Life-long Learning is NOW

Hi Friends

Each day for 7 days I are looking at a new habit and would encourage you to follow each for a next month so that they become regular habits from then onwards. In 7 weeks we will have 7 new daily habits that may completely change our lives in a positive way, making us better at work, socially and at home. Each habit is simple and within the limits of everybody.

Today’s habit is learn something new every day. It might be something small or a new course that will be life changing. It’s up to you.

Life is a learning experience. We used to talk about a job for life but that is changed and re-training is a theme today. Many people are changing their job every few years because they are on short term contracts, short term projects, they are made redundant or are looking for promotion. And for these people it’s usually essential to be on a learning roller-coaster. But that roller-coaster isn’t a steady ride and that’s what I want to tell you about here. Another group of people need to undertake annual training to keep their professional status.

And that’s what you should be doing to keep your place in life.

In fact we talk about learning for life. Do you feel you know everything you need to know? Everything to get along? That you don’t need to bother with any more learning?

Maybe there’s a physical skill you want to learn like photography or painting, gardening or driving. Perhaps you feel inadequate in a life skill like being able to talk in public, feel confident, be able to manage others, or be a better team member.

So why not sit down and list out 5 things you’d like to learn about and why. Now put them into an order and think about the subject at the top of the list. Now what can you do to learn about this?

Maybe you should get a book from the library or buy a book. They say that only 2 books in every 100 that is bought are actually read. Some of the rest are started but some aren’t even opened. That is very sad. They also say that if you spend just one hour a day reading about anything, then you will become an expert in 12 weeks. By expert we mean that you know much more than the average person. 

You might learn by looking up the information on the internet and either finding articles or videos. This is a common way to learn and there are free and paid curses that will help too. A course is so much better than random videos or articles because they are structures and complete.

You might join a local night school or day classes. If you are particularly enthusiastic you might even sign up on an Open University home study degree course. Wouldn’t it be exciting to tell your family and friends that you’ve just been awarded a degree.

Learning something new will keep your mind active, make you a more interesting person for others, and widen your knowledge. It might give you skills that will have other advantages. If you learn skills like decorating, car mechanics, gardening or plumbing then you could save yourself money at home, or even turn it into a send income or teach others. Just remember we can all learn, all the time and we will benefit. If you learn one small thing every day you can only benefit.

Remember if you are unwilling to learn, no one can help you, but if you are determined to learn, no one can stop you. Make today the first day of a new learning plan.

And make this your new habit that you will use every day from now.

Good luck with your new habit. Please try and learn something every day.

Public Speaking - Is this your Fear?

Hi Friends

Speaking in public takes many forms. You could be on a TV or radio chatshow, running a webinar online or seminar offline, it might be a speech at a wedding, work event like a presentation or when a colleague retires, it could be just in a

group at the pub where you want to make an announcement. making videos for an online course is another situation which isn't actually speaking in public but does feel like that when you start.  We have probably all had to make a public speech at sometime or another, usually with some time to prepare but occasionally on the spur of the moment. 

Public speaking is an art that you have to learn. An art that is vital in some jobs. An essential as an entrepreneur.  Public speaking can take you to the heights you need to be successful.  But you need to work on this skill. And you must bear in mind that your first time will be a real learning experience, and you will think you were terrible. BUT . . if you ask anyone you trust that was in the audience then you might be pleasantly surprised. They won't have picked up on your nervousness. They won’t have noticed the mistakes or that big chunk you missed out completely because they didn’t know. But listen to what they say and if you think they have valid criticism then try to correct what you did. 

And you’ll learn yourself from the speech. Maybe you couldn’t read what you wrote. Perhaps you didn’t talk up or show enough emotion. So you weren’t prepared for the questions at the end. So let’s look at some good practices.

Research

When I first started running an online TV channel I commissioned an experienced presenter to run a couple of interviews for me. I met her at the railway station and we went for a coffee to talk about the day’s schedule. Then we went to the first interview that we did in a quiet hotel lounge. She sat down with the interviewee who was a local song-writer singer and just spoke with him for a few minutes to put him at ease.

Then she started. It was a positive interview about his career and forthcoming show. As she asked questions it became apparent that she had found out so much about the guy. And she was able to lead him through a really informative 20 minutes.

The same thing happened with the second interview which was with the local Top Cop. She knew about his career and a family outline, so she was able to talk about him as a family man, making it more intimate.

Research is so important and so easy today. Google anyone

who is anyone, and lots of people who aren’t!  Companies, places corporations are all here. And you will come up with enough background to strengthen your speech. You won’t need to use everything but it is useful to know and substantiates your speech. If you have a question and answer session after it will give you rock steady answers. So research.

Tell Them

Remember the old adage. Tell them what you are going to tell them! Tell them! Tell them what you’ve told them!

So at the beginning introduce yourself and tell them what you are going to cover. This sets the tone and is like the forward and table of contents.

Then tell them by giving your speech.

Then conclude by giving a brief overview of what you have covered. This sequence will help them understand, know where you are throughout the talk, and keep you on topic.

