Archive for August, 2008
August 10, 2008 at 6:14 pm · Filed under Marketing + Selling
In my life as a biologist, I studied hummingbird behavior. In fact, my master’s thesis was on hummingbirds, and I videotaped and analyzed the data on more than 13,000 feedings! Best yet, my experimental design was so successful that it ended up attracting more than 500 feedings per hour during the peak periods of the study.
I love hummingbirds - their magical movements, their speed, and their sense of humor! (You have to BE with them for a while to catch on to that one, I think.) In the last few weeks there’s been a lot of hummingbirds as the migratory visitors are in to breed, and I had the chance to watch them often from the balcony area where I meditate. I began to miss them, remembering how fun and exciting it was to watch them up close. So I took action.
I put out two feeders with my special recipe (the secret is at the end of this article) and they began to come in droves, fighting, playing, what I think of as “singing”, and generally just amusing me as I watched. When I was doing my thesis research, they used to dive down and play with my hair or even peck on my red toenail polish. So far, several of them have been coming to “visit” by hovering about six inches from my face to check me out.
It’s been fun, it’s been delightful, it’s been downright entertaining. In fact, it’s been magical watching all the birds that have been drawn to my home. (Don’t even get me started on the Hooded Orioles!). It’s taken me back to a time that was magical and playful.
I realized the importance of remembering what has given us joy in the past and finding ways to relish the simple pleasures in our daily life. So often, we may pass up the opportunity to create good feelings for ourselves and others because we get caught up in the busyness of life and living.
So my question to you is this: Is there something you would enjoy doing that you have been putting off?
Better yet, ask yourself this: What is one thing I can do TODAY to feel good and create joy in the world for myself or others?
It may be simple. It may be inexpensive. It doesn’t have to take a great deal of time. But it can create magical moments and an incredible feeling of joy inside you that will move through your life to attract even more.
We know that what we focus on expands, and when we create excitement, fun, laughter, and delight we are sure to experience even more. Most of us have gotten pretty good at doing the “have to’s” in life, but some of us have forgotten the importance of the “love to’s” as well.
Give yourself the gift, starting today, to open yourself up to the childlike joys of being alive! Give yourself the gift of magical moments! Allow yourself to experience the feelings of joy, laughter, play, and ecstatic excitement! As you do, you will be creating an irresistible energy field that will naturally attract to you incredibly wonderful moments that will delight you!
We are here to enjoy this amazing playground of life in a way that is full and fulfilled with all of our heart’s desires. Life is meant to be magical, to excite and delight us! There is a limitless supply for us all if we only open ourselves to receive.
Begin to take actions today that will bring more love, joy, laughter, freedom, and just “feeling great” into your life. The pay off will be tremendous as you experience more of the magic in your life, knowing that you can create it at any moment.
And remember, YOU deserve it!
August 9, 2008 at 9:16 pm · Filed under Marketing + Selling
More and more I hear and read about a looming crisis of leadership at the middle management level and the inevitable resulting increase in, poor performance, accidents and production mistakes and hence declining profits.
I’m afraid to say these observations are not just rumours. In my own work as a management consultant I’ve noticed a distinct increase in negative behaviours in many middle managers in all sorts of companies.
In this short article I’ll explain what I mean by “negative behaviours” offer suggestions on what senior managers can do about it.
Over the past four years I’ve noticed the following kinds of behaviours from many middle managers:
Increasingly using harsh, abrupt language: “Don’t be so stupid”. “I don’t care what the problem is just get it fixed”
Becoming more dictatorial (unwilling to listen) “Yes, I know all that now do it this way”
Putting time pressure on people by continually asking when jobs will be completed and why things are taking so long
Losing tempers and insulting others when things go wrong
Unwilling to take the time to read, seek advice and think things out carefully
Creating a them and us culture: “We decide and direct and you do”.
Using more of the fear factor: “Perform or you’re out”.
If you’re a senior managers reading you’ll be disappointed and even shocked. The tragedy is that the middle managers I meet are excellent people - they are not behaving like this on purpose. When you point out the danger and destructiveness of these behaviours they acknowledge it and change for a few days. However, in a few weeks they forget and go back to unhelpful behaviours. Why?
In a nutshell, middle managers are under more pressure to perform than I have seen in a long time. For example,
In the past five years, levels of management have been stripped out resulting in middle managers doing more and more.
The constant downsizing, having to apply “for your own job” and frequent relocation have numbed many people. Some just don’t care anymore.
Many middle managers are now forced to be contractors and work in a culture where “you are only as good as your last job” and loyalty and long-term thinking is not seen to be valued.
