It's all about the focus

Before you all ask yourself by looking at the title, this is NOT a chosen quote I have picked from the internet for a QOTD, this is just a post that I have decided to do (with the chosen post title) as I made some choices that I wasn't proud of at the beginning of this week, as well as what I nearly ended up doing because of how I was feeling. This was what had inspired me to make this post.

My outcome for this post, is to make everyone reading not feel alone if they are going through something similar, or need some encouragement to keep focusing on achieving what they want to do in life regardless of how long & time consuming it is taking them. What I am about to tell you is not exception.

For the past 4 years, I have been dreaming of a career in the policing. Around the same time, I began developing my passion for psychology, and wish to do something in that industry as well. And because they both combine well together, I chose to do Public Services at college due to there being a ton of psychology involved in that industry. 

That journey to get to where I currently am now had started at doing a L1 Sport & Public Services course, where I got to learn more about what policing is actually like, rather than the stereotypical catching criminals, as well as learn about the basic fitness elements. During the COVID-19 lockdown, all I was doing until I had finished for that summer break was creating online posters on Word promoting sport activities. I thought I wouldn't be able to get through it during that lockdown, but I just got on with it like my future ambition depended on it. I even signed up to the OpenUniversity to get a few psychology related qualifications under my belt as well, just to get me prepared for my future. (Which was going to uni back then)

I then made an easy progression onto the L2 course doing the same thing, but it was more to do with sport & fitness. By that time, I felt confident enough to create my own blogging website to share my then & now knowledge of psychology to an audience. Especially during the 3rd COVID-19 lockdown, where I couldn't do anything else besides coursework for 3 months. I was mainly doing a lot of coursework & practical sport & fitness that relate to mental health, which I really enjoyed learning about, as well as doing. Let me tell you, doing what I did during that 3rd lockdown felt like the hardest thing I had to go through, let alone embrace, but I knew it was important that I get through it, because of I didn't, I wouldn't be able to progress onto doing L3 Public Services.

When I did get onto my 1st year of L3 Public Services, I felt like I've already accomplished a major achievement, just by simply being on the course itself. However, I never expected the FULL-ON assignment workload which layed ahead of me during my excitementfor the first 2 months. I remember feeling the struggle of the workload around halfway through the academic year due to falling behind with my assignments. Luckily, I managed to knuckle down in my free time, so it prevented me from making that mistake again. Before long, summer had hit, and I was able to relax with a sense of relief,  knowing that I have already done well enough to progress onto the 2nd year. In that time, I suddenly wanted a career in the Royal Navy. (After finishing uni)

Because I did the 1st year, I was able to do the 2nd year of my L3 Public Services course. Again, this felt like I've already accomplished a major achievement for just progressing onto the 2nd year. I made sure to get onto doing course right away, so it gave me plenty of time work through them calmly without feeling any pressure to rush them. However, that all changed at the beginning of January, where I had new assignments come out every 2 weeks. From then up until May, I was literally neck deep in coursework that I had no choice but to take a hiatus for 3 months. I also made the decision to not go to uni in that time frame too. Although I still thought it was worth going to 2 open events back in December just to see what uni life would be like.

Overall, I would say that I have experienced some high stress levels throughout my whole L3 course in Public Services. This was because I felt like my whole future depended on getting a decent grade at the end of it, or else I would be screwed.

Back in March, I was reccomended by my tutor that I take the SC route into policing, instead of doing the uni route, so I didn't have to stress over UCAS points, which worked out for me. Also around that time, I was employed by Disability Challengers as a part-time play/youth worker. (A job I'm very proud to have for reasons that shall be explained in another post) Back then was because I was still in the mind of going to uni, and thought this job would pay off my student loan.

Fast forward onto this month, I am not working in the Police Force just yet. This is because I feel like I should just settle down after everything that has happened from January - June. Especially with my job at Disability Challengers, as I want to put my focus on that more during the time being as well. 

*This was where my poor choice occurred*

I was reccomended to do extra credit at college by doing a L2 Health & Social Care course. Because I have done a L3 course, I feel like it's pointless doing a L2 course afterwards, so I wanted to drop out of education by looking for full-time work that would work round my Disability Challengers job. This led me to bunking off college in order to attend job interviews. Even then, I thought I was getting somewhere, but after lengthy conversations with a few people, I realised my choice was getting me nowhere, but trouble.

