4 Tips for Successfully Turning Over a New Leaf in 2020

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With the New Year still in its early days, it’s likely that you are either already pursuing some resolutions that you’ve set for yourself, or are still trying to work up the inspiration and motivation to “make a fresh start” in 2020.

Something about the idea of turning over a new leaf naturally appeals to people in all sorts of situations, and all around the world. It’s a great thought that, in the right situation and with the right motivation, we can all actively move to become better representations of our ideal selves.

Of course, many good intentions that exist at the New Year do unfortunately end up fizzling out – so it never hurts to have some proactive plans, tricks, and techniques up your sleeve to make sure that things remain on the right track.

Here are a few tips for successfully turning over a new leaf in 2020.

Use your current circumstances to springboard yourself to something new

Generally speaking, it’s always difficult to take a completely new direction in life, in a short space of time, without any buildup. People do manage it from time to time, but the far more reliable approach is to use your current circumstances as a springboard to something new and more desirable.

You can do this with a bit of creative thinking in your professional life. For example, maybe you want to become a writer, but have a background in some field like engineering or IT. Instead of trying to immediately reposition yourself to make a living as an author of literary fiction, why not make a smoother and faster initial transition, by offering up your services as a writer for engineering or IT websites? Or as a copywriter for those sorts of companies?

Sit down for a while and actively try to brainstorm ways to use what you have right now, to springboard yourself to something more desirable.

Define and clarify your goals and ambitions – don’t just leave them vague

A big part of the reason why goals and ambitions are often not achieved, is because they simply never get clarified at the right level of resolution.

Anyone can have a vague sense that they would like to do something a bit different, or that “one day” they might want to be a world-traveller, or something along those lines. But far fewer people actually specify in detail just what it is they want, and what it would mean to set about pursuing and achieving their goals.

When your goals and ambitions remain vague and undefined, that can be a bit of a “relief” in some sense. That’s because, when you don’t define things clearly, you can free yourself from a lot of the potential anxiety of realising that you aren’t doing a good job of progressing towards your ideal situation.

If you really want to significantly turn things around in the New Year, though, you’d be much better off clearly defining a set of targets for yourself, and then actively moving to pursue them, even though this might be frightening on some level.

Make some symbolically significant changes upfront to “change gear”

As human beings, we are all largely motivated by symbolism and narrative – and we will typically look for certain psychological cues in our own behaviour and environments, in order to establish and refine our sense of just who we are.

If you want to make some big, significant change in your life, it can be very useful to begin with some symbolically significant action, upfront.

If you want to travel more this year, for example, you could begin by buying yourself a nice rucksack upfront, and putting it in a prominent location in your home, so that you’re always reminded of it.

Do something, right now, to psychologically commit yourself to your ambition and make its “more real.”

Establish accountability systems and networks

No matter how highly motivated and driven you are, it can be difficult to remain consistent – especially over a period as long as a year – without having external accountability systems keeping you in line.

To dramatically increase the odds that you will actually stay the course, come rain or shine, begin by looking to join networks of people who will hold you accountable. And, consider tools and services designed for the same purpose.

Everyone has days when they want to give up and go to bed – but it’s much harder to do that when you have to justify your actions to other people.

Take steps to make your financial habits and goals more mindful and intentional

Making a big change in your life is generally far easier if you first begin by getting your financial habits tidied up; and by making your financial goals more mindful and intentional.

Among other things, this could mean investigating topics such as topics such as why refinance a home loan? and adopting an intuitive budgeting system that helps to move you out of the realm of guesswork, and towards a greater degree of certainty and planned-action.

When we manage our finances “by intuition,” we may manage to cover our key expenses each month, and to continue to accumulate savings at a decent rate. But a greater degree of financial awareness and intentionality can really make all the difference when it comes to enabling us to effectively and efficiently pursue our dreams and ambitions.

How To Choose The Right School For Your Child

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Choosing the right school for your child is a huge responsibility. It's going to be where they go every day, where they learn, the place which will shape them for their future. You want to make sure they will be happy; they will make friends; they will learn and thrive. So how do you make such a big decision and make sure you get it right?

Write down five things that are most important to you

Start simple and write down what is important to you when you think about your child's school. Is it the location? Is it where their friends are going? Is it the academic results of the school? Are the advantages of private school education important to you? Whatever it is, this is where you need to begin. 

Think About Your Child's Needs

Every child is different, so you really need to think about yours and what will work for them. Do they need a more structured environment? Do they need individual attention? A small class, perhaps? Would they thrive in a more sports focussed school or one that does lots of music and drama?

Get As Much Information As You Can

You know your child, so all you need to do there is just make sure you know what you're looking for. But you don't know the schools (unless you went yourself, but a lot will have changed) so you really need to gather as much information as you possibly can. Talk to friends and family, search the internet, read educational magazines and look in the newspapers. Go to as many open days as you can or arrange a visit when it's not an open day, and you can see the school on a normal day. Go to the school fairs and any other events they have, see if you can go to the school plays. Then, of course, you must look at the results of the school which you should be able to find online. Look at what else the school offers in addition to the core subjects and how they handle issues such as bullying. You need a full, holistic view of the whole place and you need more than one so you can compare.

It's also important to look at the teachers, other students, their behaviour, their uniforms, and how they behave with the teachers. There's a lot to take into account.

Ask Your Child

Remember it is not you going to this school, it is your child, and they have an opinion too. Make sure that they are familiar with the school and have been on a visit or two. Perhaps they know others who go there or have been in the past. If they do have their own ideas or thoughts on the matter, then listen to them. Children do know their own mind, and it's worth discussing things with them. They might have heard something about a particular school that you're not aware of. So listen to them and remember that it is about their happiness and their future.

Recovering From A Dislocated Shoulder

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If you have dislocated your shoulder, we can help you on the road to recovery with advice on how to get an effective treatment plan. 

The process entailed after dislocating your shoulder

This is something that experienced physiotherapists have an extensive amount of experience in, so you can be sure that pain will be alleviated and normal functionality will return as quickly as possible when you get the right help. Of course, a trip to the hospital is always the first thing that is required if you have dislocated your shoulder. Once you have followed the doctor’s advice, it is then best to see a physiotherapist who can help you on the road to recovery. After this, you will be then given the advice to follow at home for the final stages.

How does a dislocated shoulder occur?

A dislocated shoulder occurs when the connective tissue surrounding the shoulder joint tears and the upper arm bone comes out of the socket because the teat leads to the displacement of the bones that form the joint, meaning they are no longer placed next to each other as they should be. This is a condition that usually occurs during a traumatic sporting injury when the patient falls on an outstretched arm or they have experienced a direct impact, yet there are less common causes, including external forces and shoulder positions and movements that can lead to a dislocation. 

Symptoms and the pain of a dislocated shoulder

If you have a dislocated shoulder, you will certainly know about it, as the pain is excruciating and sometimes sufferers can actually hear the sensation of the bone popping out the socket. Aside from this, it is sometimes possible to visually see the difference from one shoulder to the other, and other symptoms include pain radiating in the arm as well as numbness or pins and needles in the shoulder, hand or arm. 

It’s not uncommon for your shoulder to feel very weak

Once the shoulder has been relocated, therapy is often still required, as a lot of people still experience pain and they find that their shoulder feels very weak, which makes it difficult for them to carry out their normal day to day tasks with some people struggling to even move their shoulder correctly. Yet, with proper rehabilitation, you can rest assured that these symptoms will disappear over time. 

Seeing a physiotherapist 

Once they have accurately diagnosed the dislocated shoulder, through an X-ray and other diagnostic tests, they will put together an effective physiotherapy plan, which will include the likes of core stability exercises, posture exercises, strength exercises, electrotherapy, ice or heat treatment, flexibility exercises, shoulder blade stability exercises, joint mobilisation, protective shoulder taping, soft tissue massage and the use of a sling. The techniques used all depends on the specifics of your condition. They will also provide you with a self-care plan to follow at home to make sure the problem does not get worse and you recover as quickly as possible. 

Things You Should Consider Learning

While we spend around a quarter of our lives going through the education system, we never stop learning in life. It matters not whether it’s at school or from the people we meet, we are naturally programmed to receive and absorb information.

While it may be set out that we must go through a specific amount of education, why do most of us stop there? In this post, we are going to be looking at the importance of education, and then we will take a look at a few things you may want to consider learning.

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Why Is Education Important?

While there is obvious importance attached to the education we all get, this post is focussing on the importance of education after all of this.

If you really want to get the most from life, whether it’s home or work life, one of the best ways to do this is to broaden your mind a little and take on some new academic challenges. It matters not whether the subject pertains to your career or something you enjoy. You will find that anything you study will always reflect well on your employability and even your career path.

Learn a Life Skill

When it comes to things you could and should learn, some form of life skill is one of the best ways to help both yourself and possibly even your career path.

Life skills are some of the handiest things you can pick up, and thanks to the glory of the internet, you now have a wide range of them available at your fingertips that you could start learning right now.

Nowadays, you have the ability to learn sign language online, and you can even learn to read palms online if that’s something you are interested in. The joyous thing about life skills is that your only limit is your imagination.

When the opportunity comes to learn a life skill, you should really take it with both hands, not only will it broaden your mind a little, it can also open pathways that lead to new hobbies and ways to escape from the stress that the world can present.

Continue Your Academic Journey

If you have found yourself getting bored at work and unable to find an escape route, one of the best things you can do is consider starting a brand new career. 

While at first, it may seem like an impossibility, you have so much possibility available to you on the internet, and there are millions of accredited courses out there that can help you restart your life.

You should also remember that it doesn’t matter how old you are; it’s never too late to learn something new. 

Whether you want to learn a life skill or take on something that can help you advance or restart your career, hopefully, this post has managed to inspire you and let you know that it’s easier than you think to learn something new. 

What Can You Do About a Bad Doctor?

Our health is arguably the most important thing in our lives, hence why we invest so much time, money and effort into keeping our bodies as healthy as possible. To do this, we rely a lot on doctors so that we can get professional advice and treatment about all of the conditions that we can experience in life.

Unfortunately, there are times when doctors simply aren’t helpful. In some cases, they can be incredibly rude and difficult to work with. Sometimes they might shrug off your symptoms and concerns, sometimes they’ll ignore you outright, and you might even feel like they’re purposely insulting you. These types of bad doctors can cause a lot of trouble for people and, in some cases, could end up making your condition worse.

So what can be done about it? In this post, we’re going to look at a couple of solutions to deal with a bad doctor.

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1. Speak to the doctor

First, let the doctor know that they’re being rude or that you have concerns about their skills and experience. If you lay out reasonable arguments and reasons you don’t trust them, then it can make things a lot easier in the long run. You might also want to speak to your clinic or hospital and request for the doctor to be swapped, stating the reasons why and also giving them a good enough reason to help you.

2. File a complaint to the hospital or clinic

If your requests are being ignored then you can file a formal complaint to the hospital or the clinic. This usually comes in the form of a letter, email or even a chat with the receptionist. This might also lead to no response, especially if all of the staff are treating you the same. However, if they’re understanding and have no real affiliation to the doctor in question, then they may be able to help you switch your doctor and also raise concerns about the doctor working in their hospital or clinic.

3. Speak to a lawyer

If you’re not getting any kind of response, especially if they’ve made your health worse or are ignoring your requests and concerns, then you may want to consider speaking to a medical malpractice trial lawyer. While this type of lawyer is commonly used if something has gone very wrong with your medication or surgery, it’s important to speak to lawyers and attorneys that understand the laws around the healthcare industry so they can help you seek justice and also make sure that you can swap to a more reliable and trustworthy doctor in the future.

A bad doctor should be avoided at all costs, but that’s usually not enough to give you peace of mind. A lot of people will report bad doctors to the relevant authorities to ensure that they never practise medicine again. They could hurt someone in the future or even risk someone’s life with their poor skills and attitude, so you’d be doing many people a favor by calling them out and seeking justice.