A Balanced Life–Part 1
Jan/100
According to psychologist Sidney Jourard, fully 85 percent of your happiness in life will come from your personal relationships. Your interactions and the time that you spend with the people you care about will be the major source of the pleasure, enjoyment and satisfaction that you derive daily. The other 15 percent of your happiness will come from your accomplishments. Unfortunately, many people lose sight of what is truly important, and they allow the tail to wag the dog. They sacrifice their relationships, their major source of happiness, to accomplish more in their careers. But one’s career, at best, can be only a minor source–and a temporary one, at that–of the happiness and satisfaction that everyone wants.
There is no perfect answer to the key question of how to achieve balance in our lives, but there are a number of ideas that can help you to be and have and do more in the areas that are important to you. These ideas often require changes and modifications in the way you think and use your time, but the price is well worth it. You will find that by reorganizing your life in little ways, you can create an existence that gives you the highest quality and quantity of satisfaction overall. And this must be your guiding purpose.
Balance Formula
The ancient Greeks had two famous sayings: “Man, know thyself” and “Moderation in all things.” Taken together, those two ideas are a good starting point for achieving the balance that you desire. With regard to knowing thyself, it is very important to give some serious thought to what you really value in life. All trade-offs and choices are based on your values, and all stress and unhappiness come from believing and valuing one thing and, yet, finding yourself doing another. Only when your values and your activities are congruent do you feel happy and at peace with yourself.
Know Yourself
So knowing yourself means knowing what you really value, knowing what is really important to you. The superior man or woman decides what is right before he or she decides what is possible. The advanced human being organizes his or her life to assure that everything that he or she is doing is consistent with his or her true values. It is essential for you to organize your life around yourself, rather than to organize yourself around the demands of your external world.
Moderation
The second quote, “Moderation in all things,” is a wonderful and important dictate for successful living. But, at the same time, you know that you can’t really be successful in any area by being moderate in that area. Peter Drucker once wrote, “Wherever you find something getting done, you find a monomaniac with a mission.” You know that single-minded concentration on a goal or objective is absolutely necessary for achievement of any kind in a competitive society.
The Formula
So what’s the solution? Over the years, I have worked with tens of thousands of men and women who have spent a lot of time and effort struggling to achieve balance in their lives. I have found that there is a simple formula; it is simple in that it is easy to explain, but you need tremendous self-discipline and persistence to implement it in your life.
The formula revolves around a concept of time management, or what you might want to call life management. Time management is really a form of personal management in which you organize your 24 hours a day in such a way that they give you the greatest possible return of happiness and contentment.
Time
The key to time management, after you have determined your values and the goals that are in harmony with those values, is to set both priorities and posteriorities. The importance of setting priorities is obvious. You make a list of all the things that you can possibly do and then select from that list the things that are most important to you based on everything you know about yourself, about others and about your responsibilities. The setting of posteriorities is often overlooked. It is when you carefully decide which things you are going to stop doing so that you will have enough time to start doing something else.
Stop Racing the Clock
The greatest single shortage we experience in America today is that of time. We suffer from what has been called “time poverty.” Men and women everywhere feel that their biggest single challenge is that they simply do not have enough time to do all the things that they have to do or want to do. People today feel pressured from all sides and are under an inordinate amount of stress. They feel overworked, fatigued and incapable of fulfilling all the responsibilities that they have taken on.
The starting point to alleviate this time poverty is to stop and think. Most people are so busy rushing back and forth that they seldom take the time to think seriously about who they are and why they are doing what they are doing. They engage in frantic activity, instead of thoughtful analysis. They get so busy climbing the ladder of success that they lose sight of the fact that the ladder may be leaning against the wrong building.
The Key to Success
When my wife, Barbara, and I started our family, we were faced with a common dilemma: how can we balance the demands of work and home with the finite amount of time we are all given?
Here’s the answer I discovered: The key to success in a busy society is to devote your time to only two areas during the period of time when your family needs you, when your children are between the ages of birth to about 18 to 20 years. During this period of time, you need to curtail virtually all of your outside activities. You need to focus on two major areas¾your family and your career¾as I have done over the years. You need to place your family’s needs above all else and then organize your work schedule so that you can satisfy those needs on a regular basis. Then, when you work, you must concentrate single-mindedly on doing an excellent job.
