January 10, 2007

Is This Your Friend Or Enemy?

In This Issue:

Feature Article: "Is This Your Friend Or Enemy?"

Myth Buster: "We're Supposed To Gain Weight In Winter"

Food For Thought: "Can Happiness Be Taught?"

* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED *

“My New Movie - Enjoy!”

Here's a 2 minute movie I've just released to help promote my Insider Job Secrets website.

I hope it makes you smile!

If you are looking for a new job or career, make sure you sign up for your free chapter of my ebook, Insider Job Secrets Revealed, at the end of the movie:

Career Choices

* FEATURE ARTICLE *

“Is This Your Friend Or Enemy?”

It waits for no-one.

You can't stop it.

And, contrary to popular opinion, you can't actually manage it (you can only manage what you do during it).

It's TIME!

So... how do you feel about time?

Do you feel that it's moving too fast... leaving you struggling to keep up with, let alone appreciate, your life and the lives of others?

Or that it's moving too slow... like you just want to jump from now to Sometime in the future when everything will be just right.

Chances are you've felt, and may continue to feel, both ways about time, depending on the circumstances.

Of course, I generally find that younger people want time to speed up - like my 4 year old who can't wait to go to school - and older people want time to slow down - like me, who wants my kids to stay little and cute forever!

However, I've got to shake myself out of this feeling, because the fact is... time marches on and we can choose to feel bad, indifferent or good about it.

We can regard it as the enemy... which leaves us feeling bad because it's an enemy we just can't defeat...

We can try to ignore it, and focus on other things in our lives.

Or we can see it as our friend, so that every time we think about time (as we inevitably do) we feel GOOD.

Because we do tend to think about time (there are subtle and not-so-subtle reminders everywhere), then, for the sake of our happiness, it follows that we should try to feel good about it.

How do we do this? Well, whenever we think about the past, present or future, we do so in a way that makes us feel good:

1. When we think of the past, we focus on things that bring a smile to our faces. Achievements we're proud of, events we enjoyed, people we enjoyed being with... even embarrassing moments that make us laugh now. Whatever makes us feel happy. (Alternatively, we could think of stuff we hated, and then be grateful that we don't have to go through that again!)

2. When we're in the present, we try to BE in the present. To enjoy and appreciate what we have RIGHT NOW. From the "big" things, like the wonderful people in our lives, to the littlest things, like the song playing on our CD or MP3 player.

3. When we think about the future, we think about the GREAT things we expect it to bring. We visualize having everything we want, being happy, and having everyone around us be happy.

And don't worry about being accurate or "realistic" - that's not the aim... the aim is to simply feel good whenever we think about time... to develop a positive association with it.

So it becomes our friend... not our enemy or barely welcome house guest.

So when we're reminded of it... we feel happy.

Try it!

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* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED *

“The "Human D-Cell" Report?”

Sounds strange... but here's a sensational free report you can read in just 10 minutes and discover:

• How to create instant positive results within seconds.
• How to apply a simple yet powerful principle to every area of
  your life.
• Real life examples so you see this principle in action from
  job success, relationship success, health success, to business
  success.
• A super-simple exercise to immediately apply it to your life
  today.

I bet you're wondering what this principle is. Read on...

* MYTH BUSTER *

“We're Supposed To Gain Weight In Winter”

Bzzz... wrong!

If anything, we're supposed to gain weight in SUMMER!

Back in the days when humans had to hunt and gather their food (and I don't mean hunting down the Oreos from aisle 5 or gathering the Pringles from aisle 6)... food was easiest to come by in summer and hardest to come by in winter.

So our Stone Age ancestors naturally spent more time hunting and gathering food during summer (when the days were longer) - as well eating a bit more - so they'd be prepared for winter, when food was scarce.

So much so, that they became genetically programmed to eat more when they slept less (since Stone Age people slept less when night was shorter, during summer).

Because human genetics are virtually the same as they were 40,000 years ago, people today are also predisposed to eat more when they sleep less. Our bodies actually release a hormone that
raises our appetites.

Of course, most people don't live the same way as they did during the Stone Age, and we may sleep more or less - and eat more or less - during summer or winter.

But it's a myth that we're supposed to gain weight during winter.

And if you do miss out on sleep (at any time of the year) just be aware that your body is programmed to make you HUNGRIER.

Not great if you're trying to lose any extra pounds!

(All the more reason to go back to bed!)

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* HIGHLY RECOMMENDED *

“How an Ordinary Manager Transformed a Struggling Business On The Verge Of Collapse Into a $40 Million Company”

Here’s a shocking, yet true, story...

At the start of last year, a good friend of mine took the job of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at a small technology company.

The company was five years old, but hopelessly unprofitable.

It’s backers – a venture capital company – were growing impatient with the company’s abysmal performance and ordered the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to appoint someone who could commercialize the company’s technology – so they would finally have a product to sell.

Otherwise, the venture capital company would no longer fund the business.

My friend was excited about the job. He was a bit of a risk taker, and despite the pressure, looked forward to helping the company bring its product to market and build it into a profitable business.

But there was one problem.

A big problem.

The staff, the CEO warned him, were “incompetent and lazy.”

In fact, one of the reasons the CTO was being hired was to get rid of the “dead wood.”

“Frankly,” the CEO told my friend, “you’ll probably have to fire the lot of them.”

Read on...

* FOOD FOR THOUGHT *

“Can Happiness Be Taught?”

According to several universities, colleges and schools around
the world: YES!

More than 200 colleges and graduate schools in the United States, institutes and schools in the United Kingdom, and even the prestigious Geelong Grammar here in Australia, are embracing the field of positive psychology.

Pioneered by Martin Seligman, who heads the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, positive psychology is aimed at helping people become happier.

While some are skeptical that happiness can be taught, proponents believe that students can engage in specific activities to elicit more positive emotions.

For example, by thinking about what they're grateful for, participating in activities that they excel at, and paying "gratitude visits" (thanking people who have helped or mentored them).

Hmmm... this is probably something you could try at home :-)

(Source: New York Times, 2007)

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