Our Choices Newsletters
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Snow 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Winter isn't that bad. Get out there and have some fun.
Monday, July 31, 2006
We are getting very lazy lately. I need to get people moving and writing articles for the newsletter.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Good Morning everyone, from now on when I come across something I think is worth sharing with the group, I will post it on this newsletter.The Creative Process
Creativity is at the core of a happy, meaningful, productive life. It is through our creativity that we bring order and meaning to our world. We use our creativity in how we create our homes, raise our children, build our careers, and continually reinvent a sustaining and joyous relationship. Cultivating creativity is as important to our souls as exercise and good nutrition are to our bodies, and they overlap, they work together.
Researcher Graham Wallas identifies four stages of the creative process. The four stages, adapted by Pierce Howard, author of The Owner's Manual for the Brain, are
Preparation: This is the time for research, fact gathering, assembling materials, gathering needed information before the creative act.
Incubation: This is the period of gestation, of letting go so that the mind, the unconscious, intuition, and emotion can mull over the information and put it into its own original perspective. Dreaming may be a part of this period.
Inspiration: This is the "Aha!" when the solution, illumination, or discovery either emerges or forces itself through into a coalesced form.
Evaluation or confirmation: This is the time to ask, Will it work, does it hold up next to other theories, does it logically fit with the original stimulus?
I am a creator.
"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given the chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy. As everyone else, I love to dunk my crust in it. But alone it is not a diet to keep body and soul together."--Bette DavisThe Lonely Life (1962)
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Important newsletter announcement: We here at OCAL will resume our newsletters in September with a new format and way of reporting the news. Hope you come by and visit us.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
May 15, 2005
This is a very important article, so read it and learn.Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on (Maxwell Maltz)
Bear with me for a moment, for I have an itch to write about fleas. Suppose you wanted to start your own flea circus, how would you go about training them? There are several techniques, but I'll discuss one here: Get about 100 fleas and place them in a jar. Cover the jar with a lid or small sheet of glass. Leave them there for three days to two weeks (depends on the fleas you're training). What about food? Not to worry, adult fleas can live without food for as long as two years.
So, what happens to the fleas you've imprisoned in the jar? They will all be wildly jumping, crashing into the lid, banging into the walls of the jar, and bumping into one another. After a period, however, even their tiny brains realize that it's not smart to keep smashing into the lid and walls of the jar, so they adjust the height and direction of their jumps. Before long, they will jump in an orderly fashion. No longer will they bump into one another or the sides of the jar. Also, the highest point of their jump will be a few millimeters below the lid. No more bruised backs!
They are now "trained." For you can remove the lid and they will continue to act as if it were still there. In other words, although they are free, they will behave as if imprisoned. In fact, you can now quickly rotate the jar and place it on a table upside-down. After giving them a chance to settle down, you can then slowly raise the jar until they are completely free. Your "trained" fleas will continue jumping while remaining in place! Locked into their tiny bodies is vast potential. They are incredible jumpers. Yet, where is their potential now? Because they were trained, they can now jump only as high as their former prison.
Does this story ring any bells? You see, the place where we were reared between the ages of one and five, and beyond, was like a jar or prison. Like the fleas, we were born perfect, with unlimited potential. But, also like the fleas, we were "trained." As we tried to express our enormous potential, we kept smashing into a wall of negativity. Over and again we heard comments like, "You're so stupid. You're a bad child. Why are you so naughty? What's wrong with you? You can't do anything right."
What happened to our potential? Can you see why we failed to develop fully? Although we share much in common with the fleas, there is one significant difference. Awareness. We can become aware of our problem, and its source, and then take corrective action. As we change our behavior, we can begin to leap higher and higher, until we reach our full potential. We have the ability to free ourselves, for although someone else may have placed us here, the key that unlocks our prison door is in our pocket!
