Hi,
Today, I’ll talk to you about ‘language’. Language is the only difference between animals on one side and by humans on the other. Its importance therefore can hardly be exaggerated. Great leaders and great thinkers have talked about language and its importance differently.
Karl Kraus, the German philosopher said that the language is the mother of thought. How true? Imagine if we did not have the facility of language, how we would think. It’s just not possible. Another thinker, Samuel Johnson said that the language is the dress of thought. Both are right. Indeed the language is the mother of thought and it is also the way the thoughts are dressed and presented.
Grammar is helpful in creating the sentences. But the speakers don’t have to worry about technical details of the grammar. In any case, the spoken language is different from the written language. The written language has to be correct grammatically as far as possible. But the spoken language essentially has to convey the idea that the person wants to express. Technical details of the grammar may have to be compromised for the sake of brevity. If you tend to be verbose, the objective of communication may be lost. Most listeners cannot pay attention to the speaker who is verbose and who uses too many words to say something which can be effectively conveyed in a few words.
The word of a man/woman is the most durable of all materials. It lasts longer than one can think. Some time ago, when I was conducting a program for the lecturers of a college, one of the participants said “the tongue is one of the strongest organs in the human body. The tongue does not fall sick normally. And if it does, it heals itself quickly. But the wound that the tongue may create sometimes are not healed in the lifetime. It is indeed true. So, one must use the tongue with great care and discretion. And, it’s not only the words but it’s also how you speak these. Your tone is extremely important. If the same words are said in an inappropriate these create undesirable effect.
Like everything else, language also has its own limitations. It can describe all the situations that you may have gone through vividly; it may create the leaves of the book of your life neatly, but it cannot describe one’s character. Character can be recognized by the person’s behavior, his conduct and so many other personality traits. It is said that one should never react. He/she should only apply mind to face whatever be the situation; whatever be the circumstances. Likewise if any person behaves in an uncivil manner you should not react. Use your mind. Application of mind will guide you how you have to face the situation. Here again, the most appropriate language with proper modulation (tone) will be found very useful.
But there are some languages which everyone understands. These are universal. Language of smile is the same throughout the world. Language of kindness will be understood by the deaf as well as by the blind. So let’s use the universal language of kindness and let’s always wear a smile.
Thanks you for reading.
Category: Uncategorized
Enthusiasm
Peace of Mind – It’s Free!
It’s difficult to conceive the vastness of the ocean. But it is even more difficult to imagine the vastness of the mind. Sea is often very calm only sometimes it is turbulent. While an ocean is turbulence only at some occasions, the mind is at peace on only sometime. The confusion of the mind primarily arises due to the contradictions experienced in the fast paced life today. There is nothing that we can do for turbulence of the ocean. We can certainly tame our mind to achieve calmness and peace.
In fact peace of mind requires only your focus and consistent reminders to yourself. It has no tangible cost. It’s free
Nature – what it does? When it does? It remains unknown to mankind. Though there is no doubt that extensive study of nature has given us the knowledge and power to predict.
But when we talk of mind it is our choice to train it to be at peace most of the time. We have to understand the difference between peace and bliss. Peace is not bliss but peace offers you an ability to get into state of bliss when you want.
At work place, if you are doing something that you don’t like to do yet you have to do it under compulsion, your mind cannot be at peace. When you are lost in your work and you know that the work is important for you, you are a peace with yourself. Further, if you enjoy your work then every milestone that you achieve will give you bliss. There are the number of Dos and Don’ts which help you to gain peace of mind.
First, let us enumerate the don’ts:
- Don’t get too much involved in reading the negative news. Our newspapers and electronic media are full these. You may scan through the headlines to be abreast with what is going on.
- Avoid spending too much time with people having negative attitude. Interaction with them will sink their negativity into your subconscious mind.
- Regard each person as an individual. They are entitled to hold their opinions. Do not be judgmental. Negative emotions like envy, jealousy, criticism of others will affect your peace of mind. So avoid these.
- Past is history. It does not have any significance except the lessons you have learnt. So don’t dwell on your past.
