collegestudentsrule

5 Ways To Sabotage Your Decision-Making Abilities

So you headed off to college and you are now your own person (except for all that money you had to borrow). One of the benefits of being your own person, is that you also get to make some important decisions. And there will be consequences to those important decisions you make. Sounds like fun, eh?

The ability to make good decisions and live with the consequences is something that each person has to deal with on his or her way to adulthood. We call this - a fact of life. But there's no guarantee that the decisions you make will turn out the way you hope.

So, in order to make a good decision, it's important to begin to remove some of the ways that people make bad decisions. Here's five barriers that decrease the likelihood that your decision will turn out in a positive manner:

1. Indecision - The rock band, Rush, has a line in one of their songs that basically says, "If you decide not to decide, you still have made a choice." When we avoid making a decision, we leave our lives up to chance. And chance is not a good decision maker. All we are doing is trying to escape the responsibility of a decision because of the risk, fear or anxiety. All those can be formidable barriers and cause our indecision. Fight them by being courageous and making a choice.

Overcome indecision by deciding to decide.

2. Stalling - Sometimes we believe that we can't make a decision until we have "complete" knowledge. So we look for as many facts, details, and nuances as we can. We want 100% of the information that's necessary to make a decision. Trouble is, you'll never get that. The obsessive gathering of endless facts is only a defense mechanism for not facing the decision we need to make.

Overcome stalling by setting a timetable by which your decisions will be made.

3. Overreacting - When we let a situation spin out of control, we run the risk of letting our emotions take control. At that point, we'll probably make a decision that ends in regret. It's not that one shouldn't trust his or her heart, it's just that a decision made in anger, revenge, or during an emotional collapse will probably make matters worse.

Overcome overreacting by calming down before you make important decisions.

4. Vacillating - I understand that a girl's prerogative is to change her mind, but not 50 times. When we continually reverse our decisions, we become wishy-washy and others have difficulty trusting us. Plus, a half-hearted commitment only adds to our chance that our decision will end in failure.

Overcome vacillating by making a decision and sticking to it.

5. Half-measures - This is similar to #4, except it relates to the person that makes just enough of a decision to get by but doesn't deal with the whole problem. Many people will make decisions in an attempt to avoid controversy or conflict, but they don't really solve the REAL issues.

Overcome half-measures by making the right decision no matter how uncomfortable it might be.

Peter Drucker once said, "A decision is a judgment - it is a choice between alternatives. It is rarely a choice between right and wrong. It is at best a choice between 'almost right' and 'probably wrong.'

Sleep Is More Necessary Than You Realize

You're a bleary-eyed, college student and you can't find enough hours in the day to do the things you need to?!? So you steal a few hours here and there from the night. Unfortunately, that effects your sleep.

No big deal?!

Just read a pretty convicting list of things that make it a big deal over at my personal online trainer's site, Craig Harper. He's an Aussie with an attitude - a good attitude...and he's usually right. Here's what he listed as some of the side effects you cause yourself when you deprive yourself of sleep:

So, what happens if you don't get enough sleep regularly?
Well, the short answer is, plenty, but perhaps I should expand on that.

1. You'll become the proud owner of a suppressed immune system. You'll get sick.

2. You'll experience changes to your endocrine system (the hormone stuff). Metabolic changes, weight gain, diabetes, increased blood pressure and heart disease are just some of the possible consequences. Bummer.

3. You will be more susceptible to emotional stress and anxiety.

4. Small problems with seem like big ones. You won't cope with everyday challenges as effectively as you normally do.

5. Your ability to learn, remember and focus will be significantly impaired.

6. You will look older. Double bummer.

7. Performance at school, work and in sport will suffer. Your ability to perform a wide range of physical and mental skills will be affected.

8. You will probably be a grumpy pain in the a**. Even more than normal.

9. Your decision-making skills will suffer. So too will your judgement.

10. If you're a kid, you will inhibit your physical development - growth hormones are released during sleep.

11. Your co-ordination and reaction time will be impaired.

12. You will be more predisposed to sadness and depression.

13. If you work out, or you are an athlete, you won't recover optimally.

Perhaps the best thing you can do for yourself right now is to take a nap.

Found via: Craig Harper

So You’re Going to College!

By Guest Author: Kathryn Burns

You’ve received your high school diploma, been accepted by your favorite university, filled out all the paperwork, and you’re off to college! What an exciting time in your life. You will make new friends, experience new freedoms, and begin preparing for adult life. Before you leave for the greatest four (or maybe five or six) years of your life, there are a few things you really need to know:

1. Everyone will be a little scared, but not everyone will show his or her fear in the same way. If someone seems a little noncommunicative, don’t label that person as haughty or stuck-up. It could be that he or she is also feeling scared but is expressing it in a different way than you are. Give everyone a chance. Someone who’s quiet at first could end up being one of your best friends.

2. Time management will be a huge challenge. College schedules are a lot different from high school schedules. It will seem as if you have a lot more time, but you will also have a lot more to do. Get a planner, and find a way to keep track of assignments. Read every syllabus. Professors really believe that if they put something in a syllabus, you are responsible for it. Mom and Dad won’t be there to tell you when to do your homework, when to eat and when to sleep. Make good choices.

3. Be ready to do a lot more sharing than you might be used to at home. Very likely you will be sharing a room with someone you’ve never met before. Remember to show courtesy and respect for that person and don’t expect anyone to clean up after you. Mom and Dad won’t be there for that either.

4. Get a lesson from Mom or Dad about how to do laundry if you don’t already know how. Washing your white underwear with a new red shirt will definitely turn your underwear a different color. Different fabrics require different water temperatures and different dryer temperatures.

