Nói chuyện vô thưởng vô phạt hay chém gió với "Shoot the breeze"

Shoot the breeze: Make informal conversation. Có thể gọi như "chém gió" trong tiếng Việt.

Thí dụ 1:

Shoot the breeze: Talking casually.

We were just shooting the breeze down at the coffee shop.

Thí dụ 2:

I like to shoot the BREEZE with my friends.
We shot the BREEZE for a few minutes before we got down to business.

Thí dụ 3:

Joe, do you want to come along to meet Mike and Bob at the coffee shop ? We can shoot the breeze for an hour or two about that great basketball game last night and relax before we have to study for that big test in economics tomorrow.

Difference between Virtually and Almost

Virtually và almost có nghĩa gần giống nhau. Tuy nhiên trong văn nói, từ "virtually" rất hay được dùng. Cũng giống như tiếng Việt ta có cặp cụm từ "hầu như" và "gần như".

Virtually vừa có nghĩa "hầu như", vừa có nghĩa "thực sự". Như vậy ta sẽ hiểu virtually phải là "gần như thực sự".

Thí dụ:
Fred virtually runs the business:
"Fred thực sự gần như là điều hành công ty.". Chứ không dịch là "Fred hầu như điều hành công ty".

Hãy nghe một đoạn audio sau đây để kiểm chứng điều đó:

Hi Endlesshope,

I have to be honest and say that 'virtually' has been used such a lot that the word has lost its original meaning. It's probably best to keep to the meaning of 'in reality' 'in fact'. 'Almost' has the sense of 'not completely' and 'practically' has the meaning of 'in practice'. Imagine a situation where someone at work does all the work although they are only the deputy as in: Charlie is the boss but Fred (the deputy) is the one who virtually runs the business. The business almost collapsed last year because it almost ran out of orders but Fred took control and practically stopped the business from failing.

Heavy Weather, Under The Weather, Fair Weather Friend

Heavy Weather:
John has his heart set on being an engineer. He studies hard in his math courses, but I’m sorry to say he doesn’t get very high grades. So I’m really afraid he’ll run into Heavy weather when he has to take calculus next semester.

Under The Weather:
That’s right. She just phoned to tell me she’s Under the weather today. She’s come down with a headache and a bad cough so she can’t go out with me tonight.

Fair Weather Friend:
We had the idea that Mac and Mabel were our best friends. Then we lost most of our money when my business had some bad luck, and we found out they were nothing but Fair-weather friends. Now they don’t even bother to say hello anymore.

Bugs

Many people are afraid of bugs.

Some bugs do bad things like eating crops or clothes.

Some bugs, such as termites, even eat wood.

Other bugs can be good. Spiders catch flies.

Flies are not good because they carry germs.

Insects get caught in the web that the spider builds.

Ants get into homes and eat food.

Bees are good because honey comes from bees.

It is not good if you get stung by a bee.

A caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Butterflies can be very beautiful.

You can find grasshoppers outside on a sunny day. Grasshoppers hop through the grass.

Crickets make a noise by rubbing their legs together.

Dragonflies usually live near water. They have large, colourful wings.

Ladybugs are red with little black dots.

 

There are many types of beetles.

Nobody wants to have cockroaches in their house.

Centipedes have many legs.

Fleas get onto your pets and bite them. They make your dog or cat itchy.

 

 

Mosquitoes can make you itchy when they bite you.

Have you ever had a mosquito bite?

Open a can of worms

Meaning: If you open a can of worms, you do something that will cause a lot of problems and is probably going to cause more trouble than it's worth.

Example 1:
At the school committee last night, a parent demanded to know why music education had abruptly been cancelled. That sure OPENED A CAN OF WORMS as everyone argued for hours about why they were out of money and what could be done.


Example 2:
When my mother announced at my wedding reception that my wife was pregnant she was OPENING UP A CAN OF WORMS. The news was so unexpected that nobody knew quite what to say for the rest of the day.

