Concretising abstract realities

• Step 1: Understanding yourself

This is the first step towards branding, it is getting a better understanding of oneself. This would mean taking a self-audit and trying to dig deeper within to get a clear understanding of our nature or personality. You could do this, keeping in mind how you view yourself and how others see you. This is the first step towards your goal of Personal Branding.

• Step 2: Evaluate the brand that you are

Unconsciously we all are creating a reputation or an image of ourselves in the mind of people. So eventually we are branding ourselves. So whether people understand you or misunderstand you. It is important to understand how they perceive you.

A simple step to begin the process would be doing a bit of research. You could start by asking your closing friends about your strengths and weaknesses. You could then evaluate them with your own responses to similar questions. This could be a good beginning to understanding how people perceive you as a brand.

• Step 3: Develop a Brand mantra
  

Every successful company or personality has a short phrase or mantra that encapsulates the essence of its brand. 

You could start by trying to understand how you differ from other people in the industry (that you are employed in) or if you are a student, you could compare the points that differentiate you from other students.

You could also look at points of similarity between you and the rest. This will help you build a list of points of differentiation and similarity with others. Now put it all together and build a short phrase or around it. This is your Brand Mantra. Some might even call it the essence of the brand.

• Step 4: Offline Branding
  

Now that you have a branding mantra, Let us move to the next step. 

In our daily lives, we interact with a lot of people. We communicate and speak to a lot of topics every day, maybe with words, the things we do, our gestures or maybe just the way we appear. All this builds an image of us in the minds of people. 

So with offline branding, we shall use these same points to our advantage. Keeping in mind our Branding mantra we shall coordinate ourselves accordingly. So this could be the design of our visiting cards, our appearance or even the way we greet people every day. We shall do these activities intentionally and thoughtfully. These will help you build a strong and effective reputation with the people you know and meet every day.

• Step 5: Branding yourself online

Even if we do not realize it, our activities online and our digital life can play an important role in the process of personal branding. These could be the messages we forward on Social media or the comments we pass online. It all matters in the process of Personal Branding.

Our Digital Lives Play an important role 

So a Social media audit can be done online of all the social media platforms we use. After evaluating your interactions online, you could create a concrete strategy to help yourself in the process of brand building. Your image online and offline should synergize for it to be effective.

• Step 6: Communicate the message of your brand

Now after you have created an online and offline branding strategy you need to implement it. I am not saying your execution will be perfect, but if you don't start it there will be no benefit. Another important thing is that Personal Branding is not about faking an image that is not you. The easiest and smartest way is to be yourself.

• Step 7: Recieve Feedback
  

I believe feedback is highly essential to improve and perform better. So try getting regular feedback from people. This could be done by evaluating how things have improved for you after personal branding or even by asking people who are close to you. This feedback can then be used by you to improve your offline and online branding strategies.

Putting it all together

Branding has been used successfully by Celebrities, Politicians and influencers alike to build a brand out of themselves. Time for you to leverage your best and build a personal brand. 

This, of course, takes some effort but it is worth it and it has a lot of benefits. People begin to have a better impression of you, they could begin to trust you more or even perceive you thorough as a professional. 

Personal Branding is all about enhancing your strengths and communicating them effectively. It is not about creating a fake image or reputation of yourself.

Kind words on Personal Branding

Gary Vaynerchuck has some important ideas for helping you create a personal brand. He stresses the important understanding that whether one is a small or big brand, it is a brand. Another important aspect is to understand that a lot of times besides looking at your brochure or reading your resume, People just check you out online.

 Lastly, I think Gary stresses the difference between understanding the concept and applying it.

Check out the video below:

Some important Ideas by Gary Vaynerchuck

• People read Google before reading your Resume.
• Hello! Everybody is selling
• It's the only thing you have
• Even a small brand is important
• It's okay to be yourself
• Don't be stupid about the whole process
• Application of the concept has its nuances

Summary

So here it is some ideas and techniques to actually use to create a Personal Brand. One might ask, Why do I want to create one. There are many reasons. Please share your reason in the comments section. We shall look into the benefits of Personal Branding in some other article in much more detail.

