We want our goals to take us somewhere, but the pathway to that 'somewhere' is often slippery.  That's why you made goals to help you get there.  And that's also why your goals need teeth!

3 WAYS YOUR GOALS CAN SLIDE
• For many, setting goals is simply an academic exercise, and the goals once set soon become invisible, and useless.  Some of my clients have had to re-acquaint themselves with the goals that they created in our meeting last week (!).  If your goals are not interrupting you from your reveries each day, they are not giving you traction, and you're sliding.
• For others, their goals are present, but not measurable.  For example, your goal might be, "I will eat less."  But even if you look at that goal every day, it probably just raises other questions for you: Less than what?  Less than yesterday?  Less than last month?  If your goals are not specific and measurable, they are not giving you traction, and you're sliding.
• Another way that your goal can deceive you is if it's out of reach.  You might think that a dramatic goal will ignite inspiration for you, but that inspiration can crash if it's unreasonable.  "I will spend $14.50 on groceries this month," may be dramatic, indeed, but the goal will soon be overwhelmed by reality, and lost.  If your goals are not realistic, they are not giving you traction, and you're sliding.

Good goals should be like a good friend: There when you need them, urging you toward the good, and grounded in reality.  Are your goals serving you like a good friend?

Sinecure:  What a startling and empowering word! 
Discovering a precise term like 'sinecure' is like discovering a light switch that illuminates a room you didn't know you had.  Looking in, you find all the socks lost in the laundry there!  And the sweater you misplaced last Spring.  In fact, you discover that this is *THE* room where all the things have come to hide.
A 'sinecure,' as Seth Godin taught me to use the term, is simply a psychological hiding place.  It is the magically invisible room where you imperceptibly slough off the things that scare you:
• The brilliant idea occurring at the (thank goodness!) inconvenient time.
• The 3" x 5" card that carried the scribbles you used to really clarify your goals that one week.
• The phone number for the girl you should have called.
It's all there, safely hidden in the memory hole.  Undisturbed.  Your sinecure.
But now everything's off - because you've named it.  You've discovered this place of forgetfulness.  You switched on the light, and the room...is real.  It's magical, certainly - but it's also real.  And now, you can account for it.
Your sinecure, like mine, is the place where your mediocrity silently throbs in the dark.  The place where your greatness goes into immediate retirement, safe from the elements.  It holds all your sleeping dreams.  Shh.
Having found it, having named it, even - What will you do?  This dark magic at your fingers.  Can you become its master?

In his book, Free Agent Nation, author and researcher Dan Pink describes a major shift in the western economies over the past few decades - a shift from exchanging an organization's security for a worker's loyalty, to that of an organization's opportunity for a worker's talent.  This shift, Pink concludes, in creating a nation of free agents: Professionals who are steering their own careers rather than tying their futures to the performance of a given organization.
This shift is hitting college students particularly hard, as most parents are advising their children about their educational choices from the paradigm of 'Security-for-Loyalty,' while business is innovating around 'Opportunity-for-Talent.'  These are very different world-views, and they each come with deep, deep assumptions about the nature of work, the potential of the individual, and the primary function of education.
What are your unidentified assumptions about the primary value of educational engagement?  In your mind, what is school for?

Credentials are nice, as far as they go.  I have plenty, and they have served their purposes.  But I would never expect to rest on them, and neither would I expect you to rest on them.
Passing a class is NOT the same as knowing the material.  Earning your endorsement is NOT the same as earning their trust.  Receiving your certification is shorthand for getting institutional approval, but some institutions make a hefty sum selling credentials.
Better - every time - is to master the subject, and welcome the credential if and when it comes. 
Just as a portfolio is better than a resume, so is a mastery of the material better than a credential.  One looks better on your wall, but the other looks far better at your interview, when you're negotiating your salary.
Would you trust a medical doctor who stopped learning 12 years ago after she graduated from med school and received her credential?  I doubt it.  Would you trust a financial advisor who coasts on the credentials he earned in school three decades ago?  No - and neither should you.
Never rest on your past successes, your recent awards, or your new acceptance into a program.  Instead, be grateful for them, and let them serve you when nothing else will do.  But most of all, through study and application, master the material - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  - c

I've been there.  I've sat with the young man in my office who needs advising.
He's struggling in his classes because he's struggling to get himself out of bed and into am 8:00am class that he doesn't understand.  And he's not motivated to attend the class because he stayed up until 2:00am that morning gaming with his new roommate, the one who stopped going to *his* 8:00am class three weeks ago.
As an advisor, as an academic consultant, the initial answers are quite clear, but as a professor at the university, I have mixed allegiances.  
Of course, I am fully committed to the success of the student, who must make some difficult changes in his day-to-day habits immediately.  But what if those necessary changes begin to work against the interests of the school he's attending?  What if the dropping of a class or a changing of a major will jeopardize a college program already under administrative scrutiny?  Advising from inside the school gives me many advantages, but it also provides some questions as to who benefits most from my counsel: The student or the school?
At Mind the Gap, we aim to offer seasoned academic consulting services, familiar with the internal dynamics of a college or university setting, but free from vested interests.  We can focus solely on the well-being of the student, without strings attached.  We don't get kickbacks from any schools to cloud our vision.
When we consult with you, we are already fully invested in Team You.  No other mascot can compete.
​Blessings!  - c

