Transcript
[14 Minutes Read]
Hello, and welcome to Mother of Abundance.
The place where ambitious, caring mothers find information on how to live your best life. So whether you’re a motorist who’s growing a business, climbing the corporate ladder, studying for a qualification or an at home mother, while striving to be the best you can be, you’re in the right place. I’m your host, Xina Gooding Broderick.
Welcome back to the Mother of Abundance Podcast. It’s so good to have you here. Welcome back. If you’ve been here before, thank you so much for coming back. And if this is your first time, it’s really good to have you here too. My name is Xina Gooding Broderick. I am an executive coach for ambitious mothers. I am a business owner. I am a non-executive director. I am a mother of four. Grandmother of two. I am a busy lady who is an expert at balancing my work life, and my personal life. And my hobbies, including my hobbies, my family is my biggest hobby. But I like to share that with you in a mentorship kind of way. And I also help coaching women with their ambitions and goals.
In this episode, I wanted to cover five reasons you won’t complete your online course. This is actually, it’s pretty useful for any kind of course. Even if you’re going to a course and I know things have changed considerably with the pandemic, people are doing more online courses, even if they are at university full time. One of my sons, that includes my niece at Oxford, that includes, a lot more of the lectures are shifting online. And that’s understandable. That, that will be for health and safety reasons. So I thought I’d drop that online bit in there. So that it will help you whether you’ve got a course that was designed from the get go to be online, or if you are a full time undergraduate, postgraduate student, or whatever, I’m expecting that these tips will really, really help you. So we’ve got five tips, five reasons why you won’t complete your online course.
I come from a Project Management background and with that, I still love to consider risks specifically, so that I can mitigate them. So although this might sound like a bit of a negative episode, I promise you it’s really not. I want to highlight what the risks are, so that we can mitigate them. Forewarned, is forearmed. So this is what we’re gonna do. Yeah?
First one is first; you didn’t set aside sufficient time to complete your course. I’ve been speaking to a lot of ambitious mothers who are studying. I’m studying. Since, since lockdown and the pandemic has happened, the International pandemic, 2020 has seen an explosion of people participating in online courses. Loads of those courses have been completed, loads more of those courses have not been completed. Why? Because people underestimated the amount of time it would take to do the course. The thing is that the amount of time that you had before you were going to go for the course, is the same amount of time that you’ve had since starting the course, because we each have 24 hours available to us within the day.
The best way to mitigate the risk of this being your reason for not completing your online course is to create a timetable. And I know that, that is like stating the obvious, but sometimes, the obvious is so obvious, that we think it’s too obvious. So we kind of don’t do it. Or we can, it’s kind of thought of in the back of our mind. So it’s not written down. We’ve got it in our head. We’ve got timetable in our head. That is fast track to overwhelm. Try not to keep too much information in your head, if you can record it. Save your head for lovely thoughts and daydreaming and the creative process, not for storing information like schedules and to-do lists and all the rest of it. That can be written down, put into your phone, put into your schedule.
So your schedule can either be handwritten in a notebook, it can be online in a Google Calendar, or something similar, whatever your calendar of choice is, but do create a schedule. Build in flexibility and get this, compassion into your schedule. Some of you, I know, are working shifts. So whether it’s because you’re a hospital doctor, or nurse, or because you are a carer with, working around small children even, because we know sometimes that shift can work through the night, especially if you’re breastfeeding and doing all that kind of stuff. You will need to build in flexibility and compassion into your schedule. Because things happen, life happens, things come up.
So once you think ahead and recognize, hey, something might come up to prevent me from doing it. If it does, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just reschedule it, but I will reschedule it, I don’t need to beat myself up about it. I don’t need to do the guilt trip thing because we don’t do guilt trips. We don’t do guilt trips. They don’t really serve any constructive purpose whatsoever. So we don’t do that. We’re just going to adjust for it. Be compassionate to ourselves, make it a learning thing, put it down to experience, make our adjustment and move on. Because we’re not going for perfection. We are going for progress. Remember that. Progress, not perfection. Alright? So make your schedule, make it flexible, and be kind to yourself.
