Just a short note to let you know my brand new book

Autism & Asperger’s Syndrome in Layman’s Terms is available for free on Kindle until approximately 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on 27 january 2012.

If you are interested in autism spectrum disorders feel free to download the kindle edition.

I would appreciate your feedback.

If you know families who might be interested in information on autism please feel free to spread the word.

Use an iPod or any other digital audio/video player for more than listening to music alone.

Everyone in this world knows what an ipod is, yet not everyone is aware of the extra benefit you can get from it.

iPods started off as portable music players, but today they can be used to play movies, view photos, play games, store text documents, set reminders and can also be used as an alarm clock!

The uses continue, you can even implement an Ipod as a scheduler and workout trainer.

The iPod’s primary purpose is playing music anywhere and everywhere. But it doesn’t have to be music that you listen too all the time.

The iPod can also play Audio books very conveniently. When you have stopped listening, it keeps track of the exact point and chapter that you were on, so you can resume listening from where you left off.

MP3’s can actually help you in a lot of ways. It can teach you something and can even help you forward in personal development

Hardware such as the ipod have transformed traditional classrooms into the 21st century. This is just a small sample of what is available, yet it has already made a significant impact upon today’s educational possibilities.

With all the podcasts or audio and video files that are vastly available in the internet, you can actually use your MP3 player to watch or listen to them.

You can always download the file you would want to know more about and access it via your MP3 player.

For instance, in case you would want to know about blogging or internet marketing or how to cook your favorite meal, an audio or video instruction is probably available, download it and save it on your device.

In this way, you can always play it over and over again when you feel like it.

You can play it and learn from it at the same time; thus, adding information to your knowledge.

Isn’t that fun and interesting?

By using an iPods, you can now be unglued to your computer screen and spend the day away and for instance do some working out in the fresh air.

You can listen to educational poscasts, books etcetera in the sun!

Through the MP3 player, you can listen to self improvement files while you are waiting in line for the register, while driving a car (but be careful), while walking in the park or while having your workout in the gym or just around the house.

What’s more, you can multi-task and accomplish some minor chores while educating yourself at the same time.

You can now actually do and finish the small tasks and at the same time gain some knowledge and idea on how to do your next step or tasks by following the instructions and tips played on your iPod.

Not only can your ipod be turned into a handy learning gadget, but it can also be used when you want to relax your nerves and shake off the stress you have in your body.

You can always use your digital device to unwind and relax whenever you are having your “dead moment” and listen to your favorite music.
It’ll stimulate you to gain back the momentum you had before.

Enjoy your new “Learning Tool”

A belief is a experiencing of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true.
Beliefs are defined as assumptions people make about themselves, about other people and about what makes the world go round.
Beliefs are about how we presume things really are, what we think is really true and what we thus expect as likely consequences that will follow from our actions.
The various ideas you regard as true and use as a solid foundation for daily action.

Beliefs can be both permissive and limiting.

Your beliefs and actions that follow based on your beliefs shape your world.

Your chances of success, of reaching what you aim for, go up as soon as you are aware of your own firm beliefs.

Knowing how they affect you can help you put more weight on the beliefs that will support the life you wish for.

Beliefs can be found in broadly spoken, two different flavors.

1. Beliefs as a generalization of reality:
a. “The world is” …”, “People are…”,”Life is”, “I am”

2. Beliefs are conditional rules:
a. “If this, then that”,”If I had won the lottery, I would be rich. ” “I have to do everything perfectly all the time to be successful”, “In order for me to feel loved, my children must obey me 100 percent of the time without complaint” ” if you do good, good will come back threefold”

When a particular person owns a belief, this individual consciously accepts this belief.
This can range from mild approval to certain absoluteness.
Consequently it would prove pointless to imply that a person has these beliefs without them realizing it, or for them to reject their own beliefs.
Clearly, a person who does not believe in something does not believe in that something; a person who believes in something, does believe in that something. Belief calls for conscious recognition.

