The 1:1:1 Challenge

Starting Monday, March 6, 2017, I am embarking on the 1:1:1 Challenge. No, this isn't the Catholic 1-1-1 Challenge, although their challenge is pretty cool. The 1:1:1 Challenge is one that I created on my own to pursue my interests and to do the work necessary to build the expertise I want to have. According to my challenge, every week, I will complete the following:

• one video game
• one book
• one craft

The challenge does come with a few rules and caveats:

1. Completing a video game means reaching the credits and/or end screen. It is up to my discretion whether or not to 100 percent a game.
2. Completing a book means reading a book from start to finish
3. Completing a craft means creating something from scratch into a final, new product or form
4. I am allowed to repeat video games, books and crafts. It doesn't have to be "new" to me to count toward the challenge.
5. If a game video game will take longer than a week to complete (I do still need to eat, sleep and work), then the challenge can be extended to two weeks for the completion of that game only.
6. A "craft" is defined as "an activity involving skill in making things." Crafts include, but aren't limited to, paintings, mixed media art, jewelry, blog posts, papercraft, textiles, text-based video games.

Why Video Games, Books and Crafts?

Video games and books are chosen primarily to build my repertoire. My vision is to be an expert in post-escapism, which is the field of understanding "games by placing them in social, political and cultural context. It finds value in what game says about the world around it." Post-escapism combines my love of gaming with my interests in activism, human rights, public police and the like. Playing video games will build my repertoire of games to analyze and place into context. Books will build my repertoire and understanding of past and present social, political and cultural contexts.

Crafts are the synthesis of the first two, since there's little point of building repertoires if the actual analysis is never completed. It's the chance to connect what I've learned, played and read so far. Although I am a writer by trade, writing isn't the only way to practice post-escapism, which is why I defined it to include so many different mediums. Craft is also defined as a trade or a handicraft, and I liked the idea of creating crafts while also working on honing my craft.

Why Do This Challenge at All?

I am embarking on this challenge and creating it for myself as a matter of discipline. I feel I need to double down on my strengths and interests and this challenge is a great way to do that while also pushing myself to execute and to create, whether that's through writing or painting or a household good or what. It's good to play video games and to read books and to think about their contexts, but that alone isn't going to make me a post-escapism expert or build my credibility as said expert.

Also, now that I have the language of post-escapism, I'm excited to explore it and perhaps define its study and some its major theories. It's a rather new field within video games analysis, culture and "new games journalism." I think it'll be really cool to be a part of this evolution within video games. I need a way to get started and embarking on a challenge is the perfect way to get started!

When Does the Challenge End?

Hopefully, the challenge never ends. There will always be new video games and new books to discover. The political, social and cultural contexts in which these media exist will always be changing. The artistry and creativity needed to create great crafts are boundless. Ideally, I could do the challenge forever and tweak it so it includes more types of media. Eventually, I could make it harder by increasing the quantity per week or decreasing the amount of time to take on all three items.

What video games, books and crafts are you doing first?

The video games I am tackling first are Democracy 3, Shovel Knight, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Hand of Fate and Cook, Serve, Delicious. All of these games are titles I've already started, so they are first on my list so I can finish them. GTA Vice City may take me longer than a week to finish, but I think I can do it. I'm about halfway through the game if I remember correctly. I do have a full list of video games I plan to tackle, which is ever-changing as I complete games and own more titles and consoles.

I also have a list of books I plan to read. The first eight books on the list are the first eight I will read because I either own those books or I have them in my possession from the library at the moment. After those eight books, I will read books in any order based on availability and/or interest at the time. Like the video games list, the books list is also ever-changing as own more books or discover new titles that'll provide great information.

As for crafts, I do have projects I need to finish as well before starting on anything new. I do have signs and coasters I need to make since I already have the materials to do those. I also need to make a present for a wedding reception coming up later this year, and have just the canvas for that present. Besides those, there will be plenty of ideas for blog posts, ZEEF lists and other artistic endeavors.

This is the Moment I've Been Training For

I haven't blogged in SO LONG, and getting back into the swing of blogging daily or multiple times per day has been a difficult process for me. Just several years ago, I was writing 1800, 2400 words a day with no problem. I was writing blog posts for clients, blog posts for my own blog, blog posts for free for different organizations and much more. Nowadays, I can't find the motivation to do a single blog post, whether it's for myself or for work. I'm not sure what the problem is, but the only way to fix it is to sit down and write a 600-word blog post like I am doing now. Then do it again tomorrow, probably for work this time. And the do it again the next day, maybe two blog posts (one for work and one personally). I ought to get into the habit of creating great content anyway, as I need to do a lot of it over the coming months to deliver value to our users and creating opportunities for people to get to know our brand and, ultimately, download one or more of our apps.

