The RazorKnow Organisation

For one, You couldn’t describe me as terribly satisfied being bored with most men (who isn’t?) and not crack a smile. Even then, I’m not uncomfortable in that way, either. I merely mention it here as a delicious detail introducing what I am about to explain in grand style.

This time last week I was walking the dog, Trisha, pondering about signing up for a Dallas Singles dating service. You prolly couldn’t guess that, I stand to you as a surprisingly pleased member of the dating service. Seriously, it’s true. I like it! If you have read my old blog, you’re probably thinking, “Stop blabbering and tell me about it already.”

Well, I saw these Great Expectations Reviews and felt encouraged. They’re for quality and professional singles who think dating should have a point.

Because in all honesty I’d never enjoyed or even tolerated the ridiculous nightlife ritual a lot of singles call “dating.” I heard it more than you know. Each night people ask, “Are you seeing somebody?” and “You should date!”

“Nonsense,” I say to them, without missing a beat. “Have you seen what’s out there?”

“Not true,” they say. “That’s just an excuse for your cynicism.”

Thankfully, that’s my friend (on a good day) hah! Patty Holland. She beams rational thought directly to my core 99% of the time. People are always there for fresh advice. Can’t argue with that, so I signed up.

Returning to the message of this essay. As I picked from thousands of outfits (hah) and desirable, honest singles for my first singles event with Great Expectations, I acknowledged something deep. Over the last year, I hadn’t allowed myself any emotional great expectations for dating in the adventurous path of this world. It’s good to be single, only when you get out there and have fun. Having great expectations makes a difference for a caring soul.

<3, Monica Rodriguez

We could all do with a little personal improvement, but where do you start? Here are some self-improvement tips that can help you get motivated to change your life.

Tip #1

Where do you stand with yourself? This can be hard to evaluate because often we try and think of what other people have told us about ourselves, but if you sit and just think about it for a little bit you can usually come to a good conclusion about how you really feel. Write it down and sort things out. A big indicator of disliking yourself is if you are constantly feeling guilty, self-conscious, or thinking that you should be able to do more. If this is the case write down the three biggest things that you feel stop you from liking yourself.

Tip #2

Now focus on the three things you wrote down. Start with the first and figure out a way to change that part of you into something you do like. In some cases it may be as simple as eliminating something from your life, but in most cases the things on your list that you dislike are things that will take a little time and work to establish in your life. Set a goal and work on only one at a time. If one of the things you don’t like about yourself is your weight, you may want to consider making a couple of goals and working on each individually. For example, start with eating a balanced diet, then when this is something you have mastered, move on to exercising regularly. Trying to work on all of your goals at once will only make it hard and more likely that you won’t succeed.

Tip #3

Find someone to use as an example. Is there someone you know who exemplifies a characteristic you want to make a part of your life? Watch what they do, talk to them. If you feel comfortable telling them that you have made a goal to try and gain this characteristic let them know and see if they have any suggestions that may help you. This is especially useful if you are trying gain a talent they have or if you are trying to loose weight. They may be able to refer you to someone who helped them.

Tip #4

Get some help from experts. Read a few books by self-improvement gurus Dale Carnegie, Deepak Chopra, Zig Ziegler and Anthony Robbins. They can really help motivate you when you are feeling doubtful or hesitant about starting a goal.

Tip #5

Take action and practice, practice, practice. If you want to continue your education start calling local colleges; if you want to get into shape don’t waste your time getting expensive equipment, sign up at a local YMCA, get a workout video and get started. Like playing the piano, learning to ride a bike or learning to read it may take a while before your goal becomes second nature, but don’t let this discourage you. Leave yourself reminders in your car, at work and at home that will continue to keep that goal in the front of your mind. Once you get started it is harder to stop, so stop planning and start implementing your goal.

Chris Simons is a prolific freelance writer. You are welcomed to visit http://self-improvement.cyberinformer.com, for more information on Self Improvement.

Do you want to be even more successful? Learn to love learning and growth. The more effort you put into improving your skills, the bigger the payoff you will get. Realize that things will be hard at first, but the rewards will be worth it.

Many of us have to be reminded that almost everything worthwhile in our lives is hard at first. Learning to walk was hard at first, but gradually we learned and now it is effortless. The same holds true for our more advanced skills such as, sports, music, art, etc. We forget these past struggles to learn and take them for granted now.

When most people begin to try something for the first time, it usually doesn’t turn out particularly well. It doesn’t mean we are bad, or stupid, or anything like that, it just means that most things of any complexity take awhile to learn.

Given this, the surprising thing is how most people react when they begin to learn a new skill and it does not go well. Most people at that point feel such things as surprise, anger, frustration, and so on. We forget that the expression “beginners luck” means that doing something well at first is a fluke. We forget it isn’t supposed to be easy; it is almost against the laws of nature for something to be good at first.

So what is a more positive way to handle the difficulties we will encounter when we are learning something new? We should take the attitude that we are supposed to fail at first, that is the way the system works. We should look for a way to find fascination with the process, and build enjoyment of the ups and downs into the process. We need to recognize the difficulties we will face and build them into the time and effort we plan on expending on the project. This is one place in your life where a healthy dose of pessimism will pay off. Just planning for difficulty will take much of the negative emotions we feel in these situations away.

Lets look at another situation where we encounter difficulty at first. Almost anything involving change is very hard for us to incorporate into our lives at first. One of my favorite expressions regarding change is “the only kind of change we like, is the change in our pocket.” Making the decision to change is easy, it is just a decision. Staying changed is hard. We want to fall back to our old ways; we are discouraged, uncomfortable and so on. One again we are learning something new and it helps to build this into our plan for change.

In addition to learning to enjoy the process as above, we can add another element to help us through learning something new or the change process. We can keep reviewing the goal we are seeking, the payoff, etc. and continually tell ourselves that the pain is temporary, but the payoff is permanent. We need to take the pain and frustration and deal with it minute by minute, telling ourselves to hang on, hang on, we can make it. Life is a series of minutes we can make it through.

Many people use visualization techniques to help them learn a new skill or deal with change. They “daydream” or use guided imagery to see themselves going through the process of learning or change and attaining the goal. A person on a diet can see himself f becoming thinner and thinner, easing the pain and giving them the sense they can do it. The same with a new skill such as golf. They see themselves hitting the ball, in just the right way, and they see the golf ball going right where they want it. A word of caution regarding using visualization to learn a new skill. The technique is very, very powerful and you will tend to perform exactly like you visualized it, so if you visualize the wrong technique, chances are you will actually perform the wrong technique. So be very sure of the proper technique before you used visualization to help you master it.

One last point. I have stressed the need to recognize that new things will be hard to learn at first. While this “negative” view is helpful, it must be balanced with a positive outlook for the whole project. Plan and expect problems at first, but also plan and expect that you will eventually master the situation. Planning for a positive outcome will help give you the willpower to see the situation through and enable things that are needed to move you ahead to appear when they are needed. Remember if we expect good things, we tend to get good things.

Edward W. Smith is the author of Sixty Seconds To Success, he produces and hosts the Bright Moment cable TV and internet radio show, is president of the Bright Moment Seminars, is a motivational speaker, and publishes the free, daily, email of the One Minute Motivator (quick peak performance tip). His website is www.brightmoment.com and his email is edsmith@brightmoment.com.

Firstly I would like to discuss the difference between attention and retention. Many in the past have deemed that attention is requisite to acquiring information. For without attention a profound impression cannot be made.

In the medium of retention there is an objective at the outset. That motive is to retain information. In the realm of attention that purpose may not be present but that does not mean that you are being inattentive. Let’s look at the denotation of the word attention. “Concentration of the mental powers upon an object; a close or careful observing or listening. The ability or power to concentrate mentally. Observant consideration; notice:”

Now if we look at concentration we get the following.
“The act or process of concentrating, especially the fixing of close, undivided attention. The condition of being concentrated. Something that has been concentrated. Chemistry. The amount of a specified substance in a unit amount of another substance.” Then concentrated would mean this. “To direct or draw toward a common center; focus. Then focus means to close or narrow attention; concentration.” By now you may be seeing something interesting here. That is, many words are cross referencing themselves

So attention is far broader than either concentration or focus. Attention if it has a motive will narrow down to its specific purpose. Therefore it becomes focus, or concentration or the acquisition of information known as retention. Attention is far more significant than any of the above.

