I Love You

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I Love You.

Three words that have transcended emotional core of the human race.

I Love You.

Three words that have transformed the of human history. Three words that can move armies and change the face of human destiny. Three words that can touch lives.

Falling in Love

Falling in love is one of life's great experiences. Everyone wants to be in love. No matter where we are in our lives or what else might occupy our time, we all wish to have someone to love and someone who will love us in return.

Love is...

So what is love? Love refers to emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. Relating to the phase "I love you", love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person.

When we feel that special feeling for someone else, we tend to want to say that special three words to the other person. We think of the other person all the time. It floods our minds and occupies our fleeting thoughts. That special person and those three special words, "I love you".


Love in a Relationship

In a relationship, differences between men and women may cause friction within a loving relationship. For example, a women wants to feel loved and cherished but the man will want to feel competent and respected. Not recognizing such differences might result in problems later in a relationship.

Similarly, recognizing such needs and desires early on can help both parties fulfill each other's needs and desires in a relationship resulted in strengthen bonds and ties.


Love Equals Giving

Pure love is giving by its nature. When a person showers his or her partner with the warmth and tenderness of love, his or her partner will instinctively feel the desire to reciprocate. This creates a positive feedback loop of love and affection. Thus, we should all strive to shower our partners with as much love and affection as possible.


Relationships need Constant Love

Relationships require nourishment in order to grow and develop. Just like plants that require water and sunlight, similarly, our relationships also require constant nourishment and care to flourish. Shower your partner with love and affection, such as affirming your love by saying "I love you".

I wish you a lifetime of endless love and happiness with whoever he or she may be.


Here are some resources that are related to the words "I love you"

Love Quotes from Free Famous Quotes
I Love You in Different Languages
21 Reasons why I Love You
The Art of Seduction from Amazon.com
How to Write a Love Letter from Amazon.com

Make the Other Person Feel Important and do it Sincerely

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How to make people like you instantly.

In my previous post "How to Win Friends and Influence People", we have explored the first five ways to make people like you, and they are

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.

In this post, we will explore the one all important law of human conduct. This law will bring us countless friends and constant happiness if followed, and endless trouble if broken. The law is,

Always Make the Other Person Feel Important

As humans, all of us crave to be appreciated. I am not referring to cheap insincere flattery here, but honest sincere appreciation.

The truth is that almost everybody that you meet feel that they are superior to you in some way. Why not let them realize in a subtle way that you recognise their importance and recognise it sincerely.

Show Respect to Others

Always show respect to others. Fill your vocabulary with phases such as "I'm sorry to trouble you," "Would you be so kind as to -" "Won't you please?" "Would you mind" and "Thank you."

Little courtesies like these grease the gears of everyday life and make our daily existance a nice and smoother one.

As humans, we should do our best to try and radiate a little happiness and pass on a bit of honest appreciation to others, even if we do not get anything in return. The fact that you managed to make someone feel a tiny bit better about themselves is reward enough.

Why not say something nice to somebody else. It could be a family member, a friend, or even a complete stranger. Make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.

Make someone else happy, today.

If you enjoyed this post, don't forget to subscribe or bookmark it! :)

Relationship Advice

'After being in a successful relationship for almost 2 years and on the verge of getting married, I thought I would share some important relationship advice on how to maintain a strong relationship with your partner.

1) Be Understanding –

Relationships have their ups and downs. No two people are perfect, and everybody is different. You should not expect your partner to share your point of view for all things.

The key is to try to be understanding to the other person’s feelings and to try to take the other person’s point of view. Compromise. Adopt the other person’s point of view more often and you should see more improvement in your relationships.

2) Make the Extra Effort –

Relationships don’t sustain themselves automatically. A plant requires nourishment and sunlight to grow, similarly, relationships require lots of nurturing for them to develop and grow. And all of this nurturing requires lots of time and extra effort for them to develop.

In life, we often times take our closest loved ones for granted, and don’t put in the necessary time to develop our relationships with them. Do make the extra effort to make time for your loved ones today.

