Job interview | Positive Words Research

What Can Affect Your Ability to Secure a Job Interview

April 10, 2023February 8, 2022 by Positive Words Research

Many people who are keen to get a new job or break into a specific career spend a lot of time focusing on things such as their interview skills. Of course, it is important to work on this, but one of the key things you need to do before you can put these interview skills to good use is to get an interview in the first place. Getting an interview is not always easy even if you have relevant skills and qualifications, so you have to do all you can to boost your chances of being selected.

There are various steps that you can take if you want to increase the chances of securing a job interview. It is important to remember that for many jobs you will face a lot of competition from others, so you need to do something that will make you stand out from the sea of other applicants. There are a few important things that can help you to do this, and we will look at some of these in this article.

What You Can Do

In order to increase your chances of securing a job interview, there are some simple yet effective steps that you need to consider. Some of these are:

Research What Is Needed

One of the things that you must do in order to boost your chances of getting an interview is to research the position thoroughly and look at what is needed. For some jobs, you may need particular skills and qualifications or specific experience. If you do not have these, you will be unlikely to get an interview. What you can do, however, is to work toward getting these qualifications and gaining the necessary skills so that you can boost your chances of success when future opportunities for the same type of position arise.

Have a Solid Resume

Another thing you need in order to secure a job interview is a solid resume, which is what will make the first impression on potential employers. You can get online help with your resume – you can even get tips for funny resumes. Your resume is your chance to show potential employers what you can offer and why you are the perfect candidate for the position. This will increase the chances of decision-makers selecting you for an interview rather than putting your resume in the rejection pile.

Gain Experience if Possible

Another of the things that you can do in order to boost your chances of getting an interview for the type of job you are interested in is to try and gain experience. You can do this in a variety of ways, and this even includes doing some voluntary work in your spare time to gain the necessary skills that are needed for the type of job you want.

These are a few of the things that you can do if you want to increase your chances of getting a job interview.

Did you get at least one useful idea from this content What Can Affect Your Ability to Secure a Job Interview? If yes, please consider sharing this article with your friends so that they can also have an “aha” moment. Thank you!

Use Positive Words In Your CV To Be Called For An Interview

April 10, 2023March 17, 2021 by Positive Words Research

What elements make a resume successful? There are many details that make a resume have the impact we want. One of these is to use positive words in your CV to be called for an interview. But how do we enter all the necessary details in the CV? If we forget an entire section and the potential employer seeks to know exactly those aspects about us? To insert all the necessary sections in a CV we usually use a format. This format must be simple and complete to help us understand it and succeed in creating our perfect resume. Find CV samples here.

What is a CV or resume?

CV or resume is an abbreviation of the Latin words ‘curriculum vitae’, which means ‘life course’. A professional resume provides a summary and a good overview of someone’s career path. The resume mainly includes details about your education and qualifications, work experience, skills, and character traits. By receiving and reading your resume, your potential employer will get a good picture of your career path to decide whether or not to call you for a job interview.

11 Tips for Creating the Perfect Resume

The format you use to create your resume will considerably increase your chances of getting a job. Here are some tips to help you create a successful resume:

Use a professionally-designed resume template;
Choose complementary color schemes;

Include powerful positive words in your CV;
Tailor your resume based on the job you wish to apply for;
Include personal details about yourself (full name, email address, mobile number, place of residence, address, driver’s license, birth date, Linkedin profile address, personal website);

Add work experience in chronological order listing your latest work experience first; for every job give a short but clear description of your tasks, responsibilities, and skills;
Add your education path starting from your last studies to your first ones; specify the name of the school or institution where you studied, the starting date, and the date of graduation;
Include a personal statement meaning sell yourself in a few sentences; write about the kind of role you are looking for, your qualities and motivations;

Write about your competencies and skills;
Mention courses and work-related training;
Add short words about your activities unrelated to your professional career, such as hobbies or how you spend your spare time;

Use a CV Maker.

Include Powerful Positive Words in Your CV

Positive words stand out to the human brain. Your future employer, the HR Department, and the recruiting company that will read your CV are actually people. Many people will read your resume and it will be to your advantage to put them in a good mood while reading your CV. It is very easy to include positive words in your CV if you do this step at the end after you draft your resume.

