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Category: Personal (Page 1 of 63)

10 hints to write clearly (free ebook)

05/04/2023 /

HC3010536Diplomats, like many other professionals, have to write many different types of documents. Whatever the type — legislation, a technical report, minutes, a press release or speech — a clear document will be more effective, and more easily and quickly understood.

The European Commission (Directorate-General for Translation) has published a few years ago a simple guide titled with many useful and practical hints (not rules) on “how to write clearly“.

Here are the 10 hints included in the publication:
1. Think before you write
2. Focus on the reader
3. Get your document into shape
4. KISS:Keep It Short and Simple
5. Make sense
6. Cut out excess nouns
7. Be concrete, not abstract
8. Prefer active verbs to passive
9. Beware of false friends, jargon and abbreviations
10. Revise and check

The guide is available in all 23 official languages of the European Union.
You can find the online version here  (choose the preferred language)

Success or Happiness?

15/03/2023 /

Do you want to be successful or happy?

Are you successful so you feel happy? Our society leads us to think that success and happiness are the same things. But are we sure that success is the way for happiness? You can be a very sucessful person without being happy and you can also be happy although you have not attained any position, honor or power yet.

Stuff and status can be not enough to feel happy. If you are looking for your personal fullfillment success might not be the right answer.

According to Sarah Vermut how you personally define success and how you personally define happiness is entirely up to you. But you must recognize the difference!

Read more on Enterpreneur 

Success or happiness

Image source: Flickr – Anton Aymemì (CC – BY – NC – ND – 2.0)

Be resilient

08/03/2023 /

We often have to deal with changes, trasformation and adversities both in our daily life and in our career. That is why the concept of resilience – broadly defined as the ability to recover from setbacks, adapt to change, and keep going despite adversities – offers significant suggestions with regard to our behaviour. The importance of being resilient is clearly highlighted in this article which examines some elements essential to resilience.

Here are some significant tips to follow:

  • be always able to cope with change, stress and adversity;
  • consider both setbacks and successes as positive learning experiences;
  • view difficulties and challenges as opportunities to grow and evolve;
  • be able to adapt – and partially adjust – yourself but be ready, at the same time, to return to your original status;
  • be able to absorb energy when “elastically deformed” and later release and use that energy;
  • be able to absorb or avoid damage, without suffering complete failure;
  • be able to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of problems and challenges to normal operation.

Resilience

Image source: Flickr – Askew View Photo (CC-BY-ND 2.0)

Top 10 digital photography tips

03/02/2023 /

In today’s communication, pictures and photographs are more and more crucial for an effective result, both on the web and on paper.

Whether you are a beginner or more experienced with photography, here are some tips that will help you improve your photography:

  1. Use the Rule of Thirds
  2. Avoid Camera Shake
  3. Learn to use the Exposure Triangle
  4. Use a Polarizing Filter
  5. Create a Sense of Depth
  6. Use Simple Backgrounds
  7. Don’t Use Flash Indoors
  8. Choose the Right ISO
  9. Pan to Create Motion
  10. Experiment with Shutter Speed

And, finally, remember that is always better to invest more in learning and less on gear. You can take stunning photos that you’ll be proud of, even with a modest digital camera fitted with its standard zoom lens. But you can’t take such great photos without understanding the basics.

Take your digital photography to the next level with the full article.

Image: Photography – Evan (CC BY-ND 2.0) 

Self-esteem and success

07/09/2022 /

Self-esteem refers to the perception we have about our own worth and value. There are many ways to increase your self-esteem which is often related to success. The starting point for improving the consideration that you have of yourself is to get to be aware of  your strong points.

One of the posts of the blog Live your true story  indicates 7 easy exercises to boost our self-esteem:

  1. List 10 things the you love about yourself
  2. List 10 skills you possess
  3. List 5 achievements which you are proud of
  4. List 3 occasions where you have overcome adversity
  5. List 5 people who have helped you
  6. List 5 people whom you have helped
  7. List 50 things you appreciate about your life

Read the full post here

 

Image source: Pixabay

Successful attitude towards work with these 7 Soft-Skills

24/08/2022 /

“It is not the strongest or most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” – Charles Darwin

Soft skills represent the habits that can improve how you work with others and how they work with you. This article published on Forbes, sheds light on 7 important skills that will help you create a positive partnership with your colleagues.

  1. Adaptability: One must be ready to apply flexibility when dealing with critical situations.
  2. Teachability: Embrace criticism and be ready to proactively acting upon it, we always have something new to learn.
  3. Punctuality: Simple but crucial.
  4. Communication: This soft skill is a two-way street, it goes both ways. Make your messages clear and actively listen to what     others might say
  5. Service Mindset: Try and care for the people around you both coworkers and customers
  6. Proactivity: Use creative thinking to develop to prevent a reactive approach to work. Don’t always passively wait for new tasks.
  7. Ownership: Embrace responsibility.

 

Image source: Pixabay

 

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