What is burnout and how can you deal with it - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / What is burnout and how can you deal with it - Introvert Whisperer What is burnout and how can you deal with it? If you haven’t experienced burnout in your life, at some point you will.   When it happens to you or if you’re experiencing it with your work right now, I want to equip you so you can manage it. Burn out happens for a variety of reasons and its good to understand what it is, what causes it and how to reduce the effects. What is  burnout?  Burnout  is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. (Source: Help guides) In other words, you’ve been stressed and overwhelmed for a prolonged period of time and eventually, you find it difficult to do your work.   While life can also cause burnout, I’m only going to focus on burnout caused by your job. There are effectively 6 sources of burnout on the job. Working long days for an extended period of time No growth; limited or no new things to stimulate you Boredom; overly repetitive or tedious work or situations Unmanaged or more work demands than your ability to handle Toxic people; could be boss and/or co-workers Low pay; granted we could all use more money but this is where your pay creates problems at a personal level (not caused by your mismanagement) Generally, one or more of these sources cause burnout.   It’s important to identify what is driving your burnout so you are pursuing effective solutions. I could write pages on possible solutions to each one of these but I’m going to keep my suggestions to only one per issue in the interest of keeping this somewhat short.   You need to consider your own situation and brainstorm ideas. Possible solutions: Working long hours â€" work with your management to determine alternatives like obtaining help from others, a temp worker or canceling or delaying projects. No growth â€" Take it upon yourself to learn new things to help with your job or how you do your job. Growth is about learning. Boredom â€" If your work is repetitive consider asking for a job share so you can trade off some of your work in exchange for doing some of someone else’s work. Too much work â€" Ask for help or prioritize the work so you doing the most critical first. Don’t forget to communicate with the boss and others. Difficult people â€" This is the source of problems for most people, most of the time even if they aren’t burnt out. Find books and programs on emotional intelligence and constructive confrontation. (Look on my blog) Low pay â€" Find another job. Even if you are working in a commission situation, if your income is too low you probably aren’t in the right type of job.   One way or another, if there is no income upside where you work sticking around won’t change that situation. We are all different in terms of what causes stress and burnout.  I worked 60- hour weeks for years and it caused no stress or burnout.   I did, however, have a maniacal co-worker than did cause burnout so don’t judge your situation by someone else’s experience.   The important thing is to reduce the stress before it causes long-term health problems or damages your career. Go to top Do you know what your next career step is?   Many people don’t. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my eBook on how to construct your Career SMART Goals â€" that will help you put together your actions and keep you accountable. Get your copy now and start your action plan today! Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleashing your professional potential. Introvert Whisperer

What is Bikram Yoga

What is Bikram Yoga What Is Bikram Yoga All About? ChaptersThe Origins of Bikram YogaThe Specificities of Bikram YogaThe Effects of Bikram Yoga“Yoga is the only exercise in the world you can do at any age. There is always some posture that will improve your health, mind and soul.” - Bikram ChoudhuryThe popularity of yoga has exploded in recent years in the UK. In fact, doing yoga is also becoming increasingly popular in gyms and sports centres as a way to tone and build muscle. Of all the different types of yoga about, we’re going to focus on Bikram yoga.In recent years, a number of dedicated Bikram yoga centres have opened in the UK. The popularity of Bikram yoga is proof that people want to take care of their bodies, to get fit, to improve their mind and spirit, and generally become healthier beings.So what is Bikram yoga? Why should you do it? What’s it for?If you're considering attending yoga classes to improve your flexibility and aren't sure whether you should do Ashtanga yoga, Bikram yoga, or Vinyasa flow yoga, you can find the answers to these challenging questions in this article on Bikram yoga. CarleyYoga Teacher 5.00 (5) £100/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LynnYoga Teacher 4.89 (9) £35/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors GenYoga Teacher £45/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors JulieYoga Teacher £30/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors AliceYoga Teacher £20/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LauraYoga Teacher 5.00 (6) £70/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors UndramYoga Teacher £25/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutors LottieYoga Teacher £10/h1st lesson free!Discover all our tutorsThe Origins of Bikram YogaWhen you first start doing yoga, it’s important to decide which type of yoga and which yoga techniques you want to practice. With kids yoga, yoga pilates, yoga Nidra, and dynamic yoga, for example, there are plenty of different terms you need to decipher before you can choose what to do. You need to choose one particular yoga style, understand how it works, what the rules are, and learn about the history and origins of it, too.Bikram yoga is a blend of exercise for both your body and your mind. (Source: Helena)If you’re thinking about Bikram yoga, you should find out where it comes from and how it evolved into the style we know it as today. It’s worthwhile learning more about the type of yoga you’re thinking about doing as it can really help you to choose the right style for you. This is especially important with yoga because it requires discipline and a lot of techniques you’ll have to master.Where Does Bikram Yoga Come From?Bikram yoga was founded in Calcutta, India, in 1946, to be exact. It’s named after its founder, Bikram Choudhury. He’d practised yoga from the age of 4 with his spiritual master, Bishnu Ghosh. Bit by bit, Bikram Choudhury developed his own techniques which would later become known as Bikram yoga.Bikram yoga needs to be done at a specific temperature and humidity. (Source: TheDigitalArtist )So how exactly was this style of yoga born?Not in the nicest circumstances, to be fair. Bikram Choudhury was involved in a car accident which paralysed his legs. Following the accident, the courageous Bikram decided to carry on practising yoga and managed to drastically improve his physical and spiritual condition. This was all against the advice of his doctors (something we don't recommend!).By the end of the 1960s, he’d decided to create his own style inspired by the postures he’d been mastering from the age of 4 which were mainly from Hatha yoga. This technique, which is known as Bikram yoga, became a global success and people (including us) are still talking about it today.In 1973, Bikram Choudhury opened his first yoga centre in the United States. The success didn’t stop there and there are now nearly 600 Bikram yoga centres around the world. While his accident was inevitably sad, it gave rise to a special type of yoga which renewed an ancient discipline and allowed it t o evolve.While Bikram yoga is seemingly everywhere, it’s important to know what this discipline entails and what a typical session is like in terms of breathing exercises, stretches, and effort. We’re going to have a look at the key details of Bikram yoga, what makes it special, and how it’s more demanding than just simply chaining together a few poses or yoga postures.The Specificities of Bikram YogaTo understand the specificities of Bikram yoga, you need to understand the inner workings of the discipline. Rather than solely focusing on the practice itself, we’re going to try to also understand why and how we practise it. In short, what a typical yoga session is like and how a Bikram yoga session differs!The idea is pretty simple: you’re going to spend 90 minutes doing 26 different poses (asana) and two different breathing exercises (pranayama). That’s not all, though! To top that all off, the room is heated to 40 °C with 40% humidity.Sounds horrible, doesn’t it?Not r eally since the results of practising in a hot yoga studio speak for themselves.The high temperature and humidity are to replicate the conditions in which Bikram himself practised yoga in these conditions which helped him make the physical progress that he did. It’s very easy to get physically and mentally caught up in this type of yoga.Of course, this doesn’t mean that there are no consequences to doing this type of yoga. For example, it’s not recommended that people susceptible to hypothermia take part. If you have any concerns or pre-existing conditions, it’s recommended that you ask your doctor whether or not you can do Bikram yoga as even though it’s great for improving your physical and mental wellbeing, it’s also very demanding. It might be worthwhile doing a taster session before you start doing Bikram yoga regularly.Hot yoga can help you eliminate toxins as well as work on your mindfulness through breathing exercises and challenges. These exercises can help you to bring your body, mind, and spirit together while detoxing and toning at the same time. It’s a way to get into shape while letting go. So what are you waiting for?The Effects of Bikram YogaThe Physical Effects of Bikram YogaThe benefits of yoga speak for themselves: improving your physical health, inner peace, a better mental state, etc. Bikram