Tips for guys on how to be romantic

As a guy, you probably don’t feel the onus is on you to be romantic. Maybe you’ve don’t even think the girl wants you to be romantic.

After all, romance was something your grandparents did, right? And those days are long gone. In 2016, we do things differently.

Not quite. Despite the rise of instant-dating apps like Tinder, and despite what popular pickup artists might tell you, girls still want to be romanced by men the way their grandmother’s we’re romanced. It’s true. Indeed, romance can lift you out of the friend zone and into exactly where you want be. Romance can also help a simmering relationship reach boiling point.

If you’re not entirely sure about how to be romantic, let’s take a look at 10 tips for guys on how to romance her.

• Make A List

Girls love it when guys remember things, and they get really despondent when we don’t remember things. If you surprise her on your anniversary with a gift before she’s had the chance to scream “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT IT WAS OUR ANNIVERSARY OMG” you’re onto a winner.

It’s really romantic when you remember key dates and make plans for them. If you’re not the best at remembering dates (who is?) it’s a good idea to pen them in on a list. Make a note of her birthday, and your anniversary. Write down the date you shared your first kiss with her, as well as any other dates you know are special to her. And when the dates swing around, do something special for her. She’ll love it.

• Make A Toast To Her

She’s your lover.

She’s also your best friend.

She might even be your soul mate.

Eventually, she could be the mother to your children.

She’s always going to be there for you, through the good times and the bad times.

She won’t let you down.

She sounds amazing.

She is amazing.

So make a toast to her before your evening meal. Let her know you’re thankful that she’s in your life. Let her know she’s special and that she deserves this toast and many others.

“Here’s to you.”

• Show Her Affection

You might think that as a guy in a relationship, it’s the girl who should be affectionate. You just need sit back and enjoy it. After all, us guys don’t do affection, right? Men just aren’t born affectionate.

But girls want you to show affection. They want you to reach out for a hug first, to grab their hand in the street and spontaneously embrace them under the streetlights. It won’t emasculate you, I promise. Try it!

Read more: Dating Tips Don’t do any of these if you are 

• Make A Photo Album

You probably think that photo albums are dead in this, the age of the selfies. Most people think that photo albums are dead.

Your partner probably thinks they’re dead, too.

And this is why she’ll be knocked off her feet if you make a photo album that celebrates the memories you two have shared together. She won’t be able to believe it. She’ll be stunned, surprise, amazed – and more in love than ever.

Making a photo album is going to take up a bit of time and will demand some creativity on your part. But it’ll be totally worth it.

• Share Things With Them

Romance truly is dead if you can’t share important things with your partner. If you’d rather keep your likes, dislikes, worries and hopes to yourself, it doesn’t really say a lot for this relationship. Sure, it keeps you invulnerable, but it also keeps you at a distance.

Sharing things with your partner is romantic. Whether you’re sharing a gift of opening up about your day, you’re involving them in your life by bringing them closer to you.

• Help Her To Achieve Her Dreams

Your partner surely has dreams. But in what way are you helping her to achieve them?

Some men feel threatened by their partners’ dreams. They worry that their woman will be more successful than them and – worse still – that they’ll outgrow them.

It’s much more romantic, however, to encourage your partner to be the best she can be.

• Think Outside The Box

I went away on a business trip recently to DC and when I returned home, my partner asked if I’d brought her a gift.

“I haven’t,” I said sheepishly.

I felt bad. I explained that I hadn’t had much time and that I never think about buying gifts, not even for myself.

“I know,” she said.

She knew because she knows me inside out. I always think inside the box – never outside.

So I decided to start thinking outside the box. On my way home from work, I now sometimes stop off at the supermarket and buy her some flowers.

In the morning I sometimes surprise her with a cup of coffee in bed.

In the evening, I leave a chocolate love heart on her pillow before she joins me in bed.

All of these things are out of character for me – and this element of surprise is so romantic.

• Show Her She’s Important To You

I know how much you love a boys night out. But if you want to make a powerful romantic gesture every now and then, it’s a good idea to put the breaks on your night out with your buddies to see your partner instead.

