It's All About the Ethos Baby

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are a way to persuade people in an argument. Aristotle coined these terms and I wish to speak about ethos. Ethos has to deal with your credibility and how people perceive you. So the question is, how do people perceive you? Where does your credibility come from? It can be broken down into three categories: how you spend your time, how you treat others, and how you treat yourself.

How you spend your time: 24 hours in a day, 8 of which should be taken up by sleeping. That leaves you 16 hours to make a difference. What do you do with your time? There is always that struggle between personal development and service to others. For college students, it seems like most of the time is taken up by studying, working, and trying to have some type of social life. Very little time goes to serving others. And why? Shouldn't that be a higher priority? So the next time you go to watch Netflix for hours or want to play video games, think of all the productive things you could be doing. Read a book, watch a TED talk, go play a sport.

How you treat others: Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great." People notice how you treat others. Be kind, refrain from judging quickly, and always have a smile on, even to those that wrong you. It is something I am trying to work on and need to do better. 

How you treat yourself: You are your biggest fan. Sound narcissistic? Probably. But really, think about it, the way you view yourself and the confidence you have to achieve and to change the world, however small it may be will greatly affect how others view you, how credible they think you are.

Ethos. Develop it through these three things and you will be viewed as a more credible source of information. Cheers! 

Be You. But Better.

This week was a fulfilling and energizing one. We had a final group presentation and individual presentations, which, were awesome. There is nothing like working together as a group and feeling like you crushed your project. 

It was my personal presentation about business dress that got me thinking about how we see ourselves and how people see us. That tied with the thoughts from conference about not living a double life inspired the following thoughts. 

Of course, there is much more to a person than the way they dress, but that is the first thing people see. And I strongly believe that people dress the way that they are. Their clothes express their personality. So if you feel tempted to wear a pair of sweats to school everyday, look yourself in the mirror and say, "I am not in a Tae-bo workout video, put on some pants, and go have a killer day." That right there will change your mood and your lookout on life. Have confidence. Say hi to people, compliment random people, give someone a hug because hugs are the perfect remedy for any school day blues. 

As I have thought about this, employers will be attracted to those that are charismatic. I have been obsessed about traits of charismatic people lately. Being a ray of sunshine in someone's day sounds like a good gig, why not try it. Doing this will spread to other areas of your life. That is something I have realized this week and it is making me want to be better in my studies, relationships with friends and family, the whole kit and caboodle.

So try it, be that contagious happiness that you're looking for.