This was also where common sense hit me by saying that the more time I spend in education, the more qualifications I will have. Plus, the more qualifications, the more likely I will get into my dream career. I then vowed to myself that from next week onwards, will be clean slate. To make this happen, I must embrace my situation by just keeping my head down, and getting on with everything without backtracking my focus.

That pretty much concludes my long arse journey progression talk. I hope this has given you all courage to be more open about your journey progression as well.

Remember, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FOCUS!

Onwards & upwards.✊🏻

What to expect from this blog throughout the new year, as well as the future

Hello everyone! First thing's first, I hope you've all had a great start to 2023! Regardless of whatever that may be. As for me, I am now currently in the exciting process of looking for bigger & better things for myself. 

What I mean by this is I am throwing myself into psychology communities, which will help me to give me more confidence with connecting with other people in those communities that share the same passion as me. As a bonus, seeing what people post on these psychology communities will help to give me inspiration about what posts I should do, as well as sharing my blogging content with them. In other words, some of the future-coming posts on here might not be hand created by me. Meaning I will be sharing other people's psychology content on here too.

Speaking of my blogging content, I am fully aware that last year hasn't exactly been the best year in terms of me keeping up with publishing on here, (see "Into each life, some rain must fall"  to see why) which is why I want to spend this year fully committing myself to keeping my blog active.

Finally, if anyone (including myself) was to look back at my posts in 2021, you will notice right away that almost all of them I did back then had a rhetorical question as their titles. When I think about it, in a way, it's like I was trying to make my topics sound philosophical. This was mainly because I wanted to be able to answer what people tend to ask about. Call me a guesser, but I'll hold my hand up by saying that I'm really no philosophy expert. But at the same time, however, I would like to develop a better knowledge on what philosophy is all about. Just to be basic here, if there is anyone reading who is unfamiliar with the term philosophy, it revolves around thinking. Yes, I do mean actually thinking in general. This is another something I want to add more of onto my blogging content. 

So there we go. Apologies for repeating myself yet again, but I honestly feel good about 2023 being my year of success! Even as I sit here on my bed just thinking about it, I sense the feeling of optimism running through my mind like it's constantly reminding me. 

Oh, earlier in the week, I came across something interesting on Psychology Today that caught my eye, and I thought about distributing what I saw onto my blog. I aim to get myself working on the research, as well as to have it published on here by this Sunday - 8/1/2023 the latest.

Stay tuned!

Wrapping up 2022 early...

As the title states, I will be publishing my last blog post of this year. This is because I intend to spend the remainder of the Christmas break in wind down mode. Meaning, I want to take a lengthy relaxation break. With that said, I shall plan to be back working on here sometime after new year.

Not only am I signing off early, but I also want to utilise this time I've got now to briefly talk about what I want to do for next year, without disclosing too much information. There may even contain a small bit of evaluation as to how I feel about what I want to do for next year as well.

What are my plans for 2023?

Asides from doing what I already do now in terms of posting psychology content on here, I want to be looking into more deeper psychological stuff with a deeper meaning to something and distribute them on here. Moreover on that, I want to be able to use these deep psychological posts to inspire people reading by thinking how these psychological meanings are used to shape the world. To put what I'm saying in more basic terms, diving more deeper into the world of psychology.

Another thing I've been thinking about doing for next year, is to start coming out of my comfort zone by connecting with other people who share the same passion as me. These can vary from joining psychology groups on social media or on the internet. In terms of my blog, I want to connect to other bloggers, again, that share the same passion. I for one, have never really been a person who joining in with community groups, as I've personally always been a shy person when it comes to this kind of thing. However, I feel like soon would be the right enough time for me to finally push myself out there to joining online communities. Especially if it's to share my passion with other people who also share the same passion as me.

Finally, and possibly the biggest one (if I can make it work) is to get myself actively involved with mental health charities, as I am also hugely passionate about mental health. This is something which I feel rather optimistic about doing the more I think about it. 

That's pretty much everything I've got to say. I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of what's left of 2022, including Christmas & NYE, and I shall be back here again in 2023!😊

My 2nd university open event experience (10/12/2022)

I was originally going to make this post last night, but I became too occupied with watching the England V France football game. Sadly, the Lions lost, courtesy of the French. And let's also not forget Harry Kane's missed penalty.

