One of my favorite holidays is coming up this week - Halloween! I love love love getting dressed up and eating tons of candy. You’re never too old to celebrate. For those of you who are going out trick or treating or to a Halloween party, I wanted to make sure you are all prepared…from tips to keeping you safe to throwing together some last minute costumes, this is a must-read!
Hi Guys!
One of my favorite holidays is coming up this week - Halloween! I love love love getting dressed up and eating tons of candy. You’re never too old to celebrate. For those of you who are going out trick or treating or to a Halloween party, I wanted to make sure you are all prepared…from tips to keeping you safe to throwing together some last minute costumes, this is a must-read!
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Hey you! Finding motivation in life for you daily/weekly/monthly tasks isn’t always there. I know, I've been there, and done that… But what if you’re not motivated enough? What if you can’t disciple yourself? What if you tried for a few days then completely ran out of juice and sat around instead?
If there’s something we all have in common is finding that piece of motivation in our day. See I was reading an article on how to develop habits, and one critical point stood out to me. This article argued that one of the reasons why we fail to develop “good” habits and do away with “bad” ones is because our bad habits “feel good”. Sort of like a feeling of having a “better” reward. If you’ve ever heard the song Addiction by Kanye West you know what I’m talking about. Here’s an example: Let’s say you decided to exercise daily (good habit), and do away with junk food (bad habit). It’s easy to start exercising daily if you start strong by making it part of your daily agenda. Setting a time leaves you with no excuses. Meanwhile you’ve stashed junk food away or threw out. You start fresh Monday anyway right? Lol And oh yeah this week you buy more veggies than usual. Great start, great everything, everything is going according to plan…. or so you thought. After a few days you have rough days at school/work/home and you sleep poorly. Maybe another day you woke up cranky and didn’t feel like exercising, or exercised at another time. Then another day you had a fight with your best friend and/or boyfriend/girlfriend… nothing matters >> fast forward ended on the couch with a tub of vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream. See, eating junk food (which remember this is your bad habit) became rewarding the moments you “needed” it most. You got the sugar rush when nothing else matter. You felt satisfied maybe even happy. You were stressed out and now you feel better. Exercising (remember? This is your good habit) didn’t have an instant reward. You go up early, did your thing, worked really hard during the day, and then you come home, homework/or get ready for the next day, sleep, and get up to do it all over again tomorrow. You automatically feel no fun in that! We tell ourselves there is a reward in exercising in the long run. We’ll achieve a healthy “better” looking body. But it isn’t enough because you need motivation.. but really sometimes telling yourself that isn’t enough to get you going. So basically this article was saying motivation isn’t some magic field that just happens. Really, you have it or you don’t. It has to come within you. You must want it bad enough. While maybe at times its difficult obstacles in your day shouldn’t stop you for achieving your very best. Allow your mind to relate the satisfaction you get from accomplishing a task as a reward so that later on it doesn’t feel like a chore. Remember your motivation can always begin from something small. It’s really anything you want it to be. Here are three awesome motivation rules I found online you can follow. The Motivation Reward Rules There are only three rules for your motivation:
Try it for a couple of days and hopefully this reward motivator technique helps! What does volunteering mean to you? Does it mean passing out food to the homeless, giving TLC to dogs at the animal shelter or picking up garbage by the side of the road? All of these are accurate examples of volunteerism, but the real question is what kind of volunteering is meaningful to you in your life?
Let's start by going over the dictionary definition: Oxford dictionary defines “volunteer” as a person who does a job willingly without being paid for it and “ism” refers to a set of ideas or system of beliefs or behavior. Putting both of them together, we can read “Volunteerism” as a system of beliefs or behavior related to people who do a job or service willingly without being paid for it. So what would you be willing to do on your free time AND not get paid for it? Consider some of these questions: Do you want to help the world or your community? Do you want to build your own skills, make new friends, and learn? Do you love what you do? Do you want to share your gifts with others or give something back? Next, try out these few steps: * Choose an organization that is meaningful to you. OR create your own organization! ... Like we did with GLINC ;) * Seek out an organization and tasks within it that suit your skills and interests. * Start small. If you have a busy schedule, just try volunteering for an hour or two a few times out of the month until you decide if you like it enough to commit to more time. * Explain your own background and preferences to those in charge. They can help to match you with meaningful, suitable tasks, but only if they know a bit about who you are. * Never give up. The first organization or activity you do may not be the one for you. Keep on looking because it's important that you do something that you LOVE. The more you enjoy it, the more you'll accomplish! * Lastly, HAVE FUN! Volunteering can social and entertaining! And, of course, there is always GLINC! Volunteers help our organization grow! Here are some sites to help you in your new journey: http://www.volunteermatch.org www.idealist.org Happy hunting! Melissa In May, I graduated with a Master’s in Social Work and I have been avidly applying to government jobs. Why? They are known to have excellent benefits, pay well, have stable and consistent hours, and have room for permanency.
SIKE! JUST KIDDING! This recent government shutdown has me thinking otherwise. I have several friends and family members that have been severely affected by the recent shutdown. Millions of workers are without money until Congress decides to come to a decision. Though they may be reimbursed for their furlough, they need their money NOW! Well what in the hell are they supposed to do in the mean time? That brings me to my point- I’ve always been commended on how good I am with managing my money (pats self on back) however, this issue has really made me reevaluate my saving and spending habits. Even if I land a great government job (fingers and legs crossed *clears throat), I don’t want to be a broke government working fool in the event of another furlough. Here are some things I do on a regular basis to save and manage my money: 1. COOK! The average cost/person at a restaurant in $10-15 dollars + tip. You can feed a family of four a fresh healthy meal for $10 or less! 2. Plan your meals, figure out what you need to buy at the grocery store and don’t go back! 3. Don’t drive unless you have to and carpool when possible. Also, fill up your gas tank in the morning (before 7:00 am) or in the late evening. The gas particles are condensed then so you actually get more bang for your buck. 4. Create a monthly budget and stick to it. Be realistic! 5. Learn (no, for real) the difference between a need and a want These are just a few things I do to skimp on expenses when I am in a bind. What are some things you do? Please share! In case you’ve been under a rock since September, here is a link to quick facts about the government shutdown http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/government-shutdown-up-to-speed/index.html |