To Thine Own Self Be True

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business, hamlet, interviewing, rejection, resume, self, william shakespeare

Everyone has had his or her share of rejections. “It’s not you, it’s me.” “We’ve decided to go in a different direction.” “We’re pursuing other opportunities at this time.” Whether it’s personal or business, no one wants to hear that she is not right for something. Especially when it’s something she wanted or thought she needed. It can be a blow to the ego, to self-confidence and to beliefs. But it doesn’t have to be catastrophic.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
– Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3, 78-82 

There’s no doubt that rejection is frustrating. You’ve put what you think is your best self forward and somehow it isn’t enough. You’ve polished the resume, smartly crafted a cover letter with all relevant information, outlined and practiced interviewing skills, and yet through an automated  email alert, or via a brief phone call or email, you were informed the process stopped before it got rolling. Or maybe you encountered this with a sales presentation for a prospective client. They were interested at first and set up meetings and calls, but then that attraction somehow wavered and disappeared before you really got your foot in the door.

Some people spend hours of self-reflection trying to figure out what was the mitigating factor in a decision they don’t completely understand. Others will simply shrug and move on, knowing that something else, potentially something better, will be around the next corner. You may never really understand reasons or change a person’s point of view, so it’s usually pointless to speculate.

It’s okay to be disappointed. What you do after the disappointment is what demonstrates your strength of character and resolve. There’s a million clichés to address the situation. Everything happens for a reason. Sure, things happen, and then you have to discover the reason. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Okay, these days it’s probably by your Manolo Blahniks or Allen Edmonds. Win some, lose some. Most of us prefer to keep our winning percentages high.

Whatever the situation, keep moving forward. While not right for the job or a client, there is another one out there. But don’t stop being true to who you are, because there is someone who will hire you for your skills or love you for your quirkiness. Don’t be afraid to keep pushing forward as you.

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The Spellchecker’s Demise

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affect, autocorrect, business writing, damnyouautocorrect, demise, dictionary, editing, effect, homonyms, proofing, spellchecker

Wrong word errors are the most common mistakes made in writing. Words that the writer thinks she means to write are unintentionally skipped or do not come out quite as intended. Often, we turn to the spellchecker software on our document programs to catch and fix issues, without doing our own editing. There’s no doubt spellchecker is useful. The program I use highlights all my split infinitives, for which I am thankful as I am a repeat offender, but it’s up to me to fix the errors. So, there’s while spellcheck is helpful there is one thing it cannot do, and that is to catch all the mistakes.  

I do love the spellcheck/autocorrect feature on my phone as it’s provided me with some of the funniest and worst possible word choices. Visit http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com if you need a good laugh.

Typical Errors

Putting in a word that sounds like the word you want to use but isn’t is one of the most common mistakes. For example, affect and effect are often used incorrectly.* So is stationary or stationery. While quite similar, there are huge differences. Spellcheck won’t tell you that you’ve incorrectly used stationery when you meant to refer to an object that is not moving. To my students I recommend they develop tricks to help remember which word is correct. One trick I use with stationery is that when I want to reference letters and paper, I use the word with the “e” in it because the “e” in stationery relates to the “e” in envelopes.

Don’t rely solely on your spellchecker, however. Be sure to take the time to proof and edit your document. Spellcheck also won’t acknowledge words that aren’t already programmed in unless you make those changes. So when you can, enter new words into your spellchecker’s dictionary including names, non-English terms and other special words you use on a regular basis. Spellcheck won’t always catch when proper names need to be capitalized either, or when you have a typo – using “from” instead of “form.”

It’s still up to you to read and proof your work carefully. This is especially important when crafting an e-mail – once you hit “send” it’s nearly impossible to bring it back and make a correction.

*(Affect – to act on; to produce a change. Effect – something that is a result or a consequence).

Finding Your Passion

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business, career, charity, goals, happiness, life, lottery, passion, philanthropic, Snoopy, Steve Jobs, writing

Whenever the lottery gets really high, people start talking about what they would do with their winnings. My answer has never really wavered. I’d like to keep writing, travel for six months of the year, and then do philanthropic and charity work the rest of the time.