The key that unlocks the door of our cell is sometimes called self-esteem. You could also call it self-confidence or belief in ourselves. Each of us has in our mind an image of where we would like to be in our life. If we are far from that destination, we have low self-esteem or little self-confidence. If we are close to where we want to be, we have high self-esteem or a great deal of confidence.
We learn from experience what needs to be done, and it is confidence that allows us to do it. Reworded, our competence grows in direct proportion to our self-esteem. On the other hand, without confidence, we are twice defeated, for we experience the pain of low self-esteem and the pain of failure. If we have lost confidence, we have lost everything. For that reason, let's consider what we can do to rebuild our self-esteem.
Rebuilding our self-esteemNormally thought precedes action. This is fine when we have positive thoughts. But after being trained like fleas, we need to reverse the process. That is, we need to act despite our thoughts. And we need to forcefully repeat new, positive actions until they become habitual. Suppose we have low self-esteem and are afraid to do what we would like to, such as be assertive or seek a new job. It's okay to be afraid; accept it and understand you were trained to doubt yourself. But now it is time to accept that some things are more important than fear. Your happiness, for example. So, if you're unhappy with your job, start taking action today to change the situation. Act despite your fear. Begin with simple steps. Prepare your resume. Search the want ads. Fax your resume to agencies and businesses. Each little step you take will bring you closer to your dream and increase your confidence, which will make further action easier, leading to still more confidence, and so on. Although we can never entirely eliminate fear, we can reduce it by preparation. If, for example, you prepared an attractive resume and are neatly dressed, you will have lots less to be nervous about at a job interview. Here's something else to consider: Anticipation is a magnifying glass that enlarges expected pleasures or fears. The fear that is anticipated is greater than the fear that is experienced. Moral? Stop expecting problems and start anticipating solutions.
Do you have a computer? I love computers. I'm writing this article on one. But getting back to you, do you realize that you have a computer that is vastly superior to my Pentium? It is called your brain. Use it. For instance, when those negative thoughts crop up, stop and analyze them. Let's say you would like to ask the boss for a raise, but think, "I can't do that." Whoa! Stop! Analyze that thought. Realize that it is irrational to believe you can't do it. That negative thought you had was the thought of a child, the thought of a flea. It's time to change now. So, if you want that raise, begin by preparing for it. First of all, wanting a raise is not enough. You need to deserve it. Do you? If so, list all the reasons. If the boss gives you a raise, how will he benefit? Will you be willing to tackle more responsibilities? Picture in your mind speaking to your boss. What will he say to you and how will you respond? By building your list of reasons you deserve a raise and practicing the conversation in your mind, you are preparing. The result? More confidence, less fear. The point of this paragraph is to encourage you to analyze every negative thought and get into the habit of replacing irrational thinking with clear, analytical thinking.
Be willing to make the effort. Develop self-discipline by doing unpleasant, but necessary tasks. Carefully consider the words of Winston Churchill, "The heights of great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upwards in the night." Some people say, "I'd love to improve but I have no self-control." That's not true, we all have self-control. If we are wasting valuable time, who is forcing us to do so? Isn't it our choice? We can start improving by practicing jumping higher and higher. True, we may feel uncomfortable as we do so. After all, we still remember the bruises we suffered by striking the lid over and over again. But look up and around, we're not in the jar any longer! We may like to blame circumstances instead of taking responsibility for our actions, but the only way to succeed is to create the future by taking control of our lives with self-discipline, integrity, and right action.
You are not alone in your dance of the flea. Look about you. Almost everyone you meet is bruised. They can use a boost in self-esteem. You can help. In fact, you could be the catalyst that gets them jumping higher and higher. You can do so by offering words of encouragement, recognition, and praise. You can accept them, embrace them, and elevate them. You are an extremely important person; they need you. Let's help.
You can contact Chuck Gallozzi at mailto:gall-@interlog.com
---> 10 Things You Can Do To Produce A Quantum Leap In Your Life Fast
We often hear of small actions that can make a dramatic impact on our lives. Here are ten such things which, if done with determination, will produce a revolution for you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially!