I Need to Grow the Brand

I have about six months to get as many people as possible using Inside and its various apps. As long as it's not illegal or a method that's just acquiring bots or something, I can use just about any marketing method that works to get the job done. It's quite scary in fact. There's a lot at stake. My boss is putting a lot of faith in me to accomplish something great. I don't want to fail or to be perceived as someone who is bad at this job. I've done similar work previously, but not at this scale or this pace. Working with various apps also poses new challenges that I've never overcome before, although I am equipped with tools that I didn't have when I blogged and did social media marketing in the past.

Eventually, I Want to Revolutionize App Marketing

Small tangent, but there's an inbound marketing concept called The Buyer's Journey. It's the journey that every buyer goes through as they make their decision regarding their purchase. I think app marketing is completely focused on the decision stage and just getting the person the app. There's nothing really in the app industry on moving someone through a buyer's journey and working with a potential user to become an actual user. There's not a whole lot on ensuring actual users are happy users and doing things to turn them into fans and promoters of the app. The emphasis is so much on just increasing users and getting new users. I want to change app marketing by demonstrating that focusing on the awareness and consideration stages of the journey, you can still increase users while also having happier users who use your product more often and will do the work to get others involved. I suspect that by rushing potential users to the decision, or only presenting the decision, that folks who are still in the awareness and consideration states will ultimately delete or stop using the app because the app didn't meet their needs or solve their problems after all.

To Do That, I Need to Make This Moment Count First

I can talk about changing app marketing and what I don't like about it and what I could possibly do working at an app to provide a better experience to users when they consider, download and use apps. However, I need to accomplish a few things at work over the next few months. If I do that, while I talk about app marketing, inbound marketing, and whatever else comes to mind, then incredible things will happen.

I've spend several years blogging, several years learning how to do inbound marketing and content marketing, and I even started my own business to provide those exact services. All of that, I think was the training and the practice for this year and these next six months. I need to step up to the plate, take a few swings and hit a few home runs in the process.

All The Things I’ve Stopped (Part 3 of 9)

For the third part in this series, I'm going to evaluate my 50 blog post topics list. I wrote this list so I wouldn't get stuck with writer's block and stop blogging. I didn't like the blog post ideas that I was coming up with just so I could get a post up, so I decided to ensure I wasn't wasting time coming up with a good idea. The list of topics took me a few hours to put together, and in the end I only did 15 of those topics. I also ended up doing the 15 easiest topics first, leaving the tougher topics for, well, perhaps never.

The Tougher Topics Would Have Taken More Time than I Had

Many of the tougher topics (particularly the questions about current affairs) would have required a ton of preliminary research, and once I sat down to write the post, it would've taken me about two hours to write it. Add that to the research time, and tackling one of these tougher topics would've taken between four and six hours of my time. That's time that I could've made room for if I made the blog post a priority, but I couldn't make it that kind of a priority over paying clients.

I wasn't going to do a sloppy job of tackling these topics either. Here's a David Cameron article that I wrote in September 2013, an example of what I would like to do when answering one of these questions. Sure, I could answer a similar question with only two reasons instead of three, or I could include three reasons but cite fewer sources throughout the article, but the David Cameron article is a great article. Not to toot my own horn, but I did a great job in answering the question. If I'm not going to commit to that level of quality, then I'm not going to start the blog post or find an easier way to do the blog post. The David Cameron article is simply how those current affairs questions should be tackled.

Going Back to Making It a Priority

In the first two parts of this series, I've discussed stopping ventures because I lost interest or because I found a better option. This time, I stopped completing this list because I felt I had more important priorities besides taking the time to write on the tougher topics. This blog (for now) is simply for fun and I can't let it get in the way of paying work. Well, I could let it get in the way of paying work, but I wouldn't be earning enough to pay my bills. I also didn't want to spend so much time on just one blog post, because if I did commit four to six hours to write one post, then I would've had to reduce the number of times I published in a week. Back when I was doing those posts, I was publishing about every other day (and I'm currently working to come back to that frequency). Tackling these tougher topics would've meant publishing only about once or twice a week, perhaps even less frequently. That's just no good for blog. At least I don't think that's good for a blog.

Perhaps I'll be able to tackle some of the tougher topics in the future if I plan accordingly. I would probably need to give myself about a month's leeway, and if I do that, then I would need to choose topic that would still be timely in a month or two. That's not too hard, considering that some current issues can go on for months.