- Become friends with members of your family. Children are very intelligent today and they should be treated as friends. Likewise you should be friendly with your spouse.
- Your speech controls your relations with others including members of your family. Therefore use your words with care and discretion. The way you say something is as important as what you say.
- Don’t be too much attached with your possessions. Practice detachment. What we have today, we may not have tomorrow.
Now about the dos!
- Learn to focus your mind. Cut the clutter. On and average there comes as many as fifty thousand thoughts in one day. Try to reduce this number by focusing your mind.
- Practice meditation. It will help more than one can imagine.
- Cultivate a habit to enjoy only healthy food. Decide that you must eat slightly less than your hunger.
- Go on vacation periodically. The cycle of routine work needs to be broken as often as possible.
- Give yourself some quality time. Talk to yourself. Talk about what you like about you. And, further improve the same.
- Make it your habit to consider that challenges are your opportunities. When you face these challenges with success, it gives you happiness and your mind becomes peaceful.
Thanks for reading.
Sail Seven Streams to Enjoy the LinkedIn Jaunt!
- Be Very Selective
LinkedIn is a professional platform. So, be sure to carve out your Professional Objectives. Evidently, you need to be very selective in building your connections. Your efforts should be focused on quality and not quantity. It is necessary to find commonality while inviting people to connect. The proposed connections should be beneficial to both. For example if you are selling a service or a product all those who are decision makers to buy your products would be the most appropriate connections.
- Personalize Connection Requests
Send a polite email for the invite after going through the profile of the person. Describe briefly how the connection will be beneficial to both of you. If you have met the invitee at a social event, you may refer it. However, brevity is extremely important. Nobody likes to receive a verbose mail or any kind of message. The words chosen and the sentences constructed should delight the receiver of the message. It can happen only if you speak from heart. It means you need to be your natural self while communicating. Write to express but not to impress.
- Group participation
There are many groups formed on the LinkedIn. Some of these are active, others not so. Identify the group which is most suitable to your professional needs. In the beginning it will be easier to participate in a group where most members are from the place around. Unless you are a high profile professional, joining a group with participants from different countries may not be very effective. We must understand that the cultural background plays an important role in people coming together.
- Publish Posts
Create content of your niche expertise and publish in LinkedIn. Your post will be seen not only by your connections but by everyone on the LinkedIn. You have to be very careful about the ease of reading and comprehending by the people who view your post. It must add value. While content is the king, simple language which is easy to understand, will be appreciated. A long sentence with many clauses may not be appropriate for your story on the LinkedIn. Further, sentences of different lengths when put together in a paragraph make reading very interesting.
- LOINs
Loin means LinkedIn open networkers. They are the people who want to network with as many people as possible. One can search by using the group search feature. There are open networkers who will welcome you. Some groups cater to specific locations. There are other groups serving various industries and services. You have to select the group which is most suitable to your professional interest. In the search features if you specify the criteria you will be able to find out the group of your choice.
- Post status update daily
You need to establish that you are active on LinkedIn. It is therefore expected that you post something of interest to your connections and people at large every day. You may spend only 15 minutes daily. But use these 15 minutes with great discretion. As said above every post that you publish should be found interesting at least to some of your connections. It is understandable that you can’t please all. Therefore don’t even try to do that. Your focused approach on subjects of general needs or special interest to your connections will be highly appreciated.
- Your Profile
What you write on your profile is particularly important. It should give a clear message about your background and your profession. Instead of writing in a traditional chronological fashion you can be more innovative. Consider you are speaking to a large group of people. While you are addressing all to inform about yourself, it should clearly indicate your intention and interest. Take special care to choose a nice photograph. Give information and links to your website/websites, blog sites etc so that people can easily view. Recent events that you may have created or participated in would also be newsy and of interest to your friends.
I am sure that you will find that your sailings in the above seven streams will bring you a lot of joy with success on your ‘LinkedIn Jaunt’.
Thanks for reading.
