Be Better, Be Smarter
You can’t have too many skills. And the best skills to acquire are those that your friends don’t have. We always have room for improvement.
After a day we are called to perform, project an image of sheer mastery, of being skillful in any arena, still in our private moments we realize that we haven’t fully tap into our potentials.
Admittedly, there are skills we have not honed, strategies not perfected, talents not explored.
What makes us humans, not monkeys is that we can change, we get better and most importantly we do it for the sake of becoming better persons. Each of us has the ability to do anything we want, given an appropriate amount of passion and time.
To get started in our journey to meaningful changes and improvement here a roster of suggested areas to explore and sink our teeth into.
-Be a hero. We have to have the necessary skills especially if we are lifesavers at heart. Learn CPR and first aid. Take courses on how to care for heart attack victims until help arrives. Stop bleeding, dress wounds, treat poisoning and learn the Heimlich maneuver.
-Learn a language. Make it a romance language like French, Spanish and Italian. You learn by speaking and listening. You can memorize vocabulary and conjugate verbs later on. Oral skills first.
-Learn to speed read.
-Negotiate a good deal. One strategy champion negotiators do is they ask for more than what they expect to get in a deal. I have personally witnessed this strategy applied. A popular national radio show was giving away gifts i.e. Ipod nanos, gift certificates and a full tank free gasoline. One gift for every caller that calls the radio station. One guy caller just asked the Dj or radio host if he could get all three gifts. Just like that. And guess what? The Dj gave all three gifts to this caller in one fell swoop. Ask for more than what you expect to get. Who knows ladyluck might smiling at you that particular day.
-Learn few words in sign language. Like “love”-place your hands open palmed atop each other over your heart.
-Make a great speech. Join Toastmasters.
-Polish your appearance. Change your eyeglasses frames. Polish your shoes. Change barbers or hairdresser. Little things can really make a difference.
-Be a volunteer. Probe volcanoes in New Zealand, unearth dinosaurs in Montana, counting big mammals in Peru. This is real life adventure with genuine purpose.
-Learn how to mix vintage cocktails from memory. Cocktails like Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour, Sidecar, Sazerac and Daiquiri(JFK’s favorite drink, modified by Hemingway).
Daiquiri- pour two ounces of light rum and the juice of half a lime into a shaker of ice. Add a teaspoon of bar sugar or a half ounce of simple syrup. Shake mightily and serve in a stemmed glass with lime wedge.
After a day we are called to perform, project an image of sheer mastery, of being skillful in any arena, still in our private moments we realize that we haven’t fully tap into our potentials.
Admittedly, there are skills we have not honed, strategies not perfected, talents not explored.
What makes us humans, not monkeys is that we can change, we get better and most importantly we do it for the sake of becoming better persons. Each of us has the ability to do anything we want, given an appropriate amount of passion and time.
To get started in our journey to meaningful changes and improvement here a roster of suggested areas to explore and sink our teeth into.
-Be a hero. We have to have the necessary skills especially if we are lifesavers at heart. Learn CPR and first aid. Take courses on how to care for heart attack victims until help arrives. Stop bleeding, dress wounds, treat poisoning and learn the Heimlich maneuver.
-Learn a language. Make it a romance language like French, Spanish and Italian. You learn by speaking and listening. You can memorize vocabulary and conjugate verbs later on. Oral skills first.
-Learn to speed read.
-Negotiate a good deal. One strategy champion negotiators do is they ask for more than what they expect to get in a deal. I have personally witnessed this strategy applied. A popular national radio show was giving away gifts i.e. Ipod nanos, gift certificates and a full tank free gasoline. One gift for every caller that calls the radio station. One guy caller just asked the Dj or radio host if he could get all three gifts. Just like that. And guess what? The Dj gave all three gifts to this caller in one fell swoop. Ask for more than what you expect to get. Who knows ladyluck might smiling at you that particular day.
-Learn few words in sign language. Like “love”-place your hands open palmed atop each other over your heart.
-Make a great speech. Join Toastmasters.
-Polish your appearance. Change your eyeglasses frames. Polish your shoes. Change barbers or hairdresser. Little things can really make a difference.
-Be a volunteer. Probe volcanoes in New Zealand, unearth dinosaurs in Montana, counting big mammals in Peru. This is real life adventure with genuine purpose.
-Learn how to mix vintage cocktails from memory. Cocktails like Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour, Sidecar, Sazerac and Daiquiri(JFK’s favorite drink, modified by Hemingway).
Daiquiri- pour two ounces of light rum and the juice of half a lime into a shaker of ice. Add a teaspoon of bar sugar or a half ounce of simple syrup. Shake mightily and serve in a stemmed glass with lime wedge.
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