All The Things I’ve Stopped (Part 2 of 9)

I'm going to bet that a few people thought that I failed at finishing this blog series, much like the projects that are going to be mentioned in this blog series. But that is not the case! I did want to finish the Blogging Heroes blog post before continuing with the series, and I got that done last week. Then, I decided to keep my personal blogging to one to two times a week, unless things change in my life. The last thing I need is to pile on more responsibilities, and I'd like to ensure that this blog doesn't end up in "failed and forgotten" bin again. So, I'm keeping my blogging schedule to something manageable so it fits in with the rest of my life and I don't get burnt out from overextending myself.

What Is SuperBetter Again?

SuperBetter is an online game designed to help players get better at "something." Since the founder, Jane McGonigal, founded the game after suffering a severe concussion, many of the "somethings" are health-related. For example, there is a "Power Pack" in the game designed for eating healthier and losing weight (and a multitude of other health issues) called the Full Plate Diet.

With this pack, the player completes a series of quests to help them get better at eating healthier and losing weight. There are bad guys that need to be overcome, such as drinking liquid calories or having no fiber-strong foods for meal. To help you complete quests and conquer bad guys, you can enlist allies (such as your family and friends, or maybe a nutritionist) to help you. There are also power ups, which are actions that the player can take to get stronger and to do better against the quests and bad guys. Hopefully, the player completes all the quests, has lost some weight, and is much better at eating healthier than they were before.

Naturally, those same steps would happen with any Power Pack. The only differences are the types of quests, the types of bad guys, the types of power ups, and perhaps who you might choose as an ally (like switching out the nutritionist for a physical therapist or life coach). The idea is to turn healing and recovery into a game.

Why I Stopped Playing the SuperBetter Game

To be honest, I got bored with the game. After I completed the Full Plate Diet pack, I found little value in continuing the game with the other packs. The Full Plate Diet pack was a great pack and I don't regret doing it, even though I still have room for improvement. The main complaint I have about SuperBetter is that there's very little "re-playability" after you finish or take on your primary health problem. There aren't many people who want to eat healthier, but also need to recover from a sports injury and work on their migraines. Once that person starts eating healthier, the other two problems may become less of an issue.

It's possible to create your own pack, and customize the game toward something that you do want to improve, but that takes time and research that I didn't really want to put in. As much as I liked the thought of, say, creating a Power Pack to improve my poker game, I wasn't enthused enough about SuperBetter to start "modding" the game. It would have been nice if a modding community formed around the game, so that half the packs available weren't geared towards those recovering from a concussion, but I didn't have the time, enthusiasm, or skill set to start creating my own power ups, bad guys, and quests.

I stopped in the middle of a Power Pack called, "Better Than a Chill Pill," which is meant to lower stress, to combat anxiety. or to relax more easily so that you can sleep better. I think I originally chose this quest to lower my stress and to sleep a bit better. I don't think I have a problem with either now. I would say my new problem is that I sleep too much. I need a Power Pack to help me get out of bed, start the day, and to be excited about the day. I don't need a chill pill. I need an awakening pill.

I Might Restart with SuperBetter

They have added a few new Power Packs since I stopped, and one of them looks really interesting. It's called "Make It Epic", and it's designed to help you improve your motivation and persistence. There's another one called "Absurdly Grateful", which is to help you focus on gratitude, which also looks pretty neat. But, instead of starting a new pack, I should probably restart some of the old packs. I could certainly use a reboot on the Full Plate Diet to improve my eating habits and to lose a little more weight. Naturally, I could always do another run of "Being Awesome", even though I haven't been diagnosed with depression or psoriasis, and don't have too many problems with anxiety.

But, then again, maybe not. I don't need more things to do. Besides, I am working with my business coach, and she's giving me plenty to help me get super better at all sorts of things. I don't need two tools in my life accomplishing the same thing. That's why I got rid of the bullet journal. I also don't need more tasks to add onto my to-do lists. My life already provides me plenty of quests, bad guys, and power ups.

Differences Between Blogging in 2008 and Blogging in 2014

As Well as a Few Critiques

I admit I wasn't blogging in 2008. I considered the idea as a junior in college, and a friend even recommended that I call the blog, "Frog Blog." I didn't start blogging (for myself and for other sites) until 2010 and I've been blogging just about every day ever since.. Even with nearly four years of blogging experience, I learned a few great tips from "Blogging Heroes." But, there are a few changes between then and now, changes that weren't applicable even between 2008 and 2010. Here are X of the major differences between 2008 and 2014, as analyzed from "Blogging Heroes."

