Self Improvement Newsletter
Issue # 474, October 9-10, 2007
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Improvement Newsletter, Click here!Please Visit Our Sponsors
Self Improvement Newsletter
Issue # 474, October 9-10, 2007
FREE Self
Improvement Newsletter, Click here!
Please Visit Our Sponsors
* Self Improvement and Personal
Growth Weekly Newsletter *
Issue # 474, Week of October 9-10, 2007
Publisher: David Riklan -
http://www.SelfGrowth.com
In this issue:
-- Quotes of the Week
-- Personal Growth Products and Services
-- Article: Increase Your Volume -- Increase Your Success - By Nancy Daniels
-- Article: Watch Your Language! - By Grace L. Judson
-- Book Review: The Passion TestT: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your
Destiny - By Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood
-- Brief News of the World
-- How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe from this Newsletter
Current Subscribers - 261,223 subscribers
Removal instructions are listed at the
end of the newsletter.
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*** Quotes of the Week ***
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Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite
of them and you have found a lover for life. - Leo Buscaglia, 1924-1998,
American Author and Expert on Love and Human Relationships
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and
succeeded. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1906-2001, American Aviator and Author
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. -
R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983, American Architect and Engineer
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*** Personal Growth Products and Services ***
------------------------------------------------------------
~~ How Can I Help You? ~~
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larry.agresto@gmail.com
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* How Do You Discover Your Passions? *
Jack Canfield said, it "changed the way I have lived the past year."
John Gray called it "a clear, simple, and effective method to help you identify
your core passions."
T. Harv Eker said, it will help you "get clear on who you are."
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** How to Add a Description of Your Website Here ** If you want to share
information about your website, your business or your book in our newsletter,
please go to the following webpage and fill out the form. Visit our website at
http://www.selfgrowth.com/form-ad-newsletter.html
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*** Article: Increase Your Volume -- Increase Your Success - By Nancy Daniels
***
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Are you asked to repeat yourself a lot? Do people often interrupt you? If you
want to be successful, if you expect to be taken seriously, you must learn how
to increase your volume to a level that is comfortable for your listener or
listeners. Those of us with larger voices tire of straining to hear you, tire of
asking you to repeat yourself, and we will take over the conversation.
While we Americans are not renowned for being soft-spoken, you would be
surprised how many people actually do speak too softly. Aside from the fact that
you are not being heard, one of the drawbacks to being soft-spoken is often
lower self-esteem. "If people don't listen to me, then what I am saying must not
be important." That is a mistake. People are not listening to you or are
interrupting you because they can't hear you!
You need to learn how to increase your volume to a normal level of sound.
Notice that I said normal, not louder. I don't like loud -- loud hurts the
listeners' ears. In working on volume, I teach people how to speak with a bigger
voice, not a louder voice. A good example of this is symphonic music versus
heavy metal. Increase the listening level of both types of music, and I
guarantee you will go much further with the former than with the latter before
hurting your ears. Symphonic music is primarily resonant; heavy metal is not.
If you are soft-spoken, you have spent your entire life speaking at a particular
volume level with which your inner ear is very, very comfortable.
Increasing your volume, even just a bit, will be difficult because your inner
ear will not like it; your inner ear will think you are shouting. If you learn
how to increase your volume properly, you will not be shouting, just speaking
with a larger volume of sound.
When I work with clients, I teach them how to find the optimum pitch of the
speaking voice, in which their chest becomes their major amplifier. By changing
the placement of the voice -- by allowing the chest to power the voice instead
of just the throat, mouth, and/or nose -- they discover a voice that is larger
in volume. If they are soft-spoken, however, that increase in volume may not be
enough to bring them up to what I call Volume Level 1, our normal everyday
volume level of voice -- the amount of sound we use on the phone, at the dinner
table, in the car, and, in many cases, at the office.
We then work on learning how to distinguish a true Volume Level 1. In recording
the soft-spoken individual, I will ask him/her to speak with more volume. All
with whom I have worked (and there have been thousands) have told me that when
asked to increase their volume, they thought they were shouting. Upon listening
to themselves on the recording, each and every one has said that indeed their
increase in volume sounded normal. Not loud. Just normal.
Learning how to increase your volume takes practice. As much as your inner ear
loves your "new voice," it is not quite as happy with your new volume. I tell my
clients to trust me and not what their inner ear is telling them. In addition, I
assure my soft-spoken people that they will never be too loud.
Indeed, many of us can be loud, but not those on the softer side. It just
doesn't happen.
So stop repeating yourself, stop being interrupted, and learn to be heard the
first time you say it. With a little time and some practice, you can discover
the value of being heard every time you open your mouth to speak.
