Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Key to a Better Life

Time management is basically about being focused. The Pareto Principle also known as the ’80:20 Rule’ states that 80% of efforts that are not time managed or unfocused generates only 20% of the desired output. However, 80% of the desired output can be generated using only 20% of a well time managed effort. Although the ratio ’80:20′ is only arbitrary, it is used to put emphasis on how much is lost or how much can be gained with time management.

Some people view time management as a list of rules that involves scheduling of appointments, goal settings, thorough planning, creating things to do lists and prioritizing. These are the core basics of time management that should be understood to develop an efficient personal time management skill. These basic skills can be fine tuned further to include the finer points of each skill that can give you that extra reserve to make the results you desire.

But there is more skills involved in time management than the core basics. Skills such as decision making, inherent abilities such as emotional intelligence and critical thinking are also essential to your personal growth.

Personal time management involves everything you do. No matter how big and no matter how small, everything counts. Each new knowledge you acquire, each new advice you consider, each new skill you develop should be taken into consideration.

Having a balanced life-style should be the key result in having personal time management. This is the main aspect that many practitioners of personal time management fail to grasp.

Time management is about getting results, not about being busy.

The six areas that personal time management seeks to improve in anyone’s life are physical, intellectual, social, career, emotional and spiritual.

The physical aspect involves having a healthy body, less stress and fatigue.

The intellectual aspect involves learning and other mental growth activities.

The social aspect involves developing personal or intimate relations and being an active contributor to society.

The career aspect involves school and work.

The emotional aspect involves appropriate feelings and desires and manifesting them.

The spiritual aspect involves a personal quest for meaning.

Thoroughly planning and having a set of things to do list for each of the key areas may not be very practical, but determining which area in your life is not being giving enough attention is part of time management. Each area creates the whole you, if you are ignoring one area then you are ignoring an important part of yourself.

Personal time management should not be so daunting a task. It is a very sensible and reasonable approach in solving problems big or small.

A great way of learning time management and improving your personal life is to follow several basic activities.

One of them is to review your goals whether it be immediate or long-term goals often.

A way to do this is to keep a list that is always accessible to you.

Always determine which task is necessary or not necessary in achieving your goals and which activities are helping you maintain a balanced life style.

Each and everyone of us has a peek time and a time when we slow down, these are our natural cycles. We should be able to tell when to do the difficult tasks when we are the sharpest.

Learning to say “No”. You actually see this advice often. Heed it even if it involves saying the word to family or friends.

Pat yourself at the back or just reward yourself in any manner for an effective time management result.

Try and get the cooperation from people around you who are actually benefiting from your efforts of time management.

Don’t procrastinate. Attend to necessary things immediately.

Have a positive attitude and set yourself up for success. But be realistic in your approach in achieving your goals.

Have a record or journal of all your activities. This will help you get things in their proper perspective.

These are the few steps you initially take in becoming a well rounded individual.

As the say personal time management is the art and science of building a better life.

From the moment you integrate into your life time management skills, you have opened several options that can provide a broad spectrum of solutions to your personal growth. It also creates more doors for opportunities to knock on.

The One Question To Ask Yourself To Avoid A Lifetime Of Hell And Grief

Are You Making The Right Choices In Your Life?

You are what you are and where you are because of countless choices that you’ve made during your lifetime. Each choice has an influence, however slight, upon your path in life. You can choose to be cheerful, or you can choose to be gloomy. You can choose to be rude, or you can choose to be courteous. You can choose to love your neighbor, or you can choose to hate your neighbor. You can choose to be sober, or you can choose to be drunk. You can choose to be an asset to society, or you can choose to be a detriment to society. You can choose to eat sensibly, or you can choose to indulge in unhealthy eating habits. You can choose to be prosperous, or you can choose to be broke. You can even choose to be mentally healthy, or you can choose to literally destroy your sanity. When you understand that every choice has an end result, you place yourself in a position to become successful in every area of your life. Each choice that you make takes you either toward what you want in life or away from your heart’s desire.

Taking Inventory: You are where you are right now because of the choices you have already made, so taking at look at the past helps you understand the true impact that choices have on your life. You should take inventory of everything you have and everything you’ve done that has any significance. These things happened because of a series of choices that were made for you as a child and by you as you matured.