After writing your resume with your own words and finishing it, just go through it another time considering changing some words with other words more powerful ones. These types of words are called emotion words and power words. The emotional power of words evokes positive sentiments and this is precisely what your want your employer to feel while reading your CV. You want them to feel positive sentiment about hiring you. Including positive words in your CV, it will be like people feeling good about your resume without knowing precisely why. Your resume will stick to their brain, they will remember you and call you for an interview.

There are many emotion words and power words to include in your resume but we have compiled a list with 30 positive emotional words to include in your CV.

30 Positive Emotion Words to Include in Your CV

Responsible
Persevering/ Perseverance

Optimistic
Self-motivated
Problem-solving

Teamwork
Excellent communication skills (written/verbal)
Because

Action-oriented
Results-driven
Working well under pressure

Remains calm under pressure
Trustworthy
Hard-working

Energetic
Coordinated
Dealing with

In charge
Part of the team
Extensive working knowledge

Positive attitude
Motivated through challenges
Willing to do the right thing

Willing to add value
Believe in team rok
Believe in networking

Active
Good interpersonal and leading skills
Well-organized

Love working with

Use Positive Words In Your CV To Be Called For An Interview

Of course, you should choose positive words in your CV depending on your personality, skills, and the job you are applying for. Try to include the words in your resume in a way that looks natural, not artificial. That is why our recommendation is to modify some words that you have already entered in your CV, in the end, as the last retouch. This method will give an air of naturalness to your text rather than introducing positive words in addition to what you have already written in your CV.

Also, do not introduce too many positive words so as to affect the naturalness and reality of the text. Keep it real, but empowering. Your text should reflect confidence in your abilities to perform very well at your next job and deliver the work needed to be done.

As a general rule while applying for a job try to apply for many jobs and many companies, for example, more than 50 jobs. When you receive a refusal, don’t ask yourself too much why you were refused. If you are not called, do not count the days since you applied until today. Be grateful to those who call you and direct all your efforts to those interview processes.

It is possible that if you applied for 50 jobs, only 5 of them will call you for an interview, or maybe 10. It is normal and good. That’s why it’s good to send your CV to a list of companies that may not have made a job that you want, public, but have that position available. Plus you’ll be in their database.

For example, if you want a position in a bank, you should search the internet for a list of all the banks in your city and send their CV to all of them. Search on each website of the bank the Careers section or mention “If you want to send us your CV use this email address” and send your resume to them. You may be surprised and called for an interview for a position that was not made public.

Good luck in your search for a suitable job position and we hope this article helped you to improve your CV.

3 Ways to Get a Good Job Interview and Get Your Dream Job

April 10, 2023December 2, 2020 by Positive Words Research

Getting a job in this technology-driven world is not as easy as it used to be. Before, employers are always looking out for people to fill several job positions. However, these days, the tides have turned.

Yes, several job opportunities get posted online daily. The availability of jobs is not a problem. There are millions of job openings on some sites dedicated to job opportunities.

What is the Problem?

The problem is that the number of applicants has rapidly improved. Each job posting receives about 250 applications on average. The competition for each job opening becomes impossible to comprehend.

So, when a job opportunity gets posted, the company will get hundreds, if not thousands, of applications in a short while. Most of these openings only need one candidate for the job. While your application letter can be among these thousands, the odds of getting the job is not on your side.

The competition becomes even more intense depending on the popularity of the company with the job opening. Companies such as Google have millions of applications every year for their job postings. According to the research, the company’s hire rate is only about 1%, and it keeps falling by the year.

Ways to Increase your Chance at Getting a Good Job Interview

Research reveals that less than 2% of job applications convert to interviews. However, it’s interesting that you can significantly increase your odds of getting an interview by requesting help from sites like domyhomeworknow.com or following some strategic steps. Some of these strategic steps include;

1. Apply Early

Remember that there will be a lot of applications rolling at the moment a job opening gets posted. Now, think about the number of applications that will get checked. You’ll find that a large portion of the submitted application will be left unchecked. The number of staff available to do the checking will determine the number of applications that get proper attention.

