Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact » by Nagesh Belludi

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things…
I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.
* Leo Buscaglia

One can have no smaller or
greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
* Leonardo da Vinci

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
* Cynthia Ozick

Don’t let life discourage you;
everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
* Gichard L. Evans

Genuinely feeling successful is possible when you detach yourself
from the things you desire and allow them to flow to you – and through you.
* Wayne Dyer

Close friends contribute to our personal growth.
They also contribute to our personal pleasure,
making the music sound sweeter, the food taste better,
and the humour richer, because they are there.
* Judith Viorst

Words are just words and without heart they have no meaning.
* Chinese Proverb

A man who works with his hands is a labourer;
a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;
but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
* Louis Nizer

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if
you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you
are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet
many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.
* Annie Besant

The process of living is the process of reacting to stress.
* Stanley J Sarnoff

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Self-Declarations on Résumés

Consider the following assertions from résumés that I reviewed recently:

• “Ambitious, career oriented, uniquely qualified, results-driven professional with outstanding academic preparation and exceptional industrial experience in applied research and design.”
• “Extremely strong, aggressive, self-sufficient writer with excellent technical skills and ability to learn new technologies quickly.”

The trouble with these statements is that they amount to unoriginal self-declarations. It is as though these candidates put on a crown and proclaimed themselves the kings and queens of the land of have-everything-an-employer-needs-skills. Most candidates do not realize such jargon can, in fact, be a turn-off.

Show than Tell

A résumé is, in essence, a documentation of your achievements and recognitions. Your résumé should not explicitly declare such characteristics as hard-working, entrepreneurial, self-starting, etc. Instead, your résumé should describe your accomplishments in such a way that a reader infers these skills in you.

Admittedly, describing your accomplishments to imply you are a “hard worker,” “self-starter,” or “team player” is difficult.

• To present yourself as “hard-working,” describe your part-time employment, serving as captain of the soccer team, leading a student club. Mention your high GPA and academic projects.
• To present yourself as “results-driven,” show how your projects contributed to your organization’s goals and bottom line: include phrases like, “saved 10% costs,” or “improved capacity by 18%,” etc.

Avoid proclamations, jargon and clichéd superlatives. Write your résumé to include more than a mere assemblage of personal particulars. Help the reader connect to you through your résumé and get a picture of your personality, unique skills and characteristics.

Recommended Reading

• Effective fonts and text sizes for résumés
• The one-page résumé rule
• Judging people: Talent is more than skin-deep

***See other articles related to resume tips, resumes, resume, job search, career, interviewing, curriculum vitae

Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
* Leo Buscaglia

A cheerful thought in you produces cheerful thoughts in others.
You are filled with joy and intense delight when you see a batch of
hilarious children playing mirthfully and dancing in joy.
* Swami Shivananda

Hard work performed in a disciplined manner will in most cases keep
the worker fit and also prolong his life.
* Mokshagundam Vishveshwariah

If you wish to avoid criticism,
do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
* Indira Gandhi

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has
the blame, none has the praise.
* Swami Vivekananda

Be prepared to take some shit in life;
just do not take more than a mouthful at a time.
* Forrest Gump

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do
something you want done because he wants to do it.
* Dwight D. Eisenhower

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
* Chinese Proverb

‘If something’s free, I’ll take two,’ a mentor of mine once said.
His point was that people don’t value things they don’t pay for.
* Edwin J. Feulner

A great mentor is one who aims for others’ abilities to surpass his own.
* Unknown

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

A previous article had promoted the use of active voice for persuasive communications. To summarize, sentences in passive voice (e.g., “Your feedback is appreciated,”) though grammatically correct, seem impersonal and obscure the responsibility of actions or feelings they convey. Sentences in active voice (e.g., ” I appreciate your feedback”) are simple, direct, persuasive, and easier to understand. See full article here.

You can use the ‘Grammar Check’ feature in MS-Word to identify and eliminate passive voice. To activate the check for passive voice, follow these three steps.

Step 1: Select ‘Tools’ from the ‘Options’ menu

Step 2: In the ‘Spelling & Grammar’ tab of the Options dialog box, enable the ‘Check grammar as you type’ and ‘Check grammar with spelling’ options. Select ‘Grammar & Style’ from the ‘Writing style’ drop down and click on the ‘Settings’ button.

Step 3: In the ‘Grammar Settings’ dialog box, enable the ‘Passive sentences’ under the ‘Style’ category. ‘OK’ and close all the dialog boxes.

Once you configure the check for passive sentences, MS-Word will squiggly-underline (in green color) most instances of passive sentences as illustrated below, just like it does squiggly-underline (in red color) spelling mistakes.

Clarity and ease-of-comprehension are two of the most important requisites to effective communication. Active voice can facilitate effective communication.

Recommended Reading

• Active voice for persuasive communication
• The twelve most persuasive words in English
• What the deaf can teach us about listening

***See other articles related to persuasion, written communication, general communication, verbal communication, grammar

It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret.
He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened
to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes
the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a
college president. He was seriously interested
in who you were and what you had to say.
* Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for
getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others
to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else,
sacrifice to get there.
* John Kotter

Before you can inspire with emotion,
you must be swamped with it yourself.
Before you can move their tears, your own must flow.
To convince them, you must yourself believe.
* Winston Churchill

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains,
but the thought which it suggests.
* Oliver Wendell Holmes

Meditation consists in conducting consciousness beyond the point
where it is the consciousness of a finite body or a finite mind,
transferring the focus from level to level without losing its continuity or form.
* Pir Vilayat Khan

Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown proposed as things forgot.
* Alexander Pope

To be yourself is an achievement in itself.
* Anonymous

Difficulties are meant to rouse not discourage.
The human spirit is grown strong from conflict.
* Willam Ellery Channing

The tragedy of life is not that man loses,
but that he almost wins.
* Heywood Broun

Concern over criticism clogs creativity.
* Duane Alan Hahn

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations