How to Kickstart Your Writing

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The American National Commission on Writing surveyed 120 major American corporations affiliated with Business Roundtable (an association of CEOs leading US corporations in manufacturing, finance, services and high technology) and discovered that writing is a “threshold skill” for the hiring and promotion of professional employees in today’s workplace.

The report, titled “Writing: A Ticket to Work… or a Ticket Out”, reveals that: – People who cannot write and communicate clearly are not likely to be hired or, if hired, not be considered for promotion, – More than 40 per cent of the responding companies offered or required training for salaried employees with writing deficiencies, costing as much as US$3.1 billion annually. – More than 50 per cent of all responding companies report that they “frequently” or “almost always” produce technical reports (59 per cent), formal reports (62 per cent), and memos and correspondence (70 per cent). Also, e-mail and the need for documentation mean that writing skills are essential.

Interestingly, writing is not as easy as one may think, which explains the frequent complaint, “I have writer’s block!” In fact, some people get highly anxious when asked to write: college students have been known to avoid courses which involve writing, and executives (young or old) are unsure of how to use information gathered and, ultimately, spend less time planning, writing, editing or reworking their texts.

Writing the first sentence is usually the hardest, especially if you have a highly critical imaginary inner voice (or a real external one), but the good news is that gathering your ideas, information or thoughts and a little planning can kick-start your writing.

A Brainstorm Of Ideas The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a “brainstorm” as either a “violent, transient fit of insanity” or “a sudden bright idea”. Whichever meaning you prefer, your ideas, information and thoughts are the meat of the matter or the body of your e-mail, memo or report. The first step to writing is to record initial ideas on paper before they float away at the sight of a pretty girl or evaporate after tonight’s home-cooked dinner at your mother-in-law’s.

  • Listing

I would write the topic or assignment title at the top of a page and then quickly list keywords associated with the topic. In five-minute sessions, I’ve often used listing as a way to show college students that they have the information and ideas to start off their writing assignments despite their moans of “We don’t know what to write!” The most important rule: NO COMMENTS ALLOWED. Focus on gathering as much information as possible; the review comes later.

  • Free Writing Or Free Typing

Do you stumble upon great ideas when you’re chit-chatting with someone? Discoveries happen also when you’re free writing or free typing. Many writers have turned bloggers because informal writing is relaxing and, in turn, produces some of the best ideas.

  • Copying and Pasting

I find this useful for research-based writing like college assignments, journal articles or even a magazine article. I would highlight the relevant text and paste it in a new Word document or postcard-sized cards, along with the reference details. The “list of ingredients”, compiled in one document, is ready for me to review, sift through, blend and then knead into the desired shape.

  • Clustering or Mind-Mapping

For some writing assignments, especially complex ones with overlapping or conflicting topics, this visual way of clustering ideas together or mind-mapping helps me dig my way out of an avalanche of information. Using a pen and a blank sheet of unlined paper, write the topic title in the centre and then note down key ideas related to it as they come to mind. Add each new idea to the most suitable section and soon, you’ll have a cluster of notes for review.

Tony Buzan’s mind-mapping techniques encourage you to use an image or picture as the central idea and colours for your mind map, which are great for group writing. Check out: http://www.buzanworld.com/Mind_Maps.htm for samples of mind-maps.

Pulling It All Together: Now that you’ve got the building blocks, you’ll need a structure to get your house in order. Go back to your list, free writing or mind-map and sort through the ideas and assign similar or related ones to separate groups.

For example, a progress report may include sections on the team members and their profiles, background to the project (objectives, outputs, timeline, the allocated budget and projected expenditures) and a status update. A rough outline (shown below) could later be converted into a table of contents. Armed with information and an outline, you’re now ready to write.

A. Objective: To improve customer feedback rating from “Satisfactory” to “Good”

B. Team Members:

1. Front office and reception

2. Customer service representatives

3. IT Helpdesk

4. Section Heads – Marketing, Operations

C. Outputs:

1. To increase customer response time by 20%

a. Pick up phone calls by the third ring

b. Respond or acknowledge e-mail enquiries within 24 hours

– IT to advise front desk on spam filters?

