Sometimes the hardest thing to hear
and to Accept is a compliment.
We tend to be guarded,Possibly because
we have been hurt by words in The past.
We fight the urge to believe the praise;
It simply can't be true.
The truth is compliments should be
embraced And welcomed.
They're an intangible gift,a Confirmation
of a job well done.
Others may see Great changes happening
to you and they want to Let you know.
Respond with a smile and a simple
Thank you.
You deserve to be flattered, so accept it,
and Enjoy it!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
what is Hope?
Hope is knowing that a positive outcome awaits.
Hope is not only expecting a dream to come true,
But also having a deep assurance
That it's within your reach.
Hope is saying you can.
Hope is knowing that you can improve
And that you always get better with practice.
Hope is knowing that you can achieve your goals
Through hard work and persistence.
Hope is looking to the future with joy
And having an expectation of
Better things to come.
Hope is the knowledge that life is everlasting,
And that miracles happen every day.
Hope is something that never abandons you.
Even when your life is filled with
Sadness and disappointment,
A spark remains inside to help you
Get through the rough times.
Hope is one of God's greatest gifts to you,
Because it's the magic that inspires you
To keep trying, learning, loving, and living.
Hope is not only expecting a dream to come true,
But also having a deep assurance
That it's within your reach.
Hope is saying you can.
Hope is knowing that you can improve
And that you always get better with practice.
Hope is knowing that you can achieve your goals
Through hard work and persistence.
Hope is looking to the future with joy
And having an expectation of
Better things to come.
Hope is the knowledge that life is everlasting,
And that miracles happen every day.
Hope is something that never abandons you.
Even when your life is filled with
Sadness and disappointment,
A spark remains inside to help you
Get through the rough times.
Hope is one of God's greatest gifts to you,
Because it's the magic that inspires you
To keep trying, learning, loving, and living.
Am I Happy?
If there is any sadness I make a strong
effort to be free of it quickly,
otherwise it grows like a vine in the
rainy season:
by midday I will be confused, by evening
a whole jungle of weak, wasteful and
negative attitudes will have taken deep
roots in my mind.
The result equals chaos.
Sometimes I reach a stage where the
attitude is:
"So what if I feel the blues today?
It is my life, no one else will be affected".
Firstly, the more I allow myself to
experience sorrow, the less time I have
available to be happy and contented.
It sounds ridiculously obvious, but
am I aware of the value of happiness?
It is an extremely rare commodity,
and the cost goes sky high.
Secondly, is it my life?
Yes, I am living it, but am I not a member
of a family or a co-worker with others,
and am I not part of society?
If so, then every movement affects and
is affected by those around me.
effort to be free of it quickly,
otherwise it grows like a vine in the
rainy season:
by midday I will be confused, by evening
a whole jungle of weak, wasteful and
negative attitudes will have taken deep
roots in my mind.
The result equals chaos.
Sometimes I reach a stage where the
attitude is:
"So what if I feel the blues today?
It is my life, no one else will be affected".
Firstly, the more I allow myself to
experience sorrow, the less time I have
available to be happy and contented.
It sounds ridiculously obvious, but
am I aware of the value of happiness?
It is an extremely rare commodity,
and the cost goes sky high.
Secondly, is it my life?
Yes, I am living it, but am I not a member
of a family or a co-worker with others,
and am I not part of society?
If so, then every movement affects and
is affected by those around me.
Dont let the pain of one season destroy
Dont let the pain of one season destroy
the joy of all the rest.
Dont judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches;
And better times are sure to come.,
some time or later.
the joy of all the rest.
Dont judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches;
And better times are sure to come.,
some time or later.
Spices for diseases
Spices for diseases
COLDS
Mix a gram of dalchini/cinnamon powder with a teaspoon of honey to
cure cold. Prepare a cup of tea to which you should add ginger, clove, bay
leaf and black pepper.. This should be consumed twice a day. Reduce the
intake as the cold disappears.
GINGER FOR COLDS.
Ginger tea is very good to cure cold. Preparation of tea: cut ginger
into small pieces and boil it with water, boil it a few times and then
add sugar to sweeten and milk to taste, and drink it hot.
DRY COUGHS.
Add a gram of turmeric (haldi) powder to a teaspoon of honey for
curing dry cough. Also chew a cardamom for a long time.
BLOCKED NOSE.
For blocked nose or to relieve congestion, take a table spoon of
crushed carom seeds (ajwain) and tie it in a cloth and inhale it.
SORE THROAT.
Add a tea spoon of cumin seeds (jeera) and a few small pieces of dry
ginger to a glass of boiling water. Simmer it for a few minutes, and
then let it cool. Drink it twice daily. This will cure cold as well as
sore throat.
AJWAIN/AJMO FOR ASTHMA.
Boil ajwain in water and inhale the steam.
CURE FOR BACKACHE..
Rub ginger paste on the backache to get relief.
GARLIC FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
Have 1-2 pod garlic (lasan) first thing in the morning with water
HONEY AND GINGER FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
Mix 1 table spoon and 1 table spoon ginger (adrak) juice, 1 table
spoon of crushed cumin seeds (jeera), and have it twice daily.
MIGRAINE. .
For the cure of migraine or acute cold in the head; boil a tablespoon
of pepper powder, and a pinch of turmeric in a cup of milk, and have it
daily for a few couple of days.
BITTER GOURD/KARELA IS GOOD..
A tablespoon of amla juice mixed with a cup of fresh bitter gourd
(karela) juice and taken daily for 2 months reduces blood sugar.
TURMERIC/ ARAD CURE FOR INJURIES
For any cut or wound, apply turmeric powder to the injured portion to
stop the bleeding. It also works as an antiseptic. You can tie a
bandage after applying haldi/turmeric.
CRAMPS
You must do a self-massage using mustard oil every morning. Just take
a little oil between your palms and rub it all over your body. Then take
a shower. This is especially beneficial during winter. You could also
mix a little mustard powder with water to make a paste and apply this on
your palms and soles of your feet.
HEADACHES.
If you have a regular migraine problem, include five almonds along
with hot milk in your daily diet. You could also have a gram of black
pepper along with honey or milk, twice or thrice a day. Make an almond
paste
by rubbing wet almonds against a stone. This can be applied to forehead.
Eat an apple with a little salt on an empty stomach everyday and see
its wonderful effects. OR When headache is caused by cold winds, cinnamon
works best in curing headache. Make a paste of cinnamon by mixing in
water and apply it all over your forehead
TURMERIC
FOR ARTHRITIS.
Turmeric can be used in treating arthritis due to its
anti-inflammatory property. Turmeric can be taken as a drink other than
adding to dishes
to help prevent all problems. Use one teaspoon of turmeric powder per
cup of warm milk every day. It is also used as a paste for local action.
GOOD FOR THE HEART
Turmeric lower cholesterol and by preventing the formation of the
internal blood clots improves circulation and prevents heart disease
and stroke. Turmeric can be taken as a drink other than adding to dishes
to help prevent all problems. Use one teaspoon of turmeric powder per cup
of warm milk every day. It is also used as a paste for local action.
GOOD FOR INDIGESTION
Turmeric can be used to relieve digestive problems like ulcers,
dysentery. Turmeric can be taken as a drink other than adding to
dishes to help prevent all problems. Use one teaspoon of turmeric powder
per cup of warm milk every day. It is also used as a paste for local
action.
HONEY
HONEY IS A GOOD CURE FOR ALL DISEASES
Mix 1 teaspoon honey with 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder and have at night.
HICCUPS
Take a warm slice of lemon and sprinkle salt, sugar and black pepper
on it.. The lemon should be eaten until the hiccups stop.
HIGH BLOOD CHOLESTEROL
In 1 glass of water, add 2 tbsps of coriander/dhania seeds and bring
to a boil. Let the decoction cool for some time and then strain. Drink
this mixture two times in a day. OR Sunflower seeds are extremely
beneficial, as they contain linoleic acid that helps in reducing the
cholesterol deposits on the walls of arteries.
PILES
Radish juice should be taken twice a day, once in the morning and
then later in the night. Initially drink about ? cup of radish juice and
then gradually increase it to ? cup. OR Soak 3-4 figs in a glass of water
Keep it overnight. Consume the figs on an empty stomach, the next day
in the morning
VOMITING
Take 2 cardamoms/elachi and roast them on a dry pan (tava). Powder the
cardamoms and thereafter add a tsp of honey in it. Consume it
frequently. It serves as a fabulous home remedy for vomiting. OR In
the mixture of 1 tsp of mint juice and 1 tsp limejuice, add ? tsp of
ginger juice and 1 tsp honey. Drink this mixture to prevent vomiting. OR
Limejuice is an effective remedy for vomiting. Take a glass of chilled
limejuice and sip slowly. To prevent vomiting, drink ginger tea. OR In
1 glass water, add some honey and drink sip by sip.
WARTS
Apply castor oil daily over the problematic area. Continue for
several months. OR Apply milky juice of fresh and barely-ripe figs a
number of times a day. Continue for two weeks. OR Rub cut raw potatoes
on the affected area several times daily. Continue for at least two weeks. OR
Rub cut onions on the warts to stimulate the circulation of blood.. OR
Apply milk from the cut end of dandelion over the warts 2-3 times a
day. OR Apply oil extracted from the shell of the cashew nut over the
warts. OR Apply Papaya juice OR Apply Pineapple juice.
URINARY TRACT INFECTION
In 8 oz of water, put ? tsp of baking soda and drink it. OR Drink
plenty of water, as it aids in flushing out the waste products from the body.
OR Drink Cranberry juice. You can also add some apple juice for taste.
SINUSITIS
Mango serves as an effective home remedy for preventing the frequent
attacks of sinus, as it is packed with loads of vitamin A. OR Another
beneficial remedy consists of consuming pungent foods like onion and
garlic, as a part of your daily meals. OR Fenugreek/methi leaves are
considered valuable.
COLDS
Mix a gram of dalchini/cinnamon powder with a teaspoon of honey to
cure cold. Prepare a cup of tea to which you should add ginger, clove, bay
leaf and black pepper.. This should be consumed twice a day. Reduce the
intake as the cold disappears.
GINGER FOR COLDS.
Ginger tea is very good to cure cold. Preparation of tea: cut ginger
into small pieces and boil it with water, boil it a few times and then
add sugar to sweeten and milk to taste, and drink it hot.
DRY COUGHS.
Add a gram of turmeric (haldi) powder to a teaspoon of honey for
curing dry cough. Also chew a cardamom for a long time.
BLOCKED NOSE.
For blocked nose or to relieve congestion, take a table spoon of
crushed carom seeds (ajwain) and tie it in a cloth and inhale it.
SORE THROAT.
Add a tea spoon of cumin seeds (jeera) and a few small pieces of dry
ginger to a glass of boiling water. Simmer it for a few minutes, and
then let it cool. Drink it twice daily. This will cure cold as well as
sore throat.
AJWAIN/AJMO FOR ASTHMA.
Boil ajwain in water and inhale the steam.
CURE FOR BACKACHE..
Rub ginger paste on the backache to get relief.
GARLIC FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
Have 1-2 pod garlic (lasan) first thing in the morning with water
HONEY AND GINGER FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
Mix 1 table spoon and 1 table spoon ginger (adrak) juice, 1 table
spoon of crushed cumin seeds (jeera), and have it twice daily.
MIGRAINE. .
For the cure of migraine or acute cold in the head; boil a tablespoon
of pepper powder, and a pinch of turmeric in a cup of milk, and have it
daily for a few couple of days.
BITTER GOURD/KARELA IS GOOD..
A tablespoon of amla juice mixed with a cup of fresh bitter gourd
(karela) juice and taken daily for 2 months reduces blood sugar.
TURMERIC/ ARAD CURE FOR INJURIES
For any cut or wound, apply turmeric powder to the injured portion to
stop the bleeding. It also works as an antiseptic. You can tie a
bandage after applying haldi/turmeric.
CRAMPS
You must do a self-massage using mustard oil every morning. Just take
a little oil between your palms and rub it all over your body. Then take
a shower. This is especially beneficial during winter. You could also
mix a little mustard powder with water to make a paste and apply this on
your palms and soles of your feet.
HEADACHES.
If you have a regular migraine problem, include five almonds along
with hot milk in your daily diet. You could also have a gram of black
pepper along with honey or milk, twice or thrice a day. Make an almond
paste
by rubbing wet almonds against a stone. This can be applied to forehead.
Eat an apple with a little salt on an empty stomach everyday and see
its wonderful effects. OR When headache is caused by cold winds, cinnamon
works best in curing headache. Make a paste of cinnamon by mixing in
water and apply it all over your forehead
TURMERIC
FOR ARTHRITIS.
Turmeric can be used in treating arthritis due to its
anti-inflammatory property. Turmeric can be taken as a drink other than
adding to dishes
to help prevent all problems. Use one teaspoon of turmeric powder per
cup of warm milk every day. It is also used as a paste for local action.
GOOD FOR THE HEART
Turmeric lower cholesterol and by preventing the formation of the
internal blood clots improves circulation and prevents heart disease
and stroke. Turmeric can be taken as a drink other than adding to dishes
to help prevent all problems. Use one teaspoon of turmeric powder per cup
of warm milk every day. It is also used as a paste for local action.
GOOD FOR INDIGESTION
Turmeric can be used to relieve digestive problems like ulcers,
dysentery. Turmeric can be taken as a drink other than adding to
dishes to help prevent all problems. Use one teaspoon of turmeric powder
per cup of warm milk every day. It is also used as a paste for local
action.
HONEY
HONEY IS A GOOD CURE FOR ALL DISEASES
Mix 1 teaspoon honey with 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder and have at night.
HICCUPS
Take a warm slice of lemon and sprinkle salt, sugar and black pepper
on it.. The lemon should be eaten until the hiccups stop.
HIGH BLOOD CHOLESTEROL
In 1 glass of water, add 2 tbsps of coriander/dhania seeds and bring
to a boil. Let the decoction cool for some time and then strain. Drink
this mixture two times in a day. OR Sunflower seeds are extremely
beneficial, as they contain linoleic acid that helps in reducing the
cholesterol deposits on the walls of arteries.
PILES
Radish juice should be taken twice a day, once in the morning and
then later in the night. Initially drink about ? cup of radish juice and
then gradually increase it to ? cup. OR Soak 3-4 figs in a glass of water
Keep it overnight. Consume the figs on an empty stomach, the next day
in the morning
VOMITING
Take 2 cardamoms/elachi and roast them on a dry pan (tava). Powder the
cardamoms and thereafter add a tsp of honey in it. Consume it
frequently. It serves as a fabulous home remedy for vomiting. OR In
the mixture of 1 tsp of mint juice and 1 tsp limejuice, add ? tsp of
ginger juice and 1 tsp honey. Drink this mixture to prevent vomiting. OR
Limejuice is an effective remedy for vomiting. Take a glass of chilled
limejuice and sip slowly. To prevent vomiting, drink ginger tea. OR In
1 glass water, add some honey and drink sip by sip.
WARTS
Apply castor oil daily over the problematic area. Continue for
several months. OR Apply milky juice of fresh and barely-ripe figs a
number of times a day. Continue for two weeks. OR Rub cut raw potatoes
on the affected area several times daily. Continue for at least two weeks. OR
Rub cut onions on the warts to stimulate the circulation of blood.. OR
Apply milk from the cut end of dandelion over the warts 2-3 times a
day. OR Apply oil extracted from the shell of the cashew nut over the
warts. OR Apply Papaya juice OR Apply Pineapple juice.
URINARY TRACT INFECTION
In 8 oz of water, put ? tsp of baking soda and drink it. OR Drink
plenty of water, as it aids in flushing out the waste products from the body.
OR Drink Cranberry juice. You can also add some apple juice for taste.
