Social Internet Butterfly.

It was about midnight during the middle of the week that I finally decided to create a LinkedIn. I had just read up on a chapter about how it can lead to professional connections that I may not have been able to make otherwise. It took me about half an hour to create my profile and begin connecting with friends and family. Since I have created it I have also been able to connect with people that are within my area of study. I also downloaded the LinkedIn app on my cell phone so that I can always stay updated on the go. The app has been the most successful in creating connections with other people because I’ve been able to meet and establish a relationship with a person then later connect with them before I got home to my laptop. Not even a week after I created my profile I had someone reach out to me for a job opportunity that she had. Unfortunately it wasn’t something that would work with my school schedule but it was AWESOME that I already had something looking into me!!

Mentor.

I’ve been in management for almost two and a half years and never had anyone that I truly looked up to and conversed with until this past fall. I never really realized how important it is to have a mentor within the field that you are pursuing. Those people are able to talk you through situations that you may be unsure of or even how to your next steps in life. They are usually willing to help you in a professional and personal level to aim at bettering yourself. They make you feel comfortable talking to them and create confidence in yourself.

TALK. TALK. TALK!

I am someone who likes routine and doesn’t go out of a comfort zone very often. I tend to do the same things each week on a schedule and any variation out of that gives me a bit on anxiety. I don’t like putting myself out there and definitely don’t like talking to people about my college career or where I want to go in life. Within the past few months I’ve learned to be more open to opportunities though. I have talked to a lot more people about the path I’ve taken and the path that I am on now. I had a woman walk into my store while I was working last month and we began talking about what my plans were. By the end of the conversation I gave her my phone number and e-mail so that she could contact me about a possible opportunity. She runs her own business and needed someone part-time to control her social media presence and also her contact/e-mailing lists. She needed someone that could do some of the smaller things that she didn’t have time for but it was an brand new opportunity for me to take advantage of to further my career outside of college.

Making connections is fairly easy if you are willing to put yourself in situations that you normally wouldn’t do. I have been a lot more open about talking about my journey through college and where I would like to end up in life with a lot of strangers. I’m becoming more comfortable in using the people I know to connect to others and using those connections to my own benefits. The connections that I make with others could eventually lead me into finding the dream job that I want. They could be future references on a resume without me even knowing right away. Never be afraid of your story and how you got to where you are. Embrace that story and use it to reach out to others. The more open you are about it the better chance you’ll find exactly what you have always wanted.

Track me DailyGo.

I downloaded an app onto my phone called Daylio that allowed me to track my overall mood for the day. This was really simple to use but I did realize that the week that I was in Florida during March I didn’t really use the app at all. I also realized that on weekends when I was really busy I tended not to update my mood for the day either. So even though the app was right at my fingertips each day, I forgot about it a lot. The days I did forget about it tended to be my better days too. The nights that I did log in my mood the moods always tended to be content more than anything else. I think that the consistently logging in my mood I could change to checking LinkedIn and my connections instead. Checking LinkedIn on a daily basis instead of every once in awhile will help me stay up to date on news and messages that come through to me.

Planning Ahead.

Every Sunday evening I sit down and check my schedule for the week. I type my work schedule into my phone so that I have it on hand but I also started to write out my assignments for a couple weeks in advance. This allowed me to get ahead of my studies and complete things before they were actually due. I was able to create a study plan for exams that were coming up instead of being completely surprised a few days before I was supposed to take them. If I kept a more in depth planner I could begin to block out time periods to do work and stay on track and efficient.

Working Out…What’s that?

I thought working out would be very easy in keeping up with but I was wrong. I told myself that I could start doing yoga or workouts at least four times a week and I miserably failed at it. I was going to block out times during the day before or after work and in between class and homework. I took two week long trips to Florida which I thought would be a huge motivator in getting in shape for those vacations but they weren’t. Every winter I struggle with depression and rarely want to do anything…especially working out. I would tell myself “I’ll start tomorrow” but tomorrow never happened.