9.7K Shares No doubt about it, some people have a gift for organization. Me? I was behind the door when that gift was handed out. Be that as it may, even the organization-challenged can learn new habits and organizational skills for a greater degree of order and efficiency. While home organization comes to mind, organizational skills for college students are also a necessity. What are nine organizational skills? One very popular system for improving organization in the home is that of “Messies Anonymous,” founded by Sandra Felton. Felton was once a disorganized “Messie.” She... More »
One of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People has got to be unpopular with the self-seeking, personal agenda of most of us these days. The habit is number five, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This principle is at the heart of empathic listening. Listening is essential to good communication that lets minds come together for the advancement of all. The goal for those of us who want to get all we can out of life must include an interdependence with other people. If we think we are... More »
760 Shares I learned how to do deep breathing about thirty years ago while watching the PBS program, “Lilias, Yoga, and You.” This half-hour yoga class was taught by the sweet-spirited Lilias Folan and featured the expected lotus, fish, and shoulder stands familiar to anyone who’s explored this form of exercise. The thing that has stuck with me down through the years, however, has been the breathing and relaxation techniques she taught. I still use these methods when I need to relax, such as when I have to get a blood test or can’t... More »
Jack Canfield, in chapter 6 of The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, admonishes us to become “inverse paranoids.” If you’ve ever known anyone with paranoid tendencies, you know that no matter what someone says or does, this person will be suspicious of their motives. Becoming an “inverse paranoid” means we begin to assume that the other person is out to bless us instead of out to get us! Norman Vincent Peale once said, “Attitude is more important than facts.” We can control... More »
When young people are first starting out in life, either as college students or young workers, debt looks like an easy solution to the shortage of money that seems to go with this period of life. It’s only a temporary fix, however, and will set a person back in the long run. Suze Orman, in The Courage to Be Rich, points out the outrageous amount of money that is paid on interest over the years with credit cards and other debts. She and other financial experts offer some tips for getting out... More »
One of the seventeen principles of success in the book Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone is that of “inspirational discontentment.” The idea is that a person needs to be just discontented enough with his or her income or standard of living that it inspires them to greater success. At first glance there is a lot of logic in this statement, and probably most self-improvement comes about ultimately because a person isn’t happy with the status quo. However, the greatest self-improvement book of all time,... More »
Productivity is a desirable but elusive quality. Just what can be done to progress from average or marginal productivity to a high level of achievement? One thing that is at the forefront of any attempt at self-improvement is a written statement of goals. Written goals, especially if they are broken down into manageable chunks, give us a framework that we can use to keep track of our progress. We can then carry out our own personal performance review and development.
