Overcome Your Fears

What is your ideal life? How would you describe the life of your dreams?

Big dreams give our life a sense of worthiness. However, most people just keep their dreams in their minds, because they don’t see how they can achieve it. Then they end up living a mediocre life and settling for less.

They live a half life. They are not willing to take risk. They choose staying in their comfort zone over living the life of their dreams.

Why is that? Why do people tend to act that way? Why do YOU tend to act that way?

People kill their dreams when they start living in fear!

“A Life lived in fear is a life half lived.” –Proverb

You might be facing the fears of…

The unknown

Failure

Rejection

Criticism

Or even success.

But let me ask you this question: “Are you willing to live a half life?” Doesn’t your dream deserve that you do whatever your can to live it?

Life is short, so why living a life that you hate. When you live in fear, you will keep on living the same dull life. But when you pursue your dream, you will have the chance to achieve it, as long as you never quit.

Face your fears and believe in the beauty of your dreams. You are going to live anyway, so why not to pursue a life that enlightens your heart and mind. The world needs your contribution, so don’t be coward and keep on staying in your cage.

No more fears.

It is time for your greatness to be unleashed. Do it for yourself and for the people around you. Life is full of opportunities and abundance. Don’t let your fears turn you blind.

You were meant to live a full life not a half life!

Overcome your fears and take your first step now.Imagine the results you will get.

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Improve Your Concentration Powers with Seven Easy Steps

The power of concentration is a skill that is easy to master, that is if you have the willpower to do so. 

“If there is a will, there is a way” according to one saying, the same goes with concentration.  Popular television newscaster and personality Diane Sawyer was once asked about her secret to professional success. Her response was that paying attention was her secret.

The question therefore remains, “How does one basically maintain focus and concentration?”

The following are helpful tips to improve your ability to concentrate in the best way possible. These suggestions apply whether you are in the office busy with work, school, business meeting, or if you are trying to finish a particular project.

1. Do five more

There are actually two types of persons in the world: those who know how to go through in eliminating frustration and those who wish they are able to work through it. 

Focus and concentrate in doing just five more things. This sort of mantra is best said when you feel like giving up. 

For instance, if you feel like you no longer want to read or write any more pages, tell yourself to do just five pages more. Finish just five more math questions. Stay five minutes more on the treadmill.  Take note that athletes build their own physical prowess by pushing their bodies to the point of exhaustion while they develop mental stamina.

2. Take one step at one time

There are instances when you feel like your mind is loaded with many ideas like that of a scatterbrain. The key is to control your brain. 

Rather worrying on many matters, prioritize tasks and do only those that are needed.

For instance, you cannot help but think of mounting debt problems and this causes you to lose focus on the presentation that you need to do in five minutes.  Tell your mind that you will think of ways to pay off your bills after your presentation. Your mind will then establish closure and allow you to focus on the presentation.

3.  Train yourself to have a tunnel vision

You could actually cup your hands around your own eyes.  This could serve as a trigger to tell your mind to focus on a particular responsibility.

For example, you are in a room and you need to study but there are many things prevent you from concentrating. Cupping your own hands around your own eyes could help your brain to switch to focus mode and keep it on its track. 

4.  Have a handy pad

When a thought pops inside your head and this causes you to lose focus, jot down this thought immediately.

Writing it down is an effective way to get it out of your mind.  After which, consciously focus on the task that you need to accomplish at the moment.

5. Have a break

Remember that you are not a machine.  You need to take a break to be able to focus on the task that you have to do. 

Taking breaks is a good way to break down the tasks into parts that are a lot more manageable.  You may take a walk outside or eat lunch out. 

6.      Record your start and end time

When doing work, try to record the time you began and the time when you mind begins to drift. 

Doing so helps you know just how much time you spent doing actual work and the time when you start losing your concentration.  Being aware leads to enlightenment.