Six Parameters to Analyze your Audience before Preparing your Speech
Whenever you’re preparing a speech, it is necessary to know your audience thoroughly. After all, you deliver the speech to help your audience in one way or the other. It could be a speech to inform. It could be a speech to convince or influence your listeners. It could also be to entertain the audience. You cannot succeed unless you study the audience beforehand. We have chosen six most important parameters which will enable you to know your audience well enough. These are as follows:
- No. of People:
You need to know approximately how many people you’re going to address. A speech which is meant to be delivered to a small group of 10 people may not be valid, for example, for 40 people. When the no. is small, you have to be personal. This is not possible or feasible if you are speaking to a large crowd. Even the language you may use will have to be different for different groups.
- Gender Composition:
It’s also necessary to know the gender composition of the audience. Treatment of your speech should be different for a group of male or female or both mixed males and females. Your message should crafted according the majority of the people you are going to address. The way you handle ladies only group may not be suitable if you’re addressing an all male crowd. Women and men react differently to various topics at most of the time.
- Purpose of Speech:
The general attitude of your listeners should be known to you. This is particularly so when your objective of speech is to convince or persuade. Application of mind on the issue will provide you sufficient information about the reaction of audience. For example if you are addressing an uninformed group, you will have to be more detailed and rather basic in expression. Further, if you expect your audience to be more apathetic or against the subject, you will have to modify your speech accordingly. Such knowledge beforehand will also help you to determine the language and the method of delivery of your speech.
- Age of the Audience:
It’s equally necessary to know to which age group your audience belongs. Younger people will react in a certain way to a topic. It may be totally different from the response of elderly audience. If the crowd does not represent a particular age group and has both young and old, you have to write your speech accordingly.
- Formal Education:
It may also be required to know the formal education of your audience, generally speaking. When the audience is highly educated, they will look for a trainer to speak in their language. Undoubtedly, this will be quite different from the language you will use to address a group of people who may be doing well in life but whose qualifications are much lower. The objective of the speech will not be served if the listeners don’t understand the implications of the message involved.
- Specialized Group:
Whenever you are speaking to a group of people who specialize in one subject or the other you have to be sure of many things. Superficial knowledge of the subject will not work. Your definition of the topic should connect with the level of the specialized knowledge that this group may process. More of professional jargon may be expected from you, lest you appear to them too elementary. The language of the specialized group is best used as their own.
All the parameters detailed above will come in handy for formulating an approach which would be most suitable for the audience you are going address.
Thanks for reading!
Six Critical Aspects of Public Speaking
For a Long time Public Speaking has posed a great problem to most of human beings. Traditionally, public speaking was known as the leader addressing a crowd from the stage. It is not so today. Verbal communications have become extremely important. So even if you are speaking one on one, same articulation and clarity in voice is required as if you are talking to a group. PPT presentations have become very important in day to day functioning of the office. We will therefore deal with the six most critical aspects of Public Speaking, which are:
- Stage Fright:
Stage Fright is the fear of speaking to someone or to a group of people. When you are addressing a group of people the intensity of stage fright may be more. However if an executive is speaking just to one person – his Big Boss, he/she may experience the same fear as if they are speaking to a crowd. The strength of the fear may very from person to person and situation to situation.
- Preparation:
You must thoroughly prepare to meet the requirement of any speaking assignment. And how do you do that? First of all, you must know your subject well. Content is the king. You should never pretend and display your ignorance of the subject to a group or even to an individual. If you don’t know, your best option is to say ‘I don’t know about it as of now’. Nobody can be expected to know everything under the Sun. Further, you should know your audience very well and you should speak in their own language.
- Body Language:
This is also very important to convey your massage. If your body language does not contribute to the efficacy of your speech, the audience will not appreciate your message. They will feel that you’re not speaking from your heart. This will go against the basic can tenets of public speaking- Ethos, Pathos and Logos. So far as body language is concerned, everything counts. The way you stand or sit, your facial expressions, the movement of your hands and legs if you’re standing. All are important.