You know he's smart.  
You know he's capable.
But you also know he isn't going to land a respectable job at this rate.  He's stuck.
'Stuck' is a place we live.  Far too often and far too frequently, we find ourselves in a rut - again.  There might as well be a sign on the side of the road:
WELCOME TO STUCK - POPULATION 1 BILLION
We aren't happy here.  We try to get out, but our wheels just spin.  We aren't proud of it, but we're stuck.
Failing to find traction is usually related to fear, in some way.  There are many ways out of the bog, but none of them work when we are paralyzed by fear, especially if the fear is nebulous and unnamed.
Sometimes we can find it: "I'm afraid of the shame of failure."  And we can address it for what it is.
Other times we can just make a good guess: "I'm probably afraid of ending up like [so-and-so]."  And we can begin moving again, even just to test our assumption.  The key is to own the problem.  This is yours.
​Mind the gap, friend.

You might be wondering what you should expect from academic advising in a college preparatory program.  Fair question!  Weekly, 20-minute meetings are the energy shot that should offer the insight and accountability to keep you moving.  While each student is different, and should see specifically personalized methods, here are some non-negotiables:
• Scripture - Our academic coaching staff takes a high view of Scripture, recognizing and practicing daily immersion in the Word.  Why?  "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1).  We can't offer you what we don't have, and without regular recognition of Jehovah God as the fount of all wisdom, and coming to that Source, we cannot offer any wisdom to you.
• More Scripture - Our checklist of questions to you for nearly every advising session will include the questions, "Have you spent daily time with the LORD?  What has that time produced?"  In the opening chapter of his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul reminds us that our relationship with God has immediate consequence in our thinking: "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1).  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (James 4).
• Goal Setting - You will be required to create and communicate specific, time-bound, measurable goals.  (In fact, these goals are a big piece of determining how much we charge you for Mind the Gap advising!)  This is how we know whether we are truly helping you to gain the traction you seek in building your unique skillset for academic or pre-professional success.
• Curriculum - We have designed several series of short assignments that will help us to find your optimal learning styles, basic skills in self management, project management, and people management, and help you to learn how to be your own best coach.
• Short Meetings - What we need to accomplish in an advising session is usually very simple and direct.  We don't belabor the process with lectures or long-winded advice.  Rather, we identify any challenges and/or roadblocks you seem to be facing, and we equip you to overcome these.  You do the rest.
• Prayer - Don't be surprised if your coach asks to pray with you.  Again, this is simply our response to the God Who has commanded us to boldly approach the throne and lay our requests before Him.  This is important work, and we want the LORD's blessing on every aspect of our work together.  It won't be a 45-minute prayer meeting with an altar call...  
• Housekeeping - Is your schedule clear for our next meeting?  Are your goals for next week clarified?  Do you have what you need for the next step?  Do you have any questions?  Quick and direct.
Let's get started!

I heard a delightful story yesterday about how a young man had his education rescued by his own grandmother.  Allow me just a moment to tell the simple story.
A younger sister told the story of how her older brother was gifted and would finish his entire day's school work in less than two hours, every day.  That was not the problem.  He was diligent enough to tackle and finish the work, but then he would distract his siblings and get into trouble with his overflow of free time afterwards.  Their mother tried to solve the problem in multiple ways, but finally reached out to her own mother-in-law for help.  The older matron had been a professional school teacher years before.  She promised to take a look and see what she could suggest.
After observing the growing young man in for a week in his pattern of work and run, the grandmother suggested a simple remedy.  She recommended that the mother promote him two full grades ahead in his coursework, and then leave him to do any extra work to fill in any missing holes he needed in order to understand the new lessons.  Bold!
The younger sister - now an adult with her own family - smiled as she told me how it turned out.  "My grandmother was right.  My brother finally felt challenged by the material, and he settled down into the work he was given each day.  He quit harassing the rest of us, and we all made a lot more progress.  My mother was thrilled!"
Sometimes, another perspective is all that we need to help us see outside of our own little boxes.
Blessings!  - c

Do ministers need reminders?
What about ministers during the years right after Jesus taught his disciple and appointed his apostles?  Do they need reminders?
What about ministers who received hand-written letters written directly to him from the great apostle, Paul?  Would they need reminders?  Apparently so.
When Paul writes to Timothy (2 Timothy, chapter 1), he reminds him: Fan into flame the gift of God.
When we are 'reminded,' we are prompted to bring something back to mind.  Think about these things.  Meditate on it.  Rehearse it internally.  Strengthen the impression that this idea has for you.  
And when Paul reminded Timothy of these things, don't you imagine that Paul himself was reminded?
Ideas, when rehearsed, can become patterns.  "Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me," says Paul.  Patterns, when rehearsed, can become habits.
Don't forget.
​Blessings!  - c