Attention is observation and listening without specific aim but for the joy of exploring. Attention encompasses concentration, retention and focus yet it is not limited by any of them. This broadens the mind and goes beyond the ties of conditioning.

The principal difficulty in all this lies in the fact of understanding, which requires some active earnest thinking, and the majority of people are too lazy to indulge in such mental activity, yet without exercising this, I am not sure if you will ever live life to its fullest extent..

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“Be Proactive” is habit #1 from Steve Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Being proactive means taking conscious control over your life, setting goals and working to achieve them. Instead of reacting to events and waiting for opportunities, you go out and create your own events and opportunities.

Being proactive means that instead of merely reacting to events as they happen, you consciously engineer your own events.

Most people think reactively. And reacting to certain events is all well and good. But it becomes a problem when that’s all there is to a person’s life nothing more than instinctively reacting to stimuli.

Steve Covey points out that there’s a gap between stimulus and response, and within that gap lies the potential for us to choose our response. Four special human endowments give us this power:

1. Self-awareness - the understanding that you do have a choice between stimulus and response. If someone insults you, you can choose not to become angry. If you are offered a donut, you can choose not to eat it.

2. Conscience - the ability to consult your inner compass to decide what is right for you. You can make decisions based on unchanging principles, regardless of what is socially favored at the moment.

3. Creative Imagination - the ability to visualize alternative responses. By using your imagination, you can mentally generate and evaluate different options.

4. Independent Will - You have the freedom to choose your own unique response. You aren’t forced to conform to what others expect from you.

A lack of proactivity can often be traced to a weakness in one of these four human endowments. Maybe you’re spending too much time in a state of low consciousness and never reaching the level of awareness necessary to make proactive life decisions. Perhaps your conscience has become muddled by societal conditioning, so you aren’t even sure what you want from life; when something doesn’t feel right to you, you look to others to decide how you should feel about it. Maybe you aren’t taking the time to visualize alternatives. Or perhaps your independent will is being restricted by the pressure to conform to others’ expectations.

It can be argued that on some level, we’re always reacting to events, either external or internal. The difference between proactivity and reactivity can then be viewed in terms of what degree of “mental processing” occurs during the gap between stimulus and response. A proactive person will apply the four human endowments to choose a response (or to choose no response at all). But even more than that, a proactive person will invest the time to make conscious life choices and follow through on them.

Reactive people tend to be out of touch with their core values. Instead of running their lives based on unchanging core principles, they pick up temporary values from others around them. If no special opportunities come their way, they’ll stay at the same job year after year as long as it’s semi-satisfying. If most of their friends exercise, they probably will too; otherwise, they probably won’t. They go with the flow of the people and circumstances that surround them, but they don’t direct the flow. Their lives are largely out of their direct conscious control; they tend to only exert their human endowments when they absolutely must, such as if they get laid off unexpectedly (and even then it’s often to a minimal degree). But when things are pretty good, life is mostly on autopilot.

Proactive people, on the other hand, are aware of their core values. They consciously make key decisions based on those values. They create their own opportunities and direct the flow of their own lives. Even when things are pretty good, they’re still making conscious choices. Sometimes that means maintaining the status quo, while other times it means changing directions. Sometimes their values will align well with what’s socially popular; other times they won’t. Proactive people will take actions that often seem mysterious to reactive people. They may suddenly quit their job to start a new business, even though everything seemed to be going well for them. They’ll often start new projects or activities “out of the blue” when it seems like there’s no externally motivated reason to do so. A proactive person will still pay attention to external events, but they’ll pilot themselves to their desired destination regardless of those events.

If a reactive person were to captain a ship, the ship would flow with the currents. This person would be preoccupied with studying the currents, trying to predict where the ship will end up as a function of the currents. If the currents are good, this person is happy. If the currents are poor, this person feels stressed. On occasion this person might attempt to set a destination, and if the currents are good, the ship will arrive. But if the currents are poor, this person will bemoan them and give up the destination for an easier one.

