Five Important Tips to participate in Group Discussion

If you are looking to get ahead in career, you need to clear interviews. These days Group discussion has become an integral part of an interview. 

Group Discussion offers a platform for sharing the ideas or opinion on a particular topic and debate upon. There is a small group of candidates who participate in group discussion. They are given a topic to debate on expressing their point of view. There is a time limit after which the best candidate is selected by the judge. 

Here are five important tips to succeed in Group Discussion 

1. Preparation: It becomes easy to prepare if you know the topic of group discussion. Find out everything about it. Read the topic thoroughly, get to know the point of view of other people on it and finally analyse and decide what you think about it. Select the words you can use to explain your point of view, look for their pronunciation and practice saying it. If possible choose someone as your mentor who can identify and correct your mistakes. In this way you can prepare well in advance before the actual session.
If the topic is not known then you can do the preparation by reading the latest issues from newspapers, internet etc. and have a thorough knowledge of the topics.

2. Do not interrupt: Start the discussion, if possible, else try to get a chance to speak. Listen carefully to what the other candidate is saying and do not ever interrupt even if you strongly disagree. Remember it’s a discussion and not competition. In an effective discussion the participants have listen to others also other than expressing their own views.

3. Be Alert: In a group discussion alertness and presence of mind is very essential. Keep the supportive statements and facts ready while listening to other person’s though and then continue the argument. This not only shows your alertness but also the importance you give to other’s thoughts.

4. Use simple language and learn some useful phrases to participate in group discussion:
Don’t try to impress others by using high vocabulary and technical words. Use simple English Language. which can be easily understood by other participants. 

Effective use of phrases 

 To make your speech effective, you can use some useful phrases like –
Giving your opinion:-Be the discussion with the phrases like “In my opinion”, If you ask me”, “As far as I am concerned” etc.

Seeking other’s opinion:- Use the phrases like “What’s your idea?”, “What do you think about it?”
On agreeing: To express agreement use the words like absolutely, exactly or the phrases like “You are absolutely right”, “That’s true”.

On Disagreeing: To express strong disagreement say “I totally disagree” else say “I have different opinion about it”. Remember to disagree with someone’s opinion, don’t attack the person.

But ensure to be polite while expressing your opinion, agreement or disagreement. In no way you should sound harsh or impolite. Do not make fun of anyone’s idea.

5. Stick to your point of view: Do not change your opinion frequently. Think carefully before answering and have clear thoughts. Choose your answer, think about the supportive statements and facts and then present your views. Don’t worry if the others disagree with you. Put forward your opinion confidently and without any hesitation.

Good Luck ! 

Overcoming Social Anxiety

You are all set to host a presentation. Your palms are clammy, your heart racing, and your throat parched. As you approach the presentation area, your mind begins to get fuzzy. You mumble something and then go completely blank. As you stand there staring blankly at a room full of people, you realize what a jackass you have made of yourself. This is what social anxiety is. Almost all of you have had anxiety attacks at some point of your lives. Overcoming social anxiety is necessary for an individual to succeed in life, as not doing so can create plenty of cracks in relationships at home and in work. Social anxiety at work can affect your career prospects, and anxiety in public places, such as airport and restaurants can affect your capability to meet new people and make friends. Most importantly, anxiety at special occasions such as a party, a night out, or family vacation, can severely damage your bonds with people who are most vital to you. Fortunately, with a little bit of conscious effort, one can overcome this social phobia. The below-mentioned tips will help you to overcome your social anxiety and deal with your stress in a better way.

Overcoming Social Phobia 

Control Your Reactions
The biggest problem with any social anxiety disorder is the reaction it causes in our body. It leads to increased heart rate, a racing mind, shakiness, sweating and other reactions triggered by some deep-seated fear. It is quite simple to overcome these reactions through learning techniques such as yoga, meditation, and self-hypnosis.

Prepare Yourself Mentally
Instead of letting the fear of embarrassment or humiliation overwhelm you in social settings, you can prepare yourself with some scenarios to ensure that you are ready for any challenging situations. If you are prepared for worst things, which might happen and you know what to do or say in those moments, you will naturally get the confidence to remain calm and manage the situation.