Ciao! Take care...

Photo by Rebrand Cities from Pexels

My love for Theater and Drama

Theater and drama have always been my passion. Years back when Orkut was a thing I joined a Theatre group. I met this guy online and he was very passionate about drama and cinema. So I got in touch with him. He informed me, he was starting a drama club. I met this group of theater enthusiasts. 

We all shared the same passion and more importantly we all valued cinema and drama. We would read scripts together and also do drama. We did a couple of plays at various corporate events and also organized our own Theater play. It was simply amazing. 

So Why am I tell you all this? Its to share an important decision I had to make. The decision of leaving this wonderful drama club. They were going to be different by taking a new route and at that juncture in my journey towards learning more about drama, I felt that I wanted something different for myself. 

So I left and informed that the reason why I could not continue and be a part of their group. My values and vision had changed.

Keeping the important things important

So I joined another theater group, I would practice and watch plays every weekend. The fun continued. What I realized from the entire experience is the importance of aligning work and values. I valued learning and did not want to compromise it.

 My values were like pillars supporting my ultimate goal. I wanted to be a better communicator and educator. It really helped me develop myself and my skillset. A lot of times we don't enjoy our work and this could be for various reasons. I believe one strong reason could be a lack of alignment between goals, values and the work you are doing.

 So aligning them can bring a lot of changes and it can also help you leave a mark not only on your work but also on others.

Enthusiasm and Being an awesome Influencer

During my stint as an Executive with various companies, I loved the experience of working in teams. I shared the same joy in Academics. 

It was amazing to see students succeed in their events, project and other endeavors. I believe it was that shared enthusiasm and values that helped them succeed. Some of the students would become really popular without even trying. 

They were able to lead and influence a lot of team members and colleagues. The way they worked and presented themselves as one of the reasons they had a successful image. 

Importance of Personal Branding to your job

In the day and age of Social Network, Personal image can play a vital role. Presentation of self and our opinions do matter. To think that it doesn't, wouldn't be wise. So I believe it all starts with ourselves. The way we present ourselves depends a lot on our values and how passionate we are about the things that we work and live for.

If we do not enjoy our work, it shows. You may be paid the same, but you could be affecting other things like Personal Brand value. Two questions come to mind when we hear about Personal Branding. 

What is it?
Is it important?

Personal Branding is the practice of using branding and marketing for a person and not for a product or service or business. So let me first explain branding and how it is different from marketing before getting into using it for a person or self. 

Brand refers to the symbol, name, term or design that identifies one product from all other products. So Branding would be the process of creating a brand. 

On the other hand, Marketing involves satisfying customers' wants profitably. So these techniques when applied to ourselves properly can help us grow in our careers. It can help us explore ourselves effectively.

How big Brands influence and how to model them?

One important thing about brands is that they promise something and they deliver them quickly and effectively. They do so through careful planning and execution. So the question is how can we do the same? How can we brand ourselves? 

As employees, we make promises at our workplace. It is important to keep those promises. This can be the first step. We must stand for something, some we must deliver on words quickly. This should not only reflect in our words, but also in our work.

Big brands take measured steps and tie metrics to judge their effectiveness. We should set standards for ourselves as professionals. 

There is a whole lot of steps involved but what guides and keeps the flame of passion for good work going. It is our values and yes, our vision. Focus cannot come without a goal or a vision. One cannot achieve their vision or goals without having the values and passion to carry one through the tough times and difficult situations.

One simple mantra for enjoying your work and leaving a mark is to stick to your values and deliver on your words. Let values build and help to burn the flames of passionate work. Leave a mark by keeping your promises.

Falling for anything

This reminds of a cliche that goes like this, "If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything." When you stand for anything you won't be easily remembered. 

Most of the icons we look up to, may it be technology, religion, politics or culture, they all stood for something. They lived their message and mostly delivered them. Its time to do the same and standout.

Some simple ways to Building a Personal Brand at your workplace

• Promise and deliver
• Plan and measure the execution of your plan
• Let your goals and visions drive your promises
• Use your values effectively

I hope this article got you thinking, does help you and get you thinking. Do leave a comment and share this article.