yoga has all of that while focusing on making sure that you break a sweat. Thanks to the heat and humidity, you’re going to be able to also get rid of toxins through sweating.You need to think about which yoga style you want to do before you get started. (Source: avi_acl)Sweating also makes life difficult for you which, with all the poses you’re adopting, will help you become a veritable Bikram yogi. You’ll be in a better physical condition and you’ll also be able to stay in shape through regularly doing it.There are plenty of benefits to Bikram yoga, even if you haven’t done any physical activity in a few days, as you can balan ce your chakras. However, regular practice is essential if you want to get better at it. Of course, don’t forget to bring a bottle of water!Bikram Yoga: A Complete DisciplineThe first Bikram yoga session might surprise you with just how hot and humid it is. However, by your second session, you’ll start seeing all the physical, spiritual, and mental benefits. It’ll rejuvenate you, making your body feel better as well as eliminating toxins from your body through sweating for an hour and a half.Whether in London or elsewhere in the UK, you should be able to find a Bikram yoga centre near you where you can practise either in one-on-one sessions or in a group Bikram yoga class. It’ll help you lose weight and gain and tone muscles through gentle exercise. It’s one of the most complete disciplines.So if you feel like giving Bikram yoga a go, you’ll need to head along to a gym or sports centre to try it for yourself and enjoy the benefits of this technical style of yoga that has many followers around the world. Between exercise and mindfulness meditation, Bikram yoga is the way to go!Don't forget that if you're completely new to hot yoga classes, you can always look for a yoga teacher on sites like Superprof, where you can find nearby yogis who are looking for a new student yearning to gain a deeper understanding of their body and mind through yoga workshops or tutorials.The yoga community is obviously very welcoming and many yoga studios even offer drop-ins and introductory sessions for beginners who'd like to do yoga. If you can't do Bikram hot yoga, don't forget that there are plenty of other styles of yoga that may also take your fancy.Don't be shy! Everyone was a beginner once and both yoga instructors and other students will tell you that it's never too late to change your life with yoga.If you have previous injuries or any medical concerns, don't forget to speak to your doctor before taking up physical activities such as yoga. You don't want to inju re yourself in the first session!You can run a search online for 'hot yoga near me' to see what classes are available.

For vs Since

For vs Since Whats the difference between for and since? Whats the difference between for and since? Choosing between prepositions can be tricky. For French speakers, choosing which preposition to use can be especially difficult because the French equivalents are used differently. Dont worry. This article should clarify when to use for and since.     Rules and Examples RULE: Use FOR with a length or time. Use SINCE with a starting point. INCORRECT: I have been studying here  since  2 years. CORRECT: I have been studying here  for  2 years. INCORRECT: I have been working there  since  forever. CORRECT: I have been working there  forever. INCORRECT: We have lived here  since always. CORRECT: We have lived here  since I was born. INCORRECT: I have lived in Longueuil  since all my life. CORRECT: I have lived in Longueuil  all of my life.     Practice exercise for FOR and SINCE For vs Since     Free Grammar Checkers Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker website Grammarly plugin for Chrome         Please follow and like us:

Interview with Canadian Poet Peter Van Toorn

Interview with Canadian Poet Peter Van Toorn Peter Van Toorn is the author of three books of poetry, Leeway Grass, (1970); In Guildenstern County, 1973; and Mountain Tea, 1985. As editor, he has published various collections over the years: Cross/cut: Contemporary English Quebec Poetry (with Ken Norris), 1982; The Insecurity of Art: Essays on Poetics (with Ken Norris), 1982; Lakeshore Poets, 1982; Sounds New, 1990; and most recently, Canadian Animal Poetry, (1993). Sketch by Kendra Boychuk Born July 13th, 1944 in a bunker near The Hague, Netherlands, Van Toorn has lived in and around Montreal since 1953. A former student of Louis Dudek, F.R Scott, and Hugh Maclennan, he worked for a while as a teacher’s assistant to Hugh MacLennan at McGill University grading papers. During the late 60s and early 70s, he taught at Concordia University. Now, after 29 years of teaching Creative writing and Canadian poetry at John Abbott College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, he is retired. He lives in a small semi-detached rented house with three dogs, seven cats and his girlfriend of 11 years, Annie. I’ve always admired his translations in Mountain