Tampilkan postingan dengan label friendship. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label friendship. Tampilkan semua postingan

Senin, 26 Desember 2011

How to keep friends for life

"Amigos Para Siempre" or “Friends for Life” is the theme song for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 sung by Sarah  Brightman and Jose Carreras during the opening ceremony of the Olympics Games. Andrew Lloyd Webber composed this beautiful song,

Friends are not easy to come by. Genuine friends are even harder to find. Hence, making friends is not easy. Therefore, when we have friends we must put in effort to keep the friendship alive.

We can engage with people in various ways to attract and bring them closer to us. Smile is one of the easiest and most contagious methods. People like to see happy faces greeting them. When you smile, you transmit joy and happiness to them. It also symbolizes the gladness in you in meeting them.

Whenever we meet people, always address them with their name. Addressing someone by their name indicates our interest in establishing friendship with them. It shows we are taking interest in them and it will make them take note of our interest in return.

We need to relax whenever we are with someone. This will make them feel comfortable to be with us. Whenever someone is comfortable with one another, they will tend to get closer to each other. Friendship will blossom from here.

When we communicate with the other person, ask questions that will help them to open up and start talking. Nevertheless, do not ask questions that are too personal in nature. This will cause them to feel uncomfortable with our presence. Perhaps, they may even find excuses to walk away.

One of the crucial points in communication is listening. Be a good listener to the other person. Listen to what the other person has to say. Listen attentively. Respond appropriately. We do not need respond with words. Body language and appropriate gestures are good enough to show that we are listening.

It is always easy to make friends and maintain friendship if we have common interest. Try to find common grounds where you can share common interest like hobbies, etc. We can spend many meaningful hours or even days engaging with each other sharing knowledge and information on common interest. Whenever we spend meaningful time together, bonding will take place.

Whenever there are people who share their opinion, differences in opinion will surface. We need to learn how to respect the differences in opinion, as it is a positive sign that both people are prepared to share their ideas and thoughts. Explore the ideas that are put forward and perhaps, you can learn something new from it.

Always be generous with compliments. Give compliments when called for. Give it sincerely and people always appreciate positive feedback. Everyone needs feedback to improve and move forward in his or her life and career.

Generally, people like to join to social functions to meet fiends and associates. Make effort to keep in touch with them by inviting them to do be part of any social functions. The functions may not be parties. It can be any charity work, outdoor activities or even family outings.

Overall, we need to make effort to the flame of friendship burning as bright as ever and for as long as possible. Friendship is for life.

Kamis, 21 Oktober 2010

Legacies Are Societal Actions

Have you ever thought that you have not done much with your life? During a recent conversation with a very dear friend, she expressed this very same sentiment. I was astounded that this energetic, high family and work ethic person had this negative self-image, but pleased that she felt comfortable sharing this thought.

Quickly, I began to ask her questions about all of the “Legacies” that she had left in this world during the last 60 plus years. Since her retirement, she relocated to be near her daughters, grandchildren and in-laws to support them. This support included taking her grandchildren to necessary school functions, being there for them after school while still being actively involved in her church and local civic organizations. Her high values, unselfish and positive attitudes to overcome life’s challenges became a rock for her family and friends. As we continued to talk, she expressed several times how I made her feel much better. Her honesty provided me with the opportunity to return one of the many legacies that she had shared with me during our 30 plus year friendship.

After our conversation ended, I began to wonder why someone with such incredible gifts and who had personally left countless individual legacies with so many people had such feelings of inadequacy?

Possibly, the presence of the media from local newspapers to television to the Internet may contribute to the development of these feelings. When we hear and see the success of others who have reached high positions whether in business or government, we may start comparing our accomplishments with these high profile media persons. Unfortunately what happens is that many of our “average” citizens fail to understand that it is these average citizens who are the backbone of this country and without their legacies we would not be the country that we are. Plato recognized the importance of citizens over 2000 years ago when he wrote, “ This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.”

Each of us lives a legacy, not when we are gone from this earth, but when we are here. Our legacy may be something as simple as a smile to a complete stranger to taking the time to help a friend or co-worker through a difficult situation.

Just imagine what the world could be like if everyone looked at every interaction as an opportunity to leave a legacy? What would happen to your personal relationships if you intentionally acted with the desired end result to make each and every interchange one in which you left a legacy that the other person could build upon and then later share with another? Or how about at work? What additional heights could your team reach and how much stronger would your organization be by such “Legacy Leaving Actions”?

With the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the fourth anniversary of 9/11 on the horizon, the American public is being reminded of the importance of legacies. Citizens both private and corporate across the country are demonstrating “Legacy Leaving Actions” by donating their time and resources to help those affected by this natural disaster. Through the stories of those who survived 9/11 and those who didn’t, again, American citizens can hear and even see how they, average American citizens, left legacies during that fateful day which changed our country forever.

Legacies are intentional societal choices that we make every day. By being aware of these choices, makes us better citizens, better parents, better friends and ultimately makes for a better world for our children and the next generation. So as you venture forth today or tomorrow, ask yourself “Where can I leave my legacy?” and “How will that legacy benefit another citizen?”

619 Words

Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.processspecialist.com

This article may be freely published. Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).

Senin, 01 Februari 2010

Am I Wanted

Am I wanted? Does anyone need me? Have you ever asked these questions to yourself? If no, you are a very lucky person. Let us talk more on this subject.

We all have our self-esteem. Along with our self-esteem, we also have a desire that someone should need us. That someone should want us. A mother is delighted when her children come shouting to her and ask for food. As the children grow up, they become self-reliant and move away. The mother is no longer wanted by them for anything. This creates a vacuum in her life, that she tries to fill with other work, but the satisfaction is not same. This is equally true for fathers. It is equally true with office workers who are depended upon for any task. If they feel that they are not wanted, they not only lose their self-esteem, but also feel very lonely

The desire of others to fulfil their needs connects us with them. It also gives us a great sense of self worth. And that is very important. A mother wanting love needs her children to fulfil that. As the children grow up, they are not able to give that love to their mother. An innocent young kid can give that satisfaction, not a young person of say thirty years of age! In this situation, the children also begin getting the feeling that as they grow up, they are not wanted by their mother to fulfil her need of love. Earlier in their childhood, they had the feeling of worth, that their mother wanted their love. As they grow up, they realize that they are not wanted by their mother for that need. They can not fulfil it. This change creates a feeling of vacuum in children as well.

Feeling of being wanted is very important to give us the sense of self worth. A husband feels good when he is wanted by his wife. Take the case of a husband, whose wife does not need him to fulfill any of her wants. Imagine a situation where she has enough money of her own, knows how to run the home without any help, can manage without fulfilling physical needs and needs her husband for nothing. What would be the life of such a husband? Will he feel good about himself? Surely not. He is just not wanted.

This is equally true for wives. This is true for all of us. We all have the inner desire that someone should depend upon us for a need that can be fulfilled only by us. This is true for friendships, work, family, and in every relationship. One needs the self-esteem, that comes from the feeling that one is wanted.

In our day to day life, we get so involved with urgency and work that we stop noticing the need of others to feel wanted. Kindly look around yourself and find out if anyone close to you may be facing this. If you find out that someone is not getting this satisfaction, you should give that by all the means. You will be helping that person immensely. You will be helping a person live with self esteem again.