How To Make A Good First Impression That Everyone Remembers

Making a great first impression is imperative to building great relationships and success.

The ancient Greeks spent a lot of time thinking and writing about the effect of one personality on another.

They broke down the process of communication into three parts, which they called ethos, pathos, and logos.

The ethos of communication is defined as the ethical part. This revolves around the person you really are and, more important, the person you are perceived to be.

If you are in sales or business, the way you are perceived by someone, which will largely determine the influence you have over him or her, will be strongly affected by your level of credibility, your ethos.

In the area of personal credibility, the rule is that everything counts. Everything you do or don’t do either adds to or takes away from your credibility and your capability to influence someone.

Ethos is very important.
The Importance Of First Impressions

You’ve heard it said that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

The fact is that when you first meet a person, he makes a judgment about you in approximately four seconds, and his judgment is finalized largely within 30 seconds of the initial contact.

In a survey of the members of the American Personnel Consultants those men and women who are responsible for hiring people for large companies generally agreed that they made their decision to hire or not to hire a person within 30 seconds of the first meeting.Everything contributing to the way you look on the outside is important.

If it’s not helping you, it’s hurting you.

While you cannot control your physical features, you have total control over your dress and grooming. In fact, we generally assume that a person consciously and deliberately makes a personal statement about himself with every part of his appearance that he can affect in any way.

Your clothes are responsible for 95% of the first impression that you make on someone because, in most instances, your clothes cover 95% of your body.

Your grooming, your hair style and the other ways you can determine your appearance from the neck up also exert an inordinate influence on the way that you are perceived, on your ethos with someone. Your accessories all make a statement that will or will not help to put you in a position to influence someone.
How To Make A Great First Impression

Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take complete control over every detail of your personal appearance and grooming. Resolve to look like a powerful, influential person in all your business activities.

Second, study fashion and proper dress so you know exactly what to wear and in what combination. Read a book, take a seminar or even hire an image consultant.

Small changes in your appearance can change your life.

Before we wrap up, I’d like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers:

“Making a great first impression is imperative to becoming an influential leader.”

Now I’d love to hear from you. What other aspects do you feel help you make a good first impression?

Leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to follow up with you.

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7 Counter-Intuitive Life Lessons That You Need to Know

The process of maturity allows us to look life as it really is.

The truth and nothing but.

Through that process, we learn that common sense really isn’t so common. We learn that no, you probably won’t be the greatest basketball/football/baseball player ever. We even learn that our parents are humans and they make mistakes just like us.

7 Counter-Intuitive Life Lessons That You Need to Know

As they say the truth sets you free. Here are 7 counter-intuitive life lessons that you need to know.


1. Fame. Money. Looks. Has nothing to do with confidence.

If it did we’d all be all be in trouble. Confidence isn’t a privilege and it’s never guaranteed. Winning the lottery and becoming a millionaire the next day isn’t going to make you any more confident than you are now.

Some might say I’m wrong, that winning the lottery will indeed make them more confident. Okay. What about when you lose all the money?

Tying your confidence levels to the a dollar amount, looks that can fade, or likes on social media isn’t healthy. Those are wells that can run empty at any time. True confidence is based internally, on things nobody can take from you.


2. It’s not worth trying to get people who don’t like you to like you.

It’s too much time and effort that might not even lead to any payoff.

Not to mention the mental and emotional stress and chasing somebody who doesn’t like you. With the time and energy you spend on trying to get people who don’t like you to like you, you can get at least 3 other people to like you.

Be positive, be kind, and leave it at that.


3. It’s better to be really good at two things than the best at one thing.

Neil Degrasse Tyson, for example. Fluent in the field of advanced astrophysics, but not quite at the top. Yet he has had considerable success in spite of it. All due to the fact that he has the ability to break down such a complicated topic and make it entertaining to the average person.

Derek Halpern of Social Triggers. Great marketer and a fantastic public speaker. His main discipline was in digital marketing, but he branched off into public speaking. This allowed him to grow his brand into the multi-million dollar business it is today.


This is because once you get to a certain level, your growth starts to level out. It becomes harder and harder to get to that next level. So differentiate yourself. Develop another skill.


4. The less you need something, the more it’ll present itself to you.

Startups with strong sales without any venture capital will have venture capitalists throwing money at them.

