Time Out: Stop Beating Yourself Up

Boxing is a professional sport that you can actually learn a great deal from and apply to managing certain areas of your life. According to the official website for the World Boxing Association, all world championship bouts shall be of a twelve round duration. Each round shall consist of three minutes in duration with one minute rest between each round. Apparently parameters are necessary even in a situation where a motivated opponent with the goal of physical injury is involved coupled with the ongoing task of defending your reputation and a substantial amount of money.

Unfortunately, the parameters established for professional fighters are leaps and bounds above what I extended to myself. I was taught at a very early age to dig my heels deep into every situation:

•Push
•Sacrifice
•Endure
•Achieve
•Acquire
•Succeed
•Contribute
•Excel

All the above are very worthy attributes, but similar to medication we take for illness, the dosage must be regulated, and will vary from person to person based on our unique differences. Like most people, I never regulated the dosage as I forged ahead personally and professionally. Also, I didn’t allow much room for error or rest from beating myself up when I missed the mark. Missing the mark these days isn’t very difficult with the increasing demands of life, in general. A short list of our roles and responsibilities include:

•Parents
•Employees
•Sons
•Daughters
•Business Owners
•Soccer Moms
•Neighbors
•Wives
•Grandparents
•Husbands
•Community leaders
•Friends

Often, we tend to concentrate a great deal more on what we’re not, rather than who we are. Our focus is in most cases lopsided, seldom acknowledging all of the many reasons there are to be very proud. I can relate to this so well having lived this way most of my life. For as far back as I can remember my concentration has always focused on the following:

•Tasks I had not accomplished
•Achievements that fell below my expectations
•Victories that had not yet been won


As an older and hopefully wiser person, I’ve learned to decrease the amount of self- inflicted injuries by taking a few simple steps that may be effective for you as well:

1)Make a list of your accomplishments- when feeling the urge to take a swing at yourself, review the list as a powerful reminder. This exercise renews your self confidence to face obstacles and develop creative solutions. Remember to include both professional and personal accomplishments and continually update your list.

2)Set realistic expectations – goals should be challenging but realistic. Achieving the right balance can be tricky. Allow yourself to make needed adjustments as you move along.

3)Be patient – some victories take longer than others. We often try to apply a fast, got-to-have-it-now approach that is simply not applicable. This step is particularly challenging to me, but I’m improving, so there is definitely hope for you.

Time out is an effective tool that helps you put things back in perspective. Several large corporations recently have been involved in ugly scandals. At some point, they stopped beating themselves up in order to move forward. This is a critical lesson for all of us. On a daily basis, do your very best in each role. Allow yourself to make mistakes but most importantly learn from them and please move on.


Are Hair Loss Treatments Just One Big Scam?

The hair loss industry is not one that inspires great confidence in most people. I have to admit this is perfectly understandable given the damage caused by the many rogues and charlatans who have abused the trust of far too many vulnerable people - people who have received worthless and even dangerous products or advice in exchange for their hard earned cash. The end result is the prevalance of a stigma that the industry is hard pressed to shake off.

But is this perception really justified nowadays? Are there no genuine treatments that sufferers can turn to in a bid to treat the ravages of premature hair loss? The simple answer is YES, there are several safe, affordable, accessible and effective hair loss treatments currently available. Some have even been approved by FDA for the treatment of hair loss conditions while others draw on natural remedies as the basis for commercially available products. Whether or not any of them are suitable for a given individual depends on a number of important factors.

First and foremost, every individual must determine the exact cause or causes of his or her hair loss. This may appear to be an over-simplistic statement but the truth is, most people undergoing a course of treatment for hair loss have proceeded on the basis of self-diagnosis. Given the fact that premature or excessive hair loss is often associated with underlying medical conditions, this is perhaps not the most sensible course of action.

My advice in all cases is to seek the guidance of a qualified medical practitioner because the consequences of not doing so may be serious in a small number of cases. Even where all the evidence points to the onset of hereditary male pattern baldness it would probably be best to seek advice, if only to rule out other factors.

Once the cause of hair loss has been properly diagnosed you will be in a position to choose a suitable form of treatment. This may range from the prescription of drugs aimed at balancing disrupted hormone levels to the topical application of minoxidil to reduce the symptoms of male pattern baldness.

Hair loss may be caused by many factors including changing hormone levels, illness, stress, overuse of strong chemicals, excessive traction, poor grooming practices, side effects of medical treatment, poor nutrition, weak immune system and the effects of aging. The good news is, all of these can be tackled with reasonable hope of success but only if you choose the right treatment.

