Southwestern Advantage Blog

English is a very rich language. It has a long history and a massive lexicon. According to Wikipedia (the highly-esteemed compendium of knowledge and wisdom), some sources indicate that over 1 million words in the English language. It also says that over 8,000 new words are added each year. With such a vast pool to draw from, some words will be considered improper or, shall we say, "dirty." Colloquially, these words are sometimes referred to as "four-letter words," however I think the dirtiest word in our expansive vocabulary has not four letters, but six. That word is " should ." Why is "should" such a dirty word you ask? The problem is that "should" allows our imagination to parade around as reality. Another part of it has to do with the context -- when we use the word. "Should" is a word that exists in both the past and the future, but never in the present. This is dangerous because the only reality we know is the p...

feel the fear and do it anyway. there are so many things that we DO NOT do in our lives, simply because we are scared. we let fear take over our rational minds and cripple our progress. what are we scared of? failure. rejection. loss of a job. loss of money. loss of reputation. really dig down to the root of these fears, and then identify which of them are actually realistic, rational, plausible reasons why you should not say or do something. the reality is -- few of them are real.  it's been said that fear is an acronym that stands for ' false evidence appearing real '. fear is a normal human emotion. everyone deals with it. but as we mature we need to recognize the difference between rational fears (running from a hungry momma bear) and ir rational fears (people will think less of me if i fail). Michael Jordan said that persevering through his many failures (facing his fears) was the reason that he succeeded .  go for the promotion. ask that cute girl out. run ...

John Dryden once said, "We first make our habits, then our habits make us." Now that the school year is underway, it's a good time to rethink your personal habits and patterns, and perhaps make some adjustments. We've all heard the Biblical saying, "You reap what you sow." In other words, what you're doing today will have an impact on your future self. Everyday we are consciously (and unconsciously) planting seeds of a sort. Our seeds germinate. Most people do not live intentionally, with a purpose. Consequently they're operating in a less-than-conscious manner. Unless we are consciously forming good habits, we are unconsciously forming bad ones. What habits are you forming today -- right now? Have you noticed how easy it is to be lazy? It's easy to sit on the couch and watch re-runs of The Office. It's easy to browse Facebook until you look up and notice that four hours has passed and you missed class, lunch, and study time (and a...

i have come to learn that there are some people in your life who will relentlessly cheer you on, for better or for worse. and then, there are some who simply will not. no matter what. no matter how many times you beg or plead them to. being pleasantly persistent is a necessity in achieving anything worthwhile in life. however, if you encounter a negative, condescending, or just plain difficult person -- why spend time with that? life is too short to be spent with negative people . move on. i guarantee that there is someone out there who will enthusiastically, willingly, and cheerfully, appreciate you for who you are and whatever it is you're doing. go find them. if you're looking for someone to write a letter of recommendation for your grad school application, and your old boss is giving you the run around, telling you how busy he is and listing off the 35 reasons why he can't fit it into his schedule to come up with a few paragraphs (like you've never done him...

Safety tips from Southwestern Advantage in dealing with a door-to-door salesperson *Knock-Knock* I wasn't expecting anyone. Who could it be?.... Ah, a salesman. I know,  everyone has to make a living somehow, I get it; and  I'm not a rude person, I'll at least hear you out. So, tell me what you've got today. And if you really want to be taken seriously, show me why I can trust you.   As Communications & PR Director of our nation's oldest direct sales company, I research shady traveling sales crews that too often pollute the reputation of our time-honored industry. I often find a commonality with them: many of their paying customers never receive the products that they ordered. That's a problem. In fact, that's one of the main problems with these rogue door-to-door sales companies -- a small few can tarnish the reputation of the majority who are honestly earning a legitimate living by using a respectable face-to-face business style.  So how ...

There is a guy on my swim team who is brutally uninteresting. You're probably imagining a quiet, shy person who can't make eye contact and hardly ever says a word. Wrong.  This fellow is talkative, chatty, and chronically outgoing. So much so that he seems to have verbal diarrhea -- he hardly takes a breath between sentences. He's an English teacher's worst nightmare, as he is the embodiment of a massive run-on sentence. You can ask him a simple harmless question like, "How was your workout?" Then you can relax, knowing that you'll never have to respond -- or even look at him for that matter -- he just launches, and talks, and talks, and talks. I've imagined people leaving the room entirely and wondering if he would notice.  So why am I sharing this? Well, to give him some credit, he really is a smart guy. It's just that he is a monologuer, a one-way communicator. He never asks questions. In fact, I can't recall him asking anythi...

if i had a penny for every time i heard someone bitterly say, “you just can't trust people anymore”, i’d probably have enough money that lunch could be on me today. you would think me to be delusional if i sat here and said that “ all   people are trustworthy”. so i wont say that. but what i will say is this : most  people are. there are some who are of the school of thought that trust must be  earned . they would not give away their coveted trust, no sir. you’ve got to prove to them, time and time again, that you are worth trusting. and then, and only then, will they take their tough-guy masks off, and ‘let you in.’ while i don’t fault people that think that way; i am not one of them. i trust people. blindly. willingly. and as some might say, stupidly. i would rather give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and be wrong occasionally; than hold the belief that everyone is constantly, knivingly, plotting against me. call me crazy… i routinely buy ...

i recently caught a peek into a documentary [ http://www.lemonademovie.com/ ] made about people who lost their jobs in the heat of the recession, and what they did with themselves afterwards. one woman becomes a yoga teacher. one man embraces his art full time. one man spends more time with his children. one man becomes a woman (to each his/her own)... while it seems to be a movie about curiosity, courage, and creativity, these people received news which, by most people’s standards, completely rocked their worlds for the worst. the pink slip: it’s no walk in the park; i’ve been there. but what if… getting laid off isn’t actually as horrible as it sounds? what if getting fired is the best thing that’s ever happened to someone? you’d likely never would leave your job by your own free will, though you may have day-dreamed about it. but when you have no choice and are escorted to the parking lot by the burly guy that loads the water jugs, you have no choice but to make a m...

student rep Jen Each summer, over 200,000 families across the US and Canada invest in education with the Southwestern Advantage Learning System via a student rep visiting their home.  Southwestern Advantage is a 158 year old  education  company. Our learning system is made up of books, software, and an online component that all works together. The Southwestern Advantage Learning System provides students with 'Tools for Learning and Skills for Life.' What that means is our system helps out with homework and studying, and it also reinforces the critical messages of character development that parents strive to instill. We combine the how-to of school work with success principles that every student should hear. These are included throughout our learning system and discussed heavily in our  web component . But how are this many families able decide in just a short 20 minute visit that these products are the right fit for their family?  The...

football . i’ll be honest, i know nothing about the sport. don’t get me wrong, i do love  watching  football: going to games, tailgating, high-fiving burnt orange-wearing fans. but i’m no expert on the rules, players names, penalties, etc. what i do know, however, is that the character commonly called the ‘defensive lineman’ will do everything short of busting out a semi-automatic shotgun to protect the guy on his team who possesses the ball. how many people in your life would throw their bodyweight against a 250 pound piece of angry sweaty flesh to protect you? loyalty is an extremely commendable – and fairly rare  –  attribute. i believe it’s an issue of devotion. dedication. sacrifice. knowing that you care so much, so deeply, about someone or something that you would risk your own life to save or protect it. the friend that comes to pick you up from the airport right in the middle of the final episode of gossip girl. the co-worker who cal...