Further Reading

Personal Branding Tips
Personal branding in the workplace
Wiki on Personal Branding

Even taking small breaks can be a small step towards your goals

It's been little above a year for this blog. I would like to thank you for your constant support. I started this blog to explore my blogging side. It seems to be growing and I have been appreciating the joy of writing and more importantly expressing ideas freely. I have got a good amount of feedback and I try to constantly learn and improve my posts.

Read about my previous post, the cost of being too nice

So What have I been up to?

I blog only when I have something I think it's important to share. I know it may not be the best or the most lucrative strategy for a successful blog. But I choose to share ideas and information to help people. Topics related to Life skills and management have really fascinated me. The people who know me personally know that I share a huge passion for theology, comparative religions and debunking conspiracy theories ( Though sometimes I slip into believing some of them...Lol). But I want to keep that for another website and another series of blog posts.

In the background, when there are no articles I read about different topics and I also try to learn a few things about other blogging platforms. There is a lot to learn and its fun. I would encourage you to start a blog of your own. You could even share a guest article on this blog. Of course, I would review it before posting it. 

Taking a break

I have been using these past two months to narrow the focus on the topics I have been sharing and would love to share in the future. As an Educator and Soft Skills Trainer, I naturally would love to share topics that I am training or researching on. After much pondering, I realized that it made more sense to write about these topics and share some personal opinions and reflections. So I would be constantly exploring strategies related to life, marketing and adding value to the marketplace aka Entrepreneurship. I will be writing some posts or even creating useful content on the same.

Check this article on How to motivate people with good presentations?

Sharpening the axe and learning more

Been learning a lot about the mistakes I make on this blog. Articles from Neil Patel and Shoutmeloud by Harsh Agrawal have really helped me. These websites are a great resource for any new blogger. Recently a friend had asked me about me my blog and how to begin one of his own. I would say, there a lot of great blogging platforms online. Blogging platforms like Medium and Blogger are also great and pretty simple to start. Please do comment and share your feedback, It will really help me grow and blog better.

Some benefits of taking breaks

Taking this mini-vacation from blogging has helped me realize the importance of a whole range of things. I would like to share one related to blogging, I realized that focus is very important not just as a strategy but also help make things more structured and easy. So when blogging, It would be important to soul search a bit and understand the 'Why' behind the decision to blog or to start any project.

The other thing I realized is that it is important to not focus on the wrong things. Sometimes it is easy to confuse goals with outcomes. For example, Writing a great series of blog posts on Life skills can be a goal. But thinking that I will make $ X from it is an outcome and not a goal. Now making this outcome the sole focus is wrong and poor judgement. May be people may disagree with me. But I am okay with that. I think its more important to focus on goals and have a good metric to evaluate its success. Outcomes are important, but they are not the primary focus.

So Wrapping it all up

Take your well-deserved break. Focus on the goal of your choice and don't confuse outcomes with the goals you set. Achieving your goals needs strategy and structure too. I wish you a Happy Learning Day!

Further Reading

The importance of Taking Daily Steps towards your goals

Some beautiful and inspirational quotes on Gratitude

Short Reflection on Preparedness and how it brings closer to success

Do Comment, Share & Like this Post!

