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4 Ways That Returning to Higher Education Can Change Your Life

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In life, it is never too late to make a change. The fact that you are heading down a certain path doesn’t mean that you have to keep moving in that direction. Instead, you can make decisions that will change your every day. One of the best ways to alter your future is by investing in your education. This will provide you with the opportunity to advance your career and improve your intellect. If you are searching for inspiration, you will need to read on. Below are four ways that returning to higher education can change your life.

It can help you to advance your career

Pursuing higher education doesn’t mean that you will have to give up your full-time employment. In fact, a new qualification could be the perfect way for you to advance in your career. For instance, if you are currently working as a nurse, you should explore a range of exciting nursing programs online. Not only is this an extremely affordable degree option, it is also a flexible program that is sure to complement your current lifestyle.

It can improve your self-confidence

If you struggle with your self-confidence, investing in further education is a great way to resolve this issue. Instead of focusing on what you can’t achieve, why not embrace a positive attitude? Setting yourself goals and seeing them into fruition will remind you that anything is possible. Furthermore, achieving a new qualification will help you to feel more confident at work. If you would usually shy away from the chance of promotion, your new qualification could be just the thing to help you step up to the plate. If you are determined to achieve success, self-confidence is key.

It can improve your earning power

In order to enjoy a bright future, it is vital that you are working towards financial security. Returning to higher education is an important step on this journey. One of the greatest benefits of investing in higher education is that your earning power will be improved. This will help to increase your career options for the future. Instead of putting up with your current wage packet, why not aim higher? Of course, you will have to spend money on your education, but you should try to look at this cost as an investment. It is extremely likely that your wise decision will pay off in the long run.

It can inspire the people around you

If you are raising a young family or are part of a particularly close group of friends, it is likely that your educational endeavors will act as inspiration to the people around you. It is extremely moving to watch somebody pursue their dreams, and it can lead you to question what you really want in life. Perhaps your loved ones will be encouraged to transform their own lives. Maybe they will invest in their own education and will use your story as motivation. Just imagine how proud you will be if your hard work has a positive effect on those around you.

Why Professional Development Is Key to Your Success

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Focusing on improving your individual skills is essential to moving forward in your career. Although some people don’t push for it as much as others, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. If you’re someone who’s on the fence about it for yourself, then you’ve come to the right place.

You won’t get very far doing what you’ve always done. You and your company will suffer from you not advancing your skills. It’s worth setting aside extra time to work on yourself and improve your foundation. There’s never a downside to increasing your knowledgebase. See why professional development is key to your success.

Knowledge & Education

For starters, you’ll learn new knowledge when you participate in professional development courses and activities. You’re going to get smarter and that’s a positive outcome. You can use your new knowledge and apply it to your career and personal life. It’ll get you a leg up on your competition and chances are you’ll move quicker toward that next promotion. You aren’t going to get too far relying on the information you once brought to the table from college. Always be learning and growing if you want to thrive.

Confidence

Your confidence will grow the more you invest in yourself. You’ll have the self-assurance to suggest changes and updates at work without having the fear of being turned down. For example, if you believe your company’s in need of a more modern website to sell your products, you’ll do the research and suggest a solid option like Eventige to help you out. You can express how the intuitive and simple design will guide customers to your products seamlessly. This confidence will stem from you taking your professional development opportunities seriously.

Challenges You

It’s healthy to be challenged once in a while. Being bored at work isn’t doing much for you and will only leave you feeling drained and tiresome. Participating in professional development activities puts your mind to the test and forces you out of your comfort zone. It’s also a great way to meet other people at face-to-face events and build relationships. Going through your same routine each day isn’t stretching you and helping to shape your full potential. There’s nothing wrong with feeling like you don’t know a subject matter well and having to ask questions to learn more.

People Skills

Professional development opportunities help you brush up on your people skills. This is great for anyone doing business with others or someone having to converse a lot with others in the office. It’s also good to be able to speak in front of groups and communicate your ideas clearly with people. Your reading, writing and socializing skills are ones that can always be improved upon, no matter who you are. It’ll bring you out of your shell and you’ll become less nervous as you practice.

