1210212.us16.myftpupload.com Managed WordPress Site

Category: Advice

  • The Importance of Breakfast!

    The Importance of Breakfast!

    I’m sure you’ve heard it many times in your life, “Make sure you eat your breakfast.” Especially when you’re a university, or even a high school or elementary student, having breakfast in the morning isn’t something that’s necessarily easy. But, when you’re rushing to class, it might be beneficial to hear about why breakfast is so important and why you shouldn’t skimp on it.

    Bottom line, you need to eat breakfast. If you’re busy spending time studying or cramming for a reading you didn’t finish, you need it even more than you think. Breakfast provides glucose levels, which is an essential carbohydrate for memory and concentration levels, according to shakeupyourwakeup.com’s report on results from several studies. They also reported that it can even make us happier and lower our stress levels. Consumer Reports also published an article in August of last year specifying the benefits of breakfast. Quoting James Betts, Ph.D., and lead researcher and senior lecturer in nutrition and metabolism, “eating breakfast seems to have a ‘second-meal effect.’ It primes your metabolism to maintain stable blood sugar levels after subsequent meals.” The article went on to say that, according to Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, skipping out on breakfast will have such negative impacts as encouraging you to eat more during lunch, which will cause spikes in your glucose levels.

    Similarly, The Washington Post published an article in August of 2015 discussing how the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee discovered through their research that skipping breakfast may in fact lead to weight gain. Reported as being found in the committee’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines, The Washington Post quoted, “eat a nutrient-dense breakfast. Not eating breakfast has been associated with excess body weight, especially among children and adolescents. Consuming breakfast also has been associated with weight loss maintenance.”

    There are tons of things for you to eat that are healthy for you and can also help you in the morning- not only to wake up but also to keep moving with your busy schedule. Health.com recently released a list of the best breakfast foods to have, which include things like oatmeal, Greek yogurt, wheat germ, grapefruit, bananas, and almond butter, to name a few. Basically, you don’t really have any reason not to be eating breakfast and given all the benefits you can reap from it, would you really want to skip it?

  • If I Knew Then…

    If I Knew Then…

    Advice on careers, finance, and life from Harvard Business School’s Class of 1963
    Each month, JobsPeopleDo will be featuring a special quote from a graduate of the Harvard Business School Class of 1963. The following quotes are insightful and can be used to inspire and encourage the right career path for you…

     

    “To greatly enhance the odds of enjoying a career which is both fulfilling and successful, one must find an endeavor, a subject, métier, process, environment for which one has a passion. This could be aviation, geology, medical science, investing, writing fiction, etc. In my case, it was a love of markets and investing that my father inculcated in me very early on. This passion has led me to often declare, “I have never worked a day in my life.”

    ~ Charles Hale ~

    “Look for something you are good at, where accomplishment will be rewarded, which pays well (at least at the higher levels) and gives you the opportunity to work with smart people who will stimulate you and challenge you to grow.”

    ~ Robin Smith ~

     

    Via http://hbs1963.com

  • Getting Your 40 Hours of Community Service

    Getting Your 40 Hours of Community Service

    As you know, all high school students need to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Use this information to discover where your 40 hours can best be used.

    Volunteer Centres work in local communities to strengthen volunteering and citizen engagement. With more than 200 in Canada, each volunteer centre’s name, size, structure and services reflect the unique characteristics of their community.

    To find a volunteer centre in your area, click here.

    Many volunteer centres are independent non-profit organizations, while others are part of a United Way, Social Planning Council, Community Information and Referral Centre or municipal services. Though diverse in many ways, they share the following common functions:

    • Promote volunteering
    • Build the capacity of organizations to engage volunteers
    • Facilitate connections between people with volunteer opportunities
    • Provide leadership on issues related to volunteering and citizen engagement

    If you want to volunteer, your local volunteer centre is there to connect you to opportunities in your community. It may have a database of volunteer opportunities or can connect you directly to opportunities within its member organizations.

  • How to Step Away from the Crowd & Build Your Own Life

    How to Step Away from the Crowd & Build Your Own Life

    Next time you are sitting in a lecture hall, take a quick look around. You are sitting in a room alongside dozens of students. You are all studying the same subject, at the same school, and are all focusing your attention on the individual at the front. You may feel less like an individual and more like a sheep amongst the flock. The same feeling can come up when crammed on a subway train, or when walking through a crowd to get to work. It is as though you are making the same choices as everyone else, and living the same life as everyone else.