Rehearse

I cannot tell you how important this is. You aren’t rehearsing to be word perfect because you will sound wrong. You are rehearsing to feel comfortable, to get the order and words right and to look good. You’ll probably use notes with bullet points to keep you on track. Look at great speakers and see how passionate they are, how the words can spill out or be controlled. It’s because they have rehearsed. Can you imagine an actor learning the script but not attending rehearsals. Or worse thinking they can carry the script during the performance.

Suit the length to the subject content

A speech doesn’t have to be short to be interesting. On YouTube most people get distracted after a couple of minutes because there are distractions, just keep surfing!! But being in an audience listening to an interesting speech is different. There are no distractions.

Don’t overstay your welcome. Make sure the content is relevant and not to fill a time slot. It’s like writing a sales letter. A very long sales letter will be more successful than a short one if every word is important. A long speech will hold the audience if every phrase means something to them.

Voice Inflections and Body Language

Write your speech out and speak it. You will find that some doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t have rhythm. Writing and speaking are different, use different phrases and language. Speaking is generally less formal.

 

Try to alter the pace and volume of your words. You can slow down and almost whisper or shout to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Often when you do lower your voice the audience leans forward and breath quieter. This can have a real impact. Don’t hurry your words. The listeners often don’t know you so they aren’t used to your voice, and when

people are taking in information they need more time.

Likewise do pause. You will be amazed the effect you have on people when you pause for a few seconds. As an aside try this is conversation, particularly when you ask a question. Wait for the answer and don’t rush in. It always works that you get more than you expected. So pause. It gives the audience time to think, makes them expectant and keeps them interested.

Use Eye Contact

You have your notes but just try not to look at them continuously. Look at the audience. I’d suggest that you don’t let your eyes wonder across the whole audience. 

Concentrate on one or two people, then when you move to the next topic or thought, then concentrate on someone else in another part of the audience. And smile.

You may have a white-board or screen presentation, don’t turn your back. You may have to sometimes but avoid where you can. IF you have a presentation use bullet points, don’t have every word on screen and just read. Likewise keep is simple, no fancy PowerPoint animations because it will distract. If you need this then your speech lacks interest.

Be Humorous

A joke right at the beginning is a great ice-breaker and will build up empathy. Not political, religious or sexual. A joke against yourself is a winner.

You can add in a couple more jokes along the way to keep everyone focussed but don’t spoil your speech by making it a funny throughout, unless it’s intentional and each joke works with your audience.

Being too intense throughout is as bad as too many jokes. Keep the tone light and in tune. Don’t talk down because you are the expert. Remember the definition of an expert. The “Ex” is a deadbeat has been. Whilst the “Spert” is a drip under pressure. Think about that.

Your Learning Experience

Mistakes are good. If nobody else realises you’ve gone wrong, as is normally the case, then you can be pleased. Just learn from your flaws and try to correct them. The only one who doesn’t make mistakes is up there somewhere looking down.

More importantly is list out all the things you did right and build on that. And every time you manage to put a mistake right then add this to your list. Of course it’s important to correct these problems. But the right things will give you a firm base to work from. Like a building, firm foundations keep the house standing, even when there are floods or hurricanes. So work on these points and follow them each time.

Oh. And practise a few situations you may run into. The more you practice in front of a mirror, or friends if anyone is willing, then the better you will become. 

Good luck with any public speaking

 

Working from Home. Heaven or Hell?

Hi Everyone

Working from home is just great. There are some really good benefits but you have to be so focussed and selfish you’d not believe. If you slip you’ll find you can be crushed by the outside forces and the inner torment that can just destroy you.

I’ve worked from home for over 25 years apart from some short spells and I’ve gone through the best of times and worse of times. So here are some of the hurdles you’ll find on the path to home working success.

Work/Life balance

Working for a company gives you the structure that separates your life into segments. You get up, dress and groom yourself, travel to work for a set time, finish at a set time or work agreed overtime and then leave and go to your home life. Sometimes you might take work

home but usually you can stop working when you leave the office and not start again until you arrive next morning.

Working from home means you probably never stop working. You might have a home office but its usual to work on the dining or kitchen table in the evenings and even as soon as you get out of bed. It’s like an addiction. Whether you love it or hate it, you just can’t get away. You are tied to your business, probably your laptop which is constantly always switched on.

Mealtimes go out the Window and you famine or feast

Remember when someone yelled out “Anyone for a bacon buttie?” and there was a rush to pay the guy who was going to the sandwich bar to pick them up. Lunchtime comes and you go out, eat in the staff restroom or even work at your desk, but at least you ate at regular times.

Now you are working on that priority project or just get carried away and forget the time. Suddenly it’s 4 in the afternoon and you haven’t eaten. So you make a sandwich or grab a ready to eat snack. Then just a hour later you have a family meal but aren’t very hungry. Or you are drinking coffee with 2 sugars and snacking continuously during the day. Then wonder why your clothes don’t fit!!

You become isolated

You worked with others and that had its ups and downs. But in the main you have an office social life where you interact with others. Might be small talk about what you did last night, the TV or football. Could be office meetings or discussing work. But you are talking to others usually in an informal way with people you are familiar with. For some, the office life is their life where they are maybe unhappy or lonely at home.