Conclusion

Knowing it all isn’t anything to brag about. What’s worth boasting about is learning new information on a constant basis. This is why professional development is key to your success.

5 Ways to Enjoy Your Break Time during a Long Day of Work

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article

If you’re struggling through a hectic day at work, it’s likely that you’ll spend a lot of time dreaming about your next break. Taking regular breaks is a fantastic way to stay motivated and energized throughout the day. This is especially true if you’re using your break times effectively. When you’re planning your week ahead, make sure that you think about more than just the tasks that you want to complete. You should also consider how you’re going to get the most out of your free time. If you’re searching for inspiration, you’ll need to read on. Below are five ways to enjoy your break time, during a long day of work.

Socialize with Your Work Colleagues

Even if you already have a strong working relationship with your colleagues, it’s important that you use your break time to socialize with them. Add a drinks machine to your office space. This is a great way to get to know everybody on a more relaxed level. Investing time and effort into your work place friendships will ensure that you always have someone to turn to for support and advice. It will also set you apart as someone who can strike the perfect balance between friendliness and professionalism.

Put in Your Headphones

It might not be the most social of options, but putting in your headphones is an easy way to escape the outside world. If you’re dealing with a particularly stressful day at work, you might be desperate for a little time out. Why not listen to a humorous podcast or hum along to an uplifting tune? This is a simple yet effective way to lift your spirits.

Try Meditation

You could also deal with a stressful day by enjoying a spot of meditation. This practice will help you to clear your mind and control your breathing. Even if you’re surrounded by chaos, meditation will help you to stay strong and centered. It will also allow you to put your problems into perspective.

Enjoy Vaping

If you love to vape, your break time could be the perfect opportunity for you to indulge. Just make sure that you find a suitable area that you can escape to. You should also make sure that you’ve invested in the appropriate vaping equipment.

Download Interesting Apps

You should also consider downloading interesting apps onto your technological devices. This is a fantastic way for you to enjoy your few free minutes. You could download a range of games that don’t take too long to complete. Alternatively, you could download apps that provide you with motivational quotes, random facts, brain teasers, or riddles. The important thing is to find apps that you look forward to engaging with. It will be much easier to get through a boring meeting or a large pile of work if you’re genuinely looking forward to your break time.

The Best Way to Improve Your Business Assignment

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article
Photo courtesy of Green Chameleon via Unsplash

Assignment writing isn’t always the easiest of tasks for everyone. Sometimes writing our assignments can be difficult, or the words just won’t flow correctly but luckily there is plenty of help and advice out there to help get those good grades on your work. We’ve decided to take a look into some of the best ways to improve your assignments, so without further ado, here is our list.

Additional Reading

Improving the quality of your assignment can ultimately come down to extra reading. It’s likely that you’ve been given a reading list, but if you truly want your assignment to stand out, bringing in information from outside of the set reading will not only help you form a more strategic and believable argument, but it will show that you’ve done the extra work. Use the library in every way you can. Take out books, DVDs, journals and more, and use the quiet study area to truly concentrate on what the source is telling you.

Critical Thinking

Thinking critically about your assignment will be what takes you up those extra grades. Proving that you’re not just regurgitating information onto the page and are actually thinking it through will ultimately help you write a better assignment and argument. Understand the information to begin, apply it in some sense, and from there, analyse and conclude. Go that step further with your assignment. Even if you don’t need to include it in the final assignment, that critical thinking will help the knowledge settle in your mind as a whole.

Appropriate Language

As with any assignment, you need to be careful and precise about the language that you use. Avoid using personal pronouns as much as possible, and the right tense for your essay is another vital choice to make. Plain English and appropriate jargon and vocabulary for your assignment can take you from a basic assignment, to a business-specific, intelligent sounding assignment.

