J14 Express Bus to Downtown: 5 Days of Courage Inspired by Beyonce

Now let’s start with Beyonce! I am sure every pop blogger in the world is going crazy over her secret release, number one album. I have joined the craze! Last week, I so happened to browse YouTube searching for some Beyonce inspiration, and Drunk in Love popped up 9 hours old. And I was in love. Yesterday, I gave in and purchased the entire album on iTunes. And I encourage EVERYONE to buy it if you can. It’s hot stuff!!!

During my routine daily Beyonce stalking, she released a 3- part video explanation for her album. Part2 (see above) is the inspiration for my 5 days of courage. I am starting now in my effort to strive for growth, love, happiness, and fun. I have been harboring goals since the beginning of October that I planned on carrying into 2014. Instead of drawing out these dreams on my vision board, preparing a detailed project plan, and aiming to achieve my goals before next December, I decided that I would do a final push in the last few days of 2013 and see what happens. I will tell you the results so far.

1.      Courageous Action: I emailed my Human Resources, current supervisor, and career mentor for approval to take a leave of absence to do volunteer work abroad.

Result to Date: I got approved by 2 of 3 people.

2.     Courageous Action: I baked macaroni and cheese from scratch.

Result to Date: I am no gourmet chef.

3.     Courageous Action: I emailed Arianna Huffington a blog to possibly feature on the Huffington Post.

Result to Date: I got a response email from Arianna! This in itself was pretty awesome. No update on the post just yet.

4.     Courageous Action: I sang Beyonce at the top of my lungs with my best friends while someone took a video that could possibly end up on various social networking sites out there for millions to see.

Result to Date: I had fun and if I post a pic, it’s not embarrassing right? 

So, Beyonce, says that sometimes you lose. This very well might happen, but the year is almost over and I am more proud of my courage to try than whether or not I succeed. 

Fight 2319 to ORD: A plea for my Natural Hair...Why doesn't Afrocentric come in travel size?

I am an avid traveler who takes advantage of the holiday season to travel to new, adventurous places. For me last weekend was skiing at Whistler Mountain and this weekend its back in my hometown of Chicago to visit my family for holidays. By the time I land where I live, I would have spent 3 weeks on the road. And my hair can tell. I am part of the natural hair movement, and the combined travel and cold weather is not good for my tresses. I have to be creative in order to get my Shea products and olive oil into travel size, spill proof containers that cater to my lifestyle. 

Track and Field High Jump athlete, Chaunte Lowe, rocking fly natural hair during 2012 London Olympics

It is hard enough to balance my involvement in the natural hair movement with my dedication to corporate America when I have full sized bottles of hair products, an endless supply of bobby pins, and a spray water bottle readily available. So this is more of a request than an inquiry to all of those innovative natural hair product companies. Can you please consider the on-the-move professional woman in product container sizes? Not just for the moments when I’m trying to get through airport security, but for a getaway girls weekend, or even impromptu date night. A purse sized container of leave in conditioner, style cream, curl enhancers would do wonders. If not for me, please, do it for my hair.

Flight 1083 to Atlanta: ...Hind Sight is 20/20

A little hump day motivation. 

Flight 1607 Cancelled: Three Cities, Two Seasons, One Week Remote

Cancelled Flights due to extreme weather has resulted in a week working from home. Change is the one thing I can count on. The change I have experienced lately seems to be in warp speed. A busy life can be distracting from what’s truly important. The recent passing of Nelson Mandela has personally been impactful especially given my recent experience in Johannesburg, South Africa. I found a quote that is motivating as I navigate life's changes in my constant effort towards making an impact. 

"It always seems impossible until it's done." –Madiba Quoted by Barack Obama during Memorial Service at FNB Stadium in Jahannesburg.

So, even if the weather outside is frightful, I am taking on change with both arms wide open. Let it snow, let it snow, let it rain

Flight 1438 to DFW: Keeping it real in my work space

My job is pretty much always challenging. Finding my job was even more challenging. It took just as much effort with very little motivation and no compensation. I pretty much had to teach myself all of the skills needed to find a job and then put on my best smile and clothes to meet the people with jobs to offer. And I was lucky.

Youth unemployment is a trending hot topic in the social stratosphere. Trending topics can be a tad annoying because issued are grouped with the other time relevant topics despite the subject matter. It is pretty normal for me to see headlines such as “Youth Unemployment: What is the Solution?”, “A Walk in Time with Paul Walker”, and “Justin Bieber’s Latest Hit” grouped together as the issues of the time.

Though, I have watched Bieber’s hit on Vevo and sincerely wonder if there can ever be another sequel to Fast and Furious, I linger on what youth employment means for me and others in my generation. After a couple years of watching my peers become over educated and underemployed, I am starting to think we should take it in our own hands. 

Creating jobs and making a difference. Picture found on www.oneyoungworld.com

We are young and resilient enough to bounce back from our mistakes and gain strength from the lessons in life. So, why not create our own jobs as well as jobs for others, and take charge of youth unemployment.

Have an idea? Think about how you can implement it. I’ll do the same. Let’s see what happens…

Flight 2323 to O'Hare: Thankful for Google and Gogo InFlight...

I am spending my last hours of work before the Thanksgiving holiday making sure that boxes on a presentation are perfectly aligned. Instead of being frustrated by the monotonous task, I have decided that I am practicing my skills as an artist. For every box that is aligned with the box before, after, and above, there is a beautiful business process that is on it's way to masterpiece.

...If we get buy-in from business stakeholders that the process is needed.

...If the recipients of the perfectly aligned box communication open or read their emails before the Thanksgiving holiday

Thoughts motivated by the quote below on the very awesome Google Black Talent webpage.

...Now what to do about aligning the decision rhombi?

Flight 0333 to McAllen, Tx: Linked In and the Multi-Dimensional Professional

In addition to being a Consultant who lives out of a TravelPro carry-on, I consider myself to be a blogger, event & logistics coordinator, and a socialista. I was recently revamping my LinkedIn profile to reflect my recent experience, and at the end it felt very one dimensional. LinkedIn is a professional profile, but it does not come close to capturing a complete view of my experiences or future interests.

Now I am reflecting on what it means to be multi-dimensional person in the cyber world. Do I have to have pinterest for one interest and Instagram for another? Where is it appropriate to show you have a personality beyond the world of Operations Consulting without giving constant updates on the foods I am eating and my entire social life? Where do I express my views about the role of Analytics in organizations, successful networking, or wedding planning invitations? Do all of my interests have to go into neat and separate boxes? Do I not know how to use LinkedIn?

How I feel about maintaining my social networks.

Countdown: One day until fly day... How is work?

Question of the week: How do you set expectations with 10 different perspectives?

Flight 1810 to DFW: Listening to Miss Angelou

I ran across a quote the other day from Miss Angelou, “Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!” [Just in case you’re wondering, there will be three quotes in this blog post]

An example of an awesome vision board. I can post my personal one when I land in the city where it is posted.

At the beginning of this year, I asked for what I wanted via a detailed bulleted list and vision board. I was specific but still able to capture my ideas beyond words or images. And then, I started to get what I wanted beyond what I could have ever imagined. I am still in the beginning stages. In short, my goals were/are around

-          Increased exposure (travelling to places I have never been)

-          Building relationships (boo-related, friendships, and professional)

-          Entrepreneurship (run small projects outside of work)

-          Family Support (facilitating relationships with my parents and siblings)

In ten months, I have had one experience in the direction of each of my goals (i.e. traveling to two new continents, spending time with my parents and all of my siblings one on one in various cities, organizing amazing events and re branding a portion of my current company). There have been obstacles (i.e. totaling my car, spending 6 months preparing for grad school to not apply, gaining unwanted pounds, exhaustion and tears), but it’s been balanced by amazing experiences.

Now that I have an idea of what I want, where do I go from here? What do I do next when I get what you ask for? Amid the chaos of wanting so much, I sometimes find myself with little sense of direction. I want my days to be filled with tasks and people that I love, and I want to be able to focus enough to prioritize my life now to get to that point. I guess this is balance needed when the world is my oyster.

My oyster

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”  - Maya Angelou

I am at a point where I want to take calculated risks towards achieving goals that are sustainable over my lifetime. So I’m listening to Maya.

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.”

As an adopted southern belle, what is my respectable answer to Maya’s request to kick ass? Yes ma’am. I've always been a sucker for a well worn suit. 

Spring Fundraisers - thoughts on gratitude

As I draft invite templates for an upcoming event, I am reflecting on what it means to give. I am planning a fundraiser in honor of a couple who has given back to their community for over 20 years. As I grow and transition from being a recipient of so many opportunities to a position of giving back to my community, I often reflect on the best ways “to lift as I climb.”

