Listening, the essence of good communication!

Do you know how important is the role of listening is in an effective communication? Read on further to find out how listening is important to be a Rock Star Performer!

Listening plays a very crucial role in a good conversation. Your communication skills too improve with effective listening. Irrespective of the fact that whether you are one of the best communicators or trying to be one, practice patient listening to hone up your communicating skills.

Good listening makes communication more productive. A person's ability to patiently listen to the conversation gives him a better understanding of the situation. He is more involved in the communication process and actively participates in further discussions. Active listening helps the person to carefully analyze the situation and act accordingly. It also helps the person to read between the lines and decode hidden meanings or motives of the speaker.

Take a simple example of a workplace. If an employee actively listens to his boss' instructions, he is able to deliver the results better since he understands well what he is expected to do. It helps him build up a good rapport with his team and resolve issues better.

Similarly, effective listening plays a very crucial role in our everyday activities. People often ask how to improve listening skills? Here are some quick tips to practice listening in order to communicate well.

Always make an eye contact, whether you are listening or speaking. And eye contact with the speaker makes him feel that you are involved. It reflects your self confidence and also your level of participation.

As far as possible, do not interrupt the speaker. Doing so might disrupt the flow of communication. Listen carefully and sit still. It's very important to remain active while the speaker is conversing. Always remember that your body language speaks a lot about your level of participation. Keep nodding your head while you are listening and understanding. Further, when the speaker has finished, you can now ask appropriate questions and clear your doubts, if any.

During the conversation, being attentive also helps you understand the non-verbal cues, since they form a very crucial part of effective communications. Look for non verbal hints like facial expressions etc to understand the speaker.

In fact, these will not only help you understand better but also make the speaker feel that he is being heard. It will demonstrate that you're actively participating by paying attention to him. In this way, the speaker also makes an extra effort to make things clearer by detailing further. Always remember, good communications start with effective listening.

30 Seconds or Bust! The Key To Good Communication

Today, we will touch briefly on communication and some tips that will help you get the results you need.

Extraordinary Communication

Rock Star Performers with extraordinary communication are hard to find. Those that have it can nail it every time. Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan (in his prime) and Barak Obama are great examples of people who have mastered communication and how they deliver messages.

It has been said that Bill Clinton can enter a room and the entire room can sense his presence.

I have experienced this myself a number of times with people who have high levels of confidence in themselves.

People are drawn to you almost trance like. That is amazing Rock Star Performer quality

Waffle Leads to "A-Ha", "Oh", "Mmmm" Moments

Regardless of whether you are promoting or selling something or about to share an experience, please get the point quickly and go into more detail once the receiver is engaged. There is nothing worse than a whole story being told before the communicator has got to their point and you have drifted off so much that you the only way you can respond is with a "A-ha, oh, mmmm" because you have no clue what they said, due to having gone through that evening's shopping list or visualizing how good a cold beer would be right now.

Make Someone Feel Like They Are Important

When you engage with someone, there is so much power in being present with them. Really look at them. It will make them feel like the only person in the room and that they are important. Rock Star Performers do this all the time.

Be A Better Communicator - 7 Tips To Successful Communication

• Studied and watch some of speeches of Clinton, Obama, people you admire and see if you can gain some insight that can improve how you engage people
  

• Great communicators love meeting and being with people. Learn to overcome shyness.

• Do exercises to increase your confidence and self esteem

• Focus on the person you are with and not the person who just walk by or caught your eye

• The dress the way you want to be perceived

• Learn to get your point across in 30 seconds

• Ask friends for feedback / video yourself giving a presentation or speech

One last point for today - Good communication is also about knowing when not to talk. We will go into more detail on that next time when look at Listening.

What are your Biggest Challenges?

We all have challenges, some big, some small. I would love to hear from you about your challenges and I will do my best to address them in future articles:

• Do you want to information on dating or How to be when you've meet Mr or Miss Right?
• How to dump Mr or Miss Wrong?
  
• How to have a better relationships? 
• Want to start you own business? 
• Change career or climb?
  
• Are you stressed out?
• Want to learn more about how to plan and structure your life?

