Managing Email Realistically.

Don’t worry: this isn’t yet another Getting Things Done love-in. GTD probably works, but it doesn’t work for you (or me). There are plenty of great apps to help you manage your life and your tasks, like OmniFocus and so on, but they won’t work for you. You won’t devote the time to organize all the stuff.
You won’t create contexts, and you certainly won’t file stuff appropriately. You won’t do your weekly review. You’re also probably not the overall person in charge of the next Mars mission. Those systems are not for normal people; they’re for obsessive-compulsives who just happen to prefer filtering email than counting toothpicks or quadruple-checking that the oven is off.
You, however, are a normal person, and the time you’d spend on all those formal task-management rituals is better spent aimlessly surfing the web, or even going home early. You’re just an ordinary lassie or laddie who gets too much goddamned email.

I am fully there with you. I want less hassle, not another job to do.
To effectively manage our email, we have to accept a few basic truths. They’re hard truths, but that only makes them even more valuable. Here they are:

1. What’s important to other people is not (as) important to you.
2. You are inherently lazy and egocentric.
3. Ruthlessness is a hell of a time-saver.

With those facts, we have the basis of a truly workable email-management system. The simple rules I use are as follows, and are based on categorising email by when (or if) I’ll reply to it.

Reply immediately

• Friends and family. I put friends first, deliberately - you have a certain obligation to respond to family, but their messages are probably stupid. Friends, on the other hand, are likely to be sharing something genuinely interesting and/or amusing, and there’s nothing with a higher priority than that.
• Close and trusted acquaintances who explicitly say they need something urgently (these are the only types of acquaintances who are even allowed to say that - everyone else can piss off).

Reply within 24 hours

• Clients, or other people who are (formally) paying you money. Got to keep those people happy. That’s just common sense. They’re not as important as family and friends, but they’re a close second.
• People it would be wise to keep happy. Who falls into this category depends on what you do, but generally it’s the big hitters in your field. Well-known people, who can help you by your mere association with them. Luminaries. Bloggers. Journalists whose names you know. People with a lot of followers. Me, personally. You get the idea.
• People who have given you things; it’s only polite. It doesn’t matter if it’s an unsolicited promo code for an app (as long as it’s not scatter-shot PR), a $5 donation for your code, or something from your Amazon wishlist - say thank you, and do so promptly. As you were presumably taught to.

Once a week

Set aside a bit of time (not at the weekend - that’s your time; sneak half an hour of Friday instead) to reply to some of the kinds of emails you might actually keep in your inbox for a few days.

• Charity replies. Not begging-letters from actual charities; you should delete those immediately. Instead, I mean replies to personal communications from people you don’t know, responses you’ve received from your blog, non-work enquiries about your products or your code, and so forth. Stuff you don’t need to ever reply to, but it’s charitable to do so. Or, just archive them instead.
• Brand-building or business-building emails (giving interviews, providing feedback, answering enquiries from miscellaneous journalists whose names you don’t already know). A little investment - and I do mean a little - can pay off later.

Delete immediately (ideally automatically)

• All notification emails from social networks. Those are for inside the apps themselves. Turn that crap off; you have to be able to quit your Twitter client.
• Anything from LinkedIn (it’s always spam - especially recruiter enquiries).
• Anything from Facebook. It’s like Twitter, but your mum is on there - it cannot possibly be good.
• All PR, product information and newsletters. If I’m likely to care about it, someone I like more than you will tell me about it.
• All app update emails. I’ll see an update notification inside the app if I use it regularly. Otherwise, why would I care?
• Anything you won’t want/need to look at after this week.

Everything else

• Archive it immediately. Don’t bother reading past the first line.

Ruthlessness tips

Here are a few tips I’ve formulated over the years for maximum email ruthlessness. These will not make you seem like a nice person to everyone who sends you email; instead, they will give you more time to spend with people whose opinion you actually care about.

Darwinian importance

The importance of an email isn’t something you need to spend time thinking about. If it doesn’t immediately and obviously make you feel you should reply to it within the next day or two, it’s not that important to you. Archive or delete it.
If it’s sufficiently important to someone else, that person will expend effort to make it come back to you. If the email does not come back to you, you would have wasted your time replying to it. Win-win.

Ten max

Don’t have more than ten messages in your inbox. There’s no reason you’d need to be in that situation. If you have multiple projects and clients, chuck the emails in per-project non-inbox folders; your non-work email shouldn’t ever get past ten unanswered messages at any time.
If you literally don’t have time each day to do that simple piece of filing, you’re getting too many work emails, and you need to actively start cultivating a reputation as a simmering psychopath who may or may not bring a weapon into the office if he gets just one more stupid email.

See no email

Or rather, see no full emails. Enable a two-line preview of messages in your message list, so you can see the first bit of content without actually loading the full thing. Don’t let your eyeballs meet the full text of most emails. Make snap decisions, and aggressively trash or archive things right then and there.

Quantum view

Take a lesson from quantum mechanics: an email isn’t definitively important until you see it. If you don’t see it, it’s not important. It remains in a dead-alive, important-unimportant superposition of states. And who cares about emails like that? Not me.
Don’t chase email, or worry about missing it. Let it come to you. If it doesn’t, then what you don’t know usually won’t hurt you.