5. Don’t fall in love with the first person of the opposite sex that you meet. Give yourself a chance to find out who you are and who you want to be as a person. You will do lots of changing in your ideas and beliefs while you’re in college.

6. Take time to be by yourself, but also take time to step out of your comfort zone and meet new people and try new things.

7. Remember that you are there first and foremost to get an education. Going to class is important. Ask for help if you need it. Most universities have some kind of an academic support center that provides tutoring, paper editing, and help with test preparation. These centers are not just for kids with learning disabilities. Smart kids take all the help that is available.

When I look back on the four years that I spent in college, realize that they were really wonderful years, with tons of fun and many new acquaintances who are now life long friends. There were also times of homesickness, loneliness, and a few heartbreaks – but I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world. I am stronger, more compassionate and understanding because of those years.
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Kathryn Burns is an assistant professor in the Academic Support Center at Northwest Nazarene University. Previous to her work at NNU, she taught high school English for 25 years in Idaho and Seattle, Washington. She worked in Student Development as a Resident Director for 8 years before moving over to the academic side of things. Kathryn has a Masters in Education from Seattle Pacific University.

11 Tips For College Students

I'm not currently a college student. Haven't been one for awhile...at least in the undergraduate sense of things. But I hang out with college students. I work with college students. And I work full time at a University as the Director of Campus Life (the coolest on-campus job in the world).

Plus...I really like college students.

It's one of the greatest times in life. When do any of us ever get to hang out with hundreds of friends for four, five...dare I say...six years? It's like going to camp..except they give you homework and you have to read 800 pages a night.

So if I could sit you down, with a slow drip of coffee being shared between us (intravenously or by the cupful if you prefer), and share some ways that I believe you could not only make the most of your time in college, but really, really enjoy it and succeed at it - here's what I'd say...

1. Meet people.
One day you'll walk across a stage, and a very smart looking man or woman in a really nice, long, black gown will hand you a piece of paper that says "Bachelor" (even if you're a girl!) on it. You'll graduate from college. Do you know what you'll remember most?

The relationships you've made.

My advice is to meet everyone you can. Be friendly. Smile. Talk to people (not in class...that could be dangerous). Go to places where people hang out and hang out with them. Your friends are what make college special.

Some day you'll come back to campus as an alumni and the place will feel weird. It will feel different. That's because all of the people that you were friends with during your college years aren't there. It's the same college, but different people. It's the people that make your experience unique. You are going to make friends that you'll have for the rest of your life.

Like I said earlier, I work at a University. My boss (yes...he's smarter than me) is a good friend that I went to college all four years with. It's been a great relationship for all this time. I don't know of any other place you create these types of relationships at this age. So get out there. Get busy meeting people.

2. Talk to your professors.
This one continues on with the theme of number 1. Go ahead and do everything you can to meet your professors. Make an appointment with them as soon as it is possible in their schedule. I have discovered that I learned so much more from a professor when I had some kind of personal relationship with them.

Professors are people to. Respect their time and make sure you communicate clearly with them. Don't waste their time with excuses for not doing the work or simply not showing up to class. The goal here is to establish some type of relationship.

Whenever I think about a subject or content I learned in college it is tied to the face of a professor. If I think of learning German - it's McKinney; if it's creative writing - Nelson; if it's communication - Jackson. My knowledge came from a person more than it came from a book.

One of my favorite movies is Orange County. It's a story about a high school senior that wants to get into Stanford. He's enamored with the writings of a certain professor there. When he finally has the chance to meet the professor and sit down and talk with him, it changes his entire perspective. While those types of conversations might be rare in your experience because you go to a large University - seek them out anyway! They'll be some of the best memories you take from your time in college.

3. If you need help ask for it.
One of the reasons you're in college is because you don't know everything. If you can learn to admit that, you'll be ahead of most freshmen at your school.

Change Your Attitude, Change Your Life

Guest Author: Phil Gerbyshak (Thanks Phil!!! For being the FIRST guest author)

In my experience in various facets of organizations, I've found that opportunities are awarded most often to the person who has the best attitude for the job, not necessarily the one with the most aptitude for the job.

By changing your attitude to be more positive, people will want to talk to you, and you'll get more opportunities. More opportunities means more chances of success, more chances of success means more success, and more success means a better, changed, life. You do want to live a great life, don't you?

So how do you change your attitude? Here's 3 tips to help you get started.

1. Focus on what you can do - when someone asks you for help, even if you're not the person that can help them, focus on the can. Let them know you can help them contact the right person to get their question answered.

If you're looking for a job and someone asks you a question about what you can't do, turn it around and focus on what you can do. Let's say the question is "Can you type 100 words per minute?" and you can only type 80 words per minute. Answer the question "I can type 80 words per minute with 95% accuracy."

2. Smile at everyone you meet - Take 1 day and smile at every person you meet. Don't worry if they don't smile back, just keep smiling. By the end of the day, you'll be happier because smiling automatically gives you more energy than frowning. Try it if you don't believe me!

3. Answer "as if" - Pick 1 day, and no matter how you're doing, think about your best possible day, and when people ask you're how you're doing, answer "as if" you're having your best possible day. I always answer that I am doing great, and though at first it felt a bit forced, now, every day, I really am great!

Remember: only you can make your life better. So I ask you, will you settle for average, or will you do what it takes to Make it Great!?
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Phil Gerbyshak, motivational speaker and self-improvement advocate, challenges you to "Stop having a nice day... and Make it Great!" His website at http://MakeItGreat.typepad.com is updated regularly with thoughts about how you can take control of your life and stop letting life take control of you.