Show her that she’s important to you. If she needs you, you’re always going to be there for her.

• Dress To Kill

Isn’t it funny how we get dressed up to the nines for when we have to meet total strangers, but let ourselves go around our partners? We walk around the house in frayed slacks, torn sweaters and socks with holes in. We look like a hobo, but we don’t mind because our partner loves us anyway.

This is not exactly romantic, guys. It’s time to change. It’s time to keep up appearances and dress to kill around your partner at all times.

This means shaving each day (or at least getting your beard just right). It means wearing clean clothes and binning any socks with holes in. It means wearing cologne and smelling nice.

• Pay Her Lots Of Attention

When you guys go out together, don’t spend half the night talking about work or what you and your best buddy are going to do at the weekend. Talk about her. Give her your full attention. Put your phone away and make her feel like she’s the centre of your universe.

Source: Beauty and tips.com

The impotance of defining your relationship

The title sounds like a broken old school record that keeps playing over and again. Yet, it is important to define your relationship.

If the labels change, or if you feel differently and need to redefine the relationship, go right ahead and redefine it. If you let unanswered questions hang around your relationship and uncertainties fester, it is only a recipe for heartbreak.

What Are We?

This is one of the most difficult things to ask in a growing friendship. There is usually the hilarious “we are nothing but pencil in the hands of the creator” response; which is not funny at all if you are the enquirer. Even though there is a 50-50 chance of it ending badly, it gives both of you an opportunity to reveal what you feel about eachother. At the end of this conversation, if both parties are honest, the couple should be able to put a tag on their relationship, have reasonable demands of each other, and hold each partner accountable.

What Are We Doing?

This should clear any doubts about whether emotions should get involved or not. The answers can range from;

“We are just hanging out”

“It is just sex”

“We kissed once”

“It does not mean anything”

To

“I love you”

“We are getting to know each other”

“This is important to me”

“It’s not just sex”

The answer will dictate the next step for the relationship and ensure that both parties are on the same page. It will also afford each partner an opportunity to decide whether they want to go on with whatever they are doing, or opt out.

How Far Is Too Far?

If you are in a non-committed relationship, you should set boundaries on how far is comfortable enough. If you are close friends with a married person, you both should agree on how close you two can get before it is too close for comfort. If you two are single and ready to mingle but have not committed to each other, you can agree on having casual sex and walking away without expectations or keeping sexual intimacy out of the equation while spending time with each other. It prevents the infantile “you took advantage of me” tantrums

Where Is This Going?

The ideal response to this question for people in relationships should be “to the altar” but you should ask your partner and be clear about it. Many people are in relationships that they do not expect or intend to end in marriage and may be genuinely bewildered when their partners spring the “when should I notify my family” question. You can come to an amicable resolution of the direction of the relationship and make plans on how to get there.

It is a risky thing to assume anything in a relationship. The hurt of your partner telling you they don’t feel the same as you, cannot be compared to the anguish of finding out that you two have been operating on different mindsets about your relationship for long. The conversation can be unnerving and a bit uncomfortable to initiate but every couple should have it as often as possible. Feelings and expectations change, so do people; as such, it is important to keep communication lines opens and keep adjusting and updating the status of your relationship

SOURCE: PulseNG

Things about your relationship you shouldn’t tell your friends

If you’re with the most amazing partner on the surface of the earth, it is almost impossible not to talk about him.

Have you ever had your dream Christmas present and couldn’t show it to your friends? That’s just about how it feels to shut up about your amazing partner.

There are things about your relationship you can tell your friends, and there others you should not whisper a word of. Here are some of the no-nos:

• You absolutely cannot tell your friends about your partner’s intimate secrets. If you get invited into your partner’s world to share in their fears and vulnerabilities, you cannot share it with a third party. This is because it is your partner’s story to share, not yours; not anyone’s.

