A vital skill in becoming an effective communicator is the ability to listen. Listening skills are not taught in school, and sadly are largely undeveloped skill in many people. To listen effectively is a powerful skill that can be learnt and practiced. You will gain more respect and esteem through listening rather than through talking It s funny how sometimes you associate a certain phrase with someone. I knew someone called Ray and what I remember about him the most was when he was listening to someone talk he would keep saying I hear you I would wonder whether he was saying that because he heard, but disagreed with what the person was saying, or if it was a noncommittal filler There is however a great difference between hearing and listening. Hearing refers to the physical dimension of the sound waves striking the ear and the brain processing them into meaningful information. Listening, however, involves far more than the hearing process. It incorporates paying attention and focusing with the...

Bill Gates is quoted as saying there has never been a time like the present, with so many opportunities . It s almost like the California gold rush, only its so much bigger, because of the global reach of the Internet and other global technologies. The possibilities are endless. Everybody is looking for opportunities, but very see it and even fewer exploit it. There s the now famous story of the two men who visited India together. Upon their arrival in India one of the men was so struck and rather appalled by the abject poverty of the masses. His companion however, saw something else. He saw an opportunity, an opportunity to shoe millions of feet and make himself a fortune in the process. This man is said to have gone on and established a shoe company which produced millions of shoes and made him a very wealthy man. There are thousands of other similar stories, of people who turned what seemed to be somebody s problem into a fortune, including the story of South African born Hotel magnate Sol Kerzner...

Are your finances strong enough to repair damages to your home and possessions caused by earthquakes. Unless you re wealthy, repairing damages to your home and possessions caused by earthquakes might pose strain on your finances, and let s face it damages caused by an earthquake are usually serious enough to need immediate repairing. Unfortunately, most basic homeowner s insurance policies do not include the repair of damages caused to your home and your possessions due to an earthquake, nor do they compensate you for the damages and loss your valuables suffer due to an earthquake. And again, unless you re wealthy, your finances might not be able to stretch far enough to cover all of these costs yourself. Plus, some valuables just can t be replaced, such as family heirlooms. So, how can you get earthquake insurance. You can usually add additional coverage to your current homeowner s insurance policy; this should be seriously considered by those that live in areas that are highly susceptible to...

If you have decided to lose weight and lose weight fast, before you start on a diet or exercise routine, you need to know more about calories. If you approach your weight loss program or diet without packing yourself with information about calories, your diet plans will come to naught. In layman s terms, a calorie is a unit of measurement of energy you obtain from food. Foods may contain carbohydrates, proteins, fats or a combination of all of them. So, it s obvious that you will derive your calories from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Hence, you have to understand these three sources of calories a little better before you formulate your diet plans and begin your weight loss program: Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates a mixture of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are ranked as the top energy source for our bodies. They are generally classified as refined or unrefined depending on how much they have been processed by food manufacturers. As far as diets go, carbohydrates are an essential part of any diet...