Therefore, you increase the chance of your application getting reviewed when you submit early. Leverage the features on popular job boards such as LinkedIn. Turn on the notification on these platforms using keywords related to the type of job you’re searching for.

Also, have your CV, resume, cover letter, and other necessary documents at arm’s reach. Having them prepared makes it easy to apply for a job. You may need to adjust or tailor your cover letter and other written documents. But don’t let that process take forever. Do it quickly and apply as fast as possible.

2. Take A Stance

Being open to a different career path is excellent. However, employers usually have specific and immediate needs and will want to hire someone qualified for that position and have a clear goal of what they want to do.

For example, if you are in social media marketing and have qualifications that can fit into a branding and PR role, make sure your focus is on your skill in this area. Let other skills be an undertone in your application. Read all essay topics that you can find online related to it.

That way, your potential employer knows you have what they want. Therefore, review and tailor your qualifications to match the essential responsibilities and competencies of the job.

3. Leverage Connections

If someone refers you to a potential employer, you’re more likely to get an interview. The best way to eradicate competition is employee referral. Therefore, it’s best to go through formal employee referral if you’re passionate about an organization and a job opening.

Find a way to connect to the organization using any of your past business contacts. Get your contact to refer you to the company under the assertion you always did a good job when you worked for them. That way, you would have gotten an edge over other applicants.

How Can You Get A Shot at a Good Job Interview?

What if there’s a way you can write a killer application? Killer-paper.com promises to help you write one that will put you ahead of every other applicant, tilt the odds towards you, and land you a good job interview?

It might interest you to know that there’s a way to do it, and there are steps to follow.

How Employers Carry Out Interviews

The whole process begins with you applying for the job opening. Among hundreds of thousands of people also looking to get the job, you must find a way to make your application selected.

It is after selection that you can move to the interview stage. If your application does not find its way into the employer’s hands, you would have lost the opportunity from the onset. We have mentioned how to write the best job application.

A typical employer will only pick about six to ten qualified applicants for a job opening. These selected candidates will go through at least one round of interviews before the employer decides who is fit for the position.

In some cases, the employer will take the selected candidate through two or more interview stages, dropping some candidates after each interview and enlisting the remaining candidates for the next ones.

If the employer cannot find someone qualified for the position, they go back into the pool of applications, pull out some more applicants for the position and take them through the same interview process.

Final words

You might need to read and digest a couple or other articles you find relating to getting a good job interview, including this one, to feel confident about what you’re doing. It’s relatively easy to get an interview using these principles. Once you get your first business interview, you’ll understand better.

Short Biography

Timothy M. is a freelance content creator with over two years of experience specializing in SEO blog article writing, Copywriting, product description, and eBook writing. Timothy is a writer by day and a reader by night. He is always looking forward to the next writing opportunity and the next big thing in writing.

Positive Words Research – 3 Ways to Get a Good Job Interview

10 Most Popular Jobs After Graduation in Today World

April 10, 2023October 26, 2020 by Positive Words Research

Thinking about your future career is crucial if you are about to graduate. It will be a whole new life period full of changes. Getting a first job might seem pretty daunting, but there is nothing to be scared about at all. The best thing about professional life is that there will be no home assignments, tasks, projects, and tests. Therefore, you will never need assignment help anymore.

Instead, you will face a real-life professional experience that will let you grow your skills and abilities to build a thriving career in the future. Down below, we have prepared the list of the best entry-level jobs that will be perfect for you after graduation, no matter what was your major. Let’s get started!

1. Customer Support Manager

It is one of the most demanding roles in the market, and you will easily find a job in a company you like. You will be responsible for handling all customers’ issues and requests regarding a certain product or service. In case you are not qualified enough to address a complex client’s problem, you will have to delegate the case to upper management.

2. Substitute Teacher/Assistant

If you want to work in education, then this role will be a great start to grow your skills and expertise. You will have to assist a teacher in preparing learning materials, handling administrative tasks, taking care of all documents, and other tasks required to maintain the quality learning process. Such service as MyEssayToday can always provide you with professional high-quality assistance in writing any essay.