• Of course you cannot tell your friends that your partner dislikes them and thinks they are stupid, vain or boring. Ideally, you are to be the bridge between your friends and the people you date. You set yourself up for antagonism when your friends dislike your partner or vice versa because of something you said.

• Who stands to gain if your friends know that your partner has a somewhat unappealing body part? No one, really. If you respect your partner, and want to avoid your friends laughing at you behind your back, you will keep the story of your partner’s imperfections – a hairy bum perhaps – in your bedroom where it belongs.

• Unless your partner is a serial asshole who threatens your physical and emotional safety, keep your fights to yourself. All couples fight, and usually they patch up after tempers are calm. After you are all gooey-eyed when the fight has ended, you may have a hard time convincing your friends that you didn’t mean the terrible things you said about your partner.

• Finally, unless you’re comfortable with unsolicited acts of charity, you may want to hold on till your creditors actually threaten to kick you out of your home before telling your friends about the financial challenges you and your partner are facing.

The proper way to apologize to your partner

You can actually get into more trouble for apologizing wrongly than not apologizing at all, and you don’t necessarily have to be dealing with a crazy partner to experience such a turn of events.

As if a fight didn’t ruin the magic enough, you would have to deal with your partner’s unhappiness because you didn’t apologize ‘the right way’. Here’s how to say sorry, and say it right.

·      First of all, you have to admit that your partner is hurt. This isn’t the time to bring out a PowerPoint presentation of how they are being irrational, or of how you’re right and they are wrong. What matters is they are hurt, so apologize for their pain. Who is wrong or right can be discussed later when tempers are calm.

·      Sometimes people say sorry just to stem their partner’s complaints of how badly they have been treated. The moment their partners open their mouths and say ‘Honey I really didn’t like…’ they supply a perfunctory sorry; never mind that they don’t know what exactly it is they did wrong. Saying sorry just to prevent conflict doesn’t help; you only postpone the conflict.

·      You really have to know EXACTLY what you’re apologising for, so you don’t do it again. Apologizing for your partner’s hurt feelings is the first step, you have to establish clearly what it is you’re apologizing for.

·      Here’s the thing about apologies; they are more effective when they aren’t apologies to the same old issues. You can’t apologise five times in two months for the same thing, your partner will think you actually take delight in apologizing. Instead, why don’t you do try and do better? As an alternative to walking through the door and meeting a sulky partner, you can have a really good time if you come bearing the groceries she asked you to get, Santa style.

·      Finally, it goes without saying that you ought to mean your apology. Even if it has to take you a full week to see why you have to apologise, do it. Be at peace with yourself about giving that apology, it cannot be bullied out of you.

Motivational Tips for Students

Students who are thrilled to do their homework every single day are rare… if there are any. Everyone needs a motivational push now and then, and you will be surprised what inspiration can do with your opinion about “pointless” homework assignments.

Even if you don’t see the point in doing homework, you still see a point in getting good grades, so read these tips and learn how to become a more motivated student.

1. Change your perspective

You cannot form a foundation for your future knowledge and skills without doing homework, no matter how pointless it seems. Even topics that don’t awaken a single spark of interest are important for your general knowledge and development as a person.

If you don’t like algebra, you may understand its importance when you realize that it’s the foundation for economics, business, science, and many other fields of study. When it comes to English homework, you need to understand that paper writing is an essential skill to gain if you want to be a successful student at college and university.

2. Become an “expert” in one area

There isn’t a student who absolutely loves all subjects. All you need to do is focus a bit more on the area you love and get some serious attitude about it. Maybe you can start a blog associated to the area you love and become a self-appointed expert in it. Research deeper, become more involved and enjoy your devotion to the things that interest you.
However, this shouldn’t drive you away from all other homework you get; in fact, it should help you become more tolerant of the topics that don’t interest you that much. Think of the less favored topics as “supporting bricks” for your career path.

3. Don’t be afraid of competition

You don’t have to tame your competitive spirit. In fact, it can help you be a more diligent student and have fun while doing homework and making better achievements than anyone else in class.Being competitive doesn’t mean that you have to become the classmate no one likes. You can team up with one or two friends and inspire each other to do better in all subjects. Healthy competition can be a very inspiring motivation, if you know how to approach it.

