Stress in student life - III

College time is one of the most interesting time of life where you can discover your own self and your hidden potentials. This is the time to experiment and choose a path that will take you to the top. So follow these simple tips to de stress yourself --

1. Plan your schedule. Yes, boring as it may sound, but this is the best way to plan your work, study, assignments, presentations etc. Get the right information from the start. Be clear about the kind of assignments, presentations that you are required to give. Most of the universities follow a fixed academic calendar. Get a copy of it and refer to it when planning your work. Most of the teachers give adequate time for handing in assignments --- be sure to give it on time to avoid last minute hiccups. If you are on time, you will not have to run around them alter seeking extensions. Make a realistic timetable and make sure to follow it.

2. Work on your weakest point. This is very important. You must know the area where you are lagging. Some students are good in written work. Some are better in oral presentations. Take time to look for your shortcomings. Take the help of friends and family to recognize yours and work around those shortcomings. There may be six or seven subjects in a semester. Instead of leaving the harder one to the last – work on it more than others. This way you will be saved the panic attacks at the last minute.

3. Prioritize. It is important to be able to differentiate between important tasks and not so important tasks. There will a time when you need to make hard choices. You should be able to make realistic assessments of consequences. It is your choice to whether you want to your assignment or go for the movie. Whatever decision you make will have effect on how you make further progress in your college. Needless to say, handing over assignment should be more important than going for the movie.

4. Develop a stress busting hobby. As said before, it is the duty of a student pay adequate attention to their studies, but at the same time, it is equally important to have a well balanced life which can lead to all round development. There are so many extra curricular and co curricular activities in any college. You can choose any one of them and develop yourself in it. Use this activity when you are stressed out or are unable to concentrate on your studies. This could be in form a a sport, dramatics, singing, dancing or any other enjoyable activity which can make you feel happy again.

5. Make a group: It is very important to have like minded people or people whose company you enjoy around you. Find yourself some good friends on whom you can depend on. Act as each other’s cushions during difficult times. Help each other out and most importantly, give each other a good advice. It is good to have some people Loneliness can make the challenges of your new life seem much worse.

6. Stick to a healthy lifestyle. It is important to take care of your health when you are working hard. A healthy body keeps stress away and gives rise to a healthy mind. A good diet can work wonders and lift your mood and help in coping up with the pressures. Avoid using alcohol and drugs as a way to cope with stress, as these can negatively affect your mood as well as your health Yoga and meditation are very helpful activities for managing stress.

7. Manage your sleep. In one of the famous dialogues in the mystery “ The Bourne identity” – the protagonist who is a secret agent shares his secrets with a partner and frequently repeats that “Rest is a Weapon”. And this is true in our normal lives as well. Sleep deprivation can cause irreparable damage to our health and work if continued for a long time. As a student, when you are required to work under multiple pressures, having a good sleep at night is an advantage you can use effectively.

Stress in student life - II

The profile of an ordinary student has undergone a sea change. These days, a student is not only a student. He has commitments related to employment, personal relationship, and family responsibilities in addition to educational matters. Most students realize this and are quite capable of juggling these multiple responsibilities, but at times, the stresses and strains of coping with multiple roles and their crosscurrents impact adversely upon students. And this is why it is very important for students to adopt some cushions and stress busting techniques in their lives.

Student life is a very exciting and wonderful phase of ones’ life. It is here that a person learns to experience first hand the problems, difficulties and pressures that he/she will face in future. Hence, it is equally important that these students also learn how to cope up or overcome these problems as well. Thus this can also turn out to be the most pressured and stressful phase of life. The time is limited and a lot has to be achieved. Young students try to pack up so many things together in their college years that they end up losing everything.

Let us take a look at some of the factors that cause problems or difficulties to students.

1. Change in Study process : Coming to a college or university after a protected school environment is a transition which overwhelms majority of students. The learning process changes dramatically from classroom teaching to lecture format with focus on self study and broader perspectives. Teaching is no longer confined to blackboards and one book, but encompasses so much of reading material that new students start getting lost. After the first few months, when the pressure of assignments, presentations, exams starts building up, students crack up. Research has shown that under-achieving students have not developed effective ways of coping, or their problems are so overwhelming that their coping mechanisms are to no avail.

2. Change in Lifestyle : Not only does the studying process changes, the whole system changes as the world starts looking at you as an adult and thus starts the process of finding the identity and a place in the world. This is a big psychological upheaval. It also involves many challenges at a practical level. Not all students get a chance to study at a place near to their homes. They are either required to travel long distances, stay in a hostel or put up in rented accommodations. All this requires a change from their previous lifestyle and even the routine eating and cleaning seems to be a big burden.

