Topics

106

Present yourself / 10 Ways To Stay Confident At Work

« on: May 02, 2016, 10:00:12 AM »

10 Ways To Stay Confident At Work

1.   If you have low self-esteem or your confidence has been threatened in some way, here’s what the experts say you can do to strengthen your backbone and boost morale
2.   Stay focused on you
3.   Identify your strengths and capitalize on them
4.   Identify weaknesses, and work on them
5.   Believe in yourself   
6.   Closely monitor your successes
7.   Seek encouragement from others
8.   Challenge yourself
9.   Carefully consider how you react to your boss's and colleagues' actions
10.   Be a role model of positive attitude

107

A Good CV/Resume / 5 Realistic Ways To Build Up Your Confidence Right Before An Interview

« on: May 02, 2016, 09:57:34 AM »

5 Realistic Ways To Build Up Your Confidence Right Before An Interview

1. Stop The Storytelling
Your brain’s primary job is to minimize danger and maximize reward, so in a situation where there’s an unknown outcome—especially a situation where you might screw up—your mind’s going to start telling you stories designed to keep you safe, tales that will help you from feeling the crush.
2. Return To Your Best
Being at your best means being at the top of your game, the place where you’re buzzing, flowing and really feeling alive. When you’re in that place, two things are happening. First off, you’re simply using everything you’ve got in the moment (all those skills, all that experience, all your smarts, all your talents, all your strengths and all that instinct) and, secondly, you’re not letting anxiety get in the way of your confidence.
3. Breathe
Anxious nerves are a physiological response to risk, a response that gets your heart thumping, palms sweating and thoughts spinning. Keep your attention on the breath, noticing the sensations in your body as you exhale and even the momentary pause between the in breath and out breath.
5. Humanize The Process
You were invited in because your resume and cover letter caught the hiring manager’s eye. You were asked to come in because someone at the company wants to get to know you. The hiring manager wants to hear more about the experiences he read about on paper.
Their aim is to offer the job to a decent human being who can add value, so consider them as an ally who wants you to land the job rather than an enemy who wants to see you trip up.

108

Career Advice / 10 Ways To Stay Confident At Work

« on: May 02, 2016, 09:29:49 AM »

10 Ways To Stay Confident At Work

1.   If you have low self-esteem or your confidence has been threatened in some way, here’s what the experts say you can do to strengthen your backbone and boost morale
2.   Stay focused on you
3.   Identify your strengths and capitalize on them
4.   Identify weaknesses, and work on them
5.   Believe in yourself   
6.   Closely monitor your successes
7.   Seek encouragement from others
8.   Challenge yourself
9.   Carefully consider how you react to your boss's and colleagues' actions
10.   Be a role model of positive attitude

109

Happiness / 5 key steps to increase our experience of happiness

« on: May 02, 2016, 09:12:29 AM »

5 key steps that we can take each day to increase our experience of happiness:

1)      Bring gratitude to mind – Write down three NEW things that you are grateful for each day
2)      Journal – About a positive experience you’ve had recently for 2 minutes once a day
3)      Exercise – Engage in 15 minutes of mindful cardio activity
4)      Meditate – Watch your breath go in and out for 2 minutes a day and
5)      Engage in a random, conscious act of kindness – Write a 2-minute positive email thanking a friend or colleague, or compliment someone you admire on social media

110

Motivation / Twenty Tips on Motivating Students

« on: May 02, 2016, 09:01:05 AM »

Twenty Tips on Motivating Students

How do teachers motivate their students? Here are some practiced, tried-and true strategies to get (and keep) your students interested in learning.
1.   Know your students' names and use their names as often as possible.
2.   Plan for every class; never try to wing it.
3.   Pay attention to the strengths and limitations of each of your students. Reward their strengths and strengthen their weaknesses.
4.   If possible, set your room in a U-shape to encourage interaction among students.
5.   Vary your instructional strategies; use lectures, demonstrations, discussions, case studies, groups, and more.
6.   Review the learning objectives with your students. Be sure students know what they are expected to learn, do, know, etc.
7.   Move around the room as you teach.
8.   Make your classes relevant. Be sure students see how the content relates to them and the world around them.
9.   Be expressive. Smile.
10.   Put some excitement into your speech; vary your pitch, volume and rate.
11.   Give lots of examples.
12.   Encourage students to share their ideas and comments, even if they are incorrect. You'll never know what students don't understand unless you ask them.
13.   Maintain eye contact and move toward your students as you interact with them. Nod your head to show that you are listening to them.
14.   Provide opportunities for students to speak to the class.
15.   Be available before class starts, during break, and after class to visit with students.
16.   Return assignments and tests to students as soon as reasonably possible. Provide constructive feedback.
17.   Be consistent in your treatment of students.
18.   Make sure that your exams are current, valid, and reliable. Tie your assessment to your course objectives.
19.   Plan around 15-20 minute cycles. Students have difficulty maintaining attention after a longer period of time.
20.   Involve your students in your teaching. Ask for feedback.

