Again I have abandoned my blog for some time.. but I must say that it's constantly on my mind and I'm permanently trying to bring myself back to the writing habit. One thing is that I feel more responsible in whatever I write since I get a lot of reactions and feedback concerning my blog and it even turned out that I inspire some people :) That really flatters me, but also increases my sense of responsibility.
The other thing is that I've been writing a lot of marketing materials for my job and writing in a personal journal also a lot, so probably it was my limit of typing/writing that was reached :)
However, I'll try to catch up with all the topics that I have scheduled to post here and in the current post will tell you some updates on what was happening around me lately.
About writing
I'm participating in a Skype master class on "Effective writing" by Professor J.C.Cleary, organized by Luys foundation. I find it quite useful also in the terms of meeting new people (I'm still not over the skeptic attitude that I have towards my social skills)
About job offers
In the recent couple of weeks I've been offered different jobs. And that's when I'm most content and happy with my current one! and ironically when my sister can't find one since August ! :/
To my boss's relief, I'm not going anywhere... at least until February. Then I will be probably doing a trip that I had been planning for years! It won't affect my job, however :)
About what i've been wondering about
I've been wondering about the importance of self-presentation skills in people. The process of self-advertisement and "selling" (many people dislike using the term selling applied to people, but I'm okay with it :) is needed much more often than we would like to. We always have to present ourselves the best way, to the employer, interviewer, new people, potential friends... and try not to fail with the first impression.
It's hard to present yourself to someone who knows nothing about you and perhaps has the wrong perceptions about you. Often, people treat strangers based on the stereotypes they have and judging from the look (which is normal). However what many people fail to do, is to be enough open minded to be able to "update" their impressions.
It takes so much energy from me to try to make someone know me and at least to refute the wrong perceptions that are present in 95% of cases. And it's both because I think there's too much thing one should know about me to have the right impression, and because I'm bad at presenting myself.
I have to have a meeting with a serious organization soon and probably start working with them, and have to present myself in a proper way for that. Before the meeting I decided to attach a small document together with my CV that I had to send to them. The document contained a text that was intended to present myself the way I would like to, and would probably fail in doing by oral conversation.
I worked on that text for hours and finally finished with the following outline:
- what's my background in that
- what are my strengths
- what do i consider as my weaknesses
- what's my motivation for doing this 'project'
- what are the unique points that i can offer
I wrote all the points carefully and with utter honesty. I wrote about my weak self-presentation skills and for the possible reasons for it I indicated my natural shyness and probably the upbringing and maybe the Armenian cultural thing where we are not used to "selling" ourselves like they do in the west. I wrote that I'm working on this and that this text was an example. If they get the needed impression, it would mean that I found a way to present myself correctly in some way.
I wasn't sure if it was a right thing to do (writing this text at all), but I wrote in the email that it would make our meeting more productive since we could directly skip to the questions part.
We'll see next week how it turned out :)
About winter
This year, for change, I decided to look forward to the winter and find several good points in staying at home longer, freezing and stuff :) It was done mainly to support my good mood and change my predefined negative attitude to a positive one. And you know what... it worked !!! I'm so much anticipating the snow at the moment :) I wake up each morning, approach the window with the hope to see it all in white!
I managed to convince myself that I'm not feeling cold most of the time... and decided to wear more warm clothes :)
I'm also looking forward to my most hated post-new year days, when i get deadly bored quickly and dream about starting to work. I actually made a nice list of movies to watch and books to read, that I'm now sure those days will be spent productively and pleasantly :)
About the upcoming posts...
- I will finalize my post about the Cafesjian Center for the Arts opening and the interesting event that happened there, that will be remembered my whole life :)
- I will write some blog recommendations for you
- I have to write about this year's Dreaminder's letter that I've got.
- Something from lifehacks series - on how to learn languages by yourself
- About parachute jumping in Armenia
- About Yoga in Armenia
- The HospitalityClub
- My year's wrap-up in some different areas
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