Let me know..... Until next time....

Janet

Jessica Watson is an Inspiration!

I sat Saturday in front of the TV for over 4 hours waiting for Jessica Watson to land and boy, was the wait worth it.

Jessica had just returned from sailing solo around the world for 7 months. What makes this story even more amazing is that she only turns 17 today!

K-Rudd heralded her as a hero, Premier Kristina Kenneally lay on a great welcome home, (by the way Kristina, I'm now thinking of voting for you in the next election. Can you be an Independent please? :), Sydney Harbour showed why it is one of the world's most breath taking visual experiences in the world.

After all the fanfare and back patting, Sandra Sully had officially closed the welcome home ceremony and then the most powerful moment of the entire 7 months and 4 hours took place.

Jessica grabbed the microphone and asked if she could say something. What she said should be printed out and given to every 10 year old (plus), laminated, across the globe -

"I don't consider myself a hero, I'm an ordinary girl," she said.

"You don't have to be someone special to achieve something amazing, you've just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard. I'd like to think I've proved that anything really is possible if you set your mind to it."

"People don't realise what young people, and what young girls are capable of, and it's amazing when you take away those expectations what you can achieve."

I hope that every young girl and boy, every old girl and boy! heed Jessica's words. If you can think it, then you can make it happen.... the next time you want to give up on a dream, then think of Jessica's achievement!

Remember, if your desire is deep add discipline, determination and take action until you make it come true!

Laminate in front as I type!

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Are You a Rock Star Performer?

Regardless of the industry you are in, you can have Rock Star Power! Now, I'm not talking the Hollywood celebrity kind, I'm referring to the people who tend to give extraordinary service with their work and with those around them.

You influence, you love what you are doing, and it radiates out from you. You are the kind of person that does more than expected; you are likeable and people want to be around you.

Do you have Rock Star Power?

I'd be interested to hear what your immediate response was. As a lot of us generally don't think we have it, yet we all innately possess it! 65% of the population would admit to being shy and we live from a self imposed script due to it. Your inner Rock Star is hidden. So what other qualities does a Rock Star Performer have and can you awaken them within?

Desire

Your desire to succeed is so strong that you can taste and feel the end result. Want to set up your own business? If you have a deep burning desire to succeed then you will sit up past midnight after everyone else has gone to bed to develop that business plan, do some research, write an article. Rock Star Performers see no other result than the end goal.

Determination

Rock Stars push past any bumps and pitfalls along the way including failed attempts! It is well know that most millionaires have lost their money several times over and yet they don't let failure stop them from dusting down and starting again.

Discipline

A Rock Star Performer follows through to the end. They perfect their art or way of doing something and act from that all the time. They also learn constantly and adjust behaviours according to any knowledge gained

Action

If the desire is deep, you will take action each and every day to attain your goal. You will get up before dawn to educate, read, call the other side of the world, visual or meditation on your success. You know what you need to do. You are crystal clear on the outcomes and you construct your day to include tasks that will get you there. A true Rock Star will also have that work / life / health / spiritual balance as they know the importance of it.

So how are you going so far? Does the above ring true for you? Has it awoken aspects of yourself that you didn't recognise or desire to have again? Hope so...!

Next week I'm taking you further down the path of living in your Rock Star power by touching on the two other qualities that you must have to be a huge success - communication and listening. Check back then!

Want Great Looking Skin? miessence® Organic Skin Care Range

My dear friend Brad Bowden of Shine Organics is an entrepreneur who I've had the pleasure of coaching for 2 years now. He has Rock Star Power - he's determined, likes his thinking to be challenge and he is constantly thirsting for knowledge and growth.

Brad has always been interested and passionate about health and wellbeing. In 2007 he became aware of the miessence® certified organic range. He spent weeks sampling and researching the products before signing up as a miessence® independent representative.

Through his online business Shine Organics, Brad's goal is: To create an environment where I bring happiness to others through a change in their consciousness; whilst bringing a balanced organic awareness that enables others to experience a healthy lifestyle and spiritual harmony, with themselves and the planet.