7.  Vary your activities

It is advisable to vary the activities you do in order to keep your mind active and not bored. 

A bored mind will just easily float and drift away to oblivion. 

All in all, these activities and tips need to be practiced regularly to be able to concentrate and focus in the things that really matters most for you.

 We all need to improve our concentration….

10 Tips to Becoming an Effective and Engaging Public Speaker

You are an expert in the field of forest management and resource conservation.

As guest speaker at the Boy Scouts’ jamboree however, you now find that despite your expertise and the importance of your talk, your audience seems uninterested; even slightly confused.  Here lies the big difference between knowing a subject matter well and communicating it to others effectively.

These 10 helpful nuggets should help you get your message across.

1.      KNOW YOU AUDIENCE 

Be aware of the general demographic of your audience.  The factors of age, educational attainment and economic background should dictate the level at which to design your talk.  Your doctorate gobbledygook won’t be helpful to the rural agricultural workers waiting to hear you.  In the same light, a graduate school audience may become bored with a simple linear presentation.   Younger audiences may need conceptual statements to be broken down into concrete examples they can relate to. 

2.      LEVEL-OFF AT THE BEGINNING

·        As you begin your talk, spend some time introducing the subject matter and your personal involvement in it. 

·        Use the introduction as an opportunity to define terms and spell-out any acronyms that may be specific to your field.

·        Try to gauge topic awareness among members of your audience by asking for a show of hands on questions that begin with “How many of you have heard of…” or “How many of you have ever wondered about…”.  This is also a good way of breaking the ice and engaging your listeners.

3.      MAKE USE OF VISUAL AIDS WISELY

·        In some instances, an image can speak more clearly than words.  When appropriate, present photos to depict important aspects of your topic.  When dealing with abstract ideas or the relationship between processes, show them a diagram to physically represent the interactions involved. 

·        Allow a slight pause, for the audience to absorb a visual.  Once they’ve had a few seconds to take it in, you can continue speaking and they’ll be ready to listen to you again while mentally connecting the visual aid to your point. 

·        Avoid wordy PowerPoint slides that mimic verbatim what you’re already saying in your speech.  Instead of enhancing the talk, the visual aid becomes redundant and tempts students to just read the slide instead of listen to you.

4.      USE NOTECARDS WITH BULLET POINTS, DON’T MEMORIZE

·        Outline the flow of your key points on note cards.  Small index cards are better than whole sheets of paper because it’s easier to keep track of where you are in the talk.

·        Use bullet points to highlight your ideas.  Don’t write out entire sentences on your notes that you might be tempted to memorize.  It’s easier to remember your outline and expound spontaneously if you memorize the ideas instead of the exact words

5.      USE HUMOR IF SUITABLE, BUT BE TACTFUL

Everyone loves a laugh, so it may be helpful to inject some humor into your speech.  Before doing so however, analyze the subject matter and check if it won’t be inappropriate. 

If you choose to employ humor, make sure to remain tactful.  Stay away from slanted jokes that may offend certain sub-sectors within your audience, such as gender, religion, race, politics and economic status.

Keep the comedy in check.  Well-timed snippets may help you establish rapport with your audience, or make monotonous stretches a bit lighter.  Too many laughs however may divert the audience’s focus from your key points. 

6.      MAINTAIN EYE CONTACT 

Looking at members of the audience in the eye keeps them involved in your talk.  Research has shown that information is more easily received when the listener has both visual and verbal contact with the speaker.  Make sure to distribute your attention to audience members in different parts of the room. 

7.      SPEAK CLEARLY AND MODULATE YOUR VOICE

While the topic is all too familiar to you, it may be a new subject to your audience.  Speak slowly and clearly, at a pace that allows your audience to follow your meaning.  Make sure you speak loud enough to be heard by the person at the back of the room.  For emphasis, briefly pause before and after important ideas or say key points twice before elaborating.

