Thinking About Quitting Ask Yourself These 10 Questions First

Thinking About Quitting Ask Yourself These 10 Questions First Thinking About Quitting Ask Yourself These 10 Questions First Ask yourself these 10 questions first1.) What Specifically Annoys You About Your Job?Determine the exact issue with your job. Is it the people you work with? Is it the environment? Your boss? Your workload? Maybe it is the work itself? Once you have pinpointed your problem you might be able to fix it without quitting. However, if you have determined youre in the wrong geschftlicher umgang you will need to make a plan to change careers.2.) Is Your Current Work Setting Insufferable?Be honest about how bad your situation is. Are you suffering abuse (verbal, sexual, physical) at your current position? Are you being mistreated (not allowed to take breaks when youre supposed to, working overtime without pay, etc.) in any way? If so, make an appointment with HR and/or leave immediately. If its something minor stick it out with a plan to leave as soon as you have a ne w job in place.3.) Have You Done Everything Possible to Work it Out?If youre situation is manageable think about how you can work it out. What steps will you have to take to be happy with your job? Maybe you need to change your schedule, clear a task from your workload, take on a positive attitude, or more effectively manage your time. Perhaps a meeting with your employer is in order. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask for what you need.4.) What do You Want?Its unfortunate how many people never get asked this question, or never ponder it. What do you want for your work life? Define your career priorities. What do you want and how badly do you want it?5.) Do You Have a Realistic Plan for Your Next Job?Many people quit their jobs with no plan or thought, and then simply assume they can land their dream job. You have to be realistic about your goals. Do go for your dreams, but do it right. Make a plan. Think about your skills, experience, education. Do you need to take more classes? Earn a new degree? Develop new skills? You might have to take some classes or volunteer to gain extra experience and skills to be able to quit and go for your dream job.6.) Do You Have Enough Money Saved?If youre going to quit your job you may be job searching for up to a year or more. If you dont have a job lined up already you are going to need some savings to get you by until you land a job. Experts say you should have nine to 12 months of savings set aside so you can pay your bills while seeking a new position.7.) Are You Willing to Give up Your Benefits?If you quit you will lose your health insurance, retirement contributions, and other benefits. Find out how much it would cost to buy health insurance on your own. Plus, without your income you wont be able to contribute to your retirement fund, college fund, or any other savings you have. Research this and really think it through.8.) How Will You Cut Expenses?While you are in between jobs how will you earn some extra money and reduce your expenses? Create a detailed budget of your monthly income and expenses. Are your expenses more than your income? Are there any expenses you can cut such as cable TV, dining out, your cell bill, etc.? Will you be able to find some work in between jobs to keep an income coming in?9.) Do You Have a Support System?Are your friends and family going to support your decision? Quitting your job will affect those around you, especially your kids and spouse. Talk to these people about your plans before you quit and participate in cost-cutting.10.) Is This The Right Time?Are you in the middle of a big project or is it really busy at work? Honor your commitments before you quit. Dont leave your team and employer in a bind. Also, if youre going to get a holiday bonus, wait until the holiday is over.