    Many people pick their degree or career based on what is expected as opposed to doing what they want. It is important to remember that, now more than ever, we live in a time of many choices. Post-secondary education can mean many different things, thanks to the vast number of majors and programs there are to choose from. If you feel you chose yours due to societal pressure or reasons other than what you truly want, it is not too late to change it. Credits can be transferred and you have many years ahead of you. A fifth year of high school was fully eliminated in Ontario back in 2003, meaning you started university or college a full year sooner than generations before you in that province. Do not be afraid to take more than four years to finish your education!

    The fast-paced nature of modern life finds people changing jobs more often and workplace competition growing more intense. This is not a race, but a journey that you are undertaking. People throw around the word success, and you may feel that you have to follow the crowd to successfully get an impressive job or purchase a home. These are parameters set by others. Think of success and happiness as one in the same. If those things make you happy, then you are not following the crowd in pursuing them but rather are following your own emotions. If a simpler life is what you desire, you are not defying people’s expectations but instead building your own.

    You do not have to trudge through a job just for the sake of having a job while waiting for retirement to live your ideal life. Half of building your own story in life is determining what you want. The other important half to consider is determining what negatives you are able to endure. If your ideal career does not pay well, are you able to give up certain things to afford the lower income? If you want to focus on family, are you willing to find work and a place to live that will allow for that? It may sound pessimistic, but thinking about those negatives will allow you to fully shape the life you want. With patience and a rounded perspective, you can build your own life and not just follow the crowd.

    Sources:

    Eisen, Michael. Creating Your Own Life Path. http://www.positivelypositive.com/2012/04/25/creating-your-own-life-path/

  • If I Knew Then…

    If I Knew Then…

    Advice on careers, finance, and life from Harvard Business School’s Class of 1963

    Each month, JobsPeopleDo will be featuring a special quote from a graduate of the Harvard Business School Class of 1963. The following quotes are insightful and can be used to inspire and encourage the right career path for you…

    “No surprise: Succeeding in business is the polar opposite of winning the lottery (pure luck, no effort). Blood, sweat, tears early on and consistently throughout. Become very knowledgeable about your product, service, or industry, and cultivate lasting relationships with people. Be completely honest in all dealings — even if it’s painful.”
    ~ Carol Nicholson Fryeberger ~

    “While still a teenager, make a list of all the things you like doing, and those you don’t like. Then find a job or study that maximizes the activities you like and minimizes the others. A happy and fulfilling job should feel like indulging in a hobby. Success is a result of true enjoyment and effort.”
    ~ Eyk Van Otterloo ~

    Via http://hbs1963.com/wisdom/careers/

  • Bogged Down: How to Handle Exams in University

    Bogged Down: How to Handle Exams in University

    As most people are back to school and midterm season is rolling up if not upon us already, students are getting bogged down by exams. But how exactly can students go about handling university exams better and improving their results? Most students will find it challenging to keep up with consistent studying when involved in multiple extracurricular activities.

    The culture shock experienced by students as they enter university involves adapting to campus life where professors, unlike high school teachers, do not hold students accountable for their work and attendance. This is where we see most students starting to skip classes, or showing up only to doze off during lectures.

    While this freedom feels incredible at first, students will soon find this to be a stressful element of university. Self-discipline is required to keep grades on the line and to balance other aspects of their lives; this calls for sustainable study habits.

    Although it may be hard to admit, most students don’t have the best study habits. Poor planning and last minute cramming sessions seem all too familiar to university students. Knowing that you cannot keep getting bogged down by last minute studying and stress, things need to change. The risk of dropping out of university without a degree is simply too high. If you’re currently a student, you don’t want this situation to occur after all the efforts.
    Luckily for most of us, there’s some study strategies that can be well revised to adapt to your schedule. By doing so, you can now eliminate the need for cramming last minute, hence reducing exam stress in university.

    This strategy can be broken down into four simple steps. Ideally, this is meant for courses that involve final exams of all material covered throughout the semester:

    1. Start using a schedule system like Outlook, Google Calendar or just a simple agenda to plan a regular study session for each of your courses. Realistically you can have one for each course you’re taking during the week.
    2. Don’t just schedule in study sessions, make sure you make them like your dates. There’s no opting out of them without there being a consequence later on. The alerts from your calendar will remind you of unfulfilled commitments.
    3. During your study sessions, make sure you review everything you’ve covered that week and topics you struggled with previously as review for upcoming exams.
    4. Continue to review all new and old content throughout the semester so that you won’t forget content that you haven’t used in a while.

    By using this study strategy, you’ll find yourself quite familiar with the content of the course before the final exam without the stress to bog you down.

  • If I Knew Then…

    If I Knew Then…

    Advice on careers, finance, and life from Harvard Business School’s Class of 1963

    Each month, JobsPeopleDo will be featuring a special quote from a graduate of the Harvard Business School Class of 1963. The following quotes are insightful and can be used to inspire and encourage the right career path for you…

    “Look for work in areas where you have built-in confidence based on your own experience or preferences. It’s not to say you can’t succeed in areas in which you never thought you had talent, but your shortest path will come through your strengths.”

    “If you like your work, your chances of success will be higher. In the workplace, make your first priority improving your organization, department, or work unit rather than worrying about how the company will help further your own ambitions. Take pride in making everyone better wherever you are. Success takes care of those who create success for others.”

    ~John H. Schwarz~
    Via http://hbs1963.com/wisdom/careers/

  • Why Grammar is Important

    Why Grammar is Important

    You may have heard the saying, there’s a time and a place for everything. Well, that’s true for many things in life, including the use of proper grammar. Most of us are used to sending texts, emails, tweeting and posting on Facebook. And due to time, ease and in some cases limited character restrictions we have resorted to abbreviations, emoticons and jargon to express our thoughts and feelings. This is fine when talking with a friend on the internet or sending them a text message, but it should be avoided in situations where you are expected to be more formal or professional. Take school papers for example, you should avoid using slang, jargon and abbreviations throughout your essay. OMG right! You should also be aware of the proper use of punctuation; basically you should know and follow some basic rules. But before getting into the rules, here’s a little refresher on some definitions:

    Noun- a word that names a person, place or thing. There are common nouns i.e. train, student, country. And proper nouns i.e. Jenny, Paris, Tuesday. You can tell the difference between the two because proper nouns have two main features, they name a one of a kind item and they always start with a capital letter (despite their place in a sentence).

    Pronoun- a word that takes the place of a noun i.e. he, she, it, everyone, many, few.

    Adjective- a word that modifies a noun. It gives more information about it i.e. a big dog, a yellow ball, a loud noise.

    Verb- a word used to describe an action or a state of being. They are doing words i.e. bake, fix, jog, run.

    Adverb- a word that modifies a verb. They tell us when, where or how an action was preformed i.e. He baked a cake today.

    Conjunction- a word used to connect two parts of a sentence i.e. and, if, but.

    Contraction- a word made shorter by combining two words i.e. can’t, won’t, didn’t.

    Now that you remember some definitions, here are a few rules to follow:

    1. Avoid writing run-on sentences. Run-on sentences are when two or more complete sentences aren’t separated by the proper punctuation.
    2. Know the difference between words like: their (shows ownership), there (place or position), they’re (contraction- they are) and, it (used to identify a thing previously mentioned), its (belonging to or associated with a thing previously mentioned) and it’s (contraction- it is).
    3. Punctuate properly. Know when to use commas, colons, semi-colons, apostrophes, question marks, periods, hyphens and exclamation marks.
    4. Use commas or semi-colons in compound sentences.
    5. Know when to use who and whom i.e. With whom are you going to the movie with? Who is driving?
    6. Use the word few for things you count and the word less for things you measure. I.e. The recipe calls for less sugar then I thought. There were fewer people at the concert than anticipated.
    7. Use then when you are referring to time. I.e. The Blue Jays won the first, then the second game. Use than when introducing the second element of a comparison. I.e. She was much shorter than her classmates.
    8. Use the right tense; past, present, future.
    9. Know when to use active and passive voices. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. I.e. The baseball was caught by the shortstop. In the active voice the subject is doing the acting. I.e. The shortstop caught the ball.
    10. Don’t rely entirely on spell check and grammar check. Do your own editing.

    If you are unsure of a specific grammatical rule you could always do an internet search to find the answer you are looking for. However, when taking advice from the internet, be critical. If you make an effort to look it up you’ll be more apt to remember it in the future, #grammar’simportant, so take the time to try and get it right.

  • Is the Cost of Education Worth it?

    Is the Cost of Education Worth it?