The phrase “limiting belief” is used for a belief that prevents exploration of a wider cognitive space than would otherwise be the case.

A limiting belief holds us back. Illustrations of limiting beliefs can be found in most people.
Not many of us our immune to them.
These limiting beliefs might be strongly held beliefs and are often tied in with self-image or perceptions about the world.

Here are a couple of everyday examples of limiting/self-defeating beliefs:

• That someone has particular capabilities, roles, or traits that can’t be changed
• People who’re optimistic are not realistic.
• It’s a dog-eat-dog world!
• That a specific action or result will be the only method to resolve a certain issue.
• If I’m pleased now, I will not be motivated to alter something in the future.
• I cannot change. This really is simply just the way I’m.
• That a specific opinion is correct so there isn’t any point thinking about other viewpoints.
• If I control my feelings, I’ll be a robot.
• I need love, sex, or money to be happy.
• If I do not really feel guilty about what I did, I’ll continue to do bad stuff.
• I can’t succeed so there isn’t any point to even bother
• No pain, no gain
• If I was pleased all the time, I’d be a complete idiot.
• My feelings come naturally, not something I can control.
• You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
• If happiness was my priority, I’d be inconsiderate of other people.

Beliefs are your concept or idea about reality.
Beliefs are wide-ranging, and learning where they come from and how they play a role in our life is crucial to begin changing them.
Beliefs are the ideas and the concepts we have about who we are and about how the world operates.
We have seen some examples of limiting and self-defeating beliefs.
Now wouldn’t it be great to be able to develop some empowering beliefs then?

How to develop empowering beliefs?

People from around the world agree, the key to success is contained inside you.
Your thoughts are your biggest limitation or your strongest asset. You can choose.

Here are five steps to help you develop empowering beliefs or in other words a successful mindset.

Image by bark via Flickr

[PS: Having a successful mindset will do nothing if it is not coupled with hard work and unwavering persistence.]

1. Recognize your negative thoughts. 

Since our life is very much determined by our mind, our thoughts can make or break our life.
Every day negative thoughts sneak into our internal language.
We say or think things like, “This is a bad day,” or “I’m not being very productive,” or even, “I’m terrible at _________.”
These negative thoughts permeate our life and have a strong influence on what we believe deep down.
When we say things like, “I’m terrible at saving money,” it becomes true.
If you give attention to negative thoughts, they will get stronger and stronger!

The first step to eliminating negative thoughts is to recognize them.
Whenever you have a negative or limiting thought try to pause and reflect on it.

Ask questions like:

• Do I really believe this?
• Why am I having this thought?
• Is this a common thought for me?

By stepping back and taking a look at your negative thoughts, you begin to take away their power.
It takes practice and patience to recognize them however as you begin to watch your thoughts, you’ll become better at catching those negative thoughts before they happen.
You can break the vicious cycle by shifting your focus to something positive.

2. Practice positive affirmations. 

Another practice which fills your mind, heart and spirit with positive thoughts and helps to drop the negative ones are positive affirmations.
A positive affirmation is a statement which, through the act of repetition, becomes implanted in the subconscious mind and influences external forces to manifest this positive change in your life.
Affirmations can be created to help you through anything.
If for example, you found yourself thinking you are terrible at saving money then a positive affirmation to end that limiting belief might be “I love to save money and am so grateful for the savings I am building.”
Or “I am masterful with money.”

An affirmation practice can be approached in two ways.
Many people prefer to recite the affirmation in the morning and throughout the day, making it a practice.
While others prefer to use affirmations as a counterbalance to negative thoughts. Thus when they feel themselves thinking negative thoughts about money, for example, they would recite their positive money affirmation.

