A new year brings with it new goals!  What are yours?  What are your chances of keeping those goals?  If you're like most people, your new year's resolutions will quickly fall by the wayside as life and old habits get in the way.

So, how can this year be different?  (1) Set realistic goals.  Don't decide to keep a perfect, spotless agenda.  Instead, decide to put all your sticky notes in one ugly notebook. (2) Make those goals specific and add deadlines: "I will gather all the sticky notes around the house and put them in this blue notebook by Friday." (3) Make sure you have support for the tough goals & give your goal umph by attaching reinforcements: "Dear Roommate, if I gather all my sticky notes from around the house by 5pm on Friday, let's go out for pizza to celebrate!  If I don't, I have to pay for delivery." (4) It should go without saying that your goals ought to be linked to things you actually care about, but you'd be surprised how many of my clients need to be reminded!  For example, if a nicely organized shoe closet has never crossed your mind, and your current shoe pile works just fine, thankyouverymuch, then that's NOT a good goal for you!

If your goals are realistic & specific, relevant to you, and supported, you're well on your way to success.  It's that support piece that is often the most difficult, and that's exactly what coaching is for.  If you're having trouble with any of these steps, give me a call. It's my job to help!

Research shows that a meditation habit is good for all sorts of things.  It improves focus, concentration & mood.  It reduces blood pressure & stress.  It's free and effective.  So why don't we all do it?  Meditation takes time and, for some of us, it seems complicated or hokey.  This new "app" called Breathing Zone takes the guess work out of meditation.  It's completely devoid of any new-agey-ness that might rub some folks the wrong way.  It's basically just guided breathing.  Check it out here: http://www.breathing-zone.com/
You'll hear a calm, neutral voice tell you to "breath in, breath out" and see a little design grow larger on "breath in" and smaller on "breath out".  The program is designed to help you increase your "breaths per minute" -- in other words, it'll help you slow down your breathing. 

That's all there is to it!  Just breathing.  Try it for 2 minutes and see if you don't feel just a little calmer & more focused.

The demo at http://www.breathing-zone.com/?page_id=216 is free.  And that's probably all you need.  The app for iPhones & Android phones is a few dollars.  It allows you to set goals, speed up or slow down the Breaths Per Minutes, and do a few other cool things.  It also allows you to take a minute to breathe whenever you have your phone with you.  Of course, you can always just take a minute to breathe the old-fashioned way, too!

I highly recommend Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.  Dweck is a highly respected Educational Psychologist who took the time to write a very accessible book synthesizing her research. 
Some new research has recently come out of Michigan State.

The Telegraph reports:

"One big difference between people who think intelligence is malleable and those who think intelligence is fixed is how they respond to mistakes," says Jason S. Moser, of Michigan State University in the US.

What kind of mindset do you have? 

As if you needed another reason to get a good night's sleep: This just in; sleeping doesn't just improve you thinking, memory, creativity, attitude, concentration, motivation, etc, once you wake up.  It seems to improve learning while you're sleeping.  Not bad for doing something I want to do anyway.  Excuse me while I go take a nap.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/235124.php

I love the sensible advice from Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong in this Chronicle Q&A piece.

A new study suggests that outside time (try a 5 minute walk to start) can improve concentration & impulse control in people with AD/HD.  Combine that with other research that shows spending even brief amounts of time outside can improve move and decrease anxiety, and sounds like we all need to get ourselves out the door!
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/09/16/outdoor-therapy-can-help-kids-with-adhd/29492.html

Insightful video (animating a talk by Dan Pink) on what motivates us.

This article from ADDitude (a popular press magazine about thriving with AD/HD) has some great suggestions for increasing attention span.  Though this magazine is often pitched to parents (as in "how can you increase your child's attention span"), we can extrapolate for ourselves.  For example, ADDitude recommends "Have your child rate how hard a task is for her (1 is easy and 10 is difficult). Ask her how she could turn an 8-9-10 task into a 2-3-4 task. Can she turn it into a game, make it fun by listening to her iPod while she does it, or break the task into small pieces and do one piece at a time, with built-in breaks?" 
If you're avoiding an onerous task, try this on yourself.  If the task seems like a 10, how can you make it a 2.  Is turning on your computer a "10"?  Certainly not.  Is opening up the draft you've been working on a "10"?  I doubt it.  Is rereading what you wrote yesterday so hard?  How about editing a bit?  Ease into writing with a little outlining.  See where this is headed?

"Is it normal to feel stupid after getting an edited manuscript back?"  This Chronicle of Higher Ed story talks us through the shame so often associated with academic writing.  Writing in a supportive environment, like an OnTrack Academic Coaching dissertation group, can alleviate that shame, or at least provide a soft landing place for when you do get that tough review.

This was just posted today by OSU: 

Dual-Enrollment Summer Program

This summer, the Walter E. Dennis Learning Center at Ohio State is providing an opportunity for 19 high school students to enroll in EPL 259: Strategies for Success in College. Students meet twice a week for 10 weeks under the direction of an instructor trained in the ADAPT (Active Discovery and Participation through Technology) model. Students discover how to overcome procrastination, build self-confidence, take responsibility, actively listen and read, prepare for exams, papers, and speeches, and manage their lives.

Past performance has shown that course takers have significantly greater academic success as measured by GPA, retention, and graduation rates than comparable non-course takers. Dual-enrolled students are helped to make the transition from high school to college. In partnership with OSU's Academy Program, the students earn both high school credit and college credit for their participation.

-- > Contact: tuckman.5@osu.edu
-- > Read more: http://dennislearningcenter.osu.edu