A Lesson in Neediness

I spent most of my weekend remodeling and redecorating but avoided bringing the heaviest package in from my car. A nice gentleman at Target loaded this package for me as it weighed more than I thought I could carry.

I gazed at the package in my backseat when I arrived home tonight and thought I can do this. One time, two times, three times without any luck. If only a strong man, significant other or even my dad were here, the package would be sitting on my living room floor waiting to be assembled.

As I took a deep breathe, the words popped out of my mouth...I need a man.

I felt a sense of disappointment for even thinking that let alone saying it out loud. After all, I am an independent woman, hear me roar.

Women everywhere are preaching independence. And as a 28 year old single, I have been preaching that too. But the heavy lifting got me thinking maybe it is okay to need a man or any relationship for that matter.

I recently heard a quote that says "A real relationship is when your desire for each other outweighs your need for each other." So it is with all our relationships. We will face tough times where we "need" our friends, family, or significant other. And to reach out to them is not a sign of weakness.

The lesson is not to lose yourself to the relationship. Not to depend solely on the other person to get you through those times of "need."

So I took that lesson and headed back to the car.I got that package in my living room. And when this nice young gentleman asked if he could help I batted my eyes and said, "Why yes will you please hold the door."


The Secret Of Silver Jewelry

When we talk about precious metals we usually mean gold, platinum and another pure metal, fine silver. Silver is one of the original materials of value mentioned in the Bible, together with other originals such as precious gemstones that existed from the beginning of time.

This explains part of the attraction associated with these 'non-virtual' commodities - they existed for a very long time in human history, and presumably even before. Used throughout all generations and nations they have been and are one of the preferred ways to display symbols of value and are used as objects of beauty and style in jewelry. As a form of personal expression and 'street art'.

Thinking of fashion styles we tend to look at clothing, hair styling and makeup first. However accessories are a major part of the outfit. Jewelry one of its coolest forms.

Why then is silver jewelry one of the constants that remain throughout history? What is the real mystery and the secret of silver? It's not only its cool attraction -- it is one of the commodities that existed before paper money, and it will retain it's value after currencies are gone.

In a world that goes more virtual by the minute we keep a few valuables that have their own pre-set value outside our current reality. Currencies will go virtual, jewelry will not.

To give you an idea about the differences of investments in tangible and intangible products and how it works out in real life, let me give you an example that nearly did cost me $25.000 in the past.

During the first oil crisis I lived in New Zealand for a few years and had to invest my assets in appropriate channels at that time. Because back then not only oil prices went up, also other commodities such as gold and silver increased slightly in value and I decided to invest some money in metals.

After locating a company that advertised selling of gold bullion, I went to their downtown store and asked a clerk to purchase gold for about $25.000. I never did this kind of investment before and was a bit unsure about where to keep it save from curious people and for the possible event of burglars in the house.

Knowing what was on my mind the clerk asked me that memorable question "would you like to have this in gold options, stocks or physical bullion?" He went through great lengths to explain me the advantages of "gold papers" that follow the value of gold at any time, so increase in value if the gold price further increases. There would be no necessity to actually touch physical things, and I could cash in the papers at any time.

I almost agreed to his offer, when suddenly a small yet bright thought of warning flashed my mind. Something that a goldsmith I met before told me years earlier, he said: "If you ever buy gold, remember the reason why you buy it, and do not buy virtual gold, but the real thing only".

This thought won in the end because my adviser taught me many basic things about jewelry and metals, and I highly respected his opinion. Turned out he was right. Less than 6 months later, the company I bought the bullion from faced bankruptcy and all their options, shares and other papers lost all of their value. I still had my physical gold however, that increased in value by about 10% at that time.

With that example fresh in mind, I personally still make distinctions when I buy personal products that enhance my lifestyle today.

Yes I invest a lot in software for example that enhances my virtual PC desktop, and helps websites function the way they should, and also loose a lot of it every few years when a harddisk or server crashes. I also enjoy the latest designer clothes, however they wear out and generally get damaged by usage over time.