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The Cost of Being too Nice

Difficulties of Being Too Nice Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels I was just speaking to a Customer Service Executive the other day, the person was hardly audible. I assume he was just shy or maybe not trying to shout on the microphone. But I wasn't able to hear him, He wasn't audible. I didn't want to shout him down and kill his confidence.  I pursued the conversation. I was terminating their service and they wanted references. Now imagine, doing a referral call and not firmly asking the customer for referrals. It's a pretty awkward situation, I was able to empathize with him.  A lot of time it is wrong ideas and our perception that hold us back from self-actualization. So I decided to help him out. I got my headset plugged it into my mobile phone and spoke to him. I encouraged him to get close to the microphone on his headset and request clearly. I didn't end up giving him referrals, but I helped him speak clearly. I spared myself the guilt of not helping a learner. The 24/7 Educator Teaching, Mentoring & Building People As an Educator, We have to push ourselves to go beyond being nice and try exploring avenues to guide people. For me, everybody is in sales, and philosophy and in business.  Not being nice, doesn't mean being ruthless. So when you philosophise it's okay to not be nice and share the truth of your message. But being ruthless is not the other option.  We can learn to use our words and gestures carefully, we can choose to build people. It's a different matter if you find people unworthy and ungrateful.  Practice Gratefulness whenever necessary and without expectations. In Short, Be Nice. So let us look at some of the Negatives of being too Nice  Check out this article on How to write a Gratitude Journal? Negatives of being too Nice  Negatives of Being Too Nice: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay  1. Less Valued: It's right to be Nice and a lot of us have been brought up to be kind and thoughtful of others. But we have also been taught to speak our minds and stand for what is right.  Conveniently ignoring the latter and only pursuing the former selectively is hypocritical.  That's a problem, In the pursuit of Pleasing others we forget some of our values.  Quite interesting, How we can be selective in being nice. We mostly overlook this aspect. 2. People won't be there for you: Situational Outcast Expecting everyone to be like you and share the same values is perceiving the world incorrectly.  Of course, As humans, we do share a lot in common. People have different values, worldviews, and ethical systems. Just being agreeable and too nice is overlooking a lot. It's okay to disagree and if people don't share your values, it's fine.  Some people may not reciprocate the same goodness and this is where being very nice gets you into a lot of trouble.  We start expecting others to be the same, and they may not think it important to help you (when you need them).  So it is important to have relationships but they should be ones where we allow mutual benefit and self-growth to thrive.  We should avoid toxic relationships, where we are just sponged on and taken advantage of. 3. Impossibility of pleasing everybody Let's imagine the idea of pleasing everybody, It's so daunting.  My Goodness think about it, you have to please everybody you know and imagine what a waste of time. (You would be surprised, just how many take you for granted or don't even acknowledge the goodness) An additional negative aspect of this is that we don't leave open the opportunity for people to move ahead.  It obligates them (Some may perceive) because we have more chips of goodness over them. 4. Lack of Assertiveness & its ill effects A very important thing to realize is that maybe we are not that assertive.  So it can be a great opportunity to realize that and practice assertiveness. We can also start building healthy friendships. 5. Wrong Perception of the World Lastly, I believe it stems from a wrong perception of things especially the world around us.  As we have seen, earlier people have different values and agenda, being nice to everybody may not be the best strategy. So we need something better and healthier.  So the next question that comes to our minds is 'What to do next?' But before we go ahead on being Truly nice. Let us consider some disadvantages, quickly. Some Articles  Importance of Belief My Reason for Starting a Blog Some Disadvantages of Being Too Nice Disadvantages of Being Nice: Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay 1. Losing Social Capital It's less beneficial as the individual does not take healthy advantage of his / her efforts of caring for others. Thus reducing his social capital. 2. Losing the Benefits of Being Assertive Being Assertive has its benefits, For example, We have the benefit of refusing choices that we don't want to pursue. This helps in increasing our confidence and also indirectly building our public image. 3. Lowering your Personal Brand Value People tend to perceive us badly, Personal Branding like branding is all about perception. Being overly Nice rather than genuine and assertive can hamper one's reputation and thus lower one's Brand Value. 4. Lacking the ability to provide genuine help Lastly, It prevents healthy and genuine help. Thus making helping others only becomes a matter of gaining brownie points. Let's See how to stop being Nice and Be Genuine Being Genuine: Image by Caique Silva Fotografo from Pixabay  Understanding your identity Identity plays a key role in how we view ourselves and understand others. We need to look at ourselves and understand that the external me is not the person inside.  We need to see and understand who we are and what we are doing. We need to understand our values and know ourselves better.  This will give us a better ground to build self-confidence and take steps boldly, Confident in ourselves and our values. Building your EQ It is a very good thing that modern education in schools makes an effort to build a person's emotional life.  We must not fool ourselves into thinking that it is only our knowledge or expertise that makes us who we are. I believe it is much more than that.  We are much more than who we think we are. Our emotions and emotional life matter, so do that of the people around us. But just pandering to people and trying to please everybody is tragic, strategically and personally. It completely lacks wisdom. Cultivating Healthy Friendships Healthy & Positive Friendships In this day of Social Media, we think a longer friend list matters. I must tell it is far from being true. I am not saying don't connect with old acquaintances and good old friends.  But I think it is wise to invest in a healthy support system of a limited number of friends and extended family members. I believe rather than pleasing everybody, It is okay to piss some people off. Joy of Assertiveness I came across this idea of being assertive during my Graduate day. A friend of mine had shared with me a book on Assertiveness. Ever since then, I have been practicing it. It is very magical.  As an Educator, It would be rather difficult to please than everybody (all the time). Imagine the joy of setting rules that can create a learning environment and a rapt audience in your classroom ( It's simply priceless).  As an Educator, it is essential to set certain rules or a framework for discipline. Assertiveness helps in building a culture of learning in the classroom. It is also very effective in personal life too.  Does it irritate some people,? You bet it does. But as I said it earlier, it joyfully fine. :) Purpose of True Niceness The purpose of being Truly Nice is to be genuine and build yourself while helping others. This I think is the basic purpose of being Genuinely nice. Concluding Thoughts As an Educator and a student of Self Growth, I believe it is wise to be genuine and assertive. It pays to invest in friends and family that understand and value you. Seeking popularity to replace genuine relationships can often be an empty pursuit. Wish you Happy Learning and meet you in the next Blog Post. Ciao! Further Reading Personal Identity: A Quiz with an informative article on Personal Identity Importance of Daily Efforts: A Quote on the importance of Daily Steps What is Emotional Intelligence? [full-width]