– Checklist of questions and answers

2. To increase productivity by reducing face-to-face meetings

a. Limit meeting times to a maximum of 30 minutes

b. Post weekly meeting and agenda items every Friday (for review and agreement on Monday)

D. Timeline:

E. Budget

Portela Samba – School – Brazil All Time Carnaval Contest Winner

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Today we will take a look at the samba-school which is the all time champion of the Brazilian Carnival, legendary Portela Samba School. We will review their foundation, their innovative spirit which helped them amass 21 Rio Carnaval contest since 1932, some of their talented musicians who honored the samba-school´s pantheon, Portela´s logo, official Flag & technical information. The traditional school from Rio´s suburbs is also very famous because of its exceptional composers, some of whom surely helped them develop and write the history of the samba musical genre in Brazil, like Zé Keti, Monarco, and Candeia. As you will see below, Portela, just like Estação Primeira de Mangueira, is a samba-school from the masses, and has attracted many international celebrities to their rehearsals and parade, like Ricky Martin. The diversity at Portela´s environment is also a great asset to the samba-school. Recent Brazilian music composers like Paulinho da Viola and Marisa Monte help Portela to spread its cultural identity all over Brazil and the world. Let´s take a closer look at how this wonderful chapter of the Brazilian Samba history was written.

Portela ´s Origins:

Portela´s first steps started during the 1920’s, at a time where samba-schools as know of them today simply did not exist. (For this reason, we will briefly go over the street bands, important to understand the foundation of Portela.) At this time, there were numerous carnaval samba street bands in Osvaldo Cruz neighborhood from Rio de Janeiro, amongst them the “Ouro Sobre o Azul”, founded by Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, “Baianinhas de Osvaldo Cruz”, founded by samba lover Galdino and “Quem Fala de Nós come Mosca”, founded by Mrs. Ester Maria de Jesus. This last one was composed almost exclusively by children that paraded just during daytime and it was the only one legalized at the time, with a police license. The street band “Baianinhas de Osvaldo Cruz”, composed by adults paraded with “Quem Fala de Nós Come Mosca´s” license. Mrs. Ester prohibited them to use their license, since some of their members were troublemakers.

Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, a distinguished samba lover of the neighborhood, then proposed the extinction of the “Baianinhas de Osvaldo Cruz” street band and the formation of a new unique samba street band that would really represent the entire Osvaldo Cruz neighborhood. He then called Natal, Mr. Napoleão José do Nascimento’s son, a close friend, to ask his father permission for the founding of the new consolidated samba street band. Mr. Napoleão agreed and gave them the space on one condition: they would let the Holy week pass before the founding of the block.

This way, in Wednesday following Easter, 11th of April 1923, under a mango tree, the “Bloco Carnavalesco Conjunto de Osvaldo Cruz”, Portela samba school’s embryo was born. Wednesday was chosen due to a mythological tradition, probably suggested by Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, since the number 4, the fourth day of the week, is consecrated by God Hermes (Greek) or Mercury (Roman), protector of Sheppard and flocks (Osvaldo Cruz was still a rural neighborhood at the time). Until nowadays, Wednesdays are considered by the old guard of Portela a special celebration day.

In 1926, the first board of directors was created by President Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, also known as Paulo da Portela, Secretary Antônio Caetano and Treasurer Antônio Rufino. (The first headquarters of the samba-school was located at Paulo Benjamin do Oliveira’s house in Barra Funda.)

In 1929, they changed their name to “Quem nos Faz é o Capricho” street band and in 1931 to “Vai Como Pode” street band. It was only in 1935 they finally adopted their definitive name of Portela. The name was suggested by Deputy Dulcidio Cardoso, during the official establishment of all samba schools as recreational guilds on March 1st, 1935 in Rio de Janeiro.

