Life Metaphors And How They Affect Us

Life metaphors are those that describe the process of living, of going through life as a human. Actually, "going through" is a metaphor itself, and in conveys a sense of something we come into and then eventually find a way out of. Some common metaphors we use include life as a journey, a game, or a dream. But how do these metaphorical perspectives affect our actions and our experience? Let's take a look at a few of them, and how to best use or avoid them.

Life Is A Movie

This one is a fairly common life metaphor. We say, "Time for my big scene," or "This is the part where..." followed by some movie reference. More than just a clever thought, this is actually a way to make sense of what is going on. Some people also unconsciously take the role of movie-goer in their own lives, feeling like they are watching the story of their life, one that is directed by some other power or person.

The movie metaphor can provide some objectivity, and so may keep a person from suffering as much as they would if they did not have this distancing perspective. A new scene is on the way, after all, and there are always unexpected plot twists that can be good news in the end. Unfortunately this also may create a sense of passivity. Maybe it would be a more useful metaphor if you saw yourself as the writer, director and producer, as well as the actors and audience.

Life Is Purgatory

Some religions explicitly use the purgatory metaphor, claiming that life is pain, and that by suffering virtuously, you get to go to some wonderful place afterwards. Perhaps it is under the influence of this idea that people work at jobs they hate for most of their lives, in order to get the "reward" when they retire. Personally, I think this metaphor sucks the joy out of life, and is best avoided.

Life Is A Party

The party is one of the "fun" life metaphors, but perhaps only for a limited time. People who treat life as a party often are self destructive and end up bitter later in life. Partying to excess has its consequences, and a party has to be paid for. If life is a party, we are understandably disappointed when we don't have the resources to keep it going strong, even though these could be perfectly peaceful and happy times for those with another perspective.

The Best Life Metaphors?

Life metaphors can be a useful way to understand our experience and enrich it. For example, a "path," "journey, or "quest," can keep you looking for a better way, and maybe motivate you to overcome any obstacles. Seeing your life as a "story," might make it more meaningful. The "adventure" metaphor could make you see life challenges as exciting and interesting, rather than as problems.

Life can be a dream, a vacation, a tragedy, or a roller coaster ride, but what would each of these do to our thinking, and so to our choices and experience? When working in a casino, I found myself using that as a life metaphor. Some players put the odds in their favor and won, while others played when the odds were against them (most players) and lost, and the "house" or casino owners always made a profit. I found myself applying these lessons in many areas of life later on.

But life metaphors can be limiting as well. A "game," for example, has winners and losers, and competition is expected. You might miss out on a lot if this is your ruling metaphor. Even "quests," or "journeys," have their limitations, since that view may not encourage relaxing and enjoying just being here now.

The metaphors we use then, should change continually for best results. This is how we get the most out of each, without being limited by it. Let your life be a movie, for example, when times are tough, and consider the later scenes in which your problems are resolved. Play the "game" when you need to make strategic choices in life. Use the metaphor of life as an "awakening," or "expansion of consciousness" to learn life lessons and develop your spirituality.

These things can be understood in many ways, and the best life metaphors are not the cleverest, but those that give you the best results in real life.

How You Can Keep Track Of Your Time

time management strategies

It will help you manage your time well if you determine where your time actually gets spent. One useful way of knowing your actual usage of time is to track your time. This is one of the most important part of effective time management. and is is one of the important time management techniques that you must use. The process here is like planning a schedule, but it works in reverse. Instead of noting down the things that you are planning to do, time logging is a process of noting down the things that you have already done. Doing this is sort of a get- to-know-yourself exercise because this process will highlight many of your habits that you might unknowingly ignore currently.

For example, some people realize that every time they plan to do Physics homework they end up watching TV. Instead of studying for that math test, they play Internet poker. Other people just can't seem to follow their schedule until the week before finals.

Whatever your time habits are, tracking your time will help you adjust and fine-tune your time management habits. Having precise information about your time usage patterns can serve as an important point of reference for self-monitoring. The following are a couple of ways to track your time. Take a moment to try this – it will truly help you open your eyes and take control of your time.

1. Time tracking is pretty straightforward. At the end of every hour jot yourself a quick note about how you specifically spent your time for that hour. The note needn't be long - one sentence or less will do. If the way you spend your time doesn't tally with an already planned activity, just enter a comment as to what you really did during that time. This way you will be able to review patterns that emerge in your use of time and make the necessary adjustments to improve your productivity.

