Improve Your Vocabulary – Improve Your Life

 

Those of you who know me personally know that I love to read. One of the biggest advantages I have got from reading is that my vocabulary has improved tremendously and I have learnt many new words as a result. Developing a great vocabulary is one of the most overlooked ways to improve our lives. Many People believe that learning many words is only useful for writers and speakers, but the truth is that everyone benefits from it, both personally and professionally.

 

Vocabulary Improves Your Communication skills

Many people believe that the point of having a good vocabulary is to use fancy, arcane words. This is not the point of having a good vocabulary. In order to be effective communication has to be simple and straightforward. Having a good vocabulary is more than knowing a large amount of words. Rather, the point of having a good vocabulary is being able to choose words with greater precision. The funny truth is that the more words you know, the fewer you’ll need – and everyone knows the most valuable talent is never to use two words when one will do:-)

Think of your vocabulary as your “communication toolbox”, every word is a tool, ready to be used at the right time. Every time you grasp a new word, you end up with more than just a new tool, you understand the ones you already know better.

 

Increased vocabulary opens your mind

Another advantage of improving your vocabulary is that it opens your mind. People who possess a limited vocabulary have a much tougher time breaking out from old patterns of thought or questioning. By the same token, each new word you learn opens a new channel of thought, empowering you to think or take action in ways you could never have before.

 

Better Vocabulary = Better Results

There has been some research done on the impact of vocabulary on people’s lives. This research has drawn some amazing conclusions from a vast amount of tests and experiments, performed in more than 20 years of research.

A significant part the research done by Johnson O’ Conner observed successful people in many walks of life, trying to correlate their success with factors such as gender, age, scholarship levels and many others, including vocabulary level. He tested people on the most diverse activities, such as students about to take their SATs, engineers working in their areas of expertise, executives in large corporations and many others. He always found the same results, no matter which area he looked at, and no matter how he analyzed the data: a person’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success. WOW!

 

This is especially true for knowledge workers, that the determinant of their professional success depends entirely on their thinking and communication skills. If you analyze every activity you perform as a knowledge worker, you’ll always get down to either thinking or communicating.

Well, if words are tools for both thought and communication, it’s no surprise that those who master them have a much greater chance of success – not only professionally, but in their lives as a whole.

 

In my next post, I will be sharing a couple of ways to improve your vobaculary.

 

 

7 Tips to Being a Great Conversationalist

Over the years I have been told that I am easy to talk to and have good conversation skills. I guess that is because I am a peoples person, I just love meeting new people and having conversations with them on just about anything that may come up. It didn’t always used to be like this though, I have read a couple of books and been fortunate enough to know some brilliant conversationalists and learnt from them how to improve my own conversational and communication skills. How can you improve your conversational skills to become a welcome sight at every party and social event you attend? Here are some tips that might help.

1) Ask questions

The truth is that most people prefer to talk about themselves and are hardly interested to hear about the other person or people in the conversation. Asking non-threatening questions is a great way to start and refresh conversations. If you know someone moderately well then you should be aware of some of their interests so questions about these interests is a good way to start. As you get to know people better you can begin to ask more searching questions like “What is your greatest ambition in life?” or “What is the most challenging thing you have ever had to face?”

By asking questions you engage people and draw them in. It is said that small minds talk about people, moderate minds talk about events and great minds talk about ideas. By all means start the conversation with some small talk but once it is going be prepared to introduce some questions relating to issues and ideas.

 

2) Listen

A simple fact is that good conversationalists are good listeners. The key is to listen attentatively whether you are with one person or with a group of people. Also, when you listen you learn. When you are speaking you are not learning anything new. Make a conscious effort to focus on what people say. Show that you are genuinely interested by asking questions that support and develop the conversation; “What do you mean exactly?”, “What happened next?”, or “How did you feel about that?” I discussed more on this in a recent post called The Platinum Rule.

By listening and observing in a group situation you can time your contribution to bolster the current conversation or move it forward to something new and interesting. 

