|
The Pivotal Network Newsletter |
||||
|
Instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe are at the bottom of the ezine. Click here to view the ezine online Please feel free to forward this ezine to someone who might enjoy it.
Issue Number 32
Greetings from the Pivotal Network Resources for the times when you pivot – change direction – towards your personal best … Your personal best – it’s Pivotal!
Inspiration
"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom" by Marcel Proust Story: The Teddy After a car accident put me into the hospital, I felt very angry about a lot of the way my life was turning out. The doctors repaired the major damage done to my body. And after all, the car was just that, a car. But I was laying there feeling pretty sorry for myself. I didn't care to see anyone or talk to anyone. I had been there about a week, the nurses had been good about leaving my door closed. But one bright morning I was awakened by sounds of people out in the hallway. Since I was still feeling sorry for myself, I didn't wake up in a pleasant mood. As I pushed the button to call the nurse, I saw a little boy in the hallway. A cast completely covered his arm, from fingers to shoulder. His face was covered with a smile. In his other hand he was holding a teddy bear. I heard his mother telling him to sit and wait until she was done. He looked over to me and I had the permanent scowl on my face, but he smiled at me. Then without warning he came running into my room. As I was silently cursing the nurses for leaving my door open, the smile upon his face widened. He came right up next to my bed and stood there smiling at me. Then with his good arm he held out his big brown teddy bear. It was missing an eye but I had to admit it was cute. I layed there and stared at him for the longest time. Not knowing what he was wanting from me. He said, "This is Teddy. He's still sick. He needs to stay here. Could you keep him here till he gets better?" I reached out and took Teddy from his hand. I promised I would take care of Teddy until the time he got better. I also promised to keep him from harm afterwards. Just then the little boy's mother called to him. He looked back at me and said, "Bye mister, bye Teddy" and ran out of the room. His mother smiled down at him and the nurse wheeled him away. I sat there hugging Teddy for the longest time. The nurse responded to my call just in time to catch the tears rolling down my cheeks and the biggest smile on my face. I will never forget what that little boy gave to me that day. It was so much more than a well loved, one eyed teddy bear. I have kept my promises to that little boy too. I have kept Teddy close to me ever since that day in the hospital room, and I have kept that little boy close to my heart. Just recently I sent Teddy to the most special person in my life. She has the most incredible love. I will join her soon and we will keep Teddy for the rest of our lives. Teddy will always be very well loved. This week's sponsors
Dream Big! Be Inspired! Take Action! Live Free! “Double Your Income, Double Your Time Off and Double Your Speed to Financial Freedom!” There are 3 critical elements to success: “Knowing what you want, knowing what to do, and doing what you know.” The SuccessTracs Coaching Program ensures that you will have all three!
Join The Thousands of Regular People Enjoying Financial Freedom With Their Successful Websites!
Our #1 best-selling
Internet start-up program, "The
Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Online," will show you,
how to start your own successful website.
"The Step-by-Step Guide "
is entirely online, so we can
update it any time there are new test results or techniques To try it risk-free for 30 days, visit:
"How To Make Your Ads, Sales Letters,
And Websites Sell Like Crazy". This ebook package reveals the
jealously-guarded secrets of world-class marketers of the last one
hundred years, and how you can use these time-tested secrets right
now to increase your marketing results exponentially. For more
information see...
Personal Success
Article: Reduce Fatigue & Gain Energy Naturally - Get a Quality Night Sleep Stop suffering from fatigue. I am going to share with you a way to ensure you wake up tomorrow with more energy to attack your day. As we get older our bodies naturally want to slow down, but believe it or not, fatigue is not inevitable. If you are not ready to give up on your active lifestyle, then you must work with your body to maintain the strength, stamina, and energy necessary to fully enjoy your life?
An energizing day does not start when we wake up, it starts the night before. When we get 6 to 8 hours of quality sleep, we wake up feeling refreshed, re-energized and ready to attack the day. "How do we get quality sleep?" Excellent question, I am glad you asked...Let me ask 4 questions.