Volley

People are terrible at clearly outlining what they want from you. They waffle, and then when they do get to the point, they’re vague. This wastes your time - but you can turn it to your advantage. Almost any email that requires you to do something will have made assumptions of some kind; you should immediately ask for clarification on at least one of those assumptions. This has several wonderful effects:

1. It gets the email out of your inbox. You replied, so archive it. Boom.
2. You give work to someone else who just tried to give you work. Vengeance.
3. You show yourself to be detail-oriented and precise. And, someone who’s vengeful and not afraid to hurt other people. All of those are excellent and useful additions to your reputation.

Be polite

Thank people for their message. It seems delightfully polite and olde-world, and people will be more inclined to have a positive view of you. Best of all, if you’re responding to an angry or insulting email (hello, blog comment-tards), you’ve already made the other person feel like a dick.

Stay out of the trash

Don’t check your Junk or Trash folders, ever. This is a key piece of advice. People will tell you to check those folders periodically, in case you missed something - that’s crap. Web sites even tell you to check for their mail there.
No. If your message hit my Junk or Trash folders, one of two things happened:

1. You wrote a cruddy message that seemed like Junk or Trash, and it was accidentally flagged. Your fault. Go away and write a better message.
2. You wrote a cruddy message that seemed like Junk or Trash, and I had anticipated this and deliberately caused it to be flagged. I am a genius.

I also refer you to the Darwinian Importance principle above: if your filters accidentally caught something important, someone will eventually tell you. Don’t do that person’s job for them. Instead, spend some time on YouTube like a normal person.

Does it work?

So that’s my system. The big question is: does it keep me permanently at Inbox Five Or Fewer, and make my email client a happy place to be?
Of course it doesn’t. I’m a human being (and thus inherently lazy and egocentric), and so are you. If you stick to all of those rules, you’ll always have a nigh-empty inbox - but you won’t stick to the rules, and neither do I.
Like me, you’ll semi-regularly find yourself with 50 messages in your Inbox. My advice in that situation is just this: archive the oldest 45 of them, regardless of the above rules. Give up immediately. Then pat yourself on the back for taking definitive action once again, you hero.

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Michelle Obama speech delivered to the Democratic National Convention

The First lady of USA (Michelle Obama) delivered her speech to the Democratic National Convention on 04th September, 2012. This is the kind of speech I aspire from Nigerian and African leaders of today. An excellent speech, well delivered, inspirational and full of hopes.



Here is the full speech I just got this morning from the internet and it reads....

Over the past few years as First Lady, I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country.

And everywhere I’ve gone, in the people I’ve met, and the stories I’ve heard, I have seen the very best of the American spirit.

I have seen it in the incredible kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially our girls.

I’ve seen it in teachers in a near-bankrupt school district who vowed to keep teaching without pay.

I’ve seen it in people who become heroes at a moment’s notice, diving into harm’s way to save others…flying across the country to put out a fire…driving for hours to bail out a flooded town.

And I’ve seen it in our men and women in uniform and our proud military families…in wounded warriors who tell me they’re not just going to walk again, they’re going to run, and they’re going to run marathons…in the young man blinded by a bomb in Afghanistan who said, simply, “…I’d give my eyes 100 times again to have the chance to do what I have done and what I can still do.”

Every day, the people I meet inspire me…every day, they make me proud…every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth.

Serving as your First Lady is an honor and a privilege…but back when we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about this journey we’d begun.

While I believed deeply in my husband’s vision for this country…and I was certain he would make an extraordinary President…like any mother, I was worried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance.

How would we keep them grounded under the glare of the national spotlight?

How would they feel being uprooted from their school, their friends, and the only home they’d ever known?

Our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys…Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at grandma’s house…and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn’t stay awake for both.

And the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls…I deeply loved the man I had built that life with…and I didn’t want that to change if he became President.

I loved Barack just the way he was.

You see, even though back then Barack was a Senator and a presidential candidate…to me, he was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door…he was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he’d found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small.

But when Barack started telling me about his family – that’s when I knew I had found a kindred spirit, someone whose values and upbringing were so much like mine.

You see, Barack and I were both raised by families who didn’t have much in the way of money or material possessions but who had given us something far more valuable – their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice, and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves.

My father was a pump operator at the city water plant, and he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when my brother and I were young.

And even as a kid, I knew there were plenty of days when he was in pain…I knew there were plenty of mornings when it was a struggle for him to simply get out of bed.

But every morning, I watched my father wake up with a smile, grab his walker, prop himself up against the bathroom sink, and slowly shave and button his uniform.

And when he returned home after a long day’s work, my brother and I would stand at the top of the stairs to our little apartment, patiently waiting to greet him…watching as he reached down to lift one leg, and then the other, to slowly climb his way into our arms.

But despite these challenges, my dad hardly ever missed a day of work…he and my mom were determined to give me and my brother the kind of education they could only dream of.

And when my brother and I finally made it to college, nearly all of our tuition came from student loans and grants.

But my dad still had to pay a tiny portion of that tuition himself.

And every semester, he was determined to pay that bill right on time, even taking out loans when he fell short.

He was so proud to be sending his kids to college…and he made sure we never missed a registration deadline because his check was late.

You see, for my dad, that’s what it meant to be a man.

Like so many of us, that was the measure of his success in life – being able to earn a decent living that allowed him to support his family.