Number two; you didn’t realize it would be as challenging as it is. Dr. Barbara Oakley has written some fantastic books on learning how to learn. She actually has a free course on learning how to learn that’s available on Coursera. I have taken the course. I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about learning. I’m a nerd. So I am the lifelong learner. I will always be learning, on purpose, not by accident, I will always, always be learning. So learning and study skills are really important to me.
And Barbara Oakley, she breaks down the whole physiological thing that happens in your brain when you’re learning, and how that can sometimes be painful, literally painful. I have to admit that as much as I love learning, there are aspects of learning that I actually hate. Hate is a strong word but sometimes I can feel so defeated and stupid, when I’m trying to learn something, and it just does not seem to be going into my head. It just doesn’t seem to be working. Luckily, because I’ve done this course on learning how to learn, it all makes sense, why I feel that sense of frustration at times. Those new neural networks that you’re creating in your brain, when you’re learning something new, that growth process, it takes a lot of energy, and can feel like pain. It literally can feel stressful, and all of those negative emotions, when you’re learning something new. If you know about this in advance, you can prepare for these feelings. You can prepare for feeling frustrated, you can prepare for having a slump. You can prepare for feeling exhausted and feeling like it’s just not going in.
I’m going to put the link to the course in the show notes so that you can check it out yourself. Please don’t do what I do sometimes and go down the wormhole of some of the distraction, so that you can be procrastinating over what you’re really supposed to be doing. But if it helps do the course. If it’s just going to be a distraction, don’t do it. But I’m going to give you the link so that you’ve got the choice and you can make an informed decision.
But knowing how your brain works, knowing how you physiologically feel when you’re going through a learning process is really helpful. So that when you are being challenged, you understand that this is something that you need to ride out. Not something, not time for you to drop the course. Time for you to perhaps shift your study skills. And what I mean by that is, perhaps you need to step up the way you’re taking in the information.
Some of us learn by reading. Some of us learn better by looking at pictures. Some of us learn better by watching videos. Some of us learn better by speaking. Some of us learn better by actually doing the subject. So experiential or kinesthetic, kinesthetic? Ah, I can never say that. But experiential learning, learning by doing. Work out what your learning style is, and do study skills that will help you to embed the information easier, in accordance with your learning style. So for example, if you know that you have a real, if you’re a visual learner, so you like pictures and diagrams and videos and things like that. So maybe watching videos will help. Maybe looking at pictures and diagrams will help you. Maybe creating pictures and diagrams will help you. So things like flowcharts, mind maps, sketchnoting, and those of you who know me know, I’m a HUGE fan of sketchnoting.
Perhaps you learn better aurally, and I say aurally, and that’s the spelling A.U.R.A.L.L.Y. Perhaps? I’ve not got it written down here. But that’s to do with hearing rather than the speaking bit. Maybe you need to listen to recordings of your lectures whilst going for a walk to help embed that information. I like, I like a combination of learning styles. And so I’m more likely to watch videos and take sketch notes. I’m more likely to listen to podcasts. I love podcasts, and I don’t only create them, I really like consuming them. I like listening to podcasts as well. If there’s something I want to learn, I’ll listen to it.
So work out what your learning style is, and adjust and ramp up your study skills in order to meet the challenge. Also, make sure you get sufficient rest. So, when I was younger, and I was doing my first degree, myself and a few other students took great pride in doing what we called bleaching it, which effectively meant staying up all night, pretending we were learning, but nothing was going in. That was a waste of time. If we’d done little and often, and if I’d adapted my learning style to make it more engaging, more stimulating for me, I wouldn’t have needed to cram right up against my deadline. So remember, when it becomes challenging, get sufficient rest because a good night’s sleep can help the information to settle in your mind, to become less painful, less confusing, less challenging, and adjust your study skills style in order to meet the challenge.
Number three; you didn’t ask for help when you needed it. I have done this way too often. I have struggled and struggled and struggled with something and I’ll figure it out. I’ll figure it out. When all I really needed to do was ask the lecturer for some advice and guidance. The lecturer is the expert. I am the novice. It makes more sense to ask them. They not only have the answer, but because they’re in a teaching capacity, they are able to deliver that answer to me in a way that I’m likely to be able to understand. And do you know what, if I don’t understand it, I’m going to keep asking until I do.