Starting out and Achieving our goals always start with the First Step

Achieving goals by this one great step

Way No.1: 90% Planning and the Rest is execution

It said that a lot of people have really great ideas and plans, but lack of action is what stops them from moving ahead. It's not still the end of the year, so there is always a chance for a new beginning. We must use this as an opportunity to start on our plans. As an IT student, I had learned that success to most projects is 90% planning and the rest is execution. But many of us are just stuck in the first phase and seldom thinking of moving to the next.

(Read here, how I started out blogging, Click Here) Blogging was something that I always wanted to do and now doing it is, of course, a learning experience and a journey by itself. I think more than writing skills, it is being vulnerable that can stop us. A small step to open ourselves to others can take us a long way.

Way No.2: Failing is okay

What is keeping us back? I am sure there are many good reasons. But I think one of them could be the fear of failing and looking bad. Failing is okay, but not trying to work on your goals can be a source of major regret. I once heard this from a motivational speaker and this idea really caught my imagination. He said that imagine you are on your death bed and you start thinking of all the things you could have done to achieve those goals and dreams. 

Imagine all the possibilities of how things could have been. Imagine all those possibilities haunting you and crying to you for concretizing or work on them. Now think that you are going to die with all these regrets someday. (Chriseducator.com)

Is it all worth it or is it worth it to work on those goals or dreams you aspire. I think one must sit down and think about it.

Way no.3: Determined Action

Powerful Quote from Tony Robbins

I would like to leave you with this quote from Tony Robbins. He is a great motivational speaker and he has changed many peoples lives. This is what he has to say about being successful.

Tony Robbins: Take Action

Concluding thoughts:

First steps are difficult and so is the beginning of any new project. But with proper planning and deliberation, we can find our way ahead. Our focus should be on excellence and not just perfection. A right attitude can be a real game-changer.

I think this mantra sums it all up for us.

"Audacious Goals + Massive ( Determined ) Action"

Further Reading:

The Overthinker’s Guide for Taking Action: A Complete Guide
https://startupbros.com/overthinkers-guide-taking-action-complete-guide/

How to Take Action: 12 Habits that Turn Dreams into Reality
https://www.positivityblog.com/how-to-take-action/

Why Is It Important To Take Action?
https://www.seeken.org/important-take-action/

Opportunities & Difficulties

Being an Entrepreneur and working for self can be such a blessing. But Let me tell you, It has its own difficulties. Life is always filled with possibilities ( Check this article I wrote on Choices), like Napolean Hill would say that it is our lack of self-confidence that holds us back, but I would say that it is also not being prepared.