The prospect with recruiters hounding them for an interview will only continue to see that number of recruiters grow. When you don’t need your chap-stick, you see it all over the place. When you need it, however, it’s nowhere to be found.

People who need rarely get what they want.

5. It’s better to be selfish now so you can be selfless later.

“…FIRST TAKE THE PLANK OUT OF YOUR OWN EYE, AND THEN YOU WILL SEE CLEARLY TO REMOVE THE SPECK FROM YOUR BROTHER’S EYE.” – MATTHEW 7:5

On air-planes they instruct parents, in case of an emergency, to first put on oxygen masks on themselves before attending to their children.

This is for the children’s benefit.

If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you take care of others?

There’s only so much you can do as a broke college student. You might be able to go to South America and help build a house or a school for underprivileged children, but it’s far more effective for you to selfish first.

Once you’ve established your reputation and your wealth, you can do far more for those underprivileged children than you ever could have had you neglected your “selfish” goals.


6. The day you accept the fact everything will end is the day you stop taking everything for granted.

Stoics such as Marcus Aurelius pondered their own mortality frequently. They were attuned to the limited amount of the time they and everybody and everything else had on this earth. This evolved into a deep appreciation for the each breathe gifted to them.

Worrying or complaining about circumstances fades into the backdrop of inevitable mortality. So smile as you tackle on your challenges.


7. Help people that can’t help you today.

Guy Kawasaki used to give stories to journalists coming from small time newspapers and magazines when he was with Apple. He could’ve easily gone to the big dogs such as The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

Instead he built those relationships up so when those journalists did work at The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, he had an inside contact.

Those contacts came in handy when Apple wasn’t doing so well, and journalists weren’t waiting hand and foot for a story.

Not everybody you help will be kind enough to repay the favor. So do it because you’re a good person and don’t expect much out of it. Only then will you be pleasantly surprised.


Conclusion

Some of these truths present themselves to us too late in life and we could’ve avoided a mistake or two had we been aware of them. I made the mistake many years ago of basing my confidence on silly things such as clothes and looks.

Maybe you can relate.

Maybe you can also relate how you’re in a much better spot now now that you’ve learned to base your confidence on what can’t be taken away from you.

There are going to be many more truths that’ll reveal themselves to you later on in life.

To recap here are 7 of those:
Fame. Money. Looks. Has nothing to do with confidence.
It’s not worth trying to get people who don’t like you to like you
It’s better to be really good at two things than the best at one thing
The less you need something, the more it’ll present itself to you
It’s better to be selfish now so you can be selfless later
The day you accept the fact everything will end is the day you stop taking everything for granted
Help people that can’t help you today

Oh, and one more. Santa Claus isn’t real.
What are some counter-intuitive life lesson you’ve learned? I would love to hear from you.

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6 Great Ways to Stick to Your Daily Routine

Are you the type of person that struggles to grasp the concept of routine? Here’s everything you need to know.

In the movie Groundhog Day (if you haven’t seen this yet, then go do that right away!), Phil (the protagonist) finds that he is in a sort of a time warp, living the same day over and over again. There’s a scene in which Phil talks to a local at the bar.

Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing you did mattered?

Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

In a way, even though Ralph wasn’t literally living the same day over and over again (like Phil was), he was still doing the same things over and over, day in and day out. Ralph was stuck in routines that didn’t matter.

Having a Daily Routine

My younger self hated routine. I hated discipline and I didn’t understand the reason why rules existed or why they were being imposed on me. Admittedly, in retrospect, they were in part being imposed because of some tyrannical desire of the enforcer.

But, a tiny part of me knew that there was also the possibility that routine exists because it instills in you, some kind of responsibility. But, no, it wasn’t for me. I detested routine so vehemently and I hid that fact so cleverly.

Then I grew up. Being an adult is tough. It’s tough because you don’t have a routine being imposed on you anymore, unless you’re well, in prison, in which case you don’t really have a choice. But otherwise, you are free to do exactly as you please.

People will tell you to break out of routine and do exciting things that challenge you. And while this may sound good, it is not necessarily always a good thing.


The Disadvantage of Routines

Routine makes you forget why you are doing what you do. “Practice” might make perfect what I can tell you (from personal experience), it also makes for a loss of passion.

And this can be incredibly harmful, both personally and professionally (We talked about this in Dealing with disillusionment in tech).


The Advantages of Routines

The trouble with growing up, as I soon discovered, was that I had gotten so accustomed to sticking to a routine that I didn’t know what it was like to work without one. This is a problem creatives face almost every day.

Creativity isn’t supposed to be work and creatives are generally not too happy with sticking to a schedule. Often, it actually becomes difficult to channel creativity, which is inherently spontaneous, into work, which is almost everything but.


Working for a software firm now, I often like to relate the process of software development to the process of writing a story.

It’s almost like magic, when all the different pieces finally fall together and you have a finished product that you can be proud of.

This is why it requires just as much creativity and out-of-the-box thinking as say, a designing/writing job, if one has to be a truly accomplished programmer.
6 Great Ways to Stick to Your Daily Routine

Now coming to the crux of why you need routine, I will sum it up in the following words – Being creative and innovative is not sufficient. You also need to get things done.

Here are 6 great ways to set a good routine and stick to it.


1) Define Your Routine

And in order to get things done, you need to have a process. Every individual would do well to develop a process that works well for them.

If you’re a leader, instill that sense of process in your team members. A good routine could well be the difference between simply talking about things, and actually getting out there and accomplishing them.


2) Have A Cheat Day

What I’m trying to say is: don’t stick to your routine. I probably sound like I’m contradicting myself here but I’m not. Once you have found a process that works for you, make sure you set aside a day of the week on which you don’t stick to your routine.

Put aside that one day to do things differently or do different things. You never know! You might find a new way to do things. You might even find something, to work on, that you had never really considered significant before.


3) Have A Pre-Routine
Before you actually start your routine, do something that doesn’t challenge you much. For me, the beginning of the day is when I read up on the latest articles or any news bits in tech that I might have missed.

It takes little to no effort to get started on this, but because I have mentally included it to be part of my routine, I can be prepared for what I have to do next.

4) Don’t Play the Blame-Game

Procrastination is our worst enemy. I have spent ages procrastinating, when I should have been working, and eventually blaming someone else for my lack of results. Having a routine makes you aware of what you didn’t get done, and consequently puts the ownership of your work entirely in your hands.

I’ve found that it’s easier for me to assess my performance if I have set aside some benchmarks for what I expect of myself.

No one else can do that for you. Make yourself accountable for your work.


5) Calendars and To-do Lists

Use a to-do list for one-off activities and schedule your recurring activities on Google Calendars. The best part about Calendars are the pop-ups and notifications that make sure you don’t forget to get something done.

When you’re reminded/told to do something, there’s a greater chance that you’ll actually do it.


6) Eliminate Hindrances

A new routine is difficult to stick to and often you’ll find yourself faced with distractions that can lead you astray. What you can do is examine your routine and identify those exact moments where you feel like things are going south.

Once you pay more attention to the difficult bits, it makes it easier for you to stick to a routine as a whole.



To sum up, routine is an important part being able to consistently put all your effort and focus on your dreams. Which is why adopting the habit of a good daily routine is something you definitely need to do. As you get into that habit, you’ll find it harder to get out of.

Here’s a recap on 6 great ways to stick to your daily routine:
Define your routine
Have a cheat day
Have a pre-routine
Don’t play the blame game
Calendars and to-do lists
Eliminate hindrances



Thanks for reading, don’t forget to comment below with your thoughts!

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How to Approach Tasks You Really Hate Doing & Win

Everyone needs to do things they hate from time to time.

It might be anything from basic chores to a dull part of an otherwise interesting project. Those who get things finished know how to push through the tasks they hate in order to work on what they love.

Nobody is immune to procrastination, and even the most hardworking people around have their weak moments. While procrastination happens occasionally with neutral tasks, it’s a common problem people go through when facing things they really hate doing.


How to Approach Tasks You Hate Doing

Here are 9 strategies to help you find the motivation for doing tasks you hate and win every time you push them to completion.

1. Create a To-do List & Tackle Your Hardest Tasks First

To-do lists are the single best solution for making sense of your work and daily life.

Organization and scheduling is much easier if you’ve got a daily, weekly, or monthly to-do list as your point of reference.

Most of the time, you’ll spot your least favorite tasks at the very bottom of your to-do list. The trick to getting these done is simply moving them to the top.