Middle management is now overstretched to breaking point both physically and mentally, hence the behaviours listed above. This is having an adverse effect on the supervisors they manage and in turn on al their people. Another tragedy is that most middle managers won’t own up that they are under this pressure. So senior managers don’t know about it.
For me it’s the effective leadership of senior managers that will prevent the coming crisis. Here are just six straightforward steps senior managers should take now.
1. Initiate a short, anonymous survey to measure the extent of pressure on middle managers.
2. Take even more time to discuss in detail the workload and targets of direct reports. Probe to see if people are accepting unreasonable workloads just to please you as the boss. Make sure your direct reports do this with their people too.
3. Deliberately create situations where you as a senior manager can admit that you can’t cope and need help. People will not own up if you don’t do it first.
4. Find ways to show middle managers that you value them as people not just a resource. Especially when they are non-core staff. Yes, short-term contracting as a mode of employment is increasing but that doesn’t mean we should treat managers who are contractors as less valuable than full time staff.
5. Provide the time for management training.
6. Here’s the toughest of all. When the Board trims the budget for a project and you’ve struggled to find ways to do more with less and you realise you can’t, you should tell them. This is the ultimate source of unreasonable pressure. Don’t allow it to flow down hill.
Yes, we need a leaner business model for the modern competitive and fast-paced economy. Yes, we must keep pushing for better performance from everyone. But does lean have to be mean - do we have to lose the human touch? Indeed, doesn’t success in this era require senior managers to be even more human?
Copyright (c) 2004 Dr William Robb. Electronic distribution to ezines, friends and colleagues permitted but publication in print prohibited without written permission
Dr Bill has spent 20 years helping people and organisations improve their performance and get outstanding results from their time, effort and expenditure. http://www.mytimemanagementsecrets.com/
August 8, 2008 at 6:42 pm · Filed under Consumer Planet, Shopping Parlor, Tips + Tricks
You might have come across advertisements in websites that promise to give you some free stuff and requires you to just sign up for a few sponsor offers and refer some of your friends. This kind of website is called IFW or incentivized freebie website and you can see a nice example at www.freebies.me.uk. This is one of the types of marketing that has grown in the past few years.
These websites are able to make available gifts such as desktops, laptops, big screen TVs and the like as they get money for the advertiser for every lead that the site generates.
How do you benefit from IFWs?
You get paid for including the details of referrals. When you complete the offer requirements you can earn some money or a free gift from these sites. These enable you to earn up to $20-$100 from every site. If a site is difficult to complete, you end up getting paid more. All the money is credited through PayPal. Another way in which you can benefit from IFWs is when you are paid for every completed referral. If you want to make a living doing just this, you will need to hire people to complete the requirements for you. IFWs give you the facility to refer innumerable people. This allows you to make profits even when you contribute towards just one IFW. The third way that you can benefit through IFWs is by selling the freebies on Ebay. However not people are keen on this and follow the first two methods.
It is however important that you be aware of all the terms and conditions before you sign up for any gift. Freebie trading is a great way to earn money. It also needs very less capital or technical knowledge. With the increase in the popularity of the internet it has become easy for people to search for freebies in the virtual world. If you are eager to grab the free stuff that are on offer in the internet, you just have to go to the innumerable sites that are there and hunt for the kind of freebies that you want.
August 6, 2008 at 10:29 pm · Filed under Marketing + Selling
Gas prices fluctuate according to the price of crude oil. The price of crude oil, in turn, is determined by the world market and depends on the balance between world demand and supply. Currently, few countries supply the world’s oil, as these are the only countries that have oil reserves and production. The oil demand, however, encompasses demand from most of the world’s nations.
Another factor that determines pricing is how much gasoline we demand relative to the supply. The more we require, the more will be the gas price. There are some federal and state requirements that call for special gas blends with the intention of improving air quality. This makes the production of gasoline expensive, and thus, the price rises. The charges that are levied on gas have greatly affected gas prices over the past decade. Even changes in the petroleum industry, like mergers, make the gas price change over time. At present, the states of California and Hawaii have the highest-priced gas in U.S. However, compared to the rest of the industrialized world, it’s one of the lowest. The price of gas in Europe is more than twice that in U.S., due to higher fuel excise. And in other energy-importing countries like Japan, petrol costs are higher because of fuel transportation costs and taxes. However, some of the major oil-producing countries like Iran and Indonesia provide subsidized gas at low market prices.
