How Working from Home Can Affect Your Personality

You are consistently striving to improve your personality; after all, who isn’t? Now, you have started thinking about the work at home concept a bit seriously. However, you are worried. You are worried that this kind of life could affect your outgoing personality. You fear you may become an introvert, and scared of mingling with other people in society. You think you will lose your confidence and self-esteem as well. How far is this true? Can working at home have such negative repercussions on your personality?

 

The truth is, actually, exactly the opposite. While you are busy getting skeptical about what might home if you switch over to a work at home life, the truth is that you might just regain your lost confidence. When you are working outside, you are working under someone else’s directions, and someone else constantly monitors you. Though you have accepted this kind of life so far, you are tired of it now. You want to be your own person. That is the reason why you are considering a work at home opportunity in the first place.

 

When you look into the affairs of your little work at home business yourself, and earn money for things that you have created from scratch, the fulfillment is beyond description. You gain a supreme level of confidence. You know that you are able to do things. In fact, you might find within yourself abilities and capabilities that you were never sure you had before.

 

While you surge ahead with more conviction, you also gain a large amount of creative fulfillment. Here you have managed everything related to the business. In fact, you have created something out of your own hands. You have nurtured it and it grows in front of your eyes. You see it taking shape. This gives you a sense of satisfaction.

 

This inner confidence and sense of fulfillment that wells up within you spills out as well. When you move out with other people, they are likely to see this exuberance within you. They know that you have the satisfaction of being self-made, and it definitely rubs off on your personality. Also, when you are able to generate money instead of just earn it; the pride that you develop in yourself cannot be expressed in words.

 

Therefore, do not have qualms about whether or not you should quit your job and start working from home. Even if it means that you have to slog it out a bit at the start, this is a worthy effort. Among other things, you get a dazzling personality that you will captivate everyone you know with. 

 

How to Enhance Your Productivity When You Are Working from Home

People who are working from home have many benefits. They can work as per their preferred timings, they can be with their family most of the time, they can take breaks whenever they want, they do not have to worry what they would do if they fell sick or simply felt too tired and so on. But, while there are many advantages of working from home, there are also some pitfalls. It is possible that you start taking things lightly and find later on that your productivity is hampered. Since, you are responsible to yourself when you are working from home, this should not happen. You need to monitor yourself. Here are some tips that can help you.

 

1.  Set daily goals for yourself. There will be a main goal you are trying to focus on, but, all the same, you should try to have mini goals along the way as well. Sit down and think what you will try to achieve today. This is your goal for the day. It helps you keep focus. It helps you keep going. However, of course, you have to try your best not to deviate from it… you have to achieve what you have set for yourself for the day.

 

2.  Work according to a schedule. You might find this difficult at first, but slowly it becomes a habit. When you get up each morning, plan your day. Think what you will accomplish by midmorning, by noon and by dusk. Make sure to keep some ‘me-time’ and some ‘family-time’ as well. You need them to keep going.

 

3.  Analyze your peak time. Everyone has a peak time somewhere during the day where they can do work that is more productive. For some people, this time in the early morning; for others it is the afternoon. Some other people feel more rejuvenated to work in the evening. Everyone has their peak times that they need to work according to, if they want to be more productive. See where your peak time lies.

 

4.  Eliminate the distractions. Try allocating a work area for yourself within the home, and let everyone else know this is your ‘office’. If you give everyone at home enough time, they are likelier to give you your ‘work time’ as well. When you are working in your home office, ensure that you only work and do not waste time doing nonproductive things on your computer. Having a special work area in your home helps you to achieve that.

 

These are some tips that can help you become more productive. Implement them and start a new lease of a more successful ‘work-at-home’ life. 

 

How to Project Yourself Positively to a Listener

When you are talking with someone, you may sometimes consciously try to create a favorable impression on the listener. This is more likely to happen when you are speaking with the person for the first time, or if you have some kind of interest in the person. It becomes highly important to you to come across as a good person at such times. Here are some tips that might help you to achieve that.

 

1.  When in conversation, make a conscious attempt to not just say what you want but also to listen to what the other person is saying. Not just that, you also have to make sure that you pay attention, ask relevant questions, and put in the right kind of expressions. You need to make the other person feel important, and it does not cost you anything. Making people feel important is a good way of impressing them.