Anyway, yesterday's experience was almost similar compared to last Saturday's experience. Although, I got to do some different things in this experience this time around. Here's my full takeaway of my 2nd open uni open day experience from start - finish...

I arrived in Portsmouth shortly after midday to begin my 2nd university open event experience. Once I got myself checked in, I immediately looked for the building within the uni campus that I needed to go to. Fortunately, I didn't have too much of a far walk to get to the Psychology building, where the course talk will be talking place. The King Henry Building to be more specific.

When I made my way into The King Henry Building, I went looking for the room I needed to be in for the course talk. Just like at Solent, there was a presentation that was talking about how psychology plays an important role in society. Or in other words, how psychology can shape the world. I was nothing but fascinated by the amount of examples that the lecturer was telling us of the examples of work placements involved.

Unlike any other university, this one in particular, has a lot of top reasons to study here statistics. It has even been ranked one of the best for specializing in Psychology!

Once we were done with the course talk in the lecture room, there was a tour guide who was keenly waiting outside to take us round the Psychology area. As it turns out, the tour guide is currently doing his 2nd year in Psychology at this university. We first went upstairs to tour round the Psychology equipment rooms. The first one had a human head sitting on a counter wearing a EEG brainwave cap. The second room we went into had an eye traking monitor inside. We also went into a room under construction process, which will become a laboratory. The rest of the rooms downstairs were just research rooms.

The last & favourable bit of the tour was going into a huge lab room downstairs, where research projects take place. What's best about them, apparently, is where students on the course get to carry out a research project on their own! I'll admit, I like the idea of carrying out a research project. (If I ever get the chance to do one...!)

The tour/open event experience concluded after that. Like before at Solent, I was satisfied with the amount of experience I had managed to takeaway.

My 1st university open event experience (3/12/2022)

OMG, I have just had one of the best experiences of my life! What I've experienced today has really opened my eyes to how psychology can go a long way into the world. It's not just my eyes that have opened up to everything I had seen today, my mind has also widely opened up to the mass amount of psychology careers there are out there.

To prevent me from rambling on anymore, I'll go straight into the story from start - finish...

 

2 weeks ago today, (19/11/2022) I booked myself to go to my 1st ever university open event. Fast forward to after a fortnight of excitement later... I had the morning pleasure of trekking down to Solent University in Southampton for what was unknowingly an eye-opening experience.

As I arrived at the building entrance, I was greeted by a member of the open event team who kindly made me feel welcome by handing me an open event programme. From that moment, I was deciding what to go and see. Whilst curiously scrolling through my programme, I saw that there was a psychology talk happening in one of the rooms on the 1st floor. Of course I chose to venture up there!

Inside one of their rooms to begin with, myself & a load of other people were warmly introduced to 2 of the psychology lectures. Both of whom, seemed experienced enough with years of being in the psychology industry. Hence, their industry knowledge was, needles to say, phenomenal! The male & female lectures hosted a quiz activity, which was to basically test everyone's knowledge of psychology. The first being to name as many famous psychologists as possible. Fortunately for me, I was able to name a few. At the same time, however, I do need to brush up my knowledge of famous psychologists a bit better if I want to expand my knowledge. The various other questions we did was based upon reading people's emotions through the look in their eyes. I couldn't remember the purpose of what the other questions were aimed at, but I had found them fascinating nonetheless. After the psychology quiz, the male lecturer was telling us something that made me view psychology from a whole different angle. It went along the lines of: "Psychology is not just about mental health". I absolutely agree with what the male lecture was saying, as psychology has an overall purpose of behaviour of anything. When I say 'anything' I am talking about animal behaviour as well.

One of the 3rd year students who was doing a psychology degree in counselling, was happily sharing her own personal experience of her time studying at the university. She was even highlighting her time studying abroad in Canada. The remainder of her talk was all about doing work placements around the university area. I think it was safe to say that the female student was enthusiastic throughout her time speaking!

The female lecturer was then going through Levels 4 - 6, explaining what different psychology degree modules will typically be taught. It was amazing to see how many of these degree courses have psychology alongside them. They all consisted of: Sport Psychology, Psychology & Counselling, Criminology & Psychology, Sociology & Psychology or just Psychology on its own.

