When Taking a Pay Cut Makes Sense

When Taking a Pay Cut Makes SenseWhen Taking a Pay Cut Makes SenseWe all want to spend our lives growing our career and salaries. However, in the last five years, more than 45% of the US workforce took a pay cut. Whether it was for layoffs, going into geschftsleben for oneself, or changing careers, the decrease in pay made sense.We live in a time where goods and services are made affordable through technology. Taking a job for less money is not the end of the world, especially if it leads to a person having a fulfilling career.Yes, money provides certain freedoms, but by no means is it the status symbol that it used to be. It is no longer the key to happiness. If you are thinking of taking a pay cut, see if any of the reasons below make sense to you.When a decrease in pay is required to keep a job you loveThis happens mostly with startups, small geschftliches miteinanderes, or companies run by serial entrepreneurs. You love your job and you make the company profitable. But the econom y is changing, people are paying, or the boss wants to start a new company.In order to stay afloat, and keep a job you love, you agree to a decrease in pay. It may be only temporary, but because you are happy you have the energy to stay productive at work. You have the ability to seek out new work, if necessary.More so, given todays transient workforce, you can work remotely from a cheaper city. Taking a pay cut for a job is betting on long-term results, but your commitment will be admired by other companies if it does not work out.When going into business for yourselfThere are more than 50 million freelancers in the US workforce. What all of these workers and entrepreneurs have discovered is that being your own boss is its own reward.Taking a pay cut may be hard for the family. But the fact is you now answer to yourself, and no one else. In the past, our ability to grow a career depended largely on what you had time to learn while fitting the job in your schedule.When all you have for a boss is YOU, and you can spend all day running your own business the way you wish, the potential for learning and career growth increases. If you discover you were not meant to be your own boss, thats fine because you learned what it means to run a business on your own. This makes you leadership material.You also have the chance to look into careers you once thought impossible. Yes, it is starting over, but if you want to do it, taking a pay cut is required. Some industries just do not pay as well as others.When moving to a cheaper city or new countryThe cost of living in the US, and around the world, changes drastically from city to state to country. Even if you took a small decrease in pay from your New York City salary (a very expensive city), it still will not impact you as much when moving to a city with a lower cost of living.If you are looking to leave big city life, and work remotely with a nice salary, that is even better. The benefit of working remotely is that your company will not adjust your salary for operating costs. You can move anywhere you want to, and be flexible with your salary, because you have a lower cost of living.Are you looking to change cities and possibly take a pay cut? Check out this cost of living salary converterto see how it will affect your lifestyle.Ideally, you will be able to move to your favorite place, take a decrease in pay, and not be affected at all

When we know theres a whisper network, we act differently

When we know theres a whisper network, we act differentlyWhen we know theres a whisper network, we act differentlyYour private office Slack messages about the decisions of so-and-so have mora power than you think. A new study has found that just knowing the existence of an online whisper network at an organization can cause teams to change how they act to others in the group.Existence of secret group chats motivates more discussion between opposing groupsIn a new study, researchers at INSEAD, Columbia geschftsleben School, and Singapore Management University proposed that we change how we act when we know people can talk behind our backs online because private backchannels make people in the majority feel less powerful. That sense of powerlessness, in turn, motivates majority opinion holders to process unique information offered by the minority more deeply.In other words, people in the majority feel like they have to take minority opinions more seriously when theres a threat to their power.And the secret discussion opportunities that technology makes easily available provide that threat.The power of private group chatThe researchers hypothesis held true in a series of experiments. The researchers found that telling participants in the majority about the existence of a private group chat was enough to spur them to reach across party lines and seek more information, ask more questions, and engage in more dialogue from participants with minority viewpoints. This held true even when only a small subset of team members actually used the secret conversations opportunities.The mere presence of a private group chat was enough to change team dynamics. Even if their opinion was securely in the majority, majority holders still wanted to know what others were saying if they knew there was a private chat.A force for goodResearchers suggested that the facilitation of diverse perspectives can make these online secret whisper networks a force for good. If managers want to crea te better debates and foster new perspectives, they should encourage these private groups chats. When managers expect majority and minority factions to emerge and unique perspectives need to surface to make better decisions, they may want to emphasize the various conversation opportunities that team members have in order to limit the majoritys powerful position, the study suggests.Whisper networks already provide value for women in the workplace to warn each other against workplace harassers without fear of reprisal. This study shows that these secret backchannels can also level the playing field to not just distribute sensitive information, but to influence it.Even though you may be one dissenting voice at the office, a private whisper network of Slack channels, group chats, and direct messages can raise your voice into one that can be heard in a crowd.