Face Your Fears
Social fears do not stem from a lack of social skills, but from a sense of insecurity and lack of esteem. To overcome this, it’s important to step out of your comfort zone. Test yourself. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations like speaking in front of your peers or complimenting someone. By doing so, you will easily beat your apprehensions. Soon you will realize that your social fear has vanished.

Be Engaged Socially
You can participate in assertiveness classes, volunteer for an event, which keeps you in a social setting, and try to build relationships with people you normally would not. You can also be part of an online support group, talk with other likeminded, and learn about their triumphs and struggles. This will give you the confidence, which you require to break the self-imposed barrier of fear.

Develop A Positive Attitude
The way you think make a strong influence on the way you feel. The realization that only you can control the way you think and the manner those thoughts control you, is an important step to defeat social anxiety. When thoughts like ‘they will make fun of me’ or ‘I am going to fail’ comes to your mind, try replacing them with more realistic and calmer thoughts. Try telling yourself that you are capable, confident and wonderful enough to fight those negative thoughts. Positive visualization and affirmation will also help to motivate you along the road and boost your self-esteem.

Try Adjusting Your Attitude
You can adjust your attitude on fronts, such as, changing the unrealistic expectations of your own behavior. Ensure you change the indistinct perception that others will condemn you if you are not perfect. Practice replacing the self-critical thoughts with more supportive ideas such as, “Most people can handle it when someone makes a mistake,” “It would be nice if this had turned out differently, but it’s not the end of the world,” “No one else is perfect. I don’t have to be either.”

Try To Speak Up
Ensure you always talk in a reasonably louder voice and do not be scared if your statement overlaps the previous speaker a bit. Frequent eye contact is a key factor in modern communication. A relaxed and an alert posture are more amicable than one that is quite rigid. It is good to be updated about contemporary events, which make you seem like a friendly character. If you have a specialized interest, try to talk more about it so that beginners as wells as experts can understand you. You can also collect amusing stories or jokes to tell.

Be An Inquisitive Listener
Never hesitate to ask questions. For instance, ask questions which cannot be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ like those that start with ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘what’, and ‘when’. In social gatherings, never hesitate to approach another person who looks shy.

Practice Diversion Techniques
Practicing diversion techniques will help you to concentrate on something else when your anxiety starts to build. It also acts as a helpful resource that you require to come out on top at a social gathering. You can start reading a book or get engaged in a hobby, which you are enthusiastic about. If you are engaged in a chosen diversion, you will not get time to think about your worries and will feel confident talking about it. People will notice your interest and reward you with positive reinforcement. All of this will increase your self-confidence and you will find yourself actually enjoying the social situation instead of running away from it.

Ensure not to let anxiety keep you away from things and people you value in your life. Learning to overcome anxiety will open innumerable doors of opportunities for you. If you implement the techniques and learn to treat the anxiety with a demonstrated anti-anxiety regiment, you will find more contentment and greater pleasure in life. 

C R Arun

Reinvent your personality

One fine morning you wake up as a personality what you want to be. For that you will have to do a complete makeover of your personality. You will have to forget your past personality, your personal weaknesses and think only of your strong points.

You may think that it might be difficult. No it’s simple and needs little help from you. Nobody else in this world can help you better than you yourself. All that it requires is that it takes a good deal of planning, resilience and grit. You will have to follow some steps and discipline. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

 How To Reinvent Yourself

·       Believe In Yourself

·       Take Your Time

·       Stop blaming yourself

·       Stick to your plans

·       Visualize your future

·       Say no to negatives

·       Check your progress

Believe In Yourself

Self-belief forms the base of the process involved in handling the transformation that you wish to acquire. If you don’t trust yourself, then the chance of your efforts botching up are huge. Remind yourself that you had been great and that you will do the same in the future.

Take Your Time

When you feel at some point in life that this wasn’t something you wanted for yourself, you know it’s time to change. Reinventing yourself isn’t always easy. It can seem to be exciting, but at the same time, the change can be quite intimidating too. Therefore, it is essential to take your time to settle down and think about how you plan and go about it.

