5 Legal Issues You Can Plan Ahead For

By Aditi Mukherji, JD on September 18, 2013 8:15 AM

Legal planning may not be something to which you've given much thought. After all, you can't always plan ahead for unexpected things like crime and workplace accidents.
But for plenty of other legal issues that you know you're going to face, you can (and should!) have some sort of action plan in place to address them. Don't worry, FindLaw's got you covered.
Our new Legal Planning homepage is a "one-stop shop" for your legal planning needs. It links you to clear, concise information about important legal issues you may face in different phases of your life. Here are five examples:

1. Cohabitation. From living together to landlord-tenant issues, there are a number of ways to plan ahead for various living situations when you're young and single. Planning in advance can help you avoid future problems or deal with existing issues that can come up regarding money, property, lease agreements, and more.
2. Getting married. Saying "I do" commits you to a person -- along with a host of legal obligations. Whether you need to change your name, figure out taxes, or manage money and property, a solid plan beforehand can help newly married couples avoid legal hiccups and keep your energy focused on marital bliss.
3. Home ownership. As your family grows, so do your housing needs. If you're planning on buying a home, there are a range of legal issues you can sort out in advance, including: knowing what questions to ask during the home buying process, preparing yourself financially, and finding a real estate agent.
4. Estate planning. As morbid as it may seem, it's critical to have a well-prepared estate plan while you're still in your middle years and in good health. This will ensure your wishes are carried out and your loved ones are taken care of when you pass away.
5. Retirement. In some ways, retirement is the culmination of your years of hard work. It gives you the opportunity to (finally) take it easy. Why throw it all away with a haphazard, c'est la vie "plan"? Ditch the "it'll-sort-itself-out" plan for solid retirement planning that settles when to retire, how much money to expect during retirement, and how to maximize your retirement savings.

Of course, this touches on just a few of the legal issues for which you can plan ahead. To stay ahead of the curve when it comes to legal planning, sign up for FindLaw's free Legal Heads-Up newsletter.
Related Resources:

• Ways to Plan Ahead for Medical Care and Treatment (FindLaw)
• Are You Ever Too Young to Write a Will? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
• Retired and Working Again: Social Security Rules (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
• How to Get Help With an Estate Plan (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2013/09/5-legal-issues-you-can-plan-ahead-for.html

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How to Create a Balanced Life: 9 Tips to Feel Calm and Grounded

By Jasmin Tanjeloff

 

As a Libra, my sign is the scale, which signifies balance. I’m not sure how much my “signage” plays into my desire to live a balanced life, but I do know that the more balanced I feel, the more free I feel.
In my work I am often reminded that what works for some people does not necessarily work for others; and that one person’s idea of balance may not constitute anything remotely balanced from another person’s perspective.
So I wanted to address the various elements of life that can require balancing and offer some suggestions to find the mix that works best for you.

To start, what does it mean to be balanced?

To me, it means that you have a handle on the the various elements in your life and don’t feel that your heart or mind are being pulled too hard in any direction. More often than not, you feel calm, grounded, clear-headed, and motivated.

How do you find your balance?

The elements in life that require the most balancing can be divided into two categories: internal and external. Oftentimes, people focus on one more than the other.


For example, you may find that you focus on external things–like work, relationships, and activities, and that you pay very little attention to what is going on inside your heart and mind.


On the other hand, you may find that you spend so much time being self reflective that you sometimes miss out on the experience of living.


Other people may be fairly balanced between the two but might want to balance out some specific elements within each category; so I created this little outline to help us better understand the beneficial components on both ends of each spectrum.

Internal (Mind, Heart, Health)

• Mind: Challenging yourself intellectually vs. creating opportunities for your mind to rest
• Heart: Giving love vs. receiving love
• Health: Eating, drinking, exercising properly vs. resting and treating yourself to some extra yummies

External (Work, Social, Family, Fun)

• Work: Pushing yourself to achieve goals vs. seeing the bigger picture and enjoying the ride
• Social: Satisfying your social desires vs. taking time for yourself
• Family: Fulfilling your familial responsibilities vs. creating healthy boundaries
• Fun: Allocating time for things you enjoy doing vs. making sure you don’t overdo it

As you can see, both ends of each spectrum are actually positive; but if either side is taken to an extreme, something that is intended to be positive can end up being detrimental.


It’s helpful to check in with yourself to see if you feel balanced.


If you feel pulled in any one direction and uneasy about it, these steps may help you get your life aligned:

1. Acknowledge.

Take some time to really look at your life, your state of mind, and how you’re feeling. Be honest with yourself and notice the areas of your life that you’re neglecting.

2. Examine.

Notice if you’re leaning more toward an internal or external focus, or if there are areas within each category that you would like to be more balanced.

3. Set Goals.

Look at the outline to help you decide which ways you want to balance your life. Make a list.

4. Plan Tasks.

Make a list of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that you will need to do to achieve each of these goals . What have you tried in the past? Did it work? If not, what can you do differently?

5. Reflect.

What is the most important thing you’ve accomplished in the past? How did you stay focused toward this goal? How did you handle your fears, doubts, anxieties, worries, and negative self talk? How does it feel to know that you accomplished the goal in spite of these parts of yourself?

6. Prepare.

What is your inner “stuff” that will try to keep you from sticking to your plan? (i.e. fears, worries, doubts, negative self talk etc.) Can you specify the things you will say to yourself to push you off track? (i.e. “just one more bite, I’ll start eating better tomorrow”) Make a list.

7. Empower.

What do you need to remember in those times? What are things you can say to that self-sabotaging part of yourself? Be kind to yourself. Balance won’t feel good if you’re cruel to yourself in creating it!

