I’m enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I hope you are enjoying reading them. You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.
Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 55…
Stand or sit up straight. Don’t slouch. Your mother was right. Good posture is important. It makes you look self confident.
Several years ago when she was Secretary of State, Madeline Albright delivered the commencement address at Wellesley College. She concluded her remarks by saying, “congratulations, good luck, and remember to always sit up straight.” Great career advice if you ask me.
Good posture not only makes you appear to be self confident, it helps your self confidence. When you stand or sit up straight, other people see you as confident, ethical, straightforward, awake, alert and alive – a winner. You feel more self confident when you stand up or sit up straight.
I turned on one of the games in recent the NBA Finals a couple of weeks ago. It was late in the game, and they were showing the benches. I knew who was winning just by looking at the players and coaches. The Lakers were winning that game. They were sitting straight and had big smiles on their faces. The Celtics, on the other hand, were slumped down on their bench. The contrast was striking, and it makes a great career success point. Winners sit and stand up straight.
In the post on Success Tweet 53, I mentioned Debra Benton’s book, Executive Charisma. Debra has some things to say about good posture too…
“Good posture shows confidence, vitality, discipline and youthfulness. Slumped posture implies fright, insecurity, lack of self-acceptance or self control, lack of self discipline, a loser, sheepishness, shame and guilt. To stand tall and straight is to have a demeanor that says, ‘I expect acceptance.’”
I don’t know about you, but I prefer others to think of me as confident, vital and disciplined; not as frightened, insecure and shameful.
Debra offers the following advice on how to stand and sit tall and straight…
“Lift up, suck in and breathe. Whether you’re sitting or standing, for good posture: 1) pull yourself up by lifting your rib cage away from your pelvis; 2) roll your shoulders back and down; 3) pull your stomach in at the belly button toward your spine; 4) breathe; and 5) maintain the posture and keep breathing…Don’t just read these recommendations and think ‘It’s not that important,’ or ‘I do it fine already,’ or ‘I’ll try it later.’ Stop right now and take yourself through these movements.”
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people have good posture. They follow the career advice in Tweet 55 in Success Tweets. “Stand or sit up straight. Don’t slouch. Your mother was right. Good posture is important. It makes you look self confident.” This is important career advice. Your vibe tells people a lot about you. When you slouch, you give off a defeated, unconfident vibe. When you sit up and stand up straight, you give off a winner’s vibe — that of a confident, poised successful person. And standing up and sitting up straight will make you feel more self confident.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 55 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Do us a favor and take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading. I really appreciate it.
Bud
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