Now compare that with working at home. You are working alone, either in your home office, or on the kitchen table. Or perhaps making a video, but still alone. The radio may be on but there’s nobody to talk to. The phone rings and it’s a problem. You have to face up to everything on your own, nobody to sit down with and discuss what to do. OK! There are internet forums and support but these are remote and you can never be absolutely sure of

the people you meet online.

So you finish up becoming quite isolated. And that might have an effect on your personality and your relationships with your family. And it certainly can add stress and uncertainty. Do you begin to prefer your own company, do you start talking to yourself! Do you start talking to your pet goldfish.

Social Media becomes your Social Life

Being alone you stop for a while and hit Facebook. That’s when your troubles really begin because you either start surfing within Facebook as one connection leads to another.

Or . . . your life starts to revolve around Facebook and you sink into the fantasy world of what everybody else is doing. And begin to lead your life on theirs. And you may start texting or adding posts to these “friends” pages whom are really at best just acquaintances and often almost strangers. And this can lead to you not only wasting time but also getting trapped in situations you just don’t want.

So . . . basically your social life just vanishes into thin air, to be replaced with a fantasy world.  We all need to socialise but you’ve cut yourself off.

You can’t have a Sick Day

Working for yourself means you usually can’t afford to take a sick day, or snowed in day when you just can’t get to work. When you just need to roll out of bed and slouch down to your work area there’s just no excuse.

So not only do you miss those days which could be spend out snowballing or just having a bit of fun. You stay alone, working. Outside you see Mums and Dads having fun with their kids. You aren’t paid by the hour. You have to complete to compete.

Are you busy? Can you just . . . ?

And you know what’s coming next. Nobody thinks you work. Your time is almost your own. But on second thoughts it not. Your time is everybody else’s.

“Sorry to bother you but can you just drop Mary off at college. She’s late and it’ll only take you 10 minutes”  Yes!. Suddenly that 10 minutes is 10 minutes there and 10 minutes back. “And whilst you are out we need some milk and a loaf of bread. Can you just stop off and get it? Oh and don’t use the corner shop, they are too expensive.” So you go out of your way to the supermarket. The total time is now over an hour!!

Then there are the friends who drop in or call you and want to tell you about their latest escapade with the car parking in town. And that’s another hour gone. So you decide to clamp down on this and tell everyone that you are working and not on a sabbatical. That works for a couple of days then back to the old routine.

Working in an office and nobody calls you to do a pick up! Everybody respects that you are working.

Your Neighbours wonder what you do

What does Jim do all day? He doesn’t seem to work and when he goes out he looks so unkempt. Maybe he lost his job. Maybe he’s an alcoholic. He’s always in old clothes. Strange man isn’t he.

And suddenly you are being accosted when you go out and asked some strange searching questions  . . .  or you are ignored. So once again you are losing that social interaction and get strange looks. So you are talking and drop into the conversation that you write courses online. And you get those funny looks and you can almost hear the gears in their brains clinking into action “What does he mean? I don’t really like to ask because he’ll think I’m stupid”

Looking Good

Remember when you wore a suit every day? Those were the days. Looked good, felt good. Knew you were the smart guy. Always a sharp dresser.

Working from home it’s sloppy joe time. No need to dress up. Old jeans, trainers and a sweatshirt. Fine. You feel comfortable. Some-one had told you that when you dressed well and felt good then your work was better. But you just can’t be bothered. And your work does probably suffer.

You look at yourself in the mirror and suddenly realise that you need a shave if you’re a guy or haven’t used make-up for days as a woman and you look like you are recovering from a hangover.

Office Parties a thing of the past

 Remember those office parties? Xmas or some other celebration like a birthday or leaving. Any excuse. Leave work, head for a bar or go for a meal and have a laugh. Get to know everyone better and let your hair down. It’s time to relax.

But working alone you have nobody to celebrate with. You could go down the pub and sit in the corner. No. Just forget it. You can’t even reclaim the tax on a Christmas dinner. Ah well. Better get on with work.

Getting some exercise

I worked in an office some years ago selling conservatories by phone. This was about 1998. We used to do the whole sale by phone. No salesman visiting to close the deal. It was hard but rewarding. But my point here is that every lunchtime a couple of us would go out and just walk for about 30 minutes. It was an industrial estate so nothing particular to see. But we used to get back to work and be active in the afternoon whilst everyone else began to get tired. I also rememeber that I was pretty fit.

Working alone you’ll keep going all day and then wonder why you are tired in the afternoon. You’ll have forgotten what fresh air smells like and you will become lethargic. Life will be work, work, work.

But it’s not all Bad

I’ve listed out the bad things about working for yourself from home but there are some great advantages.

You don’t have to slop around the house or feel isolated. You can have a work/life balance and be respected by your friends and neighbours. You just need to bring that discipline you have in working for a company into your life. It does mean self discipline but you just need to get some new habits into place.

The main benefits, however, in working for yourself is that you can achieve what you want. Whether you want money, fame, satisfaction or anything else, it’s possible. If you work for yourself now, you’ll know this is true. There is nobody else you need to rely upon. Just yourself. 

Be positive. Take Action