Self Education is the Key to Making Our Dreams Come True

"Formal education will make you a living but self education will make you a fortune."

This was said by Jim Rohn, one of the top 50 motivational speakers in personal development and one of the trainers at the top online personal development site, Success University.

Formal education is never easy. When I was at school I wasn't really that bothered about whether I got an A in Maths or History. I was too worried about whether people liked me or not, where I could get the latest Rod Stewart photos or whether my skirt was the trendiest length.

Yet, education seems to happen despite the student. We come out with our varied grades and reports of "Could do better" (in my case), but somehow we get some sort of an education. Unfortunately, going to school is never the choice of the pupil, it is a requirement. In most Western countries it is the common consensus that you must go to school so you can get a job and earn a living.

Perhaps this is why many of us achieve only average results. We are not doing it out of love, but because we have to. It's the law.

However, self-education has far more power because we only come to it through personal choice. Because we have chosen it, we feel it is our responsibility to take it on and achieve the results we want. This gives us self-motivation and we are far more likely to succeed.

I know this is true because after a mediocre set of school grades, in later years I took a degree with the Open University - for no other reason than because I wanted to - and I achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Humanities. I majored in history, which was a subject I wasn't even interested in at school.

Because it was my choice, and a subject I had come to love through my own discovery, I was far more motivated to succeed.

Unfortunately, many people believe that once they have finished their school education, there is nothing more to learn. They get a job, and might earn a comfortable living, but very rarely do they live the life of their dreams.

When we were very young children, before we were old enough to allow ourselves to be limited, our dreams were boundless. We talked about what we are going to be or do when we are grown-up without any doubt that it is possible. Now we really are grown-up, we laugh at these childish statements. We think we know better.

Sadly, the last laugh is on us. We our not only stamping on our own dreams, but those of our children too.

When people reach adulthood, they start to give up their dreams and start to play small. Those huge, passionate dreams are adjusted to the mundanity of every day life, and gradually dwindle to nothing more than a distant memory.

As this happens, our vision becomes smaller; our lives become mediocre and boring. We focus only on earning enough money to keep out of debt and paying the bills. We begin to suffer and wonder why we are not happy or fulfilled.

This is not how life is meant to be.

Inside us is a huge potential: all our big dreams and passions that we have tucked away in a dark little box. But this box is always waiting for us to re-discover and open it again.

Inside this box is all the inspiration, power and joy of life; it's all there inside of you, waiting to get out.

We are aware that it's there. There is that little niggling voice at the back of our minds that we are not living the life we wanted, but we allow ourselves to be influenced by our conditioning: "it's not possible, I can't do it, it's too big". So we stuff it down again and get on with our small lives, excusing ourselves by saying, "Ah, well, it's OK I suppose".

Do you really want to live a "just OK" kind of life?

When you pursue your dreams, you feel energised, full of inspiration and excitement. You also feel authentic. Perhaps, for the first time in your life you are living truthfully. This is an incredibly powerful feeling. And the bigger your dreams, the more intense the feeling.

It may take courage to start with, but once you have made that commitment a new world will open up to you. All you have to do is to start listening to yourself - allow that little voice to tell you what you need. Once you have done this, you will start to develop the mindset that you possess all that you need to live the life of your dreams. Your will power will strengthen, your confidence will grow - and then you will be ready to learn the strategies that will reinvent your life.

Self-education then becomes a powerful resource that you will come to with passion and a will to succeed. This is real learning.

After that, making our dreams come true is only a matter of time.

So You Have Graduated College, Now What?

In tough economic times, more students are graduating with little or no career prospects. Many of these graduates who cannot find jobs are starting to feel the pressure. Just six months after graduating, all those loans they had to take out to pay for their education are coming back to bite them. Recently, I went searching for open positions related to my field of study (marketing and communications) for when I graduate in May. Even when searching through the countless positions on websites like Monster.com, most positions for my major requires years of prior experience. I also visited a college career fair, and most of the companies were not looking for business graduates, but were more interested in pharmacists. Unfortunately, four or five years of sitting through endless lectures and classes devoted to the very position they are seeking does not count toward any experience. The odds are not in their favor either. In the second quarter of 2008 the Labor Department gave the unemployment rate for those in the 20 - 24 year old group (the age range is the most likely for new graduates). Unemployment had risen from 7.7% last year to 9.8% this year. Most colleges require students to intern and/or take career counseling to give them an idea of what to expect after graduation, but they still do not guarantee a job after graduation. So you are a new graduate and cannot seem to stand out of the crowd? Here are a couple of tips to make you and your resume more noticeable to potential employers. -Network. Networking helps you stand out to an employer. If you are currently a student, become involved in plenty of events and groups related to your major. -An impressive resume. Making your resume stand out is not as hard as it may seem. Little things such as adding a picture of you or using positive phrases can add luster to an otherwise vanilla resume. An example of a use of positive language is instead of saying you have no experience in a certain area, saying that you are willing and open to learning is obviously more constructive. Employers are always more open to someone who is willing to conform to their job descriptions, rather than a position having to conform to an applicant. Student loans are creeping up and you still have not gotten the position to build your career on? Some people have begun to take a more unconventional attitude on job hunting: Create their own career by starting their own business. Once thought to be something only highly experienced professionals do, new graduates are starting businesses related to their fields of study.If you have the ambition to start your own business, either a new graduate or someone who just has some new or great ideas, here are a few pointers that may help you start:-Since you are probably bogged down with debt (thanks to student loans), try to limit your start up costs. Internet companies generally have very low start up costs, as long as you have an idea as to what you're doing. Starting a business with a friend can also limit your costs and you will have more than one person working toward a goal. -Remember those old textbooks that you could not or did not sell? Some of them have some great ideas in them. I have kept marketing books just because I thought in the future they could come in handy. -Have a business plan. If you have a business plan, even a simple one, you always have a reference point. Eventually we all hit road blocks, like writing essays and having an outline, a business plan can keep you in order.-Finally, do not give up and work hard to achieve your goals. Getting through college was not easy (or cheap), so do not be discouraged if your business does not take off immediately. Successful businesses take patience, time and a LOT of hard work.It is not hard to become discouraged by the declining job market. Plenty of people I know are working in fast food restaurants while waiting to land "the job." When the economy is good, graduates may get multiple offers with competing salaries, but now these offers are not landing in people's laps like they once were. An applicant must do more to be noticed in today's job market.