- Practice:
Practice is critical for making a presentation. You must practice by reading your speech many times. You should also practice the way you’re going to deliver your speech. In delivery, it’s important to maintain an eye contact with the audience. And enthusiasm should be maintained throughout the speech. It is possible only if you breathe properly. Deep breathing is recommended. In fact yoga and various yogic practices help you to develop a habit of deep breathing. The importance of practice in public speaking can never be exaggerated.
- Audience connect:
You should connect with the audience. It should appear that you are speaking to them individually. You may roll your eyes in the entire hall. Verisimilitude will take place. The speaker should never look toward the ceiling or any corner or only in one direction. This will disconnect the rest of the people. In turn, they will become disinterested.
- Inject humor:
Any speech devoid of humor becomes very dry and uninteresting. Humor can be created in many ways. Experienced speakers ask the audience simple questions a in such a way that they burst into laughter. A new speaker has to be more careful. He should practice interesting anecdotes, or humorous stories. We must remember that the relevance of the story with the subject or the situation we face should be unquestionable. Story telling is also an art which must be practiced extensively.
Public speaking is no doubt difficult. But its advantages are immense. Today, when lots of presentations have to be made by executives, any kind of stage fright or hesitation is a serious handicap. Likewise, clarity in speech in order to articulate your ideas is important to make an impact. Practicing by finding opportunities to speak in public will go a long way to making you good public speaker.
Thanks for reading.
Seven Times you Fall Get up Eight!
A Japanese proverb advocates that ‘Seven Times You Fall Get up Eight’. That is resilience. You don’t ever give up. In competitive life, today, setbacks cannot be avoided. A rubber ball when thrown to the ground, bounces back. But you have to bounce back even higher knowing that repeated falls are inevitable.
Resilience gives you courage not to abort the journey because of problems in the way. Life’s journey in variably has many impediments. Often times these are unexpected ones. Everyday must brings a new beginning. It’s like writing on a clean slate about life. Experience is said to be a unique teacher. You fall, you get up, you are hurt, and yet again you fall but you keep going. Every time you fall and get up there is lesson to be learnt. Accepting this reality without being mentally disturb is resilience.
It requires trust in you to maintain this attitude. A bird sitting on a branch of tree continues to do so in spite of wind shaking the branch. The bird does not believe that the branch will not fall, but it has faith on its wings. There is no material as resilient as the human spirit. Once we realize and accept this, we are able to take control of our attitude which in turn, strengthens our confidence.
In other words, resilience is how you respond and recover from what has happened to you. Your experience will tell you that it is best not to expect that things will happen the way you want these. Efforts may not bring the result that you desired. But efforts must make our resolve even stronger. Energise you to make your will like a rock that is capable of even facing even more powerful jolts. That is resilience.
Further, challenges only make the life more interesting. Meeting the challenges makes the life more meaningful. Every day gives you an experience, a lesson for the future.
You have to be patient with yourself. Take only one step at a time Step by step you are able to climb the most steep, most difficult mountain. You must repeat to yourself that you alone have the power and responsibility to face your challenges bravely and try to come out as a winner.
Today, we must accept this new reality without being mentally hurt. A person may not be the strongest, but he/she needs to be most adaptable to change. One must always remember that the real strength of a person is known when being strong is the only choice, the only way to survive.
Seven Times you Fall Get up Eight!
A Japanese proverb advocates that ‘Seven Times You Fall Get up Eight’. That is resilience. You don’t ever give up. In competitive life, today, setbacks cannot be avoided. A rubber ball when thrown to the ground, bounces back. But you have to bounce back even higher knowing that repeated falls are inevitable.
Resilience gives you courage not to abort the journey because of problems in the way. Life’s journey in variably has many impediments. Often times these are unexpected ones. Everyday must brings a new beginning. It’s like writing on a clean slate about life. Experience is said to be a unique teacher. You fall, you get up, you are hurt, and yet again you fall but you keep going. Every time you fall and get up there is lesson to learn. Accepting this reality without being mentally disturb is resilience.
