Thursday, June 18th, 2009 |
No matter what your reading and comprehension abilities are, you can learn to read faster with a well designed speed reading program. As well, your comprehension abilities are maintained, and sometimes they even get better.
Speed reading programs train people to quickly search through the text. They are taught to ignore irrelevant information and pick out only the pertinent parts. The goal is to read complete sentences as a single unit rather than focusing on each word in order to pick up the gist of the reading material.
In particular, technical materials can be difficult to read, and they often run to a thousand pages or more. However, you can get through them quite rapidly if you learn to speed read while still gleaning the most important material. This is critical, since if they can’t remember half of what they read, they may have to go back and read through it more than once.
When children first learn to read, they read a word and pronounce it out loud to be sure they recognize it. They then do the same with each word that follows. This methodical and slow moving process of reading is retained as time goes by. But a speed reading program can retrain the brain to learn a better, faster way to read.
Speed reading programs were first introduced in 1958 by Evelyn Wood in Australia. Since then, learning to read faster has become extremely popular, especially when it comes to reading informational text.
There are many different techniques available in a speed reading program. They are all designed to help participants learn to read faster. Some naysayers, however, charge that some of these programs increase reading speed at the expense of comprehension. The speediest readers can plow through a couple thousand words in just an hour, as demonstrated in speed reading competitions. However, their rate of comprehension is only about fifty percent.
This is considered by some to be an essential component of a speed readng course that is lacking in many programs. They measure their success based solely on speed instead of comprehension and retention. This, of course, is very important, particularly in technical matters.
As you’re researching the various speed reading programs available, be sure to look for ones that are able to improve your retention and comprehension, not just your speed. As you start to use your new abilities, you’ll discover that it’s a lot faster to get what you need from any book or manual.
Posted in Life Experiences | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 |
Numerous people have difficulties setting personal goals and then following them. It can be due to a lack of self-discipline, lack of focus or perhaps a mismanaged life style that has them going around in a circle, never making any headway. Regardless of what the explanation is, personal goals are not being met and that can result in a downturn in the quality of life for that person. If you feel that you are spinning your wheels but not getting anyplace as far as your own personal goals are concerned, perhaps the time has come to create the life that you want with life coaching.
Helping other folks to accomplish their personal goals and dreams is what life and personal development coaching is all about. A coach can achieve this by leading by example, offering life tips and using effectual coaching skills that come from a variety of disciplines, such as psychology or sociology. A life coach must assist you in examining your current living situation and have you reach a decision as to where you would ultimately like to be in life. Besides offering tips and guiding you along, they will also help you in getting over any obstacles that may pop up along the way.
A life coach is not a fix it all and he or she cannot resolve the client’s troubles for them. If you have alcohol, drug or psychological related problems or there are issues pertaining to abuse, your mentor will not be certified to help you with these types of problem. They can offer a good example and assist the client search out specialist help but they are not qualified to undertake such a job. Your mentor is not there to push you towards anything which you are not ready for and neither should they show you the way. They are more of a shoulder to lean on should you need assistance in handling certain transitions in your life.
One thing to be aware of is that there is no professional licensing required for leadership mentoring or for being a life coach. Even though there are some organizations that do offer membership, no formal qualifications or schooling is needed in order to be a mentor. Consequently, if you are looking to find a life coach to assist you set goals, you should be suspicious of any person claiming to be able to change your life or help you to obtain an unreasonable objective.
Numerous folks get a real feeling of gratification when they can assist others succeed in accomplishing their goals, dreams and aspirations. To these folks, life coaching is very much a way of life. If you have a longing to start coaching folks yourself, just be aware that nothing good in life comes easily and it can take some hard work to become a life coach, but the end rewards will be well worth the effort.
Everybody requires a little motivation from time to time. Life simply has an inclination to be overwhelming once in a while and people can often find themselves lost on the way to their goals. Life coaching takes those goals and helps put the person back on the right track to success.
Posted in Life Experiences | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 |
There have been many relationships for me over the years. I have met many interesting people. There were the friends and teachers from grade school who you have your first real relationships. The first girl that you kissed and you knew that this time would last forever. The bully at recess, who you knew would have a tough life ahead of them. The other kids who stayed overnight to play hide and seek in the basement. The fun we had, and the dreams we had we knew would keep us all together. I had different friends in high school, some were the jocks and some were the geeks. We went to prom together like everyone else, yet it seemed that the interaction among us started to change. The feelings were stronger and the pain was longer. The weekdays were just as long as the weekends were short. The breakup after 3 months with a girlfriend seemed like this time would last forever. School was tough in other ways too. I had a lot of friends, but it seemed like there were bigger things to come after graduation. We all went our separate ways to meet other new friends. We moved on to new adventures. Meeting new people in college and working odd jobs became a whole new social experience for me. Working at a restaurant and meeting middle-aged men washing dishes seemed a little unusual, but then I began to think about what their circumstances were about. I met a girl who was about 10 years older than me and she was a single mom, she was going to school at night and she worked as a cook. Her story was how she wanted to help her son by getting him into a better school, since he had difficulties learning. The other cook was proud to moving up at the restaurant as a the head cook, he had been there for nearly 4 years. The older lady at the check out was here to make some money and to make new friends since her husband had passed away. I realized that this was just a moment for me while during school, this was a big deal to them. Some days I did not want to work, because school was getting me down. As I looked at the others and their situations, I began to realize that my experiences were not about me, but about everyone else.
