Tag Archives: Motivation

Health and Fitness, Internal, Lifestyles

What Can I Do to Gain Leadership Experience? Become a Mentor (8 Tips for Women)

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by Stephanie Harbin

Although mentoring is one way to gain leadership experience, it requires commitment and compassion to stay the course. Simply put, mentoring should not be taken lightly. Whether the mentee is an adult or youth, the individual will be relying on you to be available and to provide guidance. Hence, this article suggests eight tips to ponder before taking the leap.

8 Tips

  1. Consider your motive.

What is your motive? This question supersedes everything. If you lack clarity and do not have a big enough why, maybe you need to rethink mentoring as a strategy to acquire leadership experience. Aside from possessing a combination of skills and qualities, you must care about people and their success. So, reflect carefully on your response to the initial question. At length, making a difference should be the major objective.

  1. Write down your goals.

Deciding to become a mentor is one thing, but creating a plan to make it happen is another. For that purpose, develop SMART goals. As you may know, SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.

What do you need to accomplish in the next week or next 30 days? What do you want to accomplish in a year? Use a journal or spiral notebook to record the information. Plan to succeed.

  1. Begin where it makes sense.

Several groups need mentors: young adults transitioning out of foster care, students (high school and college), women re-entering the workplace, women returning to the community after incarceration, troubled youth, first time supervisors, entrepreneurs, etc. Where do you think you can make the greatest impact?

  1. Keep an open mind.

Your mindset will make the difference. That’s why it is imperative to refrain from being judgmental or biased. Both can stunt the growth of the mentor-mentee relationship.

  1. Perform thorough research.

Read literature to discover the mission of the agency, the programs, and services. Who are the clients? What are their needs? Uncover the challenges and/or opportunities. Even though mentors receive training, never neglect your homework.

  1. Think about potential challenges.

Be encouraged to face any perceived limitations or fears. However, brainstorm ways to overcome them.

  1. Seek to maintain balance.

Effective mentors excel in buildings relationships and relationship building requires time. Still, you cannot lose sight of your other obligations. With that said, get a firm handle of your current schedule. Sharpen your time management skills so that you don’t stress out.

  1. Take the next step.

If you’ve done all of the above, then make your move. There’s no time like the present to get started.

You’re invited to visit https://www.everythingleadership.store to download a FREE 7 Proclamations for You to Make Every Day and Recommended Reading List – Business, Success pdf.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Stephanie_Harbin/77858

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9971107

Looking for mentorship to start your own business? WE HAVE THAT! Click here for more details.

Financial, Health and Fitness, Physical, Uncategorized

The FULL COST of Smoking Cigarettes

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Cool cigarette smoking guys

This is how smoking is usually pictured when the cigarette companies used to freely play mind games to convince you to smoke.

Nowadays, not many would argue the fact that smoking is bad for you. It’s linked to lung cancer and heart disease, and is associated with nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the United States.¹ Yet so many people, even some I know personally still smoke despite the health consequences.  Besides ruining your physical health, smoking can also seriously ruin your financial health.

The upfront cost of smoking
Cigarettes aren’t cheap. Prices per pack vary from $5.25 in Missouri to $12.85 in New York, but the national average comes out to around $6.28.²’³ Smoking a pack per day will run you $44 per week, $188 per month, and $2,292 per year. Over 20 years you’ll have spent $91,671 on cigarettes. You’ve literally burned almost 6 figures!

If you got it like Granny, then ‘burn baby burn’, I guess.

Health care costs of smoking
Besides the up front cost, there are more subtle costs associated with what I’ve heard some say is their way to relieve stress. Extra doctor visits, prescriptions, hospital bills, and other treatments all cost money, and smoking increases your chances of needing those at some point in your future. In total, smoking-related illness costs the United States over $300 billion per year.⁴ Smokers also have to face higher insurance costs because of the health risks presented by their habit. All told, smoking one pack per day costs around $15,000 a year, or $40 per pack.⁵ Having $15,000 go up in smoke sounds pretty stressful to me.

The opportunity cost of smoking
Opportunity cost is a concept covered in economics and business courses. So unless you’ve taken both at the K-12 and collegiate level like I have you might be drawing a blank here. In a nutshell, it’s FOMO realized. In other words, (for my non Gen Z & Millennial readers) what are you missing out on because you decided to spend resources on a different option.

In our smoking scenario it means what could you have done with that $15,000? Did you want to start building a business but found yourself short on start-up funds? Maybe that could be the foundation of your child’s college fund or inheritance. Or is it that vacation you desperately want to take (of course while still keeping your physical distance; not trying to sort out catch dat ‘rona). Is your habit costing you the potential to live on your terms and start building your future?

Anyone who may be reading this and is struggling to quit smoking, I understand that it’s hard but keep trying. I want to see you reach your full potential and stop missing out one life-changing opportunities. Check out these resources from the CDC. And share your story in the comments.

(1) https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm

(2) https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/cigarette-prices-by-state/

(3) https://smokefree.gov/quit-smoking/why-you-should-quit/how-much-will-you-save

(4) https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/economics/econ_facts/index.htm#:~:text=Smoking%2Drelated%20illness%20in%20the,%24300%20billion%20each%20year%2C%20including%3A&text=Nearly%20%24170%20billion%20for%20direct,due%20to%20secondhand%20smoke%20exposure

(5) https://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/events/flyers/tobacco-free/hidden-cost-of-smoking.pdf

Internal

Losing Wait

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Absolutely loving the blog post Losing Wait from Mary Kay’s CMO Sheryl Adkins-Green! Obviously she’s not talking about the weight that most people resolve to lose every new year, but the “wait” she mentions is just as if not more important.

I’ve decided to replace my “wait” with “S.T.A.R.T” also, but before I do for one last time…
• “S= Start smaller to achieve bigger. In other words, I break my goal down into manageable and achievable segments, instead of a big chunk that will overwhelm me.”
Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, developed a great tool for doing this called a dreamline. As I tweeted, I finished my most recent dreamline a few weeks ago and have already started the steps towards reaching some of them. It’s a great tool because it forces you to dream big and then you go back and consider the financial costs involved in reaching those dreams. Too often we let the money stop us from dreaming instead of realizing that we find money to do things that we are passionate about and truly want to do.
• “T= Target a specific time each day to work on my goal, even if it’s only 30 minutes. I literally schedule it. I make an appointment with me and I keep it!”
appointment book
•” A= Ask for help and accept help. So often, we’re so busy doing for others that we feel that we can’t or shouldn’t ask for help. Yet we all have at least one friend or family member who is willing and able to support our goal. We just need to ask!”
• “R= Reward my progress. It’s important to celebrate each success along the way, no matter how small. Plus, who doesn’t love a reason to get a new pair of shoes?”
•”T= Treat time as my most precious resource and make every minute count.“
I am a professional in my entrepreneurial pursuits and in my day job but so often find that my time is not being respected as a higher paid professional’s time might be. Remember no matter what your job or lifestyle, your time is yours and you have the final say in how it will be used. Don’t allow others to waste your time because it’s the one resource you have no way of recovering. So lose the “wait”.
What are you going to “start” when you lose your “wait”?