This way you’ll gain a boost of motivation when thinking about more pleasant things that come right after the hard part.

Moreover, after completing your hardest tasks, everything else will look very easy in comparison. In other words, your to-do list will become a downhill ride.


2. Give Your Tasks More Depth

Boring tasks are annoying because they’re very narrow and don’t allow you to be creative.

A good solution to this problem is giving your task more depth. This is how you’ll make it more interesting and become focused on the task, consequently completing it faster than ever before.


CONSIDER YOUR ACTIVITY AS AN ART FORM THAT DESERVES TO BE MASTERED.

Instead of seeing it as an on-off kind of task, look at the potential ways in which you could achieve more in less time. Take small steps to make the task more enjoyable and always look for smart ways to optimize it.

3. Measure Time Spent on Various Tasks

One of the best methods to stop wasting time is to start measuring it. Record how many hours you spend on various activities during your day and put them all into a chart.

Every time you look at this chart, you’ll want to keep it moving in the right direction. That’s how you get a powerful motivation boost for your work. If you procrastinate, you’ll see its consequences right in front of you.

If you’re facing a series of things you absolutely need to do but don’t enjoy, create a chart to keep track of the time you spend on working towards their completion. This anti-procrastination technique is excellent if you’re having a bad week and can’t find the motivation for tackling the hardest or dullest tasks in your schedule.


4. Come up With Another Goal

Transforming an awful task into something pleasant isn’t always an option. But you still need to get it done. This is where you can use your objectives as effective leverage.

Instead of despairing over your activity, try to think about it in broader terms. How does it relate to your final objective? What is its meaning for your bigger picture of success?

This perspective will help you to see the task in a different light and get a motivation boost when you realize that it’s necessary for reaching your final goal.

Remind yourself of this goal once in a while to push through the things that you don’t find that exciting.


5. Set a Timer

If you need to complete a short mindless task, set a timer to ensure that you get it done as quickly as possible.

Create a specific window of time and you’ll be challenged to keep your focus throughout the activity. This way you’ll also get to more pleasant tasks sooner.

6. Make the Most Out of Your Time

Sometimes the most boring tasks are those which involve waiting, driving around, or mindless repetition of the same activity. Use this time to do something meaningful

If you’re stuck in traffic, listen to calming music or audio-books. If you’re waiting for an appointment, read a book or meditate. Listen to an interesting podcast while folding your laundry.

You can actively prevent this time from going to waste by adopting these habits that allow to live a fuller and more mindful life.


7. Focus on Your Task

If you think that getting over with a task as quickly as possible is a measure against procrastination, you’re making a huge mistake. This kind of attitude actually prevents people from getting started at all.

One way to stomach the unpleasant activity is to simply focus on it. Sometimes intense focus can help you start loving tasks you previously hated.


COMMIT TO THIS ACTIVITY AND INVEST ALL YOUR ENERGY TO CONCENTRATE ON IT.

Instead of thinking about all things you could be doing instead of this one, focus and do your best to complete it as efficiently as you can. Who knows, maybe you’ll start enjoying it in the process?


8. Break it Into Smaller Parts

Getting started is where things get difficult. We generally like to avoid tasks we hate for as long as possible. When we finally get started, we might get stuck for ages.

That’s why the key to boosting productivity lies in making it easier to get started. If an activity looks intimidating, you should break it into smaller components and commit to every single one of them.

If you’re a writer, set yourself a goal of one paragraph a day. This will make your task seem less daunting and give you motivation to complete the job once you stop actively avoiding it.


9. Delegate Tasks You Hate to Other People

Look around and you’ll inevitably find people in your life who could help you with these activities. If you build an image of yourself as too capable, others might easily start taking advantage of your ability and willingness to work on such tasks.

If you can’t find anyone to whom you could delegate your tasks, why not hire somebody to do them for you? Sure, it’s not a solution that will work for every kind of activity, but if the tasks in question can be outsourced, and you can afford it – just go for it.

This is especially valuable for managing tasks which are time-consuming. Just think of all the time you’ll gain to spend on other, more profitable or enjoyable activities. Plus, by hiring someone you’ll be helping them out as well.


Summary

Use these strategies and you’ll be on your way to getting more work done, consequently gaining more time for rest and doing things you really love.

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