3. New opportunities : There are a multitude of activities that a student can choose from and get involved in, based on his/her interest. These are but not limited to be sports, social and political activities, dramatics, Literature and so on. The student must involve oneself in such activities as they help in developing a well rounded personality but the other part is that all these activities also need to be given time to gain something out of them. Thus there can be a constant conflict to give time to activities which are enjoyable and activities which are vital.

4. Personal relationships: There is a change in the way the youngsters view relationships today. As a part of growing up process, they get more freedom from the parents and in fact, demand it. They have their own social circle and fear of rejection is very high. They have to keep up with the peer pressure and under such circumstances end up doing things they never wanted to do.

Stress in student life - I

Student life in particular is increasingly becoming more and more complex and difficult with rise in the number of young people opting for higher studies as compared to previous years. The students in fact, never had it so good before. There is a plethora of job opportunities and various new and exciting career avenues which they can take up today.

But with all these good things comes responsibility. The responsibility is towards their own self to realize their own potential, to their friends and family and to the society at large. Since the youth today are more confident and seek independence pretty early in life, they also have to cope with the consequences of their own independent decisions and here in lies the challenge to which they must rise. When the students go headlong into the process of being independent without realizing the responsibility that comes with independence, the conflict arises. And this is when the stress kicks in. The balance which is required is missing and then the promises being to break and falter.

It has been seen that about 50% of American students who enter college do not complete their graduation. And as per U.S. Census figures, only 6 out of every 10 high school seniors go on to college in the following year. The main reason for this dropout has been attributed to the high stress and complexity involved in college studies.

Personal grooming and Etiquettes

All of us at some point in our life have admired leaders having a charismatic personality and secretly wished that we had some of that charisma in ourselves. Though charisma or inner charm cannot be acquired superficially, it is still possible to develop a well liked and admired personality through proper grooming.

There are other qualities that a make a fulsome personality than sheer physical beauty. This is not to undermine the importance of a beautiful face but it is not everything. The inner charm or personal magnetism is what actually makes someone very special. However when the two are combined the combination is irresistible. A good attractive personality is always an advantage in any situation. People are drawn towards magnetic and attractive personalities and want to know all about them. It is exactly the reason why people are crazy about celebrities and devour every bit of news regarding them with interest.

The most important trait of good personality is its confidence. Self confidence or having confidence in yourself can make a huge difference in how people perceive you. If you unsure of yourself, you will be projecting the same image outside to others as well. So, it is important that you cultivate confidence in your self and this can only happen if you really believe that you are capable of handling any situation. Self belief and prepared ness are the keys to self confidence.

Pay adequate attention to you personal grooming. Be clean and neat all the time. Dress up properly for the occasion. No one wants to talk to persons who are shabbily dressed. A neat and clean personality always radiates a confident attitude – someone who takes care of himself can also take care of others. Clothes should be comfortable – not necessarily fashionable. Every fashion does not suit everyone. Do not be a blind follower – choose only outfits that you can carry off confidently.

Remember , The first impression is the last impression. People take only a few seconds to judge others and in these first few seconds, what they note is the appearance. When you are fresh and well groomed, it creates a positive impression. Research has shown that good looking people have a 20% advantage over the not so groomed ones.

As Dale Carneige in his best seller “ How to win friends and influence People” said -- Everyone can spot a fake and it does not help to be one. Be kind and gentle to people. Sometime, everyone makes a mistake, be forgiving and importantly – differentiate between the mistake and the one committing mistake. True, it may cause a lot of trouble, but it is not going to end the world. So be forgiving and be gentle. Develop your character by inculcating good behavior and discipline in your life. Let your inner charm and faith flow out and embrace others in its magnetic wrap. Charge yourself with strong willpower and have full faith in your abilities.

Office Politics

Office politics exists in every organization, small or large and no matter how much an organization tries to avoid it, it cannot be wished away. The reality is that where ever there are people working with and around each other, there will be personal and professional politics. From the first day of our career to the last day in office, office politics affects us all. Our performance at work, our relationships with superiors, peers and subordinates could be determined by office politics.

Office politics in broader sense, is a conflict arising out of personal and professional communication. It can be verbal or non verbal. Body language plays an integral part in office politics, both as a contributor and an inhibitor.

At work, there are often issues which we have very little control over. It’s not uncommon to find corporate policies, client demands or boss mandates which affects your personal interests. Bitching and complaining are common responses to these events that we cannot control. But other than making you a constant whiner or a person who is always negative, it seldom accomplishes anything.

