Stress to the Max

At the beginning of this week, I was stressed. I had projects and tests for so many classes happening all at once, and it seemed as if everything was due by Wednesday. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get it done. Fortunately I did, but that doesn't impact what I learned this week, or should I say relearn.

Last semester, I watched a Ted Talk that talked about stress becoming our friend. (I posted it on the class LinkedIn, if you haven't watched it you should). The speaker talked about how after ten years of experience as a health psychologist, she just realized that she had been teaching stress management incorrectly. She, along with many of her colleagues, have been teaching that stress is bad, end of story, and that we need to avoid it by the plague because it can kill you. She began to think, however, why we have stress and what does it do to the body. Studies were designed and conducted, and she discovered something fascinating. It isn't the stress that is killing us but how we are reacting to it. By simply changing our attitude towards stress and seeing it as something that helps us, we see negative health side-effects turning to positive side-effects. All it takes is a change in our perception.

We all live stressful lives, the thought of trying to avoid stress leads to failure. What we need to realize is that when we our stressed and our heart starts racing, and we start sweating, it is really our body preparing ourselves for life's challenges. We need to look forward and tackle our challenges, realizing that stress is our friend, and our bodies coping mechanism to help prepare us for our endeavors.

A Little Web Design Here, A Little HTML There

The past few weeks, in my Information Systems 201 class, I have been learning the basics to web design and how to use html/css in order to create a webpage. It was a topic that seemed difficult and daunting at first, but after starting to work through the material, I found it to actually be quite enjoyable. Being able to create something in the virtual world was so cool. After learning the basics, I was able to manipulate the pages, fonts, pictures, videos, etc. to be however I wanted them to be. I could place them in whatever order seemed pleasing to me. It was amazing.


I feel I may have found a possible new hobby. It is definitely a very useful tool, and one that I hope to continue to use. Just the ability to create something is so cool. It is who we are. We are children of an all powerful creator, and as his children, it is in our DNA to create. We live in a world with so much destruction, imagine if we started to create instead. We could turn the world around.


I now want to focus on being a creator, not just in the virtual world, but in the real world. I want to lift those around me. I find it funny, how we can learn so much from such miniscule things around us. From learning to create a webpage, I discovered that we are meant to be creative beings. We are meant to lift up and not tear down.

Preparations

This week was a busy one. It was also one of those weeks were you need to make preparations for everything. I had a couple of mid-terms, an interview for a summer job, a couple of dates, and so much more. What I most learned this week is how so many things in life require preparation, and how becoming a good preparer, can help you to be so much more successful in life.

I feel that most people, including myself, do give an honest effort to prepare before-hand. Where we suffer is preparing effectively. We go through the motions to say, "there we go, I did it," rather than, "there we go, I am ready." I noticed this for my interview. I had gone through questions before, I had practiced different scenarios, but the questions they had were totally different than I had expected and had caught me off guard. I should have focused more on questions specific for the position, and not just the general questions asked in just any interview. Also, test prep, is a great example. How many times do we quickly read through our notes, look at power points posted by the teacher to say that we study, and then are disappointed when we don't receive the desired grade? It has happened to me too many times.

Now, as for the future. I feel making plans and goals to become a more prepared person is needed. I need to focus on the quality of preparation, and doing it to actually prepare myself rather than to just check it off of the list. I am going to work having high quality studying and planning sessions during the week that way I am prepared and ready for the many adventures and challenges that life throws at me.

Online Interview

This week in my communications class, I had the opportunity to do my first mock online interview. I had never done anything like it and I was quite nervous. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I did notice some things that I need to change. First off, in the beginning, I was blinking too much. I think it was because I was nervous. Also, I learned that the camera needs to be further away that way, I can more fully incorporate my hands and body when I am speaking. I tried doing it in my online interview, and there just wasn't space for everything. Also, I need to focus at looking at the camera at all times. For the most part, I was looking at the camera, but every now and then, my eyes would drift, and it seemed a little unprofessional to not keep "eye contact."

Now that I have experienced it, next time will be better. With an increasing use of technology, I am sure that this will not be the last time that I will have an online interview. So now I need to continue to make improvements and remain calm when the true moment arrives.

Preparing for a Marathon

On Wednesday, I received, as a gift, a book in the mail. The name of the book was "The Hanson's Marathon Method." This book has information about how to properly train for a marathon. I learned that I had been training incorrectly. The book focuses on pace being the key to everything. Typically when you think of training/practicing for anything, you want to work as hard as you can in each practice session. You try and give 100% everyday. What I have learned from this book is that this is the incorrect way to train. In fact, it is one of the worst things you can do because you do not allow your body its proper rest.

As I mentioned before, pace is the key. The book talks about using pace to get the most out of your workouts. You also need to alternate between easy days and hard days, allowing your body to rest.

Now why am I talking so much about running. One reason I love running so much is that it is so applicable to life. I believe this structure of practice, focusing on pace, and realizing that you can't give 100% everyday applies to training in any field of life. We need to focus on our pace in whatever field we are working. If we practice little by little, and focus on the big picture, we will find greater success in our endeavors.

I am now focusing on how I can pace better in other areas of my life. By doing so, I am feeling less stress and the retention is much greater.