The product range is great. It can do wonders for your skin. Check it out Brad's Website at Shine Organics

Want to Awaken Your Rock Star Power?

Looking for a life or business transformation? Want to learn how to push past your barriers? Overcome self sabotage? Take up the opportunity to have a complimentary coaching session with me and let's see how we can make that happen! Click on Contact Me. To book your session.

Until Next Time....

Happy Playground....

Janet

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"Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to keep a promise." We must have written or set goals for a number of things in our lives, but how many times have we been able to actually follow through them, only to nod our heads in sadness for not accomplishing them. According to the basic human psychology, when we set goals, we subconsciously forego them because we are not committed to them. On the other hand, we make promises to keep them, mostly because failing a promise may lead to bigger embarrassments. Thus before we make any commitment, we have to think whether we are making a promise or not.

People often go to varying lengths to fulfill their promises. For example, if you have promised your boy friend to get back into that seductive looking dress that he just presented and which is a size less, then you may look for a variety of options including weight loss pills. However, if you have not made a promise and only set a goal, you may shilly-shally the entire issue and just pass it off without much ado.

Goals are nothing but directions that we set and try reach or follow. We should not grieve much if we are unable to follow the goals or the milestones that we have set. A better way would be to continue positioning the goals and strive to reach them. In contrast, according to some people, when you promise something, you are motivated by that ‘negative' emotion which drives your inner self to fulfill the promise, especially if the promise has been made in public. Basically you are liable for its failure or success. Upon success you will reward yourself or be rewarded by someone, and this could be the motivation. However, we cannot say the same for goals, which can be easily erased from our memory.

Now, if you are in a business network, what are the key components of branding and social media? It is the promise that you make to your customers in order to achieve maximum sales. Your way of delivering the products, your representatives for business and the way your customers are treated, are the critical aspects of delivering that promise. But when you are advertising for your brand, your goal is to grab the attention of a customer and create such visual impressions that a response is prompted instantly. So, for a successful branding strategy, you are using both the factors of making a promise and reaching the goals.

When you were a child, you must have definitely shrieked, "But you promised!" It is that agony of cry which is often flung at the adults by their children. And this accusation of "You promised!" cuts you deeply as somewhere in our sub-conscious mind we know the importance of keeping that promise. This is perhaps one of the reasons why we take those vows in a marriage.

The bottom line is that we are supposed to keep the promises as they are sacred, while goals can be shifted according to the circumstances.

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Janet McNally is a budding entrepreneur, life coach, business coach, motivational speaker and broadcaster. She is the Founder of Life Playground a place dedicated to inspiring other into take action through a number of self development and Life, Executive Life and Small Business Owner Coaching  programs offered.

Janet is currently in the process of setting up a number start up small business together with her business partner. Her new venture is called page1hit. page1hit is business dedicated to helping small or start up businesses generate leads for their business throught the use of low cost online videos and online effective channels of distribution.

They both had career change as one of their objectives for coming to life coaching. Both were keen to live the "2nd Half" of life doing something that motivated them.

Now that the universe has given them a gentle nudge in that career change direction, the world of pure potential has opened up for them. From a Life& Business Coaching perspective, we are now working on making that dream come true and both have achieved some tremendous results already.

The following is some personal and client insight into what you can do to lessen those fears in these times, things you probably already know but always worth being reminded of:

7 steps you can take to deal with the stress of losing your job?

1. Immediately work out your budget - what does it cost for you to live per month?
2. From there, work out how long you can afford not to earn - this will then help you decide whether now is the time for you to pursue a career change
3. Where can you make cutbacks in your spending? some? Implement cutbacks immediately! i.e. that gym membership you never use... Put on hold...
4. Who are your mentors? Call them and seek advice
5. Go visit your Life Coach, Healer, do something that is grounding and good for you
6. Who is in your inner circle and your greater network of friends, classmates, colleagues, etc. that can help you find a job? Who of them can help you? Learn to use to use your network!
7. If you want a career change, do you have the skills already or do you need to skill up? Start looking up courses

One last insight for those dealing with change... Go visit a Playground...! Get on a swing, see-saw, climbing frame... Go nuts and bring out the child like wonder within! Have some fun at this time. A night out with you best friends is another way to let your hair down... The hangover on the morning after... Ah well... You'll get over that too!