Accessible Robotics Swarm

Accessible Robotics Swarm Accessible Robotics Swarm Accessible Robotics SwarmA few years ago, Magnus Egerstedt was walking through the swarm robotics laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is associate director of research, feeling proud of the research spearheaded there, when a disturbing thought crossed his mind.I began thinking about the robotics laboratories where people are doing things that matter. Theres not even ten of them globally, Egerstedt says. Thats weird, because so many people are working on swarm robotics, but it takes money and people to drive research that matters. Its a resource competition, not a good-ideas competition.He immediately envisioned a way to give robotics researchers who arent with those top labs access to top-lab capabilities. And he knew students at all levels, grade school to graduate school, could benefit as well.I used as a model the Large Hadron Collider, Egerstedt says. Physicists realized large particle colliders were too expensive to build separately, so they share. I thought, Why dont we do that in robotics rather than spend time and money reproducing the same results in labs all over the country and the world?The Large Hadron Collider, which opened in 2009 near Geneva, is the largest and fruchtwein powerful particle collider in the world. Physicists from many locales test their theories about particle physics, high-energy physics, and the Higgs boson particle.Prof. Magnus Egerstedt is researching controlling swarms of machines that coordinate their own activities to accomplish tasks. Image Rob Felt / Georgia TechNow, only a few short years after Egerstedts epiphany, Georgia Tech has opened its first Robotarium in the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the university, where Egerstedt is associate director. At the Robotarium, global robotics researchers and students can conduct experiments remotely at no cost.The word Egerstedt coined for the facilityRobotariumis part robot, part audito rium, as researchers and students can watch the swarm robots theyve programmed perform. And one day theyll be able to sit in an actual auditorium to watch robotic activity if Egerstedt has his way.The field of swarm robotics (the focus of the Georgia Tech lab and the Robotarium) gets teams of robots work together for a common goal.The small swarm robots at the lab form and maintain a particular position to carry out tasks. Swarm robotics can be used in a number of fields. For example, they hold promise for disaster rescue missions in which teams of robots of different sizes could be sent to places rescue workers cant reach safely. They detect the presence of life via infrared sensors.Swarms of robots might also be able to perform some types of mining or agricultural work.Researchers with new ideas in swarm robotics should be able to see their algorithms deployed on real robots, rather than purely simulated, which is how researchers at smaller institutes receive test results now, Ege rstedt says.Students using the mini-version of the Robotarium in a test session. Image Raftermen Photography / Georgia TechMy humble idea when I started was to democratize the field of robotics so its not the people with the deepest pockets and the best access but the people with the best ideas who get to further them and test those ideas, Egerstedt says. If youre a junior faculty member or at the less well endowed university or if youre doing computer science or biology and have ideas relevant to robotics you dont really have a way to test your ideas.Middle and high school students can also upload their own programming code then watch how their robots perform in real-time via streamed video feeds. Theyll also receive information on their results, Egerstedt says.This current version of the Robotarium features 20 robots on wheels and a camera system that live streams their actions back to researchers and students. It also has the capabilities to store and disseminate data that result s from robotic movementsIn summer 2016, Georgia Tech will begin work on Robotarium 2.0, which will house 100 robots, including walking and flying robots. This version will be housed in the Van Leer building, home of the school of electrical and computer engineering departments at Georgia Tech. Students walking through the building will be able to watch the robots at work.Robotarium version 3.0 is just a dream for now, but Egerstedt envisions it as occupying its own central-campus building, complete with theater seating, in which students can lounge to study and watch the robots at work.The robots should always be on and always doing something interesting, he says. Thats part of the charm.Though the Georgia Tech Robotarium focuses on swarm robotics, Egerstedt can envision Robotariums of the future housed on other campuses and specializing in other types of robotics, such as industrial machines.To me this idea is bigger than the Robotarium, he says. Providing remote access to world-cl ass lab facilities is something we dont do. We have the ability and the instrumentation so why do all of us have to build copies of each others labs in this day and age?It slows us down and disqualifies large groups of people who dont have the ability to test and deploy the excellent ideas they have, he says.Learn more about the latest trends in manufacturing at ASMEs AM3D Conference Expo.Jean Thilmany is an independent writer. Providing remote access to world-class lab facilities is something we dont do. We have the ability and the instrumentation so why do all of us have to build copies of each others labs in this day and age?Prof. Magnus Egerstedt, Georgia Tech