1. Drink Pure Water
Our bodies are 70% water. Drinking impure water is responsible for many illnesses commonly attributed to other causes. Therefore, you should seriously consider installing a quality water filtration or distillation system.
In addition, most people go through life dehydrated. Simply drinking when you are thirsty is not enough. Moreover, tea and coffee actually dehydrate the body even further thereby making the problem worse still. Dehydration also leads to many serious illnesses. You need to drink at least 8-12 glasses of clear water every day, and preferably more.
2. Regular Exercise
Exercise can slow down, and even partially reverse, the aging process. You will suffer from fewer illnesses and have far more energy to enjoy all day long. Best of all, exercise is something you can take up and benefit from at any age. Yoga is excellent because it tones your inner organs as well as gently stretching and strengthening your muscles. Even simply walking for 15-20 minutes every day could be extremely beneficial. Consult your doctor regarding your current state of health and advice on suitable forms of exercise for you.
3. Meditation
Regular meditators often have a biological age 10-20 years younger than their chronological age! You will also be far more centered all day, more aware of your emotions, and far better able to cope with any challenge life can throw at you.
Simply sitting in a quiet place alone, closing your eyes, and following the passage of your breath as it moves in and out is a superb meditation. However, you can easily find others that can benefit and enrich your life deeply. Meditation will make you a kinder, gentler, and more patient person. It will help you to appreciate life more.
4. Forgiveness
Grudges take up brain capacity and prevent us from performing at our very best. What we focus our minds upon grows; this is true of hatred too. Therefore, it is impossible to truly achieve great things for ourselves when we have a lot of our energetic capacity tied up in negativity.
Remember that forgiveness is primarily for YOU. It free up your energy tremendously. So forgive all grudges, no matter how old they may be, and seek reconciliation. If you find this hard, begin with the easiest ones first. Then gradually work up to the harder ones.
5. Clutter Clearance
If you want to let new opportunities into your life, you have to make room for them. Clear out the past - things you cling to that no longer serve any purpose, but which hold you back. This can be cupboards, the cellar, old clothes, old relationships, and outmoded ways of thinking. By holding on tenaciously to the past, we fail to make room for the future.
So look in your closets and get rid of things you have not used for over a year or two. Review relationships in your life and see which ones are taking you where you want to go and which ones are holding you down. Clear your desk. Clear your computer. Then let fresh air flow into your life!
6. Clear All Financial Debt & Invest
If owing nobody a cent is just a dream for you, start working today to make that dream a reality. Save 10% of your income each month to be applied towards reducing and clearing your debts.
Financial debt is one of the biggest causes of worry ever. Yet almost anyone can save 10% of their income if they put their minds to it. Do it consistently to learn the habit, and soon you'll be saving 20%. Once you've applied this to your debts, and have NO debts at all, you can't imagine how free you will feel!
7. Relationships
Almost everything we want in life will be obtained through other people. Moreover, relationships skills are amongst the most important and most desired in life. They easily more than make up for deficiencies in other areas of expertise. People who get on well with others rise faster than those who are merely good at their jobs. They are the last people to be fired; if they are, they find it extremely easy to pick up a great job elsewhere.
Hence, it is vital to learn to relate excellently to others. If you are not good in this area, all your other efforts could go for nothing. Therefore, study hard in his subject and apply the lessons you learn. Become excellent at relating to people.
8. Goals
Have clear, specific, written goals with deadlines for their achievement in every area of your life - physical, mental, emotional, physical, career, etc. People who do are FAR more successful. People who don't are like ships adrift on the seas. A person without clear specific goals is like a ship cast adrift on the ocean without a captain or crew. The chances of it arriving anywhere specific are minimal. Yet most people live their liveslike that. Make it your goal to have specific written goals in every area of your life and review them every day.