"Life's a Playground, not a Prison... Live as you Truly Desire..."

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Janet McNally is a budding entrepreneur, life coach, business coach, motivational speaker and broadcaster. She is the Founder of Life Playground a place dedicated to inspiring other into take action through a number of self development and life coaching programs life coaching programs offered.

Janet is currently in the process of setting up a number start up small business together with her business partner. Her new venture is called page1hit. page1hit is business dedicated to helping small or start up businesses generate leads for their business.

All men they say are created equal. Is it true? Well no man would seem to think so. And looking around you will not find it to be true. But practically it actually is not true. We are all unique individuals, who are gifted in unique but differing ways to excel in life. So what can be said with certainty is the fact that all men have it in them to strive for and achieve seemingly impossible goals... Just like we did as children...

If you are skeptical about this, just think back of times a mere two hundred years. Would the average man on the street anywhere in the world, be able to visualize or believe that a time would come that man would move around the world in self propelled vehicles at what would seem to him, incredible speeds; would he believe that airplanes made out of steel would transport man to the four corners of the world? Would he for the life of him believe that it was possible for man to travel to the moon and back safely in a space vehicle?

Are you getting the drift? Fifty thousand years back man had very little separating him from the rest of the animal kingdom, save his ability to think and plan, and look where it got him. You might have always wanted to fly, but were afraid to train to be a pilot because you had vertigo. How could you think of flying? Yet there was something that attracted you to it. Chances are that minus your phobia you would have made a damn good pilot. So you did not apply for the test, and let the opportunity pass you buy. Little did you know that vertigo does not strike in an enclosed space like an airplane. There are so many pilots who suffer from it.

The only thing that stops us from going out there and pursuing our dreams is our lack of self belief. "How can I possibly do that?" Well, you won't know until you try and do it.

What is it that makes some people with seemingly far limited capabilities surge ahead of others. They did not pay attention to whatever it was that the others thought they lacked. Instead they focused on their goal, and found out the best way to achieve it. They left the analyzing and doubting to the others who got left behind.

As a Life & Motivation Coach, I can share that self sabotage and self limiting beliefs are the root of the reason why people are not attaining their dreams, goals and ideas. Hence why I bring the child-like wonder of yesteryear into my life & motivation coaching ie... As a child in the playground, we believed we could be anything that we wanted to be!

Who would have thought, perhaps even two years back that a black man with a foreign father, and a middle name Hussein would occupy the Oval office at White House? Not one man on Planet Earth, but Barack Obama himself. He always had it in him. What did he call his autobiography - The Audacity of Hope. We should all have it. Forget we can't do it. Remember, yes we can!

There are people who do not want their mortal remains disposed of after death but frozen and preserved in nitrogen chambers, so that many years in the future, when mankind has achieved mastery over death, they may be revived and get a second shot at life.

What can be more indicative of the resilient human spirit?

For everybody the sky and beyond is the limit. Is it time for you to bring the child-like wonder back into your life?

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Janet McNally is a entrepreneur, life coach, business coach, motivational speaker and broadcaster. She is the Founder of Life Playground a place dedicated to inspiring other into take action through a number of self development and Page1hit , a new business committed to web presence and lead generation for small to medium sizes businesses.

"Life's a Playground, not a Prison... Live as you Truly Desire..."

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For some of us out there we are coming to that dreaded time of year: Valentines Day or Sad-Times Day as I like to call. In honour of the occasion, I've decided to step into my desired writer persona, Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw for the rest of this article.

Sad-Times's Day can bring trauma to many out there (women in particular). Why? Because they  think that there's a stigma to being single. This isn't help by some of those around. Noted stigma name callers include Aunties, work colleagues, all your married / partner friends, parents in denial for those you out there who are gay.

