time for exercise when you have to work (which incidentally hastens the aging process: just watch as the strands of gray hair sprout with every… Read the rest

Has anyone ever told you that you do not value or appreciate yourself enough? That you are too competent for your current position? Or that you were too good for your ex?

Were they right?

As odd as it may sound, other people often are much better judges of our character and our talents than we are. The reason is that our self-image is greatly distorted by our unconscious beliefs, past experiences and most importantly our level of self-esteem.

The tricky part is that most of us are sure that our self-esteem is high and healthy, yet we consistently under appreciate our skills, over doubt our decisions and under act when opportunities present themselves.

Think about it – Have you ever been in situations where you could have acted with a little more boldness, but at the last minute you chickened out and let the opportunity pass right in front of your nose?

I know I have and I actually do not believe myself to suffer from low self-esteem.
It is not poor self-esteem that is the problem, but the occasional ‘mental friction’ that arises at the worst possible moment in the worst possible place.

At the base of… Read the rest

For those looking to make a little extra money in this economy, why not give online tutoring a shot? Tutoring online is a lot like tutoring in person except the tools you are going to be using will be digital as opposed to a physical book and note paper.

Here are some reasons to consider online tutoring as a second job:

Work When You Want

Just like any other Internet job, you can work when your schedule allows you to. If you want to work from 8am to 10am you are free to do so. If you want to work from 9pm to 10pm, go ahead and knock yourself out. You control your schedule and can work whenever you feel like it.

Tutor Whatever Subjects Are Interesting To You

Your college degree might be in English, but perhaps you are talented in history as well. You can put your talents to good use as an online history tutor. Most sites will require nothing more than passing a test to prove that you are competent and know what you are talking about.

This is great for people who want to make extra money just sharing the knowledge that they have and… Read the rest