Synchroblogging: “I’m Usually in a Good Mood or Being Myself When…”

Kelvin over at Moments In Time has started another round of Synchroblogging. This is the second subject that student bloggers have been given to write about. I look forward to reading the other entries.

This month’s topic? “I’m Usually in a Good Mood or Being Myself When…”

I started TheUniversityBlog as a way to help others and return to an involvement in Higher Education. It was just the start. I got working in HE too. I’ve made some great friends and contacts along the way. The last 12 months have been almost entirely positive.

This gives me reason to be in a good mood most of the time. For several years, I was perfectly happy, but by following a passion I find that happiness comes more easily and in an even greater volume.

So I’m generally in a good mood all day. Woo!

To make matters even better, I’m now a Dad and it’s an amazing experience. It’s totally changed my life, which is to be expected. And because my son takes up so much of my time, timescales for everything else have altered dramatically. But the great news is that I can still do just as much as before. I simply needed to recognise what was necessary and fit it into a smaller allocation of time. It’s easier than you think, even when free time is at a premium. Can you think of a time when you suddenly had a heavy workload, yet you somehow discovered an extra hour (or three) in the day to get it done?

Through this year of major change, I owe a lot of it to being myself.

“Just be yourself.” It’s a common piece of advice that I’m sure you’ve heard before. Maybe you’ve dished that advice out to others in the past. But what does it really mean?

There are many different ways to ‘be yourself’. The way you act with mates on a night out is totally different to the way you behave with your family. It’s different yet again to your actions when you’re at a part-time job. Our responses to the situations we encounter alter depending on who is involved and what the circumstances are.

But being yourself isn’t the same as being one-dimensional or obvious. Being yourself is about responding as an individual. If you try to follow an idea that doesn’t come naturally to you, chances are you’ll make mistakes and find an outcome that you didn’t want.

It’s easy to blame others when you don’t remember to be yourself. But what’s the point in that? Making your own decisions certainly means you have to blame yourself once in a while…but there’s no harm in failing if you made your own decision in the first place. You’ll learn for next time. Doing what other people tell you to do, or acting the way you think others want you to act, won’t help you learn half as much.

To sum up:

I’m usually in a good mood when I’m being myself
I’m usually being myself when I’m in a good mood

Which suggests that all I need to do is stave off a bad mood. As things stand, I’m pretty confident. So long as nothing bugs me…

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Other sites participating on Synchroblogging:

Visions & Goals vs. Plans & Ideas

You’ve got a choice. Either strive to follow your vision or simply make do with whatever comes your way. It’s up to you.

photo by Wellstone

Most of us probably start out with the former. Vision is not the same as having a passion. Visions and goals are more easily found. They give reason to what you’re doing. Your vision has likely shaped the story behind why you’re studying Astrophysics, Performing Arts, Geography, English, Law… Whatever you’re doing, it’s unlikely that you’re at university because you chose a course and institution at random.

While you head toward your visions, you make plans and come up with ideas that you hope will turn those visions into realities.

But what if things don’t go according to plan? What if your big ideas weren’t so perfect after all? I’ll tell you what…it doesn’t matter.

Your vision needn’t suffer when your plans have to change. Similarly, your goals can stand firm even if you need new ideas to reach those goals. But vision often gets muddled with plans, even though they are two different things. Sadly, the muddle can lead to ignoring your vision, just because a plan didn’t work out.

Vision is (as I see it, at least!):

Overall aims and objectives;
Perception of the future…a destination;
Movement toward a solid strategy;
A reason to make plans.

Plans are:

Ways of getting closer to where you want to be;
Outlining a way to get from A to B…the route (plans) may change, but the destination (vision) doesn’t;
Building blocks, but not the overall structure;
A reason to carry on;

Light up your vision. Work toward your goals. By doing that, review your plans and ideas as you go along. There are always changes along the way, but it’s up to you to embrace the change, rather than let it get in the way of the bigger picture.

That’s why you’re at university. Grab the opportunities while it’s easy to use such a selection of resources. Embrace the world of now so you can love the world of the future.

I’m not saying visions never change. You may get a flash of inspiration, a switch will flick in your head and you’ll see the world in a different way. That’s all the more reason to embrace the visions that come to you and work your plans around them, not the other way around.

With that attitude, passions can become more apparent and you can find more certainty in what you do. Greater clarity brings a vision closer. Consequently, you will be able to plan better.

What do you think? Are you working toward a particular vision? Has a plan backfired, stopping your entire vision in its tracks? Has a minor idea turned into a spectacular vision? I’d love to hear your stories.

photo by woodleywonderworks

EduLinks – Learning resources, thinking grounds, Facebook thoughts

Given the unfortunate absence of EduLinks on Friday, here they are today. Honestly, I don’t know…

NewsFilm Online – http://www.nfo.ac.uk/

Some of you might find use in this huge database of ITN newsreels, clips and stills for your coursework and presentations. It stretches back to news from 1910 and brings you up to recent years. As The Guardian reports, “content can be held locally and used in and out of the lecture theatre. It can be used for independent research and integrated into teaching materials across a range of topics and academic levels”. You are also able to edit the clips to suit your work.