Afterwards, we all went into the room next door to be shown a little fun psychological experiment. 3 people had volunteered themselves to be hooked up to this special piece of machinery, which was connected to the room computer. The computer screen was displaying these graphical lines that illustrated how calm these 3 people were, while sitting in the chair doing self-humiliating things. The 1st person had to count back from 280 in 3's. The 2nd person had to bravely sing a Christmas song in front of all of us watching. I can't remember what the 3rd person did.

All in all, the small psychology taster activities were very eye-opening, which really helped me to further widen my passion for psychology to a better level. Literally, the second I had walked out of the building, my motivation was kicked into overdrive. I was just now so keen to get myself into the psychology industry like never before!

To top everything off, I will be attending the open event at Portsmouth University the following Saturday. I expect more or less the same from today's open event at Solent, but it could be different anything. Regardless, I shall very much be looking forward to it!    

How I like to vision clean slate

Thank god this week is nearly over... Not going to lie here, I've really not had the best of weeks. Variations from the crap weather, ongoing personal life stuff and of course... Her Majesties tragic passing.

However, as it's now the weekend, this is where I plan out my clean slate prior going into the new week ahead. Hence, I thought about using this post to talk with everyone about how I like to vision my clean slate. A little moreover on that, I like to to this phrase to make me feel better after any bad week I've had.

Lauren's recipe for a clean slate in 3 simple steps: 

Step 1) Review the week you've had in full, regardless of how good or bad it had been. 

Step 2) After your review, make a summery of all the things that didn't work out for you and use them to make improvements on. 

Step 3) By the time you've made your following week improvement plan, (otherwise known as clean slate) you can start to look into the following week with a smiley gratitude and say: "Next week is going to be better for me".

My overall outcome for this post is to inspire everyone about how they vision their meaning of clean slate, as well as how they intend to improve on themselves. Whatever your thoughts, don't hesitate to leave a comment.

Here's to a better next week.🙂

Good things are coming...😁

Yes, I've got various things to look forward to within the next few weeks! I say few weeks, but these things could may well run up towards April.

This is what set my excitement tone for today!

However, I intend to keep it that way, by keeping myself sane and being productive with my time during my week off college.

That means I will not be doing any blog work for this week. I always remind myself to limit the amount of screen time I have. Too much blue light can cause headaches.

I'm sure many of you out there can relate to this, as we all need to take an essential time out from the internet world, so we can prioritize our mental health on the productive side of life.

All in all, have a great week everyone!

P.S HVD💘

How does reading make people open their eyes to the world?

Finally got a day to myself today!  I was originally going to publish this on Sunday, but I never got round to doing it in the end.

Anyways, I took a short trip to Farnborough on Saturday, I happen to stumble upon The Works store, so I had a look around and that's when I discovered the book area... I've gotta admit, that book area had some decent books. As of such, I even read through the ones I liked the look of. 

Whilst enjoying my momentarily reading session, it got me thinking long and hard... There is more to life than just playing console games, wearing popular sport clothing and wearing expensive trainers. (As a person who used to vaguely relate to this, I feel like I need to make myself heard for others to listen)

My perspective from reading:

These were my thoughts when I got lost reading a few educational books. (Meaning, I was really enjoying them)

"Wow! Inhaling this knowledge can make a really big impact on my future". 

"I suspect these authors must be passionate about how reading can strongly educate people". 

"When I think about how many people choose not to read, they seriously don't know what they are missing".

With all that in the open, reading those books has given me a lot of inner inspiration, in terms of how I can learn about how reading can have a massively positive change to the world. This statement also links to how I can actually do something about it, in order to make those changes happen.

I mean, there is no such thing as learning too much already!

How can reading inspire other people?

Think about a subject which you like, and ask yourself these questions: Does that subject interest you? What do you like learning about that subject? How can that subject help you in the future?

If all of those above questions tick all your boxes, then you will be well on your way to read your way to success! In other words, read more about your enjoyable subject.

Alternatively, think of all that knowledge you'll be able use, so you can become more intelligent about how you vision the world, in terms of how your interest can help with that. The most beneficial thing about that, is how you can educate other people to do the same!

If I was to link the term 'conformity' into this, I would say that you do NOT NEED to blend in with other people, so you can justify yourself to be having fun. 

To back up my reason of what I just said, I came across a quote from a psychological quote company, which I follow on Instagram, saying that fun doesn't have to just justify as going out partying, drinking or going on holiday. Fun can be defined as to how you make it. Potentially speaking, doing something that makes you happy.

