When it comes to the story of your life, you call the shots. Whether it’s choosing a college, a major, a profession or a spouse, you have the ultimate say. If you want to take control of your future, you need realize that you can manipulate your own reality to conform to your inner most hopes and dreams. Bend the world around you to conform to your hopes and dreams. Realize that you are the driver of this vehicle known as life. You are not a passenger, and you don’t have to wait until the next stop. You can steer this thing wherever to go.

Here are five ways to help you brighten your future and take control of your life:

1. don’t forget yesterday, ponder tomorrow, but live entirely in today, every single day.

You are in real-time control of your own destiny. Don’t shackle yourself by worrying too much about what came before, and don’t overburden yourself by projecting plans too far into the future. Live in the now and you will have more control of you future.

2. Network

doesn’t go through life fighting battles all by you. Find allies. Create genuine relationships based on healthy, positive exchanges. Don’t selfishly look for assistance. Be willing to give up part of yourself in exchange for help from others.

3. Educate yourself and never stop learning.

Every personal perspective in this world is unique. At any given moment, the dumbest person around you still knows at least one thing that you do not yet understand. Be humble about your educational development. Be open to new ideas and practices. Recognize that learning never stops. Keep the door to your mind open at all times.

4. Have frequent discussions with someone who has a worldview and belief system that is different from your own.

Like minded people tend to gravitate toward one another. That’s natural and to be expected. If you want to have a bright future in this world, you need to be comfortable dealing with people who share different viewpoints. If you’re a liberal hippie, who consorts only with fellow hippies, then how are you going to react when your first boss is a staunch conservative who wears his politics on his sleeve? Likewise, if you’re the president of the local Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) branch, then you need to seek out different outlooks to experience. Associating with only the people that share your beliefs is myopic. In life you will constantly be expected to coexist with different perspectives, so make sure you are willing and able to do so.

5. Learn to let things go.

Whenever you feel completely overwhelmed, like the odds are unfairly stacked against you, think about balance. Ask any physicist, and he or she will tell you that the universe, from astronomical scales to sub-atomic levels, is a grand balancing act. Balance is critical to the existence of anything, from planets to people to particles. Whenever you feel like you’ve hit a bad spell of luck, remember how things balance out, and find strength in the knowledge that balance keeps the universe together. Trust in the fact that things will work themselves out.

The future is what you make of it. You are in total control of your life, no matter what previous or future obligations you may possess. Be confident in your ability to manipulate reality the way you see fit. Create the conditions you want to exists in, and adjust them whenever necessary. The more purposefully you live, the brighter your future will be.

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If you need some college courses to complete your degree you might be thinking about taking those courses online, rather than at a traditional college or university. There are a number of advantages to taking college courses online. In addition to the obvious advantages, including the convenience of taking courses at home rather than having to travel to a campus and the reduced costs associated with taking online courses as opposed to attending a traditional college, there are some pluses you may not have considered.

Online Courses Offer The Widest Variety

If you are looking for very specific courses, you may not be accommodated by the local college or university, if there is one. Online however, you are likely to find whatever courses you are searching for. You have the entire Internet at your disposal, and location is not a factor.

Online Courses Allow You To Work at Your Own Pace

In a normal college environment, you are working as part of a group. You can only progress as slowly or as quickly as the professor and the other students will allow. When you take your college courses online, the only one responsible for your progress is you. If a certain subject comes easily to you, you can move forward at a faster pace. If something proves more difficult, you can take it more slowly, and go online for support if you need it.

Online Courses Make Full Use of Modern Technology

When you take college courses on your computer, you allow yourself the full range of the benefits of modern technology. E-mail, streaming video, and web browsing play a prominent role and give you the most efficient learning experience possible.

Online Courses Allow You to Express Yourself

Although you are studying on your own, you are not studying in a vacuum. You will participate in online discussions with a professor who is an expert in the subject and with other students, which will allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the course material and share your thoughts and opinions with others.