Tea, so when I reached Peter by phone Monday evening, October the 24th, 2000, I asked him to talk a little about translation. Phone interview NW: What is translation? PVT: The word itself is interesting: it comes to us from translatus,the past participle of the Latin transferre, ‘to carry across’ without death. Right there you have the mandate of the poetic translator like me. There’s no point translating something, unless it lives in the language into which it goes. If doesn’t live in the new language, it’s like a transplantâ€"it gets rejected. It’s not successful. NW: Peter, where did translation start? PVT: It was Babel, a plain in the land of Shinar, tradition tells us, where they first discovered a need for it. A long time ago, the men who lived there said, “Let us build a city and a tower that it may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language. Nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” And the people of Shinar said, “Let us use slime for mortar and brick for stone.” In other words, they were going to have to extemporize, and adlib, and use materials that were handyâ€"they were being ingenious and creative, right? And they thought this was clever. But they had given up trying to reach God through prayer and meditation. What they wanted was technological power. They wanted a real, physical power to reach God, as if he’s really up there. That, in itself, is problematic. They had become literalists of the imagination. So God smashed the tower and scattered the bricks, and suddenly people couldn’t understand each other. They’d lost their ability to collaborate and got scattered across the earth. That’s where the need for translation started. NW: So translation has been valued ever since, right? PVT: In fact, no. The opposite is true. There’s been a taboo on translation that has beleaguered translators since Babel. To this day, Jewish scholars are not allowed to translate. They are not even allowed to touch a text until they’ve washed their hands and performed certain rituals and said certain prayers. They’re very, very afraid of what they call an irreption, which is a kind of corruption where a little deviation crawls into the text through a smudge or a tired moment of the copyist. Translators to this day have been beleaguered by this taboo. And you see that every time you pick up a book that has been translated. The translator always has a heavy apology in the front saying, “In my translation, I have sought to preserve the alliteration of the Norse text without imposing too high of a diction…” and they go into a whole elaborate explanation of how they’ve translated the damn thing, which nobody really wants to hear. We just want to see a poem that works! If it doesn’t work in the new language, if it isn’t a poem in its own right, then it’s not a good translation, so there’s no point in doing it. I’ll give you a little illustration of the whole problem of translation. During the 1940s there were musicians living in Czechoslovakia during the Communist era who really prized and loved to play jazz. They just loved it. To them, jazz was the symbol of the freedom of America, of everything that was tantalizing. So they would send away for sheet music to New York City and get standard jazz pieces, which they would then play. One piece they got in the mail, one day, was called, “Stomping at the Barbecue.” And this is how they translated it: “Dancing Slowly at an Outdoor Cooking Device.” You can see how clumsy that is. It doesn’t live in the new language. It’s a literal translation, but it isn’t interesting, it isn’t funky. It doesn’t live in Czech. The whole thing then is for the Czech translator to find what Elliot calls the objective correlative, something in Czech culture that is familiar to them like the barbecue, their word, their thing for it. And if there’s no barbecue, then to find another object, to make “Stomping at the Barbecue” live in Czech. Otherwise, they’re not extending the national, linguistic, temperamental, and chronological boundaries of the source text. NW: What do you mean by temperamental boundaries? PVT: A translation has to carry a poem across boundaries of geography, language, and time, as well as temperament. The temperament of the translator may be very different from that of the poet of the source text. Only at certain moments will the translator be congenial enough to the source poet to accommodate that certain point of view that he, himself, would maybe never write about. Then translation becomes the one permissible way for the translator to write about something that’s very personal. NW: Forgive me for asking this: Isn’t translation just another form of cultural imperialism, you know, going around the globe swiping masterpieces and pocketing the proceeds? PVT: It can be. It’s not supposed to be. I know what you mean, though. Translation requires reciprocity. You have to give something back to the original. A translation should always carry the poem further, into the next time, into