My question to everyone is... 

Do you enjoy reading? If so, then what do you like reading about?😉

A message from yours truly on NYE

Well, 2021 has slowly come and almost gone...

Personally, I think 2021 has been a decent year for me. In contrast however, I also encountered many personal struggles along the way too. (Reasons that I would rather not specify)

With all that said, I'll prioritize the T-minus 1hr year, 2022 (time as of writing this) to reflect and learn from my growth, struggles and journey, in order to slowly better making myself a step more successful in life. Oh yeah, let's not forget about my blogging business!😂

Anyways, I hope you're all having a good evening on the final night of 2021. Be sure you celebrate something that's at least worth celebrating if you intend to watch the live fireworks tonight!

Without further ado... Here's my inspirational message for you all:

 

"Now that yet another year is coming to a close end, take a bit of time to reflect on the good's and bad's. Regardless if you're satisfied or not, don't worry about dwelling on it, as you carry over into the 24th hour, meaning, NYD.

Once that first day of the new year has entered, you can begin to enjoy yourself, by making self plans for you to simply go out and chase down. Remember, every single day is ALWAYS a day closer to achieving something. Even if that something takes for as long as 3 years to achieve! I've been through similar, so I can totally relate to that.

Always use the past as a learning opportunity for your planned future, as the only legit way to succeed in life, is to make mistakes, so you'll be able to learn from them, as well as to become proficient at performing them correctly with practice. Explanation of a typical human function.

In conclusion and potentially, you only get to live once, so make as many plans as possible for you to go out and achieve! Life is how you create it!"

  

What goes through your mind when you've achieved something?

Hello all, I hope you've all had a good weekend and enjoyed watching the last of The Olympics. I'd say 4th place was decent for us to finish in, considering the competitiveness of the top 3 countries above us.

Anyway, this will be yet another related post to The Olympics, only this time, I'll be talking about what feelings, thoughts and emotions go through your mind when you've achieved something, as this is a BIG achievement when you think that it's just ordinary people (meaning you and me) doing extraordinary things!

When you finally achieve your very first gold medal after 8 years of waiting, you will first feel your heart jump out from your body, due to the shock that has just entered your mind which says: "OMG! I can't believe I've finally done it!"

You then become speechless, as your mind is still processing all kinds of happy emotions, which causes it to become increasingly overwhelmed with everything around you.

When it eventually settles enough by taking all of the emotions and the achievement in, your mind will keep saying to you: "I am so happy that I've managed to do that. This is something I will never forget, by always keeping it as a memory." Therefore, you still feel excited after what has just happened to you, so you feel the need to announce it to your friends and family, as your mind is telling you that it could do with more praise from other people, to help keep the proudness flowing inside of you.

Not only does it make you feel like that, the achievement can make your connecting people feel just as proud as you are, as they have your full support in everything. Believe me, it feels just as good to applaud people, when THEY are the ones who have achieved something.

This is what is known as using "Reverse psychology" because you share you intend to share your achievement news to your connecting people, so THEY can feel proud of you, in order to make YOU feel proud about yourself in that way.

With that achievement completed, your mind then says to you: "I'm glad that I've finally done that, but do you know what? I reckon that I can go one step better than last time!" This very mind statement will help engage your confident emotion to chase down and succeed that next step. My advice would be to keep repeating it over and over to ensure your mind to stick to it. (Meaning, keeping focused)

That concludes my post for today. 

Thank you for reading through. Please do feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person and enjoy the rest of your week! 

A bit of Monday Motivation

Happy Monday peeps! I hope you're all having a good one. I was intending to post over the weekend, but I was having trouble with cooking up ideas for my next post, hence why I thought about something today instead.

I feel like giving my audience a bit of Monday Motivation to help boost their mood for the week. More to it, I suppose this would be appropriate to use the phrase "The milk of human kindness" If you know what that means?

 "Whatever happened yesterday, don't worry about it, as it's all in the past."

"Today is a new day for you to go out and achieve something closer to your goal."

"If you don't succeed on that day, there's always the next day, next week, next month or next year to try and achieve your goal."

"There is no race to achieving your goal, as the world will always keep on spinning." 

"If you think you can do it? GO FOR IT AND SMASH IT!"

That's all for today, thank you for reading through. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or in person and have a great week!