Monetization Through Advertising is On Its Way Out

Many of the blogs featured in the book made money through advertising, using programs such as Google Adsense. In 2008, advertising using Google Adsense was the primary and profitable way to make money with your blog. In 2014, it's simply not the case anymore. Adsense and other advertising networks pay by the click, and quite frankly, people don't click on advertising anymore. Readers find display advertising intrusive and distracting, and often don't find any benefit in the advertising. Today, to generate the number of clicks that you need to make your Adsense revenue worthwhile, you either have to publish tons and tons of posts each day (essentially becoming a slave to your blog) or write about things that salacious and juicy (or slap on such a headline for click bait). Neither tactic makes a blogger great or profitable in blogging.

Adsense and other advertising networks can still bring in some money, yes, but many bloggers today are monetizing their blogs by using a variety of methods. These methods include affiliate marketing programs like Amazon Associates, selling products directly on the site, creating a membership program, hosting paid online and in-person events, offering consulting services, and many more. Bloggers today often use more than one method since using only one method (like advertising} makes it incredibly difficult for a blogger to make enough money to live solely through blogging.

Networking Through the Blog Comments is Also Out

The spammers ruined this one. In 2008, the comment section was still a great place to start conversations, to add to conversations, and to share a link back to your blog. However, spammers have ruined the comment section by using it as a way to stuff keywords and to place links to sites that are irrelevant to the website. In 2014, major blogs and publications like Popular Science and Six Pixels of Separation are shutting down their comment sections because of the spam and the trolls. Also consider that when sites like Huffington Post and Salon post something controversial, it's nearly impossible to get your comment noticed because everyone has a comment to make. Besides, a comment section that's devolved into ad hominem and vitriolic nonsense isn't the place you want to be to network your blog.

Those blogging today shouldn't emphasize comments as a sign of popularity or as a way to build backlinks either. Only one percent of blog readers take the time to comment on posts, while many sites mark comment links as "no follow", so they don't add any SEO benefit.

Instead, bloggers today are networking through social media and in-person events. Conferences like New Media Expo and The Blog Workshop are two of the biggest national events, but smaller events such as local meetups or professional networking events can also be great ways to promote the blog. Only a few well established blogs such as Problogger and Inbound Hub manage to keep their comment sections accessible without getting overwhelmed by the spammers and trolls.

Is Technorati As Powerful as It Once Was?

I used to write for Technorati, and still can if I really want to. I started writing for Technorati in 2010, and back then writing for the site was a great thing to do. There were plenty of good writers contributing good content, and the section editors would work with you personally to ensure that you made edits to the articles when requested and to give you article ideas. Technorati's listings were used several times throughout the book as a way to demonstrate how popular or well-known a blog is, such as the Top 100 Favorited Blogs and the Top 100 Linked To Blogs (do either of those lists still exist, and if so, who is one them?)

Technorati may have been great several years ago, but is it still great now? I wonder if bloggers today care about their Technorati rankings or authority numbers. It could be that bloggers don't care anymore, as those listings have been saturated by the same 150 or 200 blogs that just switch spots among themselves. It's unlikely any of the blogs currently listed on the Top 100 are going to fall of the wagon so horribly that they won't be able to recover, making room for someone new to make the list.

Plenty of Emphasis on Tech Blogs

I understand that the 30 bloggers interviewed in the book weren't the author's first 30 choices, or were necessarily the bloggers that reflected the 30 most popular bloggers of the time. But, I would have liked to see a little more variety in the blogs that were featured. Over one-third of the blogs featured had something to do with business or tech. There weren't any political, fashion, green, celebrity, entertainment, sports, or current events blogs featured. Only one parenting blog (ParentDish) made the list and only one DIY blog (DIY Life) made the list. It would have been great to see one more blog from both of those categories since they are crowded categories like tech and business.

Granted, I don't know if there were many people blogging in those categories in 2008. Since blogging was still very new in 2008, it could easily have been that many bloggers were technology and business experts since they are the most likely people to be an early adopter of a new technology platform like blogging. It's possible that great bloggers in those other categories got a later start because they needed to get acclimated with the technology first before they would have felt comfortable in using it to communicate their hobby or passion.

LOVED Seeing the Pics of the Blogs in 2007

While reading the book, it was actually pretty awesome to go through each chapter and see a screenshot of the blog in 2007. It's baby Lifehacker and baby Gizmodo! How cute! It was also pretty swell to see what qualified as slick web design and cutting edge fonts back in 2007 too. If some of these designs and layouts existed as they were in 2014, then many of them would be too busy and not very user-friendly.