 

2.  When you are speaking of your positive points, you should never do so openly. Do not be too elaborate about your achievements. Say them, but say them in a matter of fact way. Do not make a big deal out of them.

 

3.  When they are speaking about a positive trait of theirs, do not completely ignore what they say. Hear it out and then decide on its merit how you would want to react. Does it sound like bragging? If it does, you can probably ignore it completely. Is it something that deserves to be praised? If yes, then go ahead and give a small compliment, but do not fuss about it.

 

4.  It is a good idea sometimes to speak about your shortcomings as well. It makes you seem more human and the other person may appreciate you for being a frank and upfront person. There is also the fact that they feel they are not alone; there are other people with limitations as well. However, be sure not to go overboard here. If you give the impression that you have many failings, then people are bound to get a very low impression of you.

 

5.  It is also important to have the right stance when you are listening. Try to look at the other person in the eye as often as you can, because that gives the impression that you are paying attention to them. Do not do things with your fingers or hair that makes you seem distracted. Give the right reactions when needed. Everyone likes an attentive audience.

 

Keep these things in mind when trying to create a favorable impression on someone who is listening to you. Implement them in your next conversation and see how they can help you in impressing them.

 

How to Make the Most of Communication

Wherever we go, we are inundated with communication. By the spoken word, we communicate with the people we meet, the people we speak with on the phone and even the people on the radio, the television and the movies. But that is just a very small part of the communication we are faced with on a daily basis. We are also constantly communicating with people in the written medium. Whatever we read—in books, newspapers, magazines and even on the labels of the products that we buy—is communication. And, don’t even get us started with the humongous amount of communication possibilities that exist on the Internet!

 

However, studies reveal that not all people respond to communication in the same manner. There are people who are more responsive to communication, and these people are those that eventually become better-informed and even more successful, while there are people who ignore most of the communication that comes their way. These are the people who miss out on a great and free way of personal development.

 

If you are planning to make the most of it, the one thing you have to bear in mind is to be receptive. Whatever form anyone is trying to communicate with you in, you have to be able to receive that input. If someone is speaking with you, open your ears wide to listen. If you are reading something, open your eyes wide. Most importantly, keep your brain open at all times. Receive all the information that you get and try to store as much of it as you can.

 

You can do this effectively by enhancing your input channels and downplaying the output ones. In spoken conversations, the simplest way to do this is to listen more and speak less. When you listen more, you are inputting information into your brain, and you are not spending more energy by talking, which is a form of output of information. When you are reading, however, the bulk of your communication is input. That is the reason why reading is such an important part of a child’s education—it is an almost 100% form of knowledge and information input, quite unlike other forms of communication that prevail.

 

This is one of the most essential things that you have to bear in mind if you are trying to make the most of communication. Communication is a two-sided affair, but there are ways in which you can make it work better to your advantage. 

 

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

Good communication stems from this adage—Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you take care of it in your conversation, you will find that you become a better speaker and eventually people start viewing you as a better person.

 

There are two aspects of this adage. Maybe you don’t quite understand how this line is relevant on the whole, but when you break it down into its two distinct parts, then you are better able to understand the message that it is trying to convey.

 

Saying What You Mean

 

For a person aspiring to be a good conversationalist, this is of utmost importance. You have to always say things that you truly mean. Using words just for the sake of them is something you should never indulge in. It is quite all right to be a person of a few words, but you have to make sure that you mean these words well. By extrapolation, you have to make sure that you don’t say anything that you don’t mean. Don’t say anything that you will regret later. Remember that most of the hurt in the world has come from ill-used words; wrong words that were used in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Before saying something important, it is quite all right to take a little breather and think over what you want to say. Don’t blurt things out. It is always wise to do a little thinking first. If you have time, you could think how to properly word a particular thing so that it has a better effect. This is an art, and our English language is so vast that there is a word for almost everything that doesn’t sound impolite or rude.

 

Keep in mind that you will always be held accountable for what you say. So that you don’t have to eat humble pie later, it is better to say only things that you truly mean, things that you will stand testimony for at any point in future.

 

Meaning What You Say

 

This is the more difficult part of the conversation. This is the part where you are supposed to take action. When you have said something, you need to stand by it. You have to put it into action if you have said it. That’s what this part refers to.