And as I got to know Barack, I realized that even though he’d grown up all the way across the country, he’d been brought up just like me.

Barack was raised by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills, and by grandparents who stepped in when she needed help.

Barack’s grandmother started out as a secretary at a community bank…and she moved quickly up the ranks…but like so many women, she hit a glass ceiling.

And for years, men no more qualified than she was – men she had actually trained – were promoted up the ladder ahead of her, earning more and more money while Barack’s family continued to scrape by.

But day after day, she kept on waking up at dawn to catch the bus…arriving at work before anyone else…giving her best without complaint or regret.

And she would often tell Barack, “So long as you kids do well, Bar, that’s all that really matters.”

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much.

They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did…in fact, they admired it.

They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you don’t start out with much, if you work hard and do what you’re supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids.

That’s how they raised us…that’s what we learned from their example.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make…that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters…that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules…and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean…and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.

Those are the values Barack and I – and so many of you – are trying to pass on to our own children.

That’s who we are.

And standing before you four years ago, I knew that I didn’t want any of that to change if Barack became President.

Well, today, after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are – it reveals who you are.

You see, I’ve gotten to see up close and personal what being president really looks like.

And I’ve seen how the issues that come across a President’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer…the judgment calls where the stakes are so high, and there is no margin for error.

And as President, you can get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people.

But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as President, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

So when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad and like his grandmother.

He’s thinking about the pride that comes from a hard day’s work.

That’s why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women get equal pay for equal work.

That’s why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet.

That’s how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again – jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs right here in the United States of America.

When it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president.

He didn’t care whether it was the easy thing to do politically – that’s not how he was raised – he cared that it was the right thing to do.

He did it because he believes that here in America, our grandparents should be able to afford their medicine…our kids should be able to see a doctor when they’re sick…and no one in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or illness.

And he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care…that’s what my husband stands for.

When it comes to giving our kids the education they deserve, Barack knows that like me and like so many of you, he never could’ve attended college without financial aid.

And believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage.

We were so young, so in love, and so in debt.

That’s why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and keep interest rates down, because he wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of debt.

So in the end, for Barack, these issues aren’t political – they’re personal.

Because Barack knows what it means when a family struggles.

He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids.

Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it…and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we’re from, or what we look like, or who we love.

And he believes that when you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity…you do not slam it shut behind you…you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

So when people ask me whether being in the White House has changed my husband, I can honestly say that when it comes to his character, and his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago.

He’s the same man who started his career by turning down high paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work…because for Barack, success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.

He’s the same man who, when our girls were first born, would anxiously check their cribs every few minutes to ensure they were still breathing, proudly showing them off to everyone we knew.

That’s the man who sits down with me and our girls for dinner nearly every night, patiently answering their questions about issues in the news, and strategizing about middle school friendships.

That’s the man I see in those quiet moments late at night, hunched over his desk, poring over the letters people have sent him.

The letter from the father struggling to pay his bills…from the woman dying of cancer whose insurance company won’t cover her care…from the young person with so much promise but so few opportunities.

I see the concern in his eyes…and I hear the determination in his voice as he tells me, “You won’t believe what these folks are going through, Michelle…it’s not right. We’ve got to keep working to fix this. We’ve got so much more to do.”

I see how those stories – our collection of struggles and hopes and dreams – I see how that’s what drives Barack Obama every single day.

And I didn’t think it was possible, but today, I love my husband even more than I did four years ago…even more than I did 23 years ago, when we first met.

I love that he’s never forgotten how he started.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.

I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as “us” and “them” – he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above…he knows that we all love our country…and he’s always ready to listen to good ideas…he’s always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise.

Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward…with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

And he reminds me that we are playing a long game here…and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once.

But eventually we get there, we always do.

We get there because of folks like my Dad…folks like Barack’s grandmother…men and women who said to themselves, “I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will…maybe my grandchildren will.”

So many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice, and longing, and steadfast love…because time and again, they swallowed their fears and doubts and did what was hard.

So today, when the challenges we face start to seem overwhelming – or even impossible – let us never forget that doing the impossible is the history of this nation…it’s who we are as Americans…it’s how this country was built.

And if our parents and grandparents could toil and struggle for us…if they could raise beams of steel to the sky, send a man to the moon, and connect the world with the touch of a button…then surely we can keep on sacrificing and building for our own kids and grandkids.

And if so many brave men and women could wear our country’s uniform and sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights…then surely we can do our part as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those rights…surely, we can get to the polls and make our voices heard on Election Day.

If farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire…if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores…if women could be dragged to jail for seeking the vote…if a generation could defeat a depression, and define greatness for all time…if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream…and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love…then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

Because in the end, more than anything else, that is the story of this country – the story of unwavering hope grounded in unyielding struggle.

That is what has made my story, and Barack’s story, and so many other American stories possible.

And I say all of this tonight not just as First Lady…and not just as a wife.

You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still “mom-in-chief.”

My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

But today, I have none of those worries from four years ago about whether Barack and I were doing what’s best for our girls.

Because today, I know from experience that if I truly want to leave a better world for my daughters, and all our sons and daughters…if we want to give all our children a foundation for their dreams and opportunities worthy of their promise…if we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility – that belief that here in America, there is always something better out there if you’re willing to work for it…then we must work like never before…and we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward…my husband, our President, President Barack Obama.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

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Good Looking But Not the One.

