Funny Short Story About Looking Old...

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. – E. E. Cummings

Have you ever been guilty of looking at someone your own age and thinking, "Surely I can't look that old?" You'll love this one. 

My name is Alice Smith and I was sitting in the waiting room for my first appointment with a new dentist. I noticed his DDS diploma, which showed his full name. 

Suddenly, I remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name who had been in my high school class some 40-odd years ago. Could this be the same guy that I had a secret crush on, way back then? 

Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been my classmate. 

After he examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended Morgan Park High School. 

"Yes. Yes, I did. I'm a Mustang," he beamed with pride. 

"When did you graduate?" I asked. 

He answered, "In 1959. Why do you ask?" 

"You were in my class!" I exclaimed. 

He looked at me closely. Then, that ugly, old, bald wrinkled, fat, gray, decrepit son-of-a-gun asked, "What did you teach?"


*Short story originally posted here.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Laughter, smiles, and happiness are contagious. Take a minute to view this video compilation of some of the best baby laughs and have a better day because of it! Smile :)

Command Attention Every Time by Using One Simple Word

An excited husband grabs his wife and says, “Honey guess what I just read in the news? Science has finally proven that women talk twice as much as men, see I am not crazy!” She sets there and thinks about how to respond, and then she says, “Well that is because when talking to a man women have to repeat every thing they say.” To that her husband says, “What?”  

 

Grabbing and keeping attention can be difficult, especially if you are talking to people with short attention spans. Repetition seems to be the fall back in these situations. But what if you could use a simple word that ensures that you have the other persons complete attention the first time you speak? That would practically guarantee that you do not have to repeat your self over and over again.

The simple word is their name. 

To you, your favorite word is your name. How many times in a noisy crowd do you hear faintly hear your name and look around? Out of the millions of sounds, you pick up your name and your attention is taken away from all the other sounds and focused on the one that resembled your name. This effect is also known as the Cock-tale-party effect.

Your brain in programmed to recognize the one word that has the biggest impact on your life. Your name has the power “to intrude and capture attention.” You just have to know how to use it. Here is an example of talking with a coworker and using his name to capture his attention to your instructions for watering your Aloe Vera plant while you are gone on vacation.

“Bill, thank you for being willing to water my Aloe Vera plant while I am gone for the week. I have put a cup on my desk that has a measurement line for how much water you will need. All you have to do, Bill, is fill the cup up to the line with water and then evenly dump it around the plant. Bill, the pant needs to be watered every day and what questions, Bill, do you have about watering my Aloe Vera plant?”

Each time you say “Bill” it draws his attention and he focuses on what you are saying. The follow up question is a bonus. It forces Bill to focus his thought process one more time on what you said.

Go use this secret word and save your breath from needless repetition!

Who are you really talking to?

“All conversations are with myself, and sometimes they involve other people.” –  Susan Scott

How often do you have conversations with yourself? Probably all of the time. Susan Scott author of Fierce Conversations suggests that every verbal conversions are with self.

What does that mean? Simply, you have unique life experiences, unique understandings, and a one sided view on most topics. No two people think the same way about everything, not even identical twins.

Because you are an individual you will always understand what others are saying according to your experiences, your understandings, and your personal view on the world. That is why all conversations are with yourself.

How do you involve other people in your conversations? Two ways:

1) Help them understand your experiences and viewpoints that surround the conversation at hand as clearly as possible.

2) Understand their experiences and viewpoints surrounding the conversation at hand as clearly as possible.

The more you involve others in your conversations the more enriching your conversations will be. 

How do you involve others in your conversations?

What is in your future?

The best way to predict the future is to create it. – Peter F. Drucker

Remember the magic 8 ball? Ask it any question and it would give you an answer. The real magic is that you have always held the future in your hands. 

You just have to say it and live it! 

What is in your future?

Two of the best things to do in an interview...

Chances are you will be in an interview soon. While there are hundreds of suggestions for nailing your interview they are all conditional and most focus on extroverted type personalities. 

The biggest mistake people make when going into an interview is assuming that the interview is about them. It is not. What the interviewer is looking for is the value that you can bring to the company. In other words, will you bring the company more profits than it expends on you? Just by going into the interview understanding that you are there to prove your worth will make a world of difference in your attitude and confidence. 

These to pointers will help you stand out in your next interview and prove that you are more valuable than all the rest:

1) STAR your answers

2) Make your interviewer think

STAR stands for:

Situation or Task

Action you took

Results you achieved

During your next interview you will be asked questions. This is your time to shine. Let us say that you are applying for a management position and you get asked, “how would you describe your self?” 

Situation: “I would describe my self as a fearless leader for example when I was managing at my last job an employee was constantly coming in late. He was bigger than I was and had been working at the company longer than I did.” 

Action: “Being in management I set up an appointment with him and I expressed my concern about him showing up late for work and asked what was going on. Then I asked how I could help him to come to work on time. I then expressed my appreciation for his hard work and ended the interview by asking what he felt I could do to be a better manager.” 

Results: “As it turned out he offered some good advice and I noticed that as I took his advice he started showing up not only on time but he would show up15 minutes early and worked even harder!” 

The STAR approach can be used on any question. Below are the 50 most asked questions during an interview.* Answer a couple of the questions a day using the STAR approach and keep in mind what the company is looking for so that way your answers align with their needs. 