Affirmation are based on the following principles:

• Your present reality is a direct result of your thinking
• Change your thinking, and your reality changes
• Affirmations change your thinking

Two important beliefs you might want to adopt through affirmations are:

“The past doesn’t equal the future”
“There is always a way if I’m committed”

3. Be grateful. 

Gratitude may very well be the most positive success tactic available.
We often look at what we don’t have instead of what we have, and we end up complaining instead of being grateful.
It’s amazing the calm and peace which comes over you when you feel truly grateful for what you have.
When you embrace a practice of gratitude the feeling of “I’ll be happy when I’m _________” or “I’ll be successful when I’m _________” goes away and you’re allowed to be happy and feel successful right now, today.
Now that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t have goals.
Gratitude simply makes it possible to focus on those goals as goals and not needs.

Practicing gratitude can take many forms.
Some people find great power in the daily ritual of a gratitude journal.
This idea works because it makes recognizing all that you have a daily practice.
However, others prefer to tic off what they’re grateful for in their head or to simply recognize all they have on an ongoing basis.
Try a gratitude journal and see how it changes your life.
In a gratitude journal everything you write down must be positive and you can only list something you’re grateful for once.
So no repeating entries. Look for the positive angle in all things.

4. Recognize success myths.

There are many people who believe success is a combination of luck and hard work.
Or who believe that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Or that successful people make it because they’re in the right place at the right time.
What myths about money (You have to pay your dues) and success (Nothing Comes Easy) did you grow up with?
What myths do you still hold onto, either consciously or unconsciously?

Spend some time exploring your success myths.
Ask yourself what do you believe, why do you believe it and is it really true?
You may find that much of what you hold onto as true, you don’t really believe, they’re just things you picked up as you grew and for one reason or another stuck with you.
If you’re able to let go of these myths and embrace new beliefs, empowering beliefs about money and success, you will be one step closer to the success you desire.
Which brings us to the final step in developing a success mindset: how do you define success?

5. Define success for yourself. 

Often when we are asked to define success, we look at those around us who we consider to be successful.
Maybe it’s the person down the street with the million dollar home, two new cars in the driveway and a houseful of beautiful well-mannered children or maybe it’s the person who owns their own real estate business and is always smiling and wears the best suits.

Additionally, if you pay close attention, we often define success in material forms. “Success is having_________.”
And we compare what we have to what others have to decide whether we feel successful.
Spend some time analyzing your definition for success. Where did it come from?
Who do you consider to be successful and why? Then take a look at what you want for your life separate from what others have.
You may find that you already fit your personal definition of success.
Your definition of success might include having peace of mind, being in good health, spending enough time with your family, or enjoying your job.

Having a successful mindset/empowering beliefs is a prerequisite to living your best life.
Embrace these steps, be patient with yourself, they’re not easy, and live the successful life you were destined to live.

If you think you have limiting beliefs that could sabotage reaching your goals, and you can’t eliminate them by yourself, it would be wise to work on them through counseling.

Energy Management

In an effort to carry out something you should draw enough energy to it until you do.

Each one of us has its own best time during the day.

We have our own rhythm when we can be more productive and time when we are less productive.
Simply by knowing your energy pattern you can conserve your energy and steer clear of a burnout

Consider these as good times and bad times to when you schedule your work.

During your good time, you feel more are more energetic and thus more work gets done.

During the bad time you may be a bit lazy. Procrastination is at its peak and accomplishing major tasks isn’t feasible.

The pattern associated with ideal energy management is one where you are wholly engaged and using all of your resources for greatest productivity, followed by a period of intense recovery where you recover all your energy for the next job ahead.

Knowing your own good and bad times can really help you finish your tasks for the day and do more than you might expect from yourself.

To be able to name your good and bad times ask yourself these questions.

- Try to think of the time of the day where you usually accomplish more than at the other hours of your day.

- Try to discover a pattern in these highs and lows..

If you have already identified the different times you feel the flow of good energy and the hours when you do not, it is highly important that you acknowledge these and set your tasks based on these findings.