Good-looking but not the one !!!!!!!

Finding the right partner either in business or marriage is a very crucial step for every individual. We all wonder if He or she is the right one. The right one to spend the rest of your life with, the right one to share your dream with, the right one to long for - their company and affection. More often than not, our judgments are based on what we see and what we feel.

We fall prey of making decisions based on what we see, which is good but not expedient.

Sometime ago, I had to invite a couple of people to form a prayer team, I remember trying to look for their picture on Facebook (lol) to see the best prayer point to attach to a particular individual. I thought I could determine their spirituality from what they look like in picture – but I was wrong.

The reality is that, that is how most of us feels, we get thrilled with the looks and body shape….when what really matter is the inside and then the outside but the inside first.

Many have chosen the wrong partner in life and business just become the other part “appears” and underline the word appears professional, spiritual and deep. The appearance is a bait and please don’t fall for it.

Now going further, it could even be deeper than the appearance, more often it could even be a characteristic or another factor. Just because she smiles a lot when you joke even though you know your joke is boring doesn’t make her the right person for you; because she picks your phone at the first ring or He has your number on speed dials and He usually ask you to leave the phone on your hear whilst you are sleeping so he can hear your breath (some romantic ideas for you brothas…...don’t ask me how I know…lol) doesn’t mean that’s God’s person for you.

I remember a story I read from the All time Bestselling Author – “Emmanuel Yahweh” – in His Global Bestseller “Rhema” – about a Pastor that was told by God to go and anoint the next President of His country. He was given the details of the Family where the next president is but was not given the full description of the President in waiting. So when after He introduced himself to the head of the family, He invited them for dinner where He was expected to anoint the president in waiting.

As soon as they began the dinner party, the first son walks in looking gorgeous, charismatic, pleasing to the eye, attractive appearance; handsome, ready salted lips, nice suit, designer shoes, D & G Belt, and His perfume could raise the dead. As soon as the Pastor saw this man, He thought...HERE COMES THE MAN oh I mean THE PRESIDENT….and as He was about to stand up and anoint him, I imagine God saying “Sit ur butt on that chair or amma whip your bum – that’s not the one”. I can also hear the Pastor saying “God what do you mean He’s not the one, He got it all, the appearance, the stature, the smell, the currency (Arab Money), the smile” but God said – “He hasn’t gotten what can kill goliath, what can humble Saul, what makes me smile….He hasn’t gotten it”.

Ironically, none of the other 7guys were the candidate until the 8th which was Young and ruddy but didn’t look like it. He had dirt all over Him but He’s the one. He didn’t even have friends except the animals in their farm but He was the one.

I always say this assertively; I might not look like it but God is taking me somewhere. Same applies to you, you might not look like it but God is taking you to the top.

I remember a story* my GO shared about a wealthy woman (WW ©) who was looking for a “Man” oh I mean Her Man. She prayed and prayed, sowed and sowed, danced, jump, gave offering of every kind; seed offering – thanksgiving offering – prophetic offering – willing offering – wave offering – turn around offering – breakthrough offering and one day she gave a 24hour miracle offering.

After the service, she got home and prayed again that the 24hour miracle should work for her, and guess what – it did. God told her “His will” for her as a husband was coming in through the gate so she rushed up to the window only to see her driver walk in. She said “Lord I can’t see no one but my driver” and the Lord said – Yes that’s my will for you. Her driver??? That’s sounds gross but you know what, His ways are not our ways.

She polished him up and today they have kids together and He’s a multi millionaire too.
When you are faced with decisions about choosing who to have on your team, who your friend should be or praying for a life partner, don’t be deceived by what you see…look inward or better still, look unto Jesus.

**** stories paraphrased

Source: www.dayoisrael.com

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Weekend BUZZ!

By: Niyi Adelusola

It’s Friday and everyone is looking forward to the weekend which usually take off the rush hour within the work zone. However, we mostly anticipate for these days to approach but we forget to put into consideration the ‘Weekend Buzz!’

The weekend buzz is the aversion we experience as the new working week is about to unfold into reality. Few of us, like the executives, entrepreneurs, employees, volunteers and traders typically get caught up with the buzz of a new week and start a roll out plan for the next weekend.

It was 4:00pmon Friday 13th July 2012 as I sat down on my office desk, I begin to realise that the weekend buzz is virtually a phenomenon that cannot be overemphasized because of its inevitable appearance. Furthermore, I’d like to express my loyal observation of the fact that we cannot ignore a focal moment but we can attempt to be primed.

We are who we are by our reaction.

Our reaction is based on what we conceive in our mind.

‘Action begins from the mind.’

www.facebook.com/therebirthminds

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How to Be Happy at Work

By: Geoffrey James

If you're unhappy at work--or anywhere else, for that matter--it's because you've made yourself unhappy. There's an easy way to change that.

Let me start off with a little story.
I once knew a saleswoman–young, divorced–who got a diagnosis of breast cancer.  She had to work and raise two kids while fighting the cancer. Even so, she managed to be happy at work, noticeably happier than her co-workers.  In fact, she not only won her battle with cancer but subsequently became one of the top salespeople at Bristol Myers.

