Recognize Your Personal Strengths - Know What Strengths You Bring, Then Bring 'Em By Jan Verhoeff

Recognize your strengths - the biggest fallacy in life is that we've gained nothing that we can use, as we grow older.

Women, specifically seem to believe after the kids are grown up and gone, if they weren't involved in a career their skill-set is useless. When Jodi asked me last week about whether or not her skills as a writer, those ones she learned back in high school, were any good at this point in time, I said, "Don't you read now?"

Totally in awe of the fact that people did go to school 'way back when' but they're still LIVING now. How can that happen? Do they just use the skills they acquired in school and never learn anything new?

Most people learn something new every single day. Perhaps what they learn is useful, or perhaps not. But learning is an on-going lifetime process that you do all the time.

This morning, while talking to my daughter, I learned that she had gained incredible skills of research and investigation after our first experience with a tornado. The tornado didn't touch down, but she had been sent to a basement for some crazy reason and she wanted to know why, so she took a dive off the hard wood floors of the library into a book about weather and learned at the tender age of nine that tornadoes appear when changes in temperature take place at high altitudes. Before the tornado can touch down, it has to gain sufficient sucking power to shift the temperature down the funnel which moves the funnel downward.

Independent learning is something most of us do naturally. Every day.

The REALITY - in one way or another - you've overcome every obstacle that ever landed in your path. Every turn of the road, you've found a way to step over, climb, walk around or overcome the obstacles you've faced. What strengths have you gained from those experiences?

Take a moment and write those down. Perhaps you're tenacious, dedicated to survival, or perhaps you've learned to negotiate your way out of paper bags? One particularly brilliant young woman I've known for a lifetime, could literally sell snow to an Eskimo. She's an absolute WHIZ when it comes to sales. What is your strength? Write that down.

Here are a few things that might have motivated you to grow life long strengths:

1) Relocating to a different area.

If you and your family relocated, you most likely had to find new educational resource. Perhaps, during the move you had to find and provide transportation for your family, locate your new home in a new town.

2) Change jobs, or help your spouse or children find a job.

This kind of personal assistance will increase your ability to communicate and interact with others.

3) Negotiate through class work and schedules with your children.

Negotiation skills are top end in most any business. Don't negate those negotiating skills, they are really important.

So what are your personal strengths?

Learning how to be the best of who we are isn't always easy, but do we give ourselves enough credit? Let's discuss this topic more over coffee. Visit me at http://janverhoeff.com and let's chat!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8354685

The High Cost of Doing Nothing By: Daniel Sitter

The High Cost of Doing Nothing By: Daniel Sitter

Cost is sometimes a difficult term to define. Here, we are not simply discussing cost as it relates to selling price, but rather opportunity cost. The web site, "Mentors, Ventures and Plans" defines opportunity cost as "The loss of the next best alternative whenever a decision is made involving two or more options". "Investing in Options" defines it as "Choosing the best alternative means that you can't choose the next-best alternative. Opportunity cost is the next-best alternative that must be sacrificed in order to get something else you want. Opportunity cost can be thought of as the road not taken." Inactivity, or doing nothing, is usually the highest price paid and is often associated with great opportunity cost. Inaction is usually the worst decision one can make, made from a base of fear.

Many of us freeze when facing decisions. For some reason, decision making becomes complex, paralyzing and even painful for many people. It should not be this way. Making a decision is simply the act of choosing between alternatives. You must learn to weigh the implications of each possible decision and choose the outcome that is best for you and all others involved. For example, when your telephone bill comes due, you may choose to pay it or not. There are real obvious consequences for both actions. The situation becomes more complex however, when our human emotions enter the picture. For instance; you are offered a new job and must decide to leave your current position and move your family to a new location, hundreds of miles away..

What we often fail to realize, is that delaying important decisions or simply not making a decision at all, are actions that often impact us with the highest opportunity costs and worst case scenarios. Inactivity, or the lack of a decision, is actually a decision made, although one seldom made in our best interests. In this case, we unfortunately transfer over control of our lives to external forces and circumstances. We are now positioned to be at the mercy and decision-making of others. This is not your best scenario. There are often unusually high costs associated with doing nothing.

Decision making is actually a skill set that can be learned and refined. Like all skills, entering into a new area as a novice requires practice and application in order to improve. Keep in mind that you will indeed improve! Start small, with less important decisions involving less than crucial outcomes and gradually make more decisions on matters of greater importance. Soon, you will have few if any issues with making decisions. Learn to start small and work your way up, gradually extending your comfort zone in this area. A by-product of learning these new skills is that your confidence will surely improve as well.

Decision making need not be frightening. Think of it as a process that is your own, shedding any external pressure that others may be applying. Take your time, get your facts and choose the outcome that works best for you. Do not allow yourself to fall victim to the high cost of doing nothing.

Author Bio
Daniel Sitter is the author of the popular, award-winning e-book, Learning For Profit. Designed for busy people, his new book teaches simple, step-by-step accelerated learning skills, demonstrating exactly how to learn anything faster than ever before. Learning For Profit is currently available from the author's web site www.learningforprofit.com and a variety of online software and book merchants. Mr. Sitter is a contributing writer for several online and traditional publications. His expertise includes sales, marketing, self-improvement and general business topics.

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