Express Thoughts and Ideas Openly

The heat has been unbearable in Chicago the past week. With high heat and humidity, tempers have been short.

Sometimes you need to express your feelings or thoughts honestly. Good or bad. Once they are expressed you can move forward. Find a friend or get a notebook. Just find a way to express yourself.

That's why when brainstorming you include all the ideas just to get them out of your head. It helps.

Get Outside

I've spent almost the entire day out exploring and running errands. It feels great to just leave the house sometimes. With zero air conditioning moving feels unbearable but just leaving makes a difference.

Take a walk, go for a run or do the things you've been avoiding. You'll feel better.

Mediocrity Isn't the Answer

I was reading about brand loyalty today.  It's so hard to find now.  Years before it was easy to have one choice, now in the day and age of having every choice, no one product keeps our attention long.  We feel entitled to have the best.  Every brand tries to offer everything the others do and they become more homogeneous.  The differences stop mattering.  They aren't significant.  

Sadly I feel the same way about people and educations.  We fight to be well rounded and good at everything.  How does that help us?  Employers seem to look for what makes us unique.  That is just as important, if not more.  You don't have to be right for every customer or every employer.  You'll attract better ones if you stand for what you believe in and are unique.  It's a risk, but why fight to be average?

Goal Setting

With significantly more time on my hands than I would like, I have to focus.  I start graduate school in a month, which is exciting and alarming.  I have so much to accomplish before then and get myself ready to dive in completely.

It has been proven that a majority of people do not set goals and those who do seldom review them.  The people who do regularly set goals and review them tend to be the most successful.  I think Teux Deux helps me keep track of my goals most.  I have huge goals and dreams and most of the time I don't have to means to accomplish them easily. 

What I have to do is make sure that I am always moving in the right direction.  This reminds me of Neil Gaiman's commencement talk where he talks about the mountain.

"Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be (...) was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal.

And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain." -Neil Gaiman

As I go into the next stage of my life of adulthood and graduate school with all the joys and terrors it brings I cannot waste time.  Life and opportunities are precious.  I will set goals and review them as often as I can so that I may do it all!