Another 365 Idea - Blogging

As part of our work with our gappers, we set out to create a journey document.  In this document, we capture, from start to finish, the growth, experience and milestones each of our gappers accomplish through their 365 experience with us.

Last week, we shared some ideas about how to capture your year.   Another idea, is blogging.   One of our gappers who is having an amazing year thus far has provided us with one of her blogs to showcase how she captures her experience through reflection.  She explores her experience with our coaching and using EQ/Emotional Intelligence as a means of growing into herself, and the person she wants to be.   Being part of this journey is incredible.   We can tell that this one is going to move some mountains! (Dr. Seuss reference)

  Let's visit a short blog from her site:

Reflection time

Thanks to mygapyear I've had so much time to reflect on myself and figure out all sorts of things I've always wanted to know about. I've figured out how I work best, how I have a hard time dealing with stress and how I'm really self critical. All things I would have never had time to think about or realized if I had kept forging full steam ahead into the future. And just these small realizations are making all the difference to how I operate. I always thought that I would need to fully understand the things I want to work on about myself and then take action to begin to change them. Turns out just realizing more about myself is the biggest action of all. Guess they weren't lying when they said "knowledge is power". (I had to throw at least one cheesy reference to that phrase in there). I'm so excited to put all this new self understanding to good use!

So, how are you capturing this year? Share on our facebook group, or @mygapyear!   We want to hear how you are making your mark on 2013.   Learning to grow into yourself and gathering an understanding is certainly a huge part of a gap year - but it can be part of your year with or without a gap year.

How do you measure a year?  Cups of Coffee?

Ring in 2013 - Resolve those Resolutions

How Can We Make Them Stick? 

Where did you ring in the New Year?  Was it on a sandy beach, at home cozy by a fire, toasting champagne in Paris or in bed sick with a cold?  Countless people toast to a New Year with a wave of celebration from Austrailia back to North America.   Annually, individuals reckon with themselves and join forces with others to adopt new habits, and bring in the new whilst kicking out the "old".

Where did this idea of making resolutions start?  In a quick review of sources, since 2000 BC, Babylonians would hold festivals and two points in the year: spring and fall equinox.    Historically, they would pay of debts and return borrowed goods.  Fast forward a few centuries, when the Romans reformed the calendar, January 1st became the day of new beginnings.  This was in honour of Janus.

Symbols of New Years are everywhere - from the sale of themed items, to the need for a new outfit and ensuring you have scheduled an unforgettable night with friends, family, and hopefully, a midnight kiss.

We call ourselves, out of tradition, to make changes in the New Year.  Most of them are, in fact, self changes or behavioural changes.  I am going to share some alternatives to the ever daunting and rarely achieved   New Year's Resolution.

4 ways to help make 'em stick!

1. Yearly Review - more exciting than it sounds! 

Start by celebrating the past year.  2012 was amazing for me - and I am sure it was full of memories, both positive and negative that have informed how you might chose to live out 2013.

Why not try a Year in Review:  From Get Busy Living: Your Year in Review:

My Tip:  Find a beautiful journal and keep it all your years in review in one spot.   Reflect each year on your highs, lessons, and things that you are grateful for.

2.  Changing the Language in your resolutions making:

 We can often say things like:  I will not going to each junk food this year.  I will not be mean to my kids.
In changing how we construct these ideas, we change how we approach the situation or goal.  Peter Gasca shares more about this in his  5 Anti-Resolutions for 2013    Try reading more this year --- a reverse to: I have to watch less TV.

3.  Picking a Theme Rather than Goals.  

This is my personal favourite.   In the past my theme has been to Live Boldy.   I picked up the idea when I started to purchase a certain line of agendas.  They each had wonderful quotes on them which help me to keep focused for that year, instead of drifting away from my silly lists of goals, and behaviour changes.

4. 1 Word and 365 Challenges

365 - take a photo, try something new or capture what you do each day.   You can do this in a journal, by opening a photo account like instagram or flickr so that your photos are housed off of your phone (in case you misplace it).   There are so many variations of this - make your own, or find something online to inspire you!


Here are my final picks.  One word & 365 challenges.   Below is a video that tells you more about how to incorporate the idea of having one word for an entire year.  Much like the quote or theme for your year, you just pick one word to live out, through and with for the year to come.   There are organizations that walk you through the process, you can find it in this video.  I haven't used a company before, and I am not sure you have to.  This guy does a great job of sharing the idea in more detail.

Share with us in the comment box what you do - or feel free to find us on Facebook and start a convo there!

Happy New Year - from mygapyear!