9. Daily Planning
For maximum productivity, plan each day in advance with a scheduler. Use a "To Do" list to plan what you need to get done. Prioritize these tasks in order of importance. You can rank urgent tasks as "A". Important, but not urgent, tasks as "B". Nice to do but neither urgent nor important activities as "C". Unimportant tasks as "D". Work on the category "A" tasks first until you have them all done and then work on the category "B" tasks. Delegate or throw out category "D" activities.
Develop the habit of accounting for every half hour of your time. This is what many highly successful people do.
10. Journal
A life worth living is a life worth recording. Keep a private journal where you can record events, your reactions to them, how you feel about situations, what you are learning. Keeping a journal awakens your intuition and deepens your contact withSpirit.
Copyright © 2000, Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved._______________________________________________________________Dr. Asoka Selvarajah is an active writer/researcher on personaldevelopment and esoteric spirituality. Asoka's work helpspeople achieve their full potential, deepen their understandingof mystical truth, and find joy in their true soul's purpose.
Subscribe to his free ezine, Aspire To Wisdom, and receive hisbrand new E-Book "Inner Light Outer Wealth" for FREE at:http://www.aksworld.com/AspireToWisdom.htm??PEDEYou can visit his website at http://www.aksworld.com?PEDE
<--------------> Putting Lipstick On A Pig <------------------>
Technology can help tremendously with time management. Many examples of this are seen everyday: It can make changing calendar appointments effortless. Also, with the click of a button, many people can be emailed an announcement of a meeting change. Potential uses are enormous. But, time and time again, in my personal coaching practice, I frequently see folks simply using technology to automate a poor time management system. They are in effect, paving the cow path, or putting lipstick on a pig.
Putting lipstick on a pig makes the pig a little prettier, but underneath it, the pig is still a pig. Cosmetic changes don’t result in underlying structural change. Technology can be used like lipstick, or to support a more fundamental realignment of a time management system. Using a handheld computer to manage appointments is great, but if we aren’t making the correct appointments it doesn’t help much.
Most of us are very busy. Automating the tracking of all the harried appointments we keep during the day is nice. But, at the core, do the appointments tie to achieving goals within the roles of our lives? Is there some planning mechanism that results in using the time management system to bring our lives more in line with a personal mission statement?
Email results in quicker communication, but is the communication more effective? Faster technology speed creates quick movement. But is the movement in the right direction? An old saying applies well here: If you are in a race, but are going down the wrong route, it doesn’t matter how fast you are. Technology can help us go faster, but in the end, it may not matter much, if we aren’t effectively accomplishing our personal goals.
The next time you use technology, think about lipstick on a pig. Do you really want to put lipstick on that big, old, ugly, smelly animal? Or would you rather invest some additional time and get rid of the pig completely, replacing it with something that will more effectively assist you on your journey to peak performance?
------------------------------------------------------
This story was authored by Scott Fite, who specializes in Peak Performance Coaching. Stop by his website at http://www.lifedesigncenter.com for more peak performance information and to sign up for a free newsletter.
<------------ Please help out? ---------------> posted by George computer_teacher at 6:11 AM
How self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on (Maxwell Maltz)
Bear with me for a moment, for I have an itch to write about fleas. Suppose you wanted to start your own flea circus, how would you go about training them? There are several techniques, but I'll discuss one here: Get about 100 fleas and place them in a jar. Cover the jar with a lid or small sheet of glass. Leave them there for three days to two weeks (depends on the fleas you're training). What about food? Not to worry, adult fleas can live without food for as long as two years.
So, what happens to the fleas you've imprisoned in the jar? They will all be wildly jumping, crashing into the lid, banging into the walls of the jar, and bumping into one another. After a period, however, even their tiny brains realize that it's not smart to keep smashing into the lid and walls of the jar, so they adjust the height and direction of their jumps. Before long, they will jump in an orderly fashion. No longer will they bump into one another or the sides of the jar. Also, the highest point of their jump will be a few millimeters below the lid. No more bruised backs!