Portela has been pioneer in many sectors of carnaval. It was the first school to use adornments, the samba song by Paulo Benjamin de Oliveira, “Teste ao Samba”, from 1935, is considered the first samba-theme song. Portela also introduced the opening wing and was the first school to use ropes. Adalberto dos Santos, known as Betinho, created two samba-instruments: the “caixa surda” and the “reco-reco”. These innovations helped the samba-school to win between 1939 and 1953 incredible 11 titles, including 7 of them in a row.

From the 80’s onwards the school went through many internal problems that reflected directly on its parades and championship positions. These issues ended up with a divide and a new samba school was born from the dissident members: Tradição samba-school. Since then, Portela wasn’t able to be champion. (The last Title was won in 1980.) The best result that they obtained since then was a second place in 1995, with the parade theme “Gosto que me Enrosco”.

In 2005, Portela had their worst moment in their history and the samba- school achieved the 13th place due to a delay in the parade: the President Nilo Figueiredo didn’t allow the legendary old guard to parade. This attitude was taken by the President because that year the school had many problems with floats that made the parade run late. Fearing to be demoted, the president decided to avoid the entrance of the old guard to avoid even further delay of the parade timing, thus creating a sad and bizarre moment amongst the samba world.

During Portela’s history, the school achieved the championship for 21 times, remaining until today the school to have 7 consecutive championship titles in history. Besides being one of the most traditional schools in Rio, Portela has one of the strongest Drum sections, having some peculiarities such as the Surdo de Terceira (a type of bass drum), created by Sula during the 40’s. The school´s that has as its main symbol the great eagle, also innovated at the 2005 parade, with the inclusion of especially handicapped revelers wing.

The school always had many international celebrities as guests. Some them included Latin singer Ricky Martin (1997 parade), super model Nomi Campbell (2005) and musical producer Quincy Jones (2006).

Composers at Portela: Since its founding, Portela has been a “factory” of great samba and Brazilian music composers. Some of these talnted composers and interpresters include: Monarco, Zé Keti, Casquinha, Manacéa, Candeia, Aldir Blanc, Paulinho da Viola, João Nogueira, Noca da Portela, Colombo, Luiz Ayrão, Ary do Cavaco, Alcides Dias Lopes a.k.a “Malandro Histórico”, Alvaiade, and Marisa Monte.

Why Bob Knight Was a Great Coach

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Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Bob Knight is (or was) a great college basketball coach. Born Robert Montgomery Knight, and known as the “General” to his peers and players, he is the winningest coach in Division I basketball history.

Coach Knight’s career spanned 43 years (1965 – 2008) and he amassed a record of 902 wins and 371 losses (.708%). He won 3 national championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, eleven Big Ten Conference championships, was awarded the Naismith College Coach of the Year in 1987. The list goes on and on. I’ve watched Coach Knight’s teams play throughout the years and studied his philosophy, but the thing that impresses me the most is his ability to teach kids how to play the game of basketball.

The art of teaching college athletes the fundamentals of basketball sure doesn’t get much attention in this day and age. The media fixates on the top ranked point guard in this year’s senior class, the top player in 8th grade, or the list of current parade All-Americans. There are television programs, websites, camps, and publications dedicated to rating and ranking the best players. Assistant coaches scour the country (and the globe) to find the best athletes, but we often don’t hear much about the coaches who focus on the purity of the game of basketball. That’s why I like Bob Knight. Sure, his name pops up from time to time, but not for what he has contributed to the game of basketball on the court.

If you’ve ever watched Coach Knight’s teams run their motion offense, it is one of the most beautiful things you’ll ever see. He doesn’t teach his players 20 – 30 basketball plays only to have them executed one after another throughout the course of a game, he teaches his kids how to play the game. When his team gets into a rhythm, it’s poetry in motion.

Coach Knight believes in teaching kids how to read the defense and gives his players options to counter what the defense is trying to do. He teaches discipline and demands that his team carry out their strategy. I’m a huge fan of motion offense because your opponent can scout your team, but they can’t be prepared for everything you do. I’m amazed that coaches don’t run this type of offense more. Most programs have 2 – 3 coaches, managers, or video coordinators who break down film each week and put together a defensive strategy. They have practices dedicated to walking through the opponent’s plays. I’ve even seen a team completely shut down their opponent’s offensive strategy simply by scouting and teaching their players what the other team is going to do. I often wonder if this is why Coach Knight built his system around motion offense. No matter how well a team prepared, they couldn’t predict everything Coach Knight’s squad was going to do.

Here are some principles of a good motion offense.

Spacing – No matter what type of motion offense you are running (5 man, 3 out 2 in, or 4 around 1), your players must have good spacing. Meaning, the kids can’t be too close to each other. They need room to move around the court without clogging up certain areas of the floor. A team that runs their offense with good spacing will also balance the floor well, which means the players are equally dispersed on all sides of the court.

Constant Movement – Coach Knight’s players were rarely caught standing in one place. They moved about the court constantly and they always had a purpose for their movement. In a motion offense, the worse thing a player can do is stand around and watch his other four teammates move about the floor. Encourage all of your players to constantly move, screen, cut, pass, rebound, etc.

Pass the Ball – Almost every player would rather dribble the ball than pass it, but a team that runs a solid motion offense understands that passing the ball creates opportunities to score. A team’s ability to move the ball around the court by passing increases their likely hood of breaking down the defense. Coach Knight’s teams rarely came down the floor only to have a one pass and a shot.

Counters – Reading (watching) the defense and countering what they do is the most important aspect of motion offense. The unpredictability a counter creates gives the offense an advance. For example, if a player screens another, the player receiving the screen can curl, flair, pop, or back screen. That’s four options the player can choose from based on what he or she thinks the defender will do. The probability of the defender anticipating the correct move is 1 in 4 or 25% of the time. Not the greatest odds if you ask me. The chips are stacked against the defender.

I like running motion offense because you don’t need the most talented players to execute on the four principles outlined above. Sure, a talented player will boost your offense, but it doesn’t make or break it. Coach Knight has had some talented players in his time, but he didn’t rely on talent only. He focused on execution, strategy, and teaching his players how to play the game in its purest sense. It’s no wonder that he is the winning coach of all time. He approached the game from a different angel and was successful because of this.

So, no matter what your feelings are on Bob’s Knight career, it’s good to reflect on what he has done for the game of basketball. It has certainly changed over the years and I believe he played a big part. I’m sure we’ll see someone break his win record, but for now, he’s one of the best to ever coach the game.

How to Kickstart Your Writing

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The American National Commission on Writing surveyed 120 major American corporations affiliated with Business Roundtable (an association of CEOs leading US corporations in manufacturing, finance, services and high technology) and discovered that writing is a “threshold skill” for the hiring and promotion of professional employees in today’s workplace.

The report, titled “Writing: A Ticket to Work… or a Ticket Out”, reveals that: – People who cannot write and communicate clearly are not likely to be hired or, if hired, not be considered for promotion, – More than 40 per cent of the responding companies offered or required training for salaried employees with writing deficiencies, costing as much as US$3.1 billion annually. – More than 50 per cent of all responding companies report that they “frequently” or “almost always” produce technical reports (59 per cent), formal reports (62 per cent), and memos and correspondence (70 per cent). Also, e-mail and the need for documentation mean that writing skills are essential.

Interestingly, writing is not as easy as one may think, which explains the frequent complaint, “I have writer’s block!” In fact, some people get highly anxious when asked to write: college students have been known to avoid courses which involve writing, and executives (young or old) are unsure of how to use information gathered and, ultimately, spend less time planning, writing, editing or reworking their texts.

Writing the first sentence is usually the hardest, especially if you have a highly critical imaginary inner voice (or a real external one), but the good news is that gathering your ideas, information or thoughts and a little planning can kick-start your writing.

A Brainstorm Of Ideas The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a “brainstorm” as either a “violent, transient fit of insanity” or “a sudden bright idea”. Whichever meaning you prefer, your ideas, information and thoughts are the meat of the matter or the body of your e-mail, memo or report. The first step to writing is to record initial ideas on paper before they float away at the sight of a pretty girl or evaporate after tonight’s home-cooked dinner at your mother-in-law’s.

