Tag Archives: positive thinking

Study: 80 Percent of College Admissions Departments Stalk Your Facebook – TIME NewsFeed

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Did you know that 82% of college admissions officers use Facebook in their recruiting?  What image have you portrayed on your social media sites?  Is it one that seals the deal and gets you that letter?  Many high school seniors are anxiously awaiting to hear what colleges they will be attending.  Some are just beginning to apply.  I hope for your sake that you have not put anything on Face-book that paints you in an unfavorable light.  For all of you middle school and high schoolers, be careful what you put out on the social media sites.  It could come back to haunt you.  And college students and everyone else must also be careful of the image they portray on social media sites.  You’ll be looking for jobs one day.  Remember info in the webisphere can hang out there forever. Consider the following:

“We all know that employers check out your online persona, but the trend is spreading. Now your dirty laundry on the Internet could keep you out of college, too.

A new survey from Kaplan Test Prep reveals that 82 percent of admissions officers use Facebook in their recruiting. While this sounds like a positive spin on having an online presence – meaning the college of your dreams can see your interests and your favorite books. And maybe yours jive perfectly with that of the college’s dream student.”  Click below to continue article.

via Study: 80 Percent of College Admissions Departments Stalk Your Facebook – TIME NewsFeed.

Why Do We Have So Many Negative Thoughts?

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Every thought and emotion has its own energetic signature or wave frequency.  ToeTalkwithTina writes: “Even our thoughts and emotions are energy, and every specific thought has its own unique vibrational frequency. Anger has its own frequency. Depression has its own frequency. Jealousy has its own frequency, etc, etc. Remember…energy MUST move. So when we choose to stifle a negative thought or emotion, and just keep tucking away all those hurt feelings, it is the equivalent of a percolating volcano. Eventually something is going to move….or BLOW!”

Your Assignment

If you believe that what you focus on magnifies in our lives, then you need to make a conscious effort to use and focus on those words that enhance your life .  Here’s  your assignment:  For the next week eavesdrop on your thoughts, words, and your conversations.  How many of your words, conversations, and interactions were positive?

Research shows that we are far more negative words in our vocabulary than positive ones.  Robert Schrauf, associate professor of applied linguistics and an anthropologist at Penn State was quoted in an ABC News on-line article titled, “Study: Negative Words Dominate Language’. ” Schraf says he was a bit puzzled when he began analyzing data he collected that shows that regardless of age or culture, we have far more words in our vocabulary that express negative rather than positive emotions.  …I found this surprising result,” Schrauf says. “Half of all the words that people produce from their working vocabulary to express emotion are negative. And 30 percent are positive and 20 percent are neutral.”

He has an idea of why this is so,”Negative emotions require more detailed thinking, more subtle distinctions,” says Schrauf, whose research was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. So we conjure up more negative words because the language needs to be precise. And this research suggests that’s probably true for every culture and every age group. Even though some of the words may not have precisely the same meaning in every language, they tend to be more negative than positive.”

Until next time…

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

The Power of Words

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Words are the building blocks of our communication with ourselves and others.  It is the means by which we exchange ideas, thoughts, desires, fears, needs, beliefs, etc. Negative words produce negative emotions.  Positive words produce positive emotions.  Let’s test it.  Think about debt, clutter, weight, divorce, death, bankruptcy, hatred, or betrayal.  How are you feeling?  Now think about abundance, order, beauty, freedom, fitness, health, vitality, faithfulness, and love. Do these words make you feel different? The challenge then is to use more positive words in our conversations, thoughts, and communications.  The words we use have programmed us and as we use new words we are changing the program.

Words also have ‘staying power’ both the negative and the positive.

