Archive | October, 2008

The 4 Worst Energy Zappers in Your Life

When I was 20 I caught the Epstein Barr virus which eventually resulted in debilitating chronic fatigue. At the height of my war with chronic fatigue it was like my life was over. I slept 17 hours a day and barely left my room during the rest of the time. It took a long time and a lot off effort and fantastic support for me to finally become well again.

I only tell you this because I want you to know that I have extensive personal experience with the phenomena of fatigue in terms of experimenting and listening to my body. My practical experience has taught me what makes fatigue worse and what helps overcome fatigue. Today I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned so that you can avoid certain key energy zappers and, I hope, improve the quality of your life.

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5 Daily Practices to Help You Keep Your Edge

You may or may not think you live in a competitive world. But if you look around you in your personal and professional lives, you will see there is competition on many levels. Personally, you compete for resources, material goods, time, attention, and energy. Professionally, you compete for jobs, promotions, clients, customers, recognition, and dollars.

Where do you find yourself in competition on a daily basis? Is it in finding a good parking space at the post office? Or getting a good starting time on the golf course? In business do you find your competitors cutting prices to compete for your customers? Do you see new businesses opening that compete with you by having more current technology and products?

In our personal lives, merchants compete in a cutthroat race for our business. Ads on television and in magazines and newspapers tell us what we should buy. In two hours of prime time TV you might see ads for two to three different brands of cars. In grocery stores, there are no less than 50 different breakfast cereals competing for space in your shopping cart. And when you go into a bookstore, don’t you feel like every book is competing against the others for your attention?

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The Winding Path: How I Started a Lifetime of Personal Growth

Update from Last Month: I told you last month (when writing about “How to Grow Outside Your Comfort Zone”) that I was going to send out five magazine pitches every week. I’m happy to say I’ve done it, though I’m going to take some time now to try to build up a portfolio of printed clips from student press, as the response rate to my queries wasn’t very high.

I’ve also made a real effort to be less shy in my first couple of weeks at Goldsmiths; I’m going to a graduate event this afternoon which I’m a little nervous about, but I’m already starting to feel more confident striking up conversations with strangers!

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What’s in a Number?

The number of subscribers to your blog, as measured by Feedburner, will naturally fluctuate – and not just because people are subscribing and unsubscribing (see this ProBlogger article as to why). So when in late August I noticed I had lost 1,000 subscribers in one day I wasn’t too worried – I had seen this type of thing happen before. When it became apparent there had been some sort of glitch (that many people rarely unsubscribe in one day) and this number wouldn’t quickly be returning to its previous range in the mid to high 3000′s it gave me reason to think and reflect.

It is easy in life to become obsessed with numbers – for example our age, the balance in our bank account or the number of subscribers to our blog. But is this really a good idea?

I believe that while such numbers have meaning and importance, it is both dangerous and foolish to identify too closely with them. Huh? Ok, let me explain….

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Blog Action Day: Poverty and Homelessness in the World’s Most Livable City

Who would have thought that Vancouver, the world’s most livable city, would have a serious problem with poverty and homelessness? Not I.

When I came here from Australia last year to live I was shocked when my wife drove me through the eastside of Downtown Vancouver. Never before in a first world country had I seen people in such obviously poor health and living in such a horrible way. The pictures in this article (all courtesy of Dtes People) will give you an idea of the area, but I still don’t think they truly capture the extent of the problems.

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The Way of Retreat: How To Get Promoted Without Doing Anything

You leave no cushion unturned. You search the house until you’re in a state, roaring internally (and perhaps externally) with frustration. You waste ten minutes and a load of energy.

Eventually you give up the hunt – that important form you were filling out has disappeared into the ether. Sulking, you put the kettle on and plonk yourself in front of the TV.

Then you finally hear it – that quiet voice inside. It was talking to you all along, telling you that the form was in your back pocket the whole time – right where you put it when that charity collector knocked on the door.

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The Connection Between Health and Personal Growth

“Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care” – Buddha

It was Aristotle who made the students in his philosophy school train with the wrestlers and other Olympic athletes. The legendary Indian monk Bodhidharma, who traveled to China to teach Buddhism, is credited with being the source of the famous muscle tendon change and bone marrow washing classics. The exercises contained within the two classics are said to aid physical strength, health and wellbeing.

Today we can learn from the examples set by two of the worlds wisest and most lauded thinkers. Many people – such as those who believe in the Law of Attraction – believe we are what we think. I agree, however I also believe some take this thinking too far in rejecting the old adage that we are what we eat. To reject this adage, to my mind, is to fall into an extreme view.

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