Why you should sleep more (according to a Millennial insomniac)

Why you should sleep more (according to a Millennial insomniac)Why you should sleep more (according to a Millennial insomniac)It took me a long time to realize that my insomnia was just another thing, in a long list of things, authored by my self-hatred. Rest never felt earned.Our obsession with over-exertion has reconceivedthe vital mechanism of agood nights rest as some kind of reward for productivity.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreDo you think Elon Musk slept when he was re-inventing space travel? Do you think the wheel came to Grog in a dream? Red eyes and twitchy fingers have become the aya marks of any good-hardworking professional.Whether caused by stress, illness, medications, or other factors, poor sleep is very common, says Michael Perlis, the director of the behavioral sleep medicine program.Roughly one-in-four Americans develop insomnia each year. The correlative fa ctors are pretty varied but stress, anxiety, and depression are principle amongst them. For those with neurological afflictions, or chronic pain, sleepless nights can be successfully mitigated by medications or supplements. But for those of us that owe sleep deprivation to psychological reasons, some serious cognitive work needs to be done.Arbitrary shortcomingsA day spent side-stepping thoughts seems to aggravate them-like a Mogwai in water. By dusk, theyre barbed and even more determined.At its worst, nothing can effectively drown out the hum of failure. The why I did or didnt do thattakes you hostage-and the outlay is simple Bath in masochism or face tomorrow in a caffeine-charged haze. It inspires panic. All our cruelest insecurities inch violently close, demanding undivided attention, wielding a sharp and sudden remembrance of all the things we forgot.To us, sleep is submission a confession of incompetence.We need to learn to let ourselves off the hook. Day-by-day that is. Self -awareness is important. As is discipline. But success cant be properly observed in 24-hour increments. Its a process. Not a linear one, but one with many-mini failures in mind.There is simply no other way to live, unfortunately. You have to find a way to be okay with the little defeats that define existence. Theyre inevitable.Its all the more reason to take solace in the evolutionary process designed to help us properly assess thoughts, reenergize our cells, repair somatic damage, dispose of brain waste and vitalize memory.A study conducted back in 2016 by theDepartment of Psychology at the University of Zurich and the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich confirmed sleep to be a contributory element of processing and integrating distressing memories.The team of researchers organized test subjects into two groups before instructing them to watch traumatic video footage. One group slept in the lab immediately after their viewing while being monitored viaan electroencephalograph. Th e other group was tasked with staying awake.Our results reveal that people who slept after the film had fewer and less distressing recurring emotional memories than those who were awake, explains the studys author Birgit KleimWhen the preoccupations that menace sleep arent our own creationOn average, women who experienced one of the traumatic events studied, reported losing an average of 129.7 minutes of sleep each night, nearly half an hour more than their male counterparts. Mattress Advisor studyMattress Advisorconducted astudy of over 1,000 men and women to better understand the pernicious relationship between sleep and trauma. The research disclosed that 80% of individuals surveyed suffer from chronic insomnia as a result of experiencing and or witnessing distressing events. Additionally, an overwhelming majority of the respondents consulted for the study, favored lifestyle changes over sleep-aid medication. Maya Siman commented on the findingsAround 30% of respondents changed the position or arrangement of their furniture, and 27% installed blackout curtains. Thirty-six percent tried sleeping with the TV on, a change that may do more harm than good. While some background noise may help people fall asleep faster, the blue light and changes in brightness and volume that occur while the TV is on can impact the quality of sleep. Sleeping with the TV on can keep you in the lighter stages of the sleep cycle, preventing your body from experiencing the stages where memories are consolidated and restorative work is done.Independent reports have championed certain organic sleep aids as effective for some conditions, but by and large, I think attacks on the mind should be addressed in kind. From personal experience, I can say that the sleep procured from medication saw me falling asleep more consistently at the expense of feeling much less replenished the following day. Good rest survives on healthy mental transmission a clear understanding of your cognitive needs .Simans project elevates mental solidarity as an important component, saying Seeking out a professional for treatment is nothing to be ashamed of. Its important to fight the stigma, and remember you are not alone. Reaching out and seeking help can be life-saving.I spoke with a Brooklyn based performer to get a better sense of the philosophy purported by Simans study in motion. Sarah Jane Dillon, who had no previous knowledge of the findings indexed above, echoed its sentiment pretty faithfully. Her trauma fueled insomnia, rejected psychiatric comforts. In fact, medicine made things much worse. She statesAnxiety and PTSD medication gave me vivid nightmares that were worse than any trauma I experienced. I had Ativan in case of emergency but the benzo effect was similar to alcohol. I would knock out but didnt feel rested and all of my problems were still there in the morning.Dillon continues I feel talk therapy is the best way to heal from and process trauma. Group therapy is nice beca use you feel solidarity with fellow survivors who have experienced the fall out from trauma and you feel less alone and hopeful in the healing process.Shared experience rallies individuals in the right direction. Dillon supplanted crutches, like alcohol for instance (which she also found to exasperate things) with tools of self-enrichmentMaking myself a healthy meal, going for a walk in a Botanical Garden, reading poetry, writing jokes or journaling about my experience, practicing mindfulness and meditation, meeting up with a friend who lifts me up when Im feeling a bit down, painting my fingernails you know stuff I do just for me.In regards to getting better sleep incorporating exercise and chamomile tea before to calm me down helps promote a more restful sleep since intoxication can actually disturb your rem cycle.You owe your thoughts engagementA night of restful, undisturbed sleep isnt just the product of acknowledging your failures and toxic memories. Its also important to addr ess them, and everything else that occupies your day. Mindfulness seems to contribute to serenity in every facet of our lives. Being present equips us with tools to better understand the aim of our anxiety and stress.Insomnia is a perversion of cognitive presence. Little things both positive and negative, politely request our attention throughout our day until neglect morphs them into REM highwaymen.A good rubric for a mind ever in the moment can be found in Virginia WoolfsMrs. Dalloway.The novel takes place across one day in the poshly energetic life of Clarissa Dalloway. Shes constantly in observance of this and of that. Every muslin gown, every sigh, and every unsaid intention. Its a novel comprised of musings. The narrative is woven by lax surveillance of surroundings and inner-feelings. Clarrissas observations produce this lyrical clarity. Under scrutiny, inner conflict yields ease and enlightenment.The fear of our unpleasant thoughts dually shields us from our comforting ones. More than helping us sleep, being present is the most active ingredient in meaningful memories, which enable us to feel like were living and not merely existing. On this Dillon addsThe best way to squash old traumatic memories is to make new better ones in the life you took back for yourself. Talk to yourself like you were 5 years old again and that kind of self-love and lifting dialogue will get you through the worst of it. Reach out to your friends and plan a trip to Bali. You have so much of your better life to live.Phantoms, of your own creation or otherwise, dont get a say in your wellbeing.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