If you answered no to any of the above questions then keep reading. It is a common misconception that we need less sleep as we get older. In fact, research demonstrates that our sleep needs remain constant throughout adulthood. When you were a child, you most likely had a bedtime ritual. Maybe it went like this:
Why did we ever stop? Maybe our parents did have our best interests in mind. I always thought it was just so they could have some time to themselves. Maybe both, hah! Make your own bedtime routine. Prepare yourself for restful sleep. By you doing this, it can significantly increase the odds that you will receive the quality sleep you are looking for. Approach your sleep regimen with a plan. Give yourself time to experiment and try different things. It may be helpful to maintain a sleep journal, Here are some useful ideas for a pre-bedtime ritual:
Breathing exercises, soft music, aromatherapy, yoga, and meditation are all excellent ways to unwind, relax, relieve stress, and clear the mind. Many sleep aids are addictive and certain medications cause daytime drowsiness, robbing your body of the energy you are trying so hard to regain. In most cases it is a deficiency in our bodies that cause the illness for which we seek medication. With proper maintenance, there is no need for most expensive medications. Wouldn't it make total sense to solve the deficiency, and allow our bodies to heal itself naturally? I say, "Lets help our bodies help themselves".
Sound: Instant Self-Improvement
by
Personal
Success Secrets Sample of the 25 topics covered: Forgiveness, Time - Your Biggest Asset, 7 Tips to Improve Your Memory, Why You Need to Set Goals, Handle Change Beautifully Instinct
Books
Fr.ee
Laurence Shorter's The Optimist: One Man's Search for the Brighter Side of Life(PDF; 870kb):
Laurence Shorter is feeling anxious. Every time he turns on the radio or opens a newspaper he finds another reason to be tearful.
It's time to make a change. Can Desmond Tutu bring a smile to Laurence's face? Will he ride out the tide of pessimism with California's famous Surfing Rabbi? Or will it fall to the ultimate icon of optimism, Bill Clinton, to show Laurence the brighter side of life?
Public Speaking
Quote:
All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. ~
Article: Five ways to make your PowerPoint presentation stand out When making a presentation, it's all too easy to fall into the trap of relying on your PowerPoint slides to help get your message across. Although PowerPoint may be a great tool to help you present your information in a creative and interesting way, it's dangerous to rely on it fully as this will just turn your audience off from what you're saying.Here are 5 tips to help make your presentation stand out from the crowd. 1. Be Compelling PowerPoint is a great tool to put together eye-catching presentations, but remember that your audience has come to hear you, not look at a slide. So by all means make your PowerPoint presentation look professional and engaging but don't forget that your speech needs to be compelling too. Remember, your slides are there to support your spoken presentation, not the other way round! 2. Keep it simple Don't overwhelm your audience with a mass of data, graphics and animations. The most effective PowerPoint presentations are simple - charts that are easy to understand, and graphics that reflect what the speaker is saying. It's been suggested that there should be no more than five words per line and no more than five lines per individual slide. Any images, graphs and animations need to back up the information, not confuse the audience. 3. Be Engaging Many of us have sat through a presentation where we have spent the whole time looking at the back of the speaker's head! They have spent so much time reading off the slides, they don't engage with the audience. PowerPoint works best with a speech that augments what's on the screen rather than just reading off the slide. Remember, you need to interact with the audience in order for them to engage and listen to you. 4. Don't use PowerPoint! There's a time and place for PowerPoint. It should only be used as an accompaniment to the presenter's script so let the screen go blank if you need to. This gives your audience a break, but also helps to focus their attention on what the presenter is saying, especially during the question and answer session. 5. Rehearse and edit Once you've drafted your speech and slides then rehearse your presentation. Do this preferably in front of someone else to ensure that what you are saying and presenting can be easily understood. If something comes across as distracting or confusing then get rid of it. Remember to keep the needs of the audience in your mind at all times as they are the ones who will be the ultimate judge of how successful your presentation has been.
Valerie Eaton is the owner of Smart VA Ltd, providers of virtual assistant support to small businesses and self-employed professionals. They specialise in providing a wide range of general administration support, as well as email marketing, website updates, document and presentation design and event administration. Find more information about our services on our website http://www.smartva.co.uk, and if you want to discover some great tips for small businesses then check out our free guides on the Free Resources page
Book: Boring to Bravo: Proven Presentation Techniques to Engage, Involve & Inspire Your Audience to Action
This book shows experienced presenters how to transform boring monologues into scintillating dialogues by employing simple yet powerful presentation techniques. It features 90-plus practical techniques for engaging and interacting with an audience. Drawing from her extensive experience as a nationally recognised speaker, the author gives readers tips that apply to any presenter. Readers will be amazed at their ability to attract, involve, and inspire by incorporating just a few of the author's suggestions. It offers a proven methodology for upgrading any presentation. By taking a collaborative approach to the communication process, the author shows the reader how to care, connect, and converse with the members of any audience. Incoming NSA president with strong promotional platform: as the incoming president of the National Speakers Association, the author will promote the book on a nation-wide tour. An experienced team facilitator and military veteran, the author has a large platform of clients, including the Coast Guard, NASA, and the IRS.
