Take a break

This week has been very different from the rest of the semester. My life has been crazy with working part time and all my classes. I've been under lots of stress and at times it has been really hard. This break came at the perfect time, as at the start of the week I had burned out and was physically unable to do all of the things I had planned to do in the first few days in order to have no homework the second half of the week.

After taking the week easy and taking lots of time to relax, I feel much better and happier. I have learned that it is not good to be busy all the time. We need time to relax.

I expect that starting this next week I will be better able to handle all that I need to do. If I just stay busy as I have before, I expect to burn out again quickly and be back to where I was before the break. However, if I take time to relax and have fun, I should be able to continue better and perform at a higher level. Not only will this end up being more enjoyable, but it will be better for me. This is what I hope to be able to do over the last few weeks of the semester.

Elements of a presentation

We had oral presentations again this week in my MCOM class. This week I had to present. I learned lots as I prepared for this. I had spent the previous classes observing and noticing what other people did that worked well and what didn't work very well, and had figured out a pseudo structure that I wanted to follow. As I researched and developed a hook and an agenda, the presentation came together really easily. I was able to prepare a good presentation in a remarkable short period of time. Of course, that only included putting the content together, not actually practicing it.

As I was giving my presentation the next day, I realized that I had actually put together something that was high quality. I spent less than a fourth of the time preparing the content of my presentation as I do the content of a talk in church, and this is significant, even though my talks in church are typically 10 minutes long.

Therefore, what I learned is that f you prepare the proper elements, such as a hook and an agenda, then the rest of the presentation (including a paper or a talk) will come together much faster than they would otherwise. The content of the presentation will also be of much higher quality.

This is important because it allows to to present better quality presentations, which can be a big deal if you want to be influential. I will, therefore, remember these important things and use them in the future when preparing anything I need to present to an audience.

It's not all about content

This week we had oral presentations in my MCOM class. They were pretty interesting. I learned about a wide range of things, such as how to use various types of social media, what trello is, and about my new best friend "MAC".

The most interesting thing I learned, however, was not any of the subjects that were presented. I learned about the importance of things other than content in a presentation. Good posture, clear speaking, pauses, professionalism, energy, and positioning can have a huge effect on the credibility and acceptance of your presentation.

I think many times I worry too much about the content and don't spend enough time working on the presentation. This is something I need to change, since even if you have great content you'll still be ignored if you can't present it well.

One thing this reminds me of is a story my marketing teacher told, of an intern who found that a company was buying many different types of gloves for many different prices. He found a great way to present this problem, by bringing one of each glove with the price paid attached. Just by the sheer quantity of the gloves that were shown, he had already convinced management that a change was required.

Thus I will stop worrying so much about content in all presentations, talks, and projects and make sure I don't forget to prepare the presentation part.

Showing Gratitude

This week was very stressful for me. With 15 credit hours and working part time, I had lots of homework and projects and not enough time to do it all. Thursday night I had committed to joining my family when they went to the opening of my cousin's wife's art exhibit. I had almost resorted to eating cereal for dinner before going, when my mom sent me a text asking if I wanted her to bring down the leftover lasagna from my family's dinner that day. I happily accepted this. When we left the art exhibit my mom gave me the leftover lasagna, along with some salad. I was very grateful for this, and made sure to express my gratitude. 

The next day I got a text from my mom informing me of how touched she had been by my expression of gratitude. It meant a lot to her, especially since my dad has started a diet and no longer eats the food she prepares for the rest of the family. The kids who are still at home are picky eaters who haven’t really learned how to show gratitude yet, so she sometimes feels unappreciated.

From this experience I have relearned the importance of expressing gratitude. It ensures you continue to get food from your mom ;). Jokes aside, though, gratitude really is important. People like to feel appreciated, and showing gratitude also helps you feel better about yourself.

We all need to start showing more gratitude. It can have a great impact on our relationships with others, and can help us feel better about ourselves. This is something I will start doing - putting an extra effort into showing gratitude.

It is interesting that I have this lesson near Thanksgiving. This post is not a Thanksgiving post - not that I don't think we should show gratitude at Thanksgiving, I just think that an increase in gratitude is necessary year round.

Online Interview

As part of a homework assignment for my Management Communications we did a practice interview online. It was an interesting experience. We had some technical difficulties, even though some things had been previously tested.

Things that I thought were successful about the interview - I felt I did a good job staying calm, though I do want to prepare more. There were some questions that completely caught me off guard. If I were to have another online interview, there are some things I would change. I would find a place with a better internet connection to use, and I would write out answers to possible questions and have them easily accessible.

I felt those who interviewed me - Kelly and Brett - did a good job. They were very professional in dealing with the technical difficulties. 

The online interview was a good experience, and it was very helpful in preparing me for future interviews.

Beautiful Week

This week has been different. At church on Sunday my Bishop invited the ward to participate in what he called a "Beautiful Week". This consisted of doing things like reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon before noon every day, eating healthy, exercising daily, letting virtue garnish our thoughts and actions (included making sure music and movies were clean and pure), being kind to others, and ending the day in grateful prayer. Applying this in my life has allowed me to have a week unlike any I have had this semester.

It was very interesting to see the difference in this week. It was quite possible the most difficult week I've had so far this semester, since homework, classes, and work were more exhaustive than normal and my roommates were harder to deal with than normal. This led to me having a very stressful week. I am almost certain that one of the main reasons I survived this week was that I participated in the "Beautiful Week".

So I learned that when I put increased effort into living the gospel I am able to handle things I normally wouldn't be able to. I hope to be able to continue to do things like this and push myself to beyond my capabilities. As I do so, I will receive the help of the Lord and be more satisfied with my accomplishments.