  • Listing

I would write the topic or assignment title at the top of a page and then quickly list keywords associated with the topic. In five-minute sessions, I’ve often used listing as a way to show college students that they have the information and ideas to start off their writing assignments despite their moans of “We don’t know what to write!” The most important rule: NO COMMENTS ALLOWED. Focus on gathering as much information as possible; the review comes later.

  • Free Writing Or Free Typing

Do you stumble upon great ideas when you’re chit-chatting with someone? Discoveries happen also when you’re free writing or free typing. Many writers have turned bloggers because informal writing is relaxing and, in turn, produces some of the best ideas.

  • Copying and Pasting

I find this useful for research-based writing like college assignments, journal articles or even a magazine article. I would highlight the relevant text and paste it in a new Word document or postcard-sized cards, along with the reference details. The “list of ingredients”, compiled in one document, is ready for me to review, sift through, blend and then knead into the desired shape.

  • Clustering or Mind-Mapping

For some writing assignments, especially complex ones with overlapping or conflicting topics, this visual way of clustering ideas together or mind-mapping helps me dig my way out of an avalanche of information. Using a pen and a blank sheet of unlined paper, write the topic title in the centre and then note down key ideas related to it as they come to mind. Add each new idea to the most suitable section and soon, you’ll have a cluster of notes for review.

Tony Buzan’s mind-mapping techniques encourage you to use an image or picture as the central idea and colours for your mind map, which are great for group writing. Check out: http://www.buzanworld.com/Mind_Maps.htm for samples of mind-maps.

Pulling It All Together: Now that you’ve got the building blocks, you’ll need a structure to get your house in order. Go back to your list, free writing or mind-map and sort through the ideas and assign similar or related ones to separate groups.

For example, a progress report may include sections on the team members and their profiles, background to the project (objectives, outputs, timeline, the allocated budget and projected expenditures) and a status update. A rough outline (shown below) could later be converted into a table of contents. Armed with information and an outline, you’re now ready to write.

A. Objective: To improve customer feedback rating from “Satisfactory” to “Good”

B. Team Members:

1. Front office and reception

2. Customer service representatives

3. IT Helpdesk

4. Section Heads – Marketing, Operations

C. Outputs:

1. To increase customer response time by 20%

a. Pick up phone calls by the third ring

b. Respond or acknowledge e-mail enquiries within 24 hours

– IT to advise front desk on spam filters?

– Checklist of questions and answers

2. To increase productivity by reducing face-to-face meetings

a. Limit meeting times to a maximum of 30 minutes

b. Post weekly meeting and agenda items every Friday (for review and agreement on Monday)

D. Timeline:

E. Budget

Earn Your College Degree Online and Save Time and Money

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In order to earn a college degree you will need to jump through hoops, roll over and scratch the belly of the established formal education system. In order to earn your college degree online you may find that you bypass a lot of this and earn the equivalent qualification without many of the hassles that those in the tradition college education system must go through. Firstly, it may be a cheaper option. The financial benefits come from a couple of advantages. You will not have to pay for the college’s (expansive) overheads as such. A physical location for a college requires a lot of funding and much of it doesn’t get allocated from the government – most of it actually comes from those that attend the college.

You will also avail yourself of the opportunity to earn money as you study. You can do the course in a part time capacity instead of the other way around (full time course with part time work). You also don’t have to attend traditional lectures. This is a massive advantage when it comes to a college course. Many traditional lectures at a college level turn into story telling time at the behest of the lecturer and are not the most exciting form of education. You can earn your college degree online and save yourself a lot of the stress that people in the traditional college education structure have to go through – whether this is relevant to boring lectures, financial woes or time sinks.

The beauty of being able to earn your college degree online directly springs forth from the fact that you are working on your own terms. You work at your own pace (within reason) and communicate with lecturers via the internet rather than face to face contact. Getting time to see lecturers in a traditional college setting strictly revolves around the amount of time the lecturer has at their disposal. Many college lecturers only have limited office hours where they can field queries from students. The online method of earning a college degree does away with this out dated system and you are able to communicate with your lecturer at any time you like via email.