When you feel  you have more energy during the morning, set your important tasks during this time and schedule the less important ones in your less productive hours.

You can also set your big and difficult tasks during this time to get productive results and do the short and simple tasks during your down time.

The main element to effective energy management is always to set up routines in your daily life that promote periods associated with heavy involvement followed by recovery.

Remember to adjust your tasks, your daily activities and your errands, with your high energy and low energy periods of the day in mind.

Developing these habits means creating a lasting ritual for energy recovery.

In acknowledging it and making good use of it, wisely, tasks will be accomplished fast and reaching your goals will not be a problem and there’s even room for some procrastination/lazy time.

One thing to keep in mind though is to keep an eye on your body.

This could be as easy as sitting back and relaxing for fifteen minutes or performing a light physical exercise.

Love your body by letting it have regular breaks and take a nap when needed.

If you have faced the computer for a long time, stand up and divert your attention for a while to avoid  destroying your precious eyesight. Also, let your body enjoy, relish and breathe in fresh air.

The fresh air will keep you relaxed.

Energy management also involves a healthy good night’s sleep.
So do not tire yourself at night.

So sleep and rest well!

Values are about how we have learnt to think things ought to be or people ought to behave, especially in terms of qualities such as honesty, integrity and openness.
Values are traits or qualities that are considered worthwhile; they represent an individual’s highest priorities and deeply held driving forces.
A value is that for which you make a stand.

Your values are based on your beliefs.

What do values have to do with goal setting?
Simply this.
If the goals you set are out of alignment with your values, it will make those goals extremely difficult to achieve.
For instance, if you value integrity, it probably wouldn’t be wise to want to become the most successful hard-selling door-to-door salesperson of useless products.

The step of defining your values is important; effective people identify and develop a clear, concise and understood meaning of their values.
Once defined, values impact every aspect of your choices, work behavior, interpersonal interaction, contributions, and the goals you set.
You might hold different values for work and for your private life.
But as the lines between your professional and personal lives become less defined, it’s important that you create symmetry and provide balance between both so that, as much as circumstances allow, you can be yourself.
If you can’t be you, how can you be happy?

Following are some examples of values.
You might use these as the starting point for introspection into your own values.

I value:

· acceptance
· accountability
· accuracy
· adventure
· affection
· ambition
· appreciation
· authenticity
· balance
· beauty
· belonging
· camaraderie
· care
· career
· certainty
· challenge
· collaboration
· commitment
· comfort
· compassion
· competence
· competition
· confidence
· connection
· contribution
· courage
· creativity
· credibility
· curiosity
· decisiveness
· dedication
· dependability
· development
· devotion
· dignity
· discipline
· effectiveness
· efficiency
· empathy
· empowerment
· enthusiasm
· excellence
· excitement
· fairness
· faith
· family
· financial independence
· flexibility
· forgiveness
· freedom
· friendliness
· friendship
· fun
· generosity
· genuineness
· gratitude
· growth
· happiness
· harmony
· health
· honesty
· honor
· humility
· humor
· independence
· influence
· innovativeness
· inspiration
· integrity
· intuition
· involvement
· joy
· kindness
· knowledge
· leadership
· learning
· love
· loyalty
· moderation
· money
· nature
· openness
· order
· partnership
· passion
· patience
· peace of mind
· perseverance
· persistency
· play
· pleasure
· prestige
· quality
· recognition
· reflection
· respectfulness
· responsibility
· security
· serenity
· service
· significance
· sincerity
· spirituality
· stability
· status
· success
· teamwork
· tolerance
· tradition
· trust
· truthfulness
· uncertainty
· variety
· wealth
· wisdom

Values are generally sorted hierarchically.
Means values are helpfull values (money, business success) in that they are required as part of the effort to achieve other values.
Ends values (like love, happiness, accomplishment, security, adventure) are both more general and more important in driving all of our behaviors as human beings.
Example: I need money (means value) to feel secure (end value).