If a proactive person were to captain a ship, however, the ship would go wherever the captain wanted it to go. This captain would still note the currents, but they’d merely be used for navigational purposes. Sometimes the ship would flow with the currents; other times it would steam against them. It matters little whether the currents are good or not; this captain will reach the intended destination regardless of the currents. The currents can only control the time of arrival and the exact path from starting point to final destination. But the currents have no power to dictate the final destination; that is entirely the captain’s choice.

Some examples of reactive [proactive] language:

* Where is the industry going? [Where shall I go next, and how will I get there?]

* I don’t have time to exercise. [How shall I make time to exercise?]

* How much money can I expect to make if I do X? [How much money do I want to make, and what will I do to earn it?]

* I’ll try it and see what happens. [I'll do it.]

* I’m too tired. [What can I do to increase my energy?]

* I’ve never been very good at math. [How can I improve my math skills and enjoy the process?]

* Nothing really inspires me. [What would I tackle if I knew I couldn't fail?]

* What is the meaning of life? [What is the meaning I wish to give to my life?]

Taking the pulse of others is a big concern for reactive people. They usually want to work at a “stable” job in a “good” industry, and they see themselves at the mercy of market conditions. If they manage to start a new business, it’s because they know lots of others who are already doing so, and they want to join the pack. They want to know what products and services seem to be doing well, so they can do something similar. If they fail, it’s because the industry isn’t doing well, or there’s too much competition, or because of some oft-cited external luck factor.

Do you think that anything that happens “out there” will determine how successful you’ll be in your endeavors? Not if you’re proactive. If you’re proactive, external events can only affect your time of arrival and the exact path you take to your goal. But they cannot dictate your goal for you. Proactive people still get knocked around by the currents at times, but they’ll just keep readjusting their course to retarget their goals, goals which are ultimately attainable by their own efforts.

Of course everyone has a mixture of both proactivity and reactivity. Pure examples of the two extremes are rare. You may find that you’re extremely proactive in one area, while letting other parts of your life slip into unconscious autopilot. So take the time to use your human endowments of self-awareness, conscience, creative imagination, and independent will to shine a light on those neglected areas of your life and consciously choose to get things moving. If you don’t like where the currents are taking you, then change course. Don’t wait for an opportunity to arrive; engineer your own. The reactive people in your life will often throw a fit when you do this, so let them, and exercise your independent will anyway. Even when everyone around you seems to be reactive, you can still be proactive. Initially that will probably feel like swimming against the currents, but if the currents of your life are leading in the wrong direction anyway, that’s a good thing.

Although “going with the flow” is often considered a wise admonition, the level of wisdom in this advice depends on where that flow is going. For example: in the USA going with the flow of our current state of health means becoming overweight or obese, living a sedentary exercise-free lifestyle, and then dying of either heart disease or cancer. Going with the flow financially means gradually sinking into debt and then dying broke. Going with the flow of our marriages means getting divorced (67% of Americans who were married in 1990 can ultimately expect to divorce, sources = Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence and John Gottman’s What Predicts Divorce). Going with the flow of our educational practices means never reading another nonfiction book after high school. Going with the flow of our environmental practices means … believe me, you don’t even want to go there.

If you wish to live an extraordinary life, you often have to go against the flow that everyone else seems to be following. You can choose not to be one of the “XXX billions served.” In a way you’re switching over to being guiding by the flow of your own self-awareness and consciousness. You tune into your inner flow instead of being dragged along by the flow of external stimuli. Sure you may win the lottery or receive a big inheritance, but most likey you won’t just flow into wealth… or health… or fulfillment. You have to consciously choose these things and then follow up with committed action.

Where is the flow of your life taking you? If you continue flowing along with the currents of your life as they are now, where will you end up? And what will you never experience because those currents just don’t stop at certain destinations? How can you exercise your proactivity and your human endowments to direct the course of your life (regardless of the currents), so that you intentionally create the kind of life you want instead of just drifting along?