    With the rising cost of living these days, you have to examine everything more carefully, especially tuition costs. Whether it is college or university, you may end up paying back the government for several years. So it’s definitely something that deserves a lot of thought ahead of time. Financial security or insecurity will reflect heavily on you during your post-grad life. Will it be worth it – all those years of coffee and late nights with little or no sleep?

    It’s ultimately your life, and your decision. But consider these factors as well:

    • The demand for your chosen career. Unfortunately, some careers have more people interested than there are positions available. You can still do what you love – just consider alternative options. For example, Education is one of those careers that have more people than positions within Ontario, to be specific. Administrative positions within a school are always a consideration (such as a principal), along with consultants. Management is another alternative as well. Student advisors are great at listing alternative options that you may have not previously considered.

    • The cost of tuition – is it reasonable? Some tuition amounts don’t necessarily relate to the amount of years you’d spend earning that diploma. Consider the average entry-level salary for your chosen career – does it match up? This is particularly important as you’re most likely to spend years paying off that debt – you want it to be reasonable in relation to the career. The higher the demand for your skills, the easier (and sooner) you’ll be to pay the loan off instead of spending months looking for that perfect job.

    • Experience is another factor – this is a strong consideration for employers when you start job hunting post-graduation. I would strongly recommend that you consider placements to bolster your experience – it can often count for academic credit, and it will be related experience that you can use on your resume. Employers are always looking for experience related to the position that you’re applying for, and it’s trickier (but not impossible) to prove that you’re the person for the job without some related experience. If you don’t have a placement, consider part-time jobs that are related to your major/chosen career.

    • And lastly, consider your interest in the career. If it’s something that you’re not as passionate about when compared to other majors – consider it as a minor. Or a double major, if that’s an option. You should be interested in something that you want to do for the rest of your life, and it’s something that you need to be passionate about.

    After assessing these four factors; demand, cost, experience and interest, you may be able to answer the question: Is the cost of education worth it for my career? The answer is always in your hands.

  • You Can Handle Anything- Just Try!

    You Can Handle Anything- Just Try!

    I am an amputee, missing both hands and my right leg above the knee. I know what you’re thinking, “How is she typing this?”

    Well, it’s easy. I simply bash my head against the keyboard until the right sentences string together.

    Okay, okay, just kidding. But you should have seen your face.

    I was born with my amputations, so I have lived my entire life being “different” and learning how to become an independent person. As you can imagine, there have been many challenges to face as well as many funny experiences. My family raised me with a healthy sense of humour and so I have always felt comfortable with my disability. However, that didn’t change the fact that other people weren’t so comfortable, and that I had to find ways to deal with strangers asking me questions on a daily basis. I have heard everything from “What happened to you?” to “Can I touch your arms?” so by now I have a decent variety of responses to be ready with at all times.

    When I went off to university, I had no idea just how different my life would be. It was my first time living by myself. Even though I knew I was completely capable of being independent, I still had a few concerns. What if I couldn’t do laundry? What if I needed help with it? It’s normal for students to feel nervous about moving away from home, but I felt especially anxious considering that I had a lot to deal with that other kids didn’t. I made up my mind to not be discouraged by ‘what if’ and instead be as confident as I had always been. After all, if I could live independently in my hometown, I could live independently anywhere!

    Things went well during my first week of university. I lived in residence with a roommate and it didn’t take long for me to get adjusted to student life. All my insecurities went away until one day a professor called me into his office to meet with him and a special needs advisor. I had never really used special needs services before, but have always appreciated that they are available to me. At this meeting I was told that with the semester getting underway and workload starting to pick up, I should probably use a scribe to take notes during my lectures because there was no way I would be able to keep up with my peers. Now, most people wonder how I write or type – it’s not very exciting; I just use my arms. I’ve learned to be very crafty and resourceful with what little I have, and I type up to 100 words per minute!

    I knew that I didn’t need a note taker. I could do this myself. But I let people who thought they were helping me get in my head. I started to panic thinking that maybe they were right – maybe I wouldn’t be able to keep up. Just as I was about to give in, I reminded myself of my decision to be confident. I spoke up and said, “No thank you! I’ll be fine!”

    And I’m proud to say, I was. Not only did I complete the semester taking notes on my own but by the end of the semester I had actually volunteered to be a scribe myself and take notes for other people!

    If you are struggling with insecurity, just remember that you know yourself better than others. Be confident in your abilities, take a chance, and show people what you can do.