She was not, as it happens, naturally cheerful.  Quite the contrary.  When she started full-time work, she was frequently depressed.  But she turned it around, using the techniques I'm going to provide you in this column.
That saleswoman once told me: When you're unhappy, it's because you've decided to be unhappy.
Maybe it wasn't a conscious decision; maybe it crept up on you while you weren't looking–but it was a decision nonetheless.  And that's good news, because you can decide instead to be happy. You just need to understand how and why you make the decisions.

What Are Your Rules?
Happiness and unhappiness (in work and in life) result entirely from the rules in your head that you use to evaluate events.  Those rules determine what's worth focusing on, and how you react to what you focus on.
Many people have rules that make it very difficult for them to happy and very easy for them to be miserable.
I once worked with a sales guy who was always angry at the people he worked with. The moment anything didn't go the way he thought it should go, he'd be screaming in somebody's face.  He was making everyone around him miserable–but just as importantly, he was making himself miserable, because just about anything set him off.

For this guy, the everyday nonsense that goes on in every workplace was not just important, but crazy-making important.
I once asked him what made him happy.  His answer: "The only thing that makes this !$%$#! job worthwhile is when I win a $1 million account."  I asked him how often that happened.  His response: "About once a year."

In other words, this guy had internal rules that guaranteed he'd be miserable on a day-to-day basis, but only happy once a year.

One of the other sales guys at that firm had the exact opposite set of rules.  His philosophy was "every day above ground is a good day."  When he encountered setbacks, he shrugged them off–because, according to his internal rules, they just weren't that important.  When I asked him what made him miserable, his answer was: "Not much."  When I pressed him for a real answer, he said: "When somebody I love dies."
In other words, the second sales guy had rules that made it easy for him to be happy but difficult to be miserable.

I'd like to be able to write that Mr. Positivity regularly outsold Mr. Negativity, but in fact their sales results were similar.  Even so, I think Mr. Negativity was a loser, because he lived each day in a state of misery.  His colleague was always happy.  He was winning at life.  He was happy at work.
 
Make Yourself Happier: 3 Steps
The saleswoman who had breast cancer was happy, too, and this is the method she used to make herself happy:


1. Document Your Current Rules
Set aside a half-hour of alone time and, being as honest as you can, write down the answers to these two questions:

• What has to happen for me to be happy?
• What has to happen for me to be unhappy?

Now examine those rules.  Have you made it easier to miserable than to be happy?  If so, your plan is probably working.


2. Create a Better Set of Rules
Using your imagination, create and record a new set of rules that would make it easy for you to be happy and difficult to be miserable.  Examples:

• "I enjoy seeing the people I work with each day."
• "I really hate it when natural disasters destroy my home." 

Don't worry whether or not these new rules seem "realistic"–that's not the point.  All internal rules are arbitrary, anyway.  Just write rules that would make you happier if you really believed them.


3. Post the New Rules Where You'll See Them
When you've completed your set of "new" rules, print out them out and post copies in three places: your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car, and the side of your computer screen.  Leave them up, even after you've memorized them.
Having those new rules visible when you're doing other things gradually re-programs your mind to believe the new rules.  You will be happy at work.  It's really that simple.
Oh, and by the way ... That saleswoman? She was my mother.

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How to Make Failure Impossible

No one likes failing. Use these four steps to make sure you're always a winner.

Today, I'm going to explain something so simple, and yet so useful, that it's amazing that so many people don't get it.
 It's a four-step process that literally makes failure an impossibility.  Pay particular attention to the final step, because it's the proverbial "doozy."

 
Here we go:

1. Set an achievable yet inspirational goal.
If you don't believe a goal is achievable, you won't take action to achieve it.  Therefore, any goal that you set must be within the realm of possibility and tied to actions that you can actually take.
A goal must also be inspirational enough to motivate you to take action. For example, "I will lose 10 pounds" is achievable but not particularly inspirational and thus not very motivating. "I will look and feel healthy, fit and sexy" is both achievable and motivating.


2. Decide that you must achieve the goal. 
Never start out by saying, "I'll try."
You might as well not bother–because you're going to fail anyway. The reason people say "I'll try" (rather than "I must") is that they're giving themselves permission to fail, which means that they really aren't committed.
It's only through being 100% committed to achieving a goal that you'll find the mental and emotional resources to follow the next three steps.


3. Treat setbacks as signals.
A setback is something that blocks you from achieving a goal. Most people treat setbacks as "mini-failures," and often use them as an excuse to give up ... and therefore fail.
The correct way to view a setback is as a signal that you may need to change your approach to achieve the goal. If an action consistently results in a setback, you must therefore take a different action, repeating the change as necessary.


4. Define 'failure' as 'failing to take action.'
Chances are, if you follow the first three steps, you'll achieve your goal–if not immediately, then eventually.
However, the simple truth is that you don't have control over anything except your own behavior.  Redefining failure as "failing to take action" puts failure (and therefore success) within your personal control.  When the only failure is inactivity, you automatically take the actions required to achieve the goal.
Is it really that simple? Very much so.  Follow these four steps and, as long as you remain alive and kicking, you'll keep taking action–and thereby make failure impossible.

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Information is Power!