List your personal values (My Personal Values).
If you have difficulty determining them, ask yourself, “What’s most important to me in life?” until you run out of answers.

Then, sort them by the importance you give them from say 1 to 10, where 1 is your most prominent value and 10 is the least.
Next to each of your values you jot down reasons why you’ve chosen this particular value.

To help you find out which values are most important to you, set up a hierarchy by asking yourself, “What’s more important for me to feel: ______ or ____?”

For example, you can say, “I have chosen recognition as my number one value because I don’t want to live a life anonymously,” or, “I have settled creativity as my number two value because I want to add creativity to everything that I do.”

Values as well as their order of importance are strictly personal.

Next, see if you can group them according to common themes-you will likely discover a mere handful of values govern your existence.

Examples of common themes are:
• Personal Development and Self Awareness
• Equity and Equality
• Interpersonal Communication
• Community and Social Development & Responsibility
• Health and Well Being
• Leadership
• Love and Friendship
• Accountability and Work Responsibility
• Team Development and Collaboration

Great!
You made stock of the values that are important to you and tried to find clusters of values that pop up often.
Look over your values and their hierarchy once more.
If, for example, dependability, friendliness, and loyalty tops your list, that may suggest working with others is of higher value to you than working alone.
Values are what makes you unique.
They determine your purposes in life.
They are your priorities.
They are the fuel that will propel you forwards.

Image via Wikipedia

Being positive is our nature. It emerges from inside ourselves. Being positive is a quality considered good or desirable in a person.
Being positive is not a technique. It is the result of a personal decision to see all problems as challenges rather than obstacles, a belief in your ability to be successful, and a genuine interest in the world and in other people.

Being positive about anything and everything can change how you view and perceive things. You might just be happier doing just about anything. Even the worst chores if you just keep the right frame of mind.

Doing the right things and thinking the right things will produce the kind of behaviour that is an example to us all. It will encourage those around you and serve as an example that they can follow. Watching your behaviour will help those with an inclination toward negative behavior  or thoughts to change the way they think. If it changes the course of their lives you have achieved a great thing.

Being positive has created stronger relationships and deeper connections in all aspects of my life!

It can help you overcome challenges in your life, and can also give you the motivation to move on to greater accomplishments. It is important to realize, however, that positive thinking by itself is nowhere near enough. It will take a serious commitment to achieve anything worthwhile in your life, and, there is no point denying it, the more problems you have in your life right now the harder it will be to make progress. But even so. The most fundamental fact of all, though, is that change is possible.

- Being positive to you others shows a lot about who you are inside.
- Being positive doesn’t imply that you have to ignore what is happening around you and that you have to live within some kind of a “positive bubble”.
- Being positive, like any other skill, requires gradual training and development.
- Being positive will not make difficult circumstances and conditions disappear, as if by magic, but with a positive attitude you are better equipped to improve the situation and be more in control of your state of mind, your reactions and your behaviour.

A person’s goals have to be supported and justified by a persons  beliefs and values.

Image via Wikipedia

Is there a difference between a belief and a value?

There is no simple answer.

Though there are similarities, there are actually some differences between them too.

Belief is a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true.
Belief= Something regarded as true.

Though others may dispute their believability, if somebody sincerely believes in a feeling or cause, it can be recognized as a personal belief.

Value is a strongly held belief about what is valuable, important, or acceptable.
Value = Something held in high regard.

Values are based on beliefs.
We hold something in high regard, because we regard it as true.

Thus what you believe determines what you consider valuable.

Beliefs are things we take for granted about ourselves, about others in the world and about how we believe things to be.
They are usually half-truths. Beliefs are about how we think things really are and what we think is really true.

A typical belief may be “stealing is wrong.”
A belief includes not only an action or thing (“stealing”), but also a judgment about that action or thing (“is wrong”).

