5 steps to stay positive

Positivity is an important tool to succeed. Positive people with low IQ are often successful however negative people with high IQ often fail. Being positive is easy, you just need to follow below steps.

1. Stay around positive people - People who are positive make their environment positive too. for eg. you are working on a project and asks a suggestion from a positive person, he will give you right and truthful suggestions, motivates you and boost your morale by asking you to keep going, however a negative person, if asked, a same question will put your idea or goal to question. How? When? Why? its not a good thing to start with!!!

2. Avoid Negators - Avoiding somebody may not be easy especially when he/she is a colleague, batchmate or a sibling/cousin at home. But here I am sharing a trick with you all, you can make negative person around you an example/case study of things people should not do or say. Listen to him/her but treat that as your learning as to 'what a positive person should not do'. Believe me, you can write a whole set of thesis.

3. Make new friends - Making friends of varied skills and jobs (other than your own skill) will keep you updated of new areas of work and new opportunities and this way you will have elaborated thinking and that thought will not let you think about anything negative. New people, new skills, new opportunities, new ways will make you a better and positive person.

4. Exercise your Hobby - We often forget that we have some hobbies too, dealing with daily chores of life. Whenever you are feeling low or had a negative conversation with one of your negator, its time to quickly go back and wash your mind. Sing, dance, play, walk, run or play, do anything which you love doing and negative thoughts and people will slowly go away from your mind. It works!

5. Be your favorite - Wear your favorite dress, make your favorite dish, hear your favorite song and go out to your favorite restaurant or visit your friend. This will give you a happy feeling and you will be positive for many days to come.

Follow these steps and let me know if you noticed change in yourself.

Reach out to me in case you have suggestions or feedback for me.

Email me - shwet.sharma1988@gmail.com

5 magical steps to communicate better

Effective communication is a key to your success. In todays time when everything is online we need to be more cautious about our communication (whether verbal or non verbal) in terms of conveying right message to the other person and receiving it. If result of any communication is not in your favor or has not reached a consensus then definitely its a problem in communication. Thus, here I bring magical steps to communicate better.

1. Learn to Listen - Listening is very important step in communication. Its not only about speaking but also more about listening. You can understand other persons problems, message, decisions etc. only when you lend an ear to them. Speaking, speaking and speaking can never solve a problem. We often feel that speaking more will put us in a convenient place rather the fact is that it worsens the situation in almost 100% of the time. So, Listen, listen and Listen carefully.

2. Tell them you listened - Again listening, if you are communicating over a phone, Video call or face to face, never forget to assure other person that you listened. You can say the following:-

" What I understand is_________________ " or

"You're trying to say that ________________

This assures the other person that you heard them and thus can lead to effective communication without any gaps.

3. Analyze the situation - Once you have heard and understood, now is the time to give it a thought, gather all kinds of emotions and respond in assertive way. Giving a thought and a slight pause helps you to not let your emotions (like anger, happiness, frustration etc) come out immediately, rather it will help you to gather them and reply in a manner that is not aggressive or non assertive. 

4. Think to collaborate - After a thought its time to respond but with assertion. Reply with solutions, suggestions, appropriate answers in which both the parties are benefitted. 

Eg if you are listening to an issue from the customer, reply calmly. Assure him of getting the problem solved. You can say " I understand what you are feeling _______________" or " I know where you are coming from _____________"

or if you are talking to your friend over a misunderstanding, think how the things can be turned into win win for both.

So, think about a solution which is collaborative, win win and satisfactory to all involved in the communication. It should not be just one way solution benefitting only you.

5 Open to feedback - And as I keep saying and writing, be open to feedback. You should be flexible to feedback, suggestions coming from other person. If you are not, then this communication will land up in mess. There will be no solution and no effective communication. Take feedback as an improvement medium. Its okay to be patient and silent when receiving negative feedbacks. Accept compliments graciously and feedbacks as improvement areas.

Your communication will always be successful, stress free and conflict resistant if above steps are followed. Send your comments, suggestions and thoughts on the above steps. I am open to feedback so keep posting and commenting.

Author
Shweta

Image by Cheska Poon from Pixabay 

5 questions leading to your Niche

 

                                                          Do you know your Niche?

Many of you have pointed out knowing your niche through my previous post. So, here I come with yet another post on identifying your niche. 

One of the many mistakes that most of us might have done in our lives was choosing a career which your best friend might have chosen or something that was trending (Engineering or doctorate). I don't want to bring what mistakes you might have made, I just want you to do a self review or self analysis. So bring out a pen and a paper and answer below questions. Take up one question at one time.

1. What are your interests or strengths? Recall your SWOT analysis which you might have done in your 20s.

2. What is it that you are passionate about?

3. What's that one thing in which no one can beat you or hard to beat?

4. What makes you happy?

5. What is that one thing you would do even without a paycheck?

You are very close to knowing your niche.

Now few examples for you.

If someone is passionate about teaching but does not have interest in reading/writing, then that's not your niche. However, if you are passionate about journalism and have interest in writing then you are on right track of choosing your niche.

So ideally your niche would be a combination of both your passion and your interest.

Coming to the difference between a passion and interest. Interest is something that would strive you to achieve your passion. 

Example your interest in singing will help you achieve your passion to become a singer.

So finally we can relate as to why finding your niche is important in cracking your interview. The career or the job you choose should be something you are passionate about and is inline with your niche. Your passion for any work will never let you fail in any interview or at any phase of life. So find out what makes you different from other people and review my questions.

Hope that you succeed in finding your niche and follow the path needed. Post your comments if you found this helpful.