About the Author:
Nancy Daniels is The Voice Lady and President of Voice Dynamic. Working
privately and corporately, she launched Voicing It! in April of 2006, the first
video training course on voice improvement. You can see and hear video clips
from Voicing It! as well as 'before' and 'after' clips of her clients on her
website:
http://www.voicedynamic.com/products.htm
Check out the Experts page for Nancy Daniels, the Official SelfGrowth.com Guide
to Public Speaking:
http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/nancy_daniels.html
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*** Article: Watch Your Language! - By Grace L. Judson ***
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The language you use every day -- your word choice, sequence, and tone -- plays
a more critical role in how you're perceived than you may imagine. How you
respond to a question, a compliment, even a comment on the weather, affects what
people think about you, your abilities, and your work in very subtle yet very
powerful ways.
Let's look at three examples, including some simple changes you can make to have
the most positive impact on your career and your relationships.
1. Yes, thanks, that WAS a good job.
How you respond to a compliment influences people's perception of your
confidence and ability (or lack thereof). Like most people, you've probably
found that compliments are harder to accept than criticism. From early
childhood, you were almost certainly taught to ask for feedback (a.k.a.
criticism) and to be modest about (i.e., discourage) compliments.
When you do the "aw, shucks, it weren't nuthin'" shuffle, brushing the
compliment off with embarrassment or downplaying your accomplishment, people
BELIEVE you. Believing your response, they overlook the hours of overtime put in
by your team, the expertise and skill that were required, and the polish you put
on the finished result.
On the other hand, if you adopt a superior stance by taking all the credit for a
team effort or claiming that only you out of all the people in the organization
could possibly have pulled it off, you'll be written off as arrogant and
dangerously independent (not a team player).
Instead, practice a middle-ground approach, preferably by role-playing with a
friend outside the office. Get comfortable with language that asserts your
confidence and competence without false pride or arrogance. "Yes, thanks, my
team and I did a really terrific job!" is a great response. "Thank you. I
appreciate you recognizing the effort it took to get that done well," is
another.
When someone compliments you personally, consider asking for more detailed
feedback. A compliment can feel uncomfortable because it often implies judgment
-- positive judgment, to be sure, but judgment nonetheless. "You're a great
facilitator," is a judgment that inevitably causes comparison in your mind to
all the facilitators you know who are better than you are, creating instant
disbelief and discomfort.
Thank the speaker and ask, "What about my facilitation really worked for you?"
This draws out specific comments ("I like how you make sure everyone gets equal
time") that are actually useful to you in developing your facilitation skills.
2. Accentuate the Positive
Have you noticed that people complain in habitual ways? They use the same words
to describe all the things they're not happy about. One person might call anyone
he disagrees with a "schmoozing backstabber." Someone else might say any
disappointing event -- whether in the past or anticipated -- was a "disaster."
Did it occur to you that your complaining habits are just as obvious to others
as theirs are to you?
Management views complainers as losers. Therefore, complainers never get the
best projects and are consistently passed over for promotion. You may not be an
out-and-out complainer, but you almost certainly have typical complaining habits
and hot-button circumstances that trigger those habits.
Pay attention for a few days to identify your habit. What triggers your
complaints, and what words do you typically use? (If you can't figure it out,
enlist the help of a trusted friend.)
Then pick more positive ways of expressing yourself. If positive replacements
feel too artificial, try a factual way of describing the person or situation,
without any emotional load.
The "schmoozing backstabber" might be "politically savvy," or could just be
"Joe." That "disastrous project" might be "unfortunately delayed because of new
requirements," or just "the printer upgrade project."
Save your complaining and venting for friends, spouses, and partners
*outside* the office. Your career will thank you for it.
3. Choose 'Want' instead of 'Need'
Take a few days or a week to experiment with what happens when you use "want"
instead of "need," "should," "gotta," "have to," and "must."
"I want to leave for work now."
"I want to finish this report by the end of the day."
"I want to go to the staff meeting."
If this feels awkward, especially if you feel as if you're lying to yourself,
add on the reason WHY you want to do these things.
"I want to leave for work now because I have a better day when I'm at the office
on time."
"I want to finish this report by the end of the day because my boss needs it
first thing in the morning."
"I want to go to the staff meeting because when I don't go, my teammates say
sarcastic things about my priorities and my boss gets mad."
You may find it such a pleasant way of looking at the world that you adopt
"want" as your word of choice in every possible situation. In fact, I have a
good friend who creates "want to do" lists instead of "to do" lists. She finds
it significantly more motivating!
How can you adjust your language to have a positive effect on how you're
perceived -- and on your career? Drop me a line and let me know!
"Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides." - Rita Mae Brown,
American author, screenwriter, and activist
(c) Grace L. Judson -- Helping professionals who loathe office politics and want
to lead with integrity and compassion.
About the Author:
I'm Grace Judson, the founder of and driving force behind Svaha Concepts.
Feeling trapped between your career goals and your loathing for "playing
politics"? For more information or to access my free resources, including my
free workbook "The Five Deadly Shoulds of Office Politics that Maul, Mangle, and
Murder Careers (and what to do about them)," please visit Svaha Concepts'
website at http://www.svahaconcepts.com/
------------------------------------------------------------
*** Book Review: The Passion TestT: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your
Destiny - By Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood ***
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Passion... when you have it, life is exciting, thrilling, fulfilling.
Problems become challenges to overcome. Doors open in ways you couldn't have
predicted. Nothing can stop you. "The Passion TestT" provides a simple,
effective way to discover your passions. Thousands of people around the world
have used this powerful process to clarify what's most important in their lives
and to begin living their destiny now.
Chris and Janet Attwood wrap fascinating stories of the ups, downs, twists, and
turns of living passionately around fun and practical exercises which will have
you living your own passionate life by the time you finish reading this book.
They'll show you how to:
* Clarify your top passions
* Stay on track with your passions
* Overcome the inevitable challenges
* Attract everything you'd like to have in your life
Then you'll learn the challenges and lessons of people who have been remarkably
successful at living their passions. You'll read interviews with people like
Stephen M. R. Covey, former CEO of Covey Leadership Center; Jay Abraham, whom
Forbes magazine called him one of the top five executive coaches in the country;
and Richard Paul Evans, author of "The Christmas Box." Imagine what your life
could be like if you were living every day with passion!
*****
When you buy a copy of "The Passion TestT" you'll also get an incredible
collection of more than 40 thought-provoking gifts! Learn more at
http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/hwnwtest.html
The list price of this book is $23.95. To purchase it from Amazon.com for
$16.29, a 32% discount, go directly to
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1594630429/selfimprovemeonlA/
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*** Brief News of the World ***
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Positive:
* Twins thrive 4 years after surgery *
With bright smiles and energy to spare, formerly conjoined twins Mohamed and
Ahmed Ibrahim of Egypt have returned to Dallas, four years after a marathon
operation to separate them. The 6-year-old boys, who are walking on their own
and speaking in English and Arabic, were separated here in October 2003.
They were born joined at the tops of their heads. (Click here for complete news
story)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071008/ap_on_he_me/conjoined_twins;_ylt=Ar42zT6Xinsvfe1Le9U3HT6s0NUE
* Three share Nobel Prize in medicine: 2 Americans, 1 Briton honored for
technique to manipulate mouse genes *
The winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine call the honor "enjoyable,"
"gratifying" and "a fantastic surprise." Two American scientists, Mario Capecchi
and Oliver Smithies, and Briton Martin Evans were awarded the prize for
developing a technology known as gene targeting. The groundbreaking and widely
used process has helped scientists use mice to study heart disease, diabetes,
cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases. (Click here for complete news story)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21189753/
* Courage award for meningitis girl *
A six-year-old girl who had her legs amputated after catching meningitis has
received a Pride of Britain award. Lydia Cross, from Braunton, Devon, was named
a Child of Courage for helping to raise awareness of the disease.
(Click here for complete news story)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/7034458.stm
** For more positive news, please visit
http://www.selfgrowth.com/news.html
Other:
* Rubik's Cube solved in 10.88 seconds *
A 16-year-old took the top prize at the Rubik's Cube world championship Sunday,
solving the puzzle five times in an average of 12.46 seconds. But the fastest
single attempt was a cool 10.88 seconds, just off the world record of 9.86
seconds. (Click here for complete news story)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071007/ap_on_en_ot/rubik_s_cube_race;_ylt=AqeCTDwgP.es6LxkxUeXDnoDW7oF
* Purpose of appendix believed found *
Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and
seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut.
That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical
School, published online in a scientific journal this week. (Click here for
complete news story)
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/05/appendix.purpose.ap/index.html
* Room Service With Your In-Room Care: Hospitals Revamp Menus to Cater to Finer
Palates *
Forget the rubber chicken, oversteamed vegetables and strained apple sauces
-- some hospitals have swapped their bland menus for gourmet fare. They recently
showed off their new cuisine at the Battle of the Hospital Chefs in Chicago.
With offerings like grilled honey lime grouper and shrimp watermelon salsa, it's
a far cry from what most people expect to receive during a hospital stay. (Click
here for complete news story)
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3690743&page=1