First Day at New Job !

The first day in a new job is always going to contend with - new colleagues, a new boss and a completely new and different working environment.

Here are some tips and advice to make that first day at work less stressful.

Plan your route

The best way to deal with any new situation is to plan for any eventualities and to be prepared. In this instance, this means planning your route to work beforehand, working out how much time you will need to get there and to leave enough time just in case the train is late or there is a lot of traffic. It's a good idea to do a test drive the week before so that you know what to expect. On your way to work, listen to your favorite’s music or a relaxing CD that will calm your nerves and put you in a good mood.


What to wear on the first day of work

Plan what you are going to wear and make sure that your outfit is washed, ironed and ready to put on.

You will have got a feel for your new company's dress code when you went for the interview and so you should try to dress similarly at first, so that you don't stand out.
If you are unsure, it is always best to dress slightly more conservatively than you usually would. Once you have been there a while, then you can start to show what a quirky sense of fashion you have, but not before.

Wear something that you feel comfortable in and that you know looks good, as there is nothing worse than worrying about whether your skirt or trousers are too tight or too short, on top of everything else that you have to deal with.

If you feel comfortable, you will look comfortable and ooze confidence.

Ensure that you go to bed early the night before so that you wake up with plenty of energy and are raring to go.

Make sure that you have enough time in the morning to carry out your daily routine, as rushing around like a madman will only add extra pressure.
Shower and wash your hair, clean your teeth and make sure that you look and smell good!

Make time for a proper breakfast that will last you until lunchtime without causing hunger pangs or loss of energy mid-morning. Take a packed lunch to work with you just in case you do get hungry or in case your workplace does not have its own canteen. Additionally, in some offices, lunch is often just a quick sandwich at your desk rather than a leisurely lunch at the nearest bistro.


Your big entrance

Walking into an unfamiliar workplace and being confronted with a whole group of new faces is daunting. If you keep calm, put a smile on your face and stand up tall, people won't bat an eyelid.

Ensure that you are friendly to everyone that you meet and make eye contact when talking to them.

You will more than likely be taken on a tour of the building, so introduce yourself and explain which position you will be taking and ask people their names and what their role is in the company. If you have time later, draw up a map or plan of your office, filling in peoples' names and roles until you get to know this information off by heart.
Although it's always good to ask questions, on your first day keep questions to a minimum. Make notes throughout the day of anything that you would like clarification on and ask your boss all in one go at the end of the first week if they haven't already been answered by that time. Too many questions could make others perceive you as annoying, thick or false.


Your workplace

You probably won't be given that much to do on your first day, but be aware that your new colleagues may be up to their neck in work. Be friendly and try to make conversation but realize that the others may be busy, have a tight deadline to work to or a project to finish. Give them space and they will respect that and probably offer their help when they have more time. Don't take this as a personal affront, especially on your first day.

If you find yourself with a lot of spare time, organize your working space and get a feel for the new building such as finding out where the toilets and coffee machine are! In an office environment you will most likely have to set up a new email address, voice mail message and find your way around a new computer and intranet system.
At the end of the day, do not rush out of the door. Try to stay behind and finish off any jobs or if you are invited for a treat after work with your boss or other colleagues, ensure that you go.

This will give you the opportunity to find out more about the written and unwritten rules of the company and will make you appear friendly and eager to fit in.
Once the first day is over and done with, the rest of the week, month and year will be a doddle!

Below are few more tips for that first day: winning friends, disarming foes, and staying on a positive career track.

Dress for invisibility. There’s no point intimidating fellow workers right out of the gate. 

Go with the flow. Listen, listen, then listen some more. Save your suggestions for later.If you listen well, you may learn that what you have to say about the place has been suggested, assessed, and discarded before your time.
Ask intelligent questions about the work, even when you may already know the answers. People like to be helpful; it empowers them. But not too many.
Unless you’re asked directly, don’t offer, “We used to do it in such and such a way at the XYZ Widget Works.” If you do step into this puddle, dry off your feet quickly by adding, “Your way seems a lot better,” even if it isn’t.
 