As I think about fonts and wording, I am drawing a blank on theme and imagery. What does honoring others and showing appreciation look like? Is it a soft  color with script font or is it Bright and bold?    I decided to draw inspiration from the words of others. Here are some of my findings on appreciation and gratitude. I’ll keep you updated on my style decisions.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John F. Kennedy

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.” – Northrup Christiane

“What you truly acknowledge truly is yours. Invite your heart to be grateful and your thank yous will be heard even when you don’t use words.” – Pavithra Mehta

Flight 0200 to JNB: The heart of Mandela- My Picture Journey To South Africa

 

The woman beside it all

Flight 1910 to ATL: Diverging from the Critical Path

Written on September 26, 2013

It is fly day, and I am on my way back to Atlanta from my weekly round of consulting superstardom. Instead of using my time at cruising altitude figuring out how to solve my client’s latest problems or working on my business school essay, I decided to write about my dreams. Theoretically, I should be full speed ahead on my business school applications. Instead, I pressed the emergency STOP button and ceased all activity.

I am no longer following critical path [see below].

Critical Path

So why now with the emergency STOP button? It’s about the balance that I want and don’t have. Ish is out of whack these days. I am living in 2 cities during any given week, editing high school scholarship app essays daily, attempting to plan a spring fundraiser, writing random thoughts on post it notes so I don’t lost my IP, and hesitating to launch Atkins Coordination. Instead of doing the things I am supposed to do (See Critical Path), I am doing the things I love to do.

It all started right after I attended a GSB information session. In the session, the woman was asking the standard Stanford MBA app questions.

·         Who are you and why?

·         What do you want to do really?

I had an Aha moment about my secret goals. I have these things that I want to do, that I won’t give a chance because they diverge from my “critical path”.

Thoughts on who I am

A techie geek who believes in embracing my emotional self and the power of love.

My wealth is my network. A healthy, authentic relationship with self and others is more valuable than any currency.

Everything that I do takes me back to helping others.

I am much better suited in bright colors with natural hair.

Is it immoral to be a physicist turned business woman turned entrepreneur and aspirational writer?

Thoughts on what I want to do

Public Relations/Event planning/ Small Business Branding/ Network Skill Building – I truly get a kick out of planning and logistics. From a logical perspective, I sometimes doubt I can build a business with a people based mission.  I mean it is not a tech startup, I am not streamlining processes, or realizing values creating a bottom line impact. I want to bring real people together for like-minded interactions and interests. The whole concept is very anti-2013.

Then there is this education thing. When reading news, or talking about pressing issue, it is always my hot spot. I often find myself referring back to my time in the kindergarden classroom when I channel patience for consulting firedrills. Or my volunteer hours at a local high school trying  to convince black boys from the west side that Lil Wayne relates to math.

Then there is my life. Baseball games with my coworkers, dance class with my girlfriends, spades with the homies, facetime with my siblings, recipes with grandmommy.

Why not business school

My story and my juice that I’ve spent months working on has very little to do with the above. I am pretty sure if I stay in corporate America without giving my ideas a chance or go to business school with no clear sense of direction, I’d be miserable. Moreover, I would be putting my authenticiry at risk.  So, yeah, I still want to go to business school, but I really want to figure out why. Maybe I need to live my life, go for my dreams, and figure out how I can contribute to this world to make a difference.

I am thinking that before I move forward with the graduate school process, I need to give my secret [and very real] dreams a chance. Maybe if I applied all of my energy towards the things I love, I could make something happen.  When I figure out, I’ll be in touch.

Sincerely,

1/216 strands

Thoughts on Consulting by a Consultant

I think in general advice is a tricky thing. The bread and butter of Management Consulting is thought capital (read: advice). Recently, a New York Times article was released about a top firm’s track record. The article was pretty harsh. There is an argument that a top consulting firm is partially accountable for some of the worst decisions in business history. Of course, as most media related articles I come across that focus on one off occurrences in history, conclusions seem to be drawn from correlation and not causation. I would argue that if there was statistical analysis done on all decisions made compared to the success of those decisions, the presence of consulting firms would not lean anywhere near bad decision making. There is something to be said about having a room full of smart, problem solvers solely focused on the issue at hand. Those problem solvers include a diverse set of thinkers from the shiny MBA's to the 20-year experienced industry experts and the young career starters who live, breathe, and dream new ideas.

