Sophie's Blog » Get What You Want From now on

25 Creative Ways to Unwind After Finals

Sophie — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:26:23 +0000

Do you know what I loved about being in college? The seasons, like now you have the Christmas Season and the time you can take away from the crazy rush of college, finals, classes, projects, time schedules, etc.

The Christmas Season taught me the importance of having down time.

After working like crazy all semester and then of course during finals week; I was ready to take a break. I was so glad that there was typically a week or three that we could take to recuperate spending time with family and friends.

I couldn’t always make it back to see family, but I’d spend time with friends, and making sure that I had one or two activities planned so that I would be ready for the new semester.

Making time to be with family and friends is critical to success in college. You need some type of support system. The holidays are a great time to make sure that you are re-charging the batteries.

Relaxing after the holidays is critical to success in the next semester, so here are some great ideas to help you recharge.

Here are a list of a few things you can do over the holidays to relax and get ready for a new semester.

1. Go to the Movies

2. Attend a concert

3. Play a new video game

4. Read a book

5. Take a mini road trip to somewhere you’ve not been

6. Reconnect with friends

7. Go for a dip in the pool

8. Visit the spa

9. Visit the Steam Room

10. Get a pedicure

11. Get a manicure

12. Make a meal with a friend

13. Pick your favorite movies and do a movie marathon day

14. Spend a day window or real shopping

15. Sleep!

16. Make your favorite dessert

17. Go out for coffee

18. Take a relaxation class, like Yoga or meditation

19. Draw a picture

20. Play with Play-doh

21. Build something out of Legos

22. Take photos and make a collage

23. Decide to create something… use your imagination

24. Decide to fix something

25. Do a girls/guys night out

There are so many things you can do to unwind. Just be sure to do some of them and have a good time. All the class stress time management will be there when you return. Set them aside for the holidays and enjoy the break.

If you enjoyed this please share it, re-tweet on the green button and grab a copy of your free thank you gift.

Sophie

College or Life, Huge Goals Get What You Want Now, 7 ways to Simply Succeed

Sophie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:45:36 +0000

You know what you want, now see exactly how to get it.

College is all about balancing many things at once, anything from the process of getting into college to the first day of class, mid terms and finals. For us Adults returning to college we can’t just put life on hold while we go back to college so each of these things are balanced in combination with a job, kids, a relationship, community commitments and more. So let’s look at 7 ways to keep things simple and succeed.

Just my style

Especially when you are planning and working around specific events like the holidays, a plan to succeed is vital to get you through.

What we’re going to do is to help you streamline this process so that your time is more manageable and your success becomes a reality.

1. What is your goal

For each large task you have in college be sure to know what you are looking to accomplish, I’d keep this to just a few words defining the goal should not be a labor intensive project itself. Having a goal lets us know when we’re successful.

If you don’t have a goal, how do you know when you’re successful?

2. Plan your success, make it easy

Jot down simple steps to get from where you are to where you want to be. There may be multiple steps and even sub steps to get where you want to go, and that’s okay. But keep the steps simple.

When things are too complicated it’s much easier to procrastinate.

3. Be sure your goals and tasks are measurable, able to be defined.

What will you see when you know you’ve achieved each step or task. Measurable can seem like such a easily cliched word, but this is the best word to help you know when you’ve accomplished each step in the process towards your goal.

4. Outline what tools you’ll need

Pretty simple, look at what you need to get from point A to B and have all of thsese on hand.

5. What might go wrong

This is an essential step; however, I need to give a word of caution here. Think about the potential obstacles and write down exactly what you’ll do to work around these obstacles, this is critical because if you don’t plan for the what if… you’ll be surprised by it every time and it will have the potential to push you off course.

Now with that said, the other equally vital part is do not dwell on the potential problems! Thinking about them too much will also take you off course by default. I’m speaking from my own experience here. Focusing on the potential problem doesn’t mean that you’re going to foresee every one.

Instead this will often backfire by taking your mind off course and if you’re like me you’ll end up scrambling at the end to make the deadline, and what you feared will not have happened. So have a few potential problems outlined and counter actions set for these. The mini plans of action will be tools for you in case you do encounter one of the potential problems.

6. Set Deadlines

When does the project or task need to be completed? Take this date and back it up by a day or two, work towards your date so that you don’t feel rushed at the end, and if something comes up that you couldn’t for see then you’ll have the wiggle room you need to still be able to succeed.

7. Decide you are going to be a success, and commit yourself to it.

Mark the completion date on your calendar, phone, or e-mail so that you have a physical reminder that you are making these goals to succeed.

These steps are essential and they will help you succeed in college and in balancing your life, especially around the holidays when your normally busy life typically will take on so many more activities that they can feel overwhelming.

Did you find this helpful? Be sure to share this with your friends and family, retweet, digg, and make a comment.

Oh and be sure to get a Free copy of my book how to get what you want out of life from now on.

Sophie

Ladies Learn How to Complain and Get What You Want Even From a Mechanic

Sophie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:13:54 +0000

Would you like to know how to get your car repaired and not get ripped off?