The qualification that you receive when you earn your college degree online is on par with the accreditation that you will receive in a traditional college setting. It is just a smarter option for those of us who can strictly adhere to a work schedule that we set for ourselves.

An Efficient Method Of Learning The Spanish Language

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If you are passionate about learning a foreign language then you should investigate on the most ideal means of helping you attain your goal. Do you love the language but the simple idea of having to deal with multiple books, getting lost in translation, all that grammar and the endless vocabulary rules may offer a tough start if you don’t approach the course with care.

You can learn Spanish like crazy by reading about the people’s culture, following up on their habits, the national customs and by making some friends of that nationality. It’s easier to learn from real life than from books. You can also use other resources at your disposal to master a language.

Watch Television in a foreign language

As a child I started watching cartoons in a foreign language and began loving the language. You can learn a lot by following TV shows and other TV programs you might enjoy if they are presented in the language you are looking to learn. Documentaries, encyclopedia, and talk-shows are an excellent way to get you started. Your brain will begin to pick-up new words, phrases and expressions and it will learn to adapt to the gaps in your vocabulary so you can get an idea on what you are really watching on TV.

Listening to music

If you are passionate about a specific music style, be it pop, rock, rap, reggae or another you can look up artists from the country you are going to visit and learn the language by listening to their songs.

The audio memory is more enhanced than the visual memory and you will retain the words with ease and the activity will be a fun one, so you will be having fun and learning at the same time. You can choose to listen to a song over and over until you learn how to spell the words, how to pronounce them and write them correctly.

Get your hands on a Spanish Dictionary

You can learn Spanish like Crazy by purchasing a dictionary or by surfing the net and looking for an online one. You can reference it every time you are unfamiliar about a certain word.

Use a learning guide

The Learn Spanish Like Crazy course will teach you all you need to know to master the Spanish language. You will go from a novice, to an advanced reader and writer to a more professional and in depth familiarity with the language all the way to gaining the accent and speaking and writing it like a native does.

Be practical

Every time you learn new words practice speaking them out loud, use them in conversation with Spanish people and ask them to help you practice on a day to day basis. The more you use the language the more it becomes a part of you.

You can learn Spanish like crazy if you stay focused on your goal and practice bit by bit. You will need to learn the formal and the informal aspects of the language and know how to use them in each

situation appropriately. The next step will be hiring a personal tutor who can dedicate his or her time entirely to you depending how much you can practice. It is enough to start with 30-60 minutes per day and depending on your progress build on that.

How To Bulletproof Your Career!

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In the not-too-distant past, ascending the corporate ladder assured management professionals of a bigger office, a stronger compensation package and a more secure future. But today, executives are being told: Don’t get too comfortable in that corner office, and don’t buy that fancy new car or boat you’ve always dreamed of – because your job is just as vulnerable as everyone else’s. Evidence suggests that the higher up the ladder you go, the more precarious your position may become! The attitude toward executives and the roles they play within companies have drastically changed in recent years. I’ve seen executives who have been with the same company for 20 or more years. They’ve worked their way up the corporate ladder and felt that they had proven their value – then they were unceremoniously dismissed from their positions as if they had just been hired as an entry-level worker. As a Career Consultant, it’s my job to re-instill the client’s confidence, identify his or her strengths, and “re-package” that individual for the current job market. But, to navigate effectively through the career transition process and ultimately make your career bulletproof, you must first be informed about what’s really going on in the work-world. I see several important trends taking place with regard to executive-level job stability and security, including:

TODAY’S CHALLENGING EMPLOYMENT TRENDS

Job Market Trend 1:

More and more positions, even at senior levels, are now being offered on a contract or temporary basis. The position, in these cases, lasts only as long as is needed to fulfill the employer’s contract with their client. This requires job seekers to think differently – more like an independent consultant who works on assignment – rather than as a permanent employee. In many business sectors and industries, it could be said that the “permanent, full-time job” no longer exists as we knew it. This trend also puts the responsibility on the part of the executive to consistently promote and market himself or herself for the next opportunity – and the one after that!