To make matters worse, Valentines Day falls on a Sunday this year so you can't even fake a romance by sending yourself flowers or chocolates to the office so the aforementioned work colleagues think you are have a secret you are holding back from them!

So What To Do?

Bringing it back to basics, Valentines can be seen as one big money making scheme with the love long gone. It gives retailers, hoteliers and restaurateurs a perfect excuse to mark up products and services by 25%-50%.

Being single actually means you are financially better off! Rejoice in your S!

No arguments over where to eat, dead flowers, liquor chocolates and best of all, you can actually get away with forgetting that it is Valentines Day. What more could you want in this GFC crisis we read about all the time?

Expressing Love

If expressing love is the true intent of Valentines, then may be we should live each and every day with love in your heart - for you, your loved ones and mankind. Don't wait for 1 day a year to make someone feel special...

"Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you. Now it means you're pretty sexy and you're taking your time deciding how you want your life to be and who you want to spend it with." - Carrie Bradshaw...

How to Survive Valentines Day as a Single Person- 9 Not Very Useful Tips...!

1. Eat ice cream
2. Delete all profiles and cancel subscriptions to dating websites
3. Eat BBQ chicken (no plate, hands only)
   
4. Watch Bridget Jones diary
5. Eat more ice cream with some vodka thrown in to feel like Bridget Jones
6. Buy Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred to get back in to shape (this DVD works miracles for the waistline)
7. Have 1 last scoop of ice cream
8. Go out with some of your fellow single friends and cool partnered up couples and have some fun!
9. Come home and eat the remaining BBQ chicken followed by another last scoop of ice cream
   

Remember that you are fabulous regardless of whether you are single or married... Have a great Valentines one and all...

Janet 

Even though Oprah will still make her voice heard through her television channel and magazine, Oprah's talk show will be gone from our lives. Oprah's phenomenal success has prompted many studies about why she is so popular. The reason that we will miss Oprah is best summed up in this way: Oprah connected with people who were sitting at home alone watching television during the afternoon. She took those isolated people and let them hear the stories of other people, both famous and ordinary. Oprah is a fantastic and empathetic listener. Through her, her viewers get to see that every stranger on the street has a story to tell.

Oprah has touched a chord in the hearts of the entire world. She is popular in the United States but also has a huge following abroad, especially in countries where women are oppressed such as Saudi Arabia. Over the years, Oprah has brought a lot of sensitive issues to light and let people discuss taboos on the air. For instance, throughout her career she has always actively campaigned for equal rights for gays. In the eighties, before it became fashionable, she took her show to West Virginia town that has ostracized an openly gay resident with HIV.

Oprah took her talk show away from tabloid topics and put it in the heart of America. Her shows are about real people. Rather than the sensationalistic content of other daytime talk shows, Oprah likes to talk about self-improvement, spirituality, and even literature. Her book club has influenced the reading choices of millions of Americans for ten years. She picks both new books as well as classics such as East of Eden. She has a portion of her website called Favorite Things that endorses products Oprah likes that millions of other Americans have found that they also like.

It doesn't stop there. Oprah is also a major presence in philanthropy and runs a girls' school in South Africa with her own funds. She also has her Oprah's Angel Network that has given away over fifty million dollars in charitable contributions. Oprah uses her show as a vehicle to promote her philanthropic activities.

Oprah inspired me into take the leap of faith to becoming a life and business coach and then to step into becoming a budding entrepreneur! I guess I see her as a mentor. Although I didn't make my personal goal of appearing on her show by the time I was 40, I'm hoping that one day I will inspire her enough that she will ask me to be on her radio show instead!

When the Oprah show goes off the air, there will a hole in the lives of many Americans who have invited her into their homes for the past twenty five years. In so many ways Oprah portrays the real America, sentimental, imperfect, but with endless curiosity and a huge heart. She will be missed.

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Janet McNally is a entrepreneur, life coach, business coach, motivational speaker and broadcaster. She is the Founder of Life Playground a place dedicated to inspiring other into take action through a number of self development and Page1hit , a new business committed to web presence and lead generation for small to medium sizes businesses.

"Life's a Playground, not a Prison... Live as you Truly Desire..."