It requires trust in you to maintain this positive attitude. A bird sitting on a branch of tree continues to do so in spite of wind shaking the branch. The bird does not believe that the branch will not fall, but it has faith on its wings. There is no material as resilient as the human spirit. Once we realize and accept this, we are able to take control of our attitude which in turn, strengthens our confidence.
In other words, resilience is how you respond and recover from what has happened to you. Your experience will tell you that it is best not to expect that things will happen the way you want these. Efforts may not bring the result that you desired. But efforts must make our resolve even stronger. Energize you to make your will like a rock that is capable of even facing even more powerful jolts. That is resilience.
Further, challenges only make the life more interesting. Meeting the challenges makes the life more meaningful. Every day gives you an experience, a lesson for the future.
You have to be patient with yourself. Take only one step at a time Step by step you are able to climb the most steep, most difficult mountain. You must repeat to yourself that you alone have the power and responsibility to face your challenges bravely and try to come out as a winner.
Today, we must accept this new reality without being mentally hurt. A person may not be the strongest, but he/she needs to be most adaptable to change. One must always remember that the real strength of a person is known when being strong is the only choice, the only way to survive.
6 Aspects of PowerPacked Personality
There are 6 critical aspects of personality which every individual needs to analyze and review. One may be extremely efficient in the work, highly qualified, good at application of mind and yet he/she may miss out on some crucial issues that concern life.
- Communication Skills: These skills are very important and often undermined and ignored. Speech and written communication are the vehicles of our expression. If we have great thoughts but we cannot express these effectively, the process affects our self confidence. Likewise in the negotiations even though we may be right, have all necessary information, great arguments, yet if our verbal communication skills are in any way lacking; we miss out on opportunities.
- Interpersonal Skills: Interpersonal skills refer to our ability to connect with other people. It refers to our competence to influence people around us at the work place or at home for the desired results. Intentions are indeed important. But if our communication does not reflect and establish our intention, the goodness is wasted. Associated with it is your reliability. And also, how you conduct yourself and your behavior.
- Leadership Skills: Even if you don’t have a single follower, you still are a leader. You lead yourself. That is extremely important. Like a good leader if you analyze your strengths and weaknesses, if you make best use of time, if you are self aware, and if you take care of mental or physical health, nothing will stop you from leading yourself and others very efficiently. In the present competitive environment the leadership skills have assumed even greater importance.
- Assertiveness: Assertiveness is not aggression though it is often confused with aggression. It represents your talent to be able to say ‘no’ when you want to say ‘no’. Often times it seems that because of various considerations and because of fear that we may offend others, even when we don’t want to say ‘yes’ we do so. It puts us to lot of difficulties. At other times we have to face problems with members of our family and friends. How to say ‘no’ without offending the other person is nothing short of an art. It is to be developed. It is to be continuously mastered. This art requires cordiality in your tone, coordination between the mind and the speech and active listening. The proficiency in language is also very important to create proper impression.
- Body language, Grooming and Image management: Body language may be considered as a part of your communication skills but it is also a part of your physical personality. Positive body language means that you stand comfortably on your feet. Straight but never stooping even a little or bringing out your chest. Wearing a slight smile on your face with a relaxed look of peace, would add to the physical personality. Grooming is also important. What to wear when to wear indeed makes a difference. Of late quite a bit of emphasis is also put on image management. What is image management? It is the impression which you create on people when you meet them first time. It is said that the 15 seconds make a lasting impact. It may be debatable. However image management has become an important aspect of one’s personality.
- Time Management: Last but not the least; you need to be a very efficient manager of your time. This great resource is equally distributed to all of us. Our productivity and growth depends among other things on its use. In order to check where we lose time or do not manage effectively, we must make a ‘Time Log’ for 2 to 3 days. ‘Time Log’ is a list of details of your activities routine, small or big on daily basis. You can identify then where you can save time or be more efficient. Besides, we need to focus on what we do. Prioritizing is also important. Above all, discipline must be maintained which means you do things which need to be done at a particular time even if you don’t like it.
I do not claim that the above that 6 aspects comprise the total personality. However these are the main areas which should be reviewed periodically. Life is extremely interesting when we are self aware, when we know ‘what we are’, when we realize our objectives and keep on working to achieve these bit by bit.
