Problem: Article: Long distance relationships are much easier to maintain today than they were a long time ago. With text messaging, social media, and video chatting, technology can allow long distance couples to feel closer to one another, even when they are far apart.  There are apps for smartphones that allow you and your partner to touch your thumbs to the same spot on the screen and your phone will emit a vibration.  Video chatting services like Skype and FaceTime allow for those in long distance relationships to have face-to-face conversations rather than just talking on the phone. Download a video chatting service and get a webcam! Most new laptops come with web-cameras built in. It's safe to say that most people use text messaging very often in their everyday lives. Use it as a way of sending messages and photos to your significant other while you are apart. It will help you feel more connected and more like you are a part of each other's day-to-day lives. If you go to college far away from one another and decide to maintain a long distance relationship, make sure you are both clear on what you expect from one another. Be open and honest about your needs and where you want the relationship to go. Don't be afraid to tell your significant other if your needs aren't being met, or if you think you both should work towards making some changes. A long distance relationship, particularly one that is made more difficult by the stresses and responsibilities that come along with college life, is an entirely different entity than the average, geographically close relationship. As college students, you are more than likely living on a small budget. With tuition, rent, food, and transportation costs, college is an expensive time in anyone's life. So, budgeting for trips to visit your significant other might seem like a difficult task.  Book airline tickets well in advance. A few months to about 8 weeks before is a good window for purchasing. You can even create a price alert on some travel websites and get an e-mail or text alert when plane tickets for your route go down. Try planning a trip to a third location—rather than you going to see them or them coming to see you, plan to meet in the middle, or meet up in some other fun, interesting location. Not only will it keep things interesting, but the effort will feel more balanced on both sides. Consider taking a bus. It isn't as time efficient, but new express bus services in the US can take you pretty long distances for a low fee.
Summary: Take advantage of technology. Acknowledge the needs of both partners. Avoid comparing this relationship to relationships you have had in the past. Budget for visits.

Problem: Article: If you have defined success as having achieved a specific outcome, you need to know what that outcome is. Think about your school work, or job or whatever aspect of life you’re looking to succeed in. Do you want success to be measured at regular intervals or do you want success to be measured at the end of a project? For example, is success to you achieving 80+% on all of your assignments throughout the school year or straight A’s in all of your exams at the end of the year? You decide your definition of success.  Be sure that your outcome measures are attainable and realistic, if they are not you might end up feeling exhausted and fatigued as you will always be fighting a large uphill battle.  Ask others for strategies on how to achieve your desired outcome. You should have a plan for achieving your goals. A benchmark is an ideal or standard that you set for yourself; it is essentially the best outcome that you would like to get for yourself. Make a calendar of your expected performance as indicated by the benchmarks you have chosen. For example, if you’re trying to lose 16 pounds in two months, break it apart so that you have smaller benchmarks. Using the same example, you might put on your calendar benchmarks of two pounds per week over eight weeks.  As another example, imagine that you're trying to obtain the outcome of becoming a top student in your class. Performance benchmarks you might set for yourself could be receiving an A at least two out of your exams and an A on at least four out of five of the class assignments. Leave space to add details of your actual performance. Mark your actual performance on your calendar under your benchmarks. Reward yourself if you met your target. It’s okay to feel upset if you didn’t manage to meet your benchmarks at any one particular time. Make sure your reward is in line with your performance. For example, if your benchmarks are set weekly, don’t reward yourself with a shopping spree at the end of each week that you meet your goals. Keep things in perspective and save big rewards like this for when you succeed at the final overarching goal. Sometimes things happen that are out of your control. If this is the reason that you don’t meet your target performance, know that you have not failed. If there is something that you are doing that is keeping you from achieving your goals, think of solutions to the issue. For example, if you are sleeping in and that’s preventing you from studying as much as you would like to, ask someone you live with to make sure you wake up at a certain time. Given any setbacks that may have happened, reset your benchmarks for success if you need to. This will more likely happen if your benchmarks are set at regular intervals. If you have a major outcome as your definition of success (e.g., run 10k in 1 hour at the marathon in June) then you can easily change your outcomes along the way. You will need to change the amount of effort it takes to achieve your outcome but it is still likely that you will achieve your goal. Reset your benchmarks for performance outcome and carry on.
Summary:
Define your outcome. Outline performance benchmarks. Compare actual performance with benchmarks. Take setbacks into account. Reset benchmarks.