5 reasons you need to dump your loser friends

5 reasons you need to dump yur loser friends5 reasons you need to dump your loser friendsHigh school was leid easy for me. I never cared for the teenage wasteland parties. An exciting Friday night in my little Wyoming town was to drag main and turn up the volume on our car radios. Girls got married and guys got drunk.I wanted to be somewhere else. I wasnt the only one. Most of us made the decision to leave sometime in middle school, years before the idea hit consciousness in our senior year. Those who didnt leave also knew by middle school that theyd never make the one-way trip out of town.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraAn interesting pattern started to develop among my classmates. Those who had a low opinion of their own worth chose new friends that confirmed it. Maybe they didnt believe they deserved any better. Perhaps they were too lazy to look for something better. Even wo rse, if they surrounded themselves with loser friends, they started to look like the winner of the bunch.Not everyone who chooses to stay behind is a loser, so lets define loser friends.They are people whoAre not supportive of you.Not there when you need them.Tend to be negative about everything.Agree with everything you say.Only show up when they need you.Have no desire to make their life better.Expect you to drop everything when they have a crisis.Tend to think everything that relates to them is a crisis.Most of us have loser friends, toxic people who disrupt our world as soon as they come onto the scene. Wimps are people who are too lazy and too timid to cut ties from loser friends and move on so they can improve their lives.We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with- Jim RohnSimply put, the law of averages tells us that the result of any given situation will be the average of all outcomes. We are influenced by the people with whom we spend the most time. T hey create the environment that influences the way we think, our self-esteem, and our decisions. We will interact with many people over the course of our life, but the few who are closest to us have the greatest impact on our way of thinking and our decisions.Plato once said, People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.Pick the people you spend time with care- they create the environment in which you will either thrive or wilt. While we need different types of personalities in our life to bring out the best in us, only share your dreams and goals only with those who value them as much as you do.Here are 5 Reasons you need to dump your loser friends so you can1. Surround yourself with friends who will give you honest feedbackThe Journal of Consumer Researchrecently published a study that summarizes the difference between amateurs and experts. Amateurs focus on positive feedback and want to hea r what theyre doing right so they can continue on the same path.Experts do not care about what theyve done right. Instead, theyre more interested in how they can make progress. They dont surround themselves with sycophants and other bootlickers who dont have the backbone to be honest in their feedback.As entrepreneurs and geschftliches miteinander owners, your focus shifts as you become more of an expert in your field. Your confidence is not affected by negative feedback, just as long as its constructive and honest.How to make it work for you Its important to be surrounded by people who want the best for you and will be there when you need them. But, its also necessary to keep people around you who will provide you with constructive criticism and not just vacuous positivity.Theauthor of the study abovebelieves the onus is on the person who provides the feedback. Often negative feedback is buried and not very specific. Encourage your circle of friends to be specific and straightforwa rd with their critique.2. Establish a benchmark for your inner circleWe all have different friends for different seasons in our life. Its been said that the way we do anything is the way we do everything. So, be intentional about the people you select to be in your inner circle. If you have a friend you wouldnt recommend to a close family member, why do you spend time with them yourself? Remember, a wimp is someone who settles for loser friends because its the easiest path.Choose friends who are dependable and honest. Select people you admire, show you love and respect, and reciprocate your kindness.How to make it work for you Ask yourself whether spending time with this person will lift you up or drag you down? If you spend time with this person, will they help you to become your best self? Will you be happier after spending time with them? Will they help you achieve your most important goals? If not, find friends who will.3. Make room for a mentor or twoLoser friends are not known for or respected for their knowledge and skill sets. They do not champion your success nor have they expressed a great deal of confidence in your abilities. Turn that upside down and you have the perfect description of what you should look for in a mentor. You deserve to surround yourself with people who believe in you and are willing to build a relationship with you. Above all, good mentors will always challenge you and encourage you to take risks.One of the best moves you can make in life is to surround yourself with friends who see the eignung in you that you may not even see in yourself. These are the people who give you permission to follow your dreams.Enthusiasm is contagious. The best mentors are enthusiastic about what they do and believe their work provides both value and meaning. They want to share that excitement with you. Most of all, they encourage you to have the same goals.How to make it work for youIn your career you will meet people who are both younger and older. Dont always assume a mentor should always be someone who is older. While older friends can be a beacon of wisdom, younger friends can keep you from getting too jaded in your work. Its often refreshing to see the world through the eyes of those who are still anxious to learn rather than teach.4. Recognize narcissists for what they areLoser friends suck life out of your aspirations because they always shift attention and energy back to themselves. They may listen as you voice your concerns but notice how they manage to inject their own situation into the conversation. Suddenly, it becomes about them and their life experiences.Narcissistsare loser friends who belittle your problems. They may offer some level of sympathy and understanding at first, but theyll soon shift the conversation into 1) how their problems are so much greater or unusual, or 2) how they solved a similar problem in the past and how great it turned out for them. On top of that, narcissists expect you to show perpetu al appreciation for their assistance and presence in your life. All thats important to them is whattheywant and whattheyneed to do to get it.How to make it work for you Set boundaries. Its difficult to reason or argue with a narcissist because they wont listen or change. One of the easiest ways to get rid of loser friends is to limit meeting times. Limit contact with them. Everyone understands that the message youre too busy to catch-up, its code for youre off my A-list.5. Walk away from weaselsAnother type of loser friend is the weasel- the one who is sneaky, conniving, and always has a scheme. Weasels can adapt to almost any situation and manipulate it to suit their own needs. Not sure one of your loser friends is a weasel? Here are some characteristicsWeasels can appear as harmless to your face, which is why you need to watch your back. They love to take credit even when its not warranted and do not like to collaborate with others. Weasels also tend to be guarded so they can conc eal their true intentions or plans. They are not trustworthy and love to meddle in the business of others.How to make it work for you While narcissists are selfish weasels are mean-spirited little people.Run away from them if possible. They cannot be redeemed as friends so you waste your time if you plan to rehabilitate them. When you remove a weasel from your life, its not a sign of heartlessness it takesmental toughnessto kick these malignant people out of your life.This article originally appeared on LaRae Quy.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people