Stop Blaming yourself

Only when you don’t blame yourself will you be able to go about it without feeling bad about the entire deal. It quite often happens that you start evading people to avoid answering their questions related to work. It is important to realize that if you are not able to face people and have enough strength to withstand them, you can never achieve your dreams.

Stick to Plan

You should not change tracks all of a sudden. Consider organizing your steps in order to attain your goal, which makes it simpler for you to accomplish. If you are aiming to change your career or life, instead of leaping directly to conclusions, plan it and move step wise.

Follow A Plan

Nothing works out without a concise, consistent and clear plan. You have to be able to focus on yourself such that you know what you are doing.

Visualize Future

You must be clear about your future. Future visualization in important. After you are clear about your future, take some time to sit back and relax. Now imagine a new future and ask yourself is it actually what you want in life.

 Say no to negatives

When you present your ideas of transforming to others, be sure to face oppositions from people in and around you. You will get a negative feedback in the beginning, as they are used to seeing and dealing with you the way you are. Therefore, say no to negatives.

 Check Your Progress

After you have decided everything required to reach your ultimate goal, keep a track of all the progress you make towards achieving it. Be it a very small achievement; appreciate yourself for your efforts. This will thus build your self-confidence and help you pursue the ultimate aim in life

C R Arun 

SET YOUR GOAL TO ACHIEVE MORE

Hey folks, there is no GPS in life to guide you where to go, to bring you back home if you are lost and to drive you safe if you are confused. Don’t dishearten! There is one thing is life that can work as a GPS device in your life, career and add value to your personality. Well! It’s Goal.

Goal setting serves as a GPS in your life, keeping you on the right track towards your destination and saving you from wandering aimlessly. An act of goal setting itself can be signified as the point of embarking on the journey towards one’s own achievements.

If your goals are definite, they enable you to focus all of your energies towards achieving it. Every goal should be concrete and specific. It is very important to identify what you are striving for and commit yourself whole-heartedly towards achieving it.

Benefits Of Goal Setting

·        Stay focused

·        Overcoming Procrastination

·        Measure progress

·        Manage Time

·        Stay disciplined

·        Motivate

·        Stress Free Life

Helps You Stay Focused

 The greatest importance of goal setting is that it helps you stay focused to achieve what you seek. We all yearn to make big in life, but how many of us make it, very few!!! Goal acts like a steering wheel that maneuvers you along the right direction. Focus is the key. You, in no way, can afford to take your eyes off the goal even for a moment.

Assists In Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is nothing but the common habit of delaying. Goal setting also helps you overcome procrastination. The habit of procrastination is one of the biggest frailties of human nature, which severely jeopardizes the chances of one’s advancements. If we have a set goal for ourselves, you will always be on the ball and do as required to achieve it. You will waste less time on insignificant or unproductive actions and take a more direct route to the accomplishment of the goal.

Measures Your Progress

Goal setting works as a measuring gauge of your progress that enables you to evaluate your advancements from time to time. You will have a clear idea on what you have been able to achieve so far, what you lack or how can you improve yourself.

Stay disciplined

It helps you set barriers. Setting clear, solid goals for yourself gives you a firm fence line. It creates an invisible barrier, whereby you decide what you want, what liberties do you have and what distractions you need to get rid of, in order to expedite your progress towards achieving your goal.

Enables You To Manage Your Time

By setting goals, you will be able to manage your time to your maximum benefit. You will have a clear idea of what you have to achieve in a particular frame of time. Thus, you can channelize all your energy and concentration towards achieving it.

Motivates

Goals must motivate you. If a goal is not motivating you, its not your goal. Motivation is an important ingredient that steps up one’s prospect of achieving one’s personal milestones. Assigning yourself with some short term goals will help you accomplish them in less time and will give you an added sense of achievement that can motivate you to perform better.

Once motivated, you will set higher and higher limits for yourself and will be achieving more and more in due course of time.

Stress Free Life

A clear goal makes our life simple, organized and managed. A managed life makes you stress free and you have lot more to enjoy and excel. By having a clear goal in your mind, you will be well aware of your priorities and with an effective time management strategy, you will be able to achieve your goals with little exertion. You will also be devoid of any mental stress, which will further enhance your productivity and efficiency.

C R Arun