3. Sales Manager

If you have strong communication skills, then this vacancy can be a perfect solution for you. It is a pretty well-paid job, so you won’t regret that you have decided to try it out. Generally, your main task will be to call people and let them know about the product you represent, features and advantages and spur them to purchase it.

4. Administrative Assistant

This job will be perfect for those people who are not afraid of routine tasks as you will have to work with documents, answer calls, and do all routine administrative tasks a manager will assign to you. However, this role allows one to develop great managerial skills as well as the ability to work with documents and a large amount of information.

It is a great job that doesn’t require much experience or expertise. It will be perfect for creative people and for those who enjoy communication. This role involves handling the company’s social media accounts, answering all messages, posting relevant pictures, information, updates, and news as well as running online marketing campaigns so you can work in digital marketing in the future.

6. Tutor

Tutoring is another great solution for those who want to work in education or simply want to get a job until they figure out what to do after graduation. If you have some solid knowledge on a certain subject, then you can feel free to tutor other students.

7. Software Engineer

It is a more advanced career option that requires extensive industry knowledge. Nevertheless, entry-level specialists are highly needed. Technologies are evolving rapidly, and there are plenty of renowned companies that offer great opportunities. Programming and testing software will also get paid well.

8. Web Developer

It is a great job as it involves creating websites or applications for companies and businesses. If you are passionate about technologies that this is something you need to try out after you graduate. This industry is very popular, and you can be the next one who gets hired for a great job with plenty of career growth opportunities.

9. Registered Nurse

It is the most common job in the field of healthcare that will be perfect for fresh grads. Main responsibilities include providing basic patient care as well as take care of all routine administrative tasks such as insurance or patient records.

10. Account Manager

It is an exciting job as it involves working with the company’s clients from across the globe. It will be perfect for getting an international management experience and then climbing the ladder. You will have to take care of all clients’ requirements and needs as well as handle issues that might occur during the working process.

Final Thoughts

Getting started with your career is never easy. Landing the first job requires your time and effort. In order to increase your chance to get selected for the desired job, you have to apply for basic entry-level vacancies that are the best choice for fresh graduates. It is why we have prepared this hot list of universal vacancies to choose from to apply and start your professional career life.

About the Author: Jennifer Walter is a psychology professor, an independent researcher, writer, and contributor. He is the guru to hundreds of students, the author of hundreds of analysis studies, and the voice behind most liked articles on content creation and strategy at privatewriting.com.

Best 7 Tips to Keep Away Job Search Anxieties and Get Hired

April 10, 2023January 17, 2018 by Positive Words Research

Seeking new employment is stressful. Regardless of qualifications, experience, finesse or other capabilities, searching a job causes anxiety and stress. It affects the overall performance of a job seeker at interviews, psychometric and other tests. It hinders personal life. Several factors contribute towards anxiety related to job search.

Defining anxiety and its types

The US government’s National Institute of Mental Health offers this astute definition of anxiety: “Occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. You might feel anxious when faced with a problem at work, before taking a test or making an important decision. But anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear.

For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The feelings can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, school work, and relationships. There are several different types of anxiety disorders. Examples include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder.”

NIMH’s definition elucidates, job search related anxiety is occasional. It manifests during the entire span of job search process – from application to the first day at work. Anxiety levels are severe among unemployed yet qualified, experienced job applicants.

Fresh graduates have moderate job search related anxieties, a research in the UK reveals. Unemployed suffer more due to financial and social problems caused by joblessness. Uncertainty causes anxiety among fresh graduates searching jobs.

Job search related anxiety is lowest and almost negligible among people of all ages looking to change employers, due to financial and social stability they enjoy.

Lowering anxiety levels

Anxiety is healthy up to a certain degree. It helps job seekers remain alert, exert extra efforts and gain more skills to remain competitive.

Unhealthy anxiety has severe adverse effects. Job searchers may run into both of depression, mood swings, and unwarranted despair.

Left untreated, may lead to suicidal tendencies and prove fatal. Preventing deleterious anxiety is essential.

