my gift

http://www.mediafire.com/file/7v7bq603ws9svcs/Chicken_Soup_For_The_Soul_-_Jack_Canfield_&__Mark_Victor_Hansen.pdf

One At A Time

A friend of ours was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean.
As our friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water.
Our friend was puzzled. He approached the man and said, "Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing."
"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die up here from lack of oxygen."
"I understand," my friend replied, "but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don't you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that
you can't possibly make a difference?"
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, "Made a difference to that one!"

by Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen
from Chicken Soup for the Soul.

the Magic of a Hug

Hugging is healthy. It helps the immune system, cures depression, reduces stress and induces sleep. It's invigorating, rejuvenating and has no unpleasant side effects. Hugging is nothing less than a miracle drug.
Hugging is all natural. It is organic, naturally sweet, no artificial ingredients, nonpolluting, environmentally friendly and 100 percent wholesome.
Hugging is the ideal gift. Great for any occasion, fun to give and receive, shows you care, comes with its awn wrapping and, of course, fully returnable.
Hugging is practically perfect. No batteries to wear out, inflation-proof, nonfattening, no monthly payments, theft-proof and nontaxable.
Hugging is an underutilized resource with magical powers. When we open our hearts and arms, we encourage others to do the same.
Think of the people in your life. Are there any words you'd like to say? Are there any hugs you want to share? Are you waiting and hoping someone else will ask first? Please don't wait! Initiate!
Charles Faraone

culled from Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen

Take a minute to laugh

hi, friends, today i decided to change the format a little. i want us to take a comedy break. yeah. you heard me right. hehehehehehe. People work everyday and because of the hustle and bustle of work life, they forget the lighter side of life. Humor is a very vital side of a healthy and fulfilled life, so go on take a peek at the funniest pictures i found on the net and have a ball. Afterall it is a good life. lol.

Number 1
for our first funny picture, this actually got me giggling so hard i had to burst out in fits of laughter.

Number 2

After all it is the zoo, so animals first. hehehehehehe

Number 3
At least they were honest to the drivers. hahahahahha

 Number 4
I am still trying to understand the difference between garbage and trash. lol

Number 5
We actually do not care. We shall fine you even after death. lmao

Number 6
Just in case the first bullet does not do the job. eiishhh

Number 7
this last picture is just too much. hehehehhe, How can they help me find my wallet. lol

 finally, laughter is truly medicine, find the humor in life and live it to the fullest. it is a good life.

Five awesome ways to turn your life around

Number 1.

Gratitude

Many people underestimate the power of gratitude. Someone said that, gratitude is the oil that lubricates the wheels of a life of happiness. Gratitude is the act of showing appreciation or being grateful for everything. It is the quality of being thankful for things we have and things we hope to have and all the others we do not have. Someone said, if you cannot be grateful for what you have, at least be grateful for all the bad things you have been spared. Sometimes we focus so much on the bad things that happen to us, or the things we want and are not getting that, we completely forget about all the good things that happen to us every single day. Being grateful is appreciating every single thing that you encounter and focusing on the positives of life. It is not living in denial of the negative things, but it is a deliberate effort not to dwell on them. Every feeling is pure energy. It is what you focus that energy on that transforms its effect. If you focus on the negative things, you generate negative energy that completely shadows your experiences. It makes you pessimistic and depressed. However, if you choose to focus on all the good things that happen, you generate positive energy that completely brightens your day. Someone may be asking, “what if I don’t have any positive thing to focus on?”  Really? Are you sure about that? Let’s take a little analysis. Since you are reading this blog, you are alive, you have eaten, and you are educated. Also, you have access to a computer and the internet and you know how to use technology. How many positives are those? Do you have an idea of the number of people who do not have a single item on the list we just made?

 Here is an idea for you, get a journal and list at least three positive things that happens to you every day. Do this every evening before you go to bed and read them to yourself every morning before you go out the next day. Focus on these positives the whole day and refuse to dwell on the negatives. Do these continually for 21 days and you will see how your life will completely change. It is very important that you repeatedly condition your mind to focus on generating positive energy.  Look for the best in people and the silver lining on every cloud. See the light at the end of every tunnel and keep hope alive. Remember, gratitude is a statement of thanksgiving for things seen and hope for better things. 