4. A prize can be motivating

If a big science project is giving you trouble and you can’t even get motivated enough to start it, you should make a plan and divide the entire process into few smaller steps. Take each step and turn it into a goal, having the big picture in front of you at all times.
Make sure to set deadlines for each step and reward yourself with small treats or breaks after every achievement. When you focus on the prize, you will be motivated to do everything right.

5. Get support to get motivated

If you are not getting enough encouragement from your family or friends, that shouldn’t discourage you because it doesn’t mean that no one cares.
Your teacher, for example, surely cares whether or not you do your homework and study well. Teachers are always there to support their students, because their success as educators depends on the achievements of the class.

If you feel like you don’t get enough support in your home or from your friends, you can join an education forum and find the motivation you need. Many people will cheer for you if you are brave enough to cheer for yourself.

Qualities All Highly Successful People Have In Common

There are those successful people out there who have it made. They catch break after break and seem to just have all the four leaf clovers of the world in their pockets. But we know that it’s more than just luck on their side. We’ve found six consistent traits of phenomenally successful people and know that if you strive to match yourself to these that you too can become successful.

1. They Are Passionate

This might be a no-brainer trait but it might also be the foundation to a successful individual. Those who succeed love deeply what they do. Take a look at almost any athlete out there, they are passionate about what they do and almost always do it for the love of the gam. People like Tiger Woods knew at a young age what they loved and then made a life out of it. If you don’t know if you’re truly passionate about something just ask yourself if you would do it for free. If you would, then you’ve found your passion.

2. They Are Resilient

To be resilient is to face challenges, learn from them, and push through to success. Some of the most successful people in the world have faced the uncanniest struggles and have managed to come out on top. J.K. Rowling was rejected by 12 different publishers before selling the first Harry Potter novel. Successful people recognize each failure in life as a chance to learn something and to grow from it.

3. They Push Themselves Out of Their Comfort Zones

Phenomenally successful people know that they can’t just sit on their hands and hope that the ideas in their heads will some day become a real thing. They have to get up out of their house and begin to get their ideas out there. It’s a matter of getting out of your comfort zone, setting challenges, deadlines, and goals all to push yourself to continue to strive harder, work better, and succeed.

4. They Continually Create

Entrepreneurs like Time Ferris and Evan Williams are successful because they are continually creating. Rather than finish a project and end their careers there, successful people continue to study and create and form new ideas. Evan Williams didn’t just finish when he founded one company. If he had, we wouldn’t have Twitter, Blogger, or Medium. The daily routines of CEOs will show you how dedicated entrepreneurs and successful people are and how even CEOs continue to create and work hard to succeed until the end.

5. They Are Focused

A huge trait for successful people is focus. Not just that they can sit in a room and get the work done, but that they have a specific goal in mind. Successful people can narrow down and focus on the one thing that they know is important. Just look at someone like Walt Disney. His focus was on quality and innovation. For him it wasn’t about making money, it was about lifting the hearts of children and not with chintzy products. Disney even said that “quality will out.” He focused on quality and what did that result in? A phenomenal empire that spans the globe with him being a household name throughout the world.

6. They Continue to Learn and Better Themselves

Current president of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Ed Catmull wrote in his book Creativity, Inc. that the best thing to do “when faced with a challenge [is to] get smarter.” Successful people don’t assume that they know everything or that they are the smartest people out there. They continue to learn and better themselves and their craft. Some of the most successful people pick up new hobbies consistently throughout their lives and careers to keep their brains active and to help with creativity.

JAMB To Stop The Use Of Scratch Cards For Registration And Result Checking

     

Report has it that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), will soon stop the use of scratch cards for registration and checking of results.

This was disclosed JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyode on Tuesday at the National Executive Council meeting of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) in Abuja.

According to him this will likely become effective from 2017. 

He added that once this becomes effective, students would generate a PIN number for themselves from their phone or computers before registering for examinations.