Law School+Gap Years

Consider Benefits, Consequences of Gap Years Between College and Law School

All rights belong to Shawn P. O'Connor

Some students might benefit from a few years off between college and law school.

Law schools do not require any prior work experience. However, many applicants take at least one year off after college before matriculating.

I actually took four years off between my undergraduate and JD/MBA studies. Here are some pros and cons of taking time off before attending law school.

Pros:
• More time for LSAT prep and applications: During college, you spend much of your time studying and writing papers, so finding enough extra time for LSAT preparation and essay writing can be a challenge.
By delaying the law school application process, you can ensure that you devote enough time to your preparation so that you reach your full LSAT score potential and compose the best possible essays, which are critical to winning a spot in your dream school.


•New essay topics: If you have been struggling to come up with compelling essay topics, you may benefit from gaining more life experience.
For example, doing a service program after college, like education-focused Teach For America and City Year, can give you the specific examples of leadership and overcoming obstacles that will differentiate your essays.
[Find out how to use news to customize your essays.]

• More savings: If you work for a couple years before law school, you can use that time to save money and lessen the financial burden of law school tuition and living expenses when you enroll.
Entry-level jobs may not always pay particularly well, but any money you can save will definitely help.

[Learn how to negotiate law school financial aid awards.]

• More perspective: After working for a year or two, you may realize that instead of going into law you actually want to pursue business and obtain an MBA or go into government and obtain an MPA. You may even decide that graduate school is not the right path for you.
Having this extra time to gain real-world work experience after college can give you more perspective and help you decide if law school is truly right for you.

Cons:
•Tough job market: While the economy is in recovery, jobs are still not readily available for all recent college graduates. As a result, finding a fulfilling job with a JD from a top school in three years will likely be easier than finding such a job right out of college.
[Find employers hiring grads from your college.]
If you are already certain that you want to go to law school and you have no specific reason to delay, starting right after college can be beneficial as you can start focusing on your long-term career immediately.

• Loss of motivation: If you are able to find compelling employment after college, you may lose some of the motivation to go to law school that may have felt strong while you were sitting in political science or philosophy classes in college.
A stable job with regular paychecks often brings with it a comfortable lifestyle. If you enjoy your job and it offers growth opportunity, law school may seem like less of a priority.

• More time to fill: Law schools prefer not to see substantial gaps in your résumé. If you take time off after college, you will need to fill that time with jobs, volunteer programs, or other activities.
You will need to be as active after graduation as you were during college. Leadership positions you held in college will not be as valuable in your applications a few years later if you have not held similar positions with, for example, nonprofit organizations since then.

• Loss of momentum: During college, you spend most weekends and nights studying and writing papers. If you start working after college, you may grow used to the opposite schedule of working during the day and having nights and weekends to yourself.

Since your first year law school grades are essential to your professional opportunities after law school, you do not want to falter in the beginning as you are readjusting to an academic lifestyle.

Who Gap? You Gap!

The holidays present an opportunity for individuals who are currently in their first year of studies, or planning for their lives after high school, taking a break can be a very important part of a young person's transition period.   Why would you take some time off?  Should you take time off?   What would others say? What could my gap year look like?  Do universities or colleges find it interesting if I take a break? Won't I be behind?

The break from school provides a great time to consider all of these questions.  Here is an article we found interesting to help you consider whether gapping for a period of time might be a in your future!
The next few weeks we will explore these questions. 

Gap year travel: does time out really enrich?

Our education expert weighs the pros and cons of taking a pre-university break.

Rather than treating a gap year as an extended holiday, broaden your horizons and try to do something useful 

By Tommy Cookson

A close friend’s daughter spent her gap year teaching in a charity school for primary-age children in Mexico. “The children thought I had travelled there by donkey. I had done Spanish GCSE alongside my A-levels but I ended up teaching them Spanish as literacy levels were so low.” She lived with a local family. “Their plumbing was a bit down to earth but their generosity was amazing.”

Her younger brother spent his year teaching at a Church of England mission school in Zimbabwe. Afterwards he raised money to finance further education for pupils who have gone on to build successful careers. Another brother worked on a conservation project in Belize.

Each year some 50,000 young people do work placements abroad. Numbers have been growing since National Service ended in the late Fifties, as has the number of companies which organise gap years. One of the first was Lattitude Global Volunteering, founded in 1972.

“Rather than being an extended holiday our placements involve learning to take responsibility for others,” says Nick Adie of Lattitude Global Volunteering. “Young people should push themselves out of their comfort zones and do something productive with their time out.”

Lattitude’s programmes involve helping in schools, hospitals, care homes and conservation projects. They are not without dangers and difficulties. “I learnt how to deal with things myself and I am a much stronger person than I was before,” says one volunteer who taught at an Aboriginal school in Australia.