Dedicated to my friend Sethlina, girl, you lived this principle.

Resetting your default mode!

If you are like me and many other people, the longest you stick to your new year resolutions is at most three weeks and then everything is back to normal right? Yet that does not bother you right? You keep setting them every year and keep going back to life as usual every February. Well, that is not strange at all and there is nothing really wrong with you, well just a little something wrong with you (smile). Ok, this is what I have discovered. Everybody has a mental blueprint. If you are regular reader of my blog, you will have come across what a mental blueprint is. It may be a financial blueprint, a social blueprint or even a commitment blueprint. It is just a set of entrenched reactions formed over time that becomes your default mode of behavior anytime you encounter any issue relating to that area of life. It is influenced by the reactions and actions of the people we saw and interacted with whiles growing up.  So if your experience of life was parents and guardians and other relatives breaking their promises all the time without any reason, your mind and subconscious comes to believe that is the normal way life should be. So you grow up breaking promises and disappointing people. Most of the time, it is neither deliberate nor even realized by the individual. So he or she goes through life oblivious about whatever pain he brings to people and friends and colleagues appear to him or her as too selfish and accusatory. Most people have a failure to commit to goals blueprint. The ability to consistently focus on a set of deliberately mapped out action steps for specific length of time is alien to our mentality. Why? Because we never saw anyone do it whiles we were growing up. All we saw was a life that was lived on an impulse and ad hoc basis. So we may be inspired and motivated to set resolutions and goals to accomplish, but our default mode of ad hoc life kicks in and it is back to business as usual. Fortunately blueprints can be reset and replaced by proper and better default modes.  

The trick is to be persistent and consistent.  It took time for any blueprint to set and therefore it will take time to reset it. But that time can be kept short by a passionate commitment to changing attitudes and mentalities. That is why it is always best to write out your goals and resolutions on a piece of paper and paste it at a place where you are bound to see and read it every day, morning and evening. Your whole mind must be saturated by your goals. It should be your waking up thought and the last thing you think about before you go to bed. It should be in your bag and in your car. Repetition is truly the foundation of learning. 

Secondly, you should start with small, easy to achieve goals. Just like how a child is taught to read, you should start small and build momentum. The small victories will build up your self-esteem and send signals to your brain to associate accomplishing goals with pleasure. But small dreams should be followed up with bigger and bigger dreams till you achieve mental maturity and a full reset. If you stop challenging yourself or spend too much time setting small goals, you stand the chance of producing yet another mediocre mental blueprint which is obviously counterproductive to what you seek to accomplish.

Lastly you should be ready to get back up when you fail, because you will. This may sound pessimistic, but it is truth. Your mental blueprint was set years ago and therefore your mind will fight you all the way, but never give up. Get right back to work as soon as you find yourself slacking and you will be rewarded.

In conclusion, a mental blueprint is a default mode and just like all default modes, it kicks in only when an experience triggers it. This might make it hard to identify whatever blueprints you have, but an awareness of your actions and reactions especially when they feel familiar and comfortable should give you a clue. Reset all your default modes that are not productive and enjoy a whole lot of a better life. Have fun. It is a good life.

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Four things I learnt from the Rich Dad.

I have read man books and listened to numerous audio books, but one of the best is the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series from Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. The books talks about the lessons the author learnt from his real dad and his dad’s best friend about money, entrepreneurship, investments, business and wealth. Here are four lessons I learnt from the Rich Dad.

