If you’ve a meeting or discussion after Thanksgiving, it’s wisely to allocate some time on your slide preparation.

Here are some recommended books as your guidance on how to enhance your slide presentation:

1. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
2. slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
3. Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire
4. The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room
5. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

Enjoy your reading and Happy Thanksgiving!

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Sometimes I just couldn’t tolerate with too much opinions – especially those which are baseless opinions. Therefore you should follow your conscience before you make any crucial decisions. In order words, your common sense is important in making fast decisions. Maybe you should try bittergourd and cabbage juice.

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• They couldn’t read the instructions properly – they might miss a few steps or overlook a few steps
• They couldn’t read maps – tend to lose their way in a city cause they have no-sense of direction
• They were basically indecisive in making quick decisions – they would frequently ask for confirmation from others before making a right decision. As a result, they tend to make bad decision that made people turned away from them.

Frankly speaking, I’m one of them – yeah, it’s true!  You would label them as losers or a born loser. Specifically, there are few problems being one of them. Here are these problems:

• I’m unable to write essays in normal people write it from A-to-Z, i.e. first, you would write the heading, content body, and the ending. I had these problems since I was a primary student (aged less than 11), and my mom complained that I wrote stories with inappropriate sequences. It sounded like a train that is moving a derailed railway road.
• I’m bad at directions but I can read the maps. At some circumstances, I would take more than three trips (to and fro) to remember the route to a destination. Unlike my dad my (ahem) big brother, they are natural-born-travelers. That’s why I need to have a road map in my car, in case I got lost in the middle of nowhere.

I can say I’m doer-person, a self-confessed procrastinator, an ‘idealist’, a worker,  a blogger and etc – I’m just a normal being like you.

How do I deal with these problems? First, I have to be very honest to myself and accept who I am and the weakness that I possess. There’s nothing to ashamed of by being ‘real’ you.

Since I had realized my problems that I described earlier, I’ve to come of a right solution for myself. So, the next question is – How should I do when I couldn’t do things in order? You might say this – create a task list, get an electronic organizer, set an alarm and etc. Well, I can say it works for me but I don’t depend on it all the time.

It is because I’ve found a better solution – I’ve few stacks of post-it pads and I use it by drawing simple diagrams on it. It sounds simple – yeah, it surely did! I had the habit of scribbling notes and drawing small diagrams on the margins on the handouts, notebooks but not on reference books and novels (no drawings are allowed in these areas!).

When I have something on my mind, I’ll jot it down on a piece of paper or text it with my cellphone (which i can save it in my cellphone so that I can view it later). Why jotting it down on a post-it pad?

Most of the time, post-it pads were not reachable at that moment and I would not use that as an excuse to lose an idea or an event. Who knows it would come in handy someday? If you think you can afford to lose ideas all the time, then you should stop reading this post immediately.

I don’t usually bother with the sequences and the description of an idea. Thus, browse through what I’ve written earlier and try to interpret it before I draw and write on my paper notebook or post-it pads. Previously, I had tried both notebook and post-it pads but in the end I would prefer to use post-it pads due to its convenience – it’s arrangeable and it’s easy to be discarded (and one more, it’s sticky!).

It’s a complete disaster if you force yourself to become creative. Creativity is like a spark of fire -  if there’s a friction between two ends, sparks will be emerged. But if you’re creating too much sparks at that moment, you’ll probably will be ended up like a roasted chicken. If you have a topic to discuss, start to sort out your information that you gathered earlier.

This involves Getting Things Done (GTD) technique to organize your information. Therefore, it requires elimination process to get rid of redundant or irrelevant information. It is crucial for selecting information before you start drawing.

It is difficult in the beginning, but you’ll get along with the process if you practice it at a regular basis. If you want to use your simple drawings in your presentation, it’s preferable to redraw or make necessary changes on it before your view your final drawings in front of your audience.

If you feel that your drawings are too abstract or difficult to understand, it’s better to tone down your drawings and make it simpler. Like a memorable quote from Einstein:

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

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• I couldn’t find my favorite pen.
• I was outside and I left my notebook at home/office/car.
• Just being lazy when ideas popped out during bedtime and I would actually forget it in the next morning.

So I’ve come out of solution to these problems as mentioned above with simple methods:

• I don’t actually bother what should I use to draw. I’d normally use any pencil, pen, marker and etc – as long I can draw and jot down short notes.
• Based on the previous point, I would draw simple diagrams or write short notes on a simple piece of paper, post-it pads, rough paper, back of an envelope, or anything that is writable – personally I would prefer post-it pads.
• If I don’t have both as mentioned above, I would use my cell phone in which has one of the “Organizer” features like “Notes” – it is meant for texting short message as your simple note-making.

