New Year, New You Series: Learn Something New

Our New Year, New You series will be posted throughout the month of January to give you ideas, tips and resources to help you continue to develop the best version of yourself.

To be successful and world class, it requires constant and purposeful growth...but you don't have to try to figure it out by yourself.  Our company's mission is to facilitate the growth of individuals and organizations through tools and resources aimed at empowered visions and goals, equipped strategies and execution and expanded impact and results.  We are here to partner with you to get results!

EMPOWER.EQUIP.EXPAND

For this part of our series, we wanted to inform you about a great continual learning site called Coursera.  Coursera is an education company that partners with the top universities and organizations in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for FREE. It is the new, innovative way of continued adult learning. Every student earns a Statement of Accomplishment.

No matter what your new year's goals, resolutions or objectives, the learning you can supplement for yourself, organization or board can be found at Coursera.  And it's not just for the serious stuff...there is also personal enrichment type classes that are diverse across multiple disciplines (see our favorites list below).

We perused the Coursera site for the best upcoming classes in diverse categories and wanted to give you an idea of what you can signup for.  Signup up is free although some courses do offer an opportunity for you to get a "Verified Certification" which would be great for professionals who can also charge the fee to the allotted training and development budget given by your company!

Course Category: ARTS
Class:  Roman Architecture
Teaching Institution: Yale University
Start Date: January 16, 2014
Length: 15 weeks
Why We Recommend: If you are planning a trip to Italy or just a person who loves to travel--in actuality and virtually--to a wide variety of places, this course will help you explore great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its vast empire in their ancient and contemporary contexts.

Course Category: BUSINESS
Class: Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step to Entrepreneurship
** Rated #1 Entrepreneurship Course and #8 Overall Business Course on Coursera**
Teaching Institution: University of Maryland, College Park
Start Date: January 13, 2014
Length: 6 weeks
Why We Recommend: Great for aspiring entrepreneurs!  If you are serious about becoming an entrepreneur, this is your year and get it kickstarted!  This course will help you explore how to identify and develop great ideas into great companies. Learn how to identify opportunities based on real customer needs.  Develop solid business models that create successful companies.

Course Category: ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
Class:  Globalization of Business Enterprise
Teaching Institution: IESE Business School
Start Date: February 3, 2014
Length: 8 weeks
Why We Recommend: The majority of businesses say they want to become more global. And business leaders say that the lack of people with global intelligence is the key constraint holding them back. This course will address both gaps — at the business and the personal level, it will focus on practical strategies for dealing with the real consequences of globalization. Great for any organization or team, including boards, with global expansion in mind.

Course Category: EDUCATION
Class:  Student Thinking at the Core
Teaching Institution: Vanderbilt University
Start Date: January 27, 2014
Length: 4 weeks
Why We Recommend: This course explores how teachers can capitalize on what students bring to the classroom--their ideas, perceptions, and misunderstandings-- to advance the learning of all in the class, a practice they call "leveraging student thinking".  We need more great teachers and this course can help edify what you are already doing in the classroom to create great students.

Get Freshology Here

Course Category: FOOD AND NUTRITION
Class:  Nutrition, Health and Lifestyle: Issues and Insights
Teaching Institution: Vanderbilt University
Start Date: January 20, 2014
Length: 7 weeks
Why We Recommend: This course explores nutrition concepts that take center stage in mainstream media outlets and become conversation topics among consumers interested in food choice as it relates to optimal health and physical performance.

Course Category: MUSIC, FILM AND AUDIO
Class:  Songwriting
Teaching Institution: Berklee College of Music
Start Date: January 27, 2014
Length: 6 weeks
Why We Recommend: This course explores the efficient, effective process for writing songs that express your ideas and emotions, including a range of tools that revolve around the concept of prosody—the matching of lyrics and music to support your underlying message.

As you can see, there is not limit to what you can learn through Coursera...signup, get started and be one of the people who gets to experience the fulfillment of what it means to get results from working towards your goals and the vision you have for yourself and/or organization.

To your success...
The Supa Team
thesupagroup@gmail.com

Life Lessons from Extraordinary People

We know you are out there gearing up for a new year and we thought you would be motivated by this blog post by Harvard Business Review with "10 Extraordinary People and Their Lessons for Success".

Here's our favorite by Historian David McCullough:

 

McCullough on hard work: “When the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn’t mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks. They meant the pursuit of learning. The love of learning. The pursuit of improvement and excellence. I keep telling students, ‘Find work you love. Don’t concern yourself overly about how much money is involved or whether you’re ever going to be famous.’ …In hard work is happiness.”

For more lessons on success from Maya Angelou, Sandra Day O'Connor, and more, go here.

The Supa Group Team
thesupagroup@gmail.com