1. Your problem is not money, it is education.

Many people believe that, their major problem is money and if they should have a lot of it, all their problems will disappear. Well that is not entirely true. Your major problem is education, and not just any type of education but financial education. How many times have you seen people who come to acquire lots of money either by lottery or a gift and easily lose all their money in a few months? There is something called a financial mental blueprint that becomes the default mode of every person in all matters involving our finances. This mental blueprint is formed as we grow up and it is influenced by our early experience of issues dealing with money mostly from our parents and other guardians. It is re-enforced as we grow and gradually sets itself in our mind. So anytime issues of money arises, our, minds quickly go into default mode and starts operating. So if you grew up hearing things like “money is hard to come by”, “we are poor “, “rich people are greedy” and all manner of negative things about money and wealth, you grow up behaving exactly that way. For instance, if you grew up hearing your parents and others around you always talking about being poor, broke and in debt you may form the mental blueprint which says “poor, broke and in debt” and no matter how much money you make, at the end of the day, you will go back to being poor, broke and in debt.  For some others, it is “spend all you get” and therefore let them earn a million cedis today, they will manage to spend it all without realizing it. Some people are able to repress their mental blueprint, but it eventually shows in their affairs. So how do you repair the default mode? By going to settings in your mind and resetting your mental blueprint. You do this by gaining financial education and replacing the old information you grew up with. Learn about investments, savings and money management. Learn about personal financial budgeting and economics. Remember this will take time. It took years to form your mental blueprint and therefore your mind requires sometime to reset. So repeatedly re-enforce your new knowledge and go to work on them. Practice is the best way to learn so put your education to work. Invest, save and manage your finances. Get the education and you will realize that no matter how much you earn, proper financial knowledge will enable you have a good life.

2. Know the difference between assets and liabilities.

One of the best things about the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book is how simplified the authors present their information.  Avoiding all the complex business definitions, an asset is simply something that puts money in your pocket and a liability is something that takes money out of your pocket. Now pause and ask yourself this question; how many assets do you have and how many liabilities have you accumulated? Not a very good sign huh? Well, that is the financial mess most of us have put ourselves in. We buy things that take money out of our pockets and think we are buying assets. I am very sure most of you, my readers, have not acquired a single asset. True? Well take stock now, the more liabilities you have, the longer it will take for you to achieve financial independence. So think twice, whenever another fancy gadget catches your attention. 

3. Let your assets pay for your liabilities

Now that we know about assets and liabilities, this is what you should do. Find an asset and acquire it as soon as possible. It could be a Treasury bill, bond certificate, business or anything that puts money in your pocket. Then use that money you receive to pay for your liabilities. Remember, it should be your profit from the asset and not the principal or just the earnings. Many people make the mistake of spending everything they make from an investment or business and end up destroying the asset. If it is a business, pay yourself a salary and invest the profit back into the business. If it is an investment, divide the earnings into two and reinvest half of the profit in addition to the original principal. This ensures progressive increase in profits. Get your assets and let them pay for your liabilities.

4. Work towards becoming a business owner, an investor or both

You do not have to quit your day job to become a business owner. These days it easy to start a part time self-owned job alongside your regular job. If you manage it well, it will definitely make you rich. Most times people have ended up quitting their regular jobs because their part time businesses earned them more than their regular jobs did. Added to the extra time it frees and the independence it comes with, being a business owner is the ultimate goal. Another level is being an investor. Learn about the various investment vehicles available and get involved. A good investor gets money to work for him every day, every minute and all the time. It is interesting to note that, almost all the wealthiest people in the world are either business owners, investors or most times, both.

In conclusion, the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book is awesome. Get the book and learn your lessons in addition to mine. As bonus packages for my cherished readers, if you would like a free e book, send me an email and I will send it to you as an attachment. Have a great day. My email ad is tinagyei@gmail.com.

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Stand Out

It is amazing how so many people want to conform to the status quo. Almost everyone is afraid to be singled out or to stand out. Man is a social being by instinct and is always drawn into the assurance of safety by association. This natural trait however, if allowed to unduly influence our social formation often leads to timidity, mediocrity and cowardice. It is said that, if you are not ready to do what everyone else is not doing, you cannot get what everyone else has not got. This perhaps is the reason why the few people who are not shackled by this desire to conform are the ones who stand out and get rewarded by life. It is also said that life will not give you what you want, it gives you what you go out and take. Getting lost in the crowd and finding accommodation in Average-Land is the surest way to live a miserable unfulfilled life. The only way to make a mark on this earth and live a happy, satisfying life is to stand out. Here are a few ideas to consider if you are ready to stand out and be noticed;

1. Be willing to confront a problem or issues no one else is

Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship, extrapreneurship and inventions were all birthed by one simple fact; problem solving. The best way to stand out and be noticed is to find one of the numerous problems or issues that affect society and commit to solving it. It could even mean providing a faster, cheaper or a more efficient way of solving an already solved problem. There will always be challenges in society, and hence there will always be the need to provide solutions. The people who take up these challenges are the ones that stand out and get rewarded. Mark Zuckerberg took social networking and the internet and produced a multi-billion dollar company. What can you do?

