What You Think is What You Get

If…

A thought gives way to an action,
an action gives way to a habit,
a habit gives way to a character,
and a character gives way to a destiny.

What are you thinking? What You Think is What You Get will deliver tools you need to make sure you’re thoughts aren’t keeping you from the success you want. With the guidance and advice as to how we’re programmed and how to reprogram our thoughts you’ll be well on your way to creating the career, relationships, business, and life you want and deserve.

Only $9.95 for the book or $4.95 for the download.

Place your order now!

You are responsible for your thoughts, feelings, actions, and emotions. No one else can make you think something, feeling anything, do something, or express anything. No matter what you think! Once you get clear about this you’ll know that only you can be happy or not. Yes, even if something bad happens, you don’t have to let the situation determine how you feel, act, or think. When you’re not happy think of something that you enjoy. Mine is puppies: little, fuzzy, pink-bellied, fluffy, puppies. Now, who can say “puppy” and not smile and be happy? Read this article and get more tips about how to be happy.

Learn How to Be Happy

“He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.” ~ Saki, British author (1870 – 1916)

Happiness is not about what you own, who you married, or what you collect. Happiness is feeling good – not having your life look good – and it can only be felt right now, in this moment. It cannot be projected into the future or relived from the past. Interestingly, people don’t necessarily know how to be happy. We are busy. We know how to do stuff and get things done. Generally, there is a pervasive discontent in society as we struggle to keep up with our own expectations, society’s expectations, and our family’s expectations. And when we cannot meet the unrealistic expectations about who we should be and what we should be doing, we feel bad. Guilt, shame, fear, disappointment, self-doubt even self-loathing erupts in us resulting in constant movement because if we stop, we might have to actually feel these “bad” feelings and that’s too upsetting to consider!

Inevitably, reality hits us, usually with a series of events meant to smack us in the face so we have no other option but to face our reality. These can be an illness, the sudden death of someone you know, a cancer scare, a friend’s affair or divorce, or even turning a certain age. It can be your weight when you step on the scale. Whatever the event, suddenly your world is turned upside down and you can no longer deny that you are not happy living the way you are living.

Interestingly, it may not be what you are doing that’s making you unhappy. You may have a great life. However, how you think about your life and what you are doing may be your difficulty. In other words, your thoughts and your beliefs are what may be causing your angst and your discontent.

Your Emotional Message System

As humans, we are blessed to have such a wonderful emotional system to inform us of things that require our attention. Many of us, however, are completely ill-prepared to handle this system and have not learned how to use it to our benefit. So we fumble about doing the best we can. It’s not like we are born with an instruction manual on how to deal with our emotions. And if we as adults don’t do it well, we will not be able to teach our children how to be emotionally competent.

Mastering your emotions is part of your human experience. The learning starts when you are a child. You learn by watching your parents and how they deal with emotions. You also learn through instruction. What were some of the messages you learned growing up? What response or reaction did you receive when you expressed an emotion? How was anger handled in your home? What about sadness, disappointment, or frustration? How did your family mourn losses? Were people generally happy? Did they know how to enjoy themselves?

Being told, “Don’t cry,” when you were sad has made an impact on you and may have created a belief about how you are supposed to deal with sadness. If your parents screamed at each other all the time, then you learned something about how couples get along. If no one talked to one another for days on end when they were angry, then that has left its mark on you as well. Unearthing your hidden beliefs about emotions and learning to be at choice rather than at the mercy of these old, unhealthy patterns will help you to feel in control about your emotional state.

Emotions are inner messages. They provide you with information which you can use to guide your behavior. Emotions enrich the experience you have while you are in your human form; they permeate every aspect of being human. There are no “bad” emotions. Emotions just are. We judge them as “bad” because we may not like to feel them or we fear them because we don’t have the skills to manage these emotions when they show up.

But people have just as much trouble with the “good” emotions such as happiness and joy as they do with so-called “bad” emotions such as anger, grief, or depression. We find ourselves spending most of our time worrying, full of anxiety, in a state of fear, and full of self-doubt. And because this is what we are used to, we are habituated; it’s more comfortable and familiar than happiness, joy and love. In order for us to change, to learn to be happy, then we must create new habits, habits that support our ability to embrace and experience the “good” emotions.

The Path to Happiness

The path to happiness – to respect, to inner peace, to feeling good about yourself and to being confident – is by honoring yourself and doing the things that make you feel good or comfortable. And when something feels bad, don’t do it. Choose to spend time with people who you enjoy being around. And when someone does something that feels bad, then tell them about it and, if need be, instruct them on what would feel good for you. If they don’t want to oblige and continue to do things that are of no value to you or that hurt you, then instead of trying to get them to change, just stop spending time with that person.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? So, why is it so hard?

It’s hard because there are so many things that get in the way of eliminating what feels bad and moving toward what feels good. We get in our own way. Most of the time, our heads get in the way; we do a lot of second guessing and we don’t trust ourselves or our feelings. So we behave in ways that do not reflect what we truly want and, therefore, our results are not what we want. This makes us unhappy and we don’t know how to make it better.

In addition, other people have their own heads and thoughts to contend with. They don’t do or say what they really mean either and we spend a lot of time guessing and making assumptions about what they want from us. It makes communication really, really difficult. And we wonder why there are so many single people and the divorce rate is so high!

At the most basic level, the path to happiness is to identify and eliminate the things that feel bad and identify and include the things that feel good. Each day, you have the opportunity to discover new things that you like and don’t like. Practice by being on the lookout for how you feel. It will take time, but with each choice you make to be happy in that moment, it will become easier and eventually, it will become habit. Then you’ll start looking for things that feel good and add value to your life and you’ll actually repel things that don’t. You’ll become attractive to good things! It may be hard to imagine, depending upon how you feel today, but one day at a time, with focus and a desire for change, you will succeed at happiness.

Julie Fuimano, MBA, BSN, RN, CSAC is dedicated to helping you break through the barriers to your happiness and success. She is a masterful coach, a motivational speaker and world-renowned writer and author. For additional resources and to sign up for her inspiring e-newsletter, visit http://www.NurturingYourSuccess.com or email Julie@NurturingYourSuccess.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julie_Fuimano

It’s amazing how many things we do over the years that eventually wear out our parts. Just like your car, one that you’ve had for a number of years. If you ride the brake, it’s going to wear out faster, using the clutch whenever you drive is going to wear out the clutch. The same thing happens with the body. Unfortunately, there’s not a body-part replacement catalog that allows us to order and replace the parts we wear out on us. That’s why we need tips and techniques to help us keep from wearing out those precious, one-of-a-kind, body parts. Read this article to get one of those tips.

The Wrong Ways to Sit on Your Office Chair

Who would have thought there was a wrong way to sit in an office chair? I guess there is a wrong way to do just about anything, but when it becomes detrimental to your health, that is when a real problem arises. In fact, sitting is harder on your back than standing. Studies have actually proven that sitting in a properly adjusted chair that encourages motion reduces cumulative trauma disorders to nerves, tendons, and the neuromuscular system. I, of all people, am extremely guilty of sitting in my office chair the wrong way, which is a very bad habit I am working on fixing. In order to motivate myself to break the habit, I did some research on why it is detrimental to sit incorrectly. I have come to notice myself and others sitting in 3 common positions that are actually harmful to your health.

The first is my favorite, which is sitting cross legged/indian style while sitting in my chair. Over time, I have learned that knee problems can develop from sitting in this position, as comfortable as it. Especially if one sits in this position over the span of many years. Although I am still getting back support from my chair, I am losing blood flow to my legs which can cause them to cramp up. This tends to happen a lot, forcing me to switch to another bad position.

Normally I then switch to putting my feet on a footrest. Now, I know you are thinking, what is wrong with using a footrest? Normally footrests are very effective…except when you are using another chair as a footrest. Footrests are supposed to make it so that your knees are at about a 90 degree angle because this position promotes the best circulation. My legs are completely straight when I use my chair/footrest which promotes very bad circulation.

The last bad position I tend to sit in, is with my back far away from my chair, slumped over on my desk. While this does help me read my computer monitor better, it also is causing cumulative trauma to my back. The best solution for this, is increasing the size of the font on the screen you are reading or getting a larger monitor with a monitor arm that will allow you to adjust how close the computer is to your face.

After reviewing all my bad habits, clearly it is time to break them and start sitting better in my office chair. Some tips I learned to prevent myself from sitting incorrectly are get up and move, keep the body in alignment while sitting in an office chair, choose ergonomic office chairs when sitting, and use posture friendly props. It is best to take a break from sitting in an office chair every half an hour or so for a few minutes in order to stretch, stand, or walk. When sitting in an office chair, take advantage of the chairs features. Also if you are sitting in an ergonomic office chair, you are able to adjust the back for lumbar support. Footrests, portable lumbar back supports, or even a small pillow can be used while sitting in an office chair. And of course, posture is important! The proper way to sit in a chair is to keep both feet on the ground, sitting up straight, with your back firmly rested against the seat. Follow this advice and you will be sitting better in no time.

Chelsea Alves is the marketing manager for Sitbetter.com, a company dedicated to finding the best chairs for you, at the best price possible, with the best customer service available. For more information on ergonomic products visit http://www.sitbetter.com/. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chelsea_Alves

The holidays are coming – the holidays are coming! Yes, no amount of head-in-the-sand mentality is going to keep them at bay. You might as well suck it up and get ready for those pesky houseguests. Whether they be family or friends they bring with them stress. Which is the last thing you need more of around the holidays. That’s why early preparations are a must!

Read this article for some tips on helping with holiday guests.

Strategically Preparing For Holiday Houseguests

Whether it is family or friends that are visiting, it is important to make them feel at home and not like they are in your way. There are challenges and rewards to hosting a guest during what is the most strenuous time of the year. However, with a few early preparations, you can create an enjoyable guest experience as well as enjoy the holidays.

First of all, if you are not feeling ok, then before beginning any type of preparation, take care of yourself. You could be suffering from a back ache or migraine headaches that, if left unchecked, could wreak havoc on the entire holiday season. Holiday entertaining is serious business. One year, my back went out due to a stressful time at work, and it was no small picnic to get everything done in time.

The next thing to do is to thoroughly clean your house, especially the areas that get frequent traffic, such as the kitchen, bathroom, and living room; and of course, the guest bedroom. If the intended guest bedroom is in somewhat disarray and disrepair and cannot be remedied in time, then consider offering your bedroom to the guest while you stay in the other room. Sometimes simply decluttering a space makes a huge difference. It is about the guest feeling welcome, after all. It is also about keeping you sane. You do not want to spend a lot of time renovating a guest room that will not be used for another year.

While you are cleaning the house (and hopefully delegating some of the chores), get someone in your family to start hanging decorations on the exterior of the house. Although the outside patio will be too cold to hang out on, it might be a good idea to get any clutter out of the way in case your guest wants to indulge in a cigarette on the back porch. Creating an inviting guest experience is about not overlooking any details, however minor. Plus, with a porch (especially a covered one), you can store wine, beer and other items that are needed during the holidays. Food storage solutions are also a key factor.

At this time in the planning and preparation stages, draw up a list of non-perishable grocery and other entertaining supplies you will need and note some recipes you want to make. You will also be shopping for Thanksgiving at this time as well. There are many good sales during these holidays. Peruse the online store circulars and make your list detailed enough to show where else you can find a particular item should the item be out of stock in your usual store. Another alternative is to jot down a substitute for that item.

Once you have the necessary grocery items, start decorating as soon as you can. The day or the weekend after Thanksgiving would be optimal. Enlist the aid of family members. Do not go overboard if it makes you feel overwhelmed. A few smart holiday touches here and there, along with the Christmas tree, will make the statement. Take the opportunity to inexpensively put some understated holiday trimmings in the bathroom and guest’s bedroom. Little soaps and candles with holiday scents of cinnamon, clove and evergreen are classic accents. Placing a poinsettia plant or other winter flower in the guest’s bedroom will further add to the element of your holiday retreat for your guest.

Aside from a few other things to cross off on the list, the majority of the work is done. And hopefully, you have completed it by the first week in December!

Helpful resources to carry out the above steps can be found here. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stefanie_Enza

It’s amazing how much mental and emotional energy we put forth at work. Not only on the tasks but on the people as well. And what’s really sad is that we don’t respect or even like the majority of them. We spend too much time at work to be unhappy, dissatisfied, disgruntled, and annoyed. Here are some ideas to re-adjust your thinking about work.

The Top Ten Ways to Be Unhappy at Work, Especially After 40!

Most people are good at being unhappy at work. There are so many people who are already unhappy at their work that I probably don’t need to teach them since they are already so good at it. But for those who want to change bad habits, a reminder sometimes is a good idea.

1. Work for JUST the money

When you work for JUST the money after 40 you will start to resent your work. Work will start to seem like an obligation. Everyone around you will feel like competition. The money will not be appreciated and it will be spent quicker. When you work JUST for the money, it is easy to lose track of one’s sense of purpose and values about their life and what is most important. This is a great way to be unhappy at work especially for those over 40 who have been unhappy for many years at work due to society pressures and expectations.

2. Make money doing something you don’t care about

Make the money you need in ways which make no sense to you. Work in areas which the work is not coherent to you. That is, work in areas which do not make sense to you at the end of the day. Go to sleep after doing work all day which provides no joy or meaning. This will be great for restless sleep, worry and of course unhappiness about one’s work!

3. Ensure that your work really DOES NOT interest you

After 40, this is very important. Work which provides no interest will set you up for retirement and then a quicker death. Work which does not interest you will impact your sense of self, your happiness and affect how you relate to those around you. This will be great for becoming anti-social and unhappy. After 40, ONLY work at things which clearly do not align your interests and abilities.

4. Only work at things which you are good at

This is a great strategy for being unhappy at work. Do work which you are really good at but no longer interested in. This will keep you in dead end jobs for years JUST for the money. Human Resource policies around performance management will always make you the winner ensuring many more years of making money and unhappy work.

5. Have no sense of urgency about your life and work

This is another great way to stay unhappy at work. Just wait for good luck or better hope something will happen to make your life and work better without action a sure recipe for unhappiness!

6. Work in JOBS and careers after 40

This is one of the best ways to ensure unhappiness in mid ‘life. Just work in defined jobs with nice titles and even better career tracks with hopes to someday retire and finally be happy and do what you want. Just waiting for someday will almost guarantee your unhappiness at work.

7. Look forward to retirement

Plan your retirement and all the things you will finally be able to when you stop working. This is one of my best recommended strategies for unhappiness at work. For sure life or the economy will get in the way and you just might have to work forever at just jobs.

8. Actually, retire!

Just stop working and join activities with other retired people. Enjoy the good life. This is a great strategy for unhappiness. Soon a life without new goals or meaningful work and contribution will set in and the water will boil before you notice it. This will speed your progress towards unhappiness.

9. Work around people who enjoy what you don’t

This is a great way to become unhappy at work. Work in areas which everyone around you seems to enjoy except you. Soon you will feel like you are broken and that something is wrong with you. A sure path to unhappiness!

10. Have a job and DO NOT have your life’s work

This is my favorite. JUST have a job that one day you can retire from. For sure don’t think deeply about the world and where you want to make a greater difference especially after 40. Forget contribution, joy, meaning, and all those silly concepts of vocation. Just assume a job is work and the rest of your life happens after you get home.

Does this sound familiar? Does your work fit into any of these ten steps? The good news is by following of course the opposite direction of these steps WILL ensure you a lifetime of happiness and joy and a sense that your work matters. Now this can ENABLE happiness! I’ll be cheering you on as you go!

Craig Nathanson is the author of “Don’t JUST Retire and Die: A New Approach to Your Life and Work After 40? and he is a coaching expert who works with people over forty. Visit Craig’s online community at http://www.thevocationalcoach.com where you can take a class, get more ideas through Craig Nathanson’s books and CDs, get some private coaching over the phone or in Craig’s office, or read other stories of mid-life change and renewal. Craig lives and works in Petaluma, California. His office is located at P.O Box 2823, Petaluma Ca, 94953. You can reach him at 707-775-4020 or at craig@thevocationalcoach.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/craignathanson. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Craig_Nathanson

Before you started a business you had no business work to do but the minute you started your business you have more business work than you could ever get done by yourself. Now, in the beginning you probably had more time than money so you took on some of those chores that needed to be done but you couldn’t afford to pay someone to do for you. Like phone calls, appointment setting, filing, bookkeeping tasks, and such. You may not like doing them but they are a necessary evil of business. Unless you got into business to be someone’s assistant or bookkeeper, you may not be spending your time as wisely or as profitably as you could. Read this article and get some assistance for your business growth.

Why It Is Less Productive to Work Alone

Many small businesses begin as one-person operations. A new small business owner may have neither the budget nor the workload to justify hiring employees. In the early days, this generally works just fine. A small business with a slow stream of work usually allows its owner plenty of time to focus on all aspects of each project.

However, success tends to breed success. Soon you may find yourself with a steady stream of projects. You may even get to the point of turning down projects that you simply do not have time to complete. The decision then becomes, do you continue to do it yourself, or hire someone? It can be a difficult decision. But you must take into consideration that continuing to work alone can be counterproductive. There are several reasons for this:

• No business owner is good at everything
• You probably have a natural aptitude for the work that your business produces.
• You can quickly and easily turn out finished projects that are of the highest quality.
• Other types of work, however, may not come so easily to you.

Perhaps you have trouble producing high quality written work. You struggle with putting words together in just the right combination to convey your meaning. Consequently, preparing written reports, ad copy and other documents takes you an inordinate amount of time. Or maybe math is not your strong suit. While words flow quickly out of your fingers, you struggle to understand spreadsheets, complete payroll and perform other tasks that involve long strings of numbers.

No matter what your weaker area is, you will find yourself dedicating extra time to those projects. You will lose valuable productivity simply due to a natural weakness.

No business owner has time for everything

The sheer quantity of tasks that must be performed by a small business can be onerous. Even if you are the rare person who is equally talented in all aspects of business management and production, performing them all by yourself ensures that you have less time to produce your main product. Every task takes time to complete. So you have to make the decision, should you do it yourself or hire someone?

The solution

You may not be ready to hire an on-site part time or full time staff just yet. That’s okay; after all, those costs can be high when you factor in overhead and equipment purchases. But there is an intermediate step you can take: Outsourcing. Whether you choose a virtual assistant to work consistently with you or a freelancer to take on specific projects, you can scale up or down or hire on an as-needed basis.

The advantage here is that you can start small and slowly build your business in an organic way, rather than hiring an employee and hoping that you’ll get enough extra business to cover their wage. Outsourcing your work is the way to go!

Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heather_Villa

Where Did Aspirin Come From?

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Got a headache? Read this article and give thanks.

Aspirin’s history is a lengthy one, from its discovery in the fifth century BC, to its use as a bartering tool in World War I, to its newly discovered benefits and uses.

A person could get a headache thinking about all of the detours aspirin has taken on the road to becoming today’s common, inexpensive, cure-all medication.

Aspirin’s roots are deep, and reach back to Hippocrates himself, the Greek father of modern medicine, who held the recipe for a pain reliever and fever reducer made from the bark and leaves of the willow tree. The key the Greek father of modern medicine held from sometime between 460 and 377 BC, was buried with him, and was not rediscovered until 1758 by an English clergyman.

Scientists, now aware of the pain relieving properties of willow bark, struggled to strip it down to the exact ingredient responsible for its powers, and finally did so in the 1820s. They narrowed their search to salicin, an early form of the family of drugs named salicylates, of which aspirin is a member.

Severe stomach upset from the salicylic acid extracted willow bark posed a problem for scientists. They attempted to remedy this side effect by combining the acid with sodium to neutralize the acid, but it failed to reduce the belly aching.

A French chemist, Charles Frederic Gerhardt put an end to the dilemma in 1853, by adding acetyl chloride to the sodium salicylate mixture. He published the results of his findings, but did not pursue his creation past this point, even though it upset the stomach less than the currently available compound. Mr. Gerhardt saw no future in the time-consuming preparation of his recipe, which he felt did not improve much upon the original medicine. His decision left people grabbing their guts, and stomaching the old standby, sodium salicylate.

Salvation came in 1897, in the person of an eager, young Felix Hoffman, who sought, and found, a drug to help relieve the painful symptoms of his father’s arthritis. This driven chemist, an employee of the Bayer Company, found and dusted off Gerhardt’s old publication, mixed a batch of the recipe, and discovered that it actually worked.

Hoffman used his connection with his employer to pitch his idea, and Bayer reluctantly agreed to produce the medicine they named Aspirin. They invented the name Aspirin by combining the initials A from acetyl chloride, the SPIR from the plant they extracted the salicylic acid from, Spirae ulmaria, and the IN, because it was the common ending for medications at that time. Bayer launched Aspirin in powder form and as a tablet in 1915. Aspirin was an instant success.

Aspirin’s success ended up costing the Bayer Company a great deal of money, when the U.S., England, France, and Russia forced it to surrender the trademark to them, as part of Germany’s war reparations at the close of World War I. Bayer gave up the trademark in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles, which explains why the aspirin, stripped of its trademark, is now written in the lower case.

Today, aspirin holds the title of being the most widely used drug, one that is no longer solely used as a pain reliever and as a fever reducer. Physicians have shown aspirin to be effective in combating arthritis pain, in reducing the risk of heart disease, of death following a heart attack, of cancer, if taken two times weekly, and of developing preeclampsia during pregnancy. It is doubtful that aspirin will ever again be lost to the annals of history.

Did you know?

Bayer also held, and had to give up, its trademark to heroin at the end of World War I?