So how does one be prepared, I would say self preparedness starts with a healthy self-evaluation.

Finding your Strengths

One of the basic things that we learn in Management is a SWOT analysis. It is a topic taught under the subject of Strategic Management ( Quite an interesting topic). So basically, starts out with understanding their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is quite a good starting point, Understanding yourself or your organization. 

Spiritual Masters had their own version of it, but this happened for spiritual growth. They would evaluate their entire day and pray for people. The same can be applied or practiced, by taking a personal inventory of our entire day. Ultimately, Time is one of the greatest assets we have.

So then what next, 

How to decide your Mission? The Guy Kawasaki Way

Set a mission... and how Guy Kawasaki would do it. Set a mantra. 

Mantras are much more effective. Mantras summarise all that you want to do and achieve. It can be very effective as it would constantly remind us of our purpose.

Check this Youtube video, He shares with startups on the importance of having a mantra.

These techniques can also be used for our personal growth too.

Keeping a Plan B

What can be a Plan B? For an Entrepreneur, it can be another income source or leveraging a network. A Plan B can be also pursued as a hobby, It does not need to occupy all your time. 

It can be some that you love doing and are passionate about. And yes it should pay you something. Being resourceful and taking small steps can be really helpful.

So let us summarise some ideas on Being Prepared

1. Understand yourself
2. Have a Mantra
3. What's your Plan B

Here is an interesting quote on Preparedness:

Power Quote by Louis Pasteur

 Friends are like companions that journey with you till they reach their destinations. It would be unimaginable to live without them. I used to have little to few friends, A lot of great books and ideas helped me along the way.

Developing yourself is a life long process and I think friendships can really play a key role in it. The positive side of social networking is the power to connect quite easily, of course, there are many articles on the side effects of it. But we must not forget the benefits too.
It's great having friends.

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Some interesting ideas and quotes that help understand Gratitude

Practicing Gratitude can really make a difference in Personal growth and here are some encouraging words to help you

Check my posts on Gratitude and reasons behind practicing gratefulness. Click here and here.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough

     - Oprah Winfrey

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

        -Eckhart Tolle

The Struggle ends when gratitude begins.

         -Neal Donald Walsh

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation.

        - Dalai Lama

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

         - G. K. Chesterton

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

          -Elie Weisel

Remember the past with gratitude, live the present with Enthusiasm, look forward to the future with Confidence.

          -St. John Paul II

Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful & fulfilled life.

          -Jack Canfield

Do let me know in the comment section if you find these quotes interesting.

More Quotes on Gratitude:

https://www.success.com/15-thoughtful-quotes-about-gratitude/

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/gratitude

https://www.inc.com/jeremy-goldman/17-inspiring-quotes-about-gratitude.html

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Master Guide to Resourcefulness: Learn Four Mantras to be Resourceful

What does it mean to be resourceful?

The Dictionary defines resourcefulness as the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties. I am sure we all have experienced situations that make us feel the same, All our dreams, plans and work on whether on a pet project or something major, things turn out differently. We all have been there. I think this is the most common thing to our human experience, things turning out different than we expected. This is where being resourceful becomes the only resort and sometimes can be a gamechanger.

Issues or Problem...doing it the donkey's way

Issue or problems can come to us in different forms and can smack us, bring us down. I read this interesting story in an article in the Des Moines Register by Harvey Mackay. It's on the story of a donkey who is narrating to his grandson an incident when he was stuck in a ditch. The donkey mentions a moment when he had fallen into a ditch. After a long wait, a farmer notices the donkey. He later waits until the next morning to tell other villagers. Instead of saving the donkey, they decide to bury the donkey. They start throwing mud at the donkey. The donkey had a choice to panic and die or use what he had. So the donkey decided to use the mud thrown at him. He would climb up the pile of mud and at last, the donkey saved itself. Sometimes life can be like this, it can take such twists that land us in difficult situations. (Read the entire story at the link mentioned above) Imagine if that donkey had not been resourceful, he would have been dead. Sometimes making a difference requires us to use whatever we have, but also to persevere and see the opportunity in difficult circumstances.