Our values are based on our beliefs. A value is something that we consider to be important and meaningful and can include certain ideas, behaviors, attitudes, relationships and concepts like “equality, Liberty, honesty, knowledge, education, obedience, charity, truthfulness, effort, privacy, perseverance, loyalty, solidarity & faithfulness”. Values govern how we interact with the world.

Our motivation and behavior is heavily influenced by our values. Values are abstract and hierarchical concepts that essentially describe what we want to achieve. Holding a value means we aspire to something, or we feel that value is worth something to us. So if we say that we hold “loyalty” as a value we are saying that we aspire to be loyal, even at personal cost.

It is imaginable for our beliefs and values to change over time as we gather evidence or have experiences that dare our previously held views. On the other hand our beliefs and values can also be reinforced by experience or evidence.

Everyone has a system of beliefs and values that they have developed during their lives.

To sum it up beliefs are judgments that give our experiences meaning, and offer a context for our values.

Is there a relation between beliefs and values?

In fact beliefs and values are closely related. They cannot be seen separate from each other. In essence, beliefs provide context for values. They are more or less interrelated.
Both beliefs and influence the way we see ourselves. They also act as filters for our understanding of the world around us.

Is there a distinction between values and beliefs?

Probably the biggest difference is that our values often change more over time than our beliefs. Each stage of our life requires adjustments and will also cause us to reevaluate our values. On the other hand, our beliefs are not likely to change as often. Our lifestyles may change, but the ideas we hold as true will often remain the same. It will take some strong “evidence” to dent our beliefs.

While personal values are definitely woven into personal beliefs, values are personal choices that are seldom discussed, because they help define our individuality.

In my 100 Thing Challenge Part 1 I wrote that I’d start my process of “decluttering” at my computer.

“Because I bought a lot of software over the years. From simple applications to heavy software suites. I notice that for a large part these programs are just sitting on my hard drive, gathering dust. …. So no more fooling around with all those entertaining and sometimes even useful applications for my Mac …… but concentrating on what matters most. …A quick count shows I’ve got over 120 programs installed on my computer. 85 sitting on my Dock (making it look very crowded indeed)”.

I managed to delete nearly 40 applications.

These applications bit the bullett.

1. Calendar for Mac
2. Growl
3. Yep 2
4. Ezcapture
5. TextEdit
6. Iweb
7. Idvd
8. Kiwi
9. Kidnle app
10. Itoner
11. Iprocrastinate
12. HP printer & scanner
13. Socialite
14. Macjournal
15. Quickcal
16. MS Outlook + SyncServices Agent
17. Lion Tweeks
18. Social bro
19. Google Chrome
20. Maccleanse
21. MS Communicator
22. Story Lite
23. Faceboxpro
24. Gimp
25. Circus Ponies Notebook
26. My Day & office reminders
27. Pages
28. Powerpoint
29. Onyx
30. Open Office Suite
31. Seo Tool iweb
32. Chess
33. Desktoputility
34. Dashboard
35. Photoshop
36. Picasa
37. Pinnacle video capture
38. Omnioutliner

I probably still have too much “Mac Writing Applications” and organizing tools. But I’m not striving for perfection here.

I haven’t got rid of the Colorful Bird (yet) cause I kinda like it. Makes me happy just looking at it.

This by the way doesn’t mean I am finished. There’s a lot more I could (and maybe should) do.

For instance follow a simple three-step process described in an article “Three Steps To Declutter Your Computer” by Karen Leland to do a basic declutter of my computer and begin the process of simplifying your electronic life. Step One: Set up a logical filing system. Step Two: Organize your bookmarks. Step Three: Clean up your hard drive.
Organizing my bookmarks will follow soon.
But for now I’m going to do some serious work behind the computer.

“A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.” – Jim Rohn

It’s just like they say, no one is really perfect.
We have our own flaws, our own faults and our own weaknesses.
We cannot excel in all aspects of life.
Sometimes we do poorly on some things and do not know how to finish other chores successfully.
Life is not perfect and so aren’t we.