They are now "trained." For you can remove the lid and they will continue to act as if it were still there. In other words, although they are free, they will behave as if imprisoned. In fact, you can now quickly rotate the jar and place it on a table upside-down. After giving them a chance to settle down, you can then slowly raise the jar until they are completely free. Your "trained" fleas will continue jumping while remaining in place! Locked into their tiny bodies is vast potential. They are incredible jumpers. Yet, where is their potential now? Because they were trained, they can now jump only as high as their former prison.
Does this story ring any bells? You see, the place where we were reared between the ages of one and five, and beyond, was like a jar or prison. Like the fleas, we were born perfect, with unlimited potential. But, also like the fleas, we were "trained." As we tried to express our enormous potential, we kept smashing into a wall of negativity. Over and again we heard comments like, "You're so stupid. You're a bad child. Why are you so naughty? What's wrong with you? You can't do anything right."
What happened to our potential? Can you see why we failed to develop fully? Although we share much in common with the fleas, there is one significant difference. Awareness. We can become aware of our problem, and its source, and then take corrective action. As we change our behavior, we can begin to leap higher and higher, until we reach our full potential. We have the ability to free ourselves, for although someone else may have placed us here, the key that unlocks our prison door is in our pocket!
The key that unlocks the door of our cell is sometimes called self-esteem. You could also call it self-confidence or belief in ourselves. Each of us has in our mind an image of where we would like to be in our life. If we are far from that destination, we have low self-esteem or little self-confidence. If we are close to where we want to be, we have high self-esteem or a great deal of confidence.
We learn from experience what needs to be done, and it is confidence that allows us to do it. Reworded, our competence grows in direct proportion to our self-esteem. On the other hand, without confidence, we are twice defeated, for we experience the pain of low self-esteem and the pain of failure. If we have lost confidence, we have lost everything. For that reason, let's consider what we can do to rebuild our self-esteem.
Rebuilding our self-esteemNormally thought precedes action. This is fine when we have positive thoughts. But after being trained like fleas, we need to reverse the process. That is, we need to act despite our thoughts. And we need to forcefully repeat new, positive actions until they become habitual. Suppose we have low self-esteem and are afraid to do what we would like to, such as be assertive or seek a new job. It's okay to be afraid; accept it and understand you were trained to doubt yourself. But now it is time to accept that some things are more important than fear. Your happiness, for example. So, if you're unhappy with your job, start taking action today to change the situation. Act despite your fear. Begin with simple steps. Prepare your resume. Search the want ads. Fax your resume to agencies and businesses. Each little step you take will bring you closer to your dream and increase your confidence, which will make further action easier, leading to still more confidence, and so on. Although we can never entirely eliminate fear, we can reduce it by preparation. If, for example, you prepared an attractive resume and are neatly dressed, you will have lots less to be nervous about at a job interview. Here's something else to consider: Anticipation is a magnifying glass that enlarges expected pleasures or fears. The fear that is anticipated is greater than the fear that is experienced. Moral? Stop expecting problems and start anticipating solutions.
Do you have a computer? I love computers. I'm writing this article on one. But getting back to you, do you realize that you have a computer that is vastly superior to my Pentium? It is called your brain. Use it. For instance, when those negative thoughts crop up, stop and analyze them. Let's say you would like to ask the boss for a raise, but think, "I can't do that." Whoa! Stop! Analyze that thought. Realize that it is irrational to believe you can't do it. That negative thought you had was the thought of a child, the thought of a flea. It's time to change now. So, if you want that raise, begin by preparing for it. First of all, wanting a raise is not enough. You need to deserve it. Do you? If so, list all the reasons. If the boss gives you a raise, how will he benefit? Will you be willing to tackle more responsibilities? Picture in your mind speaking to your boss. What will he say to you and how will you respond? By building your list of reasons you deserve a raise and practicing the conversation in your mind, you are preparing. The result? More confidence, less fear. The point of this paragraph is to encourage you to analyze every negative thought and get into the habit of replacing irrational thinking with clear, analytical thinking.