Fighting a painful situation

This next story will tell you how. This is the experience of a close friend. He had been through a painful breakup, he had two choices whine about it or just move on. So he moved on, it was quite difficult for him. He concentrated his energy on his studies. It made a huge difference and got him into a good college with a scholarship. He had used his painful situation to help him change his life and help him achieve his goals. He had been resilient and resourceful too.

Resourcefulness can work wonders. But the question is how does one be resourceful. Is there any way or method to help us. I believe there are ideas that help us be resourceful. These ideas I can say have been tested and tried from my experience, I can say it works.

Here are some of them, Check it out:

Stick to your goals

I think the most important thing to be resourceful is not to forget your goals. But sticking to goals would mean also sticking to them when there doesn't seem any way forward. I think this would be really productive in finding healthy solutions. Although going off tangents can sometimes be good, it could lead to good ideas and also great discoveries. But sticking to your goals gives you a focus and helps you to deal with the 'why' behind what we want to achieve.

Think alternatives

Yes, thinking alternatives is important to be resourceful. This could mean start with understanding the position of our current situation and what are some solutions. One could start with brainstorming ideas and then jotting them down. The feasibility of each idea should be considered.

Lose the war, Win the battle

It's okay to fail at the beginning, cause ultimately lack of resources and bad ideas should not stop us from trying and pursuing our quest to achieve our goals ( but the feasibility should help you decide that. Small failures are fine and they give feedback ( It's like healthy to course correct). Ultimately, It's about the vision and goals that one has in minded.

Attitude Matters

 Being open-minded and confident I think is important to be resourceful. I think these two qualities are important. Being open-minded can help you be creative and Confidence can bring in the faith and hardworking required to achieve success. Lack of confidence brings in scrupulousness (that is good), but also self-doubt that can make people not give their best and ultimately force people to give up.

Bonus One

What to do when there are no alternatives

1) Delay
2) Don't choose when you are in difficult situations
3) Confidence doesn't mean being stupid: Learn when to quit

The first one can seem counter-intuitive (I know), but sometimes it's important to not make bad choices thinking they are good and then repenting about it. It is important to have some space to make choices. (That's my take, do let me know in the comment section if you disagree). Being confident is important and learning when to quit is even more important. But this is for another article.:)

Additional Ideas

I think an important key to being resourceful is to build a person's emotional and spiritual quotient. This helps a person to succeed and effective.

Some Interesting Ideas

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-why-resourcefulness-matters-marilyn-price-mitchell

https://in.pinterest.com/erin_wing/teaching-resourcefulness/

For Teams

https://www.resourcefulmanager.com/team-building/

NLP Exercise to be Resourceful

http://www.oakdust.com/Resourceful_states.htm

Summary

Further Read

Prepare yourself with these 7 Strategies to a Highly Effective Presentation

Speeches and Presentations

In India, we have just had a General Election and we have chosen the leader to guide us into the future. One very striking quality of Narendra Modiji, our Prime Minister-elect is that he is a very good orator and politician. He has a well-seasoned personality and captivating side to him, his presentation and thoughts are put forth quite clearly and succinctly.

I believe that a good presentation depends on various factors. They all combine to bring the message to the audience. Of course like anything else, practice and proper feedback will help you master it. That's the thing about skills regular practice and good feedback helps you succeed.

My Personal Experience and Boring Speeches

As an educator, I have been more into teaching young adults and presenting to people from the industry. It was quite an opportunity to deliver training at a School to students of Grade 4. I just used less lingo and adapted the topic to their needs. My delivery was quite similar to what I have been used to. I got good feedback and experience. Let me be clear, I am a good speaker but not the best. I strive every day to be better. Here are 7 highly effective strategies that I have noticed good Speakers use. One thing amazing about good Speeches they not only inform you but also have the ability to move you to action.

So Let me start with some of these powerful but simple ideas.

Use Pointers not paragraphs: