Category — Communication

The phrase “lifelong learner” has been around for a long time. There are many individuals who have embarked on the journey of lifelong learning in one way or another.

Whether you are in a book club that discusses new book each month or you are taking continuing education courses online, you have dedicated yourself to a lifelong learning lifestyle. Lifelong learning is an extremely rewarding and enriching experience.

It is through constant learning and constant growth that we find ourselves making new and important moves in our lives both personal and professional.

Many people can become disheveled and cynical throughout their formal education years. However, learning remains an essential aspect of personal growth and personal development.

Try these three tips to become successful and passionate lifelong learners.

Utilize the Tools You Have Available

While at one time learning was seemingly limited to the classroom and library, today there are numerous outlets and opportunities for learning experiences throughout our daily lives.

The internet has become a major component of lifelong learning and education as a whole. For those who desire to become lifelong learners and thinkers, utilizing all of the tools that are available throughout the web is a great way to find new material and inspiration. In recent years, open course ware has become an extremely popular and useful educational tool.

Many major universities throughout academia are offering free online courses, including course material, videos, reading lists, syllabi, and more. Moreover, with the surge of online learning and online educational tools, there are numerous other tools and applications available online that can help you attain new information each and every day.

Keep a “To Learn” List

Part of being a lifelong learner involves always having something on your “to do” list. Organization can be key to staying motivated and passionate about your personal educational goals. Create a “to learn” list that is never ending. As a lifetime learner, you train yourself to always have something new or different you want to examine.

Create an ongoing list of topics, languages, skills, books, etc. that you would like to explore as part of your lifelong learning regimen. One of the biggest challenges in the beginning stages of a lifelong learning quest is staying motivated and active in it at all times. By creating a “must learn” list, you will never find a period where you have to find something to interest you.

The list will help direct you when you find yourself at a lull point.

Try Teaching with Others and To Others

Rather than embarking on your lifelong learning experience on your own, try to find a support system of people with like goals. Maybe you and a friend would like to engage in different materials and learning programs together. Having a partner with you throughout your personal learning journey can be extremely useful.

Not only will you have someone there with you to motivate and inspire you, the two of you can discuss materials, counter points off of one another, explain things to each other, etc..

If you’d rather keep your learning journey slightly more individual, but you would still like some group support, you could try finding a book club or a joining a workshop. This can give you the opportunity to explore things in a group, but move in your own individual direction as a learner.

About the Author: Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

Are you one of those employees who are not happy with your career growth?

When I say career growth, I mean appreciation, job satisfaction and of course a well deserved promotion.

Before you shift to clueless mode and conclude that nothing can be done and it’s all because of office politics or your bad luck, I request you to listen to me because I want to help you. I would like you to try below 10 simple actions which might (I am sure they will) make a difference to your career growth.

Here I go.

1. Be Result-Oriented – Efforts are noticed, but results are rewarded. If you think that only putting lots of efforts will get you promoted, you are wrong. Efforts will surely move forward in the race but what matters is the right result. Always start with small and then achieve success in parts. Join the working parts and create the working model.
2. Adopt to Single-Tasking – This point greatly influences your time management aspect as well. Finish what you started instead of parallel working.
3. Be Proactive – Don’t wait others to come and tell you what to do. Instead, ask them ad get yourself involved.
4. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes – Try to learn from them. But make sure that you don’t repeat the mistakes. Repeating the mistakes make you appear dumb.
5. Commit to what you promise – Else don’t promise.
6. Increase your influence in the team -  Communicate effectively.
7. Stay away from negative people. Learn more about how to handle negative people.
8. Go to the extra mile – Don’t hesitate to attempt the new work. This is where you grow. But make sure that you take calculated risk.
9. Develop a sense of humor- Skip this point if you already have one
10. Practice above actions for at least 2 months for seeing a change in your career. Of course, by then you would not like to discontinue them since you would have gathered additional praise, rewards and a well deserved promotion

Sounds good? I want to hear from you. Drop me a line about your results.

In this post, I am listing 10 best personal development blogs on the internet. These blogs have awesome articles about personal growth, productivity and things getting done. Some blogs offer free e-Books and have personally read those books and found them really informative.

Why don’t you check these and benefit from these blogs then?

Let me know if I am missing any other blogs. You can always bring them to my notice in the comment section. Here I go.

