Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact
» by Nagesh Belludi

Few things can help an individual more than to place
responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.
* Booker T. Washington

To repeat what others have said, requires education,
to challenge it, requires brains.
* Mary Pettibone Poole

Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.
* Ben Hecht

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass-
it’s about learning how to dance in the rain
* Unknown

Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue;
it makes it a requirement for survival.
* Rene Dubos

Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.
* Lin Yutang

It’s easy to say ‘no!’ when there’s a deeper ‘yes!’ burning inside.
* Stephen R. Covey

There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire,
which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity;
but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
* Washington Irving

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

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 skilled manager understands how to get work done through her staff under all circumstances. She makes herself available, delegates effectively and provides appropriate feedback. She works hard to sustain an effective work environment in which her staff feels motivated and takes pleasure in their achievements.

The skilled manager is talented at discerning what her employees think and feel about their work, and assessing their level of happiness on the job. She recognizes unhappy employees through these four noticeable changes in behaviors over time.

• Tardiness: The unhappy employee tends to arrive late, leave early and takes longer breaks. He is often elusive and hard to pin down.
• Disdain: The unhappy employee can be grouchy, whining, or exceedingly complaining. He tends to be oversensitive: he sulks at even the slightest criticism, gets defensive, or accuses supervisors of picking on him.
• Indifference: The unhappy employee cannot focus on his responsibilities. Consequently, his work tends to be disorganized and incomprehensive. His workload is a struggle. He fails to update management on a regular basis, rarely has a say in important matters, and resists new assignments.
• Aloofness: The unhappy employee is inclined to distance himself physically, socially and emotionally from his coworkers. He is likely to be uncooperative and refuses to accommodate others’ requests.

Recommended Articles on Managing

• Four questions for employee performance appraisals
• Delegate Outcomes, Not Just Tasks
• Distinguish Accountability from Responsibility
• Excuses for not praising people

***See other articles related to Motivation, recognition, managing people, work environment, leading

For those who have seen the Earth from space,
and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will,
the experience most certainly changes your perspective.
The things that we share in our world are
far more valuable than those which divide us.
* Donald Williams

You will not find what you do not live.
* Unknown

Burdens become light when cheerfully borne.
* Ovid

Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of
man’s superiority to all that befalls him.
* Romain Gary

Our greatest glory consists not in never falling,
but in rising everytime we fall.
* Swami Chinmayananda

Let each hour of the day have its allotted duty,
and cultivate that power of concentration
which grows with its exercise…
* William Osler

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
* Albert Einstein

Take care of the minutes,
for the hours will take care of themselves.
* Lord Chesterfield

All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
* Arthur Schopenhauer

Dream not for yourself but dream for those
whom you love and care for. For in every dream
that this goal is realized, more dreams will follow;
Dreams truly meant especially for you.
* Oliver Juanir

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

Uneasiness in Striking up Conversations

The introverts among us do not like being the center of attention and the life of parties. We prefer small get-togethers with a selected group of familiar friends. We have a tendency to shy away from interacting with new people.

We introverts are not very comfortable with small talk. We would rather choose meaningful conversations about a variety of topics that are closer to our hearts. Consequently, we are likely to find it difficult to strike up conversations in social gatherings, parties, and meetings.

Assuming Rapport

The Positivity Blog discusses a simple and effective technique to help initiate conversations. In essence, as opposed to initiating a conversation with uneasiness, act as if you are meeting one of your best friends. The resulting assurance will ease up the anxiety and help initiate and pursue a conversation with new people. In addition, the ensuing poise results in a more forthcoming body language.

I have adopted this technique to better myself in presentations and speeches, meeting new people at work and play, and overcome my own introversion to the extent that now people often label me as being talkative.

Pursuing Conversations

Here are a few more suggestions to help introverts get more comfortable in social gatherings.

• Ask to be introduced. Ask your host or a fellow-attendee to introduce you to the other guests by citing common interests. This will help you connect with other guests over the topic of common interest and pursue a conversation more effortlessly.
• Interact with other introverts. Surveys suggest that 60% of people tend to be introverts. You could identify like-minded folk through their shy body language, approach them, and introduce yourself to them.
• Connect with extroverts. Extroverts like meeting people, enjoy interactions, and love introducing people to one another. Being around extroverts can help overcome some initial difficulty with starting conversations and engaging in small talk in unfamiliar social situations.
• Learn and practice the art of small talk. Most people are enthusiastic about sharing their stories. Favorite sports, travel destinations, kids, opinions of celebrities, movies and other current events make great conversation starters. Steer away from conversations on social or economic status, health, faith, and other personal details. Watch for gestures of discomfort when you ask questions.