Proactivity has many names. Tony Robbins’ refers to it as using your Personal Power. Brian Tracy states, “Those who don’t set goals for themselves are forever doomed to work to achieve the goals of others.” Denis Waitley juxtaposes winners make it happen vs. losers let it happen. Dr. Wayne Dyer refers to the proactive as no-limit people. Roger Dawson calls them achievers. Barbara Marx Hubbard labels them cocreators. David Allen uses the terms ready for anything and having a mind like water. The exact terms aren’t important. What matters is making the decision to start consciously directing your own life instead of being pushed along by external currents.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

Nature teaches us many things. Unfortunately we have become so accustomed to teachings by books, classrooms and other methods that we miss the teachings of nature. Let us find out about few teachings of nature.

Water, what does it teach us? It is one of the greatest teachers. It mixes with most of the solids and becomes one with them. It has no color of its own and takes any color given to it. It always tries to go down rather than staying on the top. Does this not teach us few things?

Flowers, they look very beautiful. They make everyone happy who looks at them. They are very soft and teach us that softness is to be desired. They give amazing perfume, but it is all for others. They are ready to be used in wedding or during death ceremonies. They object to nothing.

Mountains, the heights make all of us feel small. But the mountain has no pride of its imposing height. Rather the mountains challenge our determination and strength to conquer them. Mountains make everything else look so small that one gets the right perspective of life.

Trees, they give us shade, fruits, flowers, green cover, bind the soil and make the landscape look fertile. Can one ask for more? It is for us to learn something from everything in nature. Even a small stone teaches us the art of patience. It continues to lie at the same place for years together unless disturbed. Let us look at the nature with a new outlook and find out what it can teach us. We will surely learn quite a lot. You may want to download some screensavers that will always remind you of its teachings. Please click Mountains , Clouds

There are many wrist watches to chose from. There are watches that tell time electronically and those that you wind up. The wind up kind can last forever if the gears work properly and the electronic watches need a fresh battery every once in a while. They are used for many reasons, one reason would be to time an exercise routine, after you take the product Acceletrim for energy and weight loss you could use your watch to time how long you train a specific muscle group. Or you could use a watch to time how long it takes you to drive from your house to your best friend’s house.

It is important to wear a watch for this major reason, and that is to help be on time to your appointments. It is very professional and courteous to show up on time for your meetings and appointments. It says to the other person “I care, you are important to me”. With the help of a wrist watch you can keep a close eye on the time and plan accordingly. Being on time consistently will help you lead a more productive and fulfilling time. Some even have an alarm clock, and you might want to double up and use the alarm on your watch and another alarm clock. Doing this will make sure that you get up and get to wherever you need to be, on time.

Innocent Fun - by Joseph Ghabi

Just the other day, I escaped the business of my daily life and sought refuge on the water front here in Montreal in an attempt to recharge my energies.

Taking advantage of a beautiful day, I walked along the long stretch of the Saint Lawrence River, as a way of my meditation routine. Whilst observing the birds enjoying their new spring my eyes fell upon the sight of a child and his grandmother playing. They were along together, enjoying that spring day. They were together with no attachment in between. That was all the experience of their moment together.

I sat down awhile watching and maintaining the thought of them in mind when a flash hit me. How beautiful the sight, looking at both souls in the way they were together with each other. The simplicity of that innocent child, with no awareness of any impact on his emotion, those may come as a result of life’s hurdles that await him. Then I looked at the grandmother at the same time. She was completely at peace with herself and the innocence of her inner child, which still prevails in her old age, was enough evidence to me to realize. Our age has no relevance upon being happy within. For me, that experience was really overwhelming!

Normally, I do not have the ability to see the aura that exists around people; however, I am able to feel it through my spiritual healing work. It was clear, the link that existed and the transfer of energies between them.

I gazed through that experience until a thought occurred in my mind, just where did we go wrong as human beings, in between these stages in life between childhood and old age? Why did we let go of our innocence whilst growing up?

We don’t get this habit through our life; regardless of how tough our experiences were when growing up. It seems, somehow during our time when growing up, we lost sense of the important essence of our journey throughout this lifetime and what it’s all about.

Yes, it’s unquestionable; we are here for these experiences, both good and bad in order to obtain the lessons, however, where comes the necessity to disregard or hide the child within us. We do not have to wait until we are elderly and preparing for our new journey in returning to spirit. Why wait to re-introduce the child when we assume nothing really matters at this point? It is never too late, whatever age we are at present, to introduce or bring back that innocent child within us.

I teach in my meditation classes the value of getting acquainted with the child within, specifically between the age of 6 and 9 years old. I believe by bringing that inner child into our environment from time to time allows us the opportunity to ‘let loose’ for a while and it doesn’t hurt! Also it is very important to get to know many things about yourself too. I am not implying that you live your life as a child would, only manifest and bring some joy to you when need to laugh and release some weight you carry through the journey of life.

Both the child and the grandmother looked at me and had a smile on their faces and somehow the ball from the child came towards me in a way of an invitation to join them. I had the privilege to do so and had a great fun with the experience. We did not speak much in the beginning if like words won’t matter anyway just enjoy the ride with a happy smile and have some innocent fun.

This experience added many questions into my mind later on while I continued my walk. One important question kept coming into my mind was that why don’t we have a very small break from all our busy schedules, our problems, work, daily routine or whatever is occupying us in reality and just have some little innocent fun with no string attached. I believe that fun can be shared between any two people together who enjoy each other’s company. It might bring them into a different level of understanding of each other.

I am going to leave you with that thought for the time being for you to try it for yourself. I will keep you posted on my progress in this experience because I do have many questions that occurred in my mind and still do not have the answers for. Why don’t you try to have some innocent fun after all? It might be what you need to have at the moment. Be happy!!

Copyright © Joseph Ghabi http://www.freespiritcentre.co.uk

Easy come easy go. Nobody said life would be easy. Anything worth having is worth working for. Never be intimated. Never let them see you sweat. Never give up. One I heard recently “the loser is the quitter.” And My favorite for inspiration, “don’t give up the day before your miracle happens.”

Heard them all before? Well they’re all true. The number one most important ingredient to success in business or life is perseverance. Think about it. If you have a horrible day today, you still have to wake up tomorrow. Your car breaks down in the middle of traffic. You lose your job. The bank screws up huge and somehow your life savings is missing. The mortgage refinance didn’t happen in time, your rate jumped, and now you can’t afford your own house. You’re hospitalized because of an illness you didn’t ask for, or perhaps a car accident you didn’t cause. A loved one dies. Divorce. All of these things are horrible, but tomorrow you wake up. And then again the next day. For years to come. Depending on how old you are… decades. And in 40 years will today’s events still be so dramatic? You must Persevere my friend.

What about business? Lose that great account? Miss out on a huge bid? Screw up a customer order? You need to bite the bullet, face the problem head on and walk your line. Again, you must persevere. The secret to success is plugging away. It’s that simple. And yet it’s that difficult. When the worst things in business or life come, you want to give up, but you can’t! Take my carcasherdotcom seocontest page. It’s nothing. It’s a simple site that for the longest time Google, Yahoo, and even MSN ignored. But I will persevere! They didn’t care that I made a dog breeds website. They don’t even know who I am! They sure don’t care about my Computer Cables site, but I must push on! Work hard in business and never give up. You will have to learn your particular industry of course to do well, but just knowing an industry is not enough, perseverance is key!

Don’t just take my word for it… take action! Build your own site. Build it about whatever interests you! Are you a dog person? Make a site about Dalmatians. Do you like contests and competitiveness? Jump on the web and get involved with an SEO contest like the carcasherdotcom seocontest. Either way, don’t stop. once you make a commitment to be successful at something you must keep going.

Things that will help you forge on are goals. Remember why you are doing what you are doing. Is it money alone? If so… chances are it will not be enough. For some it is, but for many it is not. Is it for freedom? Expansion of an idea? World peace? Or do you simply want to inform the world, such as been done on sites like this DVI Info page. Or similar to this DIY network page.

Never give up!!