SINUSITIS
Mango serves as an effective home remedy for preventing the frequent
attacks of sinus, as it is packed with loads of vitamin A. OR Another
beneficial remedy consists of consuming pungent foods like onion and
garlic, as a part of your daily meals. OR Fenugreek/methi leaves are
considered valuable.
Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water
A very good article which takes two minutes to read. I'm sending this to persons I care about....... I hope you do too!!!
Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water
This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about Heart Attacks . The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It feels nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer . It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
French fries and Burgers are the biggest enemy of heart health.
A coke after that gives more power to this demon.
Avoid them for your Heart's Health
Common Symptoms Of Heart Attack...
A serious note about heart attacks - You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting.
Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line .
You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack.
Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.
60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.
A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this message sends it to his kith & kin, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this & Send to a friend. It could save a life... So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.
Heart Attacks And Drinking Warm Water
This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about Heart Attacks . The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.
For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It feels nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this 'sludge' reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer . It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
French fries and Burgers are the biggest enemy of heart health.
A coke after that gives more power to this demon.
Avoid them for your Heart's Health
Common Symptoms Of Heart Attack...
A serious note about heart attacks - You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting.
Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line .
You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack.
Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.
60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.
A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this message sends it to his kith & kin, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life. Read this & Send to a friend. It could save a life... So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Forgiveness
"Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge." I saw this wonderful old saying again in a
book recently. It got me to thinking about all the times that I have been able
to forgive others in my life and all the joy that it has brought me. One memory
stands out particularly well. I was a young boy spending a week at 4-H camp
during the Summer. I was having a great time and enjoying everything about it
except for another young boy about my age. To say we didn’t get along would be
an understatement. We spent most of the week irritating, insulting, and picking
on each other. Words finally came to blows on the next to last day of camp. We
got into a fist fight which I lost. Thankfully, older boys broke it up before I
was hurt too much. I spent the rest of the day alone, sulking and stewing in my
own anger.
The next day my spirits were lifted, however, when my Mom brought the boys in
our cabin some of her delicious homemade pizzas. I was enjoying a few slices of
it when I saw the other boy sitting by himself at the bottom of the steps
outside. He seemed very lonely right then. I am not sure what moved me to do so,
but I took my pizza down and shared it with him. It made all the anger and pain
inside me go away. We became friends after that. I never got into another fist
fight either. I had found out that sharing and forgiving were way more fun and a
lot less painful.
Forgiveness truly is the sweetest revenge. It can turn an enemy into a friend.
It can free a heart from the chains of anger, hatred, and pain. It can open a
soul to the sweetness of love and joy once again. It can help you to live by the
Golden Rule and to create a Golden Life. It can bring you back to oneness with
God in everything you think, feel, and do. That is why I often pray, "God help
me to forgive, help me to give, and help me to love." May your life always be
full of sweet forgiveness then. May you always delight in its Heavenly charms."
book recently. It got me to thinking about all the times that I have been able
to forgive others in my life and all the joy that it has brought me. One memory
stands out particularly well. I was a young boy spending a week at 4-H camp
during the Summer. I was having a great time and enjoying everything about it
except for another young boy about my age. To say we didn’t get along would be
an understatement. We spent most of the week irritating, insulting, and picking
on each other. Words finally came to blows on the next to last day of camp. We
got into a fist fight which I lost. Thankfully, older boys broke it up before I
was hurt too much. I spent the rest of the day alone, sulking and stewing in my
own anger.
The next day my spirits were lifted, however, when my Mom brought the boys in
our cabin some of her delicious homemade pizzas. I was enjoying a few slices of
it when I saw the other boy sitting by himself at the bottom of the steps
outside. He seemed very lonely right then. I am not sure what moved me to do so,
but I took my pizza down and shared it with him. It made all the anger and pain
inside me go away. We became friends after that. I never got into another fist
fight either. I had found out that sharing and forgiving were way more fun and a
lot less painful.
Forgiveness truly is the sweetest revenge. It can turn an enemy into a friend.
It can free a heart from the chains of anger, hatred, and pain. It can open a
soul to the sweetness of love and joy once again. It can help you to live by the
Golden Rule and to create a Golden Life. It can bring you back to oneness with
God in everything you think, feel, and do. That is why I often pray, "God help
me to forgive, help me to give, and help me to love." May your life always be
full of sweet forgiveness then. May you always delight in its Heavenly charms."
20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time
20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time
Are there a hundred different things you wish you could do with your life someday anything from exercising to meditation or yoga to writing that novel you always wished you could write to reading more to relaxing and watching the sunrise? But perhaps you never have the time, like most people.
The truth is, we all have the same amount of time, and its finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days.
Its time to move from the second group back into the first. Reclaim your time. Create the life you want and make the most of the free time you lay claim to. Its not hard, though it does take a little bit of effort and diligence.
Not all of these will be applicable to your life choose the ones you can apply and give them a try:
1. Take a time out. Freeing up your time starts with taking a step back to take a good look at your life. You need to block off at least an hour. Several hours or half a day is better. A whole day would be awesome. A weekend would be even more ideal, though not necessary practical for many folks. With this block of time, take a look at your life with some perspective. Is it what youve always wanted? How would you get to where youve always wanted to be? What do you enjoy doing, but dont have enough time to do? What things actually fill up your day? Are there things you could drop or minimize to make more time? Well look at some of these things in the following items, but it starts with taking a time out to think and plan.
2. Find your essentials. What is it that you love to do? Make a short list of 4-5 things. These are the things you want to make room for.
3. Find your time-wasters. What do you spend a lot of your time on that isnt on your essential list? Take a close look at these things and really think about whether theyre necessary, or if there are ways to reduce, minimize or eliminate these things. Sometimes you do things because you assume theyre necessary, but if you give it some thought you can find ways to drop them from your life. Figure out what you do simply to waste time maybe surfing certain sites, watching TV, talking a lot at the water cooler, etc. Youre going to want to minimize these time-wasters to make room for the more important stuff, the stuff that makes you happy and that you love to do.
4. Schedule the time. As you sit down and think about your life and what you want to do, versus what you actually do, you will be looking at ways to free up time. Its crucial that you take a blank weekly schedule (you can just write it out on a piece of paper, or use your calendar) and assign blocks for the things you love the stuff on your essentials list. If you want to exercise, for example, when will you do it? Put the blocks of time on your schedule, and make these blocks the most important appointments of your week. Schedule the rest of your life around these blocks.
5. Consolidate. There are many things you do, scattered throughout your day or your week, that you might be able to consolidate in order to save time. A good example is errands instead of running one or two a day, do them all in one day to save time and gas. Another example is email, or any kind of communication batch process your email instead of checking and reading and responding throughout the day. Same thing with meetings, paperwork, anything that you do regularly.
6. Cut out meetings. This isnt possible for everyone, but in my experience meetings take up a lot of time to get across a little information, or to make easy decisions that could be made via email or phone. As much as you can, minimize the number of meetings you hold and attend. In some cases this might mean talking to your boss and telling her that you have other priorities, and asking to be excused. In other cases this might mean asking the people holding the meeting if you can get the info in other ways. If so, youve saved yourself an hour or so per meeting (sometimes more).
7. De clutter your schedule. If you have a heavily packed schedule, full of meetings and errands and tasks and projects and appointments, youre going to want to weed it out so that its not so jam-packed. Find the stuff thats not so essential and cancel them. Postpone other stuff. Leave big blank spaces in your schedule.
8. Re-think your routine. Often we get stuck in a routine thats anything but what we really want our days to be like. Is there a better way of doing things? Youre the creator of your life make a new routine thats more pleasant, more optimal, more filled with things you love.
9. Cut back on email. I mentioned email in an earlier point above, regarding consolidating, but its such a major part of most peoples lives that it deserves special attention. How often do you check email? How much time do you spend composing emails? If you spend a major part of your work day on email, as many people do (and as I once did), you can free up a lot of time by reducing the time you spend in email. Now, this wont work for everyone, but it can work for many people: choose 2-3 key times during the day to process your inbox to empty, and keep your responses to 5 sentences.
10. Learn to say no. If you say yes to every request, you will never have any free time. Get super protective about your time, and say no to everything but the essential requests.
11. Keep your list to 3. When you make out your daily to-do list, just list the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Dont make a laundry list of tasks, or youll fill up all your free time. By keeping your task list small, but populated only by important tasks, you ensure that you are getting the important stuff done but not overloading yourself.
12. Do your Biggest Rock first. Of the three Most Important Tasks you choose for the day, pick the biggest one, or the one youre dreading most, and do that first. Otherwise youll put that off as much as possible and fill your day with less important things. Dont allow yourself to check email until that Big Rock is taken care of. It starts your day with a sense of major accomplishment, and leaves you with a lot of free time the rest of the day, because the most important thing is already done.
13. Delegate. If you have subordinates or coworkers who can do a task or project, try to delegate it. Dont feel like you need to do everything yourself. If necessary, spend a little time training the person to whom youre delegating the task, but that little time spent training will pay off in a lot of time saved later. Delegating allows you to focus on the core tasks and projects you should be focusing on.
14. Cut out distractions. What is there around your workspace that distracts you from the task at hand? Sometimes its visual clutter, or papers lying around that call for your attention and action, or email or IM notifiers on your computer that pop up at the wrong time, or the phone, or coworkers. See if you can eliminate as many of these as possible the more you can focus, the more effective youll be and the less time youll waste. That equals time saved for the good stuff.
15. Disconnect. The biggest of distractions, for most people, is the Internet. My most productive times are when Im disconnected from the grid. Now, Im not saying you need to be disconnected all the time, but if you really want to be able to effectively complete tasks, disconnect your Internet so you can really focus. Set certain times of the day for connectivity, and only connect during those periods.
16. Outsource. If you cant delegate, see if you can outsource. With the Internet, we can connect with people from all over the world. Ive outsourced many things, from small tasks to checking email to legal work to design and editing work and more. That allows me to focus on the things Im best at, the things I love doing, and saves me a lot of time.
17. Make use of your mornings. I find that mornings are the absolute best times to schedule the things I really want to do. I run, read and write in the mornings three of the four things on my Essentials List (spending time with family is the other thing on the list). Mornings are great because your day hasnt been filled with a bunch of unscheduled, demanding, last-minute tasks that will push back those Essentials. For example, if you schedule something for late afternoon, by the time late afternoon rolls around, you might have a dozen other things newly added to your to-do list, and youll put off that late-afternoon Essential. Instead, schedule it for the morning, and itll rarely (if ever) get pushed back.
18. The Golden Right-after-work Time. Other than mornings, I find the time just after work to be an incredible time for doing Essential things. Exercise, for example, is great in the 5-oclock hour, as is spending time with family, or doing anything else relaxing.
19. Your evenings. The time before you go to bed is also golden, as it exists every single day, and its usually completely yours to schedule. What do you want to do with this time? Read? Spend time with your kids? Work on a hobby youre passionate about? Take advantage of this time.
20. Lunch breaks. If the three golden times mentioned above dont work for you, lunch breaks are another good opportunity to schedule things. Some people like to exercise, or to take quiet times, during their lunch breaks. Others use this time to work on an important personal goal or project.
Are there a hundred different things you wish you could do with your life someday anything from exercising to meditation or yoga to writing that novel you always wished you could write to reading more to relaxing and watching the sunrise? But perhaps you never have the time, like most people.
The truth is, we all have the same amount of time, and its finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days.
Its time to move from the second group back into the first. Reclaim your time. Create the life you want and make the most of the free time you lay claim to. Its not hard, though it does take a little bit of effort and diligence.
Not all of these will be applicable to your life choose the ones you can apply and give them a try:
1. Take a time out. Freeing up your time starts with taking a step back to take a good look at your life. You need to block off at least an hour. Several hours or half a day is better. A whole day would be awesome. A weekend would be even more ideal, though not necessary practical for many folks. With this block of time, take a look at your life with some perspective. Is it what youve always wanted? How would you get to where youve always wanted to be? What do you enjoy doing, but dont have enough time to do? What things actually fill up your day? Are there things you could drop or minimize to make more time? Well look at some of these things in the following items, but it starts with taking a time out to think and plan.
2. Find your essentials. What is it that you love to do? Make a short list of 4-5 things. These are the things you want to make room for.
3. Find your time-wasters. What do you spend a lot of your time on that isnt on your essential list? Take a close look at these things and really think about whether theyre necessary, or if there are ways to reduce, minimize or eliminate these things. Sometimes you do things because you assume theyre necessary, but if you give it some thought you can find ways to drop them from your life. Figure out what you do simply to waste time maybe surfing certain sites, watching TV, talking a lot at the water cooler, etc. Youre going to want to minimize these time-wasters to make room for the more important stuff, the stuff that makes you happy and that you love to do.
4. Schedule the time. As you sit down and think about your life and what you want to do, versus what you actually do, you will be looking at ways to free up time. Its crucial that you take a blank weekly schedule (you can just write it out on a piece of paper, or use your calendar) and assign blocks for the things you love the stuff on your essentials list. If you want to exercise, for example, when will you do it? Put the blocks of time on your schedule, and make these blocks the most important appointments of your week. Schedule the rest of your life around these blocks.
5. Consolidate. There are many things you do, scattered throughout your day or your week, that you might be able to consolidate in order to save time. A good example is errands instead of running one or two a day, do them all in one day to save time and gas. Another example is email, or any kind of communication batch process your email instead of checking and reading and responding throughout the day. Same thing with meetings, paperwork, anything that you do regularly.
6. Cut out meetings. This isnt possible for everyone, but in my experience meetings take up a lot of time to get across a little information, or to make easy decisions that could be made via email or phone. As much as you can, minimize the number of meetings you hold and attend. In some cases this might mean talking to your boss and telling her that you have other priorities, and asking to be excused. In other cases this might mean asking the people holding the meeting if you can get the info in other ways. If so, youve saved yourself an hour or so per meeting (sometimes more).
7. De clutter your schedule. If you have a heavily packed schedule, full of meetings and errands and tasks and projects and appointments, youre going to want to weed it out so that its not so jam-packed. Find the stuff thats not so essential and cancel them. Postpone other stuff. Leave big blank spaces in your schedule.
8. Re-think your routine. Often we get stuck in a routine thats anything but what we really want our days to be like. Is there a better way of doing things? Youre the creator of your life make a new routine thats more pleasant, more optimal, more filled with things you love.
9. Cut back on email. I mentioned email in an earlier point above, regarding consolidating, but its such a major part of most peoples lives that it deserves special attention. How often do you check email? How much time do you spend composing emails? If you spend a major part of your work day on email, as many people do (and as I once did), you can free up a lot of time by reducing the time you spend in email. Now, this wont work for everyone, but it can work for many people: choose 2-3 key times during the day to process your inbox to empty, and keep your responses to 5 sentences.
10. Learn to say no. If you say yes to every request, you will never have any free time. Get super protective about your time, and say no to everything but the essential requests.
11. Keep your list to 3. When you make out your daily to-do list, just list the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Dont make a laundry list of tasks, or youll fill up all your free time. By keeping your task list small, but populated only by important tasks, you ensure that you are getting the important stuff done but not overloading yourself.
12. Do your Biggest Rock first. Of the three Most Important Tasks you choose for the day, pick the biggest one, or the one youre dreading most, and do that first. Otherwise youll put that off as much as possible and fill your day with less important things. Dont allow yourself to check email until that Big Rock is taken care of. It starts your day with a sense of major accomplishment, and leaves you with a lot of free time the rest of the day, because the most important thing is already done.
13. Delegate. If you have subordinates or coworkers who can do a task or project, try to delegate it. Dont feel like you need to do everything yourself. If necessary, spend a little time training the person to whom youre delegating the task, but that little time spent training will pay off in a lot of time saved later. Delegating allows you to focus on the core tasks and projects you should be focusing on.
14. Cut out distractions. What is there around your workspace that distracts you from the task at hand? Sometimes its visual clutter, or papers lying around that call for your attention and action, or email or IM notifiers on your computer that pop up at the wrong time, or the phone, or coworkers. See if you can eliminate as many of these as possible the more you can focus, the more effective youll be and the less time youll waste. That equals time saved for the good stuff.