8.      KNOW THE SUBJECT MATTER

Nothing beats knowing what you’re talking about inside and out.  Research your facts and make sure you have a good grasp of the issues involved.  Have a comprehensive understanding of your topic.  Where it applies, be aware of both sides to a polarized discussion about your subject.  Anticipate questions the audience might raise.

9.      ENCOURAGE  Q & A

To further nail down the message behind your speech, encourage questions and clarifications through an open forum after your talk.  Before you begin the forum, set a time limit or a predetermined number of questions you can accommodate.  You may want to discuss this beforehand with the organizers

to make sure that you can fit everything within the time allotted for you.

10.     SUMMARIZE and DISTRIBUTE HAND-OUTS AFTER TALK

Before you end, summarize your most salient points and repeat the ideas you want your audience to take home with them.  You can outline a summary in the form of a hand-out to be given to the audience afterwards.  Don’t pass the hand-out into the audience before or during your talk t because you want them to listen to you first and not just be reading distractedly.

With these 10 pointers in mind, you’re on your way to becoming a much sought-after resource person, known both for your expertise in your field and your skill in communicating.   More importantly, you can be sure that your message is getting across to your public loud and clear.

So many people are talking doom and gloom with regards to 2009. Well here’s my take on it, things will be ok. We can easily get caught up in the media web of what ever they want us to believe.

Don’t get too concerned, just do all the things you can do in your power and everything will work out.

The sun is coming up tomorrow!!! Dream Big,be positive and expect the best.

Bring on 2009.

Motivation: What Drives You?

Have you ever tried randomly asking successful people in their own field on things that motivate them? If you do, you might be overwhelmed because two entirely different people may give you the same answer – goals!

Motivation, as studied in psychology and neuropsychology, is a particular reason, perhaps a set of reasons that drives people in a particular behavior, specifically human behavior. These reasons include goals, ideals, state of being, and even basic needs such as shelter, food, and water.

Being highly motivated is one of the greatest attributes to be an effective leader. In fact, the majority of the numbers of successful leaders I know are extremely driven by great passion. It is something that vitalizes your ability to do something, something even beyond the things you are not used to doing. It can be someone or something that has been with you all throughout your existence, or it can even be entirely something you didn’t even knew exist.

It is more than just passion running through one’s blood and circulating all over his body, it is also a philosophy that runs one of the biggest deals in the society. Despite the modern-day complexities, you still can’t deny the satisfaction and self worth you realize after having been given a commendation and highly regarded for the great efforts you have put into your work. This particular feeling of self worth animates and revitalizes each time you are praised and in time will be instilled in your mind, since motivation is a behavioral aspect that is learned.

Technically speaking, motivation is a state of mind that invigorates and somehow endows guidance and direction. It is a combination or solely a feeling of aggression, instincts, fear, and learning. Motivation is even tagged by other psychologists to be the greatest emotional battery that fuels up your every move. Plus, it is even rechargeable!

People who are enriched with motivation are most likely the one who live out to be people who are more attentive, people who can work independently, those who are willing to ask for help if needed, willing to give out help, and those who embrace challenges to better themselves. On the other hand, people who lack motivation are generally those who are always dissatisfied, who lacks competence, those who underestimates their own capabilities, those who feel negatively about their jobs, and typically those who let personal issues conflict with their goals.

Motivation is the utmost value that a good leader can ever possess. For others, this may only serve as their last resort, but for effective leaders, it is their first. Leadership is about accepting the fortunate fact that motivation comes out naturally. It is part of who you are. It is part of what you have become.

However, for those who still haven’t mastered the art of motivation, don’t fret. If you think that you have to be a leader prior to achieving the drive that motivation has, you are absolutely wrong! No matter how incompressible some circumstances can be, all you have to do is try a little bit harder and look forward for something positive out of this endeavor.

