You’re reading Tips for writing tenders, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Knowing how to prepare a convincing RFT or an RFP is a fundamental for any business before they develop a tender strategy to seek work. A request for tender (RFT) or request for proposal (RFP) must be professionally prepared documents that consist in different measures of technical and marketing content. The documents must be written in a highly professional manner that is convincing, easy to understand and complies with the tender request.
Businesses require many different skill-sets to win jobs however to write and present a successful tender needs the right tone, style, and language. Here are nine tips to remember when writing a tender.
Be clear with your thoughts and the points you are making. Precise, clear, simple, and to the point answers are always appreciated by the reader. Avoid using technical terms because using overly complicated language can lose the reader. Hence, applying the KISS strategy—Keep It Simple Stupid—with language and technical terms is always recommended.
Write for your audience. For example, when a doctor speaks with another doctor, they converse in technical language expecting the other to understand the complex terminology but this is a dangerous assumption when tender writing. When you are writing a document it will not necessarily be read by a technical person, that will fully understand what you are writing—the final read may be done by a person with a commercial background who might not understand the technical terms your using. Always avoid overly complex words and explain the meaning of every technical term you use.
Do not be passive! It is important to understand that the passive voice is less engaging and convincing than the active voice. The document should engage the writer and identify the reader. Use active voice where you mention yourself as ‘I’, and the reader as ‘you’.
Acronyms should be used only where the reader is familiar with the reference. Avoid using short forms in your document, this confuses the reader and . If you use an acronym in the document ensure you explain the term in full when you first use it, for example “request for tender (RFT)”.
Use passion, emotion, and motivation to enhance your proposal. While most people write straightforward and formal content, it helps to use some emotion and to emphasise the organisation’s culture—it can help you achieve a better outcome.
‘Ifs’, ‘mays’, ‘mights’, and ‘buts’ are a sign of a lack of confidence or lack of capability. If you are using such phrases in the tender, you will look less than competent. The person who reads it, will get the impression that you are not confident on the project criteria. Instead, try using words like ‘will, ‘can’, ‘when’—this is the language of confidence.
The entire document should be structured properly. The document should be clear to the reader. The document must have chapters, sections, subsections, and paragraphs that fit together logically and create a cohesive narrative. Paragraphs should be written clearly and follow a consistent structure.
Do not use excessive capitalisation. There is a tendency to copy legal documents and to capitalise “Important Terms” to identify them as contractual items, this is bad grammar, unnecessary and looks amateurish. A common noun is not capitalised—for instance, the contract, the client—only proper nouns should be capitalised, for instance the name of a report or document, The Supply Contract, etc.
Headings are a great help for the reader to understand what the content is about. Every section of the document should have a heading that summarises its intent and is easy to read and understand.
Final note:
If you are looking closely at selecting an agency to help you with your proposals there are very few communication consultancies that are offering such an impressive range of e-tendering services and content development. Should you wish to achieve a better success rate Madrigal Communications stands out from its competitors by having a quality service that gives you exceptional value for money and return on investment.
You’ve read Tips for writing tenders, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
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You’re reading How to Overcome Emotional Apathy And Fill Your Life With Joy?, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Anger isn’t the opposite of joy. Neither is sadness. People who lead joy-filled lives also can experience negative emotions. However, it is the absence of emotions that blocks joy. Unfortunately, too many of us have allowed ourselves to live in this state of apathy.
We shrug off our emotions with phrases like, ‘whatever’ or ‘it is what it is’. We crack self-deprecating jokes when our feelings are hurt. The problem with this is that emotional apathy eventually becomes the norm. It blocks negative emotions that may be difficult to deal with, but it also renders us unable to truly feel something positive.
Becoming Mindful
If you feel bad, escape, ignore, or transcend. For many people, this is the ingrained way of dealing with stress, anger, or sadness. What we are finding out is that these methods aren’t very helpful. Instead of denying or using escapism, the key to getting through is to acknowledge and experience.
This is where mindfulness comes into play. Basically, mindfulness is a type of meditation. However, instead of visualizing something that you want to happen or imagining yourself into a relaxed and serene location, you focus on the moment. This means assessing exactly what you are thinking and feeling without judgment.
This technique is so successful that it has been shown to cause actual physical changes in the brain that allow people to better control their emotions.
There are many ways to practice mindfulness. One is using more traditional meditation. Basically, you designate a time and place to meditate, focus on your breathing, and relax.