Networking with Fellow Law Students

Networking with Fellow Law StudentsNetworking with Fellow Law StudentsEarlier this week, I listened to an interesting podcast on networking by Law School Podcaster (see my blog post on the podcast here), and Ive had networking on the brain ever since. Of all of the career advice Ive received, Id rank networking as the most important for developing my legal career. But as a law student, it was one of the career-development tools that I most neglected. With the Socratic method, outlining, finals, blue-booking, and journal writing hanging over my head, I didnt make networking a top priority like I should have.I think that the biggest networking resources that I overlooked were my fellow law students. Sure, advice and mentoring from experienced legal professionals is important. But one day, the people sitting next to you in Torts and Contracts will be those experienced attorneys. Your classmates are the future of the legal industry future colleagues, clients, business partners, CEOs, ad versaries, legal experts, judges, policy-makers, politicians, scholars, and professors. Even though its hard to imagine the rolle in the next study carrel having a profound effect on your yet-to-be-defined legal career, the truth is that you never know how important one connection can be.Networking with fellow law students isnt only important for your future career, however. Its also valuable in your development as a lawyer. You can get all of the guidance you want from your mentors, but no one understands how youre feeling as you trudge through documents at 2 am like those in your same class year. Nobody appreciates your professional anxieties and insecurities like those who are on the same career timeline as you. Discussing, comparing, commiserating, and offering each other advice is a different way to grow as attorneys, one based on learning from each others experiences.