Unless you have a photographic memory, you won’t remember the names of everyone you meet. Don’t let this faze you. Don't apologize; it will only draw attention to your nervousness.  In conversations use people’s names as often as possible. This will help you remember them more quickly. If you’re unsure, ask; this is more appreciated than addressing someone by the wrong name. The same advice holds for the titles of the many people you’ll likely meet on Day One.

Watch the shop politics, and stay out of them. You’ll quickly discover the nature of the employees’ relationships. Often you’ll be told directly, by innuendo, or, if you’re really sharp, by body language.

Every operation has its own style and pace for doing work. Some places are gung ho, others are not quite so dedicated. Pace your work to that of fellow employees. On your first day this usually isn’t too difficult because little will be asked of you beyond familiarizing yourself with the job. 

The coffee and lunch breaks can be very informative. Who hangs out with whom? Where do people eat? What do they eat? Another element which has shaped workplace relationships in recent years is who smokes, who doesn’t? Tread softly around that last one because both sides can be irrational about it. 
Quitting time, you’ve nearly made it through the first day without a major gaffe. Remember, you’re still being tested and measured.
 
Finally, you’re home. You can kick back. Have a iced tea.

5 Golden Principles To Live An Extraordinary Life

Have you ever thought about what kind of extraordinary life you want to have in the future? Wait, or do you think that living a great life is even possible for you? Do not worry, everyone has the same opportunity to live the successful life they desire, if they follow through and acknowledge these 5 golden life principles… 

1. Life is hard

Yes, admit it, life is hard. Some people may say that if we think that life is hard, it will be hard for us. This is true, but somehow you do not want to live an ordinary life. What you want is something different, something special that makes you happy, wealthy, satisfied, healthy and more. In other words, you want to live a successful life, which is not something easy to achieve.

And you are going to create all the amazing results out from nothing. I believe that we all start from the same point. We are not rich and this is why we are pursuing for wealth. Therefore, life is going to be hard, but if you are willing to work on it, you can create amazing results in your life and make it extraordinary.

It is just like what Bill Gates says, ‘life is not easy and it is unfair’. You cannot choose which country you want to be born in and you cannot choose what family you want to be in as well. What you can do if you are the less fortunate one is to tough it out. Although that life can be hard and unfair, we all are presented with the same opportunity to succeed in life.

You can live the kind of life you want and be successful no matter who you are, even if you are uneducated or handicapped. If you are poor today, it is great news because most rich people were once poor in their lives and that is what makes them to achieve more in their lives. If you are uneducated or a college dropout, it does not really matter because there are a lot of successful people out there who are the same with you. If you are handicapped, you can still use your potential to make a difference in life.

So accept that life is not easy and you have to sweat to climb before you reach to the top. The most important lesson for you to learn here is that everyone of us are presented with the same opportunity to be successful in life.

2. You cannot control everything

The second life principle is that you simply cannot control everything. Yes, some things happen in our lives without our control. Just like an accident, you simply cannot control it. I believe that nobody here wishes to be in an accident, but somehow it will just happen.

Like natural disaster, nobody can control it, but it will happen anyway. Narrow the scope down to a smaller area in your daily life, you cannot control what your boss, your colleagues and your friends think about you as well. However, what you can do is to control your own thoughts and emotion.

Here is the key lesson, you cannot control the wind, but you can definitely control your sail to reach your destination. To put it in another perspective, we cannot control what happen most of the time, but we can surely control our thoughts and our emotion.

When a car overtakes you while driving, what will you think and how do you feel? Some people will get angry and try to overtake that car. Some people will just feel nothing because to them, it is just simply traffic. What do you feel when your boss scold you because you are not doing your work well enough? It depends, you can get angry and quit. Or you can learn from the experience and think of it as that your boss really cares about you and your work and he really wants you to improve.