After college I got a job far away from family and friends because it was the best opportunity at the time. Although, I began to see more hardships of others around me. I was not always the type who considered the glass half empty, but I guess this kind of stuff was more evident to me than the good things at this point. As I moved on into my adult life I guess I really began to understand my life lesson. I began my first real job in sales and have not looked back since. I will share my job experiences on a future post. I have learned how to better see and feel the needs of others. This has helped me in my experiences with others. No matter how difficult your life may seem, there is always someone who has a bigger challenge.
I have now begun to explore other personal experiences on the web and have enjoyed blogs and forums like these to share and read about others. Words cannot describe that the world is so much bigger than you are, look outside yourself to see inside of others and you will have a more positive social experience.
Posted in Awkward Experiences, Business Experiences, Financial Experiences, Happy Experiences, Internet Experiences, Life Experiences, Marketing Experiences, Proud Experiences, Relationship Experiences, Sad Experiences, Travel Experiences, Winning Experiences | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 |
Stupid people.
Yellow curb. Means park somewhere else.
Looking for a free lunch, perfect pitch, the holy grail, or a parking spot in front of the courthouse, which for this truck means a 35 foot slot in the lineup.
Not only are they parked on yellow, aCROSS from the sheriff’s office, they hadn’t the decency to close up the gaps. Between every bumper and fender ekes a tantalizing 30 feet, as if they only had so many cars to lock up all the parallel spots so they had to space em out.
Ever since the arraignment for one Charles Haught, middle-aged life drop-out, rapist and murderer of one Wesley Campbridge, seven year-old, ever since every mobile news unit from three surrounding counties had converged and taken up residence in front of Bourbon County Circuit Courthouse, people had ceased fudging the customary ten to fifteen feet of yellow, and now strung all the way across it in the spirit of the old adage about forgiveness and permission.
If Action News 36 can do it, well by George. . .
In my mind I know it’s 9:43 and in my DIAD are 8 uncompleted 10:30 commit stops, two of them bulk, and one of them across town.
Without looking, I sense a looming diesel presence in the fold-out sideview mirror, the same white Ford dualy that’s been dogging me from 10th Street, edging out from behind just enough to make sure I know he wants around.
Knock yourself out, sweetheart. F’you can fit that monster in between my mirror and the half-lane that’s left, you’re more driver than I am. No doubt he thinks he is. More to the point, no doubt he’s been cussin me all the way down Main since I pulled in front of him.
Had to cut somebody off.
Watched twenty cars amble by with that same maddening gap precision. Twenty cars, a minute-and-a-half I ain’t got. The second I nosed out into traffic, he ghosted up to my bumper so close I could see the Ford oval on his grill in my rear camera monitor.
Yeah, now you’re in a hurry.
I can see his mouth moving, so I put words in it. Fool kid, pull out in front of me, and some other words that normally I would never think, were I not forced into providing captions for his thought balloons. It wouldn’t bother me so much if I didn’t feel just a little bit guilty. Guilt pressed in between time and stress oozes out looking like road rage.
A blue Caravan with a bandaged rear window and a bumper just hanging on for dear life pulls away from the curb in front of me, at about the same time the Ford gets the four inches he’s been wanting for ten blocks, and here he comes, loosening the reins of all 350 horses, and billowing acrimony from both 5 inch chrome horns.
The hapless grocery-getter dawdles on out in his lane. He hauls up on the reins, the whistling downshift an automotive curse. If I had time, I’d be laughing. Good thing I don’t. He’s up even with me now, looking right at me, distilling all his frustration with the Caravan and the world in general into the last minute spent staring at the back of a delivery truck. I can see his silent swearing indignance.
He’s a mouth breather. Unfortunate orifice, that. The gaps in between the parked cars should be so wide.
Still, he manages to impart more scorn through his NASCAR shades and the bubbled tint than Estella ever cast down on Pip, Chillingworth on Rev. Dimmesdale, or the parabled Pharisee upon the publican.
Turning my attention to the vast expanse of gleaming yellow curb vacated by the departing Caravan, I cut as close as I can and then back, dimming the luminous paint with my rubbing tires.
The stop I need is half a block back.
Shoving the truck into park, I fall into a habitual series of movements, park, brake, key out, seatbelt off, mirror in, bulkhead door; a succession so varied but seamless, a truly Faulkneresque regimen.
Dodging strategically positioned and scarcely mobile redneck sidewalk ornaments, I finally make it to the intended destination, a lawyer’s office, and pull hard on the door.
It’s locked, and the jolt shakes the glassed-in front wall.
The over-cooked, under-worked (minesweeper?) secretary jerks around so suddenly that her desk chair becomes a tilt-a-whirl, and she steadies herself with a what on earth expression. (oh help, another mouth breather) Sizing up the situation, she then laughs, slaps the desk so hard I can hear it out here, and puts her forehead down on her hand, big shoulders shaking.