Make the interviewer think. This technique sets you heads and shoulders above the other applicants. You want the interviewer to think about you as the perfect fit and about the recognition that they will get for having hired such a perfect candidate for the position. You do that by asking a question:

“I’d like you to imagine it is a year from now, and you and your bosses are reviewing the people you have hired this year and when it comes to this position, they say, ‘Get us ten more like that one. That person was one of the best hires we have had in a long time.’ Can you tell me what that person did for her (or him) and you to get such a rave review?”

Another version of the question is:

“Assuming I got the job what would you be seeing me do, let us say six months from now, that lets you know that you made the right choice?”

A couple of things will happen; you will want to watch the interviewers eyes. They will look up and to the corner. That is a sure sign that they are envisioning you as the perfect hire and in addition you are asking them to envision themselves receiving recognition for having hired you. That is powerful. Most will say, “That is a good question, one that I have not considered…” and will either offer some sort of suggestion or say “I will have to get back to you on that.”

The important thing is that you get them think about you being the perfect fit. 

STAR your answer and make your interviewer think. That will set you apart and give you the best chance of landing your dream job or position. Make sure you practice. You should never go into an interview cold turkey and expect to apply these techniques. Grab a friend and tell them what to say or print of this list of questions and give it to them to ask. Write down your responses and be sure to stay in the mindset of what the company holds as a valuable employee.

Let me know how your interviews go and land your dream job!

*The 50 Most Common Interview Questions:

1) What are your strengths?

2) What are your weaknesses?

3) Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?

4) Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?

5) Why do you want to leave your current company?

6) Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?

7) What can you offer us that someone else can not?

8) What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?

9) Are you willing to relocate?

10) Are you willing to travel?

11) Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.

12) Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

13) What is your dream job?

14) How did you hear about this position?

15) What would you look to accomplish in the first 30 days/60 days/90 days on the job?

16) Discuss your resume.

17) Discuss your educational background.

18) Describe yourself.

19) Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.

20) Why should we hire you?

21) Why are you looking for a new job?

22) Would you work holidays/weekends?

23) How would you deal with an angry or irate customer?

24) What are your salary requirements?

25) Give a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.

26) Who are our competitors?

27) What was your biggest failure?

28) What motivates you?

29) What’s your availability?

30) Who’s your mentor?

31) Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.

32) How do you handle pressure?

33) What is the name of our CEO?

34) What are your career goals?

35) What gets you up in the morning?

36) What would your direct reports say about you?

37) What were your bosses’ strengths/weaknesses?

38) If I called your boss right now and asked him what is an area that you could improve on, what would he say?

39) Are you a leader or a follower?

40) What was the last book you’ve read for fun?

41) What are your co-worker pet peeves?

42) What are your hobbies?

43) What is your favorite website?

44) What makes you uncomfortable?

45) What are some of your leadership experiences?

46) How would you fire someone?

47) What do you like the most and least about working in this industry?

48) Would you work 40+ hours a week?

49) What questions haven’t I asked you?

50) What questions do you have for me?

3 Things you never knew about Communication...

Most people believe that they are either a great public speaker or terrible one. What side of the line do you stand on? I won some awards and a substantial amount of scholarship money from public speaking. I thought I was a great public speaker. Today, I can tell you that I was not a well-trained public speaker. I won those awards based more on self-confidence then on the words that I spoke.

Where did this confidence come from?

1) The average person speaks about 7500 words per day*

Growing up, I talked more than the average person. It gave me a sense of confidence in my ability to communicate. It was not until I started studying human communication, kinetics, and neuro-linguistic programming that I realized that I had a long way to go to be as great of a public speaker as I thought I was.

Think about how much time you spend walking every day. At least an hour. Yet that does not mean that you have hamstrings shaped like horseshoes and ripped calves. Just because you walk all the time does not mean that your legs are in mint condition. Ripped legs requires hours spent in the gym with a focus on breaking down the muscles in your legs and building them back up until they are defined and perfectly sculpted.

The same goes for communication. Just because you spend roughly 45 minutes per day saying words does not mean that they are as skilled and trained as Martin Luther King or Demosthenes. That kind of communicative skill takes hours of practice with professionals who know how to break your current speaking habits down and building them back up with proper repetition.

This brings me to my second point:

2) The average sentence length is a mere 2.5 seconds.

Studies by kinetic founder Professor Ray Birdwhistell found that your average sentence only takes 2.5 seconds to verbalize. The next time some one smirks something witty you can point out the fact that it took them longer to think of the comment then it did to say it.

As the saying goes, “Be careful of your words, once they are said they can only be forgiven, not forgotten.” In less than 2.5 seconds you can say something that brings joy or pain to those you love.  

3) Words make upabout 7% of human Communication

Dr. Albert Mehrabian developed the 7 – 38 – 55 rule back in the 70’s. The Mehrabian rule states that 7% of communication is verbal, words only. 38% of communication is made up of vocal tone, inflections and other sounds. Mehrabian concluded that 55% of communication is non-verbal. Do you know what your non-verbals are tell people?

Want to be a better communicator? Learn about saying the right thing at the right time. Understand that what you say only takes a few seconds while its meaning carries on for a life time and that you communicate 8 times more with your body than with the words that you use. Consider getting a communication coach. Just like any other skill that you want to develop, a teacher, coach, trainer, guru, etcetera will help you be the best that you can be.

* There is an active debate on how many words per day the average person speaks. Recent articles state that women speak 3 times more words than men and use about 20,000 words per day. While men, on the other hand, speak about 7,000 words per day. If you try to find a source on where those numbers come from you will not find it. The average of 7500 words per day is the closest to a verified study that I could find. If you find a more up-to-date study let me know!