I’ve been fortunate in the past year to begin my own freelance writing business while teaching college communications. One day last September I arrived home from teaching a morning class and that afternoon completed an assignment for a client. I also reviewed some materials for an organization. Then I felt it. It took me a little while to understand it but I realized it was happiness. I was happy. After many years of working at a corporation that didn’t promote quality of life and left me miserable each day, my life had taken a right turn. It was good to feel happy about my career again.

Happiness is an elusive word. People often say of their children, “I only want them to be happy” but they never really explain what happiness is and can’t define exactly what the children should do to achieve that level. I don’t think I can either, but when you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands, right?

I attended a community conference that focused on happiness. The workshops and keynote speakers didn’t exactly tell the attendees what happiness is or how to achieve it, but coming away there were hundreds of individuals found their own interpretation that made sense. Happiness is different for each of us. There were also a lot more smiles at the end of the day.

Finding your passion in a profession is about the same as finding happiness.  I know people who have worked at the same company for 20+ years and love it as if it were still a new position, while others have worked just as long at another place and they say nothing good. A wise aunt once told me, “If you’re going to complain, then change it. If you don’t want to change, then don’t complain.”

Making significant changes aren’t easy. However, if you can say what you’d like to do with lottery winnings and you’re not doing any of those things in your life, it could be time to make a change.

I see that the Powerball is up to $330 million. Maybe it’s time to buy a ticket.

photo from http://www.womanseeksworld.com

One Hundred Posts and No Signs of Stopping

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100, AS it is, blogs, celebrate, thanks

Thank you to my readers and followers, and to those who randomly came across my site. I recently passed the 100 blog post mark (this one is 102!). I can’t wait to create more posts that inform, educate, inspire or just entertain. If you have any topic ideas, suggestions or recommendations, please let me know!

AS

A Tale of Two Speeches

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Business Communications, communications, Footloose, movie remakes, public speaker, special recognition, thesis, unity

Why does Hollywood insist on remaking good movies? There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with Footloose the first time it came out, or with The Pink Panther, Arthur and, especially, Halloween. They are still lauded as great movies with millions of fans. However, movie industry executives decided it would be a good idea to take the originals and remake them. Why? Probably to make money, but unless there was a significant need to update technology, illustration or special effects, these remakes weren’t necessary. And what happened? Ultimately major flops. My recommendation is the movie industry should remake the bad movies that could have been good. Redo those movies that missed the mark because of bad casting or directing or awful special effects. Those are the movies that need improving. Don’t mess with what’s successful.

In communications, major flops aren’t uncommon either, but you can learn and improve from the experiences. It’s usually most obvious in speeches and presentations where the presenters are not prepared, don’t believe in their topic or just aren’t very good at speaking. The third option I can forgive – not everyone is a born presenter, but with practice and following helpful steps, improvements can be made.

Perhaps the most important component of a successful presentation is to create the thesis and develop unity. That means every paragraph, every sentence and word should be carefully crafted and chosen to relate to and support the thesis. This keeps the speech focused and helps the audience retain the message. If it’s not about your topic, don’t say it.

I recently attended a recognition dinner where it was a tale of two speeches. As usually what happens at these affairs,  two individuals were called upon after dinner to talk to the accomplishments and achievements of the award recipient.

The first speaker stood and without any notes began a painful monologue that rambled, did not have a clear message and went nearly three times beyond her allotted time. What was most disconcerting, however, was during the speech this woman spoke mainly about herself and not the award recipient. Most audience members squirmed uncomfortably, and someone even exclaimed, “Wasn’t this supposed to be about Debra?” When she finished, I think the audience clapped in politeness, grateful she was exiting the stage.

The next speaker approached the podium, brought out a binder that contained a speech neatly typed in large font on paper secured in plastic sheets. Her preparedness immediately alerted me as to her capability. I let out a sigh of relief and leaned back to enjoy. She acknowledged the award recipient, thanked the crowd for attending and dove right in with great confidence. Her speech was witty, insightful, kind and focused solely on the person receiving the award. She even came in under her five minutes. The end of her speech was met with great applause.

A special occasion speech is intended to entertain, celebrate a person and maybe even inspire those in attendance. One of the greatest lessons in preparing a speech is to look at what others have done and use the good examples to shape communications.

• Prepare.
• Develop a thesis and create unity in your content.
• Practice and time the speech.
• Highlight remarkable tributes of the honoree.
• Be positive and be brief.