Be willing to make the effort. Develop self-discipline by doing unpleasant, but necessary tasks. Carefully consider the words of Winston Churchill, "The heights of great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upwards in the night." Some people say, "I'd love to improve but I have no self-control." That's not true, we all have self-control. If we are wasting valuable time, who is forcing us to do so? Isn't it our choice? We can start improving by practicing jumping higher and higher. True, we may feel uncomfortable as we do so. After all, we still remember the bruises we suffered by striking the lid over and over again. But look up and around, we're not in the jar any longer! We may like to blame circumstances instead of taking responsibility for our actions, but the only way to succeed is to create the future by taking control of our lives with self-discipline, integrity, and right action.
You are not alone in your dance of the flea. Look about you. Almost everyone you meet is bruised. They can use a boost in self-esteem. You can help. In fact, you could be the catalyst that gets them jumping higher and higher. You can do so by offering words of encouragement, recognition, and praise. You can accept them, embrace them, and elevate them. You are an extremely important person; they need you. Let's help.
You can contact Chuck Gallozzi at mailto:gall-@interlog.com
---> 10 Things You Can Do To Produce A Quantum Leap In Your Life Fast
We often hear of small actions that can make a dramatic impact on our lives. Here are ten such things which, if done with determination, will produce a revolution for you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially!
1. Drink Pure Water
Our bodies are 70% water. Drinking impure water is responsible for many illnesses commonly attributed to other causes. Therefore, you should seriously consider installing a quality water filtration or distillation system.
In addition, most people go through life dehydrated. Simply drinking when you are thirsty is not enough. Moreover, tea and coffee actually dehydrate the body even further thereby making the problem worse still. Dehydration also leads to many serious illnesses. You need to drink at least 8-12 glasses of clear water every day, and preferably more.
2. Regular Exercise
Exercise can slow down, and even partially reverse, the aging process. You will suffer from fewer illnesses and have far more energy to enjoy all day long. Best of all, exercise is something you can take up and benefit from at any age. Yoga is excellent because it tones your inner organs as well as gently stretching and strengthening your muscles. Even simply walking for 15-20 minutes every day could be extremely beneficial. Consult your doctor regarding your current state of health and advice on suitable forms of exercise for you.
3. Meditation
Regular meditators often have a biological age 10-20 years younger than their chronological age! You will also be far more centered all day, more aware of your emotions, and far better able to cope with any challenge life can throw at you.
Simply sitting in a quiet place alone, closing your eyes, and following the passage of your breath as it moves in and out is a superb meditation. However, you can easily find others that can benefit and enrich your life deeply. Meditation will make you a kinder, gentler, and more patient person. It will help you to appreciate life more.
4. Forgiveness
Grudges take up brain capacity and prevent us from performing at our very best. What we focus our minds upon grows; this is true of hatred too. Therefore, it is impossible to truly achieve great things for ourselves when we have a lot of our energetic capacity tied up in negativity.
Remember that forgiveness is primarily for YOU. It free up your energy tremendously. So forgive all grudges, no matter how old they may be, and seek reconciliation. If you find this hard, begin with the easiest ones first. Then gradually work up to the harder ones.
5. Clutter Clearance
If you want to let new opportunities into your life, you have to make room for them. Clear out the past - things you cling to that no longer serve any purpose, but which hold you back. This can be cupboards, the cellar, old clothes, old relationships, and outmoded ways of thinking. By holding on tenaciously to the past, we fail to make room for the future.
