Are You Ready for School

The first week of September, a week many children start back to school after their summer break.

It is a time of preparation in obtaining school supplies and other necessary items to ensure the kids are ready for the upcoming year.

While most of us think of our children and preparing them, what about our own learning? It is a good time for us to think of our own learning and what we need to do to be prepared for opportunities that we would like to have in our own life.

As Whitney Young Jr. said, "It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared."

Continuous learning prepares you to take advantage of opportunities. Setting a goal of continuous learning is the first step in being prepared to see an opportunity. The process of learning both stimulates and challenges your mind, and increases your capacity to see things in a new and different light.

You cannot expect to attain success if you are not prepared. Life has a habit of giving back rewards in proportion to the effort we expend. If you put in little effort and expect big returns, you will be deeply disappointed. You don't get apples by planting lemon seeds.

Once an opportunity is identified, action must be taken. As part of your preparation to take full advantage of opportunities, make continuous learning a way of life, not just for your children but, for yourself as well.