111

Motivation / [b]Six Ways To Motivate Students To Learn[/b]

« on: May 02, 2016, 08:58:24 AM »

Six Ways To Motivate Students To Learn

1.   Fine-tune the challenge. We’re most motivated to learn when the task before us is matched to our level of skill: not so easy as to be boring, and not so hard as to be frustrating.
2.  Start with the question, not the answer. Memorizing information is boring. Discovering the solution to a puzzle is invigorating. Present material to be learned not as a fait accompli, but as a live question begging to be explored.
3.   Encourage students to beat their personal best. Generate motivation by encouraging students to compete against themselves: run through the material once to establish a baseline, then keep track of how much they improve (in speed, in accuracy) each time.
4.   Connect abstract learning to concrete situations. Adopt the case-study method that has proven so effective for business, medical and law school students: apply abstract theories and concepts to a real-world scenario, using these formulations to analyze and make sense of situations involving real people and real stakes.
5.   Make it social. Put together a learning group, or have students find learning partners with whom they can share their moments of discovery and points of confusion. Divide the learning task into parts, and take turns being teacher and pupil. The simple act of explaining what they’re learning out loud will help them understand and remember it better.
6.   Go deep. Almost any subject is interesting once you get inside it. Assign the task of becoming the world’s expert on one small aspect of the material they have to learn—then extend their new expertise outward by exploring how the piece they know so well connects to all the other pieces they need to know about.

112

Motivation / How to Motivate Employees

« on: May 02, 2016, 08:50:34 AM »

How to Motivate Employees

Motivation actually describes the level of desire employees feel to perform, regardless of the level of happiness. Employees who are adequately motivated to perform will be more productive, more engaged and feel more invested in their work.
It is a manager's job to motivate employees to do their jobs well. The process through which managers encourage employees to be productive and effective.

There are many ways to motivate employees. Managers who want to encourage productivity should work to ensure that employees:
•   Feel that the work they do has meaning or importance
•   Believe that good work is rewarded
•   Believe that they are treated fairly

113

Positive Thinking / The health benefits of positive thinking

« on: May 02, 2016, 08:44:39 AM »

The health benefits of positive thinking:

Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:
•   Increased life span
•   Lower rates of depression
•   Lower levels of distress
•   Greater resistance to the common cold
•   Better psychological and physical well-being
•   Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
•   Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

114

Positive Thinking / Positive Thinking Instructions and Advice

« on: May 02, 2016, 08:43:44 AM »

Positive Thinking Instructions and Advice:
In order to turn the mind toward the positive, some inner work is required, since attitude and thoughts do not change overnight.
1.   Read about this subject, think about its benefits, and persuade yourself to try it. The power of your thoughts is a mighty power that is always shaping your life. This shaping is usually done subconsciously, but it is possible to make the process a conscious one. Even if the idea seems strange, give it a try. You have nothing to lose, but only to gain.
2.   Ignore what other people say or think about you, if they discover that you are changing the way you think.
3.   Use your imagination to visualize only favorable and beneficial situations.
4.   Use positive words in your inner dialogues, or when talking with others.
5.   Smile a little more, as this helps to think positively.
6.   Once a negative thought enters your mind, you have to be aware of it, and endeavor to replace it with a constructive one. If the negative thought returns, replace it again with a positive one. It is as if there are two pictures in front of you, and you have to choose to look at one of them, and disregard the other. Persistence will eventually teach your mind to think positively, and to ignore negative thoughts.
7.   In case you experience inner resistance and difficulties when replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, do not give up, but keep looking only at the beneficial, good and happy thoughts in your mind.
8.   It doesn't matter what your circumstances are at the present moment. Think positively, expect only favorable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. If you persevere, you will transform the way your mind thinks. It might take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they will.
9.   Another useful technique is the repetition of affirmations. This technique is similar to creative visualization, and can be used together with it.