Use Time Wisely
Most people are time wasters. They waste their own time, and they waste your time as well. To be successful and happy, you must discipline yourself to work all the time you work. The average employee works at about 50 percent of capacity. Fully 80 percent of people working today are underemployed in that their jobs do not really demand their full capacities. Only 5 percent of workers surveyed recently felt that they were working at the outside limits of their potentials.
But this is not for you. You must resolve to work all the time you work. You must decide that from the time you start in the morning until the time you finish in the evening, you will work 100 percent of the time. Even if no one is watching you, you should be aware that everyone is watching you. Everybody knows everything. In every company, everyone knows who is working and who is not. Your job must be to work all the time you work. If people come by and want to chat, you simply smile at them and say, “Could we talk about this later?” Tell them that you have to get back to work
Set Priorities-Then Stick to Them
Have a written list, and work on your list every day. Write down everything as it comes up,and add it to your list. Set priorities on your time, and be certain that you are working on the things that are most important to your boss and to your company. Refuse to get drawn into the time-wasting activities of the people around you. Work all the time you work.
Stay tuned for “A Balanced Life Part 2″ coming later this week.
Dating For Married People. Is It For You?
Jan/100
Married however trying couples often take the advantage of dating for married people. With the rise of on-line dating, now married online dating also turning into in style among couples. People who dont notice pleasure in their married life tend to interact in married on-line dating to seek out happiness in their life again.
Consistent with online polls, a lot of folks are finding their soul mate within the virtual world. The long-term success of relationships is still enthusiastic about the chemistry, integrity, and work ethic of these concerned, however there are a number of advantages of on-line dating compared to alternative traditional means of looking out for romance. Frustrated folks who had been trying for love in all potential places realize Married Dating Online their best resort for finding sensual gratification and more satisfaction.
Technology has additionally played a part in creating dating for married folks a convenient and exciting choice for married couples. Now they’ll notice their desired partner with a click of a mouse. Each men and women are concerned in married online dating. The explanation might be the negligence of their partner or as a result of of lack of interest from their partner’s side.
Some men and women suppose that they need to involve in further marital affairs as a result of they dont find their partner compatible with them anymore. Some typically tend to engage in married dating to have a lot of fun and a change in life. .
Another analysis indicates that 60 percent of men and 40 percent of girls will go on-line looking through married personals to own an extra marital affair. Online surveys conducted relating to individuals who have interaction in married dating showed that most loved their spouses however went looking out for extra marital connections as a result of they were bored at home and wish to have more thrills in their life.
There are various advantages of dating for married individuals like:
- Married On-line Dating may be a Less stressful way of introduction
- Chance to spot matches before you meet head to head
- Ability to avoid awkwardness of personal variations or price conflicts
- Ability to quickly meet and connect with tons of people in a short time • Many sites provide expert recommendation and scientific profile matching
- Potential for equally successful or a lot of successful relationships…
Finally, the advantages of on-line dating becomes additional and additional in focus as folks are additional time constrained and potency concerned. People that are married to their careers or who have very little time for going out ppreciate the fact that they will search and be searched even whereas busy or in another engagement.
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Run Farther In The Same Amount Of Time With Music
Nov/091
Since its fall there are tons of marathons throughout the country. For runners the three most imperative things are their broken-in shoes, heart rate monitor and their tunes. Trying to work out let alone run can be tough if you don’t have music blaring in your ear.
The music provides runners with motivation, distraction, and even stimulation. Because of the connection between the two factors researchers have been trying to uncover the close association between our ears and feet. Sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis has been trying to understand the connection between moving and music for 20 years.
In the course of his research he has discovered that there are four factors contributing to a songs motivation qualities: rhythm response, musicality, cultural impact and connection. The first two are known as “internal” factors as they relate to the music’s structure while the second two are “external” factors which mirror how we decipher the music.
Karageorghis explains that rhythm response is linked to beats per minute of the song and how well it matches the heartbeat of the runner. The song structure such as melody and harmony also plays a vital role in the musicality of the song. The external factors include what type of music we favor and what we’ve learned to correlate with specific songs and artists.
Science has confirmed that by syncing beats per minute with your pace can boost your efficiency. A recent study found that individuals that cycled to music required 7 percent less oxygen that others who did the same amount of work that just listened to music in the background. Music can also help you block out the idea that its time to give up.
The recent study shows that when our hearts perform between 30 and 70 percent of the maximum, we prefer an increase from 90 to 120 bpm. However when our anaerobic threshold is between 70 and 80 percent of maximum, we prefer a jump in rhythm from 120 to 150 bpm. But when it elevates above 80 percent of maximum heart rate faster music isn’t favored.