3) Be Interesting (Or at least try to be interesting) –
In many relationships, couples fall into a rut of doing the same things again and again. That coupled with the stagnation as a result of familiarity results in boredom in a relationship.

Periodically do something different or interesting to excite your partner. Go for a weekend getaway, do something nice for your partner for no reason. Avoid falling into that mundane ruet that many couples tend to fall into.

Relationships in an important aspect of our lives and we need to take the effort to nature them. These three simple relationship advice may require some effort to follow, but might provide much more joy and satisfaction to your relationships.

You might also enjoy some Funny Dating Quotes.
You might also enjoy the post: "Can Money Really Buy Happiness?"

Improve Your Communication Skills

Communication skills is an important aspects of our life, be it when we are engaging with our partners, our friends or our work colleagues.

Being able to inspire other individuals through your communication will allow your life to become more fruitful and enriched. As such, it is important to constantly seek to improve your communication skills.

Here are five tips on how you can improve your communication skills and become a better communicator.

1) Ask Open Ended Questions

In order to allow your conversation to flow, it is useful to use the technique of asking open-ended questions. Open-ended questions often start with words such as “when”, “what” and “why”. An example of an open-ended question is a statement such as: “So, what are some of your favorite foods?”

It is best to avoid the closed-question. An example of the closed-question is a statement such as “Do you like to read”, which only invokes a yes or no type of response. Nothing kills a conversation quite like a closed question, because it can only be answered with a yes or no answer. Thus, do use more open-ended questions and this will hopefully lead to more free-flowing conversations.

2) Employ Active Listening

Active listening is a really useful technique as it lets the other person know that you’ve really listened to what they have been saying.

More importantly, it also conveys to the other person that you have understood what the other person is trying to say. The post "The Three Different Levels of Listening" elaborates more about the importance of listening as well as more characteristics of active listening.

Active listeners follow a conversation and are able to summarize the essence of what the other person is trying to say, guiding the conversation forward.

3) Engage With The Other Person

If someone else is trying to engage you in a conversation, your body language is really important. Try not to continue with the task that you are already doing. Instead, what you should do is to stop whatever it is that you are doing and face the other individual, and give them the time which they deserve.

Remember that good communication involves engaging with the other individual. Give them the time and respect that they deserve.

4) Don’t Make Assumptions

Do not jump to conclusions when you are in a conversation with someone. Don’t assume that you know what they are thinking or what they might feel about a particular topic. Instead, it is much better to ask them if they are ok with this or if they feel all right about that.

Take that person’s thoughts and beliefs into careful consideration and rather than projecting your own thoughts and feelings on them. Remember, don’t make assumptions.

5) Avoid Using Antagonistic Sentences

An example of an antagonistic sentence is, “You’re sitting in my chair.” An antagonistic sentence can be seen as a form of attack on the other individual.

Hence, it is much better to use softer and less direct sentences such as “Excuse me, I think you’ve taken my seat.” This approach is much less confrontational and which will mean that you are more likely to encounter a lot fewer conflicts in your life.

In this post, we have seen five tips on how we can improve on our communication skills. Actually, it is not that difficult to improve your communication skills. All we have to do is to be genuinely interested in the other person. A smile here and there goes a long way.

Follow these guidelines and soon you will be on the path to better interpersonal communication skills.

Stamp out anxiety and depression from your life

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Stamp out anxiety and depression from your life today!

To begin, let us explore the definitions of anxiety and depression.

Worry is to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret.

Anxiety is defined as the distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune; while

Depression is a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason.

Hence from the definitions above, we can clearly see that worry is the root cause of anxiety and depression. Worrying about things leads to the distress of the mind which is anxiety. Over a sustained period of time, this leads to a condition of sustained general emotional dejection which is known as depression.

To sum up, worrying about things leads to anxiety which eventually leads to depression.

Thus, to eliminate anxiety and depression in your life, we have got to learn how to stamp out worry first!