Does Anyone Else Follow 200+ Blogs?

Many of the bloggers featured in the book kept up with other blogs through RSS feed. Although Google Reader doesn't exist anymore, keeping up with other great blogs is an excellent thing to do as a blogger. But, to keep up with more than 200 blogs? How is that possible, whether or not you use an RSS feed? If you don't use an RSS feed, then what do you use to keep up without everything, since all those updates would clog your email or take too much time to do manually? I would be surprised if anyone follows this many blogs. I think most bloggers only follow fewer than 100 blogs, or only keep up with their subject areas through tools like Google Alerts.

Well, that's all I have to say about Blogging Heroes: Interview with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers. Overall, the book is an excellent read for any blogger, whether you do it professionally or as a hobby. I wouldn't classify it as a must-read since some of the information is outdated and that a few of the blogs featured don't even exist anymore. But, blogging has changed quite a bit since 2008 as well as the top players in the field. It would be neat to try to to find today's top 30 bloggers (or even the 30 bloggers in each category). It would be pretty cool to hear their stories.

All The Things I've Stopped (Part 1 of 9)

Ever since my blogging streak ended, I've thought about all the things that I said I was going to do on this blog. With the exception of one or two, I stopped doing all of them within a few months. Besides the blogging streak, there was only one other endeavor that ended in a matter of days. The others were either intentions that were never turned into action, or behaviors that I stopped doing after several months. I think it would be great if I went over each of these goals and endeavors, going into detail of why I wanted to do the project in the first place and why I ended up not finishing what I sent out to do. Not everyone enjoys going over their failures, or evaluating why they were unable (or chose not to) finish something, but I think the exercise will be valuable to me. I am in the middle of determining what I want out of life and how to get those things, so I think this exercise will show me why I wanted to do these projects at a certain point in time, only to decide later on that I wasn't interested in doing them anymore.

Bullet Journal vs Inferno of Productivity

For the first part of this many part series (the number of series parts has yet to be determined), I'm going to evaluate two similar projects where I've stopped doing one but I've continued to do the other.

The bullet journal and the inferno of productivity are two systems that organize your to-do lists and improve your productivity. The inferno of productivity is a system that I created about a year ago, while the bullet journal is a system that I found online and decided to try. I did both concurrently for about seven months, but I've stopped using the bullet journal system about two weeks ago and have continued to use the inferno of productivity system only.

The main reason why I stopped using the bullet journal is because the journal felt redundant. I thought the system, especially its inclusion of a monthly calendar, monthly task lists, and room for other necessary lists (like planning for a vacation or a separate to-do list for that trip), would augment my daily to-do list that the inferno of productivity specializes in. However, that didn't happen. Using both systems at the same time seemed like I was managing two to-do lists for each day with no added benefit in having both. If there was a discrepancy in the to-do lists, then it was weird and a hassle to remedy that discrepancy.

I found the inferno of productivity to be easier since I like the tangible aspect of using index cards (something that I'd like to make less disposable with reusable index cards. I just need to find something reusable that I can use.) I also found this system much more flexible with tasks that I wasn't able to get done and with organizing my day, since I can put the cards/ tasks in the order that I wanted to do them. In the end, I stopped doing the bullet journal because it wasn't adding any value, and I was crafting my daily task list from what was already set up in the inferno of productivity system.

I'm Starting with a Softball

The bullet journal and the inferno of productivity were easy ones to evaluate because:

• I'm still doing the inferno of productivity, which is awesome. It's also a system that I'd like to improve upon in several ways.
• Since I'm still doing the inferno, stopping the bullet journal was somewhat inconsequential.
• Seven months is a pretty good run, but since the main reason why I stopped was because it wasn't adding value to my life, the bullet journal wasn't tough to quit. The failure was in the system, no myself.
• Quitting the bullet journal is not the same as not following through in learning how to drive a stick shift or with anything on my five-year plan. I will cover both in future parts of this series. Both of those do reflect a failure on my part.

But, I gotta start somewhere. It was easiest to start with my productivity systems since they are/were a daily part of my life. The others involved more long-term work, dedication, and planning.

One thing that does need to happen: finishing this series.

What You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Productivity

A lot of times, people want to do something but don’t take the time to do that something or to change what’s necessary to get that done. Productivity is one of those things, where people want to be more productive but never actually do anything to become more productive. Cathy Sexton, a productivity strategist and coach and founder of The Productivity Experts, says that this is the case because people don’t take the time to recognize the benefits of doing something and of being more productive. “People are just overwhelmed today. They don’t see an end and they don’t know where to start,” she said. “There’s value in thinking about what things would look like if they were different.”