The next article in this series will look closely at the various causes of excessive hair loss and outline suggested treatments that are both affordable and accessible. If you take only two things from this article, please take these suggestions on board:

1. Always seek the advice of your physician before undergoing a hair loss treatment regime.

2. Don't despair, there's often a simple explanation for excessive hair loss and even hereditary loss or male pattern-type baldness can be treated successfully for most people nowadays.

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.


Achieving Optimum Health

"Optimum health is not just the absence of disease but the presence of wellness in mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and social areas. Some would also include financial
health."

Introduction

Optimum health is essential at all levels, from the individual to the society we live in to the environment around us. We have to start thinking of wealth not just in terms of
possession of money and properties but also the possession of mental, emotional, physical, social and spiritual well-being.

Mental Health

The truth is mind is the forerunner of all states.

With a proper mindset, a poor man can still be happy. Conversely, if the mindset is not right, no matter how much material possessions you may have, you may still be a very unhappy person. Thus, Gandhi said, "The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for even a single person's greed."

So a healthy mind is one that possesses a mindset that can lead to happiness and contentment with self and the world around us. It provides clarity of thoughts, good insight and the ability to see things through an unbiased mind.

To be able to see things through an unbiased mind is no small feat. It is extremely difficult to note or observe the unfolding of events and phenomena without judging. We habitually associate emotions or feelings to events, and allow such emotions to direct our actions. Our likes for certain things and dislikes for others are closely associated with our emotions.

Emotional Health

It is our emotions that lead us to act impulsively at times. Thus a high level of self-awareness in this area is extremely useful. In fact, it is essential to our well-being. After
all, things and relationships that may take us years to build can be destroyed in a moment of anger.

There are positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions such as love, compassion and joy should be cultivated, while negative emotions such as fear, anger and hate
need to be eradicated.

When asked about this, a wise sage of India once illustrated with a story:

An old man said to his grandson, "Boy, I have two tigers caged within me. One is love and compassion. The other is fear and anger."

The young boy asked, "Which one will win, grandfather?"

The old man replied, "The one I feed."

At times, it may seem that we have no control over our emotions. This is not true. The truth is how well we manage our emotions depends on how aware we are of our emotions, particularly on the arising of our emotions. The earlier we are able to note the arising of our emotions, we better we can manage them.

More and more researches are showing that our well-being is closely linked to our emotional and mental health. Our body's immune system is generally enhanced by positive mental outlook and emotion. Conversely, it is depressed by negative mental and emotional states. Thus, stress, worry, anger and fear are some states that may lead to physical illnesses such as hypertension, cardiac diseases, peptic ulcers, depression and a host of other ailments.

Physical Health

To maintain an optimum physical well-being, therefore, requires us to focus not only on our body but also our mind and emotions.

On a physical level, our body can be kept healthy through adequate sleep and rest, proper nutrition, regular exercises and a healthy environment that is free from pollution.

Spiritual Health

Throughout the ages, wise men have consistently informed and taught us that we are essentially spiritual beings.

Although medical science has not been able to reveal to us our spiritual nature, there are many indirect evidence that we would be foolish to ignore. Stories from people who had gone through a near death experience (NDE), or dying people with heightened nearing death awareness, or simply a cure from an 'incurable' disease all suggest that there is more to life than just the physical state.

Major religions of the world all based their teachings on the belief that we are essentially spiritual beings. According to these teachings, our physical existence is secondary.

While it may be true that we should focus our life more on our spiritual nature than our physical nature, it would be difficult for the majority of people to do so, at least not immediately. Things cannot change overnight. Mindset, however, can, and that is perhaps the best place to start.

Financial Health

However, on a more mundane level, most people are still stuck on how to survive from day to day, where to get the next cheque to pay for the house installment, so on and
so forth.

Practically, therefore, we need to look into ways to achieve a financial state that would theoretically free us from the constrain of 'forced' work. This is where the concept of financial freedom is so attractive. According to this concept, one should strive for a state where we have one or more than one source of income that can be generated passively, that is, even when we don't work.

This is what Robert Kiyosaki termed as 'passive income'.

According to him, passive income can only be achieved by becoming an investor or a business owner, not a sole proprietor or an employee. To become an investor or a business owner, you must spend the time and money to acquire financial intelligence. Unlike IQ or EQ, you can acquire financial intelligence through self education.

To get a financial health check-up, consult an accountant, a banker or a financial planner you can trust.

Healthy Relationship

"No man is an island, entire by itself."