I know that if I was in the C-suite and I had a small crisis to address, I would without a doubt get an assessment from a consulting firm. As an executive, outsourcing brain power is sometimes necessary to keep a high level perspective.

On the flip side, I am not that trusting of strategy focused firms. I'd much rather an implementation firm, so at least I know that company will be around when the ish hits the fan. At the end of the day, leaders should look beyond fancy PowerPoints/Excel spreadsheets for strategic decision making.  

Hydrant dreams during fire drills

Putting the fire out

“Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke. Means it's time for a promotion.” Nigel, The Devil Wears Prada

For the past year, I have been up for promotion. I have the bags under my eyes and dollars debited to Hot Yoga to prove it. Over the course of the last year, fire drills were constant personally and professional. I hit a point where getting to the next level became all about solving problems and building relationships. As a result, equipped with my natural hair and seasonally appropriate suits, I took risks for growth andput my best foot forward. I have been tested, shedding a layer of weird girl physicist left over from undergraduate studies, and earning the official seal of consultant. 

Now that I’ve earned the promotion, the smoke has not cleared. In fact, the forest fire is raging and requiring my constant attention. Managing others has brought a whole new perspective into my professional space. And the other ‘stuff’ did not go away.  Additionally, personal matters need to be tended to. There has been no time for me to celebrate or reflect, just the constant push forward.

Recently, I am finding solace in organization. My Life List excel spreadsheet has become a savior. When it comes to after 5 pm, well planned, intentional social gatherings and Skype calls with new friends have helped me to be in firefighter mode by 8 am sharp.

Hydrant Dreams

Sometimes I dream of a world with minimal firedrills. It could be my industry, functional, or career choice, but I doubt it. It seems as if the current global market is a flurried state of constant emergency. News headlines show that there is little solace for the world of business. So, when I get bogged down with my own world and there is no motivation to be found on my daily news outlets, I dream of my own enterprise where I am chief firefighter. I do not have a business plan or structure for my dream enterprise, but I do have standards.

-Noone, regardless of location or coordination across locations will work before 6 am or after 8 pm. –This standard in itself may still seem like I’m a slave driver, but I work in technology which needs tending to 24 hours a day. I personally feel that despite this, we all should have time for sleep and family.

-At each promotion point, all promotion announcements will happen on a Wednesday, and a celebratory 2-day sabbatical will be granted allowing for a 4 day weekend. – Most people do not have time to celebrate their success which really takes away from the shininess of it all.

-Open and honest communication will happen across the organization to everyone including all third party and vendors. – There will be no secret changes communicated out with 30 day’s notice. People will be the central focus of my dream enterprise and will be treated as necessary

-Third party and vendors must have a high enough emotional and ethical IQ to have the best interest of my enterprise in mind.

-To the extent possible, hierarchies will not exist. – Do flat organizations work? Need to look into this.

-We will have an event catered to family, friends, and pets. – Our loved ones have to hear all about our work days, so they should be able to party on the enterprise dime for all those unclocked listening hours.

When did I first fall in love with hip-hop?

I wish I grew up in an era where I could have experienced the beginning of hip hop. What I would have given to be in the boogie down Bronx to experience Doug E. Fresh free style, or see the best crews break.

I wasn’t there at the inception of something that would change the world. I, on the other hand, inherited the change. I was born with hip-hop being my brother, my friend, and eventually, my lover. I couldn’t have asked for something more wonderful – a life filled with music. Noise consumed the blocks I grew up on. As soon as I learned how to walk and how to talk, I was popping my lips and rolling my eyes and listening to the sounds. Tape decks were rewound and remixed and amplified from boomboxes for all to hear. Yes, there were people free-stylin’ and beat boxin’, but this was not the early 80’s and it damn sure wasn’t the Bronx. Hip-hop’s daddy had been a rolling stone, moving on to the life of a corporate sell-out, and leaving only the name and the skill behind.

I fell in love on a magical night. It was 1998. The Chicago Bulls were playing in the championship, and they were about to take it home again. My mama had let me stay up past nine to watch the game in her store-front shop that she kept open that night. When we won the game, she let me walk to the store with an older sister friend. People were whoopin’ and hollerin’, flooding the streets. I watched in awe as we navigated the crowds towards the store. Then I heard it, Big Pun, Still Not a Player cascading from the speakers on the corner. Looking back, this song was no Common or Lupe, and as an educated woman, I am almost ashamed to admit that this is when he got my heart. But, I lead with the truth.  I was down for hip-hop in that moment. Little did I know that our relationship would test me for years to come.