2. Some may find it helpful to modify the planning page to facilitate tracking time. The modifications are easy enough: make two columns on your paper for each day of the week. In one column, write down the plan you are trying to follow; in the second column, make notes on what you specifically did with your time. The side-by-side comparison is very informative and is an excellent way of figuring out where you are not using time in the way you have planned.

3. Another effective way to make changes and get results from your time management strategies is to summarize your use of time according to time categories such as: sleep, study, work, travel, etc.

Estimate how much time you think you use for the various activities listed and enter these in the "expected" row of your summary sheet. Feel free to include further additional categories that might be helpful. Then log your time for one week on an hourly basis. When the week is done, summarize your time by category for each day, add up the values for all seven days of the week, and record the totals in the "actual" row of your summary sheet.

Summarizing your use of time allows you to discover how much time you actually spend in the various areas of your life. It is almost certain that you will see a significant difference between the number of hours you expected to use in certain categories and the actual number of hours you spend.

If you discover that you spend more time in one area than you wanted, and less in another, the weekly summary of your use of time clearly shows you which activities to reduce to find the extra time you need for the neglected areas of your life. Indeed, you will find that this method of tracking your time will serve you well as one of the most important time management strategies that you can employ as you put it to use in your everyday routine.

Subliminal Messages For Effortless Positive Thinking

Have you ever heard of positive thoughts attracting good fortune? Or noticed that most happy people are optimists? Have you ever observed that people who stay calm during the worst crisis are generally the ones who do not harbor negative thoughts? You must have noticed that most successful people have supreme faith in their abilities and believe that they deserve success.

You can see examples of positive thinking everywhere. Yet most of us end up spending half our lives worrying about or expecting the worst! Why? Have your worries ever actually stopped the problem or situation from occuring? Has expecting the worst situation to come true ever made it easier for you to handle the situation when it does happen? Isn’t it nicer to expect good fortune? At least you are saved the anxiety of spending hours expecting the worst. Isn’t it nicer to live a carefree life instead of spoiling our now thinking about tomorrow…when we are not even sure of what it might bring? The problem however only exists within your mind. It seems to control us. Negative thinking can always creep up on you - even when you make a firm commitment to think more positively.

Positive thinking and Re-programming the mind

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could learn to control our thoughts? If only we could control our mind instead of it working the other way? But re-programming the mind requires effort at both the conscious and the subconscious level. The following approaches might be of help:

Efforts at the Conscious level:

Positive Affirmations:

Telling yourself that you deserve the best constantly will help bring about a shift in your perception. The logic is basic - if for example you are told repeatedly that you can't dance you will start to believe it, and eventually you will avoid the dance floor and feel self conscious. Similarly if you tell yourself repeatedly that you deserve the best, the affirmation will become your truth.

Consciously diverting your mind-

Every time you catch your mind sneaking in dark thoughts, make a conscious effort to divert your attention to a positive thought. Just as anything that you do repeatedly becomes a habit, with time thinking positive will also become a habit.

Efforts at the Subconscious level:

Clinical Hypnosis-

Clinical hypnosis is a therapy through which a trained practitioner can delve into your subconscious and reprogram your mind. This is particularly helpful when you have a deep rooted habit of negative thinking or are suffering from depression induced by chronic negative thinking.

Subliminal messages-

This is a do-it-yourself approach. Subliminal messages have the power to influence your subconscious - there are even postive thinking subliminal cds. The most commonly used instruments transmitting subliminal messages (for self help) are audio cds. In such Cds subliminal messages are either hidden behind music or are played in reverse (mixed with music). Often these messages are moved above the level of human hearing (above 20,000 Hz). People who believe in the power of subliminal cds claim that listening to them repeatedly can reprogram your mind and make it easier for you to control your thoughts.

The key to keeping a positive mindset no matter what is to align your subconscious mind with your conscious thoughts - so that they are both working hard to reach the same goal, and not holding each other back.

 

Determining Your Big Rocks And Managing College Student Activities

time management strategies

We all know how hectic college life could become sometimes. With all the classes, conferences, and researches, it is no wonder that some are hopelessly stressed out and confused and have their priorities all mixed up.

There are those who hold a part-time job while studying in college. Others have to juggle their studies with extra-curricular and civic activities. Of course, you also need to spend time with your friends and hang out with them.

All these things are actually part and parcel of what college students need to cope with. Organizing your time so that you can successfully accomplish your college degree and still do your other responsibilities is a feat you have to master. Learning time management skills to increase your effectiveness is important if you want fare well as college student.

