Month: February 2010

20/20 – Day 4: 20 healthy hints

February is National Heart Month. No matter how old you are, it’s never too early (or late) to take the state of your health seriously.

On Day 4 of the 20/20 series of posts, here are 20 healthy hints to get you started.

  1. Eat breakfast. It’s so easy, so tempting, to skip breakfast. Some may try not to skip, but resort to eating ‘on the go’ with sugary breakfast bars and other quick snacks.  Give your body a boost
  2. Buy goodies that last. If you crave treats, buy something to last.  Munching a 1,000-calorie, 2-mouthful dessert will last a few seconds. It may be delicious, but such a short-lived treat won’t keep you satisfied for long. If you have to find something bad for you, make sure you can enjoy it over a longer period of time.  Same content, longer lasting.  If you’re going to feel guilty, make it worthwhile.
  3. Think “little and often”. A little food, a little exercise, a little further, etc.
  4. Walk regularly. Briskly, if possible. Who needs to pay for costly gym services when all you want to do is remain healthy?  Walking is free and fantastic!
  5. Find time for a couple of fruit snacks a day. Take an apple out with you, grab a banana for a quick boost, find easy ways to get some fruit into your diet.
  6. Have a side-salad with your meal. You only need to buy a bag of salad leaves and dump some next to your meal.  I don’t even put dressing on.  One of the quickest ways to get another portion of veg inside you!
  7. Think 5-a-day as a minimum. It’s best you get at least five portions of fruit and vegetables.  When you reach five, try for more.  Up your game.
  8. Always find time to relax. Whatever works for you.  Deliberately doing nothing is not the same as wasting time.  Make your relaxation count.
  9. Don’t isolate yourself for too long. With important work to do, it’s easy to forget about the rest of the world around you.  Hours pass and you’ve been stuck in the same place without thinking about it.  Even if you need to get back to the work soon, be sure to take a break, get some fresh air, and think about something else.
  10. Stay hydrated. If you’re thirsty, it’s too late!  I tend not to worry too much about suggestions to drink ‘eight cups a day’ or ‘at least two litres of water’.  But I do listen to my body and I do regularly drink throughout the day.  Have some water with you wherever you go so you’re never left wanting.
  11. Step away from anger. We all need to let our emotions out to stay healthy.  But many situations don’t need to cause our emotions to run high in the first place.  If you’re able to move away, do so before your blood boils.
  12. Smile. It’s simple and we should do it as often as possible.
  13. Brush your teeth twice a day. It’s easy to forget in the morning.  If you have forgotten, you could munch on some cinnamon sticks!
  14. Don’t rush food. You’ll eat more before your body tells you it’s had enough and fast eating encourages indigestion.
  15. Don’t drink beyond your control. You can still enjoy yourself and be careful at the same time.
  16. Learn to let go. Some things aren’t worth stressing over.  If it’s not all that important, leave it.  If it’s outside your control, leave it.
  17. Cook from scratch. You’ll know what you’re eating then.  And you may even get some brief exercise in the kitchen, walking from cupboard to cupboard!
  18. Think ‘baby steps’ rather than ‘all or nothing’. Similar to ‘little and often’, you’re more likely to make a positive change if you take it slowly and appreciate each small success as part of a bigger goal.
  19. Allow yourself to be decadent sometimes. Total restriction will only make you crave stuff more.
  20. Stretch and move occasionally to avoid aches and stiffness. Get your joints moving, even while you work.  Play a sport if you’ve got the drive to go the whole hog.

What do you do to help your health?  Leave a comment and let us know your tips!

Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: annia316 (cc)

20/20 – Day 3: 20 reasons to listen

It’s good to talk. It’s better to listen.

Want to know why? Listen up:

  1. Listening is a decent, respectful thing to do. And it gets you more respect in the process. Win/Win.
  2. Because people like to talk.
  3. People like to confide in a good listener.
  4. You’re automatically given more credence as a good communicator.
  5. You have more chance of learning something.
  6. Listening doesn’t require much work, but the rewards are plenty.
  7. When you listen, you care about a person’s opinion.
  8. When you listen to someone, that someone is more likely to listen back.
  9. When you hear, you’re aware of the problem.  When you listen, you can discover the underlying causes of the problem.
  10. To listen is to examine.
  11. To listen is to question yourself gladly.
  12. So long as someone knows you’re listening to them, they know you haven’t given up on them.
  13. You can give so much when you offer advice. You can give so much more when you listen.
  14. It’s less arrogant.
  15. It’s more thoughtful.
  16. In a stream of many voices, listening to a single voice is so relaxing.
  17. If you don’t listen, you can’t empathise.
  18. When you listen, you exercise self-control.
  19. It’s often easier to forgive others if you truly listen to them.
  20. People are happier to forgive you if you listen back.