Hip-hop was angry. As a result, he wasn’t saying nothing nice about me or my budding womanness. Still, I obliged him. As the resident candy lady, I was there with sour patch kids, flaming hots, and a cold pop to sustain him for hours on end. Hip-hop was spicy. I mean the foods influenced by the beginning of time, a taste I experienced only in a small restaurant on the shores of Mumbai. Hip-hop was mean. He was plenty nice when I counted out his 2 cent candy, and he winked and gave me a quarter extra. Or even sneaking and giving me a ride around the block on the handlebars of his bicycle. But, hip-hop’s words cut like a dagger. Not meant for me, he said. I am not who he’s talking about. He said that because I was young, sweet, and naïve. Even if I am still reserved as innocent in the eyes of hip-hop, I would break a heart eventually, and those lyrics would come back to hunt me.

When we were old enough to give our love a try, he was gentle, sensitive, and sweet, but only in the confines of our personal space. When in public, he was withdrawn and there was no space for me. As I grew, so did we, but unfortunately, so did my conscious. I went through a phase, where I thought that I could keep up with hip-hop. I mean I’m no lyricist and I’m not a player, but I was pretty good on the dance floor and an artist in my own right. But with the emergence of technology, all of my actions and decisions would be visible to .com. I wasn’t really willing to put myself out on the streets like that. Hip-hop was on his way to making it big, which freed up a lot of my time. I was studying decorum, classic ballet, and feminism. I was consumed by books and science experiments. I was seeing the world and discovering other genre’s. The only way to put it, I was growing up and out of our love.

I thought I was angry at him because he wasn’t staying true to the name passed on to him. He was still a genius, and always focused, but he was saying anything and everything and calling it music. Claiming the genre, tainting the game.

I know different now. Hip-hop was growing just as I was. He was defining his own rules and leveraging his own resources. He was the man I always knew he would become. As I rock out to all the new “stuff” influenced by him cross-over, dub-step, and autotune, I realize I been rocking alone for years now waiting for something.

I miss hip-hop, but I am not sure there is anything there. He grew. I grew. Will we ever be able to remerge?

Pick a Player Up

My 16 year old brother flew into Atlanta a few weeks back, and my life was temporarily consumed by what I will call “athlete drama”. He plays little league baseball for a travel team and was part of a week long world series. During the series of games, I learned a lot about baseball. Things I completely missed while focused on getting cute in blue and red for a Braves game or hanging out in the upper deck Chop House. Keeping up with the ones you love requires more focus that knowing just the score and current inning. In fact, I downloaded an app to get a better understanding. Yes, they have an app for everything.

Game Changer the App

One concept of the game really stuck out to me. It’s the idea of being “picked up” by your teammates. It is defined as below.

pick me up link here.

When one player makes a mistake or fails to do something he tried to do, he may ask another, "Pick me up." Or said in praise of his offensive teammates by a pitcher who allowed more runs than he wished: "The guys picked me up with a lot of runs today. I'll have to improve on that outing and get better."^[5] "I just told him, 'Great win for us and thanks for picking me up,' Jones said. Jones had inherited a three-run lead for the ninth -- and allowed four runs to put the Tigers a run down. But with one out in the Tigers' ninth, and with runners on first and second, Cabrera ripped the first pitch from left-handed closer Brian Fuentes far up the rightfield gap."^[6]

This really “hit home” for me because I am making big decisions in my life and not all of them have been the right ones. In the throes of my consequences, being picked up has been essential. I am hoping to find my way, and support is the only way I survive. For the past 6 months I have been consumed by applying to graduate school. It is a very right now process, and I have self-inflicted a great deal of stress in my life. In  asking myself the tough questions, I am sometimes at a stand still.

The tough questions:

What is it that I really want to do? How can I make a difference? What is my purpose? How can I use my experience to achieve my goals?

I could go further into the positions, statistics, or rules and how they all play a part, but I choose to focus on my team. Whether it be my family, friends, GMAT tutor, life coach, or insurance agent, I am surrounding myself who have a common goal to win (succeed) in life. By focusing on improving and contributing to my team, I know that beyond the tough questions is an awesome and fulfilling existence.