So look in your closets and get rid of things you have not used for over a year or two. Review relationships in your life and see which ones are taking you where you want to go and which ones are holding you down. Clear your desk. Clear your computer. Then let fresh air flow into your life!
6. Clear All Financial Debt & Invest
If owing nobody a cent is just a dream for you, start working today to make that dream a reality. Save 10% of your income each month to be applied towards reducing and clearing your debts.
Financial debt is one of the biggest causes of worry ever. Yet almost anyone can save 10% of their income if they put their minds to it. Do it consistently to learn the habit, and soon you'll be saving 20%. Once you've applied this to your debts, and have NO debts at all, you can't imagine how free you will feel!
7. Relationships
Almost everything we want in life will be obtained through other people. Moreover, relationships skills are amongst the most important and most desired in life. They easily more than make up for deficiencies in other areas of expertise. People who get on well with others rise faster than those who are merely good at their jobs. They are the last people to be fired; if they are, they find it extremely easy to pick up a great job elsewhere.
Hence, it is vital to learn to relate excellently to others. If you are not good in this area, all your other efforts could go for nothing. Therefore, study hard in his subject and apply the lessons you learn. Become excellent at relating to people.
8. Goals
Have clear, specific, written goals with deadlines for their achievement in every area of your life - physical, mental, emotional, physical, career, etc. People who do are FAR more successful. People who don't are like ships adrift on the seas. A person without clear specific goals is like a ship cast adrift on the ocean without a captain or crew. The chances of it arriving anywhere specific are minimal. Yet most people live their liveslike that. Make it your goal to have specific written goals in every area of your life and review them every day.
9. Daily Planning
For maximum productivity, plan each day in advance with a scheduler. Use a "To Do" list to plan what you need to get done. Prioritize these tasks in order of importance. You can rank urgent tasks as "A". Important, but not urgent, tasks as "B". Nice to do but neither urgent nor important activities as "C". Unimportant tasks as "D". Work on the category "A" tasks first until you have them all done and then work on the category "B" tasks. Delegate or throw out category "D" activities.
Develop the habit of accounting for every half hour of your time. This is what many highly successful people do.
10. Journal
A life worth living is a life worth recording. Keep a private journal where you can record events, your reactions to them, how you feel about situations, what you are learning. Keeping a journal awakens your intuition and deepens your contact withSpirit.
Copyright © 2000, Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved._______________________________________________________________Dr. Asoka Selvarajah is an active writer/researcher on personaldevelopment and esoteric spirituality. Asoka's work helpspeople achieve their full potential, deepen their understandingof mystical truth, and find joy in their true soul's purpose.
Subscribe to his free ezine, Aspire To Wisdom, and receive hisbrand new E-Book "Inner Light Outer Wealth" for FREE at:http://www.aksworld.com/AspireToWisdom.htm??PEDEYou can visit his website at http://www.aksworld.com?PEDE
<--------------> Putting Lipstick On A Pig <------------------>
Technology can help tremendously with time management. Many examples of this are seen everyday: It can make changing calendar appointments effortless. Also, with the click of a button, many people can be emailed an announcement of a meeting change. Potential uses are enormous. But, time and time again, in my personal coaching practice, I frequently see folks simply using technology to automate a poor time management system. They are in effect, paving the cow path, or putting lipstick on a pig.
Putting lipstick on a pig makes the pig a little prettier, but underneath it, the pig is still a pig. Cosmetic changes don’t result in underlying structural change. Technology can be used like lipstick, or to support a more fundamental realignment of a time management system. Using a handheld computer to manage appointments is great, but if we aren’t making the correct appointments it doesn’t help much.
Most of us are very busy. Automating the tracking of all the harried appointments we keep during the day is nice. But, at the core, do the appointments tie to achieving goals within the roles of our lives? Is there some planning mechanism that results in using the time management system to bring our lives more in line with a personal mission statement?