Read with Understanding

Reading is one of the best and most prominent ways to get information but to truly get information from reading, you have to read with understanding. By this, we mean reading and understanding what you’re reading. It can be tempting to skim over words and make notes that you don’t truly understand, but making the effort to truly ‘get’ what you’re reading can be the difference between grades, and a good and bad assignment. Make notes while you read, but don’t copy them word for word. Rewrite the information in your own words rather than just highlighting sections of text, and make summaries of each paragraph that you read.

Outline!

Planning and outlining your assignment before you start writing it will help you form a better argument within your assignment. After gathering all of your materials you’ll need to think about how you’re going to complete the task and how it will be written. Outline your work by identifying any key facts or words that need to be in the text, adopt a structure if it’s relevant to the assignment, and in the case that you form an outline, expand on this even more. Write down what you’ll include in each paragraph or what isn’t relevant. Analyse your arguments before you write for a more precise piece of writing before you even begin.

So You Think Your Boss Is Breaking The Law

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

In the movies, if someone suspects their boss is breaking the law, the conclusion to the story is pretty standard. The employee – sometimes after a crisis of confidence – reports their boss and ultimately triumphs. They stand at the end credits, a paragon of virtue and Doing The Right Thing.

The real world is very different.

If you suspect that your boss is breaking the law, handling the problem is not quite as simple as you might think. Your career is on the line; the personal finances of your family are on the line. Those facts alone are enough to make someone hesitate and wonder what they should do.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you think your boss, or the larger company, is doing something illegal, you have a number of options before you.

1 Ignore It

Upside: If you ignore the issue, you’re not going to get into any trouble — or potentially lose your job — due to reporting it. Ignorance is bliss, so you might decide it’s easier to just pretend you’re still ignorant of what’s happening. The choice to ignore the issue is a powerful one, but it might be the one that works best for you and your personal situation.

Downside: You could be affected by what they are doing. Let’s say you are a taxi driver and you learn that risks are being taken with the vehicle fleet maintenance, documents forged, cars that aren’t safe to drive being let out onto the road. Your silence could ultimately result in you having to seek out an attorney that has experience in treating auto and work-related injuries because you become a direct victim of their negligence. This kind of situation can happen in all fields; with white collar crime, you could even be implicated as an accessory, for example. If you think the idea of whistleblowing could damage your career, then you need to think through the potential consequences of suffering for their malpractice.

2 Report Them Anonymously

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Upside: Though we know many famous whistleblowers, there are plenty of anonymous whistleblowers who still managed to make a change to company practices. This helps you to feel safe in the job without fear of reprisals, while still ensuring that changes are made due to your report. You can be completely honest with anonymous complaints because they can’t be traced to you, allowing you to be sure all the right areas are investigated.

Downside: You do have to consider what will happen if your complaint is followed up on by law enforcement or local government. If the entire company is engaged in illegal acts, you could easily find yourself without a job. Before you report, it’s wise to examine your career options and ensure you have a plan B if the company should close. It’s also worth remembering that no anonymity is one hundred percent complete all the time; there’s always a chance – however improbable – that your boss will find out it was you who made the report. You have to be certain of your facts before you make any report to an authority, so don’t make a guess: you have to be sure.

3 Confront Them

Upside: This is the most direct approach and thus can herald the best results. There is always a chance there is an innocent explanation for what you think you have witnessed. This option gives you the chance to find out the full story before rushing to any judgement. There is also the fact that your observations could serve as a wakeup call. Illegal or other nefarious activity is meant to be secret; if you have noticed, it might be a sign to your boss or the company that they are losing control of their secrecy. This, in turn, could make them examine their motives, and potentially change their ways.

Downside: It might end badly; you could be fired, or even pressed into being complicit in the illegal activity on pain of losing your job. This could put you in an extremely difficult situation, meaning you have to choose between what’s “right” and what is best for you and your family. It’s a good idea to make sure you have another option for employment, just in case your intervention is not welcomed.

There’s no doubt that discovering your boss or company is engaged in illegal or negligent business practices is troubling. Ultimately, you have to make a decision that is best for you; hopefully the options above will have given you something to ponder.