Sexton started her business in 2003, coaching and speaking to folks about reducing stress and frustration in order to live productive, peaceful lives. She said that one of the most common problems she addresses with her clients is learning what to control and how to control those things.

“We can only control four things: time, money, energy, and our attitude or behavior,” she said. “People try to control others or try to control the situation, when we just can’t. [Recognizing] this optimizes our time and energy while reducing the feeling of being overwhelmed.”

Sexton said that one of the biggest myths about productivity is that it’s all about time management, when it’s much more than that. Productivity includes emotional intelligence, being organized, taking action, and working naturally. She said that everyone has a productivity style, which is essentially how we make decisions and pace ourselves. By understanding this, we can get more done, have less frustration, and be better equipped to handle what’s going on.

“It’s about understanding who we are and working with that,” she said. “For example, if you need structure, then you need to be in a [work] position where you can follow a structure and go from step A, to B, to C.”

Not everyone is in a place where they can change jobs and find a position that suits their productivity style, but this doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything that can be done to improve your productivity. Sexton said that one thing anyone can do today to be more productive is to make a decision, and then take the next action. This moves yourself forward, allowing you to plan what you are doing instead of reacting or spending time getting the wrong things done.

In fact, there are four things that need to happen in this decision making process to ensure that the process is productive, but also that the decisions made and the tasks completed were also worthwhile. The four things are:

1. Plan – This is more than just reacting to events, but strategizing what you’re going to do and how you are going to handle a situation.
2. Eliminate – Productivity is more than getting things done, but getting the right things done. You need to take the wrong things out of your day, those tasks that don’t really move you forward or accomplish anything.
3. Prioritize – Organize those ‘right things’ that you need to get done.
4. Take Action – Do what needs to get done.

“Productivity is an ongoing process. You must work at it,” she said. “The time you take to set up these processes will come back 100-fold.”

Choose a College Major You Like

It Makes Little Difference in the Long Run

Results from the latest study by ACT found that 1/3 of college freshmen are choosing a major that's a 'poor' fit for their interests. Although the study of more than 1.2 million 2013 high school graduates also found that another 1/3 are choosing a major that's a good fit for their interests, I do worry for the four million freshmen across the country that are only making their college experience harder by choosing a major that doesn't fit their interests.

When I was a student at Saint Louis University (I graduated in 2010), I met too many students who were majoring in things like biology, chemistry, and biochemistry but hated their majors. They were only majoring in these things because they were told at one point that there were jobs in these fields. They may have only been majoring in these things because they were pre-med, and were opting for a major that seemed complimentary to medicine (pre-med itself isn't a major). However, there's no requirement that if you're pre-med you need to major in biology or chemistry. Some may say that majoring in the sciences is better because it prepares you better for medical school, but statistics show that as long as you meet the requirements for entry and keep your grades up, a pre-med philosophy student isn't any less prepared for medical school than a pre-med biology or pre-med chemistry student.

Spend that Time on Something You Like!

The pre-med example is just one that illustrates my ultimate point: your major doesn't necessarily determine your job prospects or how employable you'll be once you graduate. If people can get into medical school without needing to study a hard science, then people don't necessarily need this degree or that degree to get a job. Granted, some fields do require a specific degree. You're not likely to get an engineering job without an engineering degree, and you're not likely to be a physical therapists without studying physical therapy, but for the most part companies with open positions aren't going to focus on the major. So, why not spend the four years majoring in something you like? Four years is a long time to spend studying something you aren't interested in only to prepare yourself for something that you might not be interested in either.

At SLU, I doubled majored in international studies and political science with a double minor in communication and Russian. It's a mouthful. I just tell people I studied in political science. After I graduated, I took a temporary job making cold calls. Next, I became a freelance writer writing about everything from recruiting to nitrogen tire inflation, from government trends and initiatives to small business technology. After that, I started my own content marketing agency. That didn't end up working for me, which was fine because I hated having to convince potential clients over and over again that they couldn't talk about themselves on their company blogs and that the needed to create content that potential customers would like, not just stuff that advertised and made a sales pitch. I like content marketing when it works well. I hate it when it's not working well and now you have to evangelize and give advice. But, they aren't paying you for that advice and they didn't ask for it in the first place. Because they didn't ask for it, it's unlikely they'll implement it.

