Creating the Right Impression with Body Language

While most of us work hard to make a positive impression on others, it’s important to know that certain types of body language send a negative message.  However, it isn’t always easy to control our gestures, as many of them are involuntary.  Many times, we are not even aware of our own body language; therefore, we don’t focus on controlling it.

Since body language movements tend to reinforce our feelings, we are responsible for minimizing any negative effects that our actions may produce.  While we may have control over the words we speak, we can’t always control the message our body language is conveying.  To begin with, it is important for us to be aware of what messages our facial expressions may be sending to others, as body language instead of words is frequently responsible for igniting a conflict.

First of all, if you hold objects in front of your body, others may see you as trying to separate yourself.  This translates into you being unapproachable.  On the other hand, you do not want to stand too close to a person.  If you do, some people may feel uncomfortable. You want to respect other people’s personal space.  A good rule of thumb is to allow 4 square feet of space surrounding them.

People tend to think you are being sarcastic if you look up toward the ceiling while they are talking.  They see it as a dismissive attitude, or that you are putting them down.  Rolling your eyes has about the same effect.  You don’t want to look down either.  Some people may take it as disinterest, but others will be even more insulted and label you as being arrogant.  Bobbing your head while someone is talking to you also sends the message that you have no interest in what they are saying.  No matter which of these behaviors you show, the other person is going to be hurt or insulted.

Read more

Personal Development Plans – A 5 Step Guide

A personal development plan serves as a guide for you to achieve more and great things in life. It basically reflects where you are at the moment and where you want to go tomorrow.

So how do you really create a plan? You can actually create your own and be creative about it as long as the three important elements are there: skills to achieve your goals; the available resources; and the outcome.

Below is a great example of personal development plan. This plan is composed mainly of questions that you need to answer. Take time answering each question. Sharing and visualizing them with other people is not enough. Write the answers down and read them every single day. You should also review and update them as necessary.

1. Think of where you are now.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What kind of criticisms do you usually get from other people?
• What are the factors that affect your performance? An example of performance indicator is time wherein you tend to get stressed and pressured when you are tasked to finish a workload within a short amount of time so you sacrifice the quality of your output.

2. Think of what you want to become in the future.
• What are the things that you want to achieve in life?
• What are the reasons for you wanting these achievements?
• List down your short-term goals.
• List down your long-term goals.

3. Ponder on things that you need to do and accomplish for you to reach your dreams.
• What are the things, skills, talents, and behaviors that you need to improve on to reach your dreams?
• What are the resources easily available for you to do the things that you need to do?

4. Create a timeline for your dreams, with the start and end date for both short-term and long-term goals.
• When do you want to achieve your dreams?

5. List other things that are important and needed for you to reach your dreams.

Read more

The Rules of Life

I came across the following rules of life.  Which I though may be useful to some of my readers who are contemplating their position in life and considering a change. If that’s you enjoy.

Cherie Carter-Scott’s rules of life

Rule One – You will receive a body. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s yours for life, so accept it. What counts is what’s inside.

Rule Two – You will be presented with lessons. Life is a constant learning experience, which every day provides opportunities for you to learn more. These lessons specific to you, and learning them ‘is the key to discovering and fulfilling the meaning and relevance of your own life’.

Rule Three – There are no mistakes, only lessons. Your development towards wisdom is a process of experimentation, trial and error, so it’s inevitable things will not always go to plan or turn out how you’d want. Compassion is the remedy for harsh judgement – of ourselves and others. Forgiveness is not only divine – it’s also ‘the act of erasing an emotional debt’. Behaving ethically, with integrity, and with humour – especially the ability to laugh at yourself and your own mishaps – are central to the perspective that ‘mistakes’ are simply lessons we must learn.

Read more

Multiple-Choice Exam Tactics

Multiple-choice exams are probably the most straightforward of the exam types, but nevertheless there are a number of different techniques and strategies that you can adopt to tilt the odds more in your favour.

Multiple-choice tips and techniques

• After you have read the question, see if you can answer it in your head before looking at the answers. Try to anticipate what the answer will be, but don’t be disillusioned if the answer you were expecting isn’t in the list of answers. In that situation, make sure to read each answer carefully and select the best answer that matches your original thought.

• Read the question and then answer it with each of the answers. Do it for each answer. See if the answer makes sense when tagged straight on to the end of the question, and look out for hint words.

• Multiple choice questions are not only testing that you know the right answer, they also test that you know the wrong answers too. So it’s very important to read all of the options that are presented to you in a multiple choice question even if you think you’ve spotted the right answer in the first option or two.

• Don’t ‘over think’. Sometimes you can tie yourself up in knots looking for answers to questions that weren’t even asked. If you find yourself thinking too much about a particular question, move on and come back to that question later.

 
Read more

Interview Skills Review