Be careful what you put out into the universe because words have staying power.  Once implanted in someones heart or mind, they can grow there forever.  Everyone can recall without much effort a time in their lives when they were hurt by words.  For me, it was being called, “Fish Girl.” My dad had a fish market in Pennsylvania when I was between the ages of seven and twelve.  He would load up fish and produce in the truck and go door to door yelling, “Fresh Fish, Fresh Greens, Fresh Produce.”  Come and get your “Fresh Fish, Fresh Greens, Fresh Produce.”  On the surface it shouldn’t evoke painful memories, but it does.  You see when we weren’t out selling the fish, we were preparing the fish.  We couldn’t go out and play, have friends over, or have a normal childhood.  Most of our time was spent cleaning, scraping, and gutting hundreds of pounds of fish weekly.  The fish came in fifty pound boxes and my sisters and I had to stay up many nights getting the fish ready for sale the next day.  Our hands were cold and frozen and sore from being stuck and pricked by the fish fins.  If this weren’t enough, the kids would mock us to and from school.  They would throw things and us and call us “Fish Girls.”  Laughing at us saying that we smelled like fish.  Yes words can hurt, but words also can heal.  Unfortunately,  children learn the bad from their environment.  Realize that you are now a teacher and a role model for the children.  And, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.”

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

Ten Questions to Help You Find Your Passion

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“Chase down your passion like it’s the last bus of the night” wrote Glade Byron Addams.  It is not okay to NOT live passionately on purpose.  It is our destiny to take life in our hands and like clay shape and mold it into whatever gives us joy.  We are each creators and creators create!  Some are lost; some are on the wrong path, and some are stuck.  But a lucky few are on the right path even though they may not have reached their goal yet.  But, that doesn’t matter so much because when you’re on the right path, the journey itself is joyous!  Perhaps you have had to take a few detours, but you’ve kept your eye on the prize.  You realize why you are where you are and you know where that road leads.

Don’t Forget Where You’re Going

I’ve certainly had to do jobs that I didn’t want to do in order to get to do the jobs that I was born to do. The key is to not get stuck there.  During those times we have to do our best and have a process of continual learning that allows us to get better and better.  We also should align ourselves with those who strengths complement our weaknesses and our weaknesses complement their strengths.  Sadly, I’ve heard people say that there is nothing that they are passionate or excited about.  That just is not acceptable.  We were born to live a joyful life.  We were created to love life.  How could we be expected to live lukewarm, uninspired, dispassionate lives?  To help you figure out your purpose, your passion, so that you can attract possibilities and power to you, consider the follow questions:

  1. Are you currently doing work you love?
  2. Do secretly wish you were doing something else?  What?
  3. Rate your joy for your work on a scale of 1-10?
  4. What aspects of your current work do you enjoy the most?
  5. Do you find yourself daydreaming about the passionate work you hope to do one day?
  6. What is your talent?
  7. What are you good at naturally?
  8. What work would you continue to do even if you were not paid?
  9. Who do you know that excels in areas that you are weak in and how can you help each other?
  10. Who inspires you to live more joyfully?

Harold Whitman said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.

Dream Derailer #10: Not Passionate about Your Work

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If your mind and heart are somewhere else, do yourself a favor and let your body catch up. Love is the greatest power on earth and when we love what we do, we’re able to tap into that life altering power.  We dissipate our power when we are doing one thing and wanting desperately to be somewhere else doing something else.  Our power is the most potent when we are focused wholeheartedly in the moment.

Do you love what you do?  I mean do you love it so much that if money were not an issue you would continue to do it anyway?  Does your work excite you?  It is the passion for what we do that attracts benefits to us.  It is the passion that keeps us on track even when we’d like to give up.  It is the passion for a goal that energizes us.  Without passion we don’t have the excitement, attraction, or energy that we need to make work meaningful.  Lack of passion and a sincere heartfelt interest in what we are doing surely has derailed many a dream.  Clearly there will be times when we have to do work that we are not as interested in, competent at, or enjoy.  But if that work will eventually lead us to our goal, then we need to stay focused.  That is what it means to keep our eyes on the prize.  Check back tomorrow for part 2:  Ten Questions to Help You Find Your Passion.

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.