 |
Every year I make the same New Year’s resolution, which is not to make any resolutions. I blow them by February anyway. Here’s an idea for the new year that doesn’t leave me feeling bad about myself. I pick a word for the year. It’s a guiding star, kind of a Star of Bethlehem for the wise person I aspire to be. |
Archive for the ‘Conversation Questions’ Category
Screw New Year’s Resolutions. Do This Instead.
Monday, January 4th, 2010New Year’s Party Conversation Questions
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 |
Here are some New Year’s conversation questions to start conversations and keep them going.
If you’re staying home and keeping the dog company, it’s the perfect time to assess where you’ve been and to chart your course for the new year. |
- What 3 words (more…)
Simple Advice for Parents Trying to Raise Happy, Healthy Daughters
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
A criminologist who has spent decades studying the lives of girls and women who end up in prison has some simple advice for parents trying to raise happy, healthy daughters: Listen.
"We need to listen to our daughters, not just talk to our daughters. That what girls tell us," said University of Hawaii professor Meda Chesney-Lind. "They want to be heard. Parents think they are talking with their daughters, when they’re really talking at their daughters." [from the opening 2 paragraphs in Friday's Star-Bulletin story by writer Christine Donnelly.]
My stepfather listened to me. Maybe that’s why I loved him so much. We traded stories: he and his brothers dumped a nest of mice (more…)
A Great Source of Conversation Topics
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Do you love to learn? At home? At your own pace? Do you love to talk about what you learn?
Then scoot on over to (more…)
4 Conversation Questions Help You Teach More Effectively
Friday, September 25th, 2009Today I’m borrowing a post from online information marketer Alex Mandossian. He’s sharing the 4 conversation questions that guided his 1,200 tele-interviews. I see another practical application for these great questions.
Not many people get interviewed, but lots of us teach or train others. It could be as informal as helping the kids with their homework or coaching their soccer team. It could be as formal as writing an office manual or teaching our employees to give good customer service.
As you read Alex’s blog post (below) about how to (more…)
How to Build Confidence and Meet People
Monday, September 14th, 2009 |
by Tracey E. Bennett, Queen of Conversation How do you build confidence and meet people? Volunteer. You get to schmooze with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. I was a speaker host at the Hawaii Writers Conference. One evening the authors were doing a mass book signing. |
Picture them at tables on the lanai of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, overlooking Diamond Head and the ocean.
What was missing in this scenic view? (more…)
The Hawaii Writers Conference Sparks Good Conversation Starters for Your Conference or Group
Thursday, September 10th, 2009 |
What a great Labor Day weekend! How did you spend your time off? Did you do something fun? (That’s a good conversation starter, by the way, because it invites the sharing of personal information.) For the third year in a row, I volunteered at the Hawaii Writers Conference, (the weekend formerly known as the Maui Writers Conference). |
Ahhh! 4 days of bliss for everyone who loves writing, books and movies. That would be me and 700 of my dearest writer friends. (more…)
Good Campfire Conversation Questions
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
 |
I spent the weekend camping with old friends. When we weren’t surfing, playing cards and Mexican train, cooking, or discussing the merits of feeding the wild chickens, we circled round the campfire or coffee cups and talked story. |
Here are some good conversation questions we chewed on: (more…)
3 Kinds of Conversations: How to Ask for Help
Monday, August 3rd, 2009 |
There are three kinds of conversations:
This is a true story about a close encounter of the third kind. It’s one thing to talk to the universe, and another to get a reply. |
How Patch Adams Learned to Talk to Anyone
Monday, July 27th, 2009 |
In the movie Patch Adams, Robin Williams plays a larger-than-life doctor who combines medicine with caring, silliness, and giggles. I never met Patch, but I know someone who has — Greg Tamblyn — and he wrote about it in his delightful book Atilla the Gate Agent: Travel Tales & Life Lessons from a Musical Laf-ologist. |