Asking yourself a question: What do you really want out of life? Reflecting on that question can save you an enormous amount of time and heartache. An extremely high percentage of college graduates end up in a field unrelated to what they majored in, which leads me to think that most people wander through their childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood with no clear concept of what they want to do with their lives. Many people pursue goals that are set or influenced by someone else, but pursuing those goals, if they aren’t also your goals, doesn’t produce maximum satisfaction or significant accomplishments.

The beginning point for the momentous undertaking of figuring out what you want from life is a note pad, a quiet spot, and time to ponder the question at length. Think along the lines of “If I were absolutely certain that I wouldn’t fail, and if I had all the resources necessary to get there, what would I really want to be, have, or do?” Let your imagination run wild, and permit no judgment to follow the impulses that you put on that piece of paper. Don’t use money as your yardstick, but don’t eliminate it as a desirable goal. Money is frequently the result of performance and service, but making money your prime goal influences other choices to a large degree.

Addressing Anger Management For Kids In Creative Ways

It can be easy to loose your patience when dealing with an especially unruly or angry child, but in doing so you are really just reinforcing the child’s angry behavior. You can use some fun ways to get the child to see the excessive nature of their own anger, instead of reacting with anger

Although in especially heated situations this may be a struggle, the faster you can get the child to release their anger, the quicker you can diffuse the situation and have an efficient conversation. Contrary to anger management for adults, anger management for kids is less restrictive. With Kids, it is possible to use more imaginative techniques.

First step: Point Out the Obvious

If your child is reacting in a ridiculously angry way, point it out calmly. You should not tease your child about it, but make them understand how silly it is to rave and rant. Pretend their words are blowing you over or make an exaggerated face of surprise in return. Make your message clear, but your reaction light hearted. Because kids don’t have the same social experience as adults to pick up on small nuances, you don’t need to be subtle in addressing anger management for kids. If their anger doesn’t break down yours, you will be able to break down the walls the child has erected around their emotions.

Second step: Create Space

If the child is still not responding to your efforts even if you’ve reacted light-heartedly and calmly, there is no harm in expressing your inability to deal with the child in their angry state, and then just walking away. If the child runs screaming after you after using this technique, calmly remind he or she that you can only speak with them when they have calmed down, and do not react to them until their anger has subsided. You’ll know that you have been effective in driving home your message if the child understands that they have to work past their anger in order to get your attention. If you are consistent in your message, the child will learn quickly how to cope with his or her own anger.

If you can remember how frustrating it felt to be a child and to want to be heard, you’ll hold the key to anger management for kids. In the case of anger management for kids, it is less a symptom of underdevelopment, as it may be in adults, and more a lesson that has not yet been learned. The best teachers are not necessarily the strictest. When dealing with anger management for kids, remember that the best teachers are the ones who can see past the child’s surface reaction to the little person inside who’s begging for help.

Your Last Resort: Stop Smoking Pill

As we always see on cigarette packs, “Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health.” This is a notice that is commonly disregarded by smokers. Without even reading this notice, they just tear open the cigarette pack, grab a stick, and light it as if they don’t want to see the glaring truth in front of it. Unfortunately, the warning stated on this package is very true. Cigarette smoking is one of the leading causes of death. As a matter of fact, 440,000 people in the United States die each year because of illnesses caused by this bad habit.

Fortunately, a lot of people have become aware of what smoking can do to their health and have made attempts to quit. Unfortunately, because of a substance called nicotine that is found in cigarettes, many people find it difficult to resist their cravings for the “high” that this substance can give. The good news is that there are now aids for smokers who want to quit. They can try chewing a nicotine gum or putting on a nicotine patch. These are two of the types of nicotine replacement therapy wherein the craving for the pleasurable feelings is quenched by the content of these gums and patches, taking away the need for a stick of cigarette. But, since this method is not always effective, a new option has been added: the stop smoking pill.

A New Use for an Anti-depressant

Zyban is a stop smoking pill that causes a sustained release of bupropion hydrochloride, the same substance found in the anti-depressant, Wellbutrin SR. This stop smoking pill boosts the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the body, giving the user the same pleasurable feeling that is induced by the nicotine found in tobacco. These pills should be taken a week before a smoker starts to quit smoking in order to combat the withdrawal symptoms that usually haunt quitters.