Firstly, you have to know how valuable each time of the day is and how to utilize it effectively according to your activities in college. There is a famous story in Steven Covey’s "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" which has a profound lesson of how to utilize your time effectively.

The story is about a lecturer who stood before  a class holding a big jar, which he placed with big rocks. After filling it up with big rocks, he asked the class if it is full and the students said yes.

Then, he got smaller rocks and dropped them in the big jar as well, along with the bigger rocks. The smaller stones, of course fit in the jar. After which, he again asked the students if the jar is already full. Still, many of the students said yes. Other students cautiously said it seems full.

After their answered was given, the professor produced a bag of sand and emptied it into the jar, too. The sand, of course filled out all the tiny spaces between the bigger and smaller rocks. After emptying the entire bag of sand unto the jar, he again asks the students if the jar is already full. The class,cautiously, said that it is full.

However, the lecturer was not done yet, he took out a glass of water and emptied the water into the jar, which really did seeped up into the sand and ranks and eventually filled up the jar.

After this, the lecturer asks the class what the moral of the story is. The class, believing that they have spotted the trick, replied quite readily that the moral of the story is that "you can always squeeze a bit more in."

But, the man immediately pointed out that the real moral of the story is that “you need to get your big rocks in first, or all that other smaller 'stuff' gets in way too soon and takes up all the space."

Indeed, it is very true and is really, a profound insight concerning time management strategies for college students.

First, you have to know what are your ‘big rocks’ – the things that matter to you the most. Of course, you could always squeeze in other less important activities along with your ‘big rock’ activities.

However, if you fail to identify your most important priorities and always accomplish them first, then you will never have the chance to finish them out. This is because those other activities you are doing will take up most of your time and drown your efforts for your top priority activities.

According to Covey, these are the Quadrant 2 activities. Covey further reiterates that if you fail to take time to set the most important goal in your life as the first thing in your college student activity schedule, then you will never get the chance to let your ‘big rock’ activity evolve and grow.

This kind of effective time management is also a means of self-management. In fact, these two concepts are one and the same. College students have to establish priorities for themselves from number 1 or the most important thing they desire out of life, up to the least important but significant little activity they need to do that supports their achievement of their most important goal.

After you have determined your ‘big rock’ activity, then you should manage your college student activities – studies, researches, extra – curricular college activities, civic duties and socials, without ever straying far from your ultimate goal. Make sure that you do not wind up doing everything but finish up with nothing.

Take time to think about your reasons for being in college and your reasons for involving yourself in other college student activities. Doing this exercise will help you draw up the list of priorities you need to accomplish.

Always remember Covey and his big rocks, though. In listing down your priorities in life, always determine your big rock activities.

Power - What Good Is It?

Although we all want power, few of us freely admit it. It is common to think what one would do if he or she was a king or the president. We imagine that we would do good things; better than what is being done now. We think of power in personal terms too, as when we imagine that enough money or control over others would enable us to solve most of our problems.

The latter may be partly true. With enough money you probably could solve many of the problems you have now. But it's also likely that you would have even more new problems. As for our "if I was emperor" fantasies, what makes us think that all the presidents and kings of the world haven't shared our thoughts? They too undoubtedly planned to use their power for good. And in their position we would be subject to the same corrupting influences as them.

How, then, do we arrive at a power which is good and useful? We'll get back to that in a moment. First, let's look at some of the specific tools of power.

The Tools Of Power

Money is an obvious one. It is easy to imagine what could be done with large amounts of it. On the other hand, I have seen money come into peoples lives and wreak havoc. Not only did it not bring the beneficial changes they anticipated, but it put them further in debt and more stressed out. I have also seen people try to help others with money, only to make matters worse. Having money without proper knowledge and understanding is like having a car without a steering wheel - it's a wreck waiting to happen.

Suppose you study subliminal influence over others, and learn powerful techniques. Then what? You use your secret techniques to win the love of a woman or man, but perhaps the relationship adds only pain to your life. Or you use your mind power to get a job, and learn years later that you not only hate it, but you passed up a carreer you would have enjoyed. Isn't it common to find that our best-laid plans often get us not what we want, but more trouble?

There are other tools of power. Political connections, knowledge, and charisma come to mind. But they all have the same limitations that are hinted at above. Obtaining them is like putting more guns and knives in the hands of an infant - as long as we are in some ways like that child. This gets us to the real source of a good and useful power.