Recommended Reading

• Protocol of Introducing People to One Another
• 7-38-55 Rule of Personal Communication
• On Keeping Good Eye Contact
• The Art of Remembering Names

***See other articles related to Introversion, extroversion, conversations, networking, building relationships, interpersonal skills, meetings, parties, etiquette, confidence

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
* Samuel Johnson

Anxiety and distress,
interrupted occasionally by pleasure,
is the normal course of man’s existence.
* Joseph Wood Krutch

The life that conquers is the life that
moves with a steady resolution and persistence
toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are
those who have thoroughly learned the immense
importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time.
* W. J. Davison

We must dare to be happy, and dare to confess it, regarding ourselves always
as the depositories, not as the authors of our own joy.
* Henri Frederic Amiel

Blessed is the man,
who having nothing to say,
abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
* George Eliot

There will be times in life when impossibility is felt,
but then there are dreams — and dreams allow us possibility.
* Jeffrey David Lang

It is the principle of the pure in heart never to injure others,
even when they themselves have been hatefully injured.
Hating others, even enemies who harmed you unprovoked, assures incessant sorrow.
* Tirukkural

You gain strength, courage, and confidence
by every experience in which you
really stop to look fear in the face.
* Eleanor Roosevelt

It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it,
than to be sane and have one’s doubts.
* G B Burgin

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of
all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true.
* James Branch Cabell

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

Those who gave thee a body,
furnished it with weakness;
but He who gave thee Soul,
armed thee with resolution.
Employ it, and thou art wise;
be wise and thou art happy.
* Akhenaton

You do anything long enough to escape the habit of
living until the escape becomes the habit.
* David Ryan

When there is no moon, you go by the stars.
* Somali Proverb

To speak kindly does not hurt the tongue.
* Proverb

We might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing,
and that we should be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds
when we read a book and feel an emotion about it,
for criticizing our own minds in their work of criticism.
* T.S. Eliot

Stand up, be bold, be strong.
Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders,
and know that you are the creator of your own destiny.
All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves.
Therefore, make your own future.
* Swami Vivekananda

So long as millions live in hunger and ignorance,
I hold every person a traitor who, having been
educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.
* Swami Vivekananda

Everyone is a genius at least once a year;
a real genius has his original ideas closer together.
* Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

When in prayer you clasp your hands, God opens His.
* German proverb

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it
* Henry David Thoreau

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

“Success in investing doesn’t correlate with I.Q. once you’re above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”
* Warren Buffett

I have invested in stock markets since I was sixteen. Largely, I have been quite a successful investor, if you disregard the current slump in the financial markets. Over the years, primarily though my mistakes, I have learnt several invaluable lessons that have shaped my personal investing philosophy. Here is a summary.

1. Do not invest money you cannot afford to lose. Know your limitations and own a mix of asset classes that are just right for you. Understand your ability to tolerate the hurts of losing money.
2. Buying a stock is the easy part. Knowing when to sell, especially in the case of hot stocks, is challenging. Do ample research before buying stocks or mutual funds. Establish a few criteria for selling and have the discipline to sell when a stock meets your criteria.
3. Invest; do not speculate. You cannot try to outsmart the market by trying to time the market or day trade. You cannot be right on every trade and every stock that you lay hands on — research has shown that even the best investors are right in about five of every eight stock purchases.
4. Do not fret about missing an opportunity. Opportunities abound in every market — bull or bear, short-term or long-term.
5. Do your own research. Stock research is indeed hard work, yet indispensable. Monitor stocks frequently. Pay attention to price-to-earning ratio (PE,) price-to-earning-to-growth ratio (PEG,) revenues and cash flow. Learn how to read company balance sheets and other financial statements.
6. Follow each company’s fundamentals carefully. Consider vital changes to the company’s operations, competitive landscapes, and industry prospects. Pay attention to macro-economic factors that may influence the industry.
7. Be skeptical of too much optimism and hype. Do not pursue past performance and buy a stock or mutual fund, possibly after a period of high returns. Watch out for stock analysts and investment advisors touting stocks after good news and playing down stocks that have already fallen. Understand that financial advisors may promote mutual funds that pay them high commissions and not necessarily get better returns for you.
8. Never lose sleep over your investments. Never let your emotions guide your investments transactions. Money is, after all, not the most important thing in your life.

***See other articles related to Personal finance, investing, money, stock markets, financial markets

Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well,
you can do a bigger thing well, too.
* Joseph Storey

Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us;
if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.
* Arthur Schopenhauer

Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or
her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every
work into one that suits their taste.
* Swami Vivekananda

The important thing is this:
to be able at any moment to sacrifice
what we are for what we could become.
* Charles Du Bos

It’s not enough to be busy.
The question is: What are we busy about?
* Henry David Thoreau

Ignore the people who tell you it won’t work,
and hire people who embrace your vision.
* Michael Dell

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
* Bertrand Russell

However we may receive blows,
and however knocked about we may be,
the Soul is there and is never injured.
We are that Infinite.
* Swami Vivekananda

Write injuries in sand,
kindnesses in marble.
* French Proverb

Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.
* Charles Spurgeon

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