3) Give compliments

Remember to give compliments whenever you can, and do it sincerely because people will know if you are just trying to flatter them.  If someone looks smart or has lost weight or has a stylish new haircut then show that you have noticed by giving a genuine compliment. 

 

4) Keep yourself current with topical issues

It is important to keep up to date on key current issues and topics in the news, entertainment, sports and politics. You should be ready to comment with questions, ideas, facts and opinions on the issues that other people are interested in. You can do this by seeing a few of the latest movies, read some of the most popular books, read the newspapers, watch the news, keep up with some major sports stories and watch some TV – but not too much:-) You do not need to slavishly follow every program but if someone asks you what are your favourite TV programmes then you should be able to list some popular and serious program and justify what it is you like about them.

Make your points with conviction, evidence and, if possible, humour. In a social environment be careful not to become belligerent or cantankerous. In general it is best to avoid really sensitive or controversial topics especially if they risk offending people’s personal feelings.

 

5) Be Funny

One thing I love to do is make people laugh and also have a good laugh myself. There is a place for serious discussion and there is a place for humour, so be ready to contribute in either environment. Be bold enough to add your comments and witticisms and carefully watch peoples reactions to see whether you are hitting the right note. Have a stock of funny stories. Do not force them into the conversation but rather have them ready when you get the cue or when there is an opening to use them. Personal anecdotes relating to unusual experiences and misfortunes that have happened to you often go down well. Jokes, quotes and other people’s witty remarks can also be used sparingly and with acknowledgement. Remember to laugh at other people’s funny stories, even if you have heard them before, but never give away someone else’s punch line.

 

6) Speak Clearly

When you speak, say what you have to say with clarity and enthusiasm. Don’t mumble your words, or rush through them or whisper so quietly that people have to strain to hear them. Good conversationalists are clear, articulate, and easy to understand. They use interesting metaphors and visual images. Keep your sentences short and to the point. 

 

7) Enjoy yourself

Remember to just be yourself and don’t try to be anything that you are not. Relax and enjoy the occasion whatever it might be. People prefer to mix with the happy and good-natured rather than grumpy and miserable people. Have fun and really enjoy meeting new people at every opportunity.

7 Inspirational Obama Quotes

America has decided! Barack Obama wrote a new chapter into US history by becoming the first African-American elected president, capping a stunning rise to the White House and more importantly the Oval Office. With tenacious energy and verve, he took on the political establishment, defeating former first lady Hillary Clinton in the party primaries, overturned the perception that America was not ready to vote for a black president, and crushed the weight of the Republican attack machine. It was only four short years ago, that Obama was just a little-known charismatic Chicago politician with a big smile, who stunned the 2004 Democratic convention with a dazzling speech.

“There is not a black America, and white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America,” he proclaimed then.

It was a message he has used to ignite a new passion and excitement in a country angered by the economic crisis which has dragged down the world’s top economy and disgusted by the Iraq war.

In defying the odds, the 47-year-old senator has reshaped conventional wisdom on how to pay for a successful White House bid by harnessing the Internet as a powerful fund-raising tool. His campaign also put together a formidable grass-roots organisation, especially in key battleground states, which in the end gave him an unstoppable momentum towards the White House. What a great plan! The son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, Obama has sought to rise above the issue of race and project himself as the candidate for all Americans.

But his victory on Tuesday will remain bittersweet because the woman who raised him to believe he would be whatever he wanted to be passed away just hours before his crowning moment. His white maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, lost her battle with cancer in her home in Hawaii, never living to see Obama realise the aspirations of generations.

Below I found a couple of quotes of Barack Obama which are truly inspiring and motivating and thought I would share them with you, I hope you feel the same.

Purpose

“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”

Courage

“As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it.”

Potential

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

Destiny

“The true test of the American ideal is whether we’re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them.”
- speech, Jun. 4, 2005

Generations

“It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”

And my personal favourite…

Unity

“There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America — there is the United States of America”