Step-1: Never fudge your biodata/ Curriculum Vitae

Embellishing biodata by adding or withholding details is the primary cause of job search related anxiety. The lurking fear of being found and disqualified worries most job seekers. People doctor biodata and CVs for two reasons. To show they are better qualified for the job over others, or, to conceal unpleasant facts.

An increasing number of employers now conduct background checks. Fudged details can be easily detected. To avoid anxiety during job searches, never embellish your biodata. Companies never look at your past and are least concerned unless it directly impacts them adversely. Employers are interested in what you can deliver.

Step-2: Apply while employed

Being unemployed can be very unpleasant. It causes financial, social hardships. People frown upon qualified persons who, for any reason, are unemployed. Pressures to maintain a fixed lifestyle with no guarantees of income causes severe anxiety among job seekers. Such anxiety can easily be eradicated.

Apply for a new job while employed. Doing so helps to maintain your financial and social status. You also retain the advantage of bargaining for better pay and perks with any prospective employer. If unemployed, draw a budget to buffer days without income.

Step-3: Upgrade your skills

Whether working or unemployed, it is vital to keep your skills updated at all times. A new set of skills might not help your current employer. Yet, they give you an edge over other applicants for the same job.

Companies look for multi-taskers and employees with better soft skills. Knowing you are on a higher plane over competitors plays a big role in lowering and preventing job search anxieties.

Step-4: Stop praying for a job

Before screaming sacrilege, think yourself. Ceasing to pray for a job is essential to prevent job search anxieties. Nobody doubts the innate benefits of praying and dependence upon a divine power.

Prayers are encouraged at all times and are indeed healthy. For those spiritually inclined- remember, the divine power is responsible and promises to suffice your genuine needs.

Unanswered, delayed replies to prayers are known to cause immense frustration. Several applicants get habituated to incessant praying instead of focusing on realities required in the job market.

Step-5: Simulate work conditions

This is an ideal way to prevent anxiety during a job search. Unemployed or fresh job seeker, draw a schedule that resembles a typical working day. Wake up, sleep, have meals at fixed hours. Assign specific hours for job searches and application, regardless of whether you use a computer at home or at cyber café.

Set realistic targets for the number of job searches and applications you intend to achieve within eight ‘working’ hours. Go about achieving this target. Such schedule also helps respond instantly to any interview calls.

Step-6: Focus on mental, physical wellness

Unhealthy lifestyle is notorious for fuelling anxiety and stress. Unemployed and fresh job seekers often spend long hours sleeping or indulging in ungainful activity.

Your physique and face betray such lifestyle clearly to interviewers. Maintaining healthy lifestyle and diet helps prevent a build-up of excess brain and body hormones triggered by stress.

Exercises, yoga, walks and other activities keep job search related anxiety at bay. Reading stuff unrelated to jobs, helping at home, spending quality time with relatives and friends is excellent to stave off anxiety.

Step-7: Focused, purpose-driven targeting

Nowadays most job searches are conducted online. Applicants scour multiple job sites for vacancies. They upload CV and other details on these websites. Mobile apps alert applicants about new vacancies and allow applications at push of a button.

The flip side however is, job alerts sent by recruiter websites are frequently irrelevant, causing unwarranted stress and anxiety. They waste your time and effort.

When applying through recruitment websites, be extremely specific about the type of job you want. This increases chances of getting alerted to the perfect vacancy fast. Avoid unnecessary keywords while registering on employment portals.

Think out of the box

Remember, anxiety stems from imagination gone rancid. Left unchecked, it can putrefy into severe mental handicap that requires psychiatric intervention. Crime statistics worldwide clearly indicate unemployment and inability to find job leads to suicide.

A few also take to crime. Joblessness is a temporary phase that affects everyone’s life. It is not peculiar to you. Job search related anxiety is common and inflicts millions worldwide.

Go that extra mile

Keeping in touch with former colleagues is an excellent way to get rid of job search related anxiety. Visit offices of others operating in your profession to get acquainted with latest developments. Joining profession specific groups on social media helps bolster sagging confidence.