Callum Kennedy, director of BUNAC, which specialises in overseas work, says that competition for jobs is making work overseas placements more popular than ever.

“With unemployment at a very high rate, a work placement - particularly one that is relevant to a career - will add value to CVs, helping young people to stand out from the crowd in the job market.”

Using a gap year to learn another language at partner schools abroad is also considered a useful activity. This method offers total immersion, the most effective way to progress.

But while gap year organisations suggest skills acquired abroad will do wonders for your CV, how do universities and employers view it?

“A minority of gap year experiences are truly admirable,” says Robert Swannell, chairman of Marks & Spencer. “They require skill and determination, a sense of structure and of selflessness, for instance in such things as teaching in Third World countries.”

“That can be a useful, sensible way of spending an invaluable period,” says Giles Henderson, master of Pembroke College, Oxford. All three of Henderson’s children took a year out: his son, Simon, taught in South Africa, caught the teaching bug and is now headmaster of Bradfield College.

Robert Hingley, a senior adviser to the investment bank Lazard, explains: “In a shrinking job market, when you have 300 applications for every place, some 100 of them will be stunning but few will stand out. Almost all will have first-class degrees. Those who have taken an interesting gap year will have had the opportunity to progress beyond merely achieving things. At interview they may well come across as personalities. They will have grown up.”

But there are many companies selling risk-free excitement rather than the less comfortable virtues of service. “Often a gap year looks like a six-month jolly – and with a privileged person all the more so,” says Mr Swannell.

“Sometimes it looks like an extended holiday,” agrees Sir Michael Rake, chairman of BT. “A gap year carries no particular magic: employers look for technical skills and qualities of leadership, though time out may help you come across as a broader, more experienced person.” In a technical world like that of BT, with 7,500 applicants for 200 places on the BT Graduate Scheme, the gap year plays a relatively small part on your CV.

Mr Henderson reckons about 15 per cent of those going up to Pembroke College take a year out beforehand. Among these, there are distinct successes. But gap year plans have little effect on the admissions process and some science dons worry that successful candidates can forget some of the science and maths they knew when they came for interview. There’s a danger, too, that they will forget how to work.

A spokesman for Exeter University says: “We recognise that many students benefit from the experience of a gap year – whether it involves work experience, travel or employment.” He encourages applicants to explain in their Personal Statements “how their experiences will make them a better student in their subject of choice”.

Peter Frankopan, who teaches Byzantine and medieval history at Worcester College, Oxford, is cautious: “Gap year applicants can look like the finished product on paper, particularly if they come from the independent sector, but often the gap year is the latest of a string of achievements and activities undertaken to meet the expectations of teachers and parents. Part of the problem is that gap years have become professionalised: preset itineraries, trusted partners and “safe” locations might put parents’ minds at rest, but they also prevent the umbilical cord being cut.

“A gap year works if you leave home with an open mind and go off to find out more about the world – in other words, to grow up. But I’d much rather find that someone has done something genuinely useful,” says Mr Frankopan. Shouldn’t all 19 year-olds who can afford to take a gap year learn how to change a flat tyre, rewire a plug or cook a three-course meal? Or arrive at university with a command of one, or ideally two foreign languages?”

Foreign languages really do look good on a CV – in this country, at least.

• Tommy Cookson is the former headmaster of Winchester College. He is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph’s 'Weekend’ section

Gift Giving For a World Traveler or Gapper

It is the season when many individuals are thinking about or planning their gift giving for the festive season. mygapyear has put a series of ideas together to help inspire you as you cross friends, family or others off your list.  Our favourite seasonal delight right now is the Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar.   Below are some ideas from The Ottawa Citizen to help inspire your gift giving or travel planning this festive season.

Icebreaker's Nature Scoop Top

What it is: A lightweight, washable top made of wool from the merino sheep (that's one below).

Why it makes the list: From underwear to outer layers, Icebreaker products, from New Zealand, are fast becoming athletes' and travellers' garments of choice because they feel so great, breathe and are washable. And what other product comes with a "baacode" that allows you to (virtually) meet the very sheep that grew your wool?

Tuk Tuk Carry-All Bag

What it is: An ingenious bag from lug.

Why it makes the list: What doesn't this bag do? It's the right size for carrying on a plane and has a strap on the back so you can slide it onto the handle of your wheeled luggage. It has 15 pockets, including two insulated ones for drinks, cellphone-sized ones and a ventilated compartment for shoes. It also has a drawstring bag and a cushiony pad inside -- for sitting on in Central Park, or changing a baby at a play group. And that's the surprise: hidden latch straps let you attach it to a baby stroller, for use as a diaper bag.

Heys xScale

What it is: The world's smallest portable luggage scale, its digital display measures up to 110 pounds (50 kg).

Why it makes the list: Because weight loss is always in. Especially when airlines are getting stricter with baggage allowances, you're travelling to that S&M conference, and the clerk is asking you to remove weighty items from your bag as impatient co-travellers in the queue rubberneck. It's also designed and developed in Canada.

The Flip Ultra Video Camera

What it is: A compact, cellphone-shaped video camera that records 60 minutes of digital footage. A built-in USB arm connects the gadget directly to your computer, which means one less wire in your frightening "techsessories" drawer.

Why it makes the list: It's super portable, cheap enough to abuse and the single red button (record, duh) eliminates a lot of confusion. Watch out, YouTube, granny's got a Flip!

Buff

What it is: The Barcelona company that makes Buff calls it "the original multifunctional headwear." It's a bit like a bandana, but it's a seamless loop of a microfibre fabric.

Why it makes the list: Besides being très cool, it's amazingly versatile -- just go to www.buff.us to see the "12 ways to wear a buff" video, which takes you from balaclava to "pirate" and back to a cap. It wicks, keeps you warm or cool as needed, and comes in a plethora of prints, including this Bushtukah exclusive.

Delsey Helium Mobility

What it is: A lightweight, hard-sided suitcase that meets carry-on size restrictions.

Why it makes the list: With more airline chaos, carry-on is the way to go. And this one is exceptionally light, loaded with useful pockets and straps and has sturdy latches rather than a zipper. The clincher: with four wheels, you can pull it sideways down narrow aisles.

Supernatural Travel Yoga Mat

What it is: A yoga mat that's small enough to stuff in your suitcase.

Why it makes the list: Made of natural rubber, this mat allows the yogi or yogini in your life to om away from home. It's thinner than a regular yoga mat, but all you need on a hotel-room carpet.

Retreat Yoga Duffel

What it is: A duffel bag that's built big enough to hold a regular, rolled-up yoga mat, as well as all the clothes you need for a weekend away.

Why it makes the list: Made of recycled polyester and jute, with retro goddess images inside, it's the thing to have for yoga getaways. Pockets inside include one for a yoga block and a drawstring pouch for shoes. A detachable shoulder strap doubles as a mat-carrying strap. (Mat and water bottle not included, but would make appreciated additions.)

The BaByliss Pro TT

What it is: A tiny, perfect blow dryer. With a folding handle, it's less than seven inches long, but delivers full strength, professional power (it's probably better than the one you usually use at home). It also has two voltage settings, so it works here and abroad.

Why it makes the list: Because you want to have good hair when you're on holidays -- just think of all those photos.

Nap Sac, From Lug Travel Essentials

What it is: A travel blanket and pillow set.

Why it makes the list: Just give it a squeeze. Fleecy soft, this groovy set is comforting and cosy warm. An inflatable pillow tucks into the case and the blanket has a pocket for your reading glasses or iPod. Great for planes, trains, car trips or concerts.

The TS2 Detailer

What it is: A teeny-tiny, but powerful, hair straightener. It's small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but makes fast work of unruly bangs and frizzy ends.

Why it makes the list: Anyone who sees this thing in action (OK, any young woman), is amazed. Big hair goes sleek in seconds. We've even heard that some professional stylists are using this travel device at home.

Better Energy Systems Solio Classic Solar Charger

What it is: Tap into that big ball o' burning gas and power up cameras, cellphones, MP3 players and GPS devices on the road. One hour of sun yields 20 minutes of talk time or 50 minutes of music on your iPod.Why it makes the list: Flashpacking (tech-laden backpacking) is cool, and that "Morocco On Foot" blog is lookin' mighty fine. But, sadly, hauling a 10-pound adapter supply through the Sahara is no mirage.

TravelRest Pillow

What it is: An inflatable travel pillow that's shaped like an extended comma. Sling the tether cord over the seat back on an airplane or car and cuddle the cushion.

Why it makes the list: The typical horseshoe travel pillow still leaves you feeling like your head is forming a right angle with your torso. This innovative device keeps your noggin upright.

Bonus: When deflated, it takes up minimal space in your luggage.

All rights belong to: http://www.canada.com/life/fashion-beauty/great+gifts+traveller+your+list/1053202/story.html

Learn how to gap in 4 mins 39 seconds

Travelling is an emotional experience.  Highs, lows and all the feelings in between.  As an organization, we have crafted our program to include Emotional Intelligence as a method of exploring more deeply who you are.   Travel is an amazing way to find out more about yourself, others and the world.  But, don't take my word.