However I keep a small collection of silver and gold jewelry in the same fresh looking condition as I originally bought it many years ago. These items never wear out, never go out of style. And never loose their value. It's the real thing.


Finding Time to Pamper Yourself

As women we are always putting ourselves last. We cater to the needs of our ailing parents, our significant others, and our kids; but by the time we get around to ourselves it is either to late in the day or we are just to exhausted.

Well I am here to tell you that we can find time for ourselves, by including ourselves in our daily schedules we can begin to relieve the stress associated with the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Hear are just a few suggestions for Finding Time to Pamper Yourself:

1 - Create a spot in your house where you can have “ME” time. Once you have created you “ME” time spot. Set aside daily time to meditate, read a good book, watch your favorite show, or just have some quiet time, if even for a few precious minutes a day.

2 - Create a spa experience in you bat tub. Use your favorite bath tea or bath salt in you bath water, light some candles and listen to some soft soothing music such as Jazz.

3 - Treat yourself to a weekly spa treatment. Many of these you can do at home yourself such as facials, body polishes, manicures, and/or pedicures.

4 - Invite your girlfriends over for a spa party. There are many companies that are now bringing the spa experience into customer’s homes and offices. Do an internet search on spa parties and contact the ones that interest you.

5 - Light a lavender candle or spray a lavender scented mist in your “ME” area during your scheduled “ME” time. Lavender helps to create a calming and uplifting effect.

By following the above listed suggestions you will in no time begin to feel de-stressed and re-energized.

Power of Focus !

If you are anything like me, you probably find yourself often thinking of new projects to start, new things to achieve.I did that in my beginning on Internet. That in itself is very beneficial and indeed a required ingredient for success. The trick is to know where to draw a line.

The trap I kept falling into was hoping and looking for new and better programs all the time,easy to find new once,but i forgot about them the next day,instead of working on the programs you already joined and going for the results there.

I would often actually get dragged into gathering more and more information on new opportunities. I would spend time on developing them right then and there. I would be stealing the precious time away from the current project I was supposed to be working on. Obviously, it was a trap.Be aware of this trap! The current project would suffer, because there is only so much time in a day.No one gets results form Surfing the Internet for "Get Rich Tomorrow "and thinking,there must be an easier way!There is not,only hard work will give you success.Focus and work on your Business !

Then I would get discouraged with my current project and drop it because I didn't see any results. Think long term!One of my future projects would become my current project for the time being, until I'd drop it in favour of the next project.Its a trap,yes.

This is how most of New to Internet do it!!Dont do the same! Can you see the trap? And it gets even worse: If you keep on doing this for long enough, you will actually program your subconscious mind NOT to complete a project EVER. You will forever keep on failing. Eventually it may even filter through to other areas of your life.I did the same in the beginning,so much waste of time and money!

There is to many Traps out there.It's easy to see how working on your online business can become such a trap quickly. Internet is overloaded with information. I won't even mention the plethora of rubbish that exists online. But there is so much valuable information out there, go and find them,that developing your online business to a profitable stage can take forever, UNLESS you start employing the tremendous power of focus.Its the only way to do it,when you understand this you will get results!

Here is only one way,focus.To be a success in your online venture, you must not be working on more than two projects at a time, EVER. And preferably work on just one project, particularly if you only do your online venture on part-time basis.

And by that I mean, don't get distracted. Don't dilute your precious time. Work on your project, whatever it may be, until completion.Learn the program,take the training section over and over again,until you really know how it works!

Many programs can be difficult to understand,but take your time to understand it!

Learn how to!By all means, plan you future. If you want to work on the future ideas, set an hour per week aside for doing just that. And then each week spend that hour thinking about your new projects, write them down. When the time is up, go back to your current project.

I will guarantee you one thing: If you develop and use the power of focus, your success will get better and better with each project. Thats how i got from not getting any results to see great results every week.Focus.