Nick Burcher – Facebook’s huge growth

There’s now well over 12.5 million people in the UK enjoying Facebook. It’s growing fast. Now, do you accept that friend request from your Mum…?

Internet Psychology – Don’t worry if you don’t have many Facebook friends, you’re more normal than you think

Yes, Facebook is huge. Way over 100 million users around the world. Are you friends with half of them, or just a small circle of friends? As Graham says, don’t sweat it. The longer you use it, the more you’ll build up a solid friend list.

DoshDosh – The future of content in the age of information overload

Uni students now do a lot more of their reading over the Internet. It’s not surprising to get a shrug or a blank look if you ask the question, “What daily paper do you read?” because most students are likely to buy no paper, yet digest articles from more newspaper websites than ever.

The DoshDosh article raises some good points. I wonder if you’d buy a quality magazine if it catered specifically to you. Would you pay money to get hold of informed and quality content that analyses the stories, rather than just tell you they happened? Do any of you still prefer reading hard copies of papers and magazines? Have you changed the way you read? Do you keep track of news more now, but never used to bother reading a paper at all?

Seth Godin – Making it real

If you’ve not heard of Seth Godin, he’s a business & marketing author and speaker. He’s full of ideas and has a great following. Seth’s advice in the post above works well on a student level too.

Coursework has a tendency to get in the way of other plans. As I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t have to. Seth explains that you have to make things feel real in order to take it seriously. You can treat your work like this. Just because a paper isn’t due for a month, doesn’t make it ‘weeks away’, because the deadline will creep up on you. Take Seth’s words into account; if your work is due ‘on Friday, the 14th of November’, that’s what you need to keep telling yourself. Worth a try if you’ve had due dates suddenly tap you on the back and shout ‘BOO!’

Get Rich Slowly – How do you turn passion into a career…and should you?

An insanely detailed article about passion and using it to your advantage. A great piece, regardless of whether or not you feel you have any passions right now.

Angela Maiers – Teaching 21st Century Learning Habits and Attitudes

Designed for the classroom, but relevant for life. Angela outlines 6 habitudes toward powerful learning, critical thinking, imagination and flair. There should be no restrictions with learning. No boundaries or limits.

Angela ends with a question, but I think she’s more hopeful that you’ll take it as a passionate request…”Come join me as we step outside the lines?”

Open Culture – Intelligent Life at YouTube

Another goodie from Open Culture. This list outlines some of the best user collections of educational and reference videos on YouTube. Not just universities, but also TV collections, talks at Google, and various science and technology groups. You may never need watch TV again.

Do you ‘Hansardize’ or ‘Gove’? Unheard Words & applying them to uni life

The BBC has reported on Ammon Shea, the man who spent a year reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary from cover to cover. That’s all 20 volumes of the OED and he really went from A to Z.

The article mentions a good number of interesting words as it documents Shea’s feat. What caught my eye especially was Shea’s list of 10 favourite words after his mammoth read.

Here is how I would put his favourite words in context of university life:

Cachinnator – one who laughs too much or too loudly
Most of us after a night in town with loads of mates and too many drinks.

Dyspathy – the opposite of sympathy
“You left the essay until the last minute, did terribly, but wasn’t allowed an extension. Well, boo hoo you!”

Gove – to stare stupidly
Those annoying lads who stand at the side of the dancefloor, ogling the girls. Seriously, it’s more fun if you actually interact!

Hansardize – to change one’s opinion
Frequently occurs mid-essay, rudely interrupting your flow.

Happify – to make happy
Just turning up guarantees me a pass!? Yay!

Natiform – buttock-shaped
The tired seats in the lecture halls.

Pejorist – one who thinks the world is getting worse
The work is piling up, my girlfriend isn’t speaking to me any more (just because of a stupid drunken kiss, nothing worse…I can’t even remember her name), I can’t find the right references for my coursework, all the recommended books are already taken out by other students, I don’t have enough money to go out, my best jeans have a strange stain that won’t come out in the wash, and my housemate has found the ability to turn the sound of his music up to ’11’ when I haven’t had enough sleep. I blame everyone except myself.

Philodox – one who is in love with his own opinion
The lecturer who won’t stop talking, who keeps plugging their own books, who regards their own theories as ‘facts’, and who doesn’t have time to actually help you get the grade.

Secretary – one who is privy to a secret
The friendly student who likes to listen and who seems to be up at all hours of the day. You need someone to talk to at 3am, no problem. Door’s always open! …but how far do you trust them?

Tripudiate – to dance, skip or leap for joy
A First!? That paper got me a First!? Woo woo woo woo woo! Ceeeeeeeeeeeeeelebrate good times, c’mon! Yeeeee haaaaa!! […and so on.]

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What ‘university’ definitions would you give for any of these words? And how would you put a university context to remord (to recall with a touch of regret), fubsy (short and stout) and assy (behaving like an ass)?