He frowned at situations whereby banks and vendors hoard the cards, only to sell them at a higher price.

He equally charged NASU members to involve in the ownership of Computer-Based Testing Centres, saying those who own the centres are businessmen merely exploiting students.

The Journey These Students Take to School Will Make You Value Education

Most of us caught the bus, got dropped off by our parents, or walked a couple of blocks to school. And most of us have been late on our journeys to school once or a few too many times. When we were late, there was always the excuse of traffic, the bus broke down, or we missed it because we were talking to our friends. Over all, our journeys to school were pretty routine.

When it comes to getting into a routine, we tend to take advantage of things. In this case, our education. We knew the different routes to get to school the fastest and we knew classes would be in session when we got there. We didn’t have to worry about walking through a war zone, journeying for five hours through icy mountains, or tightrope walks above a flowing river to get to school.  

  

At some point we’ve been guilty of not caring about our education and complaining about having to go to school. But after learning about what these students around the world have to experience on their journeys to school, you may just realize how lucky we are and how precious education is.

Children in Sanghiang Tanjung, Indonesia venture across a broken suspension bridge.

Children from Batu Busuk village in Sumatra, Indonesia, tightrope walk 30 feet above a flowing river, followed by a 7-mile walk.

In the Philippines, elementary school students use inflated tubes to cross a river on the way to school in Rizal Province, followed by at least one hour of walking.

Vietnam students swim twice a day across a river to attend school at Trong Hoa commune, Minh Hoa district

In Columbia, kids who live in the rainforest journey to school down steel cables at 50 miles per hour.

It’s a 125 mile journey for boarding school students in China through mountains of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Parents take their children through the Himalayas across ice and frost to boarding school.

A young girl in refugee camp Shuafat, near Jerusalem, walks to school despite the violence taking place between Israeli troops and Palestinian protestors.

These pictures of various journeys to school are to put some perspective of the common complaint we hear of “I don’t want to go to school today”. While some of us take school and educational opportunities for granted, there are young children around the world whose journeys to school are risky but, to them, it’s worth it all to get to school and learn.

Do you think your education is worth the risk? Maybe instead of teaching students how to get rich or what they need to do to get the best job out there, we should be teaching students how to value education.

THINGS UNDERGRADUATES WISH THEY HAD KNOWN

1. Take it seriously.

You’re on your own and you can make your own decisions, like partying all night and skipping class the next day. Respect the fact that you worked hard to get admitted to the university and that your future is right around the corner. Have fun when you can, but prioritize your schoolwork. Contrary to popular belief, you are really at a university to get an education and in the future your grades will matter. So try not to slack off your fresher year and then have to spend the rest of your undergraduate years trying to make up for that rough first session. The first session of a university is the most important in terms of building grades. You will want to make sure you start on a high note as it gets more difficult maintaining your CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) as you go higher. It’s a myth that the workload in year one is the highest. While it may appear as such, in reality, the workload never ends. Infact, year one is the easiest as what you will be doing wouldn’t be strange to you. Courses will be more like what you’ve learned in high school.

2. If you don’t like your course, change it. Or at least try to.
This cannot be taken lightly as a lot of the courses people are admitted in for are not their courses of first choice. Look, if you know the course you’re taking now is not for you, please apply for change of department. It’s even easy now to change departments within a faculty. Even if it means you may have to restart, it will be worth it at the end. You don’t want to spend the rest of your 3 or 4 years in school lamenting about how you don’t like maths or how the number of courses you offer in a semester is too many. When you resume, look at your department handbook. If it’s not what you thought it’ll be, you are still a fresher and now is the time to do something about it. You don’t want to join the 90% of Unilag students who are not happy with their course of study.