Job Market Trend 2:

Companies are still very cautious and careful about making any hiring decisions of high-paying, senior management positions. Executives seeking such jobs must now “sell themselves” more than in the past. They need to demonstrate just how they will enhance the company’s productivity, efficiency and profitability – or they probably won’t get the offer. This means that the job seeker really needs to learn how to effectively present and market himself or herself. Just having the right job titles on one’s résumé, or having the appropriate technical skills for the job, are no longer enough.

Job Market Trend 3:

Executives are receiving smaller career transition programs than ever before from the large outplacement firms – and many displaced professionals are getting no career transition programs at all. This means that greater numbers of executives are seeking-out help from smaller, more personal career consulting firms and career support groups.

STRATEGIES TO BULLETPROOF YOUR CAREER

Although the transition programs mentioned above do offer important career management techniques, let me share with you the most important activities you should always be doing to overcome the challenges outlined above, and bulletproof your career for the future:

1. Keep all your success documents up to date

2. Put time aside every week for active networking

3. Join and take leadership roles in appropriate associations

4. Write articles or do presentations in your area of expertise

5. Continue your career education, including new credentials

6. Research and be aware of the competition

7. Offer to help people in your network on a regular basis

8. Look at new jobs and investigate other opportunities

9. Always ask yourself, “How can I contribute more?”

10. Practice your networking, interviewing and negotiating skills

If you want your career to be truly bulletproof, you’ll need to educate yourself on topics you probably thought you’d never have to worry about again – like self-marketing, networking, interviewing and negotiating. To master these skills, many management professionals are also discovering helpful online resources and free audio seminars.

And here’s the GOOD NEWS: If you seek-out the right support and leverage vital resources like those mentioned above, you may actually be thankful for the experience of going through transition – ultimately finding a career or landing a job that will be a much better “fit” than those you’ve previously had.

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Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2006, Ford R. Myers and Career Potential, LLC.

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How To Get The Best Forex Trading Education

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Almost 100 million people around the world today invest or trade in forex market, which is undoubtedly the largest financial market with an estimated daily average turnover between $1.5 trillion to $2.5 trillion.

So, if you want to make profit from your investment, there are some forex trading knowledge which you must have. The best forex trading education provides you with the background and basic information that you need to trade the forex successfully.

The best forex trading education must introduce you to the basics like how to read a currency quote, trading practices, how to read forex charts, advantages of trading currencies over stocks, simulated forex online trading etc.

Through the best forex trading education, you can develop trading skill, formulate your own strategy, make online investment, and finally emerge as a successful investor or trader.

With the ever-expanding coverage of internet, the first and most rigorous forex trading education are the innumerable internet sites. The best forex trading education sites must be logical, powerful, robust, and well presented which you can comprehend and navigate easily.

The first step to get the best forex trading education will be to read! read! and read. Internet has an edge over conventional text books which is the dynamic features like three dimensional charts, bars, interactive graphics, simulated platforms etc.

In the best forex trading education software you can learn to gauge price action and use technical analysis to confirm the price action. You can also use future data, charts, and trend line to predict forex trend or use future data to justify market trend.

The best forex trading education must offer information, practical tips and real-life examples. The best forex trading education helps you in:

· assessing a currency for high profitability and raising the stakes in your profits.

· learning which currencies to trade and which to avoid and which currencies are actually ready to make a move.

· fine-tuning your entry and exit strategies.

· discovering the mistakes that a forex trader can make, and how you can avoid them.

· developing the strategies to save money, time, and effort.

The best forex trading education software will provide you links that thousands of forex traders actually use everyday. You also get the benefit of personal experience provided by brokers and traders. The best forex trading education also helps you in learning exactly which services and software give you best value for your money.

If you are looking for some offline forex trading education material, an interactive manual with video CDs, proves to be quite useful. It comes with printed pages which you can refer while trading forex and interactive CDs that provides video clips, real charts, technical information, live instruction, trading tools and strategies.