A wet blanket

A wet blanket:

Someone who seems to want to spoil other people's fun, for example by refusing to join them in something enjoyable that they are doing

(dùng để chỉ một người phá hoại niềm vui của người khác vì anh ta âu sầu hay bi quan)

Example 1:

My friend Jim wanted to do something completely different, so he invited a group of us to go skydiving ! Although it sounded scary to me, I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s good time, so I went along. It turned out to be a lot of fun. I’m sure glad I wasn’t A WET BLANKET after all.

Example 2:My husband has taken an executive position with a noodle company. He doesn’t know much about noodles. That’s one of the reasons he wants me to go on this retreat with the other execs and their spouses, so he can learn more about the industry. I didn’t want to be A WET BLANKET so I went along with him.

Retreat: Nơi tĩnh dưỡng

Coding is intertwined

These are also well known issues. If a software developer does not avoid these pitfalls, what happens often, is his software becomes like spaghetti. Basically, it's all intertwined, and hard to maintain, so it may work at first, but then somebody else comes in, and tries to maintain it, or tries to change it, and he will get lost, because he will not understand the code, or he will understand it, but he may not understand it completely. He may miss out certain idiosyncrasies, about the code, and when the code becomes big and bulky, you basically have to throw it away, and start all over, because it will become impossible to maintain.

Listen to a story with idiom "Don't burn your bridges"

Meaning #1: Bỏ lại tất cả mọi thứ phía sau

If you burn your bridges, you do something that makes it impossible to go back from the position you have taken. It will hurt/destroy your relationship.

Audion Example:

View transcript >>

I wasn't negative about why I left the job. I didn't want to burn my bridges. I might want to use my old boss as a reference.

He burned his bridges when he published that book about the politics at his old company.

Lưu ý rằng thành ngữ này không giống với thành ngữ tiếng Việt là “Qua cầu rút ván”! Thành ngữ “Burn your bridges” nói lên rằng việc cắt đứt liên hệ với những gì đã đạt được trước đó không phải là một việc làm hay.

Example:

If you drop out of school now, you'll be burning your bridges behind you. You're too young to burn your bridges that way.

Meaning #2: Ra đi không một lời từ biệt (Dứt áo ra đi).

Burning Bridges is an expression synonymous to the "Point of no return", typically used when a relationship becomes irreparable.

Our relationships with others are like bridges that take us from one place to another; when we "burn our bridges" we destroy our relationships and it is difficult to go back. "Don't burn your bridges" means that it is important to remember and value the relationships that get you where you are and not damage those relationships.

Some examples:

"On his last day on the job he got in a huge fight with his boss. Why would he want to go burning his bridges like that? Someday he might want to work there again."

"I wish you hadn't been rude to that man just now; he is very important in this town and you shouldn't go around burning bridges."

“You should give them 2 weeks notice before you quit, you don't want to burn your bridges with the people at your work.”

Hãy nghe một đoạn video sau với lời khuyên trước khi nghỉ việc, đừng bao giờ "Burn your bridges":

Transcript:
So you've just found your next great opportunity and you're not certain how to leave the current one. My name is Wade Childress I'm with the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and I'm here to tell you how to quit your job. First thing is it's a conversation, go in to your boss, talk to your boss, they're a person just like you, let them know it's just time for you to move on. You might be asked to write a letter of notice that's fine, no problem, be respectful, in your conversations, in your letter, be respectful there's no need to be hateful or hurtful. K.I.S.- keep it short, there's no need to have a long letter there's no need to have a long conversation, don't let it draw out. Give appropriate notice, usually that's two weeks sometimes that's four weeks if you have a contract that might be three months six months or even a year. If you have a contract read your contract through make certain you understand what the appropriate notice is. Don't burn your bridges. Take it easy, relax, you're going to see these people again you're probably going to work with them again in some way shape or form so don't burn your bridges. Say thanks for the opportunity, whatever time you've spent there you've gained something you've grown say thank you for the opportunity it's just time to move on and you're ready to do so. Again good luck with your next job hope things go well, keep the conversation simple and I'm Wade Childress I'm with the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and I've told you how to quit your job.