the next Zeitgeist, into the next cultural mood. If Beaudelaire were writing that poem now, if he were writing in English and he wanted to translate the poem himself, this is what he would have done. You have to ask yourself: what if he were translating his poem into English and not me. That’s what you aim at, so the poem extends its readership. A good translation can give the source text an immensely wider circulation than it originally had when it was just confined to the French readers of that century. Another country or another time may be more receptive to a Beaudelaire poem than even the Parisians were at the time it was first written. NW: How did you get started doing translations? What was your first translation? PVT: First translation? Good question. Gee, that’s a toughie. Okay, yeahâ€"Latin. In high school, I don’t know about you, but I took Latin. That was my first real experience as a translator. In high school, all kids had to translate Caesar and Tacitus and all the groovy guys like Ovid into English. So you learned another language mechanically. I think the first thing I translated successfully is my poem in Leeway Grass, the one about the sword maker, “Elegy on War: Invention of the Sword,” from Tibullus. From there I went on to French, because you learn French at school if you grow up here. I translated Beaudelaire, Villon, Ronsard, Charles d’Orleans, Rimbaud, Manger, Hugo, Saint-Amant… NW: Any Quebeckers? PVT: Sure. Gilles Vigneault and Sylvain Garneau. NW: What about your translations from languages you don’t speak? PVT: Here we get into another thing. [Coughs] I see that problem as being a problem of research. When you do anything in research, you don’t just read one book. You come at it from a hundred directions. You look a hundred different texts by scholars who are very knowledgeable in the original tongue. Let’s say Chinese in this case. So you read the famous scholars who have translated it, and you read other people who have tried it. Because they’re not fully translated in the sense we talked about earlier and since they are still kind of klutzy and eminently forgettable, that stuff gets to be dust in the next century. But if you look at all these different texts, they all seem to be pointing at something. You can find that point by triangulation. When you know points around something you can find where the center is. So I would go to different Chinese translators and found their translations not sparkling enough, but I could sort of smell the original. Goethe said, “Translations are like pictures on matchboxes; they make you hungry for the original.” Often, translators demote poetry to prose in their translations. Robert Frost said something very witty about translation once. His definition of poetry went like this: “Poetry is what gets lost in the translation.” [Laughs] So a poetic translation is as Elliot says, a raid on the inarticulate. Il faut etre poet, d’abord! Translation means taking that poem one step further, back into poetry where it belongs. ‘Cuz if it ain’t got that swing, it don’t mean a thing…[Chuckles]… NW: Thanks, Pete. PVT: Anytime. Related posts Grammar checker poemTranslation card gameTranslate your grammar checker feedback to one of 70 languages How I met Peter Van Toorn Peter Van Toorn and I first became friends in 1987. Our friendship started with an argument over a word. Halfway through the semester at John Abbott College, Professor Van Toorn gave our Creative Writing class an assignment that started an argument that has never been settled. The assignment was “to find ten uses of the word ‘spit’ and put them into ten sentences, each illustrating one of the meanings of the word.” The rest of the class groaned when he announced the assignment because it meant a trip to the library and laborious use of dictionaries. I was intrigued. I took it as a challenge and went directly after class to the library determined to find a use of “spit” that he was unlikely to encounter in the papers from the groaning population of the class. There in the college library, I found several giant dictionaries and went through them looking for the one with the most entries under the heading “spit.” I can’t remember the name of the dictionary I found, but it was so large that a librarian came over to help me lift it. It had 18 entriesâ€"more than enough to complete the assignment. Of course, there were the common uses that most people know: spit meaning to eject phlegm, spit meaning sputum, spit meaning a rotisserie rod, and the idiomatic usage, “spit and image” mistakenly pronounced “spitting image.” Also listed were the ones people usually don’t know: spit meaning to run through, spit meaning a short sword, spit meaning a sandy promontory, and spit meaning the quantity of earth taken up by a spade at a time. But it was the final entry that really intrigued me: spit-kit meaning a tin box used by military personnel to hold tobacco and rolling papers with a compartment to extinguish lit cigarettes and