This is why you should publicize your failures and not be ashamed

This is why you should publicize your failures and not be ashamedThis is why you should publicize your failures and not be ashamedIts been one year since I departureed theFamous Failures podcast, where I interview the worlds most interesting people about their failures and what they learned from them. As you might imagine, asking guests to appear on the show has made for some interesting conversations.Hey Dan, I have a podcast where I interview failures. Youd be perfect for it.Surprisingly though, most people Ive approached have been eager to appear on the show because they know firsthand what many neglect Anyone whos done anything meaningful has failed in some fashion. Havinginterviewed40 titans on the podcast- including top entrepreneurs, Olympic medalists, and New York Times bestselling authors- one thing is clear Everyone- and I mean, everyone- is a walking imperfection.But most of us are terrible at owning up to our goofs. ur public image is synonymous with our self-worth. We pu ff ourselves up and create curated portrayals of our imperfect and flawed lives. We round off the edges, airbrush the negatives, and present a perfect image to the world devoid of any failures.Even when we talk about our failures, we do so in a flattering light. Our response resembles the typical answer to the much-dreaded Whats your biggest weakness? interview question I work too hard.I get it. Its painful to fail. Airing your failures can compound the pain. But the opposite approach- denial and avoidance- make things worse. When we pretend we didnt fail, when we reframe our failures as successes, or when we hold funerals for failed startups complete with bagpipes and DJs spinning records- as Silicon Valley does- we dont learn anything.In order to learn and grow, we must acknowledge our failures, without celebrating them. Take, for example, the approach of Sara Blakely, the founder and CEO of Spanx. She went from selling faxgert machines door-to-door to becoming the worlds youngest self-made female billionaire. At company-wide meetings, Blakelyhighlights her own oops moments. Likewise, Ed Catmull- the president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios- talks about the mistakes hes made at new employee orientations We do not want people to assume that because were successful, everything we do is right, heexplains.. The economist Tyler Cowen wrote a detailed analysis of how, in the lead-up to the 2007 financial crisis, he badly underestimated the chance that something systemic had gone wrong in the American economy. I regret that I was wrong, Cowenwrote, and I regret that I was overconfident in my belief that I was right.Acknowledging failures is particularly important for role models- leaders, teachers, and celebrities. We tend to put them on a pedestal. We assume theyre superheroes with skills and talents that mere mortals lack. We believe their success was predestined and cooked into their DNA.But if we saw the messy reality behind the seemingly untarnished gla mour, we would be more comfortable to make mistakes and less likely to become paralyzed when failures start to hit. With their failures revealed, our role models look more human and less divine.This is why Wharton professor Adam Grant opens his very first class with a story about his biggest failures. I want students to feel comfortable challenging me, asking me questions, seeking help, and asking advice, Granttoldme.Leading by example is cliche- because it works.Researchshowsthat people pay close attention to the leaders behavior since they depend on the leader for recognition. Research alsoshowsthat people look to the leader to take the first step in initiating a change. If leaders fail to acknowledge their failures- if theres a perception that the leader can do no wrong- its unrealistic to expect employees to take the risk of challenging the leader or revealing their own failures.Considera studyof sixteen hospitals with top-tier cardiac surgery departments. The cardiac teams led by surgeons who were more willing to acknowledge their own fallibility were the most successful at implementing an innovative technology for conducting surgery. For example, one surgeon repeatedly told his team I need to hear from you because Im likely to miss things. Another surgeon would say, I screwed up. My judgment was bad in this case.What made these messages effective was their repetition.Entrenched behaviors dont change with one impassioned speech. As team members heard these messages over and over again, they developed the psychological safety to speak up- even in an environment as hierarchical as heart surgery. There are no sacred cows, a member of one surgery team explained, If somebody needs to be told something, then they are told- surgeon or orderly.Whether youre in the operating room, the boardroom, or the classroom, the principle is the same The road to success is filled with potholes. Youre better off acknowledging them than pretending they dont exist.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).Thisarticlefirst appeared onOzanVarol.com.

Where to Find Resume References Available upon Request

Where to Find Resume References Available upon Request Maybe you imagine the recruiter is all about to toss your resume. This consistency allows you to create an expert brand. Employers will request references beforehand should they want them. It is very important to learn what they would say about you BEFORE they speak to a possible employer. Definitions of Resume References Available upon Request To assist you determine the ideal approach for your Accounting job application in Sydney, here are a few of the more important benefits and disadvantages of including references readily available on request on a CV. It isnt an exhaustive collection of everything youve ever done. If you just have a couple of days before you should submit the items, it would decidedly be harsh that you discover the excellent references. Its also wise to share a number of the important challenges and obligations of the position so that your references will be ready to discuss certain abilities, ex perience, and achievements from their work alongside you. Unless youre asking for an independent role, employers already expect that youre prepared to change your schedule to satisfy your duties on the job. It should only contain information that will assist you in getting the job. Typically every time a job asks for References theyre looking only for contact info, and notlage a complete letter. You might want to consider to think about listing projects or skills they reference can attest to. The Advantages of Resume References Available upon Request Thus, dont send references once you first submit your resume unless its stated as mandatory in the work ad. In the current job market, references are a critical area of the work application and hiring process. Thus a great reference checker tries to receive an awareness of that, too. Instead, make a distinct reference sheet you may bring to your job interview. To put it differently, choose a partie who knows you well and will hav e the ability to speak about your qualifications for the job which you are pursuing. If you make a poor first impression, you are never going to get to agree to part in the work interview approach. When it was time for you to begin a career, your relatives would help you find work or a prospective employer would probably know your family due to the close-knit community. The typical practice in recruitment is to get in touch with references the exact same week as the work interview. Make sure it is the right sort of impression. A couple more things to bear in mind if youre contemplating adding references to your resume. Its not only a waste of space. Bear in mind that the aim of the resume is to secure you to the interview stage. Where to Find Resume References Available upon Request The important thing here is to supply the name of the individual at the organisation who is best aligned to manage the reference request adequately and in a timely way. The range of names isnt a s vital as the caliber of the references. The variety of references you list depends upon your career level. Just leave a place between them and add different entries in the exact same job references format again. For this reason, you should actually prepare for the references though you are still not requested to achieve that. If you would like to include references, do so by including a separate resume references page. Previously, references would tell you everything that you want to know more about the person. Second, your references may not wish to openly share private information. Listing a person for a reference without permission could be damaging to your job application. Job references should not be included on a resume. Be sure to let your employer know you have references available upon request. Providing the info upon request offers you time to alert the reference a potential employer could possibly be calling for a reference.

How to Use the Classroom Mindset to Make Change in Your Life

How to Use the Classroom Mindset to Make Change in Your Life Article by Lauren Lawley HeadMy mother used to welchesh old tennis balls.Toward the end of every summer, I would visit our community tennis club and ask the pro if she had any dead balls I could take off her hands. I would deliver a bag to my mother, who would endure the thunderous sound that comes from laundering dozens of tennis balls in a residential washing machine, then pass the lot over to my father so he could drill holes in each one.Mom taught elementary school for 29 years, most of that time in kindergarten. The tennis ball project was just another ritual that comes with being part of a kindergarten teachers family, like learning to run a laminating machine or how to turn two-dozen pint milk jugs into graham cracker gingerbread houses.Once my father was done with them, the tennis balls fit perfectly onto the feet of a standard elementary school chair, where they eliminated the high- pitched scraping noise that otherwise occurred every time a child shiftedtheir seat. When you are charged with turning a classroomof 5- and 6-year-olds who have never been to school before into students, its the little things that count.Each year, like teachers across the country, mom would head back into the classroom a few weeks before classes began. She would spend hours in her hot room getting things ready for the next group of wide-eyed youngsters prepared to make their elementary school debut. She would make name tags and daily schedules, create activity stations, and set up a reading corner. She would decorate her door and bulletin boards with messages of welcome and possibility. And, yes, she would put tennis balls onto the feet of the chairs.The Power of Classroom ManagementThe departure of a new school year is as much, if not more, of a marker of new beginnings and transformative change as New Years Day. Stores are filled with supplies to help you plan and organize your li fe. There is a fresh batch of sports leagues and fitness classes to try. Regularly scheduled social events, from Bible studies to poker night, return from summer hiatus.Even if youre not in school and dont have school-age children at home, chances are you feel this seasonal change, too. The swimming pools close. The nights begin getting longer. The backyard barbecues become fewer and further between. The rhythm of life shifts away from vacation mode and toward something more structured and fast paced. We are no longer basking in the glorious sunshine but once again on the move and going places.Or are we? Children certainly are. Kindergarteners are walking into school for the first time, backpacks filled with supplies, ready to be transformed into students. In just the first few days, they will learn to follow a daily schedule, be responsible for themselves, and work together in a team. Over the next nine months, they will likely make tremendous progress in multiple subjects math, re ading, writing, science, social studies, and more. By the brde day of school, they will look like different people. Dont believe me? Check the first day/last day photos their parents post on social media.Similar transformations happen to adults pursuing structured educations. The first day/last day photos of college students may not come with the adorable dimpled cheeks and gap-toothed smiles of elementary school, but the trajectory of change is just as steep. But once we leave formal education behind, we rarely experience a similar level of progress in such a compressed amount of time.Why is this? What happens inside those classroom walls that conditions us to be learners, to create new visions for ourselves and then turn those visions into reality?Teachers call their secret sauce classroom management. The idea is that if you provide the right structure to the environment and follow that structure religiously, you can achieve more significant results at scale.Consistent structure i s powerful. One year when my mom was teaching, one of her colleagues had a transfer student join her class in March, quite late in the school year. The little boy had a long discipline record for a kindergartener, including eight suspensions from his prior school and a reputation for cursing at pretty much everyone. His teacher was nervous about how he would impact her classroom, but she welcomed him with a smile and kindly went over the rules, procedures, and expectations for her class. On his second day, he challenged one of her directions with, What are you going to do if I dont do it? Day after day, she explained that she was there to help him and believed he could do the work. She praised everything he did that was positive. It was an exhausting few weeks, but he turned into one of the best students that year.Manage Your Own Life Like a ClassroomYour school days may be behind you, but perhaps classroom management shouldnt be a thing of your past. If you want to experience signi ficant, lasting change in your life, try mapping out your goal as if you were going back to school to achieve it.Start by planning your curriculum. Where do you want to be at the end of your school year? What will you need to do to achieve that? What will you need to read or study? What skills will you need to practice?Next, create your lesson plans. Teachers break their curricula down into detailed, day-by-day lesson plans. The lesson plans include a series of activities designed to deliver on the days objectives. Each day builds on the previous one, culminating in achieving the final desired result. Fitness goals fit neatly into this framework. Google marathon training plan, for example, and youll find multiple curriculum options broken down into daily plans for physical training, nutrition, and more. Other goals may require more imagination on your part.Finally, set your environment. The school environment comes with rules lots of them. To adopt the benefits of the school year i n your adult journey, establish some new rules to live by. Many school rules translate well into the adult world. For example, schools provide a definite departure and end time to the learning day and have a strict schedule in between. They typically limit the use of electronic devices and other potential distractions. They insist on a rigorous program of homework and independent study to reinforce the material. Other school rules require some adaptation. For example, you may no longer have a use for colored pencils or graphing calculators, but you will likely benefit from having all of your supplies ready at the start of your day.Get too structured, of course, and you kill the joy. Schools have caught onto this in recent years, to the benefit of todays students. My youngest son, for example, walked into his second-grade classroom to find hed been assigned a camp chair instead of a traditional desk and chair. The next day, he had a giant floor pillow. Another day, he had a wobbly st ool. This flexible seating gave him and his classmates more control over their own learning environment a key, new research suggests, to engaging with the material.By pairing a robust curriculum with solid classroom management, teachers can perform virtual miracles in a single school year. Kindergarteners who couldnt write their names will be able to draft their own stories with beginnings, middles, and endings. New middle schoolers who could barely open their lockers will be able to complete multipart assignments on Google Classroom, complete with slide presentation. High school seniors will cross that final bridge into adulthood, heading out into the world with the independence to choose jobs or advanced studies.What could you accomplish in your own life in the next year? Maybe you cant devote eight hours a day to your pursuit as if you were a full-time student, but you can still use this time of year to embrace change. Identify your goal and then map out your plan for taking you rself back to school at least in mindset to make it happen. Even if you need to start by eliminating your squeaky chair.Versions of this article originally appeared in the September/October 2019 issue of SUCCESS magazine and on SUCCESS.com.Lauren Lawley Head is senior vice president for SUCCESS, where she directs the publications multiplatform business operations, including print, digital, and eCommerce. She earned two degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia, one in journalism and one in economics, and she loves spending time with her husband and their two Lego-loving boys.