I digress, but within that whole story I didn't really need or rely on my political science degree. None of my clients cared I had the degree. The telemarketing job overlooked the fact that I didn't have business degree, even though everyone else they hired with me had one. I didn't need a degree, let alone one in political science, to become a freelance writer or to become an entrepreneur. I have the professional background that I have because I was a good writer, spending three years at SLU writing for the college newspaper and having a few journalism internships to boot. At this point in my life (I turn 26 in January and I only graduated three years ago), no one is going to care about my major no matter what I choose to do with my life. Yes, they will care that I got a college degree, but employers care about the fact that I got the degree and they care about the skills that I have. Since major won't matter, even as soon as three years out of higher education (of course, major makes a difference if you want a masters and/or PhD), then choose something you're interested in.

Then Why Do Employers Specify Majors on Their Job Postings?

They do it because they need a way to weed out bad applicants and to deter them from applying, although a requirement like 'four-year degree in marketing" rarely stops anybody. The average job seeker spends 76 seconds looking at a job description, with much of that time typically spent reviewing job title, compensation, and location. If you think that's bad, then consider that the average hiring manager spends six seconds on a resume. Four of those six seconds are spent looking at four main parts of the resume:

• Job titles (42% restrict their hiring based on previous job titles, and these are just the hiring managers that don't have a problem filling an open position)
• Companies You Worked At
• Start/End Dates
• Education

This means that, on average, the hiring manager is spending one second looking your educational background. This is one-third of the time spent looking at your work history. Even if majors were designed to deter people or to encourage certain people to apply, it's not something hiring managers are really spending time evaluating, even when they do look at education. They have other things in mind when looking for the perfect candidate (besides, you know, finding perfect person with everything the employer wants).

Trust me, as someone who has covered the recruiting industry for a year-and-a-half, they don't care about degrees and college majors all that much. They're not good indicators of success in the position, and are hardly ever used as factors to decide on one candidate over another. As the research has shown, employers are worrying about having college graduates who are ready for the workforce and who can write a sentence without spelling and grammatical errors. They're more focused on filling positions with people who can do the job and don't need a lot of training to do it. Studying history, philosophy, anthropology, or another "useless" subject isn't going to hurt your chances of getting to this point than studying something "more practical." Granted, employers are also worrying about things that are outside of your control, like only hiring people who have the same exact job title on their resume, but you also need to be spending time in college developing skills through internships and extra-curricular activities. Simply getting the degree isn't enough and won't necessarily prepare you adequately for the workplace.

If You Want a Practical Degree that Gets You a Job, Then Go to a Trade School

If all you're after is the security that you'll be employable and jobs in your field once you get out, then go to a trade school. Study something like auto repair, veterinary assisting, medial billing & coding, or nursing. These are practical jobs that are never going away, and attending a trade school ensures that everything you do there will have to do with whatever trade you choose to study. You don't have to make room for three semesters of theology or four semesters of foreign language at a trade school. Plus, you finish faster and have to do fewer papers and exams to do it. Why spend four years getting a job when you can do the same thing at a trade school at two, and for much cheaper too? Better yet, there's a lot of jobs that don't even need a college degree. If you're just after earning money, then there are plenty of ways to do that without spending the time and money to go to fancy university in the first place.

College is supposed to be about more than getting a job. College is also supposed to be about exposing yourself to new things, developing your critical thinking skills, meeting new people, and being able to do things that you might not be able to do outside of college. College should be fun, and fun doesn't have to exclude your classes. I got a degree in political science and have turned out just fine in the real world. You don't necessarily need to get a degree in a field that you plan to work in. You really need to get the degree, and get a lot more skills and experience on top of that.

9 Empowering Songs for Kicking Ass and Taking Names

I first came up with this blog post idea a long time ago when, in my SuperBetter account, I created "listen to an empowering song" as a power-up. I had a few on my iPod, came across a few more, and decided it would be cool to put them all together in a list post. After all, empowerment is about getting ready to kick ass and to take names, so why not help others be able to do the same? In doing a little research for this post, I found lists and songs that were dedicated to empowering women after a breakup! It sends the message that a man will empower and validate us, so when we are without one, we have to find out how to do it on our own. I also found lists and songs that I didn't think were all that empowering at all, like Adele's Rolling in the Deep (Sorry Adele, but this does more fall into the 'empowerment after breakup' category). Besides, we shouldn't only be looking for empowerment and self-confidence when we're newly single. We should be doing that all the time and looking for ways to channel that energy besides being someone's girlfriend or wife. So, I'm changing that by creating my own list of empowering songs that are actually empowering (I fail to see how Somewhere Only We Know by Keane is empowering) and can actually be applied perhaps when we're in a happy relationships. Here are nine empowering songs for kicking ass and taking names. I know that some of these artists have done more than one empowering song, but I wanted to feature each artist only once.

