Eid Holiday is officially over! Now, we’re preparing for the busy routine and I think this book by Mireille Guiliano: Women, Work & The Art of Savoir Faire (you can buy this book from Amazon via Kutukutubuku.com by emailing admin at kutukutubuku.com) is one of the best to read in these times. It’s like a guide book especially for women to ‘know-how’ (savoir faire).

The writing style of the book is personal, light and page-turning. The author has succesfully written the best-selling book “French Women Don’t Get Fat” before, so we can expect the same quality in this book.

Mireille tells story about her experience as a CEO in a company. She’s opening her book by reminding us that life is lived in episodes and stages. I take it as we have to be flexible on what opportunities life can bring us. Yes we plan things, but if it’s not turned out the way we want, just twist your plan a little bit and shine.

Presentations. When doing this, make sure your slides are simple. Your presentation slides  should support you to deliver your points. Not overwhelming you instead. Check with your boss/mentor about the content and always rehearse out loud before doing it. That’s all important keys to your presentation success.

The style. You must decide how you represent yourself. She’s quoting, “If a woman is not well dressed, one notice her for the outfit, but if she’s impeccably dressed, it’s she that one notices.” If you always find it hard to think nice outfit for the day, spend the night before to think and decide which clothes you wanna wear tomorrow. It works to effectively use your morning time. You can find inspiration from websites or magazine, but it’s not neccessarily means new clothes. You can always mix & match.

To reduce stress, whenever something big happened related to opportunities, risk and decisions, breath then ask yourself: What’s the worst thing that can happen? That way you can be more relax.

Mireille also describing how good leaders should be. One of the most interesting part from this, she said a leader should have a remarkable self confidence. Don’t complicate things. A leader also have to grow thick skin. Thick-skinned leaders can always listen to criticism and learn from it when appropriate, but also understand that there will seemingly always be 20% of just plain noise, so don’t take it too personally or let it divert you from the more important foci. Don’t invest psychic or physical energy on things you can’t control; focus on the positive.

Last but not least, Mireille also suggest us to have our scheduled ‘beach time’ to find balance. Also start the day with healthy routine, I think us Muslims already done it with Fajr/Subuh Prayer 🙂

What I’ve learned from this book, French people always try to enjoy the process of every moment. They don’t rush it. They find magic in their activities. And that makes their ‘Joie de Vivre’ attitude more vibrant.

Have a fabulous day!