Tuesday, January 16, 2018

8 Ways to STICK to Your Goals This Year!

  1. Write them Down and Post Them Somewhere You Will See Them Every Day...
Writing down your goals makes a physical connection in your brain that you've made a commitment to yourself. When your goals are written out, you are also much more likely to remember what they where to begin with.

2. Plan out baby steps to achieving your ultimate big goal
This is where you sit down and say okay, I have this great big goal to accomplish, but, how will I realistically get there? Creating smaller goals along the way will help keep you on track and you will feel great as you accomplish steps towards your ultimate goal.

For me, I wanted to publish my novel by the time I left High School. It seemed peaty lofty to most people but I was able to do it because I had set a timeline and deadlines for myself along the way.

3. Make your goals measurable so that you can see and track your progress 
Progress towards your ultimate goal is one of the best motivational tools you have for yourself so make good use of it! If you can see that your goals are worthwhile you are more likely to keep working towards them.

4. Remember that change can be HARD and MESSY
We humans are creatures of habit, we don't like change, we want to naturally stay stuck where we are today. Changing or forming new habits WILL require conscious effort. Set aside time in your day to work on your goals!

5. It's okay if you miss a few days, life happens 
Don't beat yourself up if you miss a few days at your habit-forming, the most important thing as that you get back up and back on track. Keep trying and learn from your failure. Maybe, you need to adjust your daily schedule to help you set aside time to work on your goals.

6. If your religious, use this to your advantage
I am a member of the LDS church also known as the "Mormons". We are faithful Christians in my home and believe that Christ can bring us strength, comfort and peace in our lives. I've grown up learning to rely on higher power than my human self to help me become better than I am today.

7. Reward yourself appropriately
Part of setting goals is also planing a reward for yourself. Maybe, a book you've wanted to read, a night to spend in a hot bath or some time to enjoy a hobby.

8. Let a friend or loved one help you along the way
Let someone else help keep you on track with your goals and actively listen to their advice.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Short Story: School of the Future (Part Two)

Here is Part Two:

Abie was becoming more and more frustrated that her ID card was locking her out of the school's lobby. Why does technology always fail me at the most inopportune time? She thought.

Alexia was approaching from farther down the hallway. Oh, great now here comes embarrassment skipping down the hall. Abie thought. She fiddled with her ID card again.

"What's wrong Abie?" Alexia asked as she reached her.

"My ID card is locking me out again!" Abie grumbled.

"You must have really done it good this time! No one get's locked out of the lobby unless they really broke some major school rules!" Alexia commented.

"That's the thing though, I never break the rules, you of all people would know that, Alexia." Abie sighed.

"So your ID card just randomly malfunctioned, huh?" Alexia said sarcastically. "Yeah, right."

"Um, actually, that's exactly what happened," Abie said softly.

"Yeah, sure." Alexia resounded in a disbelieving tone.

"Well, how do I fix it?" Abie asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I'd scan you through with my own ID but then I would be locked out too." Alexia said before entering through the force field to the lobby.

Abie felt anger bubbling up inside her like a pot about to boil over. How dare she accuse me of getting myself into trouble!  Abie thought.

She headed back down the hall towards the tech support office. Abie hoped that they would fix this soon, she didn't want to face another unpleasant confrontation with any of her friends again. Abie walked into the office and sat down to wait for her turn. This is literally going to waste my ENTIRE day. She thought.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Short Story: School of the Future (Part One)

Abie scanned her ID card at one of the large arched force field entryways to the school. The automated security system said, "Access granted, Welcome to school Abie Eridine." The force field turned green and allowed her to walk through it.

She entered into the school lobby and walked towards the staircase to her right, towards the private study rooms. Abie liked arriving this early for school because the school was still quiet at 7 a.m. She liked being able to get her four hours of required campus time done in the mornings because the lines where much shorter to meet with her teachers this time of morning if she needed to. Besides, if she stayed on campus for extra hours she could save them up and take days off school whenever she wanted to.

She liked that the school gave her three days a year for mental health days now and she got ten days of sick leave without needing a doctor's note, just parental conformation. Even on a day off she could remote in to class and join via video transmission. All the classes where recorded and uploaded to the school's database that could be accessed anywhere with a pass code and an internet connection.
Abie made her way to an open study room and scanned in to the time tracker. The force field granted her access. She logged into the hologram interactive touch walls to work on her biology homework from yesterday. She had to build a virtual cell and label it's parts correctly in the three dimensional simulation. She grabbed the augmented reality goggles and got to work dragging in the pieces to build her animal cell in the middle of the small room. Abie used two controllers that strapped to her hands to manipulate the holograms. She made sure to turn on the automatic file saving function in the program so that she wouldn't lose her work.

She didn't like biology too much but the interactive lessons in the holo space made it a bit more understandable for her visual learning style. Her learning program was designed to target her strengths in visual learning. It was also built to let her move through school at her own pace, at least to a point. Abie was still required to take a minimum of five courses per semester and to complete a chunk of lessons every three weeks due date.

The school was open from 7 a.m to 5 p.m. every day. Though, the teachers only stayed on campus from 7 a.m to 3 p.m. daily. The whole school had a lunch break between noon and 1 p.m. every day too.

Some said that the system was perfect, but, others said that it was giving the students too much freedom. As for Abie she liked the flexibility of the schedule. She was dyslexic and she knew that she was getting a much better experience with school than her parents did who where also dyslexic and graduated back in 2017 from high school.

After finishing her biology lesson, Abie locked the study room and headed down to the lobby for a snack and a ten-minute study break. However, when she got to the entrance of the lobby her ID card wouldn't grant her access.