Watch the trailer for the book: http://www.consultpivotal.com/e_boringtrailer.htm
For Kids
(and their teachers, parents … anyone who wants to bring out the
best in kids ) Quote:
In automobile terms, the child supplies the power but the parents
have to do the steering.
Activities for Kids
From his tales of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver to his verses for children, Robert Louis Stevenson remains a tremendous literary force well over a century after his death in 1894. This fascinating site provides resources for academics, young people, and people with a general interest in Stevenson's life and literary musings. Along the top of the homepage, visitors will find ten sections, including "Gallery", "Life", "Works", and "In the Footsteps of RLS". The "In the Footsteps of RLS" brings together Google Maps and information about Stevenson's many travels to give visitors an interactive way to track his journeys through France, Scotland, and the South Seas. Moving on, the "Gallery" area contains photos from every part of Stevenson's life, ranging from a photo of him at age 4 (wearing a cape) to his time as a married man living in the South Sea Islands. As for the "Works" section, visitors would do well to check out his 1878 travelogue, "Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes".
The United States Department of Agriculture's website has a special section devoted to alternative farming systems, which include ecological pest management, value-added enterprises, agritourism, renewable energy on the farm, and aquaculture. Visitors will find the publications section related to alternative farming systems to be filled with resources on a multitude of subjects. "Sustainability in Agriculture" is the first topic on the homepage, and includes a publication updated in 2007, called "Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and Terms" hat should be a good start for many visitors. Visitors interested in learning how to engage in sustainable agriculture methods, should take a look at "Sustainable Agriculture: Information Access Tools" published in 2009. The tools include publications on "Automated Database Searches", "Research Funding Resources", and "Top 10 research Journals". An informative piece of writing about the evolution of organic/sustainable agriculture is also available here.
Quizlet allows students and teachers to create flashcard sets with little fuss, and they can also share their flashcards with friends via email, Facebook, or MySpace. The site has a great "How do I…?" section that provides many answers to how to best use the program. Quizlet is compatible with all operating systems
"A systematic, research-based problem-solving program makes problem solving easy to teach. Students are provided with the processes and strategies that make problem solving easy to learn, and they become successful and efficient problem solvers."
Just for fun ...
How do you catch a squirrel? Video: Google Docs in Language Teaching Information about Google Docs and some possible uses for this tool in language teaching.
Computer corner
A number of photo software programs makbold promises, but JetPhoto Studio actually delivers the goods. The program is designed to helpusers manage their photograph collections, and some of the application's perks include GPS tracking, photo keyword tagging, and an interactive calendar feature which organizes photos by date. The program also features some basic editing tools, and the interactive online user guide is quite nice. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2000 and newer and Macs running OS X 10.3 and newer
Just for Fun
Closing thought
"We can either watch life from the sidelines, or actively participate ... Either we let self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy prevent us from realizing our potential, or embrace the fact that when we turn our attention away from ourselves, our potential is limitless." Christopher Reeve
Please support this week’s sponsors …
Dream Big! Be Inspired! Take Action! Live Free! “Double Your Income, Double Your Time Off and Double Your Speed to Financial Freedom!” There are 3 critical elements to success: “Knowing what you want, knowing what to do, and doing what you know.” The SuccessTracs Coaching Program ensures that you will have all three!
Join The Thousands of Regular People Enjoying Financial Freedom With Their Successful Websites!
Our #1 best-selling
Internet start-up program, "The
Step-by-Step Guide to Selling Online," will show you,
how to start your own successful website.
"The Step-by-Step Guide "
is entirely online, so we can
update it any time there are new test results or techniques To try it risk-free for 30 days, visit:
"How To Make Your Ads, Sales Letters,
And Websites Sell Like Crazy". This ebook package reveals the
jealously-guarded secrets of world-class marketers of the last one
hundred years, and how you can use these time-tested secrets right
now to increase your marketing results exponentially. For more
information see...
My very best wishes for the coming week,
Bronwyn
Please forward this ezine to someone who might enjoy it For more tips, articles and courses to improve your Personal Best visit The Pivotal Network
Subscriptions: To subscribe to the Pivotal Network ezine, send a blank email to subscribe@consultpivotal.com I will not give or sell your email address to anyone for any reason. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to subscribe@consultpivotal.com |
