So you’ve signed up for your Chrysalis online course.  You’ve opened up the first Module.  And now you are sitting in front of a blank screen.

What’s important right now?

Step One:  Connect
First connect with all those reasons you are doing this course in the first place.  Engage with the energy and motivation that brought you to this point.  Reflect on the changes you are making in your personal and professional life.

And devise a means of remembering and re-connecting with that as you work through the course.

Step Two:  Prepare & Plan
Recognise that working online is going to be a very different experience from being in a room with other students.  So you will need a different plan.

The courses are flexible to enable you to work round existing work, home, family and other commitments.

That’s great and gives you a lot of freedom.  But it also requires a lot of discipline.  Consider your own learning styles, and prepare your own timetable for submission and completion.

And set yourself a plan.

Step Three:  Commit
Devise your own system and strategy for the work, identifying steps, explore ways of resolving difficulties and achieving goals.  And remember your tutor is there to help.

This connects you with wider knowledge, a source of support and help, your own motivation and learning, with your initial reasons for dong the course, and the outcome you are working towards.

And it builds your commitment to both the process and the outcome.

Step Four:  Get Real
And now you need to get real with it all, setting review points for yourself.

So this is a good point to remember that “life happens”.  And there’s a lot going on for all of us right now.

Take on board the learning from the course.  Take on board the learning from life.  And take some time out when necessary.

Step Five:  Celebrate & Move Forward
You stayed with it.  You completed the course.  You learned new ways of learning.  You learned new things about yourself.  You learned new skills.  You increased your knowledge and understanding.  You experienced processes, techniques, and tools to take with you on the next stage of your life and work.

So Celebrate!  I know – difficult with social distancing and all that stuff - but possible.

Connect again to both your initial sense of motivation, your commitment to the work, and your sense of achievement.

And then move forward to your new future with further training, new work, new elements in your life.

You know it all makes sense...

Just Do It!