Instead of feeling victimized and angry about the situation, focus on the things that you can do to change the situation. Remove the victimized feeling and allow others to see you as someone who knows how to operate within given constraints. You may not be able to change or decide on the eventual outcome, but you can walk away knowing that you have done the best within the given circumstances.

To win this game, you must build a network of allies which you can tap into. Another reason to hold back your temper is your career advancement. Many organizations are now moving towards using 360 degree reviews to promote someone. In this review, ll the other persons who are involved in day-today interactions with the employee are asked for their opinion on the working of the individual. And thus a few bad reports from them could ruin your plans for advancement even if you have performed very well.

So, be prepared to encounter some nasty bits while in your work career, but be confident and choose your own way out of this mess.

Decision Making Ability

In our daily life, we take a lot of decisions everyday, some of them are routine while some involve some thinking from our side. And it is these decisions that we take , that has a profound effect on the way we lead our lives in present as well as in future. But we never give much credence to ourselves or to our ability to tackle sound decisions in our life. And we have all been involved from simple to many complex decision making activities at some point in our life.

But, even though we take lots of personel decisions every day , it is only in the context of our workplace that our decision making ability emerges as a good skill. As employees and as management personnel, our decision making ability is constantly under scrutiny at our workplaces and here we ourselves are not only more aware of our decisions but also pay more attention to making them.

As per one of the study, a sound decision making ability is given weightage by prospective employers especially at middle and top management level.But how does this process of decision making takes place ? What is so difficult about it that most managers are downright fearful of the consequences of a wrong decision? Generally, a decision making process involves three steps: A recognition of a need; a decision to change and a will to implement the decision.

Decisions are an inevitable part of human activities. If understood properly, each problem becomes an opportunity. Decision making is a key role for any manager or leader. But many people struggle when it comes to taking decisions. And this is not due to their inability but simply a fear of taking the wrong decision which makes them fearful. The fear of failure, procrastination and lack of clear understanding of the issue are the main reasons why decisions go wrong. And these are things which managers should totally avoid.

Management experts have come out witha structured approach to decision making which involves certain simple steps to take a complex decision. The first is to Define the problem as clearly as possible. It is absolutely vital to have a clear idea of the problem you are trying to reach a decision on. Many experts suggest writing down the problem on a sheet of paper and revising it again and again till it can be written down in one single sentence. Then the decision taker should assess all the possible outcomes. It is importanat to take a look at all possible outcomes of that decision. The third step is to explore various alternatives and finally Choose the best alternative. Of course, any decision taking will be incomplete without proper implementation. So, once you have decided on the option, go ahead and implement it.

Maintain a Positive Attitude at work.

Most of us spend half our time at our workplaces criticizing our bosses, superiors or colleagues and blame them for our bad performances. We blame our circumstances, our personal problems, bad work culture, unfriendly timings and policies followed by our organizations but seldom have I seen anyone taking responsibility of their own behavior.

Achieving success in your career isn’t just about brains, talents and connection. Its more to do with the right attitude towards work. And I call ot a POSITIVE ATTITUDE and a POSITIVE BELIEF. And this is what Charismatic and successful Leaders have in abundance. They make things happen and move with the sheer force of positivity.

Everyone likes a person with a positive attitude. No one wants to listen to a whiner. Bosses do not want people who always bring problems. Come to think of it, none of us wants to work with a person who is always angry, grumpy or simply negative. But even then we all fall into the trap of negativity quite frequently especially with issues related to our workplace.

A positive attitude brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into your life, and will make you happier, brighter and more successful. Always expect the best to happen and it will happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening.

Follow these simple tips to Get better success at workplace:

1. Take Responsibility: Easy to say but very difficult to do. None of us wants to take up responsibility at the workplace. But without it, you cannot hope to move forward. The moment something goes wrong, we attribute it to everything else except ourselves.

2. Nothing Is Impossible: Believe in yourself. It is easy to pass on the blame to management or the organization, but have you actually tried getting things done. Do it first without any presumptions, Most of the time you will find people responding. But our problem is, that we believe what others tell us – It cannot be done. As they say “It is better to try and fail, than not try at all”.

3. Learn from your failures: Turn your failures into stepping stones to success. It can happen. Things can go out of control, but that is not the end of road. You can always try again. Past is history – and we must learn from history and move forward. It is okay to make mistakes but it is definitely not ok to repeat them again. Therefore, learn your lessons quickly.

4. Be sincere towards your work: You cannot hope to rise further unless you can show enthusiasm and zeal towards your work. It may happen that you feel unmotivated for some time, but if the conditions persist, it is better to look for another career or job rather than stick to current one which leaves you dissatisfied.