Higher Education-When It All Changes!

Higher Education has been living by tradition dating back hundreds of years. That tradition still carries forward today and will eventually make its way into newer mediums of knowledge. Change comes with disruption causing society to rethink the purpose and point of getting a degree.

I am a product of an older world and system where chalkboards were common in school and personal computers were seeing their first light.  Some of the classrooms I attended didn't have air conditioning and everyone got hard copy books. Old maps were pulled down to share, even if you couldn't see them from the back of the class.

Likewise, I am also a product of large libraries that contained a wealth of knowledge stacked up to the walls. I could sit for hours and look through book after book. I could smell the aging of the paper, see the rips, rubs and blemishes. An entire library can  now sit in my cell phone.

 These changes are surface changes as that process of learning and developing continues on despite the medium people use. Brighter minds will still seek information and understanding while those who don't care won't frequent a library or kindle anyway. People find ways of getting what they need and want.

We shouldn't be afraid of changes in higher education. The very nature of change is positive when more people have access to education as a cheaper price through virtual means. We must learn to blend old and new traditions together to create something new that works for the next generation. To each its own. 

Society will negotiate the form and manner of higher education through the legislative process. The change will be reflective of elected officials who will think about their own education and with any luck also consider what the generation in the cradle now will need. They will compare U.S. education market  with those overseas and will determine if innovation or tradition should take precedence; or something in between.

Weight Loss with Quality and Portion Control

Two problems that face most people who want to lose weight is quality of the food and the size of the portion. People often eat too much and too much of the wrong food. Both can have a serious consequence of weight gain. Making better choices will help you in achieving your fitness goals.

Working out alone doesn't do it. Certainly you can burn more calories and improve your overall health. The problem is that you would have to work out like a professional athlete if you want to burn off the calories from a box of chocolates or a bag of your favorite chips.

It is better to start with a smaller portion and adjust according to your weight loss or gain. As Americans we have become accustomed to large portions and when we don't get it we feel like we didn't get our money's worth. All you can Eat, Big Mac, Super Size, Big Gulp, etc. are all part of the problem.

Eating smaller will lower your total calorie count and this is important if you want to lose weight. But losing weight should not be the only goal. The other side of a health fitness program is to eat the right foods for health. This means replacing fatty foods with greener, leaner, and healthier options.

If you get the right mix down you can lose weight and improve your body image. Cutting calories will help you lose weight while eating the right foods will improve your body formation. Both help to create a healthy lifestyle that works on your in and outsides. It may take some time but start small and make your way up. 

Honoring Advertising Contracts

Advertising is a contract where each person who hears the message makes a choice to frequent a business or not. They weigh and balance their time, effort and money to come to a conclusion. This is the customers investment. When the customer puts forward effort the advertisement becomes a social contract where individual customers expect to receive what was offered.

When this doesn’t happen the perception of the business declines. Recently I found a Saturday happy hour sushi special online. It was a good deal with $2 seaweed salad and $3 California or Spicy Tuna Roll. I made the decision that this is where I would like to catch a quick bit after an event.

Unfortunately, when our group arrived the waiter stated that they hadn’t updated their advertisement. Because this was the reason why we came to the restaurant I requested that he talk to the manager to see if he would honor the deal. With a sheepish grin he came back he admitted they made a mistake but would not honor the advertisement.

People make mistakes and fail to update advertisements but when the customer gets attracted to a printed deal they are doing exactly what the business wants. When the business then doesn’t honor the printed deal it looks like false advertising. Customers can be quickly turned off.

Whether or legal or illegal is not the point. The issue is gaining customers. For a Saturday it appeared to be empty. A review of Yelp found that customers ranked the restaurant low and it appears they changed their name in the past few years but may have kept the same management. Their failure to honor the commitment not only is turning away customers but also appears to be part of a broader matrix of poor decision-making.

How I Got "Bested" by a Pack of Surfing Dogs

Just when I was learning to surf myself I was bested by a dog. That is right....a dog on a surfboard. Imperial Beach was crawling with people watching Petco's Surf Dog Competition. Certainly not something I have not seen in other places but definitely fun to watch.