Well now that’s a silly question, I know unless you really don’t care about giving someone your hard earned money. I know I’d rather spend that money on a great outfit. So I knew I had to get what I wanted or someone else would. I found that knowledge and some well timed complaints are great tools to get me what I want. As you keep reading you’ll feel confident that you can get what you want even if you know nothing about cars, I’m not talking about taking a class on car repair, no something much simpler than that.

Check this out. Take a second and jot this down, there are some critical steps to take to keep from getting ripped off.

Essential steps to take before just complaining to a car mechanic

The set up, this takes a bit of work but it can save you thousands of dollars, plus you have to have ammunition to get what you want.

Get more than one quote about what’s wrong with the car. Don’t ever trust the first person you go to unless you already have an established relationship with the mechanic. Request an itemized quote.

Once you get this complain about how high the cost is, looked shocked, even if you don’t know anything about what the repairs should cost.

At this point you’ll often have them work to convince you that their costs are the best in town, or they’ll sell you on some particular aspect of the shop. Don’t fall for this.

Just walk away, let him know you’ll get back to them.

Critical, ask how long the job should take be sure you jot this down you’ll need this later.

1. Compare Based on the quotes go online or to a library and compare the costs you were quoted with the warehouse cost of the parts.

2. Call back anonymously and ask for the hourly rate and the mark up. Don’t be surprised if you don’t’ get the mark up amount, that’s easy to figure out.

Okay now let’s make a simple comparison

If you take the total cost per part, and add in the hourly rate for the job what do you see?

For example:

If the hourly rate is $40.00, this will vary depending on the place you live and the shop.

And the warehouse cost for parts, compare this to the shop costs for the parts.

Hourly Rate $40.00 job 3 hours total $120.00

Parts from the ware house $300.00 now take away the total from

Parts from the Mechanic $ 400.00, mark up is $100.00.

So in this example the cost for the work is $ 120.00 + $100.00 = $220.00

Compare the quotes, who has the lowest?

Next choose two:

Revisit the shops dress nice but not too nice you don’t want to give him the impression that you’ve plenty of money lying around the house.

Find out who would handle your repair, depending on what’s wrong they may have one guy who specializes in this.

Complement the shop; tell them what caused you to choose their shop for business. Thank him for his time, and then let him know what you’ve learned.

Complain about the high prices of other shops in the area, tell him you appreciate that the markup is not as high here. But tell him you’ve found another shop that’s similar in price and then ask him why you should consider this shop over the other.

Do this at both shops and then make your decision.

These valuable tips will keep your money where it belongs with you, not with someone who thinks they can get the upper hand just because you’re a lady; complaining and knowledge, now you’re armed to get what you want.

Become a smashing success at turning a situation around in your favor, see how http://www.sophiemaddox.com/get-what-you-want-from-now-on/

Or get more free information on the articles tab of my blog, www.sophiemaddox.com

Ladies – Get to Yes With This Amazing Well Kept Secret

Sophie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:23:55 +0000

The power of yes – there are amazing things you can accomplish with the word ‘Yes’.

One of my favorite is to you how to use the word to get what you want.

Think with me for just a minute, what’s the easiest thing to say yes to? Typically it’s something we like, now combine this with our favorite subject and you have a recipe for getting someone to agree with you to give you what you want. This is the best kept secret out there, you can get someone to say yes to what you want when you get them to say yes at the beginning of a conversation.

Okay it’s not quite that simple, but very close.

Let’s take this information and look closely at how it works.

1. Who’s your Audience? The first thing you want to do is to think about who it is that you are talking to what is it that you want and who you are asking this from.

2. Dynamic, the next thing to do is to talk to them like you would a friend. Ask them how their day is, ask them something about themselves, and make sure to ask them to give you their opinion on a general warm topic.

Warning! Avoid any type of hot or really controversial topic, you want this person to like you and give you what you want. You are not looking for a debate, or to prove you’re right.

3. Relate to them be someone they want to help. Ask close ended questions. You want to have them saying yes so ask a question it’s hard to say no to. Like if it’s hot out ask an easy question, isn’t it hot out?

Unless they’re from somewhere very cold they’re going to say yes. Now move on to more questions that you’ll typically get a yes to.

4. Present what you want, if this is your first time asking for something you really want be sure the request is reasonable. Don’t ask for the Moon and Stars if you’ve not been in the habit of getting what you want. Make the request seem like the most reasonable thing in the world for them to say yes to, this will make the person feel like saying no is just so harsh.

You’ll develop these skills to the point where you’ll be ready to ask for bigger things.You want and need to see early success; this will build your confidence as you go for bigger and bigger things.

Because you have a developed rapport and asked easy questions for someone to say yes to. You’ve created an open door that’s easy for them to walk through since they’ve already said yes to you several times.

Fact: This is a psychologically proven technique that will help you get from point A to B, with very little conflict.

What else do you want?

Would you like to tell your boss a few things, want to know how to do it without conflict?
Have you ever been in a relationship where you felt like a door mat?
Did you receive a bill you swear isn’t yours?

If you answered yes to any of these or even came up with your own scenario then this book is for you.Become a smashing success at turning a situation around in your favor. See how, www.sophiemaddox.com/insure