This is where things change. Once you are in a perfect state to begin meditating, you will focus on how you are feeling physically and emotionally. You will pay attention to your heart rate, the temperature of the room, and the thoughts in your head. In other words, you will be present and aware.
Another way to practice mindfulness might be dubbed, ‘mindfulness in action’. This can be a bit more difficult because it means implementing mindfulness during times when negative emotions are peaking. For example, if a friend says something that hurts your feelings.
It may be difficult in that moment to practice mindfulness. After all, it is much easier to shrug off hurt and sadness by saying or thinking something dismissive than it is to be in the moment and to experience it. Remember, by using mindfulness techniques and experiencing the negative emotions, you can overcome them and control them more easily.
Explore The Source of Your Apathy
However, being mindful of your emotions is not always enough. Most of the time, there is an organic cause for emotional apathy. It is strongly associated with depression, but there are also other factors to consider. For example, sometimes the mind uses apathy as a way to cope with high levels of anxiety. Think of a power strip becoming overloaded, then just shutting down. Poor nutrition and lack of energy can be causes as well. So, being aware of your emotions and physical state will make it easier for you to identify the sources of your apathy.
One way to gain the insights that you need to discover the true cause of your apathy is to use the mindfulness techniques and meditation mentioned above. These will help keep you tuned into your feelings and experiences. Keeping a detailed and honest journal can also help. Not only is journaling cathartic but also it becomes a written record of your emotions and daily habits. This can be very helpful when you are trying to connect the dots and find the source of your lack of feelings.
Once you’ve recognized the cause, you can start creating a plan to deal with the issues you have identified.
Recognize And Create Opportunities For Joy
Make sure that your plan includes different ways and opportunities for making you happy. During your life, you may have been told that being happy is a decision that people make and as corny as it sounds, this is true. People who are happy don’t just wait for good things to happen to them, they seek them out.
They engage in activities that make them feel good. For example, go to movies, read books, and consume other things that improve their mood and outlook on life. They also embrace the opportunity to try new things, they make plans. Try to do something you have never done before, like go paragliding, start a new career, even if it’s something as simple as private tutoring, or simply put yourself out there.
Implementing this can be as simple as pursuing new (or old) hobbies, being aware of and attending events in your community, and fighting the urge to turn down invitations. Not everything you try is going to be to your liking, but with a positive attitude, you’ll find some things that you truly enjoy.
Reach Out to Others
Keep in mind, the likelihood of you having opportunities to have joyful experiences depends largely on your relationships with other people.
People who have lots of positive relationships tend to be happier overall, regardless of what is going on in their lives. They are also more resilient when they have experienced something negative. Furthermore, engaging in the community, developing your hobbies, putting yourself out there, and sticking to your plan of eliminating apathy is much easier when you have friends around you.
Friendships and romantic relationships are definitely important. Just keep in mind that they aren’t your only options for connecting with other people. Consider doing volunteer work as a way of giving yourself new opportunities to form human connections.
Ensure Your Actions Have Purpose
Merely existing leads to apathy. As mentioned above, apathy then leads to closing ourselves off to all emotions. The way to avoid existing is to replace it with actively living.
Take a look at the truly happy people around you. If you ask them how they spend their time, you will find that they do very little that involves sitting around or engaging in mundane activities. Here’s a good question to ask yourself. What did you do yesterday?
If you honestly cannot remember much, it might be time to evaluate your actions. There’s not much joy to be found in hanging out or not doing much of anything at all. If you can’t remember what you did, you may not be doing much that is memorable. Thus, this brings us back to our plan of filling our lives with various activities.
Conclusion
Every person has the potential to live a joyful life. If you think about it, people with devastating disabilities, people who have survived atrocities, even those who are facing terminal diagnoses have found ways to live active, happy lives.
Leonard Cohen once said, “We’re always experiencing joy or sadness. But there are lots of people who’ve closed won. And there are times in one’s life when one has to close down just to regroup.”
His words make a lot of sense, as long as you don’t forget the final three words, ‘just to regroup’. The people who are able to do that, won’t struggle with emotional apathy. This requires self-awareness, a willingness to act on what you learn about yourself, and a willingness to pursue happiness.
You’ve read How to Overcome Emotional Apathy And Fill Your Life With Joy?, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
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You’re reading The Power Of Silence, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
I was on the subway yesterday, waiting for my train to come with my earphones on. In the pause between songs I heard an old man saying:” Yes, young man, I know we live in democracy and ages of free speech, but it doesn’t necessary means that you need to speak all the time”. Later that day I’ve heard my wife talking to her mother something about how silence is golden and that was my “write an article” call.
On the opposite side of the power of speech, we have the power of silence and just like the medal, everything in the known universe has two sides. Knowing how to handle both sides is an advantage and it can help you in many life situations.
The real power of silence is hiding deep down in every one of us. It is mainly connected with the ability to recognize the situation we are getting into and crucial for our self-improvement. The ability to be silent is worth of gold. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons why.
First of all, it is polite to be silent when someone is talking. You don’t want to interrupt someone’s speech. Rather use facial expressions instead of talk, because it will make you more professional.
If you find yourself in a difficult situation, it’s better to stop for a moment and think about the possible way out. Being silent gives us an enormous advantage and instead of panic, we are able to solve the problem better.
People often want to be included in the conversation even if they are not qualified to talk about it. It doesn’t make any sense to discuss things we are not informed about. If you want to be treated with the respect it is recommended to talk about things we are informed. Besides, a lot of useful pieces of information passes right in front of our noses without noticing them, because we were talking at the time they came.
Not everyone is capable of enjoying the silence and if you do know how to enjoy it, you are pretty lucky. Fast life brought us a lot of money and, unfortunately, a lot of stress, pressure, and depression. Being able to enjoy the silence can reduce all of these daily issues. My recommendation is meditation, cause not just you are going to rest your brain, but it will give you the opportunity to work out your mental strength. You should be able to notice the progress in just a couple of days.
Personally, it is the most hated thing in my life. Wasting precious time to gossip makes me sad. If you stuck in the circle of this type of people, maybe you should consider changing the environment or trying to adjust to it. If you have co-workers gossiping, try to use the time intended to gossip for doing something else. Everything else is better than gossips. You can try to learn something new on a daily basis instead of sharing rumors. Not just it will improve your knowledge, but it will make you smarter than the environment. We all need to workout on our self-improvement.
My gramma told me once:”If you don’t have anything smart to say, then don’t.” I was little and didn’t understand her words, but now, no matter how rough it sounds, I agree with her. Think before speak, listen more and enjoy the moment. Life can test us in many different ways and we are here to react on those tests in the proper way. The power of silence gives us the strength to maintain order in our lives and we should definitely use it.
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You’ve read The Power Of Silence, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
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You’re reading What Are You Bad At?, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Yes, I said bad. I want to know what is easy for you? What do you love? But also what do you hate? What is your biggest weakness? Life does not have a road map. Once you decide what you want to do, life will often come in and throw you a curveball. Often, unexpected events in your life define not only your path, but also who you become. They shape your passions and define what is important to you and how you measure success and your own happiness.
Often times it is those curveballs that we are thrown that really define who we are and this is how growth happens. We grow the most when we are forced to endure failure, obstacles, or tragedies. This is how life impacts us—shaping us into not only who we are in this world but giving us the skills and the passions to make a dream possible. Read the biographies of any great self-made leader or businessperson and you’ll find the same story. No one got where they are without challenges along the way and none of them are on the journey they originally planned.
Success lies in perseverance; it is the decision to press forward through the hard times, keeping your vision and goals clear. People, circumstances, and tragedies will affect everyone. I have learned that business and life are about knowing and understanding people and knowing how you can help them, not the other way around.
You need to be able to identify your own strengths and weaknesses. From a strengths standpoint, you should pinpoint and look honestly at what you are good at and (on the other side of that coin) what you are not good at? Just because you have weaknesses doesn’t mean you won’t be able to achieve your dreams. To find success, you must know who you are in order to align yourself with individuals who can help get you there by being able to fill in your weaknesses with their strengths. Everyone has different motivations for working. For some it is money, for some it is to have a purpose, and for others it is a responsibility. Knowing your own motivations and recognizing others’ will give you the greatest chance for aligning resources to get things done!
When assessing your strengths and weaknesses, have you uncovered a passion? Is there something that keeps you up at night? Is there a cause or a benefit for the greater good that you are passionate about? It might be a product, service, or a personal strength that you have tapped into. If you know what you’re passionate about, you are one of the lucky ones. Harness this knowledge and apply it. That doesn’t mean you need to own a business. I am an entrepreneur and I know entrepreneurship is a passion of mine. Owning a business is not for everyone, and you can use your strengths in other pursuits to become a force to be reckoned with supporting another company. Knowing what you are passionate about is half the battle; finding some way to utilize your strengths is the second part.
Failure doesn’t keep us from success; fear of failure does. I don’t care how old you get or how much knowledge you gain—fear is still there and is a very real thing. It is something you just have to learn to control. Experience, knowledge, and a support team will help you lessen those fears. I want to be frank when I say this: the reality is that you might fail. You might have already failed. I have started companies that have been nothing shy of mediocre. Failure is part of success, and you only truly fail if you give up. But which is worse: trying and failing, or never trying? To me the fear of never trying at all is worse! To me, chasing a dream is just as necessary as breathing oxygen! I don’t feel fully alive or purposeful if I am not reaching for my calling and I believe we all have a calling to be someone and make an impact!
Kristy Dickerson, keynote speaker, businesswoman, and active CEO and co-founder of STARTplanner, has devoted her life to providing hope for individuals who are looking to achieve balance, success, and happiness within their own lives. She is the author of Start Balancing http://ift.tt/2zBNm0g
You’ve read What Are You Bad At?, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
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You’re reading What Are You Bad At?, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Yes, I said bad. I want to know what is easy for you? What do you love? But also what do you hate? What is your biggest weakness? Life does not have a road map. Once you decide what you want to do, life will often come in and throw you a curveball. Often, unexpected events in your life define not only your path, but also who you become. They shape your passions and define what is important to you and how you measure success and your own happiness.
Often times it is those curveballs that we are thrown that really define who we are and this is how growth happens. We grow the most when we are forced to endure failure, obstacles, or tragedies. This is how life impacts us—shaping us into not only who we are in this world but giving us the skills and the passions to make a dream possible. Read the biographies of any great self-made leader or businessperson and you’ll find the same story. No one got where they are without challenges along the way and none of them are on the journey they originally planned.
Success lies in perseverance; it is the decision to press forward through the hard times, keeping your vision and goals clear. People, circumstances, and tragedies will affect everyone. I have learned that business and life are about knowing and understanding people and knowing how you can help them, not the other way around.
You need to be able to identify your own strengths and weaknesses. From a strengths standpoint, you should pinpoint and look honestly at what you are good at and (on the other side of that coin) what you are not good at? Just because you have weaknesses doesn’t mean you won’t be able to achieve your dreams. To find success, you must know who you are in order to align yourself with individuals who can help get you there by being able to fill in your weaknesses with their strengths. Everyone has different motivations for working. For some it is money, for some it is to have a purpose, and for others it is a responsibility. Knowing your own motivations and recognizing others’ will give you the greatest chance for aligning resources to get things done!
When assessing your strengths and weaknesses, have you uncovered a passion? Is there something that keeps you up at night? Is there a cause or a benefit for the greater good that you are passionate about? It might be a product, service, or a personal strength that you have tapped into. If you know what you’re passionate about, you are one of the lucky ones. Harness this knowledge and apply it. That doesn’t mean you need to own a business. I am an entrepreneur and I know entrepreneurship is a passion of mine. Owning a business is not for everyone, and you can use your strengths in other pursuits to become a force to be reckoned with supporting another company. Knowing what you are passionate about is half the battle; finding some way to utilize your strengths is the second part.
Failure doesn’t keep us from success; fear of failure does. I don’t care how old you get or how much knowledge you gain—fear is still there and is a very real thing. It is something you just have to learn to control. Experience, knowledge, and a support team will help you lessen those fears. I want to be frank when I say this: the reality is that you might fail. You might have already failed. I have started companies that have been nothing shy of mediocre. Failure is part of success, and you only truly fail if you give up. But which is worse: trying and failing, or never trying? To me the fear of never trying at all is worse! To me, chasing a dream is just as necessary as breathing oxygen! I don’t feel fully alive or purposeful if I am not reaching for my calling and I believe we all have a calling to be someone and make an impact!
Kristy Dickerson, keynote speaker, businesswoman, and active CEO and co-founder of STARTplanner, has devoted her life to providing hope for individuals who are looking to achieve balance, success, and happiness within their own lives. She is the author of Start Balancing http://ift.tt/2zBNm0g
You’ve read What Are You Bad At?, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
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Sig Nordal 