Yesterday, I was looking information about earning a certified MBA (CMBA). At first, I didn’t know what is CMBA was all about. Then, I browsed through some information on the internet and drew some pictures on my notebook and also on post-it pads.

I would prefer to draw on post-it pads because:

• I’m not good at drawing from ‘A-to-Z’. Ideas just popped up all of sudden and it’s not based on correct sequences. I’ll rearrange the sequences after I’ve completed all my drawings on respective post-it pads.
• It is disposable and I can redraw on a fresh sheet of post-it pad.

Here are some simple drawings used as my notes on CMBA:

Figure above shows the problems of excessive MBA graduates in the view of the employer or the recruiter firm. Earning of an online MBA is current fad that increased numbers of MBA graduates worldwide.

The next one is drawn on a post-it pad. It shows the advantage of earning a certified MBA to be noticeable during the job recruitment process. This represents the employer’s/recruiter’s view while searching for the right candidate to work for his organization.

You might wondering this – Who’s eligible to take up this certified MBA course? I’ve answered it this way:

• Those who are still enrolling at a MBA course and they have just completed their core MBA courses or
• Those who are MBA graduates/completed their MBA program.

It is some sort of “transformation” process – to add a ‘c’ on the word ‘MBA’. This makes a lot of difference when it comes to job recruitment.

Here’s the application process of getting yourself a certified MBA that is depicted on my notebook. It involves eight steps from application submission to completing the final exam – source: Certified MBA

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Therefore, motivational books are highly demanded by various forms of people who want to make positive changes in their life. There a few self improvement authors have created several ideas about ‘multiple personality’ or ‘multiple perceptions’ that can improve our ways of dealing with something in terms of:

• Enable us to make wise decision especially in making or finding the ‘right’ solutions.
• Building self-confidence to overcome self-restriction.
• Enable us to achieve our goals by taking productive action.

However, there are some people are skeptical with ideas of practicing ‘multiple personality’ or ‘multiple perceptions’ as both of it are commonly associated with psychological disorders multiple personality disorders, split personalities and schizophrenia.

In fact, here are some well-known authors and their best-selling book who delivers ‘multiple personality’ ideas based on their own context.

• Napoleon Hill –Think and Grow Rich (1937)
• Edward De Bono – Six Thinking Hats (1980s)
• Michael E. Gerber – E-myth (1995)

Napoleon Hill –Think and Grow Rich (1937)

Start with Hill’s Think and Grow Rich that motivates readers to achieve personal and financial goals based on his famous Law of Success philosophy. It is a classic self-improvement book that provides several steps to riches (in terms of financial and personal freedom):

• Step 1: Knowing your desire – in which it is the starting point of all achievement
• Step 2: Ways of developing faith
• Step 3: Auto-suggestion – success comes from your mind
• Step 4: Specialized knowledge – learning how to organize knowledge and use knowledge after they acquire it
• Step 6: Imagination – how to make practical use of imagination
• Step 7: Organized planning
• Step 8: Decision – learn to make decision and overcome procrastination
• Step 9: Persistence – making sustainable actions in order to generate long-term results
• And many more…

I personally think that the current best-selling self-improvement book – The Secret, which emphasize on ‘The Law of Attraction’ resembles Hill’s ‘The Law of Success Philosophy’. Here’s one excerpt from his book:

“Poverty needs no plan. It needs no one to aid it, because it is bold and ruthless. Riches are shy and timid. They have to be “attracted”.

It means that you should have a positive mind to think optimistically when you’re facing any predicaments. It is exactly what ‘The Law of Attraction’ meant to encourage readers to think positively in order to truly believe in what they really want by putting more attention on it.

I would find it rather absurd when I read the last chapter – The Sixth Sense. Based on this chapter, readers are required master all steps as mentioned above before they proceed with this practice.

Why do I call this practice developing ‘multiple personalities’?

Hill developed these ‘multiple personalities’ by imitating nine well-known figures that he admired most like:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Thomas Paine
• Thomas Edison
• Abraham Lincoln
• Charles Darwin
• Luther Burbank
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Henry Ford
• Andrew Carnegie

It is unimaginable that an influential person like Hill had such imaginary thoughts when he performed endeavor tasks like giving a public speech or writing a line for publication. For instance, when he made decisions, he would organize an imaginary Council meeting involving distinguish members as mentioned above. I personally think it involves more self-hypnosis that delves into the minds of other persons and emulate the other person’s characteristics, common behavior and thinking.

I just don’t buy into his ‘Sixth Sense’ idea as it does not fit the modern era. It means that people are more convinced with more technical ways of self-development that involves thorough research, published journals and other related academic resources. Nevertheless, Think and Grow Rich emphasizes the ‘Law of Success Philosophy’ in which also resembles to the ‘Law of Attraction’ which are widely used by esoteric writers.

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