Thanks for reading
Humour
6 Steps to developing a good sense of humour.
Humour these days is a vanishing talent. It’s just right that everyone should like to develop a good sense of humour. Benefits are immense, some of these are listed below:
- Humour generates respect. When you say something with a good sense of humour, audience doesn’t give their casual attention but tend to listen to you wholeheartedly. Because it is interesting and it lightens their mood.
- Humour appeals to the listeners and whatever may be the subject if the same is interspersed with light hearted examples, it is appreciated. Even if the audience is not very receptive for the speech which is being made, the moment humour is introduced effectively the scene changes.
- During a speech there could be many references to obscure things. Things which can be difficult to understand. Humour makes these very simple and the complicated issues are resolved. Serious issues may sometimes be interspersed with humorous one-liners. After all we know that even Shakespeare while writing his great tragedies introduced the character known as ‘Shakespearean fool’ who provided the comic relief.
- Humour helps audience to remember the points you have made in your speech. These may be arranged in manners which depict a natural flow.
- When the tension is running high humour helps to release the tension. It changes the mood and the atmosphere and the issues can be discussed at length without heated arguments.
- Humour is also very helpful in defusing the opponent’s ammunition. But humour is not everybody’s cup of tea. People who come to the negotiating table are often induced by their strong desire to win. They expect you to be as hard heating as themselves. Humour surprises them.
- Funny though it may seem, humour motivates and it can also inspire the team members. However humour has to be used in a masterly fashion.
- Last but not the least humour is helpful in getting you the desire results. While projecting your arguments in a light hearted manner, you are able to keep your objective in view. Discussion takes place in good humour.
Therefore, we must do all we can to develop a good sense of humour. I am giving below 6 simple steps which can help you to develop sense of good humour. Often time’s people think is very difficult; they don’t even try. If the attitude is negative no doubt the problem becomes difficult. In such a situation once you fail, the negativity in your mind is reinforced. So while making efforts to develop a good sense of humour you must be prepared to deal with it as an important project. This should be pursued till completion and surprising there won’t be any end. Like any other talent humour unfolds and evolves.
The following are the six simple steps. I have enumerated these as answers to your possible expression of inability to handle humour.
Step 1. You might say that you can’t do comedy. But you can definitely do if you so desire. In any case you are not carrying out the comedy show. Just as golf is difficult humour appears to be difficult.
Step 2. You may also say that ‘you can’t tell a joke’. Such a feeling in fact lowers your self esteem. Because you find there are, within your circle, lots of people who can tell a joke effectively. You are not telling only jokes but you are using relevant joke to reinforce the points which you have propounded.
Step 3. Further, you might come with an argument that ‘you never remember jokes’. So what? You don’t practice to remember arguments in any negotiation. All that you do is to go through the points relevant to the issues which you want to resolve. Your mind works and you are able to make convincing arguments. Likewise whenever the situation demands your mind will work and put the light on the lighter site of the situation. And that is significant that you know.
Step 4. You might also say that every time you try to be funny you miserably fail. If you have failed during your earlier attempts, no one can change the history. However if you decide not to fail you won’t. The great pianist Victor Borge was once asked by an interviewer if he had played piano all his life. Quick answer was, “certainly not. I am not dead yet.”
Step 5. Humour is powerful. Electricity is also powerful and so is fire or any other source of energy. They all can do harm. Humour in speech when used to bring down the opponent can also be extremely dangerous. About the tongue, it is said that God has made it so strong that it never falls ill. And if it does, it heals itself very fast. But the wounds the tongue creates in the minds of people attacked may not heal in the lifetime. So, one has to be extremely careful in using humour.
Step 6. Lastly, one must accept that humour is not easy. It has to be developed and practiced bit by bit. You have to practice to such an extent that humour starts flowing naturally, and entertains the audience. Regarding the difficulties I might say that if you have to write 10 comic one liners; you may have to first write 200 to bring out the really 10 good ones.
Thanks for reading.