In life, we are constantly plagued by numerous worries of all shapes and sizes. Some can be huge and serious, like worrying about a life threatening illness, while others can be tiny, like worrying if your favorite weekly program is going to be broadcast as scheduled. Regardless of the situation, we are always confronted by situations that may cause us worry.

So, how do we eliminate worry from our lives? One technique that i always use is to shift your focus on to the other person. Ever wondered why people involved in care-giving or charity work usually seem so happy? This is because people in these occupations focus their concerns on the other person, and hence have exhausted their capacity to worry about themselves.

You could also check out this 3 step formula entitled "A Magical Formula to Stop All Worry Situations", which is a post specially designed to abolish the problem of worry from your life.

In short, we CAN stamp out anxiety and depression from our lives!! And we can achieve this by controlling worry in our lives.

Follow the above method of shifting your focus onto the other person as well as the 3 step formula, and this will definitely help to eliminate all the worry from your life... :)

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy
A Magical Formula to Stop All Worry Situations
The Power of a Smile
How to Win Friends and Influence People

Social Situations and Small Talk

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As humans, we are frequently required to attend a whole host of social functions where we are required to interact with groups of strangers. Most of us could use some help in such social situations.

Wouldn't it be nice become a better conversationalist in the art of small talk?

In a previous post, "First Impressions", the importance of making a good first impression was highlighted. This was followed up with the post "How to Make a Great First Impression" where we looked at some tips on how to achieve this.

In this post, we will be exploring the next step in socializing which is making the art of making small talk.

What is small talk?

It is an easy going, light hearted and casual conversation about everyday happenings. It deals with general topics and everybody should be able to participate in the conversation.

How do you begin?

Well, asking a question is always a great place to start. Ask open ended questions which trigger a response. Alternatively, you could always make a statement, state a fact or give an opinion.

Here are some dos and don'ts of small talk.

Do talk about

- Business
- Situation
- Travel
- Background
- Food
- Sports
- Cars
- Movies
- Entertainment
- Hobbies

Avoid talking about

- Religion
- Politics
- Personal Questions (age and income)
- Appearance
- Race
- Inappropriate Jokes


Here are some things you could do to be better at engaging in small talk

Practice Practice Practice:

Engage in conversation with people whom you come across, be it cashiers, waiters, people you're in line with, come across or encounter, be it neighbors, co-workers or even kids.

Chat with people dissimilar to yourself, from seniors to teens to tourists. Force yourself to get into small talk situations. Accept invitations, or even host your own very own meeting or gathering.

Be Well Read and More Involved:

How do expect to contribute to and be involved in a conversation if you are ignorant of the issues? Television, music, sports, fashion, art and poetry are great topics for everyday conversation. Everything is a source of information that can be discussed. Noticed that the people most skilled in conversation usually have an opinion for most topics.

Even if you don't like something, that too can be an interesting source for a conversation. Expand your horizons. Try japanese food, play pinball, paint, or even bake a pie. Try something new every day.

Become a Better Listener:

Listen more than you talk. Attentive listening can bring up many opportunities for making small talk. Did she just say that she suffers from migraines? Did he mention his favorite football team? Take your time during introductions. Make an extra effort to remember the other person's name names and use it frequently.

Remember, the more you practice, the better you are at it. The more you know, the more you know you can talk about. The more you listen, the more you can focus on the other person's interests. This will help you become more confidence, overcome any traces of shyness and any feelings of fear.

Small talk can and is a huge challenge for most people. However, some preparation and confidence is all that you require to be successful at it. A skilled small talker will come across being more friendly and open, as compared to a person who does not say much during social situations.

If you have enjoyed this post, please remember to subscribe to this blog, bookmark it or check out some other excellent articles from the Top Posts section. Thanks.

The Power of a Smile

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"Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu. When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too."
~~ Karen McLendon-Laumann

Smiling is indeed important in our everyday life, both in our personal lives as well as within the workplace.