Read more here

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Enhancing Creativity and Welcoming Change

Creativity is level of excellence associated with the ability to yield original works and ideas in any field. It is the power to build, produce, and construct extraordinary ideas fuelled by one’s imagination and resourcefulness. It has served a very important role in human civilization and has always been present in the heart and mind of every person. Being innate, creativity is something that only needs to be awakened to surface.

Learning how to defeat the hurdles that block creativity is not a tough thing to do. There are pretty basic ways to be more creative. But before you start racking your brain, first identify the barriers that you might meet along the way, so you can somehow be prepared for them.

Knowing the Potential Hurdles

Identifying the obstacles will make the task a lot easier to handle. While there are some of us whose creativity is easy to stir, there are those who needed a deeper prodding. Some of these obstacles include the inadequacy of time, the fear of prejudice, a lack of self-esteem, and fear of failure.

Dealing with time is not actually a big problem. Tickling your imagination to work only takes a while if you will it. The fear of tendentiousness is more considered to be normal. A little confidence and a sense of self-worth answers this problem.

In doing something creative, go beyond the rim of all the things that have always been familiar to you. Muster up the courage to get out of your comfort zone for a while. When you feel uncomfortable with what you just did, just continue doing it. A little tension in unfamiliar territory is normal, and, often, it is this very nervousness that will push your creative juices into action. Welcome change from time to time.

Remember that creativity is not only for people with superior intellect. The need to be an expert is not necessary. The products of your creativity may display themselves in many ways and might not always be tangible. If doubt comes and hinders your ability to be creative, remind yourself everything that you have been doing is a part of your imagination and a part of you.

Once you have already dealt with these issues, you may now start to try some ways to definitely enhance your creativity.

Bringing In Some Backup

There are many interventions you can adopt. Begin with the right frame of mind. Probe into the field you’re interested in and explore everything that triggers your imagination. The next thing you need to do is to nourish your dreams. Focus on your experiences and do not dismiss the small details. Don’t waste what you may already been discovering by ignoring it. Ask yourself the following questions: “What if?”, “What else?” and “How else?”

Remember that being creative is like dreaming consciously. Through it, you are able to manipulate your thoughts.

The secret to creativity is the knowledge that it is exactly the opposite of consideration. Considering our thoughts means creativity is trimmed and even stopped. Do not limit your ideas and remember that thinking is not just for artistic and writing professions, and for people who are highly-intellectual — it is for everybody and anybody.

Authentic creativity does not exist. No individual can create life. All we do is to remake and rearrange things around us. If you want enhance your creativity, do not wait for an inspiration and start exploring. Creativity is not all about creation; it’s all about reorganization. Think ingeniously, brainstorm, and try to practice tickling your imagination.

You are in charge of your life…remember that!

www.selfimageimprovement.com

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Four Smart Ways to Overcome Challenges

What is life without challenges and problems? Everyone faces challenges in life, regardless of age, gender, economic status, etc. Right from a young age up to a ripe old age everyone faces challenge almost everyday in life. The bigger your life’s goal, the greater is your challenge. Facing and overcoming problems require some amount of maturity, understanding and some strategy.

Here are four tips to face your challenges in life:

1. Learn to forget the problem and focus only on solutions – Well, forgetting the problem does not certainly make it disappear! But if you temporarily take your mind off the problem you would save yourself from unwanted anxiety. Unwanted stress would only lead to wasting your energy. You could instead spend that energy on looking for ways to solve the problem. Majority of us just freeze when we are faced with challenging situations. Instead, if we could immediately look for solutions the problem may clear easily. This is not easy but with some self-awareness and positive attitude you would learn to find your way through problems. When you are challenged with a problem the next time, first set aside your emotions, understand the problem and search for a solution right away.