"Nothing is Secret Anymore!" -
The Confessions of a Millionaire Information Broker" 
By Matthew Lesko*********************************
Information is the currency of today's world. Those who control information are the most powerful people on the planet - and the ones with the most bulging bank accounts. 
The timely delivery of vital information is one of the most lucrative businesses you can have in this new millennium. I should know. I started one of the most successful information brokerage businesses in the country. I'm also perhaps the world's  most well known information broker, and I've made millions of  dollars from doing it, and I'm going to show you how to easily do  the same. 
 
Let me backtrack a little bit.
 
All my life I wanted to start my own business. I didn't care what it was - I just wanted to learn how to feed myself and not work for someone else. I even considered selling hot dogs on the mall near the Washington Monument. I just wanted to be my own boss. 
 
Sound familiar?
 
I had a string of failed businesses before I hit the big time.It was while working as a computer administrator of a travel company that I learned something that changed my whole life.
The hot shots that ran the company fascinated me. They were powerful individuals who discussed, negotiated and executed big deals all the time.  In order to get in on some of that wheeling and dealing, I'd hang around late at night when they had their meetings, and volunteer to get coffee and doughnuts, do the Xeroxing -- do anything to try to learn how to be like them.
 
One day, they came into my office and asked me - not to get coffee - but to get information on how good or bad the rental car business was.  It seems they were considering making a bid to acquire Avis Rent-A-Car, and needed some good market information to go along with the financial statements they were poring over. I, of course, said "Yes, yes, yes!"  I was their "yes man," even though I knew nothing about the rental car business and had no idea where I was going to get this information. 
 
Well, I wanted to do this so badly I could almost taste it. This was one giant step up from coffee and Xeroxing that lucky people are offered once in a lifetime, and I didn't want to blow it. I saw myself as a young turk on the way up the ladder of success. But I didn't have a clue where to go for the information. 
I sat in my little office wondering if I could make the grade. I sat there staring at my desk hoping something would pop into my head and give me the magic answer. I stared at the telephone
and then picked it up thinking: 
 
"Here I am in Washington D.C. needing to know about the rental car business. Who can I call?  Why not the government? I pass all those big buildings everyday on the way to work. Maybe someone there can help me." 
Well, it worked! By starting with the government information operator, I was able to work my way through a dozen more calls and referrals until I finally found an expert in the rental car business.  It turned out to be a man who used to be the president of Hertz and was now in Washington - and bored out of his mind with his government job.  He actually invited me to lunch so he could tell me everything he knew. 
I was shocked! I couldn't believe that in 45 minutes on the telephone, I could locate a real expert who was willing to tell me everything I needed to know about the rental car business. And, he even wanted to take me to lunch! 
Afterwards, I was so excited about the information I had just received that I burst into a meeting my boss was having with his hotshot merger and acquisition buddies. He was eager to hear
everything I learned from my lunch right then and there. They were blown away.  They couldn't believe that a young turk like me, who didn't know anyone, could get such information that we had all assumed was privileged and confidential. 

I got more excited about the information I dug up on the rental car business than with any program I ever wrote for the company. I knew then that information was power. I also knew then that there was immense value in delivering timely information on demand. I was hooked. I started a new business obtaining information for people on anything they needed. I became a consultant to people in the merger and acquisition business, and I got all the information they needed to make their business a success - information they were unable to find themselves. 
This time, success finally happened. The business grew from just me, a telephone, and a desk in my one-bedroom apartment to over 30 employees and a million and a half dollars in sales in a little more than 3 years.  Even after a string of failing businesses, I finally realized my first success, and I'll show how you can do it, too. 
 
How to Create Money Out of Thin Air 
 
What I learned early on is that you can literally take information that is free to obtain, but oftentimes hard for the average person to find - turn around and sell it for big bucks.  All it requires is a little resourcefulness, and the knowledge of where to find the information that is sellable.
 
There's nothing to it.  These are the only things you need: 
 
1)  Believe the notion that we live in an information society, and if you're willing to make a few necessary calls (or e-mails), you can gather information on almost anything - and make that information sellable. 
 
2)  You need to know where to look for the information. Although there are countless sources of information, if you do nothing else but tap into the world's largest source of free information, you can find virtually everything that you need. That source is the U.S. Government.  [I've spent 25 years of my life as an information broker, and I have yet to find a source of information more comprehensive than the U.S. Government.] 
 
Do you want to get an idea of just how vast the government's information reserve is?
If you took all the major commercial publishers in the United States, they collectively produce 50,000 new titles in all the libraries and bookstores around the country in a single year. In contrast, one single publisher in the government (the National Technical Information Service) publishes over 100,000 titles a year.  Multiply that by the number of government agencies that produce information, and the amount of information becomes absolutely staggering! 
 
The range of subjects on which you can find information is also mind-boggling: The government not only counts people, the number of jelly beans manufactured in the country, toilets installed, and how many potatoes grown; but also gives investment trends and opportunities likely to show up in the Wall Street Journal in weeks; it also answers any legal question better than the highest paid lawyer. There are 700,000 government experts in any field you can imagine, who will give you free information simply because you asked. 
How to Use the Information You Gather: 
 
1)  Find customers who need, and are willing to pay for, specialized information. Position yourself as someone who knows how to find information on practically everything, but do narrow down the types of information you can get for your customers' specific needs. That way, you zero in with the precision of a sharpshooter, instead of just firing a shotgun that goes in all directions.
 