store the butts. Upon reading this, I was reminded of my grandfather back in England who kept his tobacco, papers, and “fag-ends” in a tin he kept in his breast pocket. “Professor Van Toorn is going to love this one,” I thought. “I bet even he hasn’t discovered this usage!” I completed my assignment putting “spit-kit” first in my list with the sentence, “The soldier extinguished his cigarette in his spit-kit,” and gave it in the following week.When I got my assignment back a week later, I was horrified that Peter had given me 9/10 with an “X” next to my first sentence and the word “argot” in the margin. I had no idea what “argot” meant, but I was quite sure of my research and that he had just never encountered “spit-kit” before. I was right. He hadn’t seen that usage before but explained that “spit-kit” was a usage of “spit” not belonging to the general current of English and was therefore unacceptable, as would be slang, jargon, or other highly specialized uses of the word. Well, that got me miffed. I felt he had unjustly penalized my work for going further in my research than anyone else in the class including himself, the professor. Sensing my indignation, he suggested we settle our quarrel over a beer at the brasserie in the village.Peter is a good talker. I learned more in the four hours we spent drinking together than I had learned all semester in any of my other courses. I could not, however, get him to agree to change my grade. He said, “If I haven’t heard of it, it doesn’t exist. You must have made it up.” Something changed inside me. I couldn’t believe how arrogant that was. Peter, by his intractability, had awoken in me the strength to dare to disagree with my professors, to trust my own research, to go further in my reading than them, and, above all, to distrust orthodoxy of any kind in the realm of ideas. Years later, he related to me how his professor at McGill University, Louis Dudek, had taught him never to trust any scholar as having the final word on a subject. “Scholarship,” Peter said, “means maintenance. Trust no one, not even yourself. Everybody gets things wrong sometimes. Read and reread and never stop. Keep going back to your research time and again until it becomes impossible to forget.” “Spit-kit,” I said. “Grade change,” he replied. Please follow and like us:

Are Border Fences Americas Only Hope at Halting Illegal Immigration

Are Border Fences America's Only Hope at Halting Illegal Immigration Despite spending over $4 billion on border fencing, 1,300 miles of the US-Mexico Border remains open to defectors. The majority of illegal immigrants entering the United States do so through the country’s southern border from Mexico, a boundary stretching almost 2,000 miles from California to Texas.   As of February 2012, the United States has constructed 651 miles of fencing along the US-Mexican border, covering just over 33% of the total length of the boundary. A U.S Government Accountability Office report in 2011 found the U.S Border Patrol had “operational control” of 873 miles of the US-Mexico border, but with over 50% of the international border unprotected by fencing and more than $4.5 billion spent constructing more fences in the past five years, are fences America’s best option at halting illegal immigration? Lower estimates derived from recent fencing projects implemented by U.S Border Control put the cost of one mile of fencing at roughly $16 million. With 1,300 miles still fenceless and open to Mexican defectors, estimates show the total cost of fencing the remaining border at over $22 billion, a figure which does not take into account land acquisition costs or fence maintenance. As more illegal immigrants enter the United States, the idea of a physical border is becoming less and less pragmatic during times of economic recovery, but what other options does the United States government have to stop illegal immigration? The increase in drone and UAV aircrafts by the U.S military in recent years sheds light on a new option to beef up border security. Currently the United States has roughly 680 drones, 172 of which are Predator drones, an unmanned aircraft which is used for air-to ground combat, surveillance and intelligence all over the world;  however, the weapons on the aircraft can be removed. Drone usage has been on the rise by the military as the United States gathers more information on potential national security threats, with the added benefit being that drones eliminate the loss of human life when gathering intelligence. A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle.Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Stanley Thompson Predator drones cost a little over $4 million per aircraft, but recent technology has drastically improved their ability to see a full picture of the area they are scanning. The development of the ARGUS sensor (Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance) by multinational defense company BAE Systems brings UAV surveillance to levels never seen before. The ARGUS sensor can be mounted on any Predator drone and is equipped with 368 cell phone cameras, enabling the sensor to mold together a 1.8 billion pixel video that spans fifteen square miles. With the highest quality video ever produced available to Predator drone operators in real time, the ARGUS sensor has the ability to pinpoint every moving human being in the fifteen square mile area with colored squares, zooming close enough to watch a solitary bird soar across the sky. Surveillance of the remaining open regions of the U.S-Mexico border could be conducted with the use of just under 100 Predator drones, each equipped with an ARGUS sensor. The cost of manufacturing the necessary drones hovers around $400 million, less than 2% of the lowest estimate cost of constructing fencing on the rest of the United States’ southern border. While the estimated total cost of manufacturing the Predator drones needed does not take into account the cost of the ARGUS sensors and drone operators, Predator drones clearly are winning the battle of the most cost-effective options to sure up America’s southern border and put a stop to illegal immigration.

Five academic resolutions for students this new year - Tutor Hunt Blog

Five academic resolutions for students this new year Five academic resolutions for students this new year Five academic resolutions for students this new yearSchoolsA new year is upon us, and so it is the time to resolve to cast away bad habits, and take up good ones. Most people end up making a couple of resolutions around this time, but very few people actually sick to them. Many will end up being that perfect gym customer, signing up for a whole year, then never even entering the building once February comes by. Others might pledge to start saving money, but will soon find the temptations of online shopping too hard to resist. For students of all ages, the new year is a good time to review your study habits, and work out where you could make some effective changes. For many secondary school students the approaching summer will bring with it exams, GCSE`s or maybe A-levels - so this time of year is the perfect point to ascertain what parts of your course you need to focus more attention onto. Even though the exams are many months away, if you get into good working habits now, you will will be in a good position later. Here are five good academic resolutions that your might consider taking up. 1. Don`t procrastinate. If you`re anything like me, you`ll know how much time you can spend putting off doing a piece of work. I generally spend as much time at my desk avoiding doing an assignment, as I do actually working on it. This means I`m effectively spending double the amount of time I need to on a piece of work, wasting hours every week, and squandering time I could put to better use. It is always best to set to work as soon as possible - if you have a week to complete an assignment, at least try to get a good start on it on the first day, that way you will feel better having started it, and have a good idea how much time it requires to be completed. 2. Make a list of your weakest points in each subject. No one likes to enumerate their own flaws, but unless you are quite clear about which parts of the syllabus need the most work, you may find yourself spending too much time on the areas you are comfortable with, and already have a good understanding of. Our natural inclination is often to avoid confronting the situations that most need out attention, and busy ourselves in areas we already comprehend fairy well. 3. Eat better. This might sound like a strange resolution as regards academic improvement, but there have been numerous studies showing that students frequently turn up at school without having consumed a proper breakfast. At the start of the school day you should ensure you have a a sizeable meal, as if you are hungry you wont be able to study or work to your full capacity. A supplement to this point could be taking care not to overindulge with alcohol, (hopefully advice pertaining to university students only) as this will obviously impair your abilities the following day. 4. Exercise. This point might not be known to all, but exercise promotes brain activity. Spending too much time cooped up inside, leading a sedentary lifestyle, even if it is surrounded by text books, can only allow so much learning. Try to get a healthy balance between indoor and outdoor time. Team sports are a great way to socialise, manage stress, and permit a distraction from your studies that will actually help them in the long term. 5. Employ caution with social media. This point certainly applies to everyone, but students should be especially careful what they post on their social media accounts. It is not unusual for employers to scour the social media sites of prospective employees, and they may not look too favourably upon some of the things in your account, even if they were posted many years ago. The maxim of `once something`s on the internet its there forever` is only too true, and it would be a terrible shame if all your good academic work at college or university was to be undone by a contentions, or controversial posting you made during this time. By adopting a resolution to be careful what you post you can avoid any future problems. 55 days ago0Add a Comment