LifeOptimizer.com

Key Areas: Personal effectiveness, productivity, time management and innovation

Author: Donald Latumahina

PositivityBlog.com

Key Areas: Motivation, Optimism, Self Discipline, Relationships

Author: Henrick Edberg

Free e-Book: 7 Timeless Habits of Happiness

EndingTheGrind.com

Key Areas: Change your life, Live Your Passion, Online income business

Author: Steve

ZenHabits.net

Key Areas: Simplicity, Getting Things Done, Life Enrichment

Author: Leo Babauta and Guest Writers

Free e-Book: Focus

StevePavlina.com

Key Areas: Productivity, Getting Things Done, Finding Life Purpose, Motivation

Author: Steve Pavlina

CelestineChua.com

Key Areas: Personal Excellence, Inspiring quotes and Wallpapers, Brainstorming techniques

Author: Celestine Chua

DumbLittleMan.com

Key Areas: Tips for Life, Money Management, Personal Development, Management, Life hacks

Author: Jay White and Guest writers

LifeHack.org

Key Areas: Productivity, Communication, Money, Technology, Management

Authors: Tucker Cummings, Julie McCormick, Debbie Bowle, Craig Harper, Leon Ho and guest writers

PickTheBrain.com

Key Areas: Personal productivity, Motivation, Self Education, Psychology and Philosophy

Authors: Erin Falconer, Ali Nuke, Mr. Self Development and guest writers

Free e-Book: 90 Days Confidence Booster

2KnowMyself.com

Key Areas: Behavior and personality development, Career and interview skills, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Motivation, Neuro Linguistic Programming

Authors: M.Farouk Radwan

I hope you enjoyed this resource of best personal development blogs. Let me know if you have come across any other awesome personal achievement blogs. Share it in the comment section so that others will benefit from it

Communication is always looked upon as key factor in a person’s overall growth whether in career, personal or professional relationships. Indeed, it is.

What is effective communication and the importance of communication skills.

Many people confuse communication with excessive talking. Effective communication is not excessive talking. It’s actually talking less, saying more.

It is the art of conveying a message effortlessly which most of the crowd understand and grasp quickly.

There are  lot of talented people who can deliver excellent results when it comes to their work but struggle when it comes to communication. They can’t express or explain what work they have done in a convincing manner. It’s true that work speaks for itself but we are in the modern world and one need to have minimum level of effective communication. You will get right answers if you ask right questions. Communication helps you to ask right questions. Communication helps you to bridge the gap between what you know and what you want to know.

Let me share few tips for better communication if not effective communication.

Breaking the ice

To become an effective communicator, first thing you need to do is to learn to break the ice. You need to get started with something (even by asking a question) whether be it in a meeting or a general discussion. You also need to be a good listener if you want to ask right questions.

Once you break the ice, continue with your normal tone and speak few words about relevant matter. Don’t worry if it doesn’t sound effective at first attempt. Your mind is powerful and it knows how to better your speech next time. It’s important to get started.

Let the words flow

Deliver your words like a flow of water. Speak to the point, be clear and maintain continuity. However you can pause in between to get the feedback of audience if you’re giving a public speech. Try to make your public speech interactive by asking questions or launching an on spot quiz. People love quizzes.

Don’t repeat the same words

Next thing is enhancing your vocabulary of words. You shouldn’t use same words repeatedly in your speech. Learn new words and add quality to your speech. It also helps to improve your written communication as well. This wont happen overnight but with little effort and consistency, you can enhance your vocabulary.

Pictures speak thousand words

Effective communication also plays very important when it comes to expressing your ideas if you work in a creative field. Feel free to use few tools to aid your communication (in this case, a presentation) such as a drawing, a flowchart or a Power-point presentation.  Picture speak thousands words.

Learn time management

Effective communication needs time management as well. If you are presenting a research paper, learn to manage the time and set your internal benchmarks for completing certain portions of paper. Aim to finish the presentation in allotted slot of time.

Participate

Try attending seminars where a seasoned speaker gives a speech about a topic. Observe his gestures and mannerisms. Observe his tone variations. Start putting your learning into practice. Soon, you will start noticing gradual changes in your communication pattern and an effective communication has positive effect in career and relationships.

Invest your time in learning effective communication skills.  It gives you unbeatable rewards.