That doesn’t mean I’m going to expect them to learn for me. I’m happy learning myself because I love learning. But I need to understand this. The likelihood is I’m investing in my education. I am investing in my knowledge. I need to be able to get results from that investment. So then it’s up to me really, to get what I need from the lecturer, from the course and from myself, I am accountable.
Which leads me on to number four; no accountability. When you’re working independently, you’re kind of left to your own devices. So you don’t necessarily have any deadlines. We’ve talked about scheduling and timetabling; it’s really important to have deadlines, even if they are pretend deadlines. Some people think oh, I can only really perform when I’m right up against my exam, or pretend you’ve got an exam next week then. We kind of know that you’ve not got an exam for two months, but pretend it’s next week, and work towards that deadline. But in terms of accountability, you can have a buddy.
Find out who’s also doing the same course. See if you can meet with that person online, once a week. Work out what you’re going to discuss, what problems you may have had, and how you can overcome those problems. If you’re finding challenges with the course, try and teach the aspect you’re being challenged on to your buddy. If they say, “Well, I don’t understand that bit, can you clarify X, Y, and Z?” Then that’s where you need to work on your understanding of that particular principle. And at least you will know because you’ve got your accountability partner, you can bounce off one another. They might have a problem that you find really easy and can explain to them, you may have a problem, which they find really easy, and they can explain to you.
And the thing is, if you’re working out when you can meet with that person on a regular, perhaps weekly basis, it can be half an hour to an hour Zoom call, you will need to prepare for that call. And you’ll need to turn up. And if you don’t turn up, you’ll have to have a really good reason why and hopefully, well, I know you’ll be professional enough anyway to give notice. We know that things happen. We know we have to build in flexibility and compassion. But that doesn’t mean you take them for a ride, you are accountable to one another and you are accountable to yourself. But having an accountability partner or two will really increase your chances of completing your online course. Or any course.
And the last one is; you downgraded your requirement for completing the course halfway through the course. Well, that’s probably because you found it more challenging than you expected it to be, you probably didn’t make enough time for it. You didn’t ask for help when you needed, and you were not accountable to anybody. That can be what happens. That can actually be what happens when you do all of the previous four reasons that I have covered in this episode. So in order for you not to downgrade your requirement for completing it, make sure you work out your pros and cons, your timeframes, your monetary commitments, every single component that will help you work out whether this course is correct for you, in the first place. Do that before you take the course.
And ask yourself when you’re about to give up the course. Is this course not for me right now? Or have I not scheduled enough time? Am I finding it too challenging? Have I got not accountability partner? Did I not ask for help when I needed it? Double check and recheck the reasons you’re thinking of quitting that course. See, if you’re being honest with yourself.
I hope that these five reasons you won’t complete your online course have given you some food for thought. And that the way that these reasons can be mitigated will help you prepare and help you remain on the course that you have chosen in which you deserve or which you can complete really, really well.
Well, I hope that this has been helpful to you if you know another ambitious mother who is studying, please be helpful and send this along to her. I think it will really, really help. I certainly wish I knew these things when I was doing my degree and a few other courses that I’ve struggled with since, because like I said, I do have a love-hate relationship with learning at times. But the overall, the overriding feeling is a love of learning. And so many ambitious mothers are lifelong learners because they do things like continuing professional development. And they just learn for the love of learning to, whether it’s to do with work or not. So yes, sharing is caring. Share this podcast.
And if you want to work with other people who are also learning and if you want to have help remaining accountable, you can put your weekly goal on a Monday in the Mother of Abundance Facebook Group and we will help to keep you on task with your goal. The following week, we will be asking how did you manage with your goal? So be prepared to be accountable, and we’ll be moving you and helping you forward, because remember, it’s not perfection, we’re after. It’s progress. So, until next time, have an abundant day and an abundant week.
Thank you for listening to the Mother of Abundance podcast. Your host, Xina Gooding Broderick. Sign up at motherofabundance.com, for your free copy of the “Planning Your Best Life and Living It Every Day” Workbook. See you on the next episode.
