ACADEMIC SUCCESS

With the school year in full swing, now is a great time to re-assess your child's progress and ensure that he or she is on track to a successful academic year. Academic success like, athletic success, breeds self confidence and builds self esteem and is at critical - if not more so, for your child's future. And while not every child is destined for academic genius status, or even straight A's, there are a number of steps you can take to help smooth the waters and make school more enjoyable. With a few organization and success techniques, there is no reason to why any student can't become more successful and enjoy respectable (if not stellar) academic progress.

1. Envision Goals and Success

It's often said that the palest ink is stronger than the best memory. Setting goals for the academic years, writing them down and referring to them can really help your child get in the right mindset for success. Start by asking her to envision what a successful school year look like. Ask her to think about which subjects she does well, which one she doesn't. What does she like/dislike about school? Then follow up with some more specific goals - Would she get straight A's in every subject? Does she wish to stop dreading math tests? 

Once all that is done, encourage her to put her thoughts in a letter, a goal list, a story or a collage. Have her hang her "Success Map" someplace where she can see it daily, like her study area, or on the family message board. 

At the end of each quarter, review the map with her and see how she's doing. Look for areas to praise, and areas to improve on. If she's been successful in all areas, find ways to keep her going, or look for more goals.

2. Shop Wisely for Supplies

Having the right supplies can make all the difference. But school supplies can really add up. So try this method to help control costs and avoid meltdowns at the store. Take a piece of paper and label one side "Supplies for School" and the other side, "Supplies for Home". Most teachers or schools provide a list of supplies, so you can use that, but keep in mind that separate notebooks and folders for each subject help with organization. One central planner or homework pad where all assignments get listed is a help. For writing or paper intensive classes, consider a binder, ideally one that zips up.

For supplies at home, consider extra paper, notebooks, pads, pens, computer paper, and things like scissors and staples. Store these things in your child's study area and take stock of supplies every month - or have your child do it and make it his responsibility to add to the shopping list.

And when you do go shopping, hand the list off to your child and let him shop for himself. This will allow him to be more invested in his success - after all he can't say he hates the folder if he picked it out. Be sure to check the cart contents before checking out to see what has "sneaked in."

3. Create Study Central

All kids need a place to call their own for studying. But not all kids need the traditional desk in room - in fact you may prefer to have them do homework and study in a central location so you can monitor them - and keep up with the subject yourself. But any study area should have good lighting, electrical outlets, a hard flat surface to spread out books and papers, an absence of distractions and a place to house supplies. Some kids will love the stationary desk and you can stock up on supplies. Other kids will move around, and to minimize the time spent searching for a pen, paper, etc, consider creating a mobile supply unit - a file box with separate folders for each item. 

Invest in a filing milk crate and set up a hanging folder for each teacher/class. Use it to file papers - consider one file for "done" work and one for work in progress. Work with you child to ensure that papers filed in school folders or scrunched in the bottom of a backpack move into the filing system - set a two-week schedule for this and you'll find that the task is manageable.

If you use a binder - one for all classes or one for each class, set up a system and schedule to move papers into the binder and out into the file box so that the binder doesn't become mammoth and unwieldy.

4. Locker Organization

If your child is in middle-school, he or she might have a locker for the first time. The locker is an important storage space for kids and a great way to teach them organization skills. In most cases, the locker should be their space and off-limits to you. You can provide them with a locker shelf to help them stack books and binders, magnets, sticky note pads, and a magnetic pen box. A dry-erase board might also be helpful to jot down notes.

Since lockers can easily become a dumping ground, consider giving your child this list of Do's and Don'ts

- Do Replace materials to their original location

- Don't just throw things in

- Use magnets to hold up important papers

- Don't just drop papers into your locker

- Don't expect anyone else to organize your locker for you

As your child enters middle-school it's important that she starts to take personal responsibility for her success - but as a parent you need to provide the structure to make this possible.

LIVE NOT YOUR PAST BUT FOCUS ON YOUR FUTURE

Many people take an unpleasant situation and let it rule the way they look at life. The company downsizes and you were one that was cut. Your spouse cheats and leaves you. Someone you thought to be a dear friend turns out to be not such a true friend. When these things happen many spend their time blaming the other person for having done wrong to them.