2. Get help by reaching out to friends and family: Sometimes when you just let go of your ego and shame and ask for help you would be surprised at the way people receive you with love and concern. What are family and friends for? These days support groups are available online and in the community for almost every problem. You have support groups for addictions, seniors, single parents, parenting, marriage, education, health and religion… just about anything. When you have a problem do not think you are all alone. When you get in touch with these support groups you would realize that you are not the only one being tested by life’s challenges. You would share each other’s experiences and shoulder each other’s problems through these support groups. You could search for support groups in the Internet or call an expert, look in the newspapers, magazines, talk to people, etc. Support groups give a lot of strength and courage to fight your challenges.

3. Act now! - ‘Now’ is the best time to take on your challenges. Many people think and think and think and talk about it all the while but they would not move an inch towards a solution. What good is that? When you see a challenge, take action immediately. You would waste precious time if you wait around or wait for someone else to start dealing with your issues. Build self-confidence and resilience and start to fight your problems and you would have overcome your challenge before it settles down on you! The faster you act, the speedier the problem gets solved.

4. Practice patience and Perseverance - Nobody is a born professional at solving problems. Each time a problem challenges you it is a new experience. You could act wise by learning to be patient and persistent and practice perseverance in order to study your pattern of problems. This is a good way to draw your strategies and act accordingly. Soon you would be a master at dealing with your challenges.

Live your life by Choice, not by Chance.

www.selfimageimprovement.com

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MOTIVATION, THE HEART OF SELF IMAGE IMPROVEMENT

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change. Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.

With the countless negativities the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z…

A - Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

B - Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.

D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.

E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.

F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

G – Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.

H – Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.

I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.

J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

K – keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.
L – Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?

M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.

N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

O – Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.

P – Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.

Q – Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.

S – Stop procrastinating.

T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement.

U – Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.

V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.

W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.

X – X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.

Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.

Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!

Winning the Rat Race: Surviving Stress

Today’s world is all about instant gratification and moving forward at a dizzying pace, and this can wreak havoc on your health. You dare not get left behind, and in your rush to catch the train or meet the deadline, your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing suffers. Sound familiar?

Though short-term stress is quite healthy and necessary to stimulate your immune system, chronic, or long-term, stress does just the opposite. Your adrenal glands release stress hormones—cortisol in particular—during taxing situations and cortisol is responsible for kicking the immune system into high gear. But when you are bombarded with stress on a continual basis, the body develops a resistance to cortisol and the immune system stops responding, leaving you vulnerable to all sorts of stress-related health problems.

The best way to counter these ill effects is to get enough rest. It is through adequate sleep (at least seven hours every night) that the rising levels of cortisol in the body can be kept in check.

Know when to give yourself a break. At the rate you’re going, you’ll work yourself right into the grave. No one will hold it against you for wanting to take a breather. Do it deeply—not just regular respiration, but actually savoring every breath. Utilize your diaphragm rather than your lungs, and count four to five seconds while inhaling through your nose, and another four to five seconds exhaling through your mouth. Then repeat the exercise ten times. Not only is this a great way to relax but it slows your heart rate and lessens anxiety. It also helps to lower blood pressure.

Another thing that does wonders for blood pressure is to own a pet. Having a canine or feline companion has been known to reduce stress and help overcome depression. Just make sure you’re not allergic.

Learn proper time management. Despite what you may think, there is no such thing as having no time. Everyone has it. Rather, it is how you budget your time that makes all the difference in the world. And if you believe your schedule is getting just a wee bit unmanageable, don’t be afraid to speak up and say so. Prioritize. You don’t have to say yes to every task thrown your way.

Manage your finances. It is a widely known fact that money problems equal a whole lot of stress. Save yourself (and your wallet) the heartache by reading helpful materials on the subject, like “The Six New Rules of Rich” by Oliver Broudy (Men’s Health, March 2007).

Clean up your act. Free yourself and your living space from clutter. Get rid of eyesores you’ve accumulated through the years. Give whatever you no longer need to charity.

Speaking of charity, be more involved in social or civic work. When you expose yourself to the hardships of others, your own problems will seem less burdensome and you will have more courage and energy to face them.