Why am I stating the obvious?

Well, it is because in our private lives and working lives we are bound to do things that, if we do not hate them, just do not have a clue how to finish or sometimes even start them in the right way.

We lack the skill, the inspiration, the knowledge; in short, we do poorly on the assigned task.

Just face it and never be too shy to admit that sometimes we aren’t the best person for a certain job while others might well be.

If you feel like things are not going your way, the job you have is something you actually hate or you are just not good at it, always remember that it is never bad to ask for help.

You can always reach out and ask someone else to do it for you or help you with it.
Yet, when doing this, always keep in mind that good things do not always come for free.

Stephen Covey’s image describing the Emotional Bank Account (from his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) certainly is one of the most formidable ideas ever put forward on the development of relationships between people.
In essence it means that anyone with whom we have a relationship with, regardless of whether it be our coworkers, friends or family, we keep up a personal “emotional” bank account with them.
This account always starts with a clean slate.
And just as with any other bank account, we can make deposits and withdrawals.
However, instead of dealing with units of monetary value, we deal with emotional units.
Stephen Covey mentions six major ways of making deposits on the Emotional Bank Account: attending to little things, understanding the person; clarifying expectations; keeping commitments; showing personal integrity ; and apologizing sincerely when you make a “withdrawal”.
When you are caring, kind, honest, and friendly to another person, you make deposits on their Emotional Bank Account. However, if you are disrespectful, unkind, mean and uncaring, you draw from this account.

Always keep this in mind when you ask for help or are asked for help as a favour.

If you are able and willing to pay you know that hiring someone else to do your work comes with an added monetary cost.

If you have the money to hire do not be afraid to hire someone else.
These costs might eventually help you boost your business or help you yield greater income.
Or it might help you free time to do some fun stuff with the family or read a book.
Just make sure that the one you are hiring really does have knowledge of the job you assign to him or her.
Check her credentials before giving him/her the job and letting him/her be on board.

Yet, if you are on a tight budget and you feel like you cannot afford yet to have another one do it for you and get paid for, there is always a thing called “trading”.

You can always work together and help each other.
You can trade skills and share your knowledge.
Let’s say for example, you are good in putting up blogs and making websites yet you are poor in creating content for your blog, you can always work with someone who knows how to write and in exchange teach that person how to put up blogs and design websites.
In this way, both of you are learning and helping each other to excel on the field that both of you are poor at and at the same time on the field that both of you are good at.
You will be making deposits and withdrawals from the emotional bank account between you both.

Being able to help each other is a good thing!
In fact, helping each other can yield greater and much better results than you might have anticipated before hand.

So, when you are in need, tap someone on the shoulder and ask for help and at the same time, help the other person too.

The 100 thing challenge is a project started by a Guy Named Dave (Dave Bruno) several years ago. In his own words he shares with us the idea that his plan to live a life with a minimum amount of personal possessions works. He found out he could break away from “American” style consumerism. Which means in plain English. No more consuming for the sake of consumption alone.

In Dave’s case this enabled him to spend more time with his family, writing a book about it and much more. I recommend you read Dave’s book “The 100 Thing Challenge” or visit his website at http://guynameddave.com if you want to learn a great deal about his challenge.

A lot of people have since then been inspired by his pursuit for other meaningful things to do other than consumption. And collecting stuff.

I’ve got rid of a lot of personal things I owned already. By throwing it away, giving it away and in some cases by selling it. We for instance gave away 2000 books and a load of furniture to a local thrift store.

But I am not nearly half way there yet. There’s still a lot of decluttering to do in our house. You can say a lot about our house but certainly not that it’s feng shui!

