The Surprising Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Hobbies

 

Hobbies are an integral part of life, but they’re far more influential to our health and well-being than most people realize. Having hobbies has been linked to positive physical and mental health, encouraging productive self-development, improving mood, and increasing overall life satisfaction. This is due to the skills and personal qualities that hobbies develop, such as self-expression, creativity, and relaxation. 

Many motivational professionals – like Imad Ghennouni, an advocate of using hobbies to de-stress and aid personal development – emphasize the importance of having hobbies. For the average person, hobbies are seen as a way to indulge personal interests and socialize with others, but the physical and mental health benefits are incredibly rewarding. 

As Imad Gennouni is well aware, hobbies aren’t a quick fix or a substitute for proper mental health care, but they do help to encourage positive mental attitudes and make negative thoughts and emotions easier to manage. They provide a private, creative outlet to do things that make us happy, which can lower stress levels, increase confidence, and promote relaxation and mindfulness. 

Some of the best hobbies for improved mental health include: 

·       Cooking

·       Taking walks outdoors

·       Painting or drawing

·       Journaling your thoughts and feelings

·       Listening to music

·       Reading 

Physical hobbies have long been touted as beneficial for general health because they involve movement and exertion, but their benefits run deeper than simply encouraging physical activity. Engaging in regular exercise is an excellent way to manage and reduce the likelihood of developing several health problems, including high blood pressure, stroke, arthritis, and Type 2 diabetes. An increase in physical movement also promotes strength and energy, as well as improving sleep patterns. 

Some of the most accessible and fun physical hobbies include: 

·       Swimming

·       Taking walks

·       Aerobics and dancing

·       Jogging

·       Local team sports, like football

·       Hiking 

Leisure time is crucial to self-development because it offers free periods of time for individuals to relax, recharge, and pursue the hobbies that interest and benefit them. Long working hours, financial obligations, and running a household leave very little time for personal care, so hobbies become a healthy physical and mental coping mechanism. 

Ultimately, hobbies are about passion, creativity, and enjoyment. Having outlets that keep your brain and body active and engaged encourages personal growth and gives you something positive to look forward to. Life can be stressful and demotivating, so having a hobby can make a world of difference to your physical and mental states.

The Importance of Career Planning and Progression For Professional Success

 

Career success is often defined as achieving a high-paying corporate position in a company with a strong industry profile. However, without in-depth career planning that takes into account an individual’s personal and professional needs, true success is unattainable. Many people simply pick a career in an industry that they think will make them successful, which makes it harder for them to set realistic goals and be happy with their professional development. 

The labor market is constantly evolving, so it’s each individual’s responsibility to ensure their own professional success as new talent emerges. Career planning is essential for progression within a workplace and the overall workforce. Those who understand the corporate world – like Imad El Atiki El Ghennouni Mohammed, a motivational speaker who specializes in professional development – promote career planning and progression techniques to help other move towards success. 

These techniques include: 

·       Improving skills through regular training

·       Networking within the industry

·       Setting a series of progressive targets to hit

·       Utilizing both praise and criticism

·       Meeting with a manager to discuss progress 

All of these techniques can be incorporated into an all-encompassing career plan that charts goals, achievements, and setbacks to provide clear directions for career progression. It’s crucial to develop in order to reap the rewards of your labor, which include an increased salary, a specialist skill set, and a renewed sense of professional purpose. The more an individual progresses, the more likely they are to unlock new avenues within the corporate world that can lead to greater success in the future. 

One of the most popular long-term career plans is the five-year plan because it provides plenty of scope for development and realistic milestones to hit. It’s beneficial to evaluate your career annually, but many people get stuck deciding what to do next. With a five-year plan, goals are established well in advance and can be modified afterward. 

A successful five-year plan for career development requires an individual to determine:

 

·       What they are passionate about

·       How their workplace serves them

·       What their skills are

·       What they need to learn

·       What they hope to achieve

 

Professional success is something that each individual – including Imad El Ghennouni – must define for themselves. Career planning and progression involve taking advantage of opportunities, seeking advice, setting goals, and stepping out of your comfort zone. A person who can incorporate all of those things into a long-term career plan is more likely to be content with their career progression and achieve corporate success.

 

Preparing for Public Speaking: How to Keep an Audience Engaged

 

Keeping the audience engaged is absolutely essential for successful public speaking. Fortunately, there are plenty of things speakers can do to connect with their listeners and keep their attention for the duration of a presentation.

Understand the Audience

The first step in keeping an audience engaged is understanding your listeners, including their interests, knowledge, and experiences. This allows the speaker to use specific, concrete examples in their speech that “talk” to their listeners, deploy meaningful statistics, and define unfamiliar terms. Audience involvement can be built when the speaker makes their subject personal, local, and immediate, by referring to listeners’ experiences as well as their own, and highlighting a local angle such as a place, person, or event that will have relevance to the specific audience.

Start Strong

Great public speakers grab their listeners’ attention from the beginning with a strong opening. This could be achieved by sharing an interesting story, an arresting fact, a question for the audience to consider, or a comment that fires the imagination. Some speakers like to begin speaking to their audience as they’re walking to the microphone, rather than waiting to arrive “on the spot” to start talking. This can eliminate the sort of gap or hesitation which can undermine audience engagement at the very beginning of a presentation.

Introduce Interactive Elements

Seasoned professional motivation speakers such as Imad Atiki El Ghennouni Mohammed understand that interactive elements can also boost audience engagement and prevent listeners’ attention from wandering. Asking rhetorical questions at planned points throughout the speech and having a question-and-answer session at the culmination are easy ways to make a talk more interactive. A simple ice-breaker activity at the beginning of the speech can also be helpful.

Use Clear Language

Using clear, concise language is vital to maintain audience engagement. To this end, speakers should avoid vague pronoun references and constructions like “the former” or “the latter” which require listeners to think back and try to remember a certain part of the speech. When planning their presentation, the speaker would do well to ask themselves whether, without text to look back over, they would understand all the references made in the speech, even if they heard it just once – i.e., is the language clear to the ear?

Create a Great Conclusion

Finally, effective and engaging public speeches always feature a great conclusion that provides a summary and serves to reinforce the most important takeaway elements. When closing, the speaker should try to create a sense of finality, perhaps by returning to an anecdote offered at the speech’s beginning or looking to the future.