There are many reasons why having a flexible body is essential to our health and well-being. As a young child I was very flexible because I was a gymnast and dancer. Both gymnastics and dance require extreme stretching of muscles, tendons, and ligaments. They also work aggressively on the mobility of joints. I could do the splits every which way amongst many other things.

​When I went to college I focused only on cardio. I ran, did the elliptical, jumped rope, and rollerbladed. Sometimes after my workouts I stretched mildly but not often enough. By the time I graduated at twenty-two, I noticed I was far from being able to do the splits. Then over that summer, not quite clear about the meaning of my newfound flexibility deficits, I attempted a back handspring. The back handspring was successful through completion, but I cracked my right elbow when my hands hit the ground. Though my brain recalled exactly what to do, I had neither malleable enough muscles nor mobile enough joints to absorb the shock of the trick.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" This might be the most asked question kids get. The answers tend to lead to firefighter, astronaut, or musician. Even though these glorified positions are important and aren't restricted to only safety, discovery, and entertainment; it's rare to find a profession where you need to juggle all these at once.  What might be even rarer, is to hear a child say, "I want to be a teacher!" It's a job that is extremely valuable, yet it is overlooked like the salt in the ocean. We seem to just take them for granted. Florida International University professor, Dr. Lynn Yribarren, is a Senior Instructor with a Doctorate in Curriculum and instruction. She answers why this may be and how the education system is often overlooked.  By challenging her students to get the most out of their education, Dr. Yribarren does her part molding educators simply by asking them to think critically.  

​Send me questions or comments on Twitter @Younicooo or Instagram @younico. If you prefer email, send it to nicolasommati@hotmail.com. Also, please subscribe on iTunes if you haven’t already. ​

Millennials are among the most confident employees in the workforce, armed with the knowledge that age is no longer a prerequisite to success thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, Elizabeth Holmes and the like. However, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t something to be learned from those who have worked before them.

Seeking out advice from the people who hold the very positions that millennials one day hope to attain, or even supersede, can be extremely beneficial. When I look back at my own career and the people who helped guide my success, I can’t help but wonder what could have been if I had invested more in those relationships. So, here are my words of advice – the things I wish I knew years before I figured them out on my own:

​Have a vision. It’s important to know what you want to accomplish in order to find the right people to guide you there – and I don’t mean just aspiring to be CEO of a company one day. Instead ask yourself this: What do I stand for? What impact do I want to have on the world? Know your greater goal.

We see, use, and hear the above quote all the time. While we know consistency is the key to success or accomplishment in sport (or life), it is also the hardest to master, especially this time of the year. Acquisition and mastery of a skill, a technique, or a lifestyle change will require you to be a consistent athlete. So how do we stay consistent with being consistent? Here are a few tips to help you stay on your game through the holidays and feeling confident.

TIP #1: Make a conscious decision to remain consistent.

​Say out loud to yourself, “I am committed to remaining consistent each day in my goal. I am doing this!” Notice the statement is in the present tense. This technique commands your subconscious mind to act now, not later. Consistent actions require consistent thinking, specifically consistent thoughts that youare and will remain consistent.

Unemployment is terrifying. It's a state of limbo that makes it impossible to stop deliberating over the future.

In a society that celebrates wealth and often judges people based on their profession, unemployment feels like a curse.

The worst part of being unemployed is all of the rejection. The endless cycle of cover letters, résumés, interviews and impersonal "you didn't get the job" emails chip away at your self-esteem. It's easy to feel like there's no point to any of it.

The longer you stay unemployed, the more you fear no one will ever hire you. After all, conventional wisdom tells us that gaps on our résumé are a sign that a person is unemployable.
Millennials understand this perhaps more than anyone, as most graduated from high school or college at the height of the Great Recession.
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This generation has struggled far more than its parents in terms of finding employment. Moreover, while the economy has improved, many young people are still actively searching for jobs.