Dale Carnegie notes that "the expression one wears on one's face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one's back."

This article about "The Power of a Smile" talks about the importance of a smile, gives tips on "How to smile, even when you don't feel like it", discusses on why is a smile is so infectious as well as touches upon the priceless value of giving a smile.

To begin, a smile is one of the most obvious and effective methods of non-verbal communication. It is one of the first things someone will notice about you. A smile, both physically as well as subconsciously, transmits the message, 'I'm glad you're here and that I'm happy to see you.'

Smiling has implications, both in our personal as well as our business relationships. Smiling overcomes barriers and open doors for people. A sincere smile is a message of goodwill, and is considered a sign of hospitality and confidence when dealing with a friend or a business associate.

So we know that a smile is well and good, but what happens if you don't feel like smiling? Well, emotions can be controlled to a certain extent, both physically as well as emotionally. As such, you can evoke a smile using these two methods.

How to Smile, Even when you don't feel like it

Physical Method

- The human body associates physical responses with the associated emotion. For example, if you slouch a lot, your body will naturally feel more sluggish as compared to a person who maintains a good posture.

- Similarly, even if you feel sad, you can still draw your lips together and lift up the ends to form a smile. You might find your mood improving naturally. This technique has helped me improve my mood countless of times.

- Smile with your eyes. This technique involves concentrating your smile on your eyes instead of your lips. Think of your eyes smiling, or twinkling. You will find that your entire face will have to lift itself to accomplish this. You will find your cheekbones lifting up and the tip of your lips lifting up to form a smile.

Emotional Method

- Our emotional state is all in our state of mind. As clique as it sounds, you've gotta want to be happy, in order to be happy. When you WANT to be happy, think happy thoughts. Think about a calm meadow, think about a loved one or a joke maybe.

- Remember, happiness is frequently a choice. Abraham Lincoln once noted that "most fokes are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." We can choose to be happy or miserable. Do choose happiness to fill your life.

There is the saying "Smile and the whole world smiles with you." Well, sayings like this are actually grounded in fact. When you smile, it does tend to trigger off smiles in others around you. Even in extremely stressful situations, a smile can easily brighten up everybody's mood.

The value of a smile is priceless. It can't be bought, begged or borrowed.

It costs nothing to give, but is the most sincere gift that one might be able to give to another. A smile brings rest to the weary, and is the best antidote for discouragement. It brings sunshine to the sad and hope to the hopeless.

A smile is infectious. Start infecting people and winning friends with your smile today.

If you like this article, you might also enjoy

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Become Genuinely Interested in Other People

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Do you want do develop real friendships? Do you want to help yourself by helping others? Do you want people to like you?

If so, then read on...

Thus far, in my summary of Dale Carnege's book entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence People", we have explored the

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want

Now, we move on to the first of six ways to make people like you.

Become Genuinely Interested in Other People

Dale Carnegie notes that "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

All of us human beings, want to be admired and respected. That is what motivate corporate executives to climb the corporate ladder, mountain climbers to scale the highest peaks and you and i when we perform our daily routine each and every day.

Besides the desire to be important, each human being is also faced with a multitude of different problems each day. Problems may range from large problems such as facing a serious disease such as cancer to the smallest of problems such as having a bad air day.

The point which i am trying to make is that: each person is generally focused on his or herself, with his or her own problems and objectives. The special individual which is able to put his or her needs aside and focus on the needs on others will be highly regarded and treasured.

Just look at people in society who specialize in focusing on the needs of others. The doctors, nurses and volunteers for various charities and social services. These people are all highly regarded and treasured in the minds of the public in general.

Why?

There is a power when we reach out to other people with a focused and sincere interest, coupled together with a smile.

Take the time to take an active interest in the lives of those around you. Ask, "How was your day today?" People will ultimately remember that you took the time and effort to be interested in their lives and will appreciate you for that.