The best forex education should have live trading examples and reviews, daily pivot data for all the major currency pairs, market analysis, etc. As the market keeps changing, the best forex trading education should keep you posted on the updates and advanced techniques and therefore your learning should never stop.

Meet your local traders, join discussion forum, read financial magazines, discuss trading strategies and tips with veteran traders. All these can supplement your best forex trading education.

Dog Obedience Training For Pets

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A dog is a man’s best friend. However, true this might be, the fact always remains that dogs are after all wild animals, and training your beast into a civilized pet is a very important task that you cannot ignore as a responsible dog owner. Dog training apparently might sound a very easy ‘do it yourself’ task, however, there comes a limitation on how well you can train your dog all by yourself. There are many dog obedience training professionals that can do this job for you, at a small cost.

You might be able to train your dog for routine tasks like following you, toilet training, playing games, etc, but living in a city will require more than this basic training. Formal dog training is quite important, for instance if you are taking your dog for a walk on the street, it needs to know how walk in a straight line with a leash around. You don’t want your dog scurrying around dragging you all over the park while scaring other commuters.

The other important aspect of dog training is the age of your pet. The age of a dog has a direct bearing on how much adaptive and receptive the dog remains to the training efforts and for his ‘trained-memory’. A young pup is considerably easier to train compared to an adult dog that is over a year or two. In case of adult dogs it might be almost impossible to train him on your own, and this is where professional dog obedience training will come in helpful.

Finding professional dog training has now become quite effortless with the internet. There are a number of dog training course websites that provide a complete package of different solutions for dog obedience training. No matter what city you are located, Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, or Dover Pa., you can easily find a dog training professional help right in your locality.

If you visit one of these dog training websites you will be amazed at the amount of informative resources you have at your disposal, and at no expense at all. You can find more information about the particular breed of your dog, its peculiarities, food habits, and all other such stuff that will come in handy when you maintain a pet in your house.

Typically, different training course are offered on these websites that are aimed at meeting different owner and pet dog requirements. For instance, training techniques and courses significantly are different for dogs of different breeds and age groups. The best part is that you can also do corrective behavioral changes for your dog using these training courses no matter how much you have spoiled your pet.

How to Choose the Right AdWords Courses Online?

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AdWords courses are available online to make one familiar with basic as well as advanced ad-based marketing strategies. Learn about the tips to find best AdWords training courses among those available online.

AdWords might appear a complicated tool to the beginners in online advertising campaigns and the fact for this tool being complicated can’t be completely overlooked. Growing competition among online business holders can further make it difficult for the beginner level AdWords subscribers to make fair use of this tool. To tackle this problem, one can think of pursuing one of the AdWords courses available online. Go through the discussion below to learn about how to choose an AdWords course.

Need of AdWords Courses

One can feel the need of participating in an AdWords course for the following reasons:
– Not obtaining right returns on the investment after using AdWords campaign.
– For targeting the audiences belonging to different geographical areas.
– To target the audiences speaking different languages.
– To learn about right keyword selection and also, the techniques to create more ad groups.
– Most importantly, to exist in the tough competition, as most of the webmasters are interested in AdWords campaigns these days.

Factors for Right Selection

In order to choose the right AdWords course, there are few factors that must be considered by an AdWords subscriber. Here are few tips that can help you in this direction:

Consider the company offering the AdWords course and make sure that it has good industry experience.

Evaluate the expertise of teachers who will be providing you the information on various AdWords topics.

Take a look at the content of the course that must include topics like how AdWords work, how to make comprehensive keyword research, what are the management skills for AdWords campaigns, how to control you cost and budget on AdWords campaigns.

Consider the duration of the course and make sure that you are not wasting time in prolonged course schedules.

Finally, consider the fees demanded by the course provider. A good idea is to compare the fees of various online AdWords courses and choose the one offering best at reasonable prices. Take recommendations from experts on this.

Putting little extra towards AdWords courses can actually help you to get best returns on AdWords campaign investment. However, it is equally important to choose the right online AdWords course and reap the benefits.