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Monday, December 14, 2015

You’ve been approaching gifts wrong your whole life.


Here’s how you can consistently give the perfect gift.


Tired of shopping for hours at the mall and not finding anything? Can’t think of anything surprising to give to the lovely women in your life? I’ve struggled with that too and especially during Christmas.

It’s not easy finding a gift you think someone will like and in fact surveys by the national retail federation in the US expect something between 40-50% to return at least one holiday gift every year ? Did you also know that up to a 1/3rd of people end up re-gifting gifts based on a survey by American Express ?

That’s what makes the findings from this gift-giving research so interesting. What type of present best shows that you care? Should you give them a surprising gift or just give them something that they have mentioned on their wish list? 


How to give the perfect gift


Photo : Flickr/ FutUndBeidl

The Study on Gift Giving


Researchers did a series of studies on gift giving where participants imagined either they were trying to find a present for their partners or were receiving a gift. 

Very commonly, when the majority of participants took on the role of the gift giver they believed that they should come up with a surprising gift that wasn’t on their partners wish list. The reasoning behind this is that by coming up with their own present that they think they would like, it would show that they are more thoughtful and caring and thus more appreciative. 

Turns out this isn’t true.


The Secret to the Perfect Gift

When participants take on the role of receiving the gift, they were actually more appreciative and see it as more thoughtful when you get them exactly what they requested on their wish list. That means if they share with you what they want as a present, you should get them exactly that.

That means if you don’t really need to shop for hours in the mall guessing at what you think they might like. Can’t think of something surprising to get for them? Don’t worry about it and instead focus on getting them to tell you exactly what they would like and then get it for them. 

Surprise is overrated and you’ll be rated as more thoughtful and caring and thus more appreciated if you get them the exact gift they wanted. Best of all? The research finds that this applies to non-romantic relationships as well so it doesn’t matter whether it’s your best friend or even brother or sister.


Videos on creative gift giving

If you still want to add some creativity and make your gifts more special, check out the gift section of my YouTube channel where I share simple ways you can make any gifts more amazing. Most of them won’t cost you a thing.




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Youtube Channel on Gift ideas
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhzLJZAV-UECCJAsLZNq3X-SVDOKWhXlE

CreateBonds Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/CreateBonds

To see more videos like this, visit my channel at :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1846jphp3jWutMDB_KqLog/videos

Email me for ideas or help
Steviee.vu+createbonds@gmail.com

Gift by Nicolò Bertoncin from the Noun Project
https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=present&i=105032

Research Study
Gino, F., & Flynn, F. J. (2011). Give them what they want: The benefits of explicitness in gift exchange. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 915-922Photo : 




Sunday, May 10, 2015

Public Speaking tips - Three points to help you improvise your speech

Life rarely goes according to plan and the ability to improvise can help steer you back on track. Especially on the night I was invited to be a speaker for the Kwantlen Entrepreneurial Student Association (KESA). Here are the top three public speaking tips that helped me improvise and change my pre-planned speech so that it matched the tone/expectations of the event.

Source: Bruno Belcastro

Thursday, April 2, 2015

My Personal Development Plan


The slight edge was a perspective changing book for me and can really be summarized through one key lesson. Developing a habit of consistent daily effort towards personal growth over time leads to success. With that in mind since the beginning of this year I have created my own personal development plan and this post will detail what’s been helping me achieve daily personal growth.