3. Befriend your 4Cs
Your 4Cs are your Course Advisor, Course Representative, Course Seniors and Course Lecturers.
Course advisor: Meeting with your course advisor is important. He/She is the one who sign off your academic evaluation, which lets you know which courses you’ve already taken and how many credit units you still need to graduate. Every course has a curriculum model, usually pre-arranged with a class schedule for each semester. Some classes have pre-requisites, but you can usually play around with the order. Your course advisor is your go-to when you have any questions regarding your academics. Trust me, you will want to be in a good relationship with whoever the person is. The person can make or mar your career in the University.
Course Representative AKA Class rep AKA Class governor: If you’re not going to be friends with anybody, at least be friends with your class rep (Class captain). He is the primary source of information. Remember…
Information = knowledge
Knowledge = Power
Power = Favour
Favour = Good grades
Therefore,            Information = Good grades
This is even more prominent when you befriend your..
Course Lecturers: This one is a no-brainer. When you get the favour of lecturers, it can transmit to good grades directly or indirectly. Although it is rare for professors to lecture freshers, if it happens, you will want to make him/her your friend. Hell no! Make him your bestie. You cannot joke with the kind of influence professors have.
Course Seniors: Your course seniors can guide you through out your Fresher year. They can provide you with materials and reality checks you’ll need to progress to the next level.
P:S You’ll also want to be careful with both your course lecturers and seniors. You’re a fresher and whether you admit it or not, you’re bit vulnerable. So ladies, beware of those lecturers that call you to their offices all the time and seniors that always want to meet up at night.

4. Do All What You can do Now.
Infact do all what is available to do now. Your year 1 is the time of your schooling when you’re most full of energy; when your expectations have not yet been dashed. In clearer Yoruba terms, when “tișa o ti fő ę lę epon”. So your medicals, bio data forms, especially your medicals… complete it. Meet with a program counsellor at least once to make sure you’re on track to satisfy all of the requirements for graduation (like your medicals). Many people end up taking a huge chunk of their valuable final year time completing their medicals or more costly having an extra year of school because they misunderstood what counted as a science elective for a history compulsory course. You don’t want to make that mistake. Other students get stuck because they don’t realize that the courses required for graduation may be there one semester but *poof* are gone the next. Sure, they’ll be offered again, but sometimes not in time to fit in with your master plan for life. So, if a prerequisite is available now, take it now!


SOURCE: Sugarbrand

HOW EDUCATION AND SCHOOL IS KILLING OUR NATURAL CREATIVITY

Is it a coincidence that pretty much all children,teenagers and youths love to write stories, have fantastic imaginations, enjoy getting messy, painting, making music, inventing characters, acting out plays, drawing and making things?

 Why don’t we carry this natural capacity throughout adulthood? Why would nature intend us to lose these gifts? The global creativity gap in five of the world’s largest economies, with the look of things shows 8 in 10 people feel that unlocking creativity is critical to economic growth and nearly two-thirds of respondents feel creativity is valuable to society, yet a striking minority – only 1 in 4 people – believe they are living up to their own creative potential. 

More than half of those checked feel that creativity is being stifled by their education systems, and many believe creativity is taken for granted . Particularly in Nigeria for instance,all our parents know is education, only 20% of our parents check out our talent and encourage us to develop it.That discourages lots of children and even teenagers. 

Using myself as a perfect example,i would say i love acting and want to develop it later in life but all i get from my parents is ” theatre artiste are all bad and most of them not make it like ,doctors,lawyers and the likes”. Seriously an average teenager would lost or rather throw away that dream. With reference, i’d say,most Nigerian artiste,actors,dancers,musicians started at the early stage of their lives,e.g;Emmanuella [the young commedian],Ada [the little girl who dances],et ce teria. Of course these talents cant rub off on the sands of time,it has come to an extent where they make good influence and encouragement and even challenge to youths,teenagers and children But on the part of education what do we get; politicians with evil intentions,unemployed citizens turning thugs due to discouragement on the part of their talents. 

For some of the more creative kids,teenagers and youths, their creativity will help them survive their standardized school years. For others, this standardization crushes their passions, spirits, joy. I believe the biggest ethical travesty of our times is extinguishing a child’s passion. 

ABAYOMI DELLA ADEOLA, 
FACULTY OF LAW, 
OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY.