By Melissa
How would you help someone who is struggling in school?
Imagine you meet a high school student. The person doesn’t seem particularly enthused about school or learning in general. They struggle with understanding concepts in their classes, and their friends also don’t care much for school.
The sad truth is that a student’s fate is set in stone as early as first grade.
By Melissa
Being cooped up indoors is unpleasant, to say the least.
When you’re kept away from fresh air, green trees, and bright sunlight, it takes a toll on you and your body. Over long periods, you feel anxious, depressed, and lethargic. Your body’s various systems respond by increasing blood pressure, tensing up muscles, and producing stress hormones.
The good news is that these effects can quickly go away with exposure to a better environment. When stressed or unhappy, people often flock to nature for refuge. People are universally drawn to natural settings for the sense of calm and overall well-being they provide.
By Melissa
Entrepreneurship. The word itself sounds magical. It conjures up all sorts of wonderful images. You imagine yourself coming up with a brilliant idea, building a great product, and resting on your laurels for eternity. You can earn more income without putting in extra effort.
Employee. What does that word feel like to you? Words such as “bland”, “unimaginative”, and “restrictive” come to mind. You picture someone breathing down your neck, telling you what to do.
Not only does being an employee sound unappealing, but there’s a ceiling to your earning potential. As an employee, your salary is fixed. Yes, you get raises, but they’re fixed and ultimately decided by someone else.
And what about professions that charge hourly rates? A consultant may earn hundreds, even thousands by the hour, but the consultant is still limited by something finite: time. At some point, the person’s earnings are capped by the number of hours worked. The moment the person stops working is the moment money stops coming in.
The relationship between time and earnings is the difference between scalable and non-scalable professions.
By Melissa
What does it mean to reach your potential?
We all have different definitions. For some, reaching their potential involves getting recognition for their work. For others, it means creating a balanced life where both work and personal life are equally satisfying.
And then there are others who wish to create something so great, so useful, that it gets used widely. They feel satisfied knowing they’re making the world a better place.
The equation seems simple. Work smart, work hard, and you’ll get what you want. When we see someone fall short of expectations, we assume they either didn’t try hard enough or made poor decisions.
By Melissa
Have you ever felt that you were just naturally good at something?
It didn’t matter whether you were a fresh beginner or a seasoned expert. You had practiced a skill, gotten the hang of it, and since then, kept doing things the same way. Maybe you were learning to swim, cook, or perform a task at work.
Then someone comes along and tries to help. They offer a suggestion, advice, or some insight. Being used to your way, you brush the person off.
But after awhile, you hit a roadblock. You start to realize that you don’t know everything. You try implementing the person’s advice. And it works!
You begin looking at things in a different light. Gradually, it dawns on you that there is a whole other level… one you had no idea existed.
This is what writing is like. Easy to learn but hard to master, writing often takes a second pair of eyes to help you figure out what you’re doing right, and what needs fixing.
Today, I’m going to discuss ProWritingAid, a popular online grammar checker and style editor. I’ll cover what it does, how to use it, and whether it’s right for you.
By Melissa
Going viral can be a fluky process.
Once in awhile, you write a piece that seems so-so, which ends up popular with readers. But more often, you think an article is going to be a hit, only for it to be a dud. You pour hours of work into something you think is brilliant. And yet it goes by unnoticed and unappreciated.
All that wasted time and effort feels disappointing.
Why does it happen? How can something that seems promising end up going nowhere? Is there a way to keep that from happening?
Let’s dive in.
By Melissa
Imagine it’s the start of a car race.
All the cars are lined up, people are cheering, and engines are roaring. Everyone’s waiting for the race to begin. The tension is high.
Bang! goes the pistol. The cars speed off, leaving only a cloud of fumes that dissipates into the sky. The drivers feel the adrenaline through their veins as they accelerate.
They know exactly what to do. Hopefully, that’s the feeling you get when you write, too. You sit down, open up a document, and start typing away furiously.
Except that’s probably not what happens.
By Melissa
There’s nothing worse than the dreaded blank page.
Clean and pristine it may be, but an empty document isn’t exactly what you’re aiming for. So how do you go from having no idea, no thoughts, no words, to a fully fleshed out article?
To do so requires some effort. But before we go into that, let’s first talk about the legendary sourdough bread in San Francisco.
By Melissa
Why do some people accomplish so much, while others do hardly anything at all?
How is one person able to exercise, hold meetings, and finish numerous tasks before lunch, while someone else hasn’t gotten out of bed yet? How does someone work on their craft, day after day for years, while someone else can only daydream about getting started?
We all know what we should be doing. We should be learning. We should be staying healthy. We should be working on things that will pay dividends in the future.
But we don’t. You see, those things aren’t easy. In fact, they can be incredibly hard.
By Melissa
In today’s time-starved society, sacrifices need to be made.
A million different things are vying for your attention. You only have so much time and energy to pursue a number of them. Anytime you’re presented with an activity, you have three options to choose from: start, stop, or continue.
The question is, which door do you walk through? At first glance, the answer may seem obvious. Start or continue the actions that give the greatest output, and drop everything else.
But in reality, your time ends up getting swallowed by all the little things. They take up precious hours that could have been put to better use. Maybe it means doing something unnecessary, enduring an unexpected hassle, or working on something that at first glance seemed simple.
When you find ways to get rid of those small annoyances, you can change your life in big ways. All of a sudden, it feels like your time has been freed up. It’s as if a burden has been lifted off your shoulders.