Advantages of goal setting

While searching for jobs, set goals about the size and type of company you wish to work. Resolve never to undersell your skills, regardless of the time taken to land that perfect job. It is wiser to stay unemployed for a few weeks more rather than take undesirable work.

Well prepared is key to success

Some degree of anxiety during job searches is caused by complacency on part of applicants. Leaving fine details until the last minute before an interview/ test causes unwarranted stress. Keep your certificates, references and other documents prepared before you commence applying.

A crisp page on LinkedIn and healthy Facebook profile can decide who hires you. Employers are increasingly looking at social media presence of prospective employees, despite inherent disadvantages. LinkedIn particularly helps you network with others in your chosen profession and fetches you vital tips and tweaks essentially to crack complex interviews and tests.

Author’s Bio

Pritam Nagrale is a blogger and running a digital marketing company in Mumbai. He writes on Career, Business, Make Money Ideas.

Here at Positive Words Research, we are looking to share with our readers original content that hasn’t been published on other sites so if you are comfortable with Positive Words Research being your sole publisher, we are more than happy to share with our readers your inspiring and empowering story.

Best 6 Digital Skills That Can Boost Your Career Today

April 10, 2023April 3, 2017 by Positive Words Research

Many business organizations tend to have what is referred to as “a digital skills gap”. What this really means is they lack a staff equipped with the necessary firsthand knowledge in working with digital applications, tools, and strategies. By taking the time and effort to master certain digital skillsets, you can, of course, increase your worth in the career you have chosen. Doing this also offers you the necessary room to improve your future career opportunities as well. Well then, here are 6 digital skills that can boost your career in ways you would never have deemed possible.

Image editing

Image editing is a fantastic digital skill, which will heighten your overall influence in the office setting. Been able to create mesmerizing visual aids for your company will showcase your exceptional talents to your bosses. When you are bent on becoming a pro in churning out things like infographics, or branding graphics, you must comprehend the workings of the best image editors such as Photoshop. So, when you are able to demonstrate your image editing capabilities, you will give your career a boost, by opening up new job roles.

Video production

The video is a great content format when it comes to spreading a firm’s brand identity and message to prospective clients. This can naturally present a golden opportunity for those individuals who have a vested interest in assisting the company they work for in creating excellent video content. If you are that kind of an employee, the roles you could assume can vary. From managing video production projects to honing the video shooting or editing skills of your fellow colleagues. Some of the best instances of being creative with the video for your firm are producing content that showcases its culture. Producing video interviews of satisfied clients or even video product reviews that elaborate on the benefits of your products or services. On the other hand, been good at video production can be very useful whenever you are seeking greener pastures. More and more business establishments are now accepting creative forms of job applications. Therefore, being able to demonstrate your capabilities of tailor-making video content will definitely place you ahead of the rest of the pack.

HTML

In this particular scenario, you don’t really need to be a bonafide web developer to be of use to your company. All you got to do is simply develop a fair proficiency in reading HTML code. This will place you in a position where you can be able to liaise with external agencies in formulating and implementing your firm’s website strategies. While also being at hand to notice alterations and even fix simple bugs whenever the need arises. By been conversant with some basic HTML skills, you can substantially enhance your value as an all-around employee.

SEO and content marketing

The right search engine optimization and content marketing techniques are a prerequisite in boosting your firm’s website search engine rankings. The higher you company ranks in your niche search parameters, the more traffic it is bound to receive. Having some working understanding of SEO and content marketing in general lets you determine the best methods to implement in creating viable content. Some of the most notable include keyword research and thinking like your target audience to identify which content might spark their interest. Also, you will be able to execute vital competition analysis in areas such as keyword integration to identify how you can beat them and churn out much better content.

Around 2.34 billion individuals are now social media users, and many of them can snugly fit into what you would label as your company’s target audience. Taking your time to learn the ins and outs of social media marketing can greatly boost your career. This will enable you to be in a position of effectively handling all your business’s social media accounts. This is primarily through churning out content that both entertains and enlightens your target audience and leads them to your firm’s website.