 

A person’s real worth is seen in how they are able to stand for their words. Indeed, spoken words hold no real value unless and until they are implemented. And that is the reason why people want you to mean what you say. You are not allowed to just say things without being aware of the repercussions. On the other hand, if you say something and then are able to stand by it, you gain everyone’s respect. 

 

What to Remember When in Conversation

When we are deep in conversation with someone, it is so easy to forget how to behave! True, when we are totally engrossed in something, we don’t realize that there are a few things that need to be kept in mind. Conversation etiquette is a very important aspect of personality development. Perhaps the person speaking with you—the other end of the conversation—may not realize your demeanor, but if there is someone else listening in on the conversation, they are likely to make a judgment.

 

So, what is conversation etiquette? What are the things that you need to keep in mind, though it is very difficult to do that during a conversation? Here they are…

 

Listen More Than You Talk

 

One of the chief aspects of conversation etiquette is that you have to listen more than you talk. Give the other person a chance to say what they want to say. Hear it out completely. Don’t interrupt in between unless you need some elaboration on something.

 

Don’t Shoot Off Your Own Trajectory

 

A very irritating habit during conversation is when people start telling their own tales right in the middle of something someone else is telling them. You say something to your friend, and then your friend starts giving an example from their own life! You should make a definite effort not to do this. Your own life is colorful to you, but at the moment someone else is sharing something with you. Hear them out completely and give them valuable inputs where needed. Your own story can wait.

 

Remember Details

 

It is very important to be attentive when talking with someone. You cannot afford to miss out on the details. When they are saying something, it is very impolite to ask them what they are talking about! Though human memory is what it is, you cannot cite your poor memory as a reason all the time.

 

React According to Situation

 

Be ready with the right reactions… surprise, disgust, happiness, anger, etc. Every story that someone tells you needs a reaction. Don’t be too reticent about expressing your emotions. People want reassurance in the form of your emotions. 

 

Don’t Start Patronizing or Advising

 

Unless called upon to do so, you should never dole out advice during a conversation. When someone tells you something, most times they just want a pair of ears. That gives them enough liberation. But if you start dishing out advice, it might be taken in the wrong way. Give advice only when someone asks you for it.

 

These are the basic rules you have to remember when you are in conversation with someone. Basically, be a decent, attentive person who shows their expressions when someone is talking with them. That’s what’s expected of a listener anyway. 

 

About Improving Yourself for Your Teenage Children’s Development

Among the different aspects of improving children, a very profound way is to try and improve oneself. Many experts have spoken about how it is important that parents first try and remove the negative traits from themselves if they want their children to improve. And this is all the more important when the child is at an impressible age such as the teenage. 

 

A teenager is easily influenced by what their parents do. If the father smokes or comes home drunk, the teenager might feel that this is all acceptable behavior. The teenager will certainly begin to emulate that. Things may not happen when the child is still living with parents but in later life, when he becomes a father himself, he might think it is all right to come home drenched in booze.

 

Whatever you do today is going to affect your children’s future lives. That includes all your positive and negative behavior. Even a seemingly minor thing like arguing with your spouse over who brings in the newspaper each morning can leave its indelible impression on a teenager’s life. For, the teenager will grow up thinking that such arguments are commonplace, they can happen and will happen, and that could lead to discord in their future life.

 

This will sound very difficult, but if you want to improve your teenager’s present and future life, you have to give them a totally positive environment at home. You have to teach them the values you want them to grow up with, and you have to ensure that you abide by those values yourself. You cannot expect to just be a preacher. You have to practice what you preach.

 

Positive values such as hard-work and integrity are also passed on from parents to children most emphatically during their teenage years. If a son sees his father slogging at work, he will respect people’s dedication to work. If a daughter sees her mother doing everything she can to run her house, she is going to have those values in her later years as well.

 

This is how you can teach your children the most valuable lessons in life when they are teenagers… by living them yourself. There is no other way to go about it. If you don’t abide by what you want to teach your children, then they aren’t going to adopt it into their lives, come what may. 

 

Learning from Your Children—A Quintessential Form of Self-Improvement

There are a lot of ways in which you can develop yourself. People who are on a constant quest of self-improvement always keep looking at avenues that they can use to enhance themselves. They look at the people around them and learn. And a very important resource here is one’s own children. There are people who look forward to learning from their children, and improve themselves in the process.