In fact, this golden life principle is going to be the key factor that will determine your success in life. You cannot control most of the event out there and because of this; you have to learn to control your thought and your emotion. Whenever you understand about this, you can then create the extraordinary results you want in life because no matter what happen to you, you will always look for a brighter side that can help you move forward in life.

3. Everything happens for a reason

The third golden life principle is that everything in life happens for a reason. There must be a cause to every effect, just like what has been explained by the Law of Cause and Effect. You will reap what you sow, period.

If you are hard working right now and you take consistent action toward your goals, you will eventually achieve what you want in the future. It is not by accident. You can plan for it and you can create the results that you want.

If you fail your examination, there must be a reason behind it as well. It can be that you are not hard working enough to study the subject, or it can be many other reasons. The point is that it happens for a reason. In case if something bad such as an accident happen to you, guess what, there is a reason for it as well.

I am not saying that you deserve it when something bad happen, it is just that everything happens for a reason. If an accident happens, it must have something that has triggered it. It could be careless driving and so on. The main point is for you to understand that living a successful life is not by luck or chance, it is purely by design because there is a reason for it to happen.

4. You can learn anything you want

Another awesome life principle is that you can learn anything you want in life. There are tons of information available to you in the internet. Remember, we are living in an information age, there are all sort of information available to us with a click of a mouse.

So make good use of this. What you can do with all this information is that you can learn to become who you want to be. You can learn through books, articles, workshops, audio learning and many more these days. You can learn how to cook better, how to be a better parent, how to plant a bonsai, how to fish, how to play golf, how to make money from the internet and many more. The possibility is unlimited.

This information is available to most people out there. Thus, use this information wisely to help you getting what you want in your life. Make it habit to always learn and improve your knowledge and skill.

5. You can be lucky as well

Do you think that successful people are lucky? Do you think that you need luck to be successful? Like what you have learned above, success is by design, not by luck or chance. As long as you work hard and smart to move toward your goal and your dream, you will eventually reach there.

So what if you think that you are unlucky? Well, you can increase your luck by working harder and never give up on what you want. For example, Soichiro Honda is someone who increases his luck through hard work and never gives up. He eventually created the Honda Corporation and earned handsome rewards. You can read about his biography and you will understand why and how he increased his luck.

Now, use these 5 principles to help you in your journey to success.

World's First Virtual Store Opens in Korea ..!

A major South Korean retailer has opened what it appears to be the world's first virtual store geared to smartphone users, with shoppers scanning barcodes of products displayed in a Seoul subway station. Homeplus, the nation’s second largest discount chain, is offering 500 items including food, electronics, office supplies and toiletries at its "store" at Seolleung station in the south of the city of 10 million.

Seven pillars and six platform screen doors have been plastered with images of life-size store shelves filled with goods -- such as milk, apples, a bag of rice or school backpacks -- which each carry a small barcode. Shoppers download a related application on their smartphone and make purchases by taking photos of the barcodes.

"You place an order when you go to work in the morning and can see the items delivered at home when you come home at night," said a spokeswoman for Homeplus.

In fact, consumers don’t have to be anywhere near the virtual store. For example, if you want to order replacements of a bottle of water that you have in your hand, you don’t have to stop by the subway station. You simply scan the bottle’s barcode with the Homeplus app. The products are delivered later to home or office.

Currently, only Android smartphone users will be able to use the service that launched last week. Not that Homeplus hasn’t made an app iPhone, it’s just Steve Jobs and Co. hasn’t approved it yet.

Defying Gravity: Li Wei’s Impossible Photography ...!!

Li Wei’s photographs question your sense of physics. Quirky, gravity-defying, astonishing, unbelievable... Here is an unusual collection of self portraits in all unlikely postures and places. Rare artistic production that combines stunt, photography and acrobatics. Clever and creative in a new fashion. Li is candid about the risk involved: “Sometimes I am in real danger - I have to hang myself high with steel wires and people do get a little worried for me - but I am fine.” “I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art…”

Unbelievable ..!!!!