Email results in quicker communication, but is the communication more effective? Faster technology speed creates quick movement. But is the movement in the right direction? An old saying applies well here: If you are in a race, but are going down the wrong route, it doesn’t matter how fast you are. Technology can help us go faster, but in the end, it may not matter much, if we aren’t effectively accomplishing our personal goals.
The next time you use technology, think about lipstick on a pig. Do you really want to put lipstick on that big, old, ugly, smelly animal? Or would you rather invest some additional time and get rid of the pig completely, replacing it with something that will more effectively assist you on your journey to peak performance?
------------------------------------------------------
This story was authored by Scott Fite, who specializes in Peak Performance Coaching. Stop by his website at http://www.lifedesigncenter.com for more peak performance information and to sign up for a free newsletter.
posted by George computer_teacher at 6:08 AM
Monday, June 07, 2004
Vol. 6 No. 7 Editors: Wendy Brown & Rita Sweeney
June 2004
What’s Happening by Rita S.
May 5-Auction-The 2nd Annual Auction was held along with a Tricky Tray Raffle. Steve F.
was the Auctioneer and a good one he was! Everyone had so much fun shopping with
their drop-in dollars or cash. The Drop-In activity fund was richer by about $80.00!
Thanks to all who participated.
May 2- Mary Theresa and Jim Hoegg (Nonnie and Poppy) would like to announce the birth
of their first grandson,Liam James Leonard born at 4:39 pm. He weighed 7 lb. 6 oz., 21”
long. He was baptized 6/6/04 and slept through it all.
We had a member pass away last month. Hope’s mother died. She’ll be missed greatly as
she was very friendly to everyone here. Condolences to her family and friends.
May 10- The men treated the ladies like queens for Mother’s Day. They cooked and cleaned
up afterwards. They served baked chicken, au gratin potatoes and salad. Dessert was
strawberry shortcake. Everything was just great! Thank you men!
May 17- We had 2 representatives from AHED come to talk to us about their business. They
help orient clients who would like to get back in the workforce after disability. Their
services are needed here in Hazleton. They are paid by various grants. See posters on
bulletin boards for more info.
Rita S. and Paul La. would like to announce their engagement. They don’t have a wedding date
yet, but will keep you informed. They’re extremely happy and thank everyone for their
good wishes!!
Center Hours
Monday 12:30PM-8:30 PM
Wednesday 12:30PM-8:30 PM
Friday 10:30AM-3:30 PM
Our Choices Drop-In Center
First Presbyterian Church
Broad And Church Streets
Phone # 455-1669
E-Mail Address :
ocal@ptd.net
Web Site: home.ptd.net/~ocal
May 10-Shelley Bishop came to our Drop-In and spoke on recovery. She believes in
empowering consumers to “walk the walk” . Additionally,she’d like to educate
consumers about recovering from mental illness. She’s also a consumer herself who’s
been where they are. The County MH/MR office is committed to helping them get on the
road to coming back to good mental health.
May 25-27- The Drop-In Center Conference. This years conference was held in State College.
It’s purpose was to equip drop-in center clients with various tools to get their centers up
and running. There were workshops for a variety of purposes. “Recovery is a simple yet
powerful vision” - William Anthony
June 4-5-Relay for Life- This was a fundraiser for The American Cancer Society. Teams
representing different companies& organizations in the Greater Hazleton area walked
the track at Harmon Geist Stadium to raise money for a cure. The Luminaria Ceremony
was touching as people bought a luminary to honor a certain person. Saturday was the
survivors lap which was walked by dozens of cancer survivors even though it rained!
Carole L. and her son,Joe have successfully moved to their new place,one that allows pets
as they have a cat!!
These things to be happy about come from a book by Barbara Ann Kipfer:
Pajamas at breakfast
A lake catching the last rays of sunlight coming in over the pines.
Brand-new notebooks
Toddlers vocabulary
Stopping being a perfectionist
Tossed salad with cheese cubes
A phone call from a grandchild