As an information broker, always remember what Willy Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks. He said, "Because that's where the money is." You need to live by the same slogan if you want to stay in business. Choose the path of least resistance. Choose a customer base that consists of rich people or big companies that have money to spend on finding out how they can get richer -- and are willing and able to spend it.
 
2)  Gather specialized information that would be of great interest to a specific business sector (example: Internet marketers). Position yourself as an expert on a particular subject, then write in-depth special reports that feature the specialized information you found, package them in an e-book, and make them available to Internet marketers for a fee. As an alternative, you may also create a newsletter that regularly updates the specialized information - and make money on the paid subscriptions. More and more businesses are realizing the value of having good information for good decision-making. Whether big or small, a business can't succeed today unless it keeps up on the latest information. 
 
What kind of information do businesses need? They need information on their markets, their competition, technology, money sources and regulations, for starters. Develop a sensitivity to the needs of your prospects by asking them directly what they need.  From that, you can determine the kind of information that would best satisfy their needs. 
 
Here's a useful tip: You'd do well to develop a 'hook." A "hook" is a marketing term that makes it easier for people to purchase your services. It's taking the situation I mentioned earlier about "knowing how to find information about practically anything" and refining it down to a specialty. If you specialize is some interesting aspect of the information brokerage industry, it's easier to attract your prospects' attention. 
 
Define your niche by identifying the customer group that you specialize in helping: small businesses, or non-profit organizations.  Or, you can define it by the area of information you want to deal with, such as health information, company information, or international information. Another way you can describe your business is by the medium of the information you want to provide, such as: only database searches, only document retrieval, or only interviewing industry experts. 
 
I was fortunate enough to have started in Washington D.C., where I developed the hook of government information. It gave me an instant edge over my competitors, even though I had no more experience gathering information then they did.To make a long story short, the government information I've amassed over the years have earned me a coveted position of being a New York Times syndicated columnist, and I've even authored two New York Times best-sellers featuring information that I've obtained for free. I have also been privileged to be regularly featured as the nation's top expert on government information on TV programs such as Larry King, Oprah, David Letterman, Jay Leno, the Today Show and Good Morning America. 
The key to becoming a successful information broker is to be the first to find the information, and deliver it on a timely basis to those who want it.  Then sit back and watch the money appear out of thin air! 
 

=========================================   Matthew Lesko is a New York times syndicated columnist, and author of 2 New York Times best-sellers.  He is regularly featured as the nation's top expert on government information on TV programs such as Larry King, Oprah, David Letterman, Jay Leno, the Today Show and Good Morning America.  His latest book, "Free Money for Entrepreneurs on the Internet" identifies hundreds of little-known sources of free government money for "net-repreneurs" and reveals the secret formula for easily obtaining the money for your business.

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How to Deal With Pressure and Stress Problems

Dealing with pressure and stress can be complicated in our lives. Everyone has it, and at times it can get the best of us. Knowing how to handle pressure can help us eliminate stress in our lives. The stress symptoms can be forms of anxiety, along with depression as well. Stress at work, and feeling the pressure from your boss can be difficult examples. Sometimes we put too many expectations on ourselves and we make things more difficult than they need to be. Being able to recollect ourselves can help us manage problems around us better.

Being constantly under pressure to do well can be a burden. You have responsibilities in your life that must be taken can of. You need to change your approach and develop new routines in your life. Also provide different approaches to help solve different solutions. You need to provide less tension in your life, and bring more joy into it. You can do these things, you just have to learn to take charge in your life. When you take charge of things and situations change. You can never expect things to change by themselves. 

Instructions

1          Take a break to recollect your thoughts. Take a timeout and recollect yourself. Whatever it is, you need a vacation from it. Whether that vacation is five minutes, a day, or weeks. Take a vacation and find something peaceful. Keep your mind of things for awhile. Find something relaxing that you can enjoy. That can be a song, a cold beer, or a walk on the beach. Whatever you need, find something that can help you regain control of your mind. A peace of mind can change a lot of what you can do. You can't expect to solve problems when your mind is not at ease. So ease your mind first.

2          Try to simplify the problem. To simplify something and help eliminate the stress, evaluate the situation. Look at how you can benefit from the situation at hand by making things easier. Break things into steps and work through the problems slowly. Take a methodical approach and view things at all angles. Sometimes it might take time to let the answers to come to. Sometimes the answers can be staring you right in the face. If it's a person problem, then put yourself in their position and imagine how they'd want you to react.

3          Develop a swagger. Establish your confidence to get things done. Give yourself props for the things you've accomplished. Allow personal accomplishment motivate you. Allow failure to do that as well. Consider the pros and let that influence you as well. Peace of find, financial gain, whatever that is there to help you establish the confidence needed. Use the benefits to help motivate you and give you the confidence needed to overcome adversity. Sometimes to establish your swagger you'll need to learn to have fun again. Don't take everything so seriously, you'll learn to relax and get things done more efficiently. Learn to laugh at problems and not let them consume you.

4          Take charge of a situation, don't let a situation take charge of you. Be aggressive and have that attack demeanor in you. Someone that stands up and takes charge of what is happening can control a lot. If you lets problem come to you, rather than stepping up, it can sometimes expand into bigger ones. Then this adds more stress and pressure into your life. Be a go getter and have that mentality. Don't avoid things, take charge before situations become stressful problems.