Touch typing

Finally, touch typing is an essential digital skill you will have to master if you wish to expand your career horizons. Basically, it is designed to greatly improve your typing speed as well as accuracy. By learning typing best practices including ideal finger placement on the keyboard, you will significantly improve your productivity. While learning the right typing ergonomics will allow you to be able to efficiently prevent injuries and fatigue, even if you are engaged in protracted typing sessions on a frequent basis. It is pretty simple to start learning touch typing with passing a quick online typing test, use an online tutor and see the progress.

My name is Adam Fort, I’m an education strategist at Ratatype.com. This project helps children and adults to learn touch typing via an online typing test and lessons. I am in charge of developing the proper typing lessons and exercise for typists who want to improve their typing speed. I also have a commercial pilot’s license which I’m proud of.

Positive Words Research – 6 Digital Skills that Can Boost Your Career

How Writing a Novel Helped my Friend to Find Herself Again

April 10, 2023October 4, 2016 by Positive Words Research

I had heard that writing could help you to improve yourself. And not only in the sense of giving you the tools required to get a new job or better grades at school. But also as a person.

That when it is only you and a piece of paper something magical and also scientifically proven can happen, that your mind just takes a turn for the best.

What I didn’t expect was that writing a novel would have such an impact on my friend’s life.

This friend of mine had always been quite shy and insecure. Confidence wasn’t one of her strengths, really. Since childhood (as we lived in the same neighborhood), I had seen her struggling to make friends, to speak her mind, and to get what she wanted.

It was usually I who had to make a stand for her. I would notice her embarrassment (what wasn’t really hard to spot considering she would turn herself into a beetroot), and there I was, from asking to buy something over the counter to defending her against the newest bully in town.

It was never a problem for me to do it for her, to be honest. I kind of liked it. But as soon as I started getting a bit older, and with a bit more of sense, I began to worry about what would be of her in the future.

It wasn’t like I could be with her on a date or a job interview, for example. She would have to learn to say what she needed to say and to do what she wanted to do by herself.

And yet nothing much changed until we got into our 20s. We were both attending the same college, but I had enrolled myself in Marketing studies while she was doing Literature and other things of the genre.

I am not afraid to say that the only thing that I could think at that stage was how she was planning to get a job with that sort of knowledge because it wasn’t like she was going to be a teacher. She wouldn’t be able to speak in front of a class full of students, I was sure about it.

But, one day, she came to me and told me that she was writing a novel.

My first reaction was “oh, well, another thing to get her even more isolated”, but then she started telling me about the plot, a story about a young girl who had been kidnapped and was trying to deal with her feelings of fear and despair by writing a journal.

She said she had found inspiration on Anne Frank’s story, the German-born Jewish girl who wrote a remarkable diary while hiding from the Nazis. She thought it was impressive the way that Anne managed to leave so many inspiration to us and to keep such a positive image of human beings despite what she was going through.

But what I had got more impressed about was how similar was my friend’s book’s main character with herself. I could see how she was pouring her own soul in those pages, that the girl’s words were her own, that her dreams were my friend’s so-long-forgotten dreams.

Over the time that my friend spent concentrated writing her novel, I also noticed an improvement in the way that she thought about almost everything. She sounded less confused, her speaking was more clear and direct, and she even sounded a bit more confident.

Thanks to the criminal plot she was working on, I believe she became more capable of thinking logically and seeing problems and challenges from a new perspective. But, more than anything, she sounded happier and motivated.

I understand now that examining her own feelings carefully, but under the impression that she was talking about someone else’s life, my friend set herself free. She released her frustrations and started managing to say what was going on in her mind without fear.

Not that she has changed from water to wine, but the improvement is there for anyone to see. I wasn’t the only one noticing her confidence blossoming out, as our other friends and even her teachers were impressed by her progress.

So I am sharing this with you so you can also give it a try. Don’t worry if you don’t have an original idea to write about Set fire on the pieces of paper after you finish your story if you like.

Just grab a notebook and a pen, or your laptop, and start writing any piece of fiction you might like. The benefits of this decision will remain in your mind and in your heart from that moment, and so on.

PS: Please leave a comment below and tell me if you have ever written a novel and then realize that the novel is a lot about you?

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