Listen to a part of real story from www.npr.org:

View transcript.

I got back to work by not burning bridges. I stayed in touch on good terms with the company that laid me off in a head-count reduction. Four years later, they hired me out of career change training to replace somebody who was retiring. Don't burn bridges no matter how satisfying it might be on your last day.

Read more with the advice of Suze Orman, an American financial advisor, author, motivational speaker, and television host: Click here

Don't burn your bridges!
Before you walk out on a job or get into a risky financial relationship, consider the long-term consequences.

Question: My friends and I talk about how much we'd love to leave our unfulfilling jobs. It would be great to tell our bosses, "Get lost!" and walk out. Right now, not one of us has the money to make that a possibility, but I've decided to start saving so that if I ever want to quit my job on the spur of the moment, I can. How much do I need for my escape fund? And how should I keep this money safe?

Suze: I find it fascinating—and revealing—that you and your friends all feel that your jobs are unfulfilling. To me, this signals that your wish to leave your job may come not from dissatisfaction with what you do, but rather from how you feel about who you are. Like attracts like, my dear, and you and your friends are probably reinforcing a sense of unhappiness in one another. Friends do that, you know—support each other in ways that are both good and not so good. Even if your job is unfulfilling, I want you to stop and ask yourself what good it does to tell your boss to get lost. My guess is, not much.

Even if you amass a large fallback fund, that money will last only so long before you'll have to find another job. When that happens, the same boss you left high and dry will be the one telling your prospective new boss about your positive and negative qualities. The lesson: Don't burn your bridges, especially in this economy. I have to say, it saddens me to learn that the only reason you want to start saving is to collect a "get lost" fund directed at your boss. Instead, I urge you to consider creating a nest egg targeted to your own hopes, needs and dreams. I would much rather see you save money to buy a home, go back to school, fund your retirement, or even take a vacation than to spite your boss. I would recommend you put eight months' worth of expenses into an emergency fund in case you lose your job before you're ready to—that is, in case your boss leaves you before you're financially prepared to leave him. Please remember, getting a new job—let alone a more fulfilling one—can take longer that you might expect. So plan for the worst—and if the best happens, you'll have a good reason to celebrate with your friends.

Storms and tornadoes

From Texas to Tennessee, states across the southern U.S. could face severe thunderstorms, possible tornadoes. But Arkansas, the state that's just to the south of Missouri, has already gotten slammed by severe weather. Storms tore through the state on Monday. More than a dozen homes destroyed, and at least eight people were killed. The state's governor said he was surprised there weren't more deaths given the amount of damage caused by the severe weather. He declared a state of emergency, which will free up money and government resources for the relief efforts. The winds, so powerful that they flipped over cars and ripped up trees, like you see here. The governor said normally, the wind would just snap the trees. But because the ground was so wet, the trees were just pulled right out by the wind.

Challenging the status quo

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers.

Fair-Weather Friend

Fair -Weather Friend:

Someone who only wants to be your friend when you are successful.
(nghĩa đen là một người bạn trong khi trời tốt, và dĩ nhiên điều này hàm ý rằng khi trời xấu hay có điều gì khó khăn xảy ra thì người ta không thấy ông bạn đó đâu cả)

Example:

We had the idea that Mac and Mabel were our best friends. Then we lost most of our money when my business had some bad luck, and we found out they were nothing but Fair-weather friends. Now they don’t even bother to say hello anymore.