As mentioned in Point 9, listening is about more than hearing something. You have to give thought to what you hear. Digest what’s being communicated to you and react to it positively.  It’s true that listening doesn’t require much work (Point 6), but that doesn’t mean you can be lazy either. A vague nod and a smile won’t cut it.

Thanks for listening. What points have I missed? Please comment below so I can listen to your suggestions too.

20/20 – Day 2: 20 ways to find your own voice

“I am not saying that I have completely found my voice. I see it more as a journey. We are all on the same path. Some of us are further along than others. The important factor is to be consistent and keep writing. You will run into frustrations for the rest of your life, so keep your eyes on the long-term.” – Henri Junttila writing on kikolani.com

For all the help out there, most advice is on the right way of doing something, or the best way of succeeding.  But that help can also bog you down so you stop listening to yourself.

For instance, these 20 lists of 20 that I’m writing will not be to the liking of some writers who dislike list articles and suggest it’s not a good way forward.

But if I had listened to that advice, I wouldn’t be publishing 20 blog posts and I’d miss out on offering some of this advice.  On the other hand, if I listened to that advice, I’d then be ignoring the people who heartily encourage list articles.

Advice is something you can choose to listen to or ignore.  It’s advice, not an order.  Take in the advice you want, stir it all up, add your own ideas, and do what makes you feel comfortable.  Here are some ways to go about finding the magic:

  1. Stop caring about others. They don’t matter when you’re searching for what makes you tick.
  2. Don’t try to emulate someone else. It’s a trap. You want to catch a style that you like, which means you stop developing your own style.
  3. Enjoy the process. It’s not meant to be a chore. The search is meant to create excitement and give you all sorts of positivity for the future.
  4. Experiment. Take chances, be playful. If you don’t, you can’t surprise yourself and you’ll get nowhere.
  5. If feasible, publish your output in a blog or similar. Public output helps focus what you’re doing. It doesn’t always work, but it can be the kick you need.
  6. Don’t expect anything. You won’t know what to expect until you find it. It can take years before you’re satisfied that your own voice can be heard.  I’m sure many never find it.  At least you’re looking, which is a major start. Just let the process grow organically.
  7. Stop taking it personally. You are you. That’s a good thing.
  8. Don’t hide behind a front. No matter how comfortable you feel putting on a front, it’s still not you.  If you’re serious about finding the true you, throw the fake attitude away.  The moment you hide is the moment you’ll stop being heard at your best.
  9. Devour more from other people.  How does it make you feel? You can only develop a unique voice when you listen to other voices.
  10. Keep going. Persevere.
  11. Acknowledge that even original work may not be your true voice. There’s a difference between you being you and you being original.  If all you crave is originality, you don’t need to take such a wild journey.
  12. Write on different topics. Who knows what you’ll stumble upon?
  13. Use different styles. Same reason as above.
  14. Be prepared to throw away a lot of material. Whether you write, paint, or sculpt, you’re on a learning curve.  That said, you don’t need to actually throw stuff away.  A lot of it will probably be useful even if it’s not ‘your voice‘!
  15. Ask “What do I want to use my voice for?”
  16. Finding your voice is about more than confident writing, success and original output.  You can find success and create amazing works without catching the intensely personal spark of ‘voice’. ‘Voice’ is an ambiguous term, so be careful to know what you want here.  Do you crave something more personal? Like, really crave it? If that’s not the point, you might as well focus on more important things.
  17. Don’t stop searching until you’re totally satisfied. For some, it means finding what works and striving to give it even more clarity and zest.
  18. Don’t stop once you are satisfied. You’ve found what works, you’ve developed to a tee, now there’s nothing more to do, right?  Wrong. There’s always something to do. If you drop your guard and work to old standards, you’re working to formula.  At some point in time, you’ll be pushing out content that you don’t even believe in and you won’t even notice. Unless you don’t care at that stage, stay on your toes.
  19. Don’t feel constrained.  If you only need to make 19 points, don’t feel the need to make 20.
  20. Meh.

Okay, I’ll give you a Point 20. Because I want to:

  • Don’t listen to any of the advice I’ve given above. Finding your own voice is your job. You may find it when you least expect it, with the help of nobody but yourself. Happy searching!

Title image: original by tiffa130 (cc)  /  Bottom image: original by G|o®g|O (cc)

20/20 – Day 1: 20 ways to engage with feedback

Over the next four weeks I’m treating you to a new series of posts, 20 Lists of 20 (or “20/20” for short).  Twenty posts on a variety of subjects, all as lists of twenty. I hope you find them useful.

Today’s topic is on engaging with feedback.

When you get your coursework back from your tutor, you hope the comments will be positive (as well as the grade).  But what about the constructive criticism and suggestions on where you could improve?  Even a well-received paper will have constructive comments, but a poorly marked essay is likely to go as far out of your sight as possible, not to be looked at again.  This is a mistake.

Your less pleasing essays probably have the best feedback to help you improve.  In Day One of my “20/20” series, here are some ways you can make the most of the feedback you’ve been given.

  1. Focus on what you’ve been asked to improve. You probably want to forget about the negative feedback, but that’s what you need to concentrate on.  Make a point of tackling those issues head on in your next piece of work.
  2. Don’t be complacent. Enjoy that shiny gold star and revel in the glory as your tutor suggests you publish your essay in the biggest scholarly journal out there. But don’t lose sight of the next essay. And the one after that. And the one after that.  You’re not looking for a one-off, you’re looking for consistency!
  3. Ask why.  Whatever feedback you receive, ask yourself why you think you got it. A few days after you get the marks, spend ten minutes taking it seriously and work out why you feel it happened the way it did.  It doesn’t always take more than a few moments to work out how to improve for next time.
  4. Get MORE feedback. Take some time with your tutor to chew over the pros and cons.  Always take the feedback seriously and seek out advice on improving your game via the people who know. After all, the tutors are grading you, so find out what will help them grade you higher.
  5. Re-read your work.  Are there any passages that make you cringe?  Do you yawn at the filler paragraph you added just to make the word count?  Could you have defined your argument more clearly?
  6. Read a study guide. When you’re given areas to improve upon, study guides are invaluable.  Something like “The Study Skills Handbook” or “Effective Study Skills” should help.
  7. Stop being defensive.  Criticism, no matter how constructive, sucks.  Big time.  But criticism is there for a reason.  Now is not the time to argue why the comment was uncalled for.  It’s time to address the issue and think about how you could change the coursework so you didn’t get criticised in the same way again.
  8. Don’t respond straight away.  Give yourself time to relax before returning to the piece.  No matter how well or badly you feel you did, you can’t focus on the feedback properly until it’s settled in your mind.
  9. Get creative. Some issues arise when you try too hard to conform to a particular way of writing or you don’t believe you can do better.  Get rid of these blocks and work to your own strengths.  Churn out great stuff in the most creative way you can and consider making it fit after that.
  10. Plan your next coursework in advance.  You can always use your time more productively.
  11. Play to your strengths and work on your weaknesses.  You know what you’re good at, so make sure you continue to shine there.  But don’t do that by neglecting your weak points.  Aim to turn those into strengths too.
  12. Don’t panic! A poor grade can be disheartening, but the whole point in engaging with feedback is so you can get a better grade.  Don’t worry about the feedback, embrace it and make good use of it!
  13. Read more around the subject. Ask about what research you have missed out on and go beyond the suggested reading list. Push yourself to find something new and unexpected.
  14. Give yourself feedback. Similarly to re-reading your work, why not be critical about your own work?  You know it’s not perfect, so where would you like to improve?  What aspects would you change if you could go back?
  15. Accept peer feedback in the same way you would from a tutor…at first.  You may not agree with the feedback and it may sound stupid. You’re more likely to discard comments from peers. What would they know?  But don’t be quick to ignore.  Take the comment seriously (unless completely stupid) and see what you can learn from it.
  16. Feel encouraged.  Feedback is designed to spur you on and help you improve.  The tutor isn’t laughing at you, they’re hoping you’ll take the advice on board and hand in a better piece of work next time.
  17. Focus on larger concerns.  We all make mistakes.  Don’t get bogged down with guilt over a spelling mistake and the odd formatting error.  Deal with the criticism regarding content.
  18. Spend time improving on key points.  Did the conclusion have nothing to do with the main text?  Were you lacking a solid introduction?  Analyse what’s missing so you don’t suffer the same way next time.
  19. Break it down. Negative feedback, especially lots of it, can be difficult to take in.  Take each point one at a time so you’re not overwhelmed by it.
  20. Make separate notes if you need.  What would you do different next time?  Engage with the feedback on a deeper level by noting problem areas, how you aim to improve, and go over what you could have included/changed in hindsight.  Taking the feedback further than reading the comments is important if you’re going to make the most of it.

One post down, nineteen to go. Tomorrow I look at how you can find your own voice. Hope you can join me then.

Photo credit: tiffa130 (cc)