2. Gain Knowledge

Knowledge is the currency of the 21^st century and you cannot survive very long without currency. The more valuable the information you acquire, the better your chances of being outstanding. Study, study and again I say, study. School is just a process to open your mind, education is what should fill it, and education is lifelong. It does not end after graduation, it just continues on and on. So never ever stop learning. Read as much and as widely as you possibly can. Get educated in every valuable sector. Be informed and current, up to date and sharp. These are the ingredients for standing out.

3. Stay away from average, bottom-line and minimum requirements.

Mediocrity and being average is your greatest challenge to standing out. Stay away from bottom-lines, minimum requirements and least standards. Do better than expected every time. Work harder than required in everything. Be noticeably hard working and always aim for excellence as a standard.

In conclusion, being outstanding is not easy but I can guarantee it is worthwhile. Stand out and be noticed!

Challenges to Pursue

Re-direction- your life in the next lane.

If you were driving from Accra to Kumasi and after a couple of hours into the journey, you came across a sign post that read “25 km to Ho”, what would be your immediate reaction? Almost everyone will say, stop, admit you took the wrong road and get out of the car to assess your exact location.  You would then examine the information you have on the road and why you got lost, admit you might not know the road as much as you thought you did, ask for directions, turn the car around immediately and get on the right road, right? Simple and smart execution! When it comes to such basic life activities, people are very effective in dealing with redirection. However, many people are lost on the road of life towards success but are still cruising along, some even accelerating, yet complaining about how they seem to never reach their destinations. For some others, they keep seeing road signs that indicate they are getting closer to totally different destinations than they desire, and in spite if these signs, they keep complaining and keep going. It is almost as if they believe that, as long as they keep going, they will eventually reach where they want to be. That is as ridiculous as it sounds, yet even very smart people are caught in this fantasy. Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is to keep doing exactly the same thing and expect different results”.  If you are not getting where you want to go, it is perhaps time to try a little redirection. Here are six ideas for you;

1. Acknowledge that you might be wrong

Are you seeing all the signs that indicate you are moving faster towards the wrong destination? If not, look harder. Chances are you are not seeing them because you still believe you are not lost. Reality is not an abstract neutral interface. It is a subjective malleable system that responds to your own mind. What you believe eventually will manifest for you. If you are not getting closer to your goals, dreams and aspirations, then you are definitely getter further from them. It is time to stop and admit you are lost.

2. Get out of the picture and see it dispassionately

The more passionate you are about the wrong things, the harder it is to see or even admit they are wrong. If you do not get out of the car and examine your surroundings with a neutral eye, chances are that you will never see where you went wrong. Seek the opinions of people you respect and will not handle you with kid gloves. Listen carefully and objectively. Swallow your pride and strangle your ego and review your current position.

3. Review and question your assumptions

Your assumptions about certain pieces of information you acquired have led you to where you are. It is time to re-examine those assumptions. Whip out that life map and manual of instruction you have and put them to critical scrutiny. Go over every life rule you have bought into and re-evaluate them. Are they true and factual? Are they relevant to your original goal? Are there better and easier ways to achieve what you intended to achieve? Just as a driver will examine the map and directions and even the knowledge he thinks he has of the road, so must you review and evaluate your assumptions.

4. Get the real facts and replace the old

Now that you have re-examined your assumptions and identified the wrong ones, get the real facts and replace the old mental blueprint. Interestingly most people get new and better information and go right back to doing the same old things. They revert back to default mode. Getting the truth is not enough, it must be specifically applied over and over again until it replaces the wrong default mode. It took time to get a wrong mental blueprint, it must also take time and persistent effort to replace the old image with the new and better blueprint.

5. Get right on and start on the new path

Now that you have access to the new and better information, do not waste any time. Do not be caught in the paralysis of hesitations or the marsh of procrastination. You have already lost enough time. Momentum is easier to maintain in motion, than at rest. Get up and get into action.

6. Slow down after a while, review your location and re-focus your vision

He who is unafraid to ask for directions will never get lost. Do not be egoistical. When you are not sure, get the right answers from the right sources and keep re-focusing on your goal.

The bottom line is everyone can perform this procedure on their career, spiritual life, financial life or even relationships. If you are lost, going faster will not get you there. So stop, review and re-direct your life.

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