Second Nature

Second nature: bản năng thứ nhì của con người, tức là điều gì giống như tự nhiên, hoặc theo bản năng, nhưng nhờ học được mà có
(a habit, characteristic, etc., not innate but so long practised or acquired as to seem so)

Example 1: It’s no wonder Michelle plays the piano so beautifully; she started taking lessons when she was three. She’s been playing for so many years, it seems effortless. It’s SECOND NATURE to her.
(Cô Michelle chơi đàn dương cầm thật hay, là điều không có gì đáng ngạc nhiên bởi vì cô bắt đầu học đàn khi cô mới lên ba tuổi. Cô đã chơi đàn nhiều năm nay cho nên cô đàn một cách dễ dàng. Đánh đàn đã trở thành bản năng của cô.)

Example 2: After his terrible car accident, Tom spent months in the hospital. He’s been relearning many things which he used to be able to do without thinking. What had once been SECOND NATURE to him, like walking and talking, now requires a lot of effort.
(Sau một tai nạn xe ôtô khủng khiếp anh Tom đã lưu lại tại bịnh viện trong nhiều tháng. Anh ấy phải học lại nhiều việc mà trước đó anh vẫn làm mà không cần suy nghĩ. Điều mà trước đó là bản năng thứ nhì của anh, như đi bộ và nói chuyện, bây giờ đòi hỏi rất nhiều cố gắng.)

Example 3:

How to Drive a Car with Manual Transmission.  Learning to drive a stick shift isn't easy for most people, but with time and practice it becomes SECOND NATURE.
Example 4:

My biggest personal challenge in becoming a middle school teacher or just a teacher in general was I was kind of shy. I didn't like being up in front of people and sometimes I get very quiet. But once you get started and you're up there talking in front of the students, it becomes really easy, SECOND NATURE, and at this point in my life I can talk in front of any group of kids or young adults or anything.

Handpick successors

He’s [Steve Jobs] handpicked his successors. They’ve been trained to be his successors. I think the company is fine. It’ll be fine. If the people who continue to manage Apple into the future don’t impose that same kind of very demanding standards of design excellence on the products they release, then you’ll begin to see a dilution of the company’s brand name.

Gut decision and communication from the inside out.

The way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations, regardless of their size, regardless of their industry, all think, act and communicate from the inside out.

None of what I'm telling you is my opinion. It's all grounded in the tenets of biology. Not psychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, looking from the top down, What you see is the human brain is actually broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our homo sapien brain, our neocortex, corresponds with the "what" level. The neocortex is responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sections make up our limbic brains. And our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language.

In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures. It just doesn't drive behavior. When we can communicate from the inside out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior, and then we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from. You know, sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures, and they say, "I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel right." Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right? Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making, doesn't control language. And the best we can muster up is, "I don't know. It just doesn't feel right." Or sometimes you say you're leading with your heart, or you're leading with your soul. Well, I hate to break it to you, those aren't other body parts controlling your behavior. It's all happening here in you limbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not language.

Weekly New Words: 1st Week, Oct, 2011

These are also well known issues. If a software developer does not avoid these pitfalls, what happens often, is his software becomes like spaghetti. Basically, it's all intertwined, and hard to maintain, so it may work at first, but then somebody else comes in, and tries to maintain it, or tries to change it, and he will get lost, because he will not understand the code, or he will understand it, but he may not understand it completely. He may miss out certain idiosyncrasies, about the code, and when the code becomes big and bulky, you basically have to throw it away, and start all over, because it will become impossible to maintain.

Intertwined: Xoắn vào với nhau.
Idiosyncrasy: Tính chất riêng biệt.

He’s [Steve Jobs] handpicked his successors. They’ve been trained to be his successors. I think the company is fine. It’ll be fine. If the people who continue to manage Apple into the future don’t impose that same kind of very demanding standards of design excellence on the products they release, then you’ll begin to see a dilution of the company’s brand name.
Handpick: Lựa chọn cẩn thận.
Dilution: Sự pha loãng.



A: I'm not a self-starter at all. Left to myself, I tend to fiddle around and get nothing done.
B: Me too, I guess- if I go to the library or the coffee shop to study, I do better, but if I sit around here, I just dawdle. I listen to music or pick at the guitar or, uh, anything to avoid getting down to my assignments.
Fiddle around: Làm việc vô bổ.
Dawdle: Lêu lổng, đi lởn vởn.



When we talked about how your core values shape your leadership style? Well, watching your role models in action can take you one step further to identifying which qualities resonate well with you and which go against what you value most in life.
Resonate: Cộng hưởng.
Go againts: chống lại

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard: Look, I've been saddened to hear that news. I mean, here we are at a Future Jobs Forum, and the jobs of the future are going to be shaped by innovation, and we hear the news of the loss of an incredible global innovator. I mean, it's not too much to say he literally changed our world.
Literally: Đúng là.

Fiddle around

A: I'm not a self-starter at all. Left to myself, I tend to fiddle around and get nothing done.
B: Me too, I guess- if I go to the library or the coffee shop to study, I do better, but if I sit around here, I just dawdle. I listen to music or pick at the guitar or, uh, anything to avoid getting down to my assignments.

Companies Rethink Annual Performance Reviews

So it's in this uneasy economic climate that employees in many industries have to sit down for their annual performance reviews. The reviews are a fixture in corporate America, and many employees find them useless. Now companies are looking for better and swifter ways to give feedback. Here's NPR's Wendy Kaufman.

WENDY KAUFMAN: Mozilla, the company that developed the Firefox open-source Web browser, is hardly a stayed, old-line firm. But when it came to performance reviews, it clung to the conventional, yearly ritual.

Mr. DANIEL PORTILLO (Senior Director of Personnel, Mozilla): Employees would write a self-evaluation, the manager would solicit their feedback, and then write a review based on what they've done over the year.

KAUFMAN: But, says Daniel Portillo, the company's senior director of personnel, it was pretty inefficient. Mozilla has now abandoned the annual review, and instead has one-on-one feedback sessions with employees at least six times a year - often every month.

Mr. PORTILLO: If you were really trying to improve and were trying to build a culture of development, all individuals are going to want to ask questions about how they're doing and what they can do to do better.

KAUFMAN: Talent management consultant Josh Berson says the very existence of a rigid, formal review process once a year can actually stifle informal feedback. He says that's what happened at a major airline.

Mr. JOSH BERSON (Talent Management Consultant): People said, oh, well, I don't really need to talk about this now. I can wait until the end of the year. So they went back and they essentially took apart the formal process and re-implemented a much more coaching-oriented process to feedback and told managers that, look, we expect you to do this on a continuous basis.

KAUFMAN: Getting feedback on a continuous basis is something Generation Y employees seem to crave. Young workers in their 20's who've been dubbed the validation generation are often portrayed as needy and whiney in the workplace. Mozilla doesn't see it that way, nor does Daniel Debow, who's new start-up called Rypple provides online tools for workers to get instant and semi-private feedback.

Mr. DANIEL DEBOW (CEO and Founder, Rypple): When you're entering the workforce, you want to get feedback. But the difference with this generation is that they have grown up on a constant and steady feedback from school and work, but also of being much more collaborative and interactive with the people around them.

KAUFMAN: But it turns out that Gen Y-ers aren't the only ones wanting more input from bosses and co-workers. A recent study by the consulting giant Accenture found that a sizeable majority of middle managers valued informal feedback more than what they got from the formal review process. Unfortunately, more than a third of the managers said they didn't get the informal advice they needed in order to improve. Still, David Smith, the managing director at Accenture, suggests that when it comes to feedback and managing employee performance, the ground has definitely shifted.

Mr. DAVID SMITH (Managing Director, Accenture): The norms of the new generation really are driving into the workforce very rapidly. The company has got to look at it different, the employee has got to look at it differently, and really, you know, the middle managers and the management of the organization have to look at it differently.

KAUFMAN: And in these economic times, it's more important than ever that employees get what they need to become more productive.

Steven Jobs: Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

Nghĩa trong bài:

Something slowly began to dawn on me: Một cái gì đó dần hé mở ra cho tôi.

Awful-tasting medicine: Nếm một trái đắng khủng khiếp.

Renaissance: Phục hưng

Keep looking, don't settle: Hãy tiếp tục tìm kiếm và để ý, đừng dừng lại..

***

It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new.  Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, and the most importantly have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Nghĩa trong bài:

It's life's change agent: Đó tác tác nhân thay đổi cuộc sống.

Clear away: Bị loại bỏ.

Dogma: Giáo điều.

Drown out: Át đi.

Everything else is secondary: Mọi thứ khác chỉ là phụ.

***

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Nghĩa trong bài:

Come along: Xuất hiện.

Overflow with: Tràn ngập.

Stay hungry, stay foolish: Luôn luôn cảm thấy đói để làm được điều gì đó nhiều hơn nữa. Luôn luôn dại dột để có thể học được nhiều điều mới mẻ.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Part 1:

Download Audio "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Part 1.

Part 2:

Download Audio "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Part 2.

Part 3:

Download Audio "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Part 3.

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Self-assurance

For most of us, it's important to have plenty of self-assurance at work. Of course if we are lacking in self-assurance, we might eventually come across some new-found self-assurance. This trait can also be referred to as 'self-confidence'. Most leaders possess enormous self-confidence, but most of us exude self-confidence in some tasks, while lack self-confidence in other areas. In any case, someone with an air of self-confidence can get things done that might cause others to lose self-confidence.

I've found that people who have this trait have a great deal of self-control. Most of them have developed self-control over many years and exercise self-control on a daily basis. This is true even if they have lost their self-control at times. They always seem to regain their self-control and that helps them ooze self-confidence. 

Those who are lacking in self-confidence often are overly self-conscious. They also become painfully self-conscious when others undermine their self-confidence by questioning their authority or capacity. I think it's self-evident that blustery self-assurance isn't attractive. In fact, many people who show enormous self-confidence are often selfish. It seems that these people only have their self-interest at heart. 

It is by no means self-evident that self-interest is a sign of selfishness. Self-interest is also many times a sign of self-respect in order to become self-sufficient in life!

New Words:
Exude: Rỉ ra từ từ (To discharge or emit gradually). Exude self-confidence: Sự tự tin có được dần dần.
Air of self-confidence: Ra dáng tự tin.
Ooze self-confidence: Tạo ra sự tự tin.
Self-conscious: E dè, ngượng ngập, không tự nhiên.
Authority: Uy quyền.
Self-evident: Sự thật rõ ràng.
Self-interest: Tính tư lợi, vụ lợi.
By no means: Chắc chắn là không.
self-respect: Tự trọng
Self-sufficient: Tự phụ, tự mãn.

Self-Assurance

Self-Assurance is similar to self-confidence. In the deepest part of you, you have faith in your strengths. You know that you are able -- able to take risks, able to meet new challenges, able to stake claims, and, most important, able to deliver. But self-Assurance is more than just self-confidence. Blessed with the theme of Self-Assurance, you have confidence not only in your abilities but in your judgment. When you look at the world, you know that your perspective is unique and distinct. And because no one sees exactly what you see, you know that no one can make your decisions for you. No one can tell you what to think. They can guide. They can suggest. But you alone have the authority to form conclusions, make decisions, and act. This authority, this final accountability for the living of your life, does not intimidate you. On the contrary, it feels natural to you. No matter what the situation, you seem to know what the right decision is. This theme lends you an aura of certainty. Unlike many, you are not easily swayed by someone else's arguments, no matter how persuasive they may be. This Self-Assurance may be quiet or loud, depending on your other themes, but it is solid. It is strong. Like the keel of a ship, it withstands many different pressures and keeps you on your course.