Researchers even found that if they raised or decreased the speed of a song by 10 percent the listener didn’t realize it, but it had an impact on performance. Speeding up the music led to an increase in the distance covered in the same amount of time. Then when they slowed down the music the distance also decreased. Researchers concluded that when exercising individuals match their exertion with the rhythm of the music.
Since choosing the right music can boost the workout that you’re getting in the same amount of time; there are great tools that can help you match up your bpm with music. You can create a custom playlist on your iTunes library which allows you to arrange songs in several different tempos that you can then cater to your warm-up and warm-downs along with the better part of you workout.
Diane Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Utah. She likes to write about the news, politics, online schools, online classes, adult education, and the college experience.
Women in Business / Economic Impact – Recent Study
Nov/090
Just a few interesting facts which were recently published by the Center for Women’s Business Research.
Economic impact – $3 trillion annually which translates into the creation and/or maintenance of more than 23 million jobs by women-owned businesses.
28.2 percent of all businesses in the United States are owned by women. However, only 4.2 percent of all direct revenues are generated by women-owned businesses in the U.S.
Most of the programming now offered through the public sector and much of the private sector is dated and focused on individuals who want to start a business. While these programs are important and meet a need, there are few solid programs that actually generate information and knowledge and engage entrepreneurs – especially women and minorities – to grow their business.
Research highlights the lack of knowledge currently available on how to grow a business from point A to point B., becoming an employer firm, and moving from being the technical expert to the business leader.
Observation – In Shelby County there are 16,000 women business owners; only 1970 have employees. Revenues generated by women owned firms in Shelby County, Tn. are less than 3% of the total revenues.
Stay tuned.
The Ten Keys to Business Success
Nov/090
There are ten critical areas where your ability to think largely determines the success or failure of your business. The greater clarity you have in each of these areas, the better decisions you will make and better results you will achieve.
Key Purpose
Key Measure
The key measure of business success is customer satisfaction. Your ability to satisfy your customers to such a degree that they buy from you rather than from someone else, that they buy again, and that they bring their friends is the key determinant of growth and profitability.
Key Requirement
The key requirement for wealth building and business success is for you to add value in some way. All wealth comes from adding value. All business growth and profitability come from adding value. Every day, you must be looking for ways to add more and more value to the customer experience.
Key Focus
The most important person in the business is the customer. You must focus on the customer at all times. Customers are fickle, disloyal, changeable, impatient, and demanding-just like you. Nonetheless, the customer must be the central focus of everything you do in business.
Key Word
In life, work, and business, you will always be rewarded in direct proportion to the value of your contribution to others, as they see it. The focus on outward contribution, to your company, your customers, and your community, is the central requirement for you to become an ever more valuable person, in every area.
Key Question
The most important question you ask, to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, or achieve any business goal is “How?” Top people always ask the question “How?” and then act on the answers that come to them.
Key Strategy
In a world of rapid change and continuing aggressive competition, you must practice continuous improvement in every area of your business and personal life. As Pat Riley, the basketball coach, said, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.”
Key Activity
The heartbeat of your business is sales. Dun & Bradstreet analyzed thousands of companies that had gone broke over the years and concluded that the number-one reason for business failure was “low sales.” When they researched further, they found that the number-one reason for business success was “high sales.” And all else was commentary.
Key Number
The most important number in business is cash flow. Cash flow is to the business as blood and oxygen are to the brain. You can have every activity working efficiently in your business, but if your cash flow is cut off for any reason, the business can die, sometimes overnight.
Key Goal
Every business must have a growth plan. Growth must be the goal of all your business activities. You should have a goal to grow 10 percent, 20 percent, or even 30 percent each year. Some companies grow 50 percent and 100 percent per year, and not by accident. The only real growth is profit growth. Profit growth is always measurable in what is called “free cash flow.” This is the actual amount of money that the business throws off each month, each quarter, and each year, above and beyond the total cost and expense of running a business.
Action Exercise
You should have a growth plan for the number of new leads you attract and for the number of new customers you acquire from those leads. You should have a growth plan for sales, revenues, and profitability. If you do not deliberately plan for continuous growth, you will automatically stagnate and begin to fall behind. Growth is not an accident; so you must plan and map out your growth plan if you want your business to see a bright future.