5          Focus on your strengths and forget your weaknesses. Sometimes when you're consumed in what you can't do, it takes away a lot of you. Everyone has weaknesses, so just forget them. Focus on your strengths and the things you do well. Use your strengths and apply them into your daily life. You'll discover it becomes a lot easier when you use this strategy. It helps deal with your problems easier and more effectively. Apply your people skills when dealing with people. Apple your talents into your strategies.

6          Manage your time better. Don't become so consumed into your problems, otherwise you're going to feel trapped. Sometimes you need to take a step back, and learn to let things play out as well. You don't have do everything constantly, it's not healthy actually. You need breaks along with time to just sit back enjoy the things in your life. You can't have a obsessive mindset of feeling like everything needs fixed. Your mind will be sharper if you're not handling too many problems at a time. It will help you deal with situations much better if you learn to take a slower approach, along with a patient one. More importantly your time shouldn't be consumed into just your problems.

You should not make a habit of creating problems when there aren't any. A bad habit a lot of people have, when dealing with enough stress in their lives. You'll learn to overcome pressure effectively and when you apply more happiness in your life. Things that give you passion and love should be applied into your daily life. Sometimes you need to take a break from problems, to have a better attack when dealing with them. Don't be consumed in things, otherwise you'll provide yourself with more pressure and stress.

7          Ask for help. You don't have to deal with things all alone. Help is a good thing, a great thing to have. Two minds are better than one anyways. Lean on others when needed and it will help you out in variety of different situations. Whether that is a advice, favors, or just a helpful hand.

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Leadership Quote

The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.
Peter Drucker

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How to Make the Right Decision Every Time

You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait; just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. - Franz Kafka

What if I were to tell you that you could learn how to make the right decision in every single situation, every single time? Would you believe me? Would you think I’m crazy?

Actually, you don’t have to learn how to make the right decision every time, you already know how.

Now you must really think I’m crazy.

You Already Have Everything You Need

Each one of us has been blessed with an internal compass that lets us know whether or not we are about to make the right decision in any situation. I like to call this compass universal intuition.

This universal intuition quickly takes into account all of the factors and outcomes involved with a certain decision, computes it in the universal super-computer, and quickly gives us feedback in the form of a feeling within our bodies.

This speedy wisdom comes from within us, but is not exactly human. It’s a wisdom that is in touch with the universe at large. It understands how a decision we make reverberates throughout the universe, and the effect it will have in the grand scheme of things.

The longer we choose to act in violation of our universal intuition, the longer we will be dissatisfied with our results in life. Every time we choose to disobey the universe’s wisdom, we are choosing to pit ourselves against the entire force of the universe. No longer will it be working for us, instead it will begin to work against us.

Talk about an uphill battle! It’s no wonder most people are unhappy with their lives.

What is Universal Intuition?

If we wish to gain the cooperation of universal intuition, we must learn to accept its advice. It has been present inside of us since we were born, but as we’ve grown up we’ve been conditioned to ignore it. We’ve been taught to use our “heads” to think through things, and to be rational. All of this has put us out of touch with universal intuition.

Often times, this drives us crazy. We can think, and think, and think through a decision, but most of the time we’ll come up with nothing. When I was deciding whether or not to drop out of college, I thought about it for nearly a year before I realized thinking was driving me nuts, and was ultimately futile.

I finally decided to stop thinking, and start feeling. It was so simple, yet so profound. As soon as I acknowledged the feeling associated with each of my options, I achieved incredible clarity. The right choice had been right underneath my nose all along.

I was so miserable in school, and the universe had been telling me so for an entire year. During that year I continued to fight this wisdom, and school progressively became more draining and more tedious day by day. Once I made the decision to drop out, I experienced an immediate and substantial release of tension. It felt like everything was right again.

Our huge brains are double-edged swords. They are miraculous in that they give us access to so much raw thinking power, but they are a hindrance in that they put us out of touch with our hearts (universal intuition). When our hearts are trying to tell us something, our thoughts cloud our minds and often times cause us to make wrong and painful decisions.

How to Listen to Universal Intuition

Listening to universal intuition is only as hard as we choose to make it. The more we deny its existence, and the more we choose to let our thoughts dominate our decision making process, the harder life will be.

Life is not meant to be excessively hard. Life is not meant to be overwhelmingly draining.

Life is meant to be enjoyable. Life is meant to be invigorating.

The next time you face a tough decision, sit down in a quiet place and clear your mind. Rid yourself of the conflicting thoughts racing around inside of your head. Be still. Try to feel the wisdom of the universe by your side. This feeling may be extremely faint, but you’ll find that it’s always there, pointing you in the right direction.

It may be telling you yes, or no. It may be saying stop, or go. It may be telling you that you need to quit your job, or that you need to end your unsatisfactory relationship of 5 years. It may be telling you the business you are trying to get started doesn’t truly stir your passion, and that you need to pursue something else. It may manifest itself as a feeling of discomfort, advising you not to make a certain decision. Or it may manifest itself as a feeling of comfort, advising you to make a certain decision.

Acknowledge this feeling, and understand that when you listen to it, you cannot make the wrong decision. Have faith that something more powerful than you can understand is working for you behind the scenes. Choose to act in accordance with this universal wisdom, and the entire universe will have no choice but to roll in ecstasy at your feet.

It’s that simple.

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