If you are interested in improving your interpersonal communication skills, you might consider purchasing Dale Carnegie's all time best selling book from Amazon through this link. How to Win Friends and Influence People

If you like this article, you might also enjoy

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

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Imagine for one second that you are an employee in the workplace... Which choice do you think will be a better motivating factor to encourage better results? The opportunity for reward for good work produced or punishment for poor results?

As human beings, we prefer to be praised rather than punished. So isn't it natural to assume that praising a person could have a greater impact on changing a person's behaviour as compared to the threat of a punishment? This leads me to The Power of Positive Reinforcement.

So, what is positive reinforcement?

Well, positive reinforcement involves the use of positive signals such as (verbal) encouragement or (tangible) rewards to encourage and reinforce a certain desirable behavior.

This concept has been well established to be effective in animal conditioning. For example, rewarding a dog immediately after performing a correct command makes it much more likely that the dog will perform the action the next time it is requested.

The timing of this positive reinforcement is also critical. Positive messages have much more impact the closer the message is to the event itself.

To take advantage of this fact, remember to praise and reward an action as soon as possible. When your child comes and informs you about his or her good grades, show enthusiasm and be hearty in your praise and lavish in your appreciation.

In the same way in which positive reinforcement encourages positive behavior, negative reinforcement will also unwittingly bring about negative behavior.

Let me elaborate more about negative reinforcement. Imagine a parent who keeps criticizing a child repeatedly. The parent might say, "You're good for nothing." or "You're sure to fail." Such messages only serve to reinforce the image of failure in the child's mind.

Hence, do remember to avoid negative messages and practice the power of positive reinforcement so as to bring more joy and happiness into the lives of others.

If you've enjoyed this post. Do help to spread this message of joy and positivity by helping to bookmark or link it. You might also be interested in giving some honest and sincere appreciation or reading more articles on interpersonal communication.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

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"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving." -- Dale Carnegie

You've probably heard of the book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnege.

After all, it has sold 15 million copies globally since it was first published in 1937, influencing an entire generation of self help books.

Something that is so successful has to contain something special.

As such, here is a summary of Dale Carnege's book entitled
"How to Win Friends and Influence People"

Part One
Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3.Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Part Two
Six ways to make people like you

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.

2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Part Three
Win people to your way of thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Part Four
Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.


If you seek tips on improving interpersonal communication skills, this is it! I will be elaborating more about these words of wisdom in future blog posts, so stay tuned.

If you are interested, you can check out Dale Carnegie's book on Amazon here. Alternatively, you may also consider checking out the audiobook version of this book for easy listening from Amazon here.

If you enjoyed this post, don't forget to subscribe or bookmark it! :)

How to Make a Great First Impression

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In my previous post entitled: First Impressions, I illustrated the importance of making a good first impression.

In this article, we will look at some tips on how we can achieve this.

Appearance Matters!!

Do take care of your appearance. This counts for a lot to the person whom you are meeting for the very first time.

The factors which we frequently neglect in our appearance include the condition of our shoes and socks as well as the condition of our nails.

Speak Eloquently and Articulate Clearly

Do speak in a clear and confident voice.

Remember to speak at a moderate pace and try to minimize any slang if speaking to somebody from another country. You want the other person to be able to understand you.

Remember to use a tone of voice appropriate to the situation.

Talk in Terms of the Other Person's Interests

Try to talk about things that the other person might be interested about. For example, if you are at a party, ask who invited him or her and how did they know each other.

Check out my post on Conversation Starters for tips on how to better initiate a conversation.

Smile and be Confident

Smile and watch the world smile back at you. Smiling is an excellent way to create a great first impression. But remember not to overdo it.

Remember that non-verbal cues communicate as much information to the other person as compared to what we say. So do remember to be confident and adopt positive and open body body language.

Much of what I've talked about here is common sense. However, once a first impression is created, it will be virtually impossible to change it.

Considering the impact it will have on your future relationship with the other person, it is worth giving your best effort to make the best of any situation.

Do remember to bookmark this post or subscribe to my blog if you have enjoyed it. :)