 There was a large crowd with vendors. Plenty of room to walk up and down the pier and then head to the beach for a while. A few stores dot the beachfront for those interested in shopping. I didn't have much time to check them out with the surfing and dog watching.

I was impressed by the strip along the beach. It looks like it has been built up over the years and is very clean. For a Saturday with nice whether and an event we were still able to find parking within 15 minutes which is great. We only needed to walk a half block to the beach.

Can You Tap Your Internal Motivations?

Whether you are a writer or working on a project it is important to understand your essential motivations in life. As you engage in daily business and have to make decisions about actions, projects and paths you will want to keep these internal motivations in mind. Use them as a guide to your overall work happiness.

Each person has things that motivate them but most don’t know what they are. We can spend an entire lifetime making decisions but not understand the basic latent motivations under those actions. Spending some time thinking about your interests and actions can provide key insights into what makes you “tick”.

This takes time to develop as it requires a level of insight and knowledge of yourself. One of the reasons why people become self-actualized in older age is because they have the experience and knowledge about themselves that comes from years of self-reflection.

This process can speed up if you are willing to think about the goals you have set and the decisions you have made over the past 5 or 10 years. Think about what you enjoyed doing, the type of work you felt happy with, and where you were successful. Use them as a guide for future decision-making.

Try and define the two or three essential statements that sum you up. Explain yourself in a single paragraph and use that explanation for making difficult choices easier. Seek to be genuine with your interests and work so that you can succeed in your life and career. Tap into your internal motivations and reap the rewards of higher performance.  

The Problem of Procrastination

Procrastination is common problem that can be improved with a little motivation and pre-planning. We can see procrastination at work in projects that are chronically delayed or papers turned in a few minutes before their deadline. People who wait until the last minute to get their work done often show poor quality work and missed deadlines.

Procrastination is a habit and motivational problem. People who are chronically late are subconsciously avoiding starting a project and then force themselves to scramble to get it done. They have not yet developed the discipline and motivation needed to  give themselves the best chances.

Assuming that they were successful in getting the project done before the deadline there are a few reasons why as a manager or professor you should discourage such behavior. I have noticed in both the teaching and the business world that the projects are often subpar and contain errors when under duress.

When people are rushed to complete something they cut corners and make mistakes because they are focused on finishing the main components. They also put unnecessary stress on everyone else that must also drop what they are doing to assist in the “all important” project.

Employees who procrastinate are not working at their full potential. Starting early is a sign of good planning and can lead to better project/paper management. Those employees that can manage their time and resources well are ripe for promotion. Reward employees that can manage themselves and their time appropriately--they are the same.

Two Skills of the Market Shaman

A few of us have met market shamans who seem to understand what is going to happen next in the market and can turn pennies into millions of dollars. They are a rare breed that has this drive to understand and apply knowledge to the market. The two skills of the market shaman include forecasting and understanding human nature.

Both of these skills work together and are related as a narrow and wide lens. The economic system is the collective action of individual human effort. Understanding people and how they act on a macro scale gives the Shaman a full picture of what is going on in the market and how events play out. 

As the economy globalizes it is necessary to view individual and economic behavior from different cultural vantage points. Each culture comes with a defined way of thinking about issues and new information is sifted through that culture’s decision making matrix to come to possible conclusions.

1. Forecasting: Forecasting the market is an essential skill of developing strategies and investment opportunities that pay dividends. The further the projection the more likely plans and contingency plans can be created. Unfortunately, the further the projection the less accurate they become. A market shaman constantly watches the market, educates him/herself, and connects the trends to understand where the market is heading. 

2.  Understanding Human Nature:  Markets are based on human behavior. We may describe them in terms of economics, numbers, charts, dollars, and graphs but they are essentially still representations of human behaviors. Understanding trends is one aspect of being a market shaman while understanding how people act and react to the market is another aspect.  Studying human behavior will help predict market reaction to events.