 

For a very significant portion of your life, you are teaching your children various aspects of existence. You educate them, your train them in the basic skills, you enable them to become good fits for the society they are living in and so on. But then, there comes a time when your children start growing beyond you. They are more abreast with the rapidly changing technology; and that is one reason for that. There is also the fact that children are younger than their parents, and their younger minds are more receptive to knowledge and information. It is not at all surprising when we see a father-son team and find out that the son is the better-informed of the two.

 

Parents who look forward to learning from their children start quite early, right from the schooling days of the children. Now, there might be many things you learned and forgot, many things you just didn’t learn because they weren’t invented back them. Learning along with your child is like going back to school, but a school that has revamped itself according to the contemporary times.

 

Every step of the way, your trysts with your children could be a learning process. Even when you are just trying to handle your kid, you are learning new aspects of qualities such as patience, compassion and understanding. You are developing in the process. When you are teaching your child to become responsible, you are becoming more responsible yourself.

 

Learning from your children isn’t all about seeking the new knowledge and information that they have amassed because of the big advantage that they are living in present times; it is also that you are learning how to develop your personality. A lot of people become more confident when they move with their children. They feel pride in their children’s achievements and it improves their demeanor as well. These are all different aspects of self-improvement that can happen in being spending time with your children. 

 

Which Parental Approach Is the Best?

For first time parents, it becomes very difficult to choose among the various approaches at parenting that they hear. Some parents are quite strict with their children while others are more laidback. There are all kinds of parents, and to confuse matters more, there is no uniformity in the way their children grow up to be. Why, even within the same house, siblings can turn out to be radically different from each other! So, what form of parenting should you choose?

 

If you decide to be a very strict parent who puts a lot of restrictions on their children, the whole thing may backfire. Such forms of parenting worked in the medieval periods, when children didn’t know better. They weren’t exposed to anything apart from what went on in their own family and, of course, there was a much-stinted view of family values that let such behavior be accepted. Today’s children are better aware of what goes on around them. If parents are too restrictive, they may possibly rebel.

 

At the same time, it doesn’t work being a very laidback parent either. Children are going to pick up the wrong habits along the way and it becomes important to you to correct them. You may even have to admonish them at times. Fail at that, and the children may grow up to be wrong and then they may blame you for not showing them the right path.

 

Though there is nothing like a foolproof method of parenting, it is important to avoid the extremes. Don’t be too strict and don’t be too lenient either. You have to walk on the middle path. You have to show your children what’s wrong when they err and you have to reward them when they do something commendable. This is the form of parenting that you have to emulate. This is the most practical approach, the situation-based approach. You don’t decide in advance how you are going to react. You take things at a time and then you behave as per the situation. 

 

How to Develop Yourself as a Parent

You may be expecting too much from your children, want your children to do things in a particular way, but in that you may have lost sight of the most important fact. And that is, there might be shortcomings within you that are keeping you away from becoming a good parent. Are there any such pitfalls? You have to realize them when there is still time and improve upon them. This is what can keep you developing as a better parent.

 

Your children will try to emulate you, consciously and subconsciously. Many of their developmental aspects are going to depend on your personality. For example, if you behave in society in a particular way, your children are very likely to behave in the same manner as well. This is because of exposure. Children become like what they are exposed to because they don’t know of any other way. When they learn the options they have in later life, it is too late for them to change themselves. That is the reason why people from a family tend to behave in a similar manner.

 

There are many such traits that children directly or indirectly pick up from their parents. Some of these include honesty, diligence to work, way of interacting with people, money-mindedness, love and affection, behavior with friends, etc. Every minute of your life you are training your children on these aspects, and most times you don’t even realize you are.

 

For instance, if a storekeeper gives you some money by mistake and you return it, children learn the value of honesty. They understand that they should not keep what is not theirs. When they see you working hard, they realize that hard work is important. When they see you helping your friends, they realize friends are important. These are lessons you are giving out to your children at all times.

 

Hence, if you want your children to be better individuals, maybe you need to improve yourself first. When you work in these positive values within yourself, your children are going to see the results of those values, see that they are good, and then try to incorporate those values in their own lives. They are going to become better individuals just because their parents were better people. So, you know now where the real training for your child begins—within yourself as their parent.