Although Zyban is more effective than other anti-depressants in this aspect, it has some side effects that doctors should warn their patients about before prescribing this solution. It has been proven to cause depression in users and can increase suicidal tendencies.

The New Stop Smoking Pill

Another stop smoking pill was approved by the FDA last May. Varenicline was proven to help more than one out of five smokers to stop smoking after using it for a year. This pill works by inhibiting the feelings of pleasure that smokers feel when they light up a cigarette. This stops them from associating the wonderful feeling with a stick of cigarette that they usually crave for when they are under stress, cutting off their dependency to it.

Now available under the name of Chantix, this drug should be taken twice a day for a minimum of twelve weeks in order to stop a person from lighting up a cigarette. A side effect of this stop smoking pill is said to be nausea and vomiting.

Because of the side effects that can be caused by these two stop smoking pills, they are usually considered as a last resort for people who would like to quit smoking. And for those who plan to use Zyban to quit smoking, perhaps it should be coupled with exercise in order to decrease the dependency on that medication. Exercise, after all, can hasten the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine in the body, giving a person the same high feeling that these pills can provide.

Understanding The Different Dream Archetypes

The word archetype is actually derived from the Latin and Greek languages, but the world of psychiatry, particularly the work of Carl Jung, is what brought the word into common usage.

Simply stated, an archetype is a prototype, or an original model. An archetype can also be used to mean the ideal example of a type.

Carl Jung used the word archetype to mean an instinct pattern of thought or imagery that was derived from collective experience. Jung believed in the existence of the collective unconscious that is that people are born knowing things learned from their ancestors.

There are several archetypes used in dream interpretation.

One of the most common of these archetypes is that of the child.

The child is quite a common symbol in dreams, and it is probably the most easily recognized archetypes. After all, everyone can remember what it was like to be a child the freedom of being a child, the unconditional love received from parents, the laughter and the innocence of the imagination.

In the world of dreams, the child reminds us of our past and our childhood. Dreams involving children, or dreaming of ourselves as children, often symbolizes an unconscious desire to go back to a simpler time. People in need of unconditional love often dream of being children or being surrounded by children.

Every psychology student is familiar with the concept of the inner child, the part of everyone that refuses to grow up, and is constantly in need of encouragement, comfort and unconditional love.

There are several other child archetypes and metaphors, and one of the most powerful of these is the Divine Child. The Divine Child archetype is often encountered in mythology, and there are examples of the Divine Child in almost every major religion and belief system in the world. This worldwide appearance is one of the hallmarks of a true archetype.

The Wounded Child, like the Divine Child, is also an archetype that is seen in cultures and religions all over the world. The wounded child archetype is most closely associated with children who have been neglected or abused. Dreaming of a wounded child, or dreaming of yourself as a wounded child, is often the manifestation of a desire for a loving, wonderful childhood.

In addition, the Wounded Child archetype may appear when you are facing something that reminds you of being a Wounded Child. For instance, being blamed for something you did not do at work can take you back to the times a parent treated you unfairly. Therefore, such a negative event in the workplace could trigger the appearance of the Wounded Child archetype in a dream.

There is no question that children are powerful dream symbols, and dreams about children can have many interpretations. When interpreting any dream, it is always important to consider the context of the dream, and to take it into account when examining the dream.

Recurring dreams involving children can have their own meanings as well, and they can often be triggered by memories of childhood. Often a return to a hometown, a grade school reunion, or running into a childhood friend you have not seen in years, can trigger dreams of being a child again. These types of dreams are among the most common in the world of dream interpretation.

Using Condolence Poems in Eulogies or Condolence Letters

Death is not an easy subject for anyone to discuss or cope with. Often your emotions are so stirred up that it can be very difficult to come up with words of condolence for those that need them. Sometime you find yourself not saying anything at all and that can be even worse than saying the wrong thing. Poems can be the perfect way to get across what you want to say. Memorial service poems can actually put everyone more at ease during a funeral or memorial service.

Grieving family and friends want others to remember their loved one’s life and acknowledge them. Seeing a life celebrated and hearing words of sympathy and celebration from others often helps them move through their own grief journey. The right memorial service poetry can really set the mood for the whole ceremony. Written words can be much more effective than spoken condolences at reaching a grieving person’s heart. Simple and soothing words acknowledging a loss, accompanied by a meaningful sympathy or condolence poem can touch a heart like nothing else can.

Having a memorial poem or poetry to look back upon can really be an emotional strengthener. A poem can be about the life of the one who has passed or just kind words. The memorial poem could be about an event in the loved one’s life or just loving words of a close friend. Often these mementos are kept for many years, framed for the family or left at the gravesite as a reminder of the deceased.

There are numerous memorial service, condolence and sympathy poems written and easily available. Poems ranging from heartfelt and sad to lighthearted and even funny have been written by amateur and professional poetry writers to put words to the feelings that are expressed after someone has died. If you are asked to speak at a memorial or funeral service and are having a difficult time writing down how this loss has made you or the family feel, consider including a poem in your tribute.

To add a poem to your eulogy or condolence letter, first you must consider who the person was and what they would have appreciated or enjoyed read. If the person who passed enjoyed the outdoors, maybe a memorial poem with colorful forest or nature-like imagery would speak to the audience, and properly pay tribute to the lost loved one. If the deceased was a practical joker or light-hearted individual, maybe a poem that incorporates a bit of humor would remind their family of what a happy spirit that individual was.

Look at your local bookstore for poetry books that have memorial or condolence poems included or search online for posted poetry. Poems can range in topics and styles flowery or overly-dramatic poetry is not the only option available. Many families and friends choose to write their own poems or essays about the deceased to have read at memorial services or posted on online memorial sites. This is a great way for those that are able to express their feelings on paper to do so and share those words to help heal the grief experienced by other family members as well.

Using poetry to help with grief, to express love or pain and to memorialize a friend or family member is very powerful and will be appreciated by others who have experienced a loss.

~ Ben Anton, 2008

Could You Be A Compulsive Overeater?

Compulsive overeaters are individuals who suffer from an obsession with food and a compulsion to eat despite the resulting negative effects on their physical and emotional health and well being. They eat to satisfy an emotional hunger, whether this hunger is for love, for comfort or for a sense of control over something in their life. Compulsive overeaters may be a few pounds overweight, or over a hundred pounds overweight. The defining factor is not how much they weigh, but the underlying reasons that they eat.

Compulsive overeating is one of three major eating disorders, the other two being anorexia and bulimia. Compulsive overeaters are addicted to food in the same way that alcoholics are addicted to alcohol. It is their substance of choice. Like an alcoholic, their addiction to food as a way of self-medicating to relieve stress, loneliness, emptiness or boredom, can make their lives unmanageable and result in major health problems.

Compulsive overeating is a difficult addiction to treat, because unlike addictions involving alcohol or drugs where the addict must totally abstain from these substances in order to recover, we all have to eat in order to live. Eating in moderation in order to satisfy physical versus emotional hunger becomes the challenge. People may overeat compulsively for a variety of different reasons. Obesity can be something to hide behind, like a protective fat pad. It can be a way of hiding one’s sexuality or avoiding intimacy. This is especially true for individuals who were emotionally or sexually abused as children. Eating compulsively can also be a way of stuffing feelings of rage, depression and dissatisfaction with one’s own life

Overeating results in feelings of guilt and shame, and often self-hatred. Overweight individuals are frequently the but of negative stereotypes and are often labeled as dumb, inefficient or lazy, which further damages their self-esteem. Their activities can be severely restricted. It can become difficult to participate in sports, or even to get up from a chair. Obese individuals suffer from job discrimination. They are ostracized by society and criticized by loved one’s, family and friends.

Psychotherapy (often in combination with a 12 Step Program such as Overeaters Anonymous) provides a safe, nonjudgmental environment that can help individuals in their recovery from compulsive overeating. Getting to the root causes by working through underlying emotional issues, along with helping individuals change their relationship with food and their bodies, can lead to recovery.

Trusting Abundance

How do we trust enough to trust abundance? It’s a koan or at least a dilemma. A few nights ago, a friend shared how he recently worked with his fears and limiting beliefs around money, trust, and abundance.

For six years he had been “at a loss” literally, unable to figure out why he was living in poverty while everyone around him seemed to manifest abundance so easily. A few weeks ago, he decided to stop asking why and started to simply “walk the walk” of abundance. It started with his awareness that he was out of integrity with himself and his church. His church asks its members to agree to tithe 10% of their earnings to charity. Although he had made the agreement, he had been skimping, telling himself that he didn’t have enough money for food or rent so how could he possibly give 10%?

When he confronted this, he made a decision to tithe 10% anyway, even if it meant going hungry. He made one other behavioral change to stop reinforcing his fear of lack. He stopped letting his gas tank get dangerously close to empty or even running out of gas. From the moment he stopped letting the fear of lack control him, his business began to boom. Within two weeks, he was booked with work for the next three months and has since given the overflow to other contractors.

So how do we trust enough to trust God/the Universe? This is where faith and “working in concert” come in. Faith means allowing God/the Universe to provide even though we can’t know ahead of time how things will work out. Faith is trusting, even with our fears and limiting beliefs. Working in concert means not sabotaging God/the Universe through behaviors that reinforce our fears and limiting beliefs. It means acting as if as if we have perfect faith, as if it will all work out, as if we can help ourselves and others even when we don’t see how.

This is what my friend did by tithing and by filling up his gas tank. He behaved as if his fears and limiting beliefs didn’t have to be true or run the show anymore. I acknowledge him for his hard-won mastery of trust. He is an inspiration.

The Many Benefits Of Using An Audio Book

An audio book is simply a book produced in a format that is audible. Audio books started in the Spanish language and soon blossomed into a multi-linguistic media. Many individuals and corporations use them for many reasons. You can purchase audiobooks on online store like http://spokenalliance.com

The very first audio book was produced in 1975 as a collection of short stories. The author was David S

Universal Law Series – The Law Of Expectation

This is the fifth of seven articles in our continuing series covering the core seven Universal Laws. The focus of this article is the fifth Law the Law of Expectations.

Law of Expectations

Simply stated, the Law of Expectations tells us that whatever one expects, with confidence, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When one expects with confidence that good things will happen, they usually will. If, on the other hand, one expects a negative outcome to a situation, then the outcome will usually be negative.

Our expectations play a key role in our own outcomes and they also have a remarkable effect on the people around us. What we expect from those around us determines our attitude toward them more than any other factor. In turn, the people around us tend to reflect our attitudes right back at us – whether the expectations and attitudes are positive or negative, good or bad.

Dr. Robert Rosenthal of the University of California Riverside, has spent more than 40 years studying the idea that one’s expectations for the behavior of another, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. His years of experimentation show this to be true. In his landmark book, “Pygmalion in the Classroom”, Rosenthal tells of case after case where teachers were told that a student, or sometimes a whole class, was extremely bright and was predicted to make a quantum leap in academic performance in the coming year. Even though the students were randomly chosen from the school population at large, provided the teacher believed that the student or students were exceptional and expected them to excel, the students performed at much higher levels than other students in the same or similar classes, and vastly better than could have been predicted by previous grades or behavior.

The Arbinger Institute (http://www.arbinger.com) has published a terrific book called “Leadership and Self Deception Getting out of the Box”. While the book focuses on developing superior leadership skills through being true to one’s self, they talk a lot about the way we view others and the way we expect others to act based on our own internal prejudices. They refer to this as “being inside the box in how we view others.” It is not until we choose to view others as they really are (i.e. human beings with valuable experiences, viewpoints and inputs) that we will be able to connect at a deeper level and achieve higher degrees of understanding and communication. In other words, it is not until our expectations of others change that we can change our own experiences with them.

Take a moment to think about your own expectations of yourself and those around you. Your expectations exert a powerful influence on people and events, for good or for bad, so be extremely careful!

What You Can Do

There are a few things that you can start doing immediately that will help you to harness the awesome power of the Law of Expectations:

1. Always expect the best! Assume the very best of intentions on the part of those around you. There is no better place to start than home. Tell your spouse and children on a regular basis that you believe in them, that you think they are wonderful, that you love them and that you are proud of them.

2. Practice these same behaviors with your staff and coworkers. The very best managers, entrepreneurs, and salespeople are “high expectations” people.

3. Expect the best of yourself. Focus on your unlimited potential and imagine that you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to. Imagine that your greatest moments lie ahead and that everything that has happened to you up to now has merely been a preparation for the great things that are yet to come.

There is no mystery to achieving success – it is available to all of us. One need only be aware of, understand and, most importantly, live in accordance with Universal Law! Through expecting the best of yourself and others, you can attain the levels of success that you truly want!