"If my boss hadn't fired me I wouldn't have lost my house." "If my friend hadn't turned out to be such a terrible person I wouldn't be so depressed." If my spouse hadn't cheated I would not be so lonely."

Instead of looking at the situation as a turning point in their lives, people tend to use it as a pity party on themselves. I will not belittle the pain. The pain you feel is real and it is expected. But the point is that you can decide to rise above the situation.

Instead of deciding to focus on what went wrong and the loss, decide to focus on where the road ahead will lead you. Maybe you've lost your job and finances were tight to begin with and you don't know which direction to turn. Was that your dream job? Was that your dream boss? Is there something that you've always wanted to do with your life, but were too busy working that job to go after your dreams?

Maybe there's a person that needed your attention that you would have never noticed if that friend hadn't let you down. And maybe that friend didn't intend to hurt you. There are times in people's lives where they see no other way. They may be suffering on the inside and you don't know it.

People don't always do things to hurt us, as we often think. There are times when people need to do things to help themselves, but never intend or want to hurt someone else. Step back and take a look at the situation. You may never figure it out, but at least give them the benefit of the doubt that there is something that maybe you don't even know that they are suffering from themselves.

Divorce is a difficult situation all its own. You can spend your life trying to figure out what went wrong or why you were hurt or you can decide to get back up and live again. You can decide to spend your time blaming the other person for a bad marriage or you can decide to rise above it and find a new direction in life.

Maybe there is a dream career you didn't go after because you had no need to work. Maybe there's a person out there that you've never met that's been waiting on you their whole life and everything will line up and you'll find you've never been so happy.

The point is if we spend too much time living in the past and blaming the situations that have 'done us wrong,' we may miss the future we secretly long for. Close the doors to the past and walk forward. Open your eyes and your heart to what life has to hold for you today.

You've been given a chance to open yourself up to what life has to offer you. Decide to forgive, to release yourself from the pain and to move forward in life. Go after the life you deserve, the life that's waiting for you to live it.

CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE

The real secret is that whether you feel sad, broke, lonely, overweight, depressed, overwhelmed or hopeless, you have the power within yourself to change the way you look at life and ultimately the power to change your life.

Oftentimes we spend too much time thinking about the negative parts of our life. But what we don't realize is that by keeping ourselves in that state of mind we are sabotaging our happiness, our future, our daily lives.

Another important point is that no one other person can make us happy. Although being around or with someone may make you feel happy, they don't create the happiness in your heart. They don't decide whether you feel like being happy or whether you feel like being upset or depressed.

The truth is that by changing the way you think about things you change your life.

You might be behind on your bills and sit around worrying about it or you can take a good hard look around at what you have to be thankful for. The bills haven't gone away, you've just decided to change your state of mind to focus on the good in life.

You might be struggling to lose weight and sit around looking in the mirror complaining about the way you look. Or you can take a look deep within yourself and think about all the things you're good at and all the things you have to offer. The weight is still there, but instead of focusing on a few pounds, that don't make you who you are, you choose to focus on the great person that you are and the many things you have to offer others.

You might have lost your job and be sitting around blaming your boss for firing you. Or you can think about what you want your life to look like from this point forward. Maybe there's a career change in your future. Maybe you've had a dream of working with young children or people with disabilities or becoming the manager or a retail store. This job loss is your opportunity to take a hold of your life and go after your dreams.

Once you take a look around you'll see that it's up to you to decide to change your state of mind. You can decide that you want to feel hurt, broke, overweight or depressed. Or you can decide that you want to feel alive, blessed, beautiful and happy. The choice is yours!

Simply by changing the way you think about any given situation you change your life. Happiness is a decision that you make. It comes from within you. It is up to you and only you to make that decision and to live life to the fullest.

Make a choice today to be happy. Look around you and discover what you truly have that you are blessed with. Chances are you have a lot to be thankful for. Allow the happiness to flow into your body and to attract more happiness back to you.