9:46.
Odd seconds rush out into eternity while she has a good winding down laugh about how startled she was and how she forgot to unlock that front door again!
She gets up from the chair in hitches and explains the noise over her shoulder to someone in the back room, actually stopping mid-way and, what, turning to raise her voice because they can’t hear her.
When she opens the door, “Oh my land’s sakes, you scared me to death-” throwing her head down and slapping a meaty thigh, and sucking in the next phrase through a hearty laugh “I-I-I thought somebody ran into the building-ing-ing, and and Haley hollered up here and said, ‘What in tarnation is that, did some kid run his bicycle into the front door?’ Ooohhhh, I forgot to unlock it!”
I, am speechless.
Come in.
I would, of course, decline, but it appears she isn’t going to physically accept the package, possible germophobe, but no, she just stuck a pen in her mouth. The packages, including this 2 oz. next-day-air envelope, go on a table in that back room.
The one on the left?
No, down the stairs, to the right, through the gray door.
Returning from the dungeon, I offer her the DIAD to sign.
Oh no, Betty signs for everything.
Betty?
Downstairs, you didn’t see her?
Poor Betty’s been having indigestion all morning, she explains when she emerges from the rest room at 9:52. How fast can you empathize? My foot is one inch from the bottom step of the truck when a voice falls across my tense shoulders like a war club.
Hey, buddy.
Contemplation of feigned deafness tempts me for a second.
Sigh.
Yeah? Turning, sounding relaxed, helpful.
Oh no, it’s Jethro Bodine gone to neglected seed, Santa Clause’s Appalachian counterpart, except I don’t think he’s going to give me anything. The v-necked t-shirt stopped being white shortly after it stopped rying to reach down to the sweat pants. Chest hair, copious and curly, nestles in the plunging neckline. The grace of a beard has been weeded out to a mockery of sweat, oil and tangles. Sixty degrees and sweat beads his forehead and speckles his shirt. He hooks a thumb to the courthouse.
Can you tell me what that says? Over his shoulder my eyes focus on a computer-printed sign taped to the door of the courthouse. Forgot his glasses, I guess.
Hurrying around him, I’m almost there before I realize the print is three inches tall.
Behind me, I hear “I just. . . can’t read.”
Something jams into my spokes, locking up the wheels of time and task and what I call trouble.
Uh, it says the courthouse is closed-ummm, scanning the two lines as if it were fine print-uh, open. . . tomorrow. Turning to face him, Well that’s odd, babbling, wonder why they’re closed, no holiday.
That’s okay, he says.
All right, well have a good one, man.
Sorry-he looks me in the eye-just, can’t read.
Hey, no problem, no problem at all, have a good one, have a good day.
I thank ye’.
You t-no problem, have- we’ll see you.
Delivering next day air, I don’t have time to think about the flush that stains my cheeks, or the lump logging my throat.
natenrae
Posted in Awkward Experiences, Life Experiences, Sad Experiences | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 |
This is the eighth month after the death of my mother-in-law.
She was a health freak and never used to eat out. I lived with her for seventeen years and never saw her missing her daily exercise routine. She was a role model for many people in the hospital where she was working as a matron. It was in 2006 that she started complaining for stomachache. I was upset with her bad health. She was diagnosed with the second degree cirrhosis of her liver. Poor lady! My husband and I took her to the best doctors in the town and started her on medication. Unfortunately, she did not respond to any of the medications as it was too late to get the damage repaired at that stage.
During this course, she became very hostile with us. She was irritated to the extent that she started calling me names. She was amused in bad mouthing me to every individual who used to come to see her. The doctor, however, explained it in another way. He was of the opinion that she is terminally ill and scared of death. Since her liver was damaged, she had all possible deficiencies in her body because of which she was not able to eat anything more than a couple of spoonful of soup and half a glass of juice for the whole day.
We were finding it difficult to adjust between our work and home life. It was very difficult for me to tolerate her bad words. In spite of supporting my husband in that critical time period, I used to criticize his mother’s behavior. He tried to make me understand several times, but my brain had a block set up there and was not ready to listen to him. This continued for all those months while her health was deteriorating. It was in the month of October that she breathed her last and finally the horrified episode of my life came to an end.
As a matter of fact, I should have had peace after this, but I am sad to loose her this way. Every now and then, I feel the loss which her death has created in my life. I go out for work and my children are alone at home. She used to be there with them when she was alive. I never realized it when she was alive. She used to take care of several things at home and I never knew many of them until the whole responsibility came on my shoulders. I regret my behavior with her. I could not understand the pain she was going through.
We tried all alternative medicines available but what can substitute love and care!
My only motive here to share my experience is that the parents can not be replaced once lost. There is no way that we can get them back. My mother used to say that parents can raise ten children but they together also can not look after their parents.
The Nature would never change its course for anyone, but we can change our nature to incorporate an element of love and care in our hearts to be given away
Posted in Female Experiences, Health Experiences, Life Experiences, Parenting Experiences | No Comments »