Roar - Katy Perry

An obvious choice for an empowering song. I prefer the lyric video to the official one. I don't think the jungle theme showcases the message of the song all that well. I don't think Olivia Henken did it justice on season 5 of the Voice.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9SeJIgWRPk]

Hair - Lady Gaga

It's not one of her most popular hits, but this song is one of my favorites from her. I want someone to sing this on the Voice.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okq8xHrIZ8I]

#thatpower - will.i.am ft. Justin Bieber

Not only is this great song, but the music video is awesome too. The choreography is so deliberate, like what it takes to succeed in life.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGIgXP9SvB8]

Feeling Good - Nina Simone

The version by Michael Buble isn't bad either, but I do think the original has much more character and emotion to it. I also think that it would be harder to sing if you had to sing it live.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHs98TEYecM]

Counting Stars - OneRepublic

No more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars. Or, in my case, words. I want to be counting words.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_nvWreIhg]

Try - P!nk

This song applies to love and relationships, as that's what P!nk is singing about, but you need to try in life also. You can't be afraid of failure or uncertainty. Well, you can be afraid of those things, but you shouldn't let your fear getting in the way of doing things. Let P!nk tell you all about it. Another video with great choreography.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCDVfMz15M]

Girl on Fire - Alicia Keys

Around the time this song came out, my cat accidentally lit his tail on fire by sweeping across a lit candle. My fiance and I put it out frantically, while my cat wasn't too pleased that we pet him the wrong way. Now, the lyric goes, "This kitty's on fire!"

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91ti_MpdHA]

Dog Days are Over - Florence + the Machine

Now, Pentatonix did this song justice when they performed it on the Sing Off. They made it their own while keeping the intensity and character of the song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU]

Walk Tall - John Mellencamp

Not only is this an incredibly inspirational and empowering song, but the music video is beautiful too. Mellencamp may have been singing for a long, long time (although this song came out in the early 2000's), but this song is timeless.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjNn9_bfp6k]

Creating a Wiki, or Sticking with a Blog?

Many months ago, I came across wikis for several of my favorite video games, only to find that there really weren't any wikis about current affairs or business topics. A couple have been started, covering things such as green politics, politics in Canada, and business in general, but none of the wikis look taken care of or look like they've been updated recently. It seems like there are many different tools out there that you can use to start a wiki, and the right tool depends on why you want the wiki and who will be using it. MediaWiki is what Wikipedia uses, but I like Wikia because you can start right away (or take over an old one) and it looks a bit more intuitive in how to use it and what you need to do. I really like the idea of creating a wiki, but for a topics like business and politics, it seems like you might be better off buying a whole bunch of books or starting a blog and then covering anything and everything possible. Although, buying books can be expensive (even if you buy only ebooks, it still adds up) and taking the blog route seems very similar to the wiki.

Difference Between Wiki and Blog

WIkipedia points out that the major difference between a blog and a wiki (I know Wikipedia isn't really a reputable source, but who better to source on this topic than the inventor of the wiki?) is that "the content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little implicit structure, allowing structure to emerge according to the needs of the users." This makes sense once a wiki is established and has a ton of readers and contributors, but any wiki that's starting out would need to have a leader and some structure, right? If no one is leading the way to start the wiki, to get a few articles up, and to tell people about the wiki, then how does anyone expect the wiki to get started and to get to a point of self-sustainability? Someone needs to be the start and the face of the new wiki until there's enough people involved to add new content, to edit existing content, and to make sure the wiki isn't trolled or that someone doesn't add an irrelevant article.

I Might Just Stick with the Blog

I don't like that wikis have a lack of leadership and structure. I understand that those are needed to make them work, and that those criteria have worked for them. But, I wouldn't want them a part of my wiki, and if they aren't a part of the wiki then it's not really a wiki. After all, the main reason I'm pursuing this is to build identity capital and to build my personal brand as someone who is well-versed in current events and politics. A wiki can't do that since it's meant to be a community as much as it is a communal resource. The wiki also only works that way if it's for a specific group of people, such as a non-profit group or a company. Then, I can attribute the wiki idea to myself as something that I contributed to a larger group (and that someone in the larger group could corroborate). Yes, I want the blog to benefit someone besides myself, but I'd also like to build a brand with it and make it the obvious go-to resource on current events, or world news, or business, or something like that. Still deciding because I'm still thinking about the brand name, mantra, positioning statement etc.

But, prepare for, yet again, a change in tone and topic (and A LOT more on this blog).