Author
Shweta

Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay

5 lessons to crack your interview

With close to 10 years of professional experience, I have appeared for interviews good number of times. Some of them were really bad nonetheless I learnt from each one of them. Through my learnings and understandings I bring to you 5 lessons which can help you crack your interview.

1.   Look professional – You should be dressed well in your professionals because as soon as you will enter the interview room your first impression is already formed through the way you are dressed up.

2.      Your Body language speaks more than words – Be careful with the way you talk, sit and move. Don’t be lethargic and follow the tips of correct body language. 

3.   Know your employer – Get your homework done by exploring about the organization you are going for an interview, ask questions when asked as no question could reflect your lack of interest.

4.      Be Honest – Don’t fake your answers as you would be easily caught doing so and may end up losing an offer.

5.   Know your niche – Well yes, this is a hard one and a complete lesson in itself, but it’s very important to identify it as soon as possible in your life. Work or a career that brings you happiness and what you are passionate about is something you should choose. In my coming blogs I will bring this for you – the ways to choose or know your niche.

Each point listed above is a broad topic in itself but if taken into consideration before appearing for an interview, there is no chance of failure. Most importantly abiding to these factors will make you confident. So try out the above in your next interview.

Author
Shweta

 Image by Tumisu from Pixabay 

5 ways to reduce stage fear

Speaking on stage in front of my teachers, classmates has always been my interest area. Any topic which involved coming in front and addressing/speaking in the class used to be my favorite, provided I did my homework :) but because I was an introvert child, I couldn't get much chance to showcase this skill of mine. 

As soon as I entered college, I decided to come out and let myself work on my area of interest and it was public speaking. Right from then my journey of being on stage began. I used to do anchoring, debates, extempore etc. and today I volunteer and give soft skill trainings to students. This journey of mine taught me how to be fearless on stage which I want to share with you all.

5 ways to reduce stage fear are as below:-

1. Be Prepared with the content - You should be well prepared with the content/subject you are presenting. This step will reduce 50% of your fear as you will be the master of the subject and no one can break you down. Your expertise on the subject will make you confident and stand high in front of all.

2. Rehearse - You should be well rehearsed before coming on the stage and the best way you can do that is by speaking in front of the mirror again and again. Make mistakes, note them and work on it in the next attempt. Doing this everyday till the D-day will keep on building confidence in you, make you near to perfect in your content and you know what mistakes can probably happen and how to rectify them.

3. No negative thoughts  -  Please stop doubting yourself. You are prepared and rehearsed and nothing can stop you. Only positive thoughts of your powerful content and applause should be coming to your mind. You are the best and no one else sitting in the audience knows anything about this content. This thought can be temporary as it will keep you away from negative thoughts.

4. Take pauses and breathe - You can take a pause for an inhale and exhale. This will lessen your fear and help you to gather yourself if you are trembling at any point of time while speaking. Infact you can exercise deep breathing before coming on stage. This helps a lot.

5. Choose your Spot - Once you are on the stage find out where you should be looking. Find a spot, one on the extreme right and one on the extreme left, where your audience is. And keep moving your head while looking at these points one after the other, obviously with pauses. Or you can also choose 2 people from the audience itself to focus yourself on. You should make this choice immediately once you are on the stage. This way you are not looking at everyone all the time and thus help you to remain calm and focused while speaking.

Try these steps and you will definitely see a change in yourself. You will be less fearful and more confident.

Thanks.
Shweta

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

                

 

5 reasons why you should have a mentor

                                                 

Do you often struggle with your mind and yourself?

From whom do you seek professional or personal suggestions?

Do you often feel the need of validation?

And my last, but not the least, question is  

DO YOU HAVE A MENTOR?

In one of my conversations with my bestie, we discussed on having a mentor. I never had one in my life, not somebody who is the ONLY one I reach out to. My mentor changes with my organization. I think most of you out there have the same definition of a mentor – somebody you can seek help from when you are stuck working on a project, no matter if he/she actually wants to help or have an intent to provide support actually needed. Over the time I have realized it’s not about having somebody with a designation as a MENTOR but somebody who can be in your shoes, analyze your problem as his own and then provides solution to it.

 Even after quite a good professional & personal experiences, I often find myself stuck at a particular point. When your heart says something and your head something else. This is when we feel the need of that one person who can guide you, show you the ray of hope and support you wholeheartedly. Below are 5 reasons why you should have a MENTOR.

 

1.      Mentor tells you, your Blindspot – Well yes, mentor is one person who would not leave a single blindspot in your life. He is the one who would not hesitate to point out your bad habits or spot your good one.  

 

2.      Mentor acts as a guide – Whether you are in a crucial project or in a middle of major life decision, trust me, mentor will help you to get through it by showing you the best way. He will guide you with his best suggestion on it, however the decision is entirely on you to implement it.

 

3.      Mentors are trustworthy – Your mentor will never break your trust. Whatever personal/professional exigencies you may have, he will help you with a wise suggestions and not spread it in the world. He is a complete third party person in your life.

 

4.      Mentors are teachers – Yes, they are your teachers for life. They will teach you the right thing to do at any point of time. They will motivate you to come out to the world and shine.

 

5.      Mentors are true leaders – Mentor will help you to identify attainable goals by identifying your caliber and help you achieve it. My blog on ‘5 steps to choosing your career’ talks about career goals and mentor can help you identify the same. They are the ones who create leaders.  

 

Please note here, I am not talking about your mentor with a designation but your Life Mentor who finds missing pieces in your life and puts them at right place. They are not your 2:00am or 5:00 am friends with whom you discuss everything about your life but those who provide you with good and satisfactory to-dos of life.

 

Author
Shweta Sharma

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