Online Courses Accommodate the Differently Abled

For those with physical handicaps, online courses are a great option. Individuals who are unable to travel due to disability will clearly benefit from online education, but online courses can also easily accommodate the deaf and blind through measures such as closed captioning and audio lectures.

When you are searching for college courses online, be sure to select an accredited online college or university. There are many qualified institutions online that will allow you to learn the material you need to get the degree, credential, or training you want. Once you have the right education, the career you deserve will be that much more within your reach.

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The advantage of a job fair is you get to show off a lot more of yourself than the traditional job application. If you apply for a job online, you’ll likely only be able to submit a resume and cover letter. On company websites there may be no way to submit letters of recommendation, portfolio samples, and more. If you send these as PDFs or Word documents, they may just be ignored. No one wants to be overloaded with a bunch of large files.

When you’re meeting face to face, it is much easier to bring everything in your arsenal. Make no mistake, you should be concise in your presentation, but there’s a lot more you can bring to the table. Take the portfolio. A recruiter may not even have the time to go through samples of your work, but if you have a stacked portfolio, professionally bound, this can make a very good impression.

If you’re a college student just entering the workforce, you may not have yet compiled a portfolio, but you should still come with as much information as possible. Just handing over two simple pieces of paper, stapled together, won’t quite cut it. Think about having each resume in a folder including your resume, letters of recommendation, awards you have won, and even transcripts.

Recruiters will look at everything about a potential employee. If he or she comes well organized, this speaks volumes about how the employee will perform if hired. While you want to pad your resume and look as impressive as possible, you also don’t want to weigh down a recruiter with superfluous information. It is a fine line between being informative and concise. Make sure your resume and other information can be read quickly and easily.

Remember that a recruiter is on his or her feet all day meeting applicant after applicant. At job fairs, you may have to wait on line ten or twenty people deep. You need to get the point across very quickly. Don’t be over-eager either. There is a way to be enthusiastic while still showing poise and confidence—this is core to a professional appearance.

If possible, you should research each job you will be applying for. At some job fairs, this may be difficult because you’ll be learning about different companies in the field. However, the Internet is an invaluable resource. Go to the job fair website and see which companies will be attending. Research each company and take notes. It can look very impressive if you can tell a recruiter, “I like your company because…” Recruiters like prospective employees who take the initiative.

A job fair isn’t only about what you hand out, but what you take as well. Get a business card from each recruiter and jot down notes about your conversation. On a follow-up call or email, you can then write to the recruiter, “We talked about…” It will be a good reminder of your conversation. Even if the recruiter doesn’t remember you—after all, he or she is meeting dozens of applicants—it at least demonstrates your sense of organization.

Following up is very important. Don’t just wait for a recruiter to call you up. A resume could have been lost or a recruiter could just be very busy. Following up via phone or email can light a fire under a recruiter and facilitate a second interview.

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College can be a very rewarding situation. If you get fired up about it, you can challenge yourself in ways you never thought possible. You need to jump right into the fray, and not be frazzled by anything or anyone. You are the one who is ultimately in control of your college achievements.

Here are five easy tips for achieving a successful college experience.

1. it’s better to turn an assignment in late, than not at all. It’s better to have an excellent late assignment, than a poor effort that’s turned in on time.

If you have to turn in an assignment, and you have no time remaining to complete it, take evasive action. Tell your professor (privately) what the situation is. Buy more time and turn in your assignment late. If you rush, and turn in a piece of trash, your grades and your education will suffer. If you turn in an excellent late assignment, you may be docked points, but you will maintain a high level of quality.

2. Develop solid reading, writing and communication skills
Practice honing your reading, writing and communication skills, because that’s what college is all about. Your future employer will not care that much about what you got on your midterm. You future employer would rather have a well-rounded employee whose capable of comprehending material and communicating effectively.

3. Associate with productive people
Find encouraging comrades. Build a network of intelligent contacts, and pool your knowledge resources together. The more people you know that can have their stuff together, the more likely you’ll be able to develop solid study habits of your own.

4. Learn from people who got there before you did
Find out the inside scoop from the people that have come before you. Not sure about a certain professor, ask around for opinions. What about you’re major? Before you declare, you should investigate the department you’re considering. Talk to students that have already gone through the motions and are familiar with the courses, faculty and bureaucracy

5. Figure out how to get around quickly
Know your way around campus and the surrounding area. On campus, find cool places to hang out, and quiet corners where you can get some studying done. Explore your surroundings. Meet a local and have them show you around the town. Branch out to other areas in the region. Drive around and just see what’s out there. Find a cozy dive bar or Movie Theater. Hunt for book, thrift and record stores. The more familiar you are with your college territory, the more enjoyable things you’ll find to do.

College is an experience that needs to be savored. Chew your particular college flavor slowly, and enjoy it. Make the most of your university time, but remember to have fun.

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College life can be tense and a bit stressful at times. Students who excel in college are self-disciplined and know how to manage their time. The constant managing of time and priorities does not suddenly stop when your vacation starts—it’s an ongoing process.

Here are 10 ways that you can maximize your time when you are off from school:

1. Review what you have learned
Although your classes may all be completed for the quarter (or the semester), it’s not a bad idea to review what you’ve just learned over the course of many weeks. Reread your notes, papers, tests and skim through the books you’ve just read. Finalize the imprinting of fresh information in your mind so that you can retain what you’ve learned over the long term.

2. Read ahead
If you already know what courses you will be taking in the upcoming quarter, start reading ahead. If you are going to have some time to kill, might as well get a jump start on your upcoming classes. Contact your professors and collect copies of syllabi. Purchase your materials and begin reviewing them before your class begins.

3. Go back to your roots and reconnect with family and friends
Go home. Say hi to the family and reconnect with old friends. College isn’t about severing all of your previous ties. Keep up your network and pay the people you love a visit.

4. Stick around and explore the town
Forget about going home. Stick around and explore your college town. Find new places to buy groceries and new bars to frequent. Take a mini-road trip to some nearby destination that you’ve always wanted to see. Take your time off of school as an opportunity to experience your surroundings.

5. Travel
Drive cross-country or travel abroad. See the world, or a tiny piece of it. Take your new outlook on life and expose yourself to different peoples and places. Visit a destination or place of interest that you have just studied. Travel with a partner, in a group, or go venturing off on your own.

6. Get an internship
Find an internship in the field that you are studying. Supplement your classroom work with real life on-the-job training. This way when you graduate, you will already have solid academic and professional experience.

7. Lay the groundwork for future employment.
Explore your career interests. Market yourself and your abilities. Try to find an organization that you want to target for employment once you’ve graduated. Find out what the minimum professional and educational requirements are for the specific job that you are interested in. Take measures to fulfill those requirements before you graduate.

8. Explore the course catalog and schedule of classes
Get lost in the pages of your course catalog. Map out different schedule scenarios. Find out if that class you really want to take is offered in alternate academic years, and then plan your schedule accordingly. Pick a focus in your major and consider all the courses that you’d like to take. You’ll be surprised how quickly your time in school will fly by, so you need to construct a solid schedule.

9. Apply for scholarships
Find some more money. Buy a book or do Internet research. Apply for as many scholarships as you can. Each application may seem like a bit of a hassle, but the results could seriously alleviate any financial burdens you may have accrued.

10. Just relax and take a break
Don’t do a damn thing! You’ve spent months cramming, pulling off all-nighters, and wowing you professors with your polished intellectual abilities. You’ve earned a break, so enjoy it, and come back to school refreshed and ready for anything.

If you utilize your vacations properly, you will be a better student. Just remember not to stress out too much. Whether you are in school or not, you are in control of your life, so make the most of it.

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