And to be honest the 100 thing challenge is only the “work” title of my project. I have no idea what the outcome will be figure wise. I hope it will lead to:

• Less stuff/clutter in our house
• Less impulsive buying behavior by me
• Me buying more sustainable farming product alternatives when available
• Fair Trade when I have a choice
• More inner peace

[PS: We have already been cutting on our expenditures (excess buying), and we are spending more on more on biologically grown vegetables, meat substitutes etcetera. One step at a time]

Now to take the next step I’m going to start at my computer. Because I bought a lot of software over the years. From simple applications to heavy software suites.

I notice that for a large part these programs are just sitting on my hard drive, gathering dust. And when I think of it, it’s not merely an investment money wise, but also a large investment in time to get to know each program. So I think a good idea would be to make an inventory what’s on my computer and to ask myself these two questions. Does it still serve a purpose, or can the functionality be fulfilled by another program. If the answer on the first question is no I can simply drop the program.
It will help in getting a clutter free desktop with fewer programs fighting for my attention (and I am easily distracted). So no more fooling around with all those entertaining and sometimes even useful applications for my Mac (yes, I am a bit of a nerd) but concentrating on what matters most.

As you can see in the next video I am talking about a ton of programs. Probably more than I will ever need. And if you take a closer look at them there are many programs that more or less do the same.

A quick count shows I’ve got over 120 programs installed on my computer. 85 sitting on my Dock (making it look very crowded indeed)

I’ll keep in touch on the progress I make.

“Are you upset little friend? Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don’t worry…I’m here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you.”
Charlie Brown to Snoopy”

Your thoughts are extremely powerful and affect the quality of your life in a very big way. They  can be “contagious” and range from negative to positive. People with negative thoughts bring in negativity not only into their own life but also to the lives of those who deal with them. They somehow manage to see only the negative aspect of other people, incidents, and occasions; in short the negativity in life itself.

People with negative thoughts bring an air of negativity into the environment.  Such people nag by nature and complain on and on about how life has been unfair to them in every possible way. In short, negativity conditions your mind in such a way that you get depressed and get stuck inside this kind of thinking. People with negative thoughts are  by nature energy suckers. They are like vampires who steal the sense of calmness from your life. Living our life around these people is not easy because it could affect us in our effort to protect ourselves. We we may lose track of our higher self.

Negative people want to get a reaction from you, but they can only do that if they push one of your ‘buttons.’ So if   it’s one person in particular   who drains you the most, ask yourself why it’s affecting you so much. Ask yourself, ‘What does it say about me?’

One very important thing to consider while dealing with negative people is that you should not get too influenced and become negative yourself. So consider doing the following while tackling people with an immense negative attitude

• Reaching out is very important. We may not do so because of our intrinsic fear of getting caught up in their negativity trap but it is very important to do so. By reaching out to them you might rub off some positivity on them.

• Initially, your attempts may be thwarted but don’t lose hope. Keep trying and eventually you will succeed in helping them at least acknowledge the brighter side of life.

• Try smothering them with kindness. Helping another human being  always makes you feel better. And it forces you to change your mind from focusing on your problems to focusing on their solutions.

• Try and make them see the positive aspects of a situation and how being negative is actually hampering their own mind and progress. Subtly show them practical situations from life where negativity has not been fruitful and having a positive thought has helped.

• Discuss simple things like their hobbies, friends you both know. In other words go for light conversation. Only discuss topics the person feels good about.

• Know your own boundaries. You are not their therapist. If they need counseling it is their own responsibility to get some. Their negativity may be too deeply rooted to address by you. Set limits. The cause of their nagging isn’t your concern. Every person has his or her own story. Let a therapist deal with them.

• Whenever you get the feeling someone’s bearing down on you, Take five!

If you have given it all you can and someone in your life is still draining your energy because of their negative attitude, it’s time to call it quits.

There’s only so much you can do or take.

On a positive note. A positive mind makes us keep our calm and in a way affects our surroundings too. When we meet people, we tend to influence them as well as get influenced ourselves. So spread some positive optimistic notes. Be a Charlie Brown to Snoopy.