8. Connect.

Is there a person or a tactic you can use to keep yourself supported, motivated, and focused in those hard times? I highly recommend connecting and sharing your inner process with someone. Find someone who can help you challenge your inner demons, and celebrate your little accomplishments.

9. Plan.

Just like accomplishing any goal in life, it takes time and effort to overcome your habitual patterns and create new ones. If you stay on track with this detailed and intentional process for three whole months, then there is a good chance you will create new habits to enjoy a more balanced life going forward!

Dealing With Your Anger

If you don't learn how to handle anger, you will constantly hurt others.

by David Powlison

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

What makes you angry? Are they small things, like traffic jams, lines at the grocery store, not being able to find a shoe, a waiter’s mistake, or a friend’s inattention?
Are they big things, like when someone betrays you? Experiences of injustice, meanness, violence, oppression, selfishness, or lying?
How do you deal with your anger? Do you explode? Does everyone around you know when and why you are angry? Or are you more subtle?
Do you get irritated and short with those around you? Do you gossip and complain about your spouse, children, coworkers, and friends? Or maybe you just turn your anger in on yourself and become depressed and bitter.
You might have noticed that you can’t avoid dealing with your anger. Anger is an inevitable response to living in a troubled world where things can and do go wrong all the time.
But if you don’t learn how to deal with your anger, you will constantly hurt others. You will poison your own heart. You will estrange yourself from God. God cares about what makes you angry, and God cares about how you express anger.

Common advice
Some counselors notice that people get tied up in knots when they hide or stuff their anger. They will tell you to deal with your anger by getting in touch with how you feel and then expressing it. “Get it off your chest. Say exactly what you think. Give ‘em a piece of your mind.”
Other counselors have noticed how destructive people become when they express anger. They will counsel you to control your anger. Psychotherapy, medication, exercise, and meditation are just some of the different ways they recommend for defusing your anger and calming yourself down.
So which is it, venting or calming?
Actually, God has a different way for you to deal with your anger. He knows well that stuffing your anger deep inside is destructive. And just learning tricks for keeping calm never discovers the purpose for which God designed anger. Anger needs to be acknowledged and expressed in a positive way, as a form of doing what is good and right.
At the same time, God knows well that venting your anger is destructive. Instead of expressing your anger in ways that hurt those around you, it is possible to express your anger in a way that actually redeems difficult situations and relationships.
How does this happen? It starts with understanding what anger is, where it comes from, and how a right relationship with God will actually change the way you view and express your anger.


 
What is anger?
Anger is your God-given capacity to respond to a wrong that you think is important. It always expresses two things:

• It identifies something in your world that matters to you.
• It proclaims that you believe that something is wrong.

This could be something as minor as being served a cold cup of coffee at a restaurant. Or it could be something as major as your spouse running off with your best friend.
God also gets angry at things that are wrong in this world. Your capacity to be angry is an expression of being made in His image. So when you get angry, you are not necessarily wrong. But often anger does go wrong.
Getting angry about things that don’t matter
God’s anger is always holy and pure because what He says is wrong is wrong, and what He says matters, does matter. God is rightly displeased when people are harmed and hurt by others. Romans 13:10 (ESV) tells us, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor” while Romans 12:17 says, “Repay no one evil for evil.” Two wrongs never make a right, and our anger often simply doubles the wrong. But God’s anger makes right what is wrong (Romans 12:19).
One difference between our anger and God’s anger is that, since we aren’t always holy and pure, we often get angry at things that aren’t true wrongs … or at things that don’t really matter to anyone but us. If you throw a tantrum when you are served cold food in a restaurant, or curse when you are stuck in traffic, you should recognize that these are not things that really matter in God’s world.
God explains to us in the Bible why we get angry at things that don’t really matter to anyone but us. The apostle Paul uses the phrase “desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16) to describe where our wrong anger comes from. You and I get angry because of what we desire (what we expect, want, and believe we need) to happen in a certain situation or relationship.
Think about the last time you got angry. Underneath your feelings, words, and actions is something you wanted but didn’t get. Respect, affirmation, power, convenience, cooperation, help, money, comfort, intimacy, peace, pleasure, identity, safety … what is it that you want? And how do you respond when you don’t get it? Anger going wrong loudly tells the world, “I want my way! My will be done!”

 

How Social Media Is Being Used In Education

By Katie Lepi on October 29, 2013

Recently,  the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson conducted a survey of nearly 8,000 faculty members in higher education to find out more about how faculty are using social media. While we often post infographics showing trends or results from specific studies here at Edudemic, I found the results of this survey particularly interesting – perhaps because they were so different from what I expected.
While it seems that most faculty have adopted some social media use in their personal life, fewer have done so professionally. And their feelings about using social media professionally (in and out of the classroom) seem to be pretty mixed. Keep reading to learn more (and you can access a larger pdf of the infographic by clicking here).

Social Media in Higher Education

While there is no question that students in higher education are pretty well versed in many technologies and social media platforms. But what do their professors think?

• The level of personal use of social media among faculty (70.3 percent) mirrors that of the general population
• 55 percent of faculty use social media in a professional context (any aspect of their profession outside of teaching), up from 44.7 percent last year
• Only 41 percent of faculty use social media in the classroom, but this use continues to experience steady year-to-year growth
• Faculty are sophisticated consumers of social media. They match different sites to their varying personal, professional, and teaching needs
• Concerns remain about privacy, maintaining the class as a private space for free and open discussion, and the integrity of student submissions
• Most faculty agree that “the interactive nature of online and mobile technologies create better learning environments” and that digital communication has increased communication with students
• Faculty believe that online and mobile technologies can be distracting, and that they have resulted in longer working hours and more stress