15. Disconnect. The biggest of distractions, for most people, is the Internet. My most productive times are when Im disconnected from the grid. Now, Im not saying you need to be disconnected all the time, but if you really want to be able to effectively complete tasks, disconnect your Internet so you can really focus. Set certain times of the day for connectivity, and only connect during those periods.
16. Outsource. If you cant delegate, see if you can outsource. With the Internet, we can connect with people from all over the world. Ive outsourced many things, from small tasks to checking email to legal work to design and editing work and more. That allows me to focus on the things Im best at, the things I love doing, and saves me a lot of time.
17. Make use of your mornings. I find that mornings are the absolute best times to schedule the things I really want to do. I run, read and write in the mornings three of the four things on my Essentials List (spending time with family is the other thing on the list). Mornings are great because your day hasnt been filled with a bunch of unscheduled, demanding, last-minute tasks that will push back those Essentials. For example, if you schedule something for late afternoon, by the time late afternoon rolls around, you might have a dozen other things newly added to your to-do list, and youll put off that late-afternoon Essential. Instead, schedule it for the morning, and itll rarely (if ever) get pushed back.
18. The Golden Right-after-work Time. Other than mornings, I find the time just after work to be an incredible time for doing Essential things. Exercise, for example, is great in the 5-oclock hour, as is spending time with family, or doing anything else relaxing.
19. Your evenings. The time before you go to bed is also golden, as it exists every single day, and its usually completely yours to schedule. What do you want to do with this time? Read? Spend time with your kids? Work on a hobby youre passionate about? Take advantage of this time.
20. Lunch breaks. If the three golden times mentioned above dont work for you, lunch breaks are another good opportunity to schedule things. Some people like to exercise, or to take quiet times, during their lunch breaks. Others use this time to work on an important personal goal or project.
Improve Your Posture for a Stress Free Life!
Improve Your Posture for a Stress Free Life!
Are you worried about looking like a hunchback? Heres a pain free and effective method for safely assuming a correct posture and improving muscle tone.
As a great side benefit, it would improve your self esteem and attitude! You will appear and feel more confident which improves your attitude and mood!
1. Know what good posture is believed to be. Most people think that to œstand up straight means tensing your back to heave your chest in and up, and pulling your head back in to your chest. This is not so. The spine has two natural curves that you need to maintain called the double or curves, these are the curves found from the base of your head to your shoulders and the curve from the upper back to the base of the spine. When standing straight up, make sure that your weight is evenly distributed on your feet. You might feel like you are leaning forward, and look stupid, but you don.
2. Using a mirror, align your ears, shoulders, and hips. Proper alignment places your ears loosely above your shoulders, above your hips. Again, these points make a straight line, but the spine itself curves in a slight . You ll find that this doesn hurt at all. If you do experience pain, look at your side view in a mirror to see if youre forcing your back into an unnatural position. If so, stop it!
3. Do exercises that strengthen the muscles across your upper back and shoulders. These do not have to be strenuous! Try the following, with or without hand weights:
* Align your ears over your shoulders. Raise both arms straight up, alongside your ears. Remember to keep your ears aligned! Bend forearms toward shoulders to touch your shoulder blades. Do 10 repetitions with both arms, then alternate 10 reps for each arm singularly.
* Align ears with shoulders. Raise both arms out to sides at shoulder length. Hold for a slow count of ten. Slowly lower arms to sides, counting ten as you lower. Slowly raise arms back to shoulder height, counting to ten as you raise arms. Do ten reps, constantly checking your alignment! If ten reps are too many to start, do as many as you can. You should at least feel a slight fatigue in the shoulder muscles.
* Be a penguin. While you wait for a web page to load, toast to pop, or the microwave to beep, place elbows at your side, and touch your shoulders with your hands. Keeping your hands on your shoulders, and your ears aligned, raise both elbows (count one, two) and lower them back to your waist (count one, two). Do as many reps as your wait allows. You’ll be surprised how much exercise fits into 30 seconds.
4. Do stretches. This can greatly help if you find that you have a sore back or neck after a while.
* Tilt (stretch) your head in all four directions over your shoulders (forward, back, left, right), and gently massage your neck. Avoid rolling in a circle, as it may cause further strain.
* On your hands and knees, curl your back upwards, like a cat, and then the opposite. Think about being able to place a bowl in the hollow of your back.
5. Repeat the exercises a few times each day. Doing them in the morning helps your body stretch out the muscle lethargy of sleep, and periodically throughout the day helps raise your energy level without a heavy workout.
6. Doing yoga is also excellent for posture. You can take a class or find a good workout video.
Sitting
1. Sit in an office chair.
2. Align your back with the back of the office chair. Avoid slouching or leaning forward, especially when tired from sitting in the office chair for long periods. Keep your shoulders straight.
3. Flex your arms at a 75 to 90 degree angle at the elbows. You may have to adjust the office chair.
4. Make sure your neck, back, and heels are all aligned.
5. Keep both feet flat on the floor. If theres a problem with feet reaching the floor comfortably, a footrest can be used along with the office chair.
Standing
1. Stand with weight mostly on the balls of the feet, not with weight on the heels. Avoid locking your knees.
2. Keep feet slightly apart, about shoulder-width.
3. Let arms hang naturally down the sides of the body.
4. Tuck the chin in a little to keep the head level. Be sure the head is square on top of the neck and spine, not pushed out forward
5. Stand straight and tall, with shoulders upright.
6. Stand against a wall with shoulders and bottom touching wall. In this position, the back of the head should also touch the wall if it does not, the head is carried too far forward (anterior head carriage).
Walking
1. Keep the head up and eyes looking straight ahead. Avoid pushing your head forward.
2. Keep shoulders properly aligned with the rest of the body.
Carrying Objects
1. Always bend at the knees, not the waist.
2. Use the large leg and stomach muscles for lifting, not the lower back.
3. If necessary, get a supportive belt to help maintain good posture while lifting.
4. When carrying a heavy or large object, keep it close to the chest.
5. If carrying something with one arm, switch arms frequently.
6. When carrying a backpack or purse, keep it as light as possible, and balance the weight on both sides as much as possible, or alternate from side to side.
Driving
1. Sit with the back firmly against the seat for proper back support. The seat should be a proper distance from the pedals and steering wheel to avoid leaning forward or reaching.
2. The headrest should support the middle of the head to keep it upright. Tilt the headrest forward if possible to make sure that the head-to-headrest distance is not more than four inches.
Sleeping
1. A relatively firm mattress is generally best for proper back support, although individual preference is very important.
2. Sleeping on the side or back is usually more comfortable for the back than sleeping on the stomach.
3. Use a pillow to provide proper support and alignment for the head and shoulders.
4. Consider putting a rolled-up towel under the neck and a pillow under the knees to better support the spine.
5. If sleeping on the side, a relatively flat pillow placed between the legs will help keep the spine aligned and straight.
A great side benefit of keeping your head straight, and your ears/shoulders/hips aligned is an improvement in your self-esteem and attitude. If you walk with your head up, you appear more confident, and feel more confident, which improves your attitude and mood, making it easier to walk with your head up.
Are you worried about looking like a hunchback? Heres a pain free and effective method for safely assuming a correct posture and improving muscle tone.
As a great side benefit, it would improve your self esteem and attitude! You will appear and feel more confident which improves your attitude and mood!
1. Know what good posture is believed to be. Most people think that to œstand up straight means tensing your back to heave your chest in and up, and pulling your head back in to your chest. This is not so. The spine has two natural curves that you need to maintain called the double or curves, these are the curves found from the base of your head to your shoulders and the curve from the upper back to the base of the spine. When standing straight up, make sure that your weight is evenly distributed on your feet. You might feel like you are leaning forward, and look stupid, but you don.
2. Using a mirror, align your ears, shoulders, and hips. Proper alignment places your ears loosely above your shoulders, above your hips. Again, these points make a straight line, but the spine itself curves in a slight . You ll find that this doesn hurt at all. If you do experience pain, look at your side view in a mirror to see if youre forcing your back into an unnatural position. If so, stop it!
3. Do exercises that strengthen the muscles across your upper back and shoulders. These do not have to be strenuous! Try the following, with or without hand weights:
* Align your ears over your shoulders. Raise both arms straight up, alongside your ears. Remember to keep your ears aligned! Bend forearms toward shoulders to touch your shoulder blades. Do 10 repetitions with both arms, then alternate 10 reps for each arm singularly.
* Align ears with shoulders. Raise both arms out to sides at shoulder length. Hold for a slow count of ten. Slowly lower arms to sides, counting ten as you lower. Slowly raise arms back to shoulder height, counting to ten as you raise arms. Do ten reps, constantly checking your alignment! If ten reps are too many to start, do as many as you can. You should at least feel a slight fatigue in the shoulder muscles.
* Be a penguin. While you wait for a web page to load, toast to pop, or the microwave to beep, place elbows at your side, and touch your shoulders with your hands. Keeping your hands on your shoulders, and your ears aligned, raise both elbows (count one, two) and lower them back to your waist (count one, two). Do as many reps as your wait allows. You’ll be surprised how much exercise fits into 30 seconds.
4. Do stretches. This can greatly help if you find that you have a sore back or neck after a while.
* Tilt (stretch) your head in all four directions over your shoulders (forward, back, left, right), and gently massage your neck. Avoid rolling in a circle, as it may cause further strain.
* On your hands and knees, curl your back upwards, like a cat, and then the opposite. Think about being able to place a bowl in the hollow of your back.
5. Repeat the exercises a few times each day. Doing them in the morning helps your body stretch out the muscle lethargy of sleep, and periodically throughout the day helps raise your energy level without a heavy workout.
6. Doing yoga is also excellent for posture. You can take a class or find a good workout video.
Sitting
1. Sit in an office chair.
2. Align your back with the back of the office chair. Avoid slouching or leaning forward, especially when tired from sitting in the office chair for long periods. Keep your shoulders straight.
3. Flex your arms at a 75 to 90 degree angle at the elbows. You may have to adjust the office chair.
4. Make sure your neck, back, and heels are all aligned.
5. Keep both feet flat on the floor. If theres a problem with feet reaching the floor comfortably, a footrest can be used along with the office chair.
Standing
1. Stand with weight mostly on the balls of the feet, not with weight on the heels. Avoid locking your knees.
2. Keep feet slightly apart, about shoulder-width.
3. Let arms hang naturally down the sides of the body.
4. Tuck the chin in a little to keep the head level. Be sure the head is square on top of the neck and spine, not pushed out forward
5. Stand straight and tall, with shoulders upright.
6. Stand against a wall with shoulders and bottom touching wall. In this position, the back of the head should also touch the wall if it does not, the head is carried too far forward (anterior head carriage).
Walking
1. Keep the head up and eyes looking straight ahead. Avoid pushing your head forward.
2. Keep shoulders properly aligned with the rest of the body.
Carrying Objects
1. Always bend at the knees, not the waist.
2. Use the large leg and stomach muscles for lifting, not the lower back.
3. If necessary, get a supportive belt to help maintain good posture while lifting.
4. When carrying a heavy or large object, keep it close to the chest.
5. If carrying something with one arm, switch arms frequently.
6. When carrying a backpack or purse, keep it as light as possible, and balance the weight on both sides as much as possible, or alternate from side to side.
Driving
1. Sit with the back firmly against the seat for proper back support. The seat should be a proper distance from the pedals and steering wheel to avoid leaning forward or reaching.
2. The headrest should support the middle of the head to keep it upright. Tilt the headrest forward if possible to make sure that the head-to-headrest distance is not more than four inches.
Sleeping
1. A relatively firm mattress is generally best for proper back support, although individual preference is very important.
2. Sleeping on the side or back is usually more comfortable for the back than sleeping on the stomach.
3. Use a pillow to provide proper support and alignment for the head and shoulders.
4. Consider putting a rolled-up towel under the neck and a pillow under the knees to better support the spine.
5. If sleeping on the side, a relatively flat pillow placed between the legs will help keep the spine aligned and straight.
A great side benefit of keeping your head straight, and your ears/shoulders/hips aligned is an improvement in your self-esteem and attitude. If you walk with your head up, you appear more confident, and feel more confident, which improves your attitude and mood, making it easier to walk with your head up.
The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make Managing Organisational performance
The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make Managing Organisational performance
Mistake #1: rely just on financial statements
Profit and loss, revenue and expenses these are measures of important things to a business. But they are information that is too little and too late. Too little in the sense that other results matter too, such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer advocacy. Too late in the sense that by the time you see bad results, the damage is already done. Wouldn't it be better to know that profit was likely to fall before it actually did fall, and in time to prevent it from falling?
Mistake #2: look only at this month, last month, year to date
Most financial performance reports summarise your financial results in four values: 1) actual this month; 2) actual last month; 3) % variance between them; and 4) year to date. Even if you are measuring and monitoring non-financial results, you may still be using this format. It encourages you to react to % variances (differences between this month and last month) which suggest performance has declined such as any % variation greater than 5 or 10 percent (usually arbitrarily set). Do you honestly expect the % variance to always show improvement? And if it doesn't, does that really mean things have gotten bad and you have to fix them? What about the natural and unavoidable variation that affects everything, the fact that no two things are ever exactly alike? Relying on % variations runs a great risk that you are reacting to problems that aren't really there, or not reacting to problems which are really there that you didn't see. Wouldn't you rather have your reports reliably tell you when there really was a problem that needed your attention, instead of wasting your time and effort chasing every single variation?
Mistake #3: set goals without ways to measure and monitor them
Business planning is a process that is well established in most organisations, which means they generally have a set of goals or objectives (sometimes cascaded down through the different management levels of the organisation) . What is interesting though, is that the majority of these goals or objectives are not measured well. Where measures have been nominated for them, they are usually something like this: Implement a customer relationship management system into the organisation by June 2006 (for a goal of improving customer loyalty) This is not a measure at all it is an activity. Measures are ongoing feedback of the degree to which something is happening. If this goal were measured well, the measure would be evidence of how much customer loyalty the organisation had, such as tracking repeat business from customers. How will you know if your goals, the changes you want to make in your organisation, are really happening, and that you are not wasting your valuable effort and money, without real feedback?
Mistake #4: use brainstorming (or other poor methods) to select measures
Brainstorming, looking at available data, or adopting other organisations' measures are many of the reasons why we end up with measures that aren't useful and usable. Brainstorming produces too much information and therefore too many measures, it rarely encourages a strong enough focus on the specific goal to be measured, everyone's understanding of the goal is not sufficiently tested, and the bigger picture is not taken into account (such as unintended consequences, relationships to other objectives/goals) . Looking at available data means that important and valuable new data will never be identified and collected, and organisational improvement is constrained by the knowledge you already have. Adopting other organizations' measures, or industry accepted measures, is like adopting their goals, and ignoring the unique strategic direction that sets your organisation apart from the pack. Wouldn't you rather know that the measures you select are the most useful and feasible evidence of your organisation's goals?
mistake
Mistake #5: rely on scorecard technology as the performance measure fix
You can (and maybe you did) spend millions of dollars on technology to solve your performance measurement problems. The business intelligence, data mining and 'scorecarding' software available today promises many things like comprehensive business intelligence reporting, award-winning data visualization, and balanced scorecard and scorecarding and an information flow that transcends organizational silos, diverse computing platforms and niche tools .. and delivers access to the insights that drive shareholder value. Wow! But there's a problem lurking in the shadows of these promises. You still need to be able to clearly articulate what you want to know, what you want to measure and what kinds of signals you need those measures to flag for you. The software is amazing at automating the reporting of the measures to you, but it just won't do the thinking about what it should report to you.
Mistake #6: use tables, instead of graphs, to report performance
Tables are a very common way to present performance measures, no doubt in part a legacy from the original financial reports that management accountants provided (and still provide today) to decision makers. They are familiar, but they are ineffective. Tables encourage you to focus on the points of data, which is the same as not seeing the forest for the trees. As a manager, you aren't just managing performance today or this month. You are managing performance over the medium to long term. And the power to do that well comes from focusing on the patterns in your data, not the points of data themselves. Patterns like gradual changes over time, sudden shifts or abrupt changes through time, events that stand apart from the normal pattern of variation in performance. And graphs are the best way to display patterns.
Mistake #7: fail to identify how performance measures relate to one other
A group of decision makers sit around the meeting room table and one by one they go over the performance measure results. They look at the result, decide if it is good or bad, agree on an action to take, then move on to the next measure. They might as well be having a series of independent discussions, one for each measure. Performance measures might track different parts of the organisation, but because organisations are systems made up of lots of different but very inter-related parts, the measures must be inter-related too. One measure cannot be improved without affecting or changing another area of the organisation. Without knowing how measures relate to one another and using this knowledge to interpret measure results, decision makers will fail to find the real, fundamental causes of performance results.
Mistake #8: exclude staff from performance analysis and improvement
One of the main reasons that staff get cynical about collecting performance data is that they never see any value come from that data. Managers more often than not will sit in their meeting rooms and come up with measures they want and then delegate the job of bringing those measures to life to staff. Staff who weren't involved in the discussion to design those measures, weren't able to get a deeper understanding of why those measures matter, what they really mean, how they will be used, weren't able to contribute their knowledge about the best types of data to use or the availability and integrity of the data required. And usually the same staff producing the measures don't ever get to see how the managers use those measures and what decisions come from them. When people aren't part of the design process of measures, they find it near impossible to feel a sense of ownership of the process to bring those measures to life. When people don't get feedback about how the measures are used, they can do little more than believe they wasted their time and energy.
Mistake #9: collect too much useless data, and not enough relevant data
Data collection is certainly a cost. If it isn't consuming the time of people employed to get the work done, then it is some kind of technological system consuming money. And data is also an asset, part of the structural foundation of organisational knowledge. But too many organisations haven't made the link between the knowledge they need to have and the data they actually collect. They collect data because it has always been collected, or because other organisations collect the same data, or because it is easy to collect, of because someone once needed it for a one-off analysis and so they might as well keep collecting it in case it is needed again. They are overloaded with data, they don't have the data they really need and they are exhausted and cannot cope with the idea of collecting any more data. Performance measures that are well designed are an essential part of streamlining the scope of data collected by your organisation, by linking the knowledge your organisation needs with the data it ought to be collecting.
mistake
Mistake #10: use performance measures to reward and punish people
One practice that a lot of organisations are still doing is using performance measures as the basis for rewarding and punishing people. They are failing to support culture of learning by not tolerating mistakes and focusing on failure. It is very rare that a single person can have complete control over any single area of performance. In organisations of more than 5 or 6 people, the results are undeniably a team's product, not an individual's product. When people are judged by performance measures, they will do what they can to reduce the risk to them of embarrassment, missing a promotion, being disciplined or even given the sack. They will modify or distort the data, they will report the measures in a way that shows a more favourable result (yes - you can lie with statistics), they will not learn about what really drives organisational performance and they will not know how to best invest the organisation's resources to get the best improvements in performance.
Mistake #1: rely just on financial statements
Profit and loss, revenue and expenses these are measures of important things to a business. But they are information that is too little and too late. Too little in the sense that other results matter too, such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer advocacy. Too late in the sense that by the time you see bad results, the damage is already done. Wouldn't it be better to know that profit was likely to fall before it actually did fall, and in time to prevent it from falling?
Mistake #2: look only at this month, last month, year to date
Most financial performance reports summarise your financial results in four values: 1) actual this month; 2) actual last month; 3) % variance between them; and 4) year to date. Even if you are measuring and monitoring non-financial results, you may still be using this format. It encourages you to react to % variances (differences between this month and last month) which suggest performance has declined such as any % variation greater than 5 or 10 percent (usually arbitrarily set). Do you honestly expect the % variance to always show improvement? And if it doesn't, does that really mean things have gotten bad and you have to fix them? What about the natural and unavoidable variation that affects everything, the fact that no two things are ever exactly alike? Relying on % variations runs a great risk that you are reacting to problems that aren't really there, or not reacting to problems which are really there that you didn't see. Wouldn't you rather have your reports reliably tell you when there really was a problem that needed your attention, instead of wasting your time and effort chasing every single variation?
Mistake #3: set goals without ways to measure and monitor them
Business planning is a process that is well established in most organisations, which means they generally have a set of goals or objectives (sometimes cascaded down through the different management levels of the organisation) . What is interesting though, is that the majority of these goals or objectives are not measured well. Where measures have been nominated for them, they are usually something like this: Implement a customer relationship management system into the organisation by June 2006 (for a goal of improving customer loyalty) This is not a measure at all it is an activity. Measures are ongoing feedback of the degree to which something is happening. If this goal were measured well, the measure would be evidence of how much customer loyalty the organisation had, such as tracking repeat business from customers. How will you know if your goals, the changes you want to make in your organisation, are really happening, and that you are not wasting your valuable effort and money, without real feedback?
Mistake #4: use brainstorming (or other poor methods) to select measures
Brainstorming, looking at available data, or adopting other organisations' measures are many of the reasons why we end up with measures that aren't useful and usable. Brainstorming produces too much information and therefore too many measures, it rarely encourages a strong enough focus on the specific goal to be measured, everyone's understanding of the goal is not sufficiently tested, and the bigger picture is not taken into account (such as unintended consequences, relationships to other objectives/goals) . Looking at available data means that important and valuable new data will never be identified and collected, and organisational improvement is constrained by the knowledge you already have. Adopting other organizations' measures, or industry accepted measures, is like adopting their goals, and ignoring the unique strategic direction that sets your organisation apart from the pack. Wouldn't you rather know that the measures you select are the most useful and feasible evidence of your organisation's goals?
mistake
Mistake #5: rely on scorecard technology as the performance measure fix
You can (and maybe you did) spend millions of dollars on technology to solve your performance measurement problems. The business intelligence, data mining and 'scorecarding' software available today promises many things like comprehensive business intelligence reporting, award-winning data visualization, and balanced scorecard and scorecarding and an information flow that transcends organizational silos, diverse computing platforms and niche tools .. and delivers access to the insights that drive shareholder value. Wow! But there's a problem lurking in the shadows of these promises. You still need to be able to clearly articulate what you want to know, what you want to measure and what kinds of signals you need those measures to flag for you. The software is amazing at automating the reporting of the measures to you, but it just won't do the thinking about what it should report to you.
Mistake #6: use tables, instead of graphs, to report performance
Tables are a very common way to present performance measures, no doubt in part a legacy from the original financial reports that management accountants provided (and still provide today) to decision makers. They are familiar, but they are ineffective. Tables encourage you to focus on the points of data, which is the same as not seeing the forest for the trees. As a manager, you aren't just managing performance today or this month. You are managing performance over the medium to long term. And the power to do that well comes from focusing on the patterns in your data, not the points of data themselves. Patterns like gradual changes over time, sudden shifts or abrupt changes through time, events that stand apart from the normal pattern of variation in performance. And graphs are the best way to display patterns.
Mistake #7: fail to identify how performance measures relate to one other
A group of decision makers sit around the meeting room table and one by one they go over the performance measure results. They look at the result, decide if it is good or bad, agree on an action to take, then move on to the next measure. They might as well be having a series of independent discussions, one for each measure. Performance measures might track different parts of the organisation, but because organisations are systems made up of lots of different but very inter-related parts, the measures must be inter-related too. One measure cannot be improved without affecting or changing another area of the organisation. Without knowing how measures relate to one another and using this knowledge to interpret measure results, decision makers will fail to find the real, fundamental causes of performance results.
Mistake #8: exclude staff from performance analysis and improvement
One of the main reasons that staff get cynical about collecting performance data is that they never see any value come from that data. Managers more often than not will sit in their meeting rooms and come up with measures they want and then delegate the job of bringing those measures to life to staff. Staff who weren't involved in the discussion to design those measures, weren't able to get a deeper understanding of why those measures matter, what they really mean, how they will be used, weren't able to contribute their knowledge about the best types of data to use or the availability and integrity of the data required. And usually the same staff producing the measures don't ever get to see how the managers use those measures and what decisions come from them. When people aren't part of the design process of measures, they find it near impossible to feel a sense of ownership of the process to bring those measures to life. When people don't get feedback about how the measures are used, they can do little more than believe they wasted their time and energy.
Mistake #9: collect too much useless data, and not enough relevant data
Data collection is certainly a cost. If it isn't consuming the time of people employed to get the work done, then it is some kind of technological system consuming money. And data is also an asset, part of the structural foundation of organisational knowledge. But too many organisations haven't made the link between the knowledge they need to have and the data they actually collect. They collect data because it has always been collected, or because other organisations collect the same data, or because it is easy to collect, of because someone once needed it for a one-off analysis and so they might as well keep collecting it in case it is needed again. They are overloaded with data, they don't have the data they really need and they are exhausted and cannot cope with the idea of collecting any more data. Performance measures that are well designed are an essential part of streamlining the scope of data collected by your organisation, by linking the knowledge your organisation needs with the data it ought to be collecting.
mistake
Mistake #10: use performance measures to reward and punish people
One practice that a lot of organisations are still doing is using performance measures as the basis for rewarding and punishing people. They are failing to support culture of learning by not tolerating mistakes and focusing on failure. It is very rare that a single person can have complete control over any single area of performance. In organisations of more than 5 or 6 people, the results are undeniably a team's product, not an individual's product. When people are judged by performance measures, they will do what they can to reduce the risk to them of embarrassment, missing a promotion, being disciplined or even given the sack. They will modify or distort the data, they will report the measures in a way that shows a more favourable result (yes - you can lie with statistics), they will not learn about what really drives organisational performance and they will not know how to best invest the organisation's resources to get the best improvements in performance.
Be at peace
You spend most of your life
Running after things, doing things.
You forget that being comes before doing.
Those who remember this secret
Make an effort to "be" and
Discover that when they stop and observe,
Life helps and brings whatever is needed.
Learning to be is learning to be at peace.
It is our most fundamental nature.
Running after things, doing things.
You forget that being comes before doing.
Those who remember this secret
Make an effort to "be" and
Discover that when they stop and observe,
Life helps and brings whatever is needed.
Learning to be is learning to be at peace.
It is our most fundamental nature.
This story touched me! I hope it touched you, too !!!
One day a young lady was driving along with her father.
They came upon a storm, and the young lady asked her father, What should I do?"
He said "keep driving". Cars began to pull over to the side, the storm was
Getting worse.
"What should I do." The young lady asked?
"Keep driving," her father replied.
On up a few feet, she noticed that eighteen wheelers were also pulling over.
She told her dad, "I must pull over, I can barely see ahead. It is
Terrible, and everyone is pulling over!"
Her father told her, "Don't give up, just keep driving!"
Now the storm was terrible, but she never stopped driving, and soon she
Could see a little more clearly. After a couple of miles she was again on
Dry land, and the sun came out.
Her father said, "Now you can pull over and get out."
She said "But why now?"
He said "When you get out, look back at all the people that gave up and are
Still in the storm, because you never gave up your storm is now over.
This is a testimony for anyone who is going through "hard times".
Just because everyone else, even the strongest, gives up. You don't have
To...if you keep going, soon your storm will be over and the sun will shine
Upon your face again.
This story touched me! I hope it touched you, too !!!
They came upon a storm, and the young lady asked her father, What should I do?"
He said "keep driving". Cars began to pull over to the side, the storm was
Getting worse.
"What should I do." The young lady asked?
"Keep driving," her father replied.
On up a few feet, she noticed that eighteen wheelers were also pulling over.
She told her dad, "I must pull over, I can barely see ahead. It is
Terrible, and everyone is pulling over!"
Her father told her, "Don't give up, just keep driving!"
Now the storm was terrible, but she never stopped driving, and soon she
Could see a little more clearly. After a couple of miles she was again on
Dry land, and the sun came out.
Her father said, "Now you can pull over and get out."
She said "But why now?"
He said "When you get out, look back at all the people that gave up and are
Still in the storm, because you never gave up your storm is now over.
This is a testimony for anyone who is going through "hard times".
Just because everyone else, even the strongest, gives up. You don't have
To...if you keep going, soon your storm will be over and the sun will shine
Upon your face again.
This story touched me! I hope it touched you, too !!!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
FamOus college Dropouts
FamOus college Dropouts
Bill Gates
Are college dropouts more successful than people with good education? It would seem so if you consider that many billionaires are people who dumped college. However, what this hides is the fact that although millions quit studies before completing them, very few of them go on to become rich.
What the list of the super-rich dropouts signifies is that in business, a top degree is not as important as having the right aptitude, attitude, determination and vision.
Here are some dropouts who went on to become billionaires:
William Henry Gates III (1955-), along with Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software maker. Bill Gates, the wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $480 crores (Rs 211,200 crore!), is probably the best-known college dropout.
Gates attended an exclusive prep school in Seattle, went on to study at Harvard University, then dropped out to pursue software development. As students in the mid-70s, he and Paul Allen wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, the first commercially successful PC.
In 1975, Micro-Soft - later Microsoft Corporation - was born. Three decades on, Gates has been Number One on the Forbes 400 for over a dozen years. And here's something you probably didn't know: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation currently provides 90 per cent of the world budget for the attempted eradication of polio.
Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (1944-), co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, founded his company in 1977 with a sum of $2,000. Once a school dropout, he is now, according to Forbes, one of the richest people in America with a net worth of around $184 crores. The figure also makes him the ninth richest in the world.
As a young man, Ellison worked for the Ampex Corporation, where one of his projects was a database for the CIA. He called it Oracle, a name he was to reuse years later for the company that made him famous.
Interestingly, the organisation' s initial release was Oracle 2. The number supposedly implied that all bugs had been eliminated from an earlier version.
Ellison is quite a colourful man, and has long dabbled in all kinds of things. Want to learn more? Try his biography, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison.
Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (1932-2002) was born into the family of a schoolteacher. It was a family of modest means. When he turned 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, working first as a gas-station attendant, then as a clerk in an oil company.
He returned to India at 26, starting a business with a meagre capital of $375. By the time of his demise, his company - Reliance Industries Ltd - had grown to become an empire, with an estimated annual turnover of $120 crores!
Dhirubhai was, in his lifetime, conferred the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century Award by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A Times of India poll in the year 2000 also voted him one of the biggest creators of wealth in this century.
Dhirubhai's is not just the usual
rags-to-riches story. He will be remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group. He is also credited with having single-handedly breathed life into the Indian stock markets and bringing in thousands of investors to the bourses.
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (1955-) and Apple Computer are names that have long gone together.
Born in the United States to an unknown Egyptian-Arab father, Jobs was adopted soon after birth. After graduating high school, he enrolled in Reed College, dropping out after one semester.
In 1976, 21-year-old Jobs and 26-year old Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Co. in the family garage. Jobs revolutionised the industry by popularising the concept of home computers.
By 1984, the Macintosh was introduced. He had an influential role in the building of the World-Wide Web, and also happens to be Chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios.
Today, with the iPod, Apple is bigger than ever. Incidentally, Jobs worked for several years at an annual salary of $1. It got him a listing in the Guinness Book as `Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer.' He was once gifted a $9 crores jet by the company though. And his net worth? Moer than $3 billion.
Michael Dell
Michael Saul Dell (1965- ) joined the University of Texas at Austin with the intention of becoming a physician. While studying there, he started a computer company in his dormitory, calling it PC's Limited. By the time he turned 19, it had notched up enough success to prompt Dell to dropout.
In 1987, PC's Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation. By 2003, Dell, Inc. was the world's most profitable PC manufacturer.
Dell has won more than his fair share of accolades, including Man of the Year from PC Magazine and EM>CEO of the Year from Financial World . Forbes, in 2005, lists him as the 18th richest in the world with a net worth of around $1600 Crores. Not bad for just another dropout.
Subhash Chandra Goel
Here's something not many people know about Subhash Chandra Goel : The Zee chairman dropped out after standard 12.
Subhash Chandra started his own vegetable oils unit at 19. It was, in a manner of speaking, his first job. Years later, a casual visit to a friend at Doordarshan gave him the idea of starting his own broadcasting company. We all know how that story ran.
Chandra knew nothing about programming, distribution or film rights. What he did understand quite well was the Indian sensibility though. Funded by UK businessmen, Zee came into being as India's first satellite TV network.
Today, it reaches 320 lakhs homes, connecting with 20 crores people in South Asia alone.
Bill Gates
Are college dropouts more successful than people with good education? It would seem so if you consider that many billionaires are people who dumped college. However, what this hides is the fact that although millions quit studies before completing them, very few of them go on to become rich.
What the list of the super-rich dropouts signifies is that in business, a top degree is not as important as having the right aptitude, attitude, determination and vision.
Here are some dropouts who went on to become billionaires:
William Henry Gates III (1955-), along with Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software maker. Bill Gates, the wealthiest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $480 crores (Rs 211,200 crore!), is probably the best-known college dropout.
Gates attended an exclusive prep school in Seattle, went on to study at Harvard University, then dropped out to pursue software development. As students in the mid-70s, he and Paul Allen wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, the first commercially successful PC.
In 1975, Micro-Soft - later Microsoft Corporation - was born. Three decades on, Gates has been Number One on the Forbes 400 for over a dozen years. And here's something you probably didn't know: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation currently provides 90 per cent of the world budget for the attempted eradication of polio.
Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (1944-), co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, founded his company in 1977 with a sum of $2,000. Once a school dropout, he is now, according to Forbes, one of the richest people in America with a net worth of around $184 crores. The figure also makes him the ninth richest in the world.
As a young man, Ellison worked for the Ampex Corporation, where one of his projects was a database for the CIA. He called it Oracle, a name he was to reuse years later for the company that made him famous.
Interestingly, the organisation' s initial release was Oracle 2. The number supposedly implied that all bugs had been eliminated from an earlier version.
Ellison is quite a colourful man, and has long dabbled in all kinds of things. Want to learn more? Try his biography, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison.
Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (1932-2002) was born into the family of a schoolteacher. It was a family of modest means. When he turned 16, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, working first as a gas-station attendant, then as a clerk in an oil company.
He returned to India at 26, starting a business with a meagre capital of $375. By the time of his demise, his company - Reliance Industries Ltd - had grown to become an empire, with an estimated annual turnover of $120 crores!
Dhirubhai was, in his lifetime, conferred the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century Award by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A Times of India poll in the year 2000 also voted him one of the biggest creators of wealth in this century.
Dhirubhai's is not just the usual
rags-to-riches story. He will be remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group. He is also credited with having single-handedly breathed life into the Indian stock markets and bringing in thousands of investors to the bourses.
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (1955-) and Apple Computer are names that have long gone together.
Born in the United States to an unknown Egyptian-Arab father, Jobs was adopted soon after birth. After graduating high school, he enrolled in Reed College, dropping out after one semester.
In 1976, 21-year-old Jobs and 26-year old Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Co. in the family garage. Jobs revolutionised the industry by popularising the concept of home computers.
By 1984, the Macintosh was introduced. He had an influential role in the building of the World-Wide Web, and also happens to be Chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios.
Today, with the iPod, Apple is bigger than ever. Incidentally, Jobs worked for several years at an annual salary of $1. It got him a listing in the Guinness Book as `Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer.' He was once gifted a $9 crores jet by the company though. And his net worth? Moer than $3 billion.
Michael Dell
Michael Saul Dell (1965- ) joined the University of Texas at Austin with the intention of becoming a physician. While studying there, he started a computer company in his dormitory, calling it PC's Limited. By the time he turned 19, it had notched up enough success to prompt Dell to dropout.
In 1987, PC's Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation. By 2003, Dell, Inc. was the world's most profitable PC manufacturer.
Dell has won more than his fair share of accolades, including Man of the Year from PC Magazine and EM>CEO of the Year from Financial World . Forbes, in 2005, lists him as the 18th richest in the world with a net worth of around $1600 Crores. Not bad for just another dropout.
Subhash Chandra Goel
Here's something not many people know about Subhash Chandra Goel : The Zee chairman dropped out after standard 12.
Subhash Chandra started his own vegetable oils unit at 19. It was, in a manner of speaking, his first job. Years later, a casual visit to a friend at Doordarshan gave him the idea of starting his own broadcasting company. We all know how that story ran.
Chandra knew nothing about programming, distribution or film rights. What he did understand quite well was the Indian sensibility though. Funded by UK businessmen, Zee came into being as India's first satellite TV network.
Today, it reaches 320 lakhs homes, connecting with 20 crores people in South Asia alone.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
If you want your dreams to come true, don't oversleep
If you want your dreams to come true, don't oversleep
- The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.
- Of all the things you wear, your face expression is the most important.
- The best vitamin for making friends....B1.
- The 10 commandments are not multiple-choice.
- The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.
- Minds are like parachutes, they function only when open.
- Ideas won't work unless YOU do.
- One thing you can't recycle is wasted time.
- One who lacks the courage to start has already
finished.
- The heaviest thing to carry is a grudge.
- Don't learn safety rules by accident.
- We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.
- Jumping to conclusions can be bad exercise.
- A turtle makes progress when it sticks its head out.
- One thing you can give and still keep is your word.
- A friend walks in when everyone else walks out.
- The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.
- Of all the things you wear, your face expression is the most important.
- The best vitamin for making friends....B1.
- The 10 commandments are not multiple-choice.
- The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.
- Minds are like parachutes, they function only when open.
- Ideas won't work unless YOU do.
- One thing you can't recycle is wasted time.
- One who lacks the courage to start has already
finished.
- The heaviest thing to carry is a grudge.
- Don't learn safety rules by accident.
- We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.
- Jumping to conclusions can be bad exercise.
- A turtle makes progress when it sticks its head out.
- One thing you can give and still keep is your word.
- A friend walks in when everyone else walks out.
Home Remedies to Avoid Swine Flu:
Home Remedies to Avoid Swine Flu:
* Always cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing; ideally use something disposable like a tissue. Avoid touching your face, nose or mouth too frequently with your hands since swine flu appears to be transmitted through respiratory droplets in the same fashion as the common cold.
* Wash your hands frequently with soap and water since swine flu like other viruses can be contracted by touching objects contaminated by the virus. It's unsure how long the swine flu virus can survive on surrounding surfaces.
* Though alcohol based hand sanitizers don't routinely kill viruses they probably do offer some limited protection in preventing swine flu infections.
* If swine flu infections have been medically confirmed in your area consider avoiding large public gatherings. Individuals can be contagious with the swine flu virus for several day before demonstrating any signs or symptoms of infection. Be particularly careful about indoor gatherings where air circulates poorly.
* If you're really paranoid and don't mind looking odd then consider wearing a respiratory mask.. This barrier method does offer some basic protection against infection though not all masks are created equally. Higher quality masks capable of filtering out some respiratory infections are more expensive.
* If you start feeling ill with cold or flu-like symptoms do not go to work. Stay home and begin the usual home remedies for colds and flu. Contact your health care provider, local health department or hospital emergency room if your symptoms worsen or fail to improve for information about where to go to be screened for possible swine flu infection.
* Always cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing; ideally use something disposable like a tissue. Avoid touching your face, nose or mouth too frequently with your hands since swine flu appears to be transmitted through respiratory droplets in the same fashion as the common cold.
* Wash your hands frequently with soap and water since swine flu like other viruses can be contracted by touching objects contaminated by the virus. It's unsure how long the swine flu virus can survive on surrounding surfaces.
* Though alcohol based hand sanitizers don't routinely kill viruses they probably do offer some limited protection in preventing swine flu infections.
* If swine flu infections have been medically confirmed in your area consider avoiding large public gatherings. Individuals can be contagious with the swine flu virus for several day before demonstrating any signs or symptoms of infection. Be particularly careful about indoor gatherings where air circulates poorly.
* If you're really paranoid and don't mind looking odd then consider wearing a respiratory mask.. This barrier method does offer some basic protection against infection though not all masks are created equally. Higher quality masks capable of filtering out some respiratory infections are more expensive.
* If you start feeling ill with cold or flu-like symptoms do not go to work. Stay home and begin the usual home remedies for colds and flu. Contact your health care provider, local health department or hospital emergency room if your symptoms worsen or fail to improve for information about where to go to be screened for possible swine flu infection.
Education Is Journey not Destination
What is Education? Just gaining knowledge or getting certificate is not education.knowledge in basic skills, academics, technical, discipline, citizenship or is it something else.The society says only academic basics are important and that is based on collecting knowledge without understanding its value.How about the processing of knowledge, using inspiration, visionary ambitions, creativity, risk, ability to bounce back from failure, motivation? Most education institutions don’t consider these skills. These skills are associated with understanding the value of knowledge. There is a huge disconnected gap and this is a problem for high school students in particular.
Education is means change in behavior. It is knowledge gain through experience. The experience which helps us to serve and face the challenges. Education is truth which brings us out from wrong beliefs.
Instead giving prepaid food to child its better to train child how to prepare food.
Education is a Journey but not Destination. Education is not a journey from birth to death, it continues even after death.
Education is means change in behavior. It is knowledge gain through experience. The experience which helps us to serve and face the challenges. Education is truth which brings us out from wrong beliefs.
Instead giving prepaid food to child its better to train child how to prepare food.
Education is a Journey but not Destination. Education is not a journey from birth to death, it continues even after death.
Monday, October 18, 2010
never too late
It is never too late to live with richness, purpose, joy and love.
No matter how much time you feel you have wasted or lost,
It is never too late to make the very most of the moment you're in.
No matter how many mistakes you may think you have made,
It is never too late to start moving in a positive direction.
The instant you choose to fully live,
The past no longer has the power to hold you back.
Where you are now is precisely where you need to be.
With gratitude in your heart for the journey that has brought you here,
Choose now to make the most of where you are.
Starting from this place you can go in any direction.
It is never too late to choose the very best direction you can imagine.
Dig down and get in touch with the real substance of your most treasured dreams.
For what matters most is always within your reach.
Move right on past the disappointments, the frustrations,
The regrets and the negative assumptions you have accumulated.
It is never too late to fully become the real, authentic, unique and valuable person you are
No matter how much time you feel you have wasted or lost,
It is never too late to make the very most of the moment you're in.
No matter how many mistakes you may think you have made,
It is never too late to start moving in a positive direction.
The instant you choose to fully live,
The past no longer has the power to hold you back.
Where you are now is precisely where you need to be.
With gratitude in your heart for the journey that has brought you here,
Choose now to make the most of where you are.
Starting from this place you can go in any direction.
It is never too late to choose the very best direction you can imagine.
Dig down and get in touch with the real substance of your most treasured dreams.
For what matters most is always within your reach.
Move right on past the disappointments, the frustrations,
The regrets and the negative assumptions you have accumulated.
It is never too late to fully become the real, authentic, unique and valuable person you are
You are capable
You are capable of much more than just getting by. You have
It in you to prosper and to triumph.
If you feel stuck where you are, that means your dreams
Haven't been big enough or meaningful enough to push you
Persistently forward. Use that uncomfortable feeling of
Being stuck as motivation to expand and to solidly connect
With your most authentic dreams.
Take full responsibility for what you've done and for where
You are. Then take full responsibility and make the
Commitment to fulfill your most valuable and treasured
Possibilities.
Painful circumstances and periods of misfortune can be very
Difficult, but they're not what have held you back. What has
Held you back is that you've chosen to ignore or discount
Your most compelling reasons for moving forward.
If you feel stuck, that means you are ready. That means you
Know deep within that you must do whatever it takes to bring
Your dreams to life.
Reach inside, touch your true dreams, feel your authentic
Purpose, and step boldly forward. There's no reason to be
Stuck for one moment longer.
It in you to prosper and to triumph.
If you feel stuck where you are, that means your dreams
Haven't been big enough or meaningful enough to push you
Persistently forward. Use that uncomfortable feeling of
Being stuck as motivation to expand and to solidly connect
With your most authentic dreams.
Take full responsibility for what you've done and for where
You are. Then take full responsibility and make the
Commitment to fulfill your most valuable and treasured
Possibilities.
Painful circumstances and periods of misfortune can be very
Difficult, but they're not what have held you back. What has
Held you back is that you've chosen to ignore or discount
Your most compelling reasons for moving forward.
If you feel stuck, that means you are ready. That means you
Know deep within that you must do whatever it takes to bring
Your dreams to life.
Reach inside, touch your true dreams, feel your authentic
Purpose, and step boldly forward. There's no reason to be
Stuck for one moment longer.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Top 10 foods that can help you lose weight
Top 10 foods that can help you lose weight
Losing weight is not just about reducing food intake
and cutting things out of your diet,there are a few
additions that you can make to your daily diet that
can indeed help you lose weight.
We've found 10 foods stuffs that incorporated with
a healthy eating approach can help you shift those extra
pounds and speed up weight loss.
Grapefruit
We've all heard of the grapefruit diet but you don't have to live on
a diet of grapefruit alone to lose weight.
It's been found that that eating half a grapefruit before each meal or
drinking a serving of the juice three times a day can help you drop the pounds.
The magic ingredient is the fruit's phytochemicals and their effect of reducing
insulin levels which stimulates your body to convert calories into energy
rather than storing as flabby fat.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a super spice when it comes to boosting your wellbeing
as it has many health-giving properties. In terms of weight loss,
it's all to do with controlling those post-meal insulin spikes,
which is what make you feel hungry. And you don't need to get
much of the stuff to get the benefits; studies have shown just a
quarter teaspoon of cinnamon a day can lower the blood sugar,
cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.
To up your cinnamon intake either sprinkle it on to your breakfast cereal,
or maybe mix it into your morning latte.
Chili peppers
Adding a bit of heat to your diet can give you a weight-loss boost.
Studies show that having a spicy start to your morning,
i.e. eating chilies as a part of your breakfast can make you opt for
a smaller lunch.
Apparently it's down to capsaicin which is found in chilies and red peppers
that has appetite suppressing properties. Granted - chilies aren't the easiest
of items to face as your morning meal but how about as a part of a spicy egg-white
omelette or stirred into scrambled eggs for a spicy weight loss kick.
Fennel tea
Again fennel tea is a food stuff that boasts a list of health giving benefits;
it's packed with good levels of potassium, magnesium and calcium as well
as the vitamins B and C. But when it comes to the weight-loss stakes fennel
had a double benefit: working both as an appetite suppressant and
a metabolism booster which really are both useful if you're trying to lose weight.
Fennel tea is widely available in supermarkets so add it to your daily diet
to stave off cravings and boost your fuel burn.
Salad
Eating a low-calorie salad before your main meals
can help you to lose weight and ensure you get
recommended daily intake of veggies.
And it's not rocket science as to how it works
for weight loss, the key is the sheer volume of a salad,
which makes you feel too full to pig out when it comes
to your main meal.
You need to make sure you don't drown it in a fatty dressing though -
a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar makes the perfect
healthy accompaniment to a fresh salad.
Green tea
Another powerful brew - green tea really has a multitude of
health and wellbeing benefits.
And if you are a keen into fitness it makes the perfect pre-workout drink;
it's been found to increase endurance by as much as 24%,
allowing you to exercise longer and burn more calories.
But in terms boosting your weight loss power, a study carried out by
the Journal of Nutrition, drinking five cups of green tea per day can help you
lose twice as much weight, most of it where we want to lose it most -
around the middle.
Celery
Celery rates well as a weight-loss food as you can actually end up
burning more calories eating it than your body will take on consuming it.
But by no means does that make celery low in nutritional value;
it's super-packed with fibre (great for digestion) and foliate
(the essential nutrient for the care and production of new cells within the body).
Get your celery fix by making sure it's featured in your pre-meal salad,
as an accompaniment to your lunch or as a healthy snack when you want to
satisfy that 'munch' craving.
Lentils
Lentils are great weight-loss food as they have the power to
really satisfy your hunger without packing your body with loads of calories
and fat - that's often why lentils feature heavily as a meat substitute -
they can make you feel like you've had a meaty dish minus the calories
and saturated fat that come with eating meat. Again like celery,
lentils are full of fibre and foliate so as well as giving you the full feeling,
they are great for digestion and healthy cell growth.
Dark chocolate
Granted chocolate is not low in calories nor in fat,
but dark chocolate has two major dietary positives
that can lead to long term weight loss.
First, it's quite difficult to scoff massive
quantities of high-quality dark chocolate as compared to the milk stuff.
Secondly, dark chocolate is very high in health-promoting antioxidants.
In terms of a weapon in your weight-loss armoury you can use
dark chocolate as a way to curb any sweet cravings, just a few small squares
to quell a full on chocolate pig out is well worth the modest calorie intake.
Quinoa
Pronounced 'Keen-wah' quinoa is known as the
'mother grain' by the ancient Peruvians.
Quinoa is good for weight loss as it has
the power to keep you feeling fuller for longer
due to its high protein content.
Also the carbs that are present in the grain are released
slowly into the body so you won't get that rush of energy
after eating quinoa as you would with other foods like
white rice or pasta.
You can eat quinoa raw but we reckon it's best when it's
cooked in a similar way to rice or couscous.
Losing weight is not just about reducing food intake
and cutting things out of your diet,there are a few
additions that you can make to your daily diet that
can indeed help you lose weight.
We've found 10 foods stuffs that incorporated with
a healthy eating approach can help you shift those extra
pounds and speed up weight loss.
Grapefruit
We've all heard of the grapefruit diet but you don't have to live on
a diet of grapefruit alone to lose weight.
It's been found that that eating half a grapefruit before each meal or
drinking a serving of the juice three times a day can help you drop the pounds.
The magic ingredient is the fruit's phytochemicals and their effect of reducing
insulin levels which stimulates your body to convert calories into energy
rather than storing as flabby fat.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a super spice when it comes to boosting your wellbeing
as it has many health-giving properties. In terms of weight loss,
it's all to do with controlling those post-meal insulin spikes,
which is what make you feel hungry. And you don't need to get
much of the stuff to get the benefits; studies have shown just a
quarter teaspoon of cinnamon a day can lower the blood sugar,
cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.
To up your cinnamon intake either sprinkle it on to your breakfast cereal,
or maybe mix it into your morning latte.
Chili peppers
Adding a bit of heat to your diet can give you a weight-loss boost.
Studies show that having a spicy start to your morning,
i.e. eating chilies as a part of your breakfast can make you opt for
a smaller lunch.
Apparently it's down to capsaicin which is found in chilies and red peppers
that has appetite suppressing properties. Granted - chilies aren't the easiest
of items to face as your morning meal but how about as a part of a spicy egg-white
omelette or stirred into scrambled eggs for a spicy weight loss kick.
Fennel tea
Again fennel tea is a food stuff that boasts a list of health giving benefits;
it's packed with good levels of potassium, magnesium and calcium as well
as the vitamins B and C. But when it comes to the weight-loss stakes fennel
had a double benefit: working both as an appetite suppressant and
a metabolism booster which really are both useful if you're trying to lose weight.
Fennel tea is widely available in supermarkets so add it to your daily diet
to stave off cravings and boost your fuel burn.
Salad
Eating a low-calorie salad before your main meals
can help you to lose weight and ensure you get
recommended daily intake of veggies.
And it's not rocket science as to how it works
for weight loss, the key is the sheer volume of a salad,
which makes you feel too full to pig out when it comes
to your main meal.
You need to make sure you don't drown it in a fatty dressing though -
a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar makes the perfect
healthy accompaniment to a fresh salad.
Green tea
Another powerful brew - green tea really has a multitude of
health and wellbeing benefits.
And if you are a keen into fitness it makes the perfect pre-workout drink;
it's been found to increase endurance by as much as 24%,
allowing you to exercise longer and burn more calories.
But in terms boosting your weight loss power, a study carried out by
the Journal of Nutrition, drinking five cups of green tea per day can help you
lose twice as much weight, most of it where we want to lose it most -
around the middle.
Celery
Celery rates well as a weight-loss food as you can actually end up
burning more calories eating it than your body will take on consuming it.
But by no means does that make celery low in nutritional value;
it's super-packed with fibre (great for digestion) and foliate
(the essential nutrient for the care and production of new cells within the body).
Get your celery fix by making sure it's featured in your pre-meal salad,
as an accompaniment to your lunch or as a healthy snack when you want to
satisfy that 'munch' craving.
Lentils
Lentils are great weight-loss food as they have the power to
really satisfy your hunger without packing your body with loads of calories
and fat - that's often why lentils feature heavily as a meat substitute -
they can make you feel like you've had a meaty dish minus the calories
and saturated fat that come with eating meat. Again like celery,
lentils are full of fibre and foliate so as well as giving you the full feeling,
they are great for digestion and healthy cell growth.
Dark chocolate
Granted chocolate is not low in calories nor in fat,
but dark chocolate has two major dietary positives
that can lead to long term weight loss.
First, it's quite difficult to scoff massive
quantities of high-quality dark chocolate as compared to the milk stuff.
Secondly, dark chocolate is very high in health-promoting antioxidants.
In terms of a weapon in your weight-loss armoury you can use
dark chocolate as a way to curb any sweet cravings, just a few small squares
to quell a full on chocolate pig out is well worth the modest calorie intake.
Quinoa
Pronounced 'Keen-wah' quinoa is known as the
'mother grain' by the ancient Peruvians.
Quinoa is good for weight loss as it has
the power to keep you feeling fuller for longer
due to its high protein content.
Also the carbs that are present in the grain are released
slowly into the body so you won't get that rush of energy
after eating quinoa as you would with other foods like
white rice or pasta.
You can eat quinoa raw but we reckon it's best when it's
cooked in a similar way to rice or couscous.
The following is my unedited journal on my intentions:
The Power Of Intentions
I must admit, this is a rather spontaneous post which came to me while I was reading the first chapter of The Sedona Method. I'm usually one who puts off exercises when I read them in books, but tonight I had the urge to follow through.
The exercise asked to state your intentions. I thought it would be beneficial if I posted my unedited journal online for everyone to see. Much of what I wrote is very personal but to be honest, I have nothing to hide. If anything posting my intentions will drive me more.
The following is my unedited journal on my intentions:
· I intend to improve my relationships with my friends and family especially my brother.
· I intend to create meaningful and authentic relationships with those in tune with the frequency that I require at the current time.
· I intend to have one of the most popular personal development blogs in the world where I help hundreds of thousands learn the possibilities of this boundless world.
· I intend to develop my ability to live in the now and thus increase my contentment with the life I have at this current moment.
· I intend to have a body that is congruent with how a healthy and stressless body should be.
· I intend, over the course of the next year, to not only absorb knowledge but more importantly implement it in into my daily life.
· I intend to help all those who are in need of my support.
· I intend to remain judge free and instead look at the wonderful qualities each human possess.
· I intend to develop my problem solving abilities by looking at problems from a different angle.
· I intend to sincerely contribute to humanity while sticking true to my values.
· I intend to make an abundant living through passive income.
· I intend to make a name for myself through providing value in guest posts.
· I intend to make make connections that will not only help me but the others involved.
· I intend to increase my awareness of the negative feelings that sometimes arise and make a conscious effort to release them.
· I intend in crafting a flexible daily routine congruent with my values and goals which will enable me to have the energy I need to be at my best.
· I intend to be driven but also content with the things I have here and now.
· I intend to improve myself through experience as well as reading and talking with other positive individuals.
· I intend to view people not from a beneficial point of view but rather a mindset of love.
· I intend to make mistakes and do my best to learn from them.
· I intend to not sacrifice my values in order to fit in but rather connect with individuals who will bring the best out in me.
· I intend to make my college experience a valuable one and continue to take strides to living a jobless lifestyle despite resistance from those who do not understand.
· I intend to continue to provide value to my blog readers by talking about not only my successes but my failures as well.
· I intend to follow my dreams no matter what lies on the road ahead.
· I intend to do everything I can to make the world a better place. Cliche I know.
· I intend to connect with people in the most authentic way possible.
· I intend to learn many new hobbies and facts in hopes of expanding my horizons as a human being.
· I intend to experiment with various personal growth methods especially the ones that seem foreign to me.
· I intend to make a full income from my blog/writing and personal speaking.
· I intend to connect with the source as much as possible and express gratitude each and ever day.
· I intend to lead not only by words but my example as well. I intend to be rather then try to be.
· I intend be honest rather than superficial.
· I intend to always keep my head up even when the dark clouds continue to pass overhead.
· I intend to live for a purpose larger than myself and contribute in a way I never thought possible.
· But most importantly I intend to connect with the source of oneness and love.]
The Power of Intentions
Although I have been doing journals for several years, I found tonight's journal to be especially inspiring. I think this is largely due to the fact I let my shields down and just wrote.
While I have held many intentions in my head for quite sometime, it felt great to write them down. It was shocking at how fast my thoughts manifested. At the time of this writing I feel wonderful and I have to credit that to my intentions journal.
It will be interesting to see the effect my journal has on the upcoming weeks and month. Perhaps many of my intentions will one day manifest. I couldn't be more excited.
What do you want in your life?
I must admit, this is a rather spontaneous post which came to me while I was reading the first chapter of The Sedona Method. I'm usually one who puts off exercises when I read them in books, but tonight I had the urge to follow through.
The exercise asked to state your intentions. I thought it would be beneficial if I posted my unedited journal online for everyone to see. Much of what I wrote is very personal but to be honest, I have nothing to hide. If anything posting my intentions will drive me more.
The following is my unedited journal on my intentions:
· I intend to improve my relationships with my friends and family especially my brother.
· I intend to create meaningful and authentic relationships with those in tune with the frequency that I require at the current time.
· I intend to have one of the most popular personal development blogs in the world where I help hundreds of thousands learn the possibilities of this boundless world.
· I intend to develop my ability to live in the now and thus increase my contentment with the life I have at this current moment.
· I intend to have a body that is congruent with how a healthy and stressless body should be.
· I intend, over the course of the next year, to not only absorb knowledge but more importantly implement it in into my daily life.
· I intend to help all those who are in need of my support.
· I intend to remain judge free and instead look at the wonderful qualities each human possess.
· I intend to develop my problem solving abilities by looking at problems from a different angle.
· I intend to sincerely contribute to humanity while sticking true to my values.
· I intend to make an abundant living through passive income.
· I intend to make a name for myself through providing value in guest posts.
· I intend to make make connections that will not only help me but the others involved.
· I intend to increase my awareness of the negative feelings that sometimes arise and make a conscious effort to release them.
· I intend in crafting a flexible daily routine congruent with my values and goals which will enable me to have the energy I need to be at my best.
· I intend to be driven but also content with the things I have here and now.
· I intend to improve myself through experience as well as reading and talking with other positive individuals.
· I intend to view people not from a beneficial point of view but rather a mindset of love.
· I intend to make mistakes and do my best to learn from them.
· I intend to not sacrifice my values in order to fit in but rather connect with individuals who will bring the best out in me.
· I intend to make my college experience a valuable one and continue to take strides to living a jobless lifestyle despite resistance from those who do not understand.
· I intend to continue to provide value to my blog readers by talking about not only my successes but my failures as well.
· I intend to follow my dreams no matter what lies on the road ahead.
· I intend to do everything I can to make the world a better place. Cliche I know.
· I intend to connect with people in the most authentic way possible.
· I intend to learn many new hobbies and facts in hopes of expanding my horizons as a human being.
· I intend to experiment with various personal growth methods especially the ones that seem foreign to me.
· I intend to make a full income from my blog/writing and personal speaking.
· I intend to connect with the source as much as possible and express gratitude each and ever day.
· I intend to lead not only by words but my example as well. I intend to be rather then try to be.
· I intend be honest rather than superficial.
· I intend to always keep my head up even when the dark clouds continue to pass overhead.
· I intend to live for a purpose larger than myself and contribute in a way I never thought possible.
· But most importantly I intend to connect with the source of oneness and love.]
The Power of Intentions
Although I have been doing journals for several years, I found tonight's journal to be especially inspiring. I think this is largely due to the fact I let my shields down and just wrote.
While I have held many intentions in my head for quite sometime, it felt great to write them down. It was shocking at how fast my thoughts manifested. At the time of this writing I feel wonderful and I have to credit that to my intentions journal.
It will be interesting to see the effect my journal has on the upcoming weeks and month. Perhaps many of my intentions will one day manifest. I couldn't be more excited.
What do you want in your life?
The Beauty Of Suffering
The Beauty Of Suffering
You hear a lot about happiness these days.
You have to be happy 24/7. You have to only do the shit you love. You have to wake up everyday and jump out of bed, because if not, you're broken.
While I certainly wish that were the case, the fact of the matter is, it's unrealistic.
We can't always be happy, we can't always do the stuff we love, and we can't always wake up every day feeling like we can take on the world. Yes I used the C word. That's not negativity that's life.
Before you label me as a sadistic monster who enjoys seeing people in pain let me explain.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be happy, we all too often make that our main objective in life. And In our quest for bliss and contentment we fail to embrace the beauty of suffering.
Today's post isn't about being happy. Instead it is about finding beauty when all hope is lost. Today's post is about the beauty of suffering.
The Importance of Suffering:
The words pain and suffering have a relatively negative connotation. You hear the word pain and you immediately get set to run. But the truth of the matter is, without them we wouldn't know what it is like to be happy and content.
Suffering is inevitable. The sooner you accept that pain, death, and sadness are felt by every human to ever walk the earth, the better your life will be.
I'm not suggesting you purposefully find ways to be miserable. Instead, I'm inviting you to use pain to encourage you to be thankful for the blessings you have. Sorrow is nature's greatest reminder.
While pain and suffering aren't comfortable; they aren't the bad guys we make them out to be. With each moment of misery comes the opportunity for love and compassion.
I know what it's like to feel empty on the inside. When I witnessed my best friend pass away I suffered for a long time. The more I resisted the pain that the event caused, the deeper my wounds grew. It wasn't until I saw the beauty in my own suffering that I began to be grateful for the life that I had.
Instead of running away from pain and suffering, embrace it for what it is. Misery deepens your threshold for bliss.
Breaking up sucks, but when you do find a relationship that works it makes it that much better.
Losing a friend is one of the worst feelings in the world, but it also reminds you to appreciate the moments you currently have with the ones you love.
Getting fired and not being able to provide for your family can make your world come crashing down, but the rise to the top will be that much greater.
The funny thing is, when you accept suffering the meaning behind the word changes entirely. Suffering is no longer a punishment but rather a guardian of truth, a lesson to be learned.
The Beauty Of Suffering:
The majority of the world suffers on a regular basis. Many deal with wars, drugs, poverty and inner demons.
At first glance it may seem like there is nothing you can do, but with suffering comes the opportunity for you to make a difference.
With suffering comes the ability to rise above .
With suffering comes the chance for you express the loving person you are . Don't run away from your pain, fears, and heartache. Embrace them.
For every person suffering, there is a moment of love and compassion.
For every person hurt, there is a time of healing.
For every dark alley, there is a beacon of light. This is the balance of life.
The beauty of suffering lies in your ability to do something about it.
You hear a lot about happiness these days.
You have to be happy 24/7. You have to only do the shit you love. You have to wake up everyday and jump out of bed, because if not, you're broken.
While I certainly wish that were the case, the fact of the matter is, it's unrealistic.
We can't always be happy, we can't always do the stuff we love, and we can't always wake up every day feeling like we can take on the world. Yes I used the C word. That's not negativity that's life.
Before you label me as a sadistic monster who enjoys seeing people in pain let me explain.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be happy, we all too often make that our main objective in life. And In our quest for bliss and contentment we fail to embrace the beauty of suffering.
Today's post isn't about being happy. Instead it is about finding beauty when all hope is lost. Today's post is about the beauty of suffering.
The Importance of Suffering:
The words pain and suffering have a relatively negative connotation. You hear the word pain and you immediately get set to run. But the truth of the matter is, without them we wouldn't know what it is like to be happy and content.
Suffering is inevitable. The sooner you accept that pain, death, and sadness are felt by every human to ever walk the earth, the better your life will be.
I'm not suggesting you purposefully find ways to be miserable. Instead, I'm inviting you to use pain to encourage you to be thankful for the blessings you have. Sorrow is nature's greatest reminder.
While pain and suffering aren't comfortable; they aren't the bad guys we make them out to be. With each moment of misery comes the opportunity for love and compassion.
I know what it's like to feel empty on the inside. When I witnessed my best friend pass away I suffered for a long time. The more I resisted the pain that the event caused, the deeper my wounds grew. It wasn't until I saw the beauty in my own suffering that I began to be grateful for the life that I had.
Instead of running away from pain and suffering, embrace it for what it is. Misery deepens your threshold for bliss.
Breaking up sucks, but when you do find a relationship that works it makes it that much better.
Losing a friend is one of the worst feelings in the world, but it also reminds you to appreciate the moments you currently have with the ones you love.
Getting fired and not being able to provide for your family can make your world come crashing down, but the rise to the top will be that much greater.
The funny thing is, when you accept suffering the meaning behind the word changes entirely. Suffering is no longer a punishment but rather a guardian of truth, a lesson to be learned.
The Beauty Of Suffering:
The majority of the world suffers on a regular basis. Many deal with wars, drugs, poverty and inner demons.
At first glance it may seem like there is nothing you can do, but with suffering comes the opportunity for you to make a difference.
With suffering comes the ability to rise above .
With suffering comes the chance for you express the loving person you are . Don't run away from your pain, fears, and heartache. Embrace them.
For every person suffering, there is a moment of love and compassion.
For every person hurt, there is a time of healing.
For every dark alley, there is a beacon of light. This is the balance of life.
The beauty of suffering lies in your ability to do something about it.
Be Worthy Of Imitation
Be Worthy Of Imitation
They say imitation is the greatest compliment, but are your actions worthy of imitation?
We are all in some setting of leadership. Whether it be as a parent, boss, or friend
we should constantly examine the example we are setting for those around us.
Are you being a positive role model?
Are you treating others in a dignified way?
Be a cheerful and diligent worker, parent, and boss to those around you.
Children, especially, are like sponges taking in your every action and
word--they naturally want to be just like you.
So be mindful of your word and deed, you never know who might be
watching and silently learning what you are demonstrating.
They say imitation is the greatest compliment, but are your actions worthy of imitation?
We are all in some setting of leadership. Whether it be as a parent, boss, or friend
we should constantly examine the example we are setting for those around us.
Are you being a positive role model?
Are you treating others in a dignified way?
Be a cheerful and diligent worker, parent, and boss to those around you.
Children, especially, are like sponges taking in your every action and
word--they naturally want to be just like you.
So be mindful of your word and deed, you never know who might be
watching and silently learning what you are demonstrating.
Letting Go Of Sorrow
Letting Go Of Sorrow
If I allow bitterness and resentment to fester inside,
it will make my relationships guarded and unsatisfying.
The more I close down to others,
the more I become a stranger to myself.
By letting go of sorrow and negativity,
I can keep my nature open and loving.
Remaining open to life, with its constant adventures and
opportunities to grow, is the only way to reach my full potential.
If I allow bitterness and resentment to fester inside,
it will make my relationships guarded and unsatisfying.
The more I close down to others,
the more I become a stranger to myself.
By letting go of sorrow and negativity,
I can keep my nature open and loving.
Remaining open to life, with its constant adventures and
opportunities to grow, is the only way to reach my full potential.
8 Ways To Live A Powerful And Joyous Life
8 Ways To Live A Powerful And Joyous Life
When I don't take 100% responsibility for my life I block my own progress and happiness.
Sometimes it's easier to play in someone else's business or back yard instead of changing what needs to be changed in my own.
Using my creative power to be a proactive participant in my life allows me to transcend my limitations and live in joy.
The following tips will allow you to shatter both internal and external barriers as well.
Here are 8 Ways to Live a Powerful and Joyous Life:
1. Honor And Love Yourself.
It's impossible to love anyone more than you love yourself. It's easy to love yourself when you feel good, look great and everyone cooperates.
The real test comes with accepting your flaws, working with your shadow side and loving your humanness. I've learned to have compassion for the part of me that is greedy, inconsiderate and judgmental. Self-love allows me to heal these parts and move forward into a brighter light and deeper love for myself and others.
2. Become Your Own Priority.
Pamper your body, mind and spirit. Take baby steps and begin to eat right and be impeccably groomed. Take scheduled breaks through out your day.
Feed your mind with spiritual and inspirational information. You add beautiful, loving energy to our world as you learn to respect yourself.
3. Stop Comparing, Competing, And Criticizing
As you eliminate draining little habits from your daily life your energy can flow freely into your dreams and happiness. Your role in life is like a puzzle piece that fits into the jigsaw puzzle of the universe, the world is incomplete without your unique self.
When I find myself stuck in the three "C's" I know I'm off track. It only takes minutes to own my projections and move forward. I choose to live in the flow of life trusting myself with an open mind and heart.
4. Anchor Your Being In Appreciation
It's a privilege to be alive at this time. I am grateful for the difficult lessons I'm learning from our economy, the oil spill, and the war.
As I make inner changes, I see my exterior world change . In stead of focusing on the media and negativity I focus on the difference I can make.
Answers to our problems lie in each of us . Each morning I decide to "wake up and smell the day."
Life is precious, I won't waste it wishing things were different. I choose to live more consciously.
The individual changes we make will change the world.
5. Activate Forgiveness
Perfection in life is not required.
We all do and say things we regret. I choose to learn from my mistakes.
I encourage you to be gentle with yourself and others. Resentment and bitterness poison our mind, body and spirit.
Forgiving others will take you out of the dark and into the light, that's available always.
6. Record Loving Moments
Keep a journal of the happiness, love and goodness you experience everyday. Focusing on love and good times increases love and good times.
A journal of "good stuff" can be used as a great pick-me-up in difficult times. You'll find there are infinite experiences to record.
Be a part of seeing the best in every thing and every one.
I've kept gratitude journals for eight years. I'm flooded with appreciation for my ordinary existence each time I reread one.
7. Set Your Intention
Each morning set your intention for your day. "I intend to be patient today. I intend to be kind. I intend to live in the moment." You choose your attitude, energy and direction. Consciously create the incredible and amazing life you desperately want. Resolve to choose the best for yourself. You'll learn to brighten your own day!
8. Serve Others
There is a story about heaven and hell…In one room a pot of delicious stew sits in the middle of a big round table. The people at the table are holding unusually long handled spoons which made reaching their mouths impossible. They are thin, sick and weak. This room represents hell.
The next room also has a large table and a delicious pot of stew as well… The people around this table also hold long-handled spoons. However these people are plump, healthy and happy because they've learned to feed each other. This room represents heaven.
Find someone to serve everyday. Expect nothing in return.
It's easy to lose hope, blame others and feel victimized in our world.
Yet, our power lies in establishing thoughts and habits of goodness and love.
Imagine throwing your pebble of good thoughts and habits in the water. Yours connect to other like-minded good thoughts and habits. Soon you begin to notice and take part in a whole new world.
And everyone will ask you, "How did you get so lucky?"
When I don't take 100% responsibility for my life I block my own progress and happiness.
Sometimes it's easier to play in someone else's business or back yard instead of changing what needs to be changed in my own.
Using my creative power to be a proactive participant in my life allows me to transcend my limitations and live in joy.
The following tips will allow you to shatter both internal and external barriers as well.
Here are 8 Ways to Live a Powerful and Joyous Life:
1. Honor And Love Yourself.
It's impossible to love anyone more than you love yourself. It's easy to love yourself when you feel good, look great and everyone cooperates.
The real test comes with accepting your flaws, working with your shadow side and loving your humanness. I've learned to have compassion for the part of me that is greedy, inconsiderate and judgmental. Self-love allows me to heal these parts and move forward into a brighter light and deeper love for myself and others.
2. Become Your Own Priority.
Pamper your body, mind and spirit. Take baby steps and begin to eat right and be impeccably groomed. Take scheduled breaks through out your day.
Feed your mind with spiritual and inspirational information. You add beautiful, loving energy to our world as you learn to respect yourself.
3. Stop Comparing, Competing, And Criticizing
As you eliminate draining little habits from your daily life your energy can flow freely into your dreams and happiness. Your role in life is like a puzzle piece that fits into the jigsaw puzzle of the universe, the world is incomplete without your unique self.
When I find myself stuck in the three "C's" I know I'm off track. It only takes minutes to own my projections and move forward. I choose to live in the flow of life trusting myself with an open mind and heart.
4. Anchor Your Being In Appreciation
It's a privilege to be alive at this time. I am grateful for the difficult lessons I'm learning from our economy, the oil spill, and the war.
As I make inner changes, I see my exterior world change . In stead of focusing on the media and negativity I focus on the difference I can make.
Answers to our problems lie in each of us . Each morning I decide to "wake up and smell the day."
Life is precious, I won't waste it wishing things were different. I choose to live more consciously.
The individual changes we make will change the world.
5. Activate Forgiveness
Perfection in life is not required.
We all do and say things we regret. I choose to learn from my mistakes.
I encourage you to be gentle with yourself and others. Resentment and bitterness poison our mind, body and spirit.
Forgiving others will take you out of the dark and into the light, that's available always.
6. Record Loving Moments
Keep a journal of the happiness, love and goodness you experience everyday. Focusing on love and good times increases love and good times.
A journal of "good stuff" can be used as a great pick-me-up in difficult times. You'll find there are infinite experiences to record.
Be a part of seeing the best in every thing and every one.
I've kept gratitude journals for eight years. I'm flooded with appreciation for my ordinary existence each time I reread one.
7. Set Your Intention
Each morning set your intention for your day. "I intend to be patient today. I intend to be kind. I intend to live in the moment." You choose your attitude, energy and direction. Consciously create the incredible and amazing life you desperately want. Resolve to choose the best for yourself. You'll learn to brighten your own day!
8. Serve Others
There is a story about heaven and hell…In one room a pot of delicious stew sits in the middle of a big round table. The people at the table are holding unusually long handled spoons which made reaching their mouths impossible. They are thin, sick and weak. This room represents hell.
The next room also has a large table and a delicious pot of stew as well… The people around this table also hold long-handled spoons. However these people are plump, healthy and happy because they've learned to feed each other. This room represents heaven.
Find someone to serve everyday. Expect nothing in return.
It's easy to lose hope, blame others and feel victimized in our world.
Yet, our power lies in establishing thoughts and habits of goodness and love.
Imagine throwing your pebble of good thoughts and habits in the water. Yours connect to other like-minded good thoughts and habits. Soon you begin to notice and take part in a whole new world.
And everyone will ask you, "How did you get so lucky?"
Death does not exist. It is life that is a predominant reality, not death
1: "Death does not exist. It is life that is a predominant reality, not death."
2: "Given character and healthy imagination,
it is possible to reconstruct this world of sin
and misery into a veritable paradise."
3: "Nations are born in the hearts of poets,
they prosper and die in the hands of politicians."
4: "But to rationalize faith is not to admit
the superiority of philosophy over religion."
6: "People who have no hold over their process of thinking
are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought.
If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a
method of converting men into animals."
7: "I tell you the sign of a believer; When Death comes,
there is a smile on his lips."
8: "Words, without power, is mere philosophy."
9: "Why should I ask the wise men: Whence is my beginning?
I am busy with the thought: Where will be my end?" -
10: "But to rationalize faith is not to admit the
superiority of philosophy over religion."
11: "When truth has no burning, then it is philosophy,
when it gets burning from the heart, it becomes poetry.
2: "Given character and healthy imagination,
it is possible to reconstruct this world of sin
and misery into a veritable paradise."
3: "Nations are born in the hearts of poets,
they prosper and die in the hands of politicians."
4: "But to rationalize faith is not to admit
the superiority of philosophy over religion."
6: "People who have no hold over their process of thinking
are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought.
If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a
method of converting men into animals."
7: "I tell you the sign of a believer; When Death comes,
there is a smile on his lips."
8: "Words, without power, is mere philosophy."
9: "Why should I ask the wise men: Whence is my beginning?
I am busy with the thought: Where will be my end?" -
10: "But to rationalize faith is not to admit the
superiority of philosophy over religion."
11: "When truth has no burning, then it is philosophy,
when it gets burning from the heart, it becomes poetry.
Gratitude
Gratitude
A day that begins with gratitude is a day that you'll be able to fill with positive progress.
When you're sincerely appreciative of where you are and what you have,
you'll greatly expand your own possibilities.
Begin with a thankful thought.
And connect yourself with the abundance that is all around you.
There is always something for which you can be sincerely thankful.
And the simple act of being thankful ignites a productive momentum in your world.
By focusing your thoughts on the positive aspects of your life,
you cause their influence to grow.
Be grateful, and your gratitude happily creates even more
things in your life for which you can be grateful.
The appreciation for what you have gives more value to all that you are.
The blessings you enjoy are blessings precisely because you see them as such.
Tap into the great reservoir of real value that is already available to you.
Live with gratitude, and you'll create even more reasons to be thankful.
A day that begins with gratitude is a day that you'll be able to fill with positive progress.
When you're sincerely appreciative of where you are and what you have,
you'll greatly expand your own possibilities.
Begin with a thankful thought.
And connect yourself with the abundance that is all around you.
There is always something for which you can be sincerely thankful.
And the simple act of being thankful ignites a productive momentum in your world.
By focusing your thoughts on the positive aspects of your life,
you cause their influence to grow.
Be grateful, and your gratitude happily creates even more
things in your life for which you can be grateful.
The appreciation for what you have gives more value to all that you are.
The blessings you enjoy are blessings precisely because you see them as such.
Tap into the great reservoir of real value that is already available to you.
Live with gratitude, and you'll create even more reasons to be thankful.
Chicken Steak (Recipe)
Chicken Steak (Recipe)
Ingredients:
: 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mustard paste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
...1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed white pepper
1/4 cup oil (preferably olive oil)
1 teaspoon garlic paste
Method
With the help of a flesh hammer,
pound 3-4 chicken breast fillets
(or 500 gms. undercut beef steaks).
In a bowl add all the above ingredients and mix well
with a whisker till oil is fully blended.
add 1 teaspoon salt in it. mix well and marinate the chicken breasts
(or beef steaks).
marinate for 2-3 hours.
Grill or fry in very little oil in non-stick frying pan.
Don't fry too much otherwise the moisture will not be retained.
white sauce:
saute 2 cloves chopped garlic in a little oil in frying pan.
add 2 tablespoons white flour and brown it partially.
add 1 and half cups of milk and remove frying pan from flame.
whisk thoroughly. put the frying pan on flame again and add pinch of oregano,
pinch of black and white pepper each and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Cook toll the sauce thickens. add 2 tablespoons cream and lower flame.
whisk.
simmer for a minute or so. pour on steaks for serving.
Garlic Bread
for garlic bread just grind a few cloves of garlic.
soften 1-2 teaspoons butter at room temp.
add the garlic paste, a little salt and pinch of oregano.
spread on pieces of french bread cut in circles.
bake in oven at high temp. for about 10-15 mins.
or till it turns brown. u can also add
shredded mozzarella cheese on top.
Ingredients:
: 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mustard paste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
...1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed white pepper
1/4 cup oil (preferably olive oil)
1 teaspoon garlic paste
Method
With the help of a flesh hammer,
pound 3-4 chicken breast fillets
(or 500 gms. undercut beef steaks).
In a bowl add all the above ingredients and mix well
with a whisker till oil is fully blended.
add 1 teaspoon salt in it. mix well and marinate the chicken breasts
(or beef steaks).
marinate for 2-3 hours.
Grill or fry in very little oil in non-stick frying pan.
Don't fry too much otherwise the moisture will not be retained.
white sauce:
saute 2 cloves chopped garlic in a little oil in frying pan.
add 2 tablespoons white flour and brown it partially.
add 1 and half cups of milk and remove frying pan from flame.
whisk thoroughly. put the frying pan on flame again and add pinch of oregano,
pinch of black and white pepper each and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Cook toll the sauce thickens. add 2 tablespoons cream and lower flame.
whisk.
simmer for a minute or so. pour on steaks for serving.
Garlic Bread
for garlic bread just grind a few cloves of garlic.
soften 1-2 teaspoons butter at room temp.
add the garlic paste, a little salt and pinch of oregano.
spread on pieces of french bread cut in circles.
bake in oven at high temp. for about 10-15 mins.
or till it turns brown. u can also add
shredded mozzarella cheese on top.
Self-confidence
Self-confidence
The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.
Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said. After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you."
He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John, then one of the richest men in the world!
"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.
With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.
One year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.
"I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the home and telling people he's John."And she led the old man away.
The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.
Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.
The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.
Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said. After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you."
He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John, then one of the richest men in the world!
"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.
With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.
One year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.
"I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the home and telling people he's John."And she led the old man away.
The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.
Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.
Envy Into Inspiration
Envy Into Inspiration
So when you start to feel envious, choose .
instead to transform that envy into inspiration.
The good fortune of others does not prevent
you from enjoying your own good fortune.
In fact, the success of another serves to
show you how the same level of success
can be brought about in your own life.
Instead of being resentful when you see
progress and achievement, be thankful.
Then allow what you see to inspire a
similar level of achievement within yourself.
Delight in the good fortune of others and you put
yourself in position to share that good fortune.
The more you celebrate life's abundance,
the more solidly you connect to that abundance.
Has someone else accomplished or attained
something that you would dearly love to have?
Allow yourself to be inspired by it.
Let that inspiration sink deeply into you,
so that it has a place within you where
it will always be.
Then take that inspiration and put it
into real, positive, effective action.
So when you start to feel envious, choose .
instead to transform that envy into inspiration.
The good fortune of others does not prevent
you from enjoying your own good fortune.
In fact, the success of another serves to
show you how the same level of success
can be brought about in your own life.
Instead of being resentful when you see
progress and achievement, be thankful.
Then allow what you see to inspire a
similar level of achievement within yourself.
Delight in the good fortune of others and you put
yourself in position to share that good fortune.
The more you celebrate life's abundance,
the more solidly you connect to that abundance.
Has someone else accomplished or attained
something that you would dearly love to have?
Allow yourself to be inspired by it.
Let that inspiration sink deeply into you,
so that it has a place within you where
it will always be.
Then take that inspiration and put it
into real, positive, effective action.
Let it Begin With You
Let it Begin With You
Today, be in peace.
Take a moment to fill yourself with peace
And to know the truth: it all begins with you.
Be the light that shines out for the world.
Be the beacon of hope and love, joy and wonder.
Be the bright glow in the life of everyone you touch this year
And know that your glow ignites them and that they then ignite others.
And this wondrous glow of love and joy can spread rapidly,
Person to person, reaching around the globe, filling hearts
With love and lives with laughter. And it all begins with you.
Take a deep breath and fill yourself with love and light.
See your own light glowing inside and then spreading out.
And now lift yourself up, up and up, until you see that
You are a star in the night sky, shining down on the world,
Your love and your light blessing all below.
You are this light, this shining star of hope and joy for millions.
Allow yourself to be this. Allow yourself to step into
Your full power to be the peace that the world yearns for.
Let it begin within you and fill every word, every gesture,
Every touch, everything you do today and in the coming year,
In the coming lifetime.
Let it begin with you.
Today, be in peace.
Take a moment to fill yourself with peace
And to know the truth: it all begins with you.
Be the light that shines out for the world.
Be the beacon of hope and love, joy and wonder.
Be the bright glow in the life of everyone you touch this year
And know that your glow ignites them and that they then ignite others.
And this wondrous glow of love and joy can spread rapidly,
Person to person, reaching around the globe, filling hearts
With love and lives with laughter. And it all begins with you.
Take a deep breath and fill yourself with love and light.
See your own light glowing inside and then spreading out.
And now lift yourself up, up and up, until you see that
You are a star in the night sky, shining down on the world,
Your love and your light blessing all below.
You are this light, this shining star of hope and joy for millions.
Allow yourself to be this. Allow yourself to step into
Your full power to be the peace that the world yearns for.
Let it begin within you and fill every word, every gesture,
Every touch, everything you do today and in the coming year,
In the coming lifetime.
Let it begin with you.
Are Whole Eggs or Egg Whites Better for You?
Are Whole Eggs or Egg Whites Better for You?
I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for the whole group. I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of eggs
.
Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and screening the egg whites into a bowl and throwing out the egg yolks. I asked him why the heck he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied something like this...
"because I thought the egg yolks were terrible for you...that's where all the nasty fat and cholesterol is".
And I replied, "you mean that's where all the nutrition is!"
This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation , somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG !
By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you're essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients... it's not even worth trying to list them all.
In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.
Even the protein in egg whites isn't as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.
Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids.
And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg...
"But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof"
No, this is FALSE!
First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body down-regulates it's internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.
On the other hand, if you don't eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons of important functions in the body.
And here's where it gets even more interesting...
There are indications that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.
And 3rd... high cholesterol is NOT a disease! Heart disease is a disease...but high cholesterol is NOT. Cholesterol is actually a VERY important substance in your body and has vitally important functions... it is DEAD WRONG to try to "lower your cholesterol" just because of pharmaceutical companies propaganda that everyone on the planet should be on statin drugs.
You can read the following article about why trying to attack cholesterol is a mistake, and what the REAL deadly risk factors actually are...
Cholesterol Myths In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other
antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.
To help bring even more proof that whole eggs are better for you than egg whites, I recently read a University of Connecticut study that showed that a group of men in the study that ate 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks while on a reduced carb, higher fat diet increased their HDL good cholesterol by 20%, while their LDL bad cholesterol stayed the same during the study. However, the group that ate egg substitutes (egg whites) saw no change in either and did not see the improvement in good cholesterol (remember that higher HDL levels are associated with lower risk of heart disease) that the whole egg eaters did.
So I hope we've established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body... instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.
Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farming just don't compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet. Your typical cheap grocery store eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level and lower omega-3 level. On the other hand, the cage-free organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio.
I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the chickens were free roaming and healthy.
Most people don't realize that there's a major difference because they've never bought real eggs from healthy chickens... The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin weak shells. On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs from the local farm had strong thick shells and deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids... and just a healthier egg in general.
So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are superior, you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.
And can we all please STOP with this silliness about eating an omelet with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk.... If you want real taste and real health benefits, we'd all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.
Another interesting thing about eggs... I read a study recently that compared groups of people that ate egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate cereal or bagel based breakfasts. The results of the study showed that the egg eaters lost or maintained a healthier bodyweight, while the cereal/bagel eaters gained weight.
It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate less calories during the remainder of the day because their appetite was more satisfied compared to the cereal/bagel eaters who would have been more prone to wild blood sugar swings and food cravings.
Enjoy your eggs and get a leaner body!
Eat the Damn Yolks! Eggs Are Good For You
Despite what you may have heard, eggs do NOT raise your cholesterol. They do NOT cause heart disease.
I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for the whole group. I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of eggs
.
Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and screening the egg whites into a bowl and throwing out the egg yolks. I asked him why the heck he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied something like this...
"because I thought the egg yolks were terrible for you...that's where all the nasty fat and cholesterol is".
And I replied, "you mean that's where all the nutrition is!"
This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation , somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG !
By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you're essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients... it's not even worth trying to list them all.
In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.
Even the protein in egg whites isn't as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.
Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids.
And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg...
"But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof"
No, this is FALSE!
First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body down-regulates it's internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.
On the other hand, if you don't eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons of important functions in the body.
And here's where it gets even more interesting...
There are indications that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.
And 3rd... high cholesterol is NOT a disease! Heart disease is a disease...but high cholesterol is NOT. Cholesterol is actually a VERY important substance in your body and has vitally important functions... it is DEAD WRONG to try to "lower your cholesterol" just because of pharmaceutical companies propaganda that everyone on the planet should be on statin drugs.
You can read the following article about why trying to attack cholesterol is a mistake, and what the REAL deadly risk factors actually are...
Cholesterol Myths In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other
antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.
To help bring even more proof that whole eggs are better for you than egg whites, I recently read a University of Connecticut study that showed that a group of men in the study that ate 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks while on a reduced carb, higher fat diet increased their HDL good cholesterol by 20%, while their LDL bad cholesterol stayed the same during the study. However, the group that ate egg substitutes (egg whites) saw no change in either and did not see the improvement in good cholesterol (remember that higher HDL levels are associated with lower risk of heart disease) that the whole egg eaters did.
So I hope we've established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body... instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.
Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farming just don't compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet. Your typical cheap grocery store eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level and lower omega-3 level. On the other hand, the cage-free organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio.
I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the chickens were free roaming and healthy.
Most people don't realize that there's a major difference because they've never bought real eggs from healthy chickens... The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin weak shells. On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs from the local farm had strong thick shells and deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids... and just a healthier egg in general.
So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are superior, you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.
And can we all please STOP with this silliness about eating an omelet with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk.... If you want real taste and real health benefits, we'd all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.
Another interesting thing about eggs... I read a study recently that compared groups of people that ate egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate cereal or bagel based breakfasts. The results of the study showed that the egg eaters lost or maintained a healthier bodyweight, while the cereal/bagel eaters gained weight.
It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate less calories during the remainder of the day because their appetite was more satisfied compared to the cereal/bagel eaters who would have been more prone to wild blood sugar swings and food cravings.
Enjoy your eggs and get a leaner body!
Eat the Damn Yolks! Eggs Are Good For You
Despite what you may have heard, eggs do NOT raise your cholesterol. They do NOT cause heart disease.
Be content
"Beware of undertaking too much at the start.
Be content with Quite a little.
Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature,
Especially your own."
Be content with Quite a little.
Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature,
Especially your own."
3 Little Words
Some of the most significant messages people deliver to one another often
Come in just three words. When spoken or conveyed, those statements have the
Power to forge new friendships, deepen old ones and restore relationships That have cooled.
The following three word phrases can enrich every relationship:
I'LL BE THERE
Being there for another person is the greatest gift we canGive. When we are truly present for other people, important things happen to
Them and to us. We are renewed in love and friendship. We are restored
Emotionally and spiritually. 'Being there' is at the very, very core of
Civility.
I MISS YOU
Perhaps more marriages could be salvaged and strengthened if
Couples simply and sincerely said to each other, "I miss you." This powerful
Affirmation tells partners they are wanted, needed, desired and loved.
I RESPECT YOU - Respect is another way of showing love. Respect conveys the
Feeling that another person is a true equal. It is a powerful way to affirm
The importance of a relationship.
MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT - This phrase is highly effective in diffusing an
Argument and restoring frayed emotions. The flip side of "maybe you're
Right" is the humility of admitting "maybe I'm wrong."
PLEASE FORGIVE ME - Many broken relationships could be restored and healed
If people would admit their mistakes and ask for forgiveness. All of us are
Vulnerable to faults, foibles and failures. A man should never be ashamed to
Own up to he has been in the wrong, which is by saying, in other words, that
He is wiser today than he was yesterday.
I THANK YOU - Gratitude is an exquisite form of courtesy. People who enjoy
The companionship of good, close friends are those who don't take daily
Courtesies for granted. They are quick to thank their friends for their many
Expressions of kindness. On the other hand, people whose circle of friends
Is severely constricted often do not have the attitude of gratitude.
COUNT ON ME - "A friend is one who walks in when others walk out." "Loyalty
Is an essential ingredient for true friendship; it is the emotional glue
That bonds people. Those who are rich in their relationships tend to be
Steady and true friends. When troubles come, a good friend is there,
Indicating "you can count on me."
The best of friends see a need and try to fill it. When they
Spot a hurt they do what they can to heal it. Without being asked, they
Pitch in and help.
I UNDERSTAND YOU - People become closer and enjoy each other more if they
Feel the other person accepts and understands them. Letting others know in
So many little ways that you understand him or her is one of the most
Powerful tools for healing your relationship.
GO FOR IT - Some of your friends may be non-conformists, have unique
Projects and unusual hobbies. Support them in pursuing their interests.
Rather than urging your loved ones to conform, encourage their uniqueness -
Everyone has dreams that no one else has.
I suppose the 3 little words that you were expecting to see have to be
Reserved for those who are special; that is
I LOVE YOU.
LET ME HELP -
Come in just three words. When spoken or conveyed, those statements have the
Power to forge new friendships, deepen old ones and restore relationships That have cooled.
The following three word phrases can enrich every relationship:
I'LL BE THERE
Being there for another person is the greatest gift we canGive. When we are truly present for other people, important things happen to
Them and to us. We are renewed in love and friendship. We are restored
Emotionally and spiritually. 'Being there' is at the very, very core of
Civility.
I MISS YOU
Perhaps more marriages could be salvaged and strengthened if
Couples simply and sincerely said to each other, "I miss you." This powerful
Affirmation tells partners they are wanted, needed, desired and loved.
I RESPECT YOU - Respect is another way of showing love. Respect conveys the
Feeling that another person is a true equal. It is a powerful way to affirm
The importance of a relationship.
MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT - This phrase is highly effective in diffusing an
Argument and restoring frayed emotions. The flip side of "maybe you're
Right" is the humility of admitting "maybe I'm wrong."
PLEASE FORGIVE ME - Many broken relationships could be restored and healed
If people would admit their mistakes and ask for forgiveness. All of us are
Vulnerable to faults, foibles and failures. A man should never be ashamed to
Own up to he has been in the wrong, which is by saying, in other words, that
He is wiser today than he was yesterday.
I THANK YOU - Gratitude is an exquisite form of courtesy. People who enjoy
The companionship of good, close friends are those who don't take daily
Courtesies for granted. They are quick to thank their friends for their many
Expressions of kindness. On the other hand, people whose circle of friends
Is severely constricted often do not have the attitude of gratitude.
COUNT ON ME - "A friend is one who walks in when others walk out." "Loyalty
Is an essential ingredient for true friendship; it is the emotional glue
That bonds people. Those who are rich in their relationships tend to be
Steady and true friends. When troubles come, a good friend is there,
Indicating "you can count on me."
The best of friends see a need and try to fill it. When they
Spot a hurt they do what they can to heal it. Without being asked, they
Pitch in and help.
I UNDERSTAND YOU - People become closer and enjoy each other more if they
Feel the other person accepts and understands them. Letting others know in
So many little ways that you understand him or her is one of the most
Powerful tools for healing your relationship.
GO FOR IT - Some of your friends may be non-conformists, have unique
Projects and unusual hobbies. Support them in pursuing their interests.
Rather than urging your loved ones to conform, encourage their uniqueness -
Everyone has dreams that no one else has.
I suppose the 3 little words that you were expecting to see have to be
Reserved for those who are special; that is
I LOVE YOU.
LET ME HELP -
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