Self Knowledge

You cannot be powerful in a good sense without a high degree of self knowledge. You have to first exercise a kind of personal power to observe yourself honestly and come to understand who you are, what you need, and the nature of your relationship to the rest of the world. This is easy to understand intellectually if we use a simple example, like a man who has the power to build a kingdom - but not the wisdom to see that it is really a personal hell.

One definition of power is "The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively." This view sees that the "engine" of a car is meaningless without a steering wheel and good driver. It raises the natural question, "effective for what?" In other words, we have to truly know what our highest values are, or the specific manifestations of power become self-destructive and destructive of others as well.

To return to the metaphor of the infant with a knife: He does not understand his own body, or the danger of a knife to that body and others, or how to use it and for what purposes. He has to grow and learn more before it is appropriate for him to have a knife. We are always that infant in some sense, because we too can have the tools of power put in our hands before we are ready to safely and wisely use them.

If what money you have now is not used wisely, why would having more change that? If what influence you have over others has not brought about great results, why would more be better for you or them? If the knowledge you have has not been very helpful in bettering the life of yourself or others, why would knowing even more of these things improve the odds?

The personal power to understand and be in charge of oneself is where we have to begin. Getting tools we are not ready for will only cause more harm. Seeking a better understanding of ourselves and the world is the path to True Personal Power.

Nine Essential Time Management Tips for Graduate Students

time managment tips

When you are going though the initial months in the graduate school, you feel very optimistic about the level of your studies.  But later on, you seem to get discouraged and very much burnt out. Graduate Students will always experience that they have plenty of things on their plate but very little time to accomplish them.  How are you going to keep your sanity if you are full of course requirements, teaching, researches and the demands of your life?

In order to prevent yourself from burning out and from being drained from your energy, you  should do something to manage your time, that is, you will have to record down how you use your time everyday and make a progress report of your goals.    It has been said that time is money.  Time is one of the most valuable resources that we have.  You have to use it wisely.  When you lose it, it won't come back again.  Make the most of whatever time you have. This is where time management will apply.

Time management do play a vital role for your success in the graduate school.  When you use sound time management strategies, it does not mean you will be able to slow down or speed up the time.  The success of time management depends on you.  It is actually about managing yourself.

Moreover, you will be employing proven time management techniques in order to be organized.  If you are not organized, then everything will be in a mess.  It is then necessary to put things in order so as to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness.  And this can encourage you to be more productive and contented.  Time management simply refers to your responsibilities and the choices you make in utilizing your time.

We suggest the following nine time management tips for graduate students.

1.  You need to have a calendar and school planner.  Put some space where you will record your appointments, lists to do and assignments. Make use of a yearly, monthly, and weekly calendar.

You are required by the graduate school on long term perspective of time. Write a plan at least two years ahead with a yearly calendar which will be divided into months.

2.  Allocate time to do planning and organizing.  Each day, make it a point to check your calendar, take note of your future assignments, and your lists has to be be continually updated.

3.  Divide your tasks and assignments into smaller portions.  It makes it more manageable and easier to tackle.

4.  You should be able to determine your set of goals and the time needed to achieve them.  An example for this is when you determine deadlines which are realistic for every phase of finishing a large assignment such as a term paper.

5.  You should classify your tasks according to priority.  The big picture should be taken into consideration.  You decide which is the most important among your tasks.  Which assignments will be due this week?  Which assignments are more challenging?

6.  You should be adaptable at every moment.  Be aware that there will always be distractions and interruptions which will disrupt your daily routine. Allow space for necessary adjustments of your time.

7.  You need to know the time when you are very productive.  Identify your biological peaks and ebbs.  Are you at your best in the morning?  Or are you an afternoon person?  Schedule your whole day properly.  You must reserve the most important task during the time when you are at your best to do things.

8.  Don't be afraid to say no to a person if you unable to do it.  It is something that you are honest with him.  There are occasions wherein you may be given additional courses, responsibilities of job, activities which are outside your schedule.  Try to examine carefully how relevant they are to you, before you decide to accept them.

9.  The time wasted must be used properly for productive purposes.  Are you aware that you spend a lot of time  commuting and standing in lines waiting for your turn?

Always bring a pocketbook so as to utilize the time which will be wasted.  Take with you a minor assignment which can be done easily.   You could also use the time to make some changes in your planner.  With the additional number of minutes, you will be able to do more.