My close quote: “Everyone has something interesting about them, something beautiful about them.  And you have to figure out what that is. The thing that they’re really, really passionate about” -Matt Mullenweg founder of WordPress – Found in PandoMonthly Fireside Chat here.

Taking time for self...

Sometimes life calls for a breather. An inhalation that is not filled with an intake of stressors: client deadlines, navigating relationships, analyzing complex excel documents, professional happy hours,….

I just came back from a vacation where I took time to watch the sunset Every. Day.

For 6 days, I did not open my to-do list one time and I limited my laptop time to the writing of reflection pieces. Now I’m back, and life pretty much has been going at warp speed for two hours. With my to-do list open, Power Points needing attention, and emails drafted, I wonder how I will get back to the sunset. 

Joan Solotar, a Senior Managing Director of the Blackstone Group, talks of work life balance in a HBR blog posted a few months ago saying “Draw lines in the sand. Know what it is you absolutely won't give up and stick to it. No one will thank you for not having a life outside of work, never taking vacation. The most successful people I know weave their lives and work together throughout the week. This gives them both career longevity and life fulfillment.”

As I take my head out of the clouds of vacation, I look forward to taking a little bit of sunset with me in my everyday activities.

Thoughts of Snow

Yesterday, I thought about snow all day long. Large banks of snow in a mountain range far away from the rolling hills of Georgia. In July, this may be a tad bit strange. I should be excited for sun, outdoor adventures, and conversations until the sun sets just after 9 pm. To my defense, the excessive rain in Atlanta, and every other place in the country I’ve visited this summer, is putting a damper on the July sunshine.

But yet, I was envisioning a mesa packed with cold, fluffy snow.

The view from the gondola in Snowmass.

This means I am feeling overwhelmed. When I am stressed, I usually daydream about places that have opposite characteristics of where I am currently. I crave a different climate, food, accent, and land form. The opposition creates an escape that calms me. It is as if being somewhere else will make a difference in my life.

It won’t.

So today, I am focusing on gardens. Tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, flowers, and other things that blossom with rain. In July. In Atlanta. Where I am now. 

My very first cucumber plant from last season.

My Approach to Round 3.

***Warning: This post is long, detailed, and catered to my struggle with the GMAT. If you want to skip around to items relevant to you, see bolded headers below***

So I came up with a plan for my life. Well, not my whole life, just the standardized test taking part of it. I thought a step by step approach would work best considering that my 'study in isolation' approach landed me at 20 points below my starting point. I started the plan yesterday. So far, so good. Let me know any thoughts, resources, and suggestions. It’s never too late to go for gold.

Step 1: Trust your support system

If you have one, trust your GMAT tutor/ teacher as the expert. Mine had the following words of wisdom below.

1) Review your takeaways prior to test day.

2) Don't try to make any radical changes between now and then.

3) For your timing, look to make smaller, meaningful corrections on how you're timing.

4) Stay calm and loose, but focused. Have confidence in the work you've done thus far and the greater overall comfort you feel with the material.

5) Remember that no one question or couple questions can ruin your score (if you don't let them). Don't freak out or worry about a question on the test. Just get back to business on the next one. The GMAT requires a very short memory. View each question as its own little battle. Once the "battle" is done, focus only on the next one.

Inform people that you are busy, but keep them in the loop even if you want to isolate yourself

If you’re lost (like completely lost), compile questions that you have already reviewed and could not solve on your own and ask somebody. 

Step 2: Remain Positive, Humorous, and Authentic (Yes, even while studying for the GMAT)

Go to the hair salon and get an easy, long lasting hairstyle

Plan ahead for your friends and family time

Write “blogs” about how frustrating this process be and let them hang out in your “do not post” folder. No one needs the negativity.

Commit to the process and trust yourself– Put the time in for desired results

Strive for Stretch Goals to build endurance, but accept that the intense schedule may not be possible all the time

• Stretch Goal: Take 2 CATS per day off (One in the morning and evening)
• Be prepared for the best and the worst
•  Strive to finish the test, but be ready to implement guessing strategy
• i.e. Don’t guess on consecutive questions (guess, solve, guess, solve)

Positivity

•  See yourself studying hard and score well. Do a visualization exercise (See post: http://shashainflight.blogspot.com/2013/06/positive-visualization-exercise_13.html )
• Don’t rule out any lucky charms that have worked before
• Surround yourself with cheerful and encouraging people

Now for the real work….