Individual gas stations have no control over gas prices, as world markets determine the price. They can charge a margin of between 7 to 11 cents a gallon since gasoline is a commodity, and the gas station that charges more, tends to lose customers to other gas stations. This is the reason gas stations sell higher-margin food products in their convenience stores. It is during the weekends and holidays when American road travel is at its peak that gas prices soar, only to drop as the holidays close.
Gas provides detailed information on Gas, Gas Stations, Gas Prices, Gas Scooters and more. Gas is affiliated with Propane Gas Prices.
August 3, 2008 at 12:56 am · Filed under Great Health Tips
There are loads of issues that will probably make the amazing hair follicles on your scalp shed, the common reason is hereditary baldness. Male baldness could become a problem for as many as four and a half in ten of blokes under the age of thirty three years old. The standard man has beyond 70000 hair follicles on their head and could quite easily shed 50 to one hundred and fifty three hair strands per day through combing, showering and sport. This can often seem like tons but actually it is normal.
The abnormal rate of losing your hair is when guys and girls are losing more hair follicles than what is coming back. And men and women will soon realise people have abnormal hair follicle loss when folk shockingly start to see your crown growing. It is always best to go check with a hair care professional to make sure people are not suffering from any medical disorders or under immense illness. Visit Advanced Hair Studio and get a free hair and scalp check.
The most common cause though is male pattern baldness. This happens when the hormones in your hair force the hair follicles to close. This disappearing effect makes the hair follicle unable to grow.
If you are curious you might well go and communicate to a hair professional and identify what sort of hair follicle loss you are suffering from and also see what mind-blowing hair loss treatments are available to worried men and women.
August 2, 2008 at 2:20 am · Filed under Marketing + Selling
What is trying and how does it really differ from doing? Often trying is a function of being in a serious contemplative state. I am trying to quit smoking, really means you want to quit, but are now merely thinking about it and have simply cut back. Yet the act of quitting actually means that you no longer smoke. So, which is it? Have you quit or are you still a smoker? If you listen carefully, you can see the difference here between trying and doing. The person that has cut back on his/her smoking is trying. The one that isn’t smoking anymore is obviously doing.
Let’s say you want to try to climb a mountain. Are you climbing or are you standing at the bottom thinking about how high it is? If you are climbing, then you are in fact in action and may make it to the top, but if you’re at the bottom looking up, chances are good you will talk yourself out of it before ever even beginning.
Trying in life, and trying your life on like it fits is a whole other way to look at the opportunities that come your way. Think about going to a shoe store to buy the perfect running shoe. You have money in your pocket, time on your side, find several pairs you like and are determined to find the best one you can. All the ones you’ve found offer something just a little bit different.
At first you try on one of each, not wanting to take the time to lace them all. You stand in place trying to distinguish between the two shoes, although you are clearly unbalanced physically and emotionally. Physically, because you are experiencing different sensations in each foot and emotionally, because it is impossible to imagine one shoe, when you are in two.
It isn’t until you lace up the matching shoe that you feel you can make an informed decision and as the last one is tied, you picture yourself running. Suddenly your frame of mind has changed from trying on shoes, to owning these shoes. You picture how they will be on the track in the morning, how they will hit the pavement in the afternoon and how they will be as the temperatures around you change too. And most importantly, how they will stand the test of time.
If they feel comfortable as you round the track, you continue picturing them as yours, now looking closer at the details and colors, until the questions begin to appear. How will they be tomorrow out on the pavement? How will they be at mile ten with achy toes? Hopefully your desire to have the shoes will outweigh your fears and you will buy them anyway. But do you take that same risk with your life or do you tend to leave the shoes behind, never really knowing your full potential as a runner?
Take a quick look at your life and the choices you make everyday about your career, friends and relationships. Why do many areas of your life seem to be failing after all the trying you’ve done? Perhaps because you need to start living and give up the trying for good. Maybe if you stopped trying on shoes and began putting each one on like it just may fit, what you may find is one that does fit. Or maybe you’ll find it doesn’t fit at all and you simply need to wear a different one.
Take a look at how you are living your life. Are you living the life you want to live or simply trying to find it? I say, stop trying and start living. At the end of the race, you will be the one with the Gatorade smiling. Just like NIKE says.
Life is just a game, so get off the bench and start playing!
Lesley Moore is President and Owner of LifeScope, Life Coaching. She specializes in working with individuals in transition, empowering them to create a life they love. She is also a Personal Fitness Trainer and a Freelance Writer. Lesley graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in Journalism and has studied coaching through the Mentor Coach Program, which is recognized by the International Coach Federation. For more information about Life Coaching, visit her website at http://www.lifescopecoach.com/.
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