If it can be helped at all, try to stay away from stressful situations. You may be able to give your life some semblance of order, but outside factors could just as easily destroy what you have worked so hard to build. Keep your cool. If you find yourself losing your temper over the slightest altercation, count to ten before retaliating. This will give you time to calm down and address the problem in a more rational manner. Lessen noise. If you can’t do that, then don’t contribute to it. Avoid toxic people as their condition is highly contagious. Of course, we don’t recommend you duck under a table or run for your life each time you cross paths, but don’t allow their overanxious nature to encroach on your own unstressed disposition.

The frenetic rat race that human progress has become exacts a high price, and the finish line is as elusive as ever. But perhaps this is one race where the ideal would be to slow down.

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Laugh Your Way to the Top, and Make Others Laugh with You

Imagine a man—tall, dark, and handsome—with a dazzling smile, impeccable fashion sense, a hefty bank account, but humorless as a corpse. Alternatively, picture another, not quite as good-looking, not quite as rich, but funny as hell. Who do you think would attract more people to them if both were in the same room?

Perhaps the gorgeous guy would elicit a lot of attention at first. But good looks can only go so far in holding and keeping that attention. A great sense of humor can be a useful tool in endearing yourself to the crowd at large. It can break the ice among strangers and is a wonderful way to make friends. In some cases it can even be used as a powerful weapon. Humor, when unleashed with perfect timing, can be terribly disarming. To potential employers, it could mean a promising job offer for you. To the ladies, it is a massive turn-on, and you might as well be wearing a sign on your forehead that says, “Date me. You won’t be sorry.”

Wit is a sign of intelligence, and intelligence is very sexy and attractive. Like all other gifts and talents, however, not everyone is born with it. If you are one of the less endowed and humor-challenged, thankfully enough, there are ways to compensate. You can train yourself in the art of good humor by following these steps:

Read. Be aware of current events. Fill your head with things you can comment on, other than the weather, so that striking up a conversation wouldn’t be so daunting. Watch movies or shows with witty dialogue and commentary. Study how the actors and commentators deliver their lines. Learn from them. Do not copy them outright. Be original.

Timing is everything. Just a few seconds off and your attempt at flawless humor can get derailed in an instant. If your joke bombs, move on. Do not dwell on it. Do not prolong your agony, or worse, your listeners’ agony, by going into a lengthy dissertation about your intended punch line. Doing so will only worsen the situation and create an awkward atmosphere.

Know your crowd. Funny as you are, there is such a thing as inappropriate humor. If you’re speaking at a funeral, don’t launch into raunchy standup comic mode more fit for a stag party.

Do not resort to insulting and making fun of people as this is a surefire sign of weak humor and an even weaker mind. Unless, of course, the people in question are bumbling politicians and public figures who are just asking for it and who aren’t in any way related to any of your listeners, then by all means, fire at will. Focus on their misdeeds rather than flaws that can’t be helped. Say, “Looks like he’s winning the election. And looks like I’m moving to another country.” Don’t say, “That candidate is one ugly ^#@*!”

Be confident and be natural. Self-consciousness shows, believe it or not, and witty retorts don’t pack as much punch when you’re worrying too much about the manner of your delivery instead of just getting it out there in the open.

Practice. Stand in front of a mirror and talk to yourself. Forget about looking like a fool. This is a great way to get rid of your inhibitions and get comfortable with yourself. Think of it as a rehearsal of sorts. The more you do it, the more self-assured you’ll become. Remember, confidence—like wit and intelligence—is sexy, too.

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Learn to laugh at your own mistakes. Self-deprecating humor is actually quite charming and you can never go wrong with putting yourself down every once in a while. Use your common sense though. Don’t ruin the moment by saying something like, “I wet my bed till I was fifteen. Isn’t that funny?”

It is mentioned in the Koran, “He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.” We’re not promising you paradise, but at least it’s a start.

www.selfimageimprovement.com

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