4 Tips for Improving Your Customer Service Skills

4 Tips for Improving Your Customer Service Skills Image via: www.pexels.com Grow thick skin Developing thick skin can sometimes be one of the most difficult things to accomplish and if it is not difficult congratulations! That means that the rest of the journey towards improved customer service skills will be painless and easier after this. Once you’re working in customer service, you must prepare yourself for the wide range of individuals you will find yourself working with on a daily basis. Without a doubt, it is absolutely frustrating to deal with a difficult or rude customer, especially when that customer decides to vent their frustrations through some “below the belt” blows against you personally. It is difficult, to say the least, to remain professional while the little volcano of irritation within you is itching for a chance to explode. Instead, develop thick skin. Remember that a customer’s behavior is a reflection of who they are, not who you are. Also, try to keep in mind that you don’t know this person’s story. They might have just had a death in the family, or maybe they’re ill. Whatever the case, do not let the behavior of your customers affect your headspace, mood, or actions. Count to 10 and keep the good vibes running. Image via: www.pexels.com Be attentive After the first hour or two of a long shift, it is completely normal to find yourself becoming pretty sluggish. The adrenaline rush of the first rounds of customers has worn off and now you’re drifting away into slumber mode while the remaining customers amble through the store. To improve your customer service skills, make sure that this slumber mode never sees the light of day. Always keep your eye on the customers in the store. This doesn’t mean that you need to constantly be on their tail all throughout the building; this just means that you shouldn’t neglect them of your attention even though they aren’t demanding yours at the present moment. Customers don’t always communicate their needs by coming right up to you and expressing them. Sometimes, you need to be on the lookout for subtle indicators, like body language. If you notice a customer looking around the store or appearing as if they are lost, go and assist them right away. They might not be familiar with your store and could be in need of your assistance. Showing your customers more attention and love means that in the end, they’ll show the same love and attention right back by leaving positive reviews on your store’s social media or submitting positive feedback online. What could be more rewarding than helping someone find what they need? Image via: www.pexels.com Use positive language   One of the most important components to any relationship is effective communication. The relationship between a staff member and a customer is no different. Think of what made the difference between a positive shopping experience and a meh shopping experience. More than likely, one of the first things that came to mind had something to do with the employees who provided their service to you. The best customer service workers are the ones who can use “positive language” with their customers. What is “positive language,” you might ask? Let’s say that a customer comes into your store looking for a certain product, but that product is out of stock. Without the use of positive language, you would just be dampening your customer’s spirits. That product is unavailable at this time.  With positive language, your customer hears a completely different message. That product will be available next week so I can set up an order for you now and have it delivered as soon as it is back in stock. See the difference? By taking attention away from the dilemma and placing it on the solution, you can completely change a customer’s in-store experience. Image via:www.pexels.com Take initiative Go the extra mile! It’s easy to just clock in, ring up a few items, and then clock out, but that’s not where the adventure lies. More importantly, that’s not where the self-improvement lies. If your customer is looking for a pair of pants in their size that isn’t in the main store room, offer to check the back room! If your customer is wondering when a certain line of clothing will be hitting the shelves again, don’t brush them off with an “I dunno.” Smile, tell them you’ll find out for them, and go find the answers. Take initiative by going above and beyond your job description. It’s little things like this that help change every customer’s shopping experience from meh to great! Not to mention those customer service skills … feel free to add that to your LinkedIn profile!