Secrets to success

Success will not lower its standards for us we have to raise our standards to success.


If you ask anyone if they want to be successful there is no doubt that they will look at you as if your crazy for asking them such a stupid question and then say yes. no one wants to be a failure, so the real question should be how do we achieve success?


By popular demand all  my readers have said that they really appreciate the motivational articles that I posted, some have said that they gained new perspective from them and other say after reading them they just got encourage to get back on track.


So because of these many request to my inbox I will be posting more inspiring motivational success driven articles every day  that will if any thing else keep you on track you deserve to be successful and the only person standing in your way right now is you.


This is one of my favorite video by motivational speaker and author Eric Thomas hope it inspire you like it inspired me.


If you haven't yet please join this blog and also fill in you email address and submit it in the tab available to get daily updates and don't forget to leave comments on post your feed back is very important to me.


And remember empty pockets never held any one back only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. 

7 proven ways to eliminate procrastination.

"Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself." ~Author Unknown

Almost everyone is held down by what some call “the silent killer”. Procrastination strikes everywhere. We all want to avoid the pain or discomfort of doing something we feel is boring, stupid, pointless, hard, complicated, risky, possibly really emotionally painful and so on.

But even though we know that we will have to do it eventually and that we’re just deluding ourselves we still put it of. Often with reasons we know deep down are weak and we really just made up. We get stuck in a vicious circle of doing too little of both what we want and what we don’t want. We get stuck. Here are 7 ways to squash procrastination and move forward.

1. Recognize that there is more pain in procrastinating than not

 If you have procrastinated a lot (like me) you might have discovered that:

You procrastinate to avoid doing something that is boring, hard or something like that. You want to avoid that pain.

But after having some experience with procrastination you’ll probably realise that procrastination itself causes your more pain than actually just doing what you were supposed to. Realising the true amount of pain in the two choices will make it easier to get things done.

2. Force yourself to do it before you really absolutely have to do it,

and your self-esteem will go up. And the next time you feel like procrastinating remember that you forced yourself, but that you felt better when it was done. There was a nice reward when you were done. Whenever you feel like procrastinating remember this to get you to start moving forward.

3. Create a flow

 Instead of doing nothing, begin with doing something. Clean your desk, take out the garbage, wash the dishes. Just stack a couple of simple actions to create a flow, a momentum. When you’re in the flow, in that forward motion, getting started with what you have to do will be much easier. Also, cleaning up can get you too feel more motivated. A messy work or living -environment seems to often reinforce procrastination.

4. Get some leverage

 Sometimes we procrastinate on things that aren’t just dull tasks in the office or school. Maybe you are stuck, not able to take the next step fearing some deep personal pain. If you are thinking about changing jobs or career or taking a next step in a relationship you are probably focusing on what could go wrong. Instead, get some leverage to both push and pull yourself forward.

How to: Take a pen and a piece of paper. Write down as many things as you can come up with that you will miss out on, not just now but the next few years if you don’t take this step now. Really dig down into yourself and feel that pain that you will feel not just tomorrow but in a year and the next five or ten years.

Then write down all positive and wonderful things you will experience if you take this decision and move forward to where you want to go. Think about them and write down all those things you will experience and feel, not just in the next few days but in one year, in two, in five years or ten. Get the stick and the carrot to work for you. And put the problem in a longer time perspective to really give it an emotional punch.

5. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time…

 Don’t look at everything you have to do. One of the common sources of procrastination is feeling overwhelmed. Break it down into smaller tasks. Write them down as a list on a piece of paper. Focus on just getting that one small task or part of the big thing done. Then move on to the next. Take it one step at a time and don’t think about the rest. Before you know it you’ll be half way there.

6. Change your beliefs

 The problems that repeatedly put you into a procrastinating state might disappear if you change your view on reality. Examine your beliefs. Ask yourself if you could see things in a more beneficial and effective way for yourself.

Realise you can choose you beliefs about yourself and the world. The past is not the future. You don’t have to hang to limiting beliefs based on past experiences if you don’t want to. You are here right now and you can choose and change your habits.

7. Make a small deal with yourself

Here is an effective one I first heard from Ed Bliss (well, actually now that I think about it I probably first heard it from a teacher back in school more than ten years ago. It kinda rings a bell).

Here’s how you go about it: Promise yourself that you’ll work on something for just 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes you can do something else if you want to. But make a note on your schedule when you will come back to the task and work another 5 minutes with it. As Bliss notes, no matter how unpleasant a task may be, you can often talk yourself into working 5 minutes on it.

I’ve found this one to be effective to make a dent in those tasks you have put of for a longer while. After you’re done with those first 5 minutes the next 5 minutes will feel a little easier. And after that the next 5 minutes will feel even easier. Or maybe you raise the bar to 10 minutes of work. Getting some actual work done on that task, if only for 5 minutes, gives you a rush of exhilaration. Making a game out of how much work you can get done in those 5 minutes can also be a small but in its own way fun challenge.

HOW THE IMF WRECKED ( DECIMATED) JAMAICA.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, that was organized and orchestrated by international bankers that wanted to consolidate Global trade and banking.

Countries attempted to shore up their failing economies by sharply raising barriers to foreign trade, devaluing their currencies to compete against each other for export markets, and curtailing their citizens' freedom to hold foreign exchange.

So because of the well designed mechanism of the financiers  these attempts proved to be self-defeating. World trade declined sharply (see chart below), and employment and living standards plummeted in many countries. This was by design so that these countries that were trying to build sustainable economies would have no other choice but to borrow money from these financiers. 

After financing world wars, decimating countries and making them selves exorbitantly rich, with Over 60 million people killed, this was over 2.5% of the world population. This gives us a Clear picture in the minds of these men that the only thing that really matter is profit, with world war over these bankers sought to capitalize on the countries that were destroyed in the war so they designed what we no know as the IMF and the World Bank.   

The Bretton Woods agreement

The IMF was conceived in July 1944, when representatives of 45 countries meeting in the town of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in the northeastern United States, agreed on a framework for international economic cooperation, to be established after the Second World War. This  framework was instrumental in the control of economic growth of countries world wide.

Jamaica

Thirty years ago the US and the IMF moved to destabilize Jamaica's radical government with disastrous consequences for the population,  When Michael Manley and his People's National Party (PNP) were elected in Jamaica for a second term in December 1976, all who challenged imperialism and racism walked tall It showed that the country backed his refusal to adhere to the repressive terms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "We are not for sale," he announced to a cheering crowd of 35,000 at the National Stadium in the capital Kingston. 

At the time, Manley was recognized as "the Socialist International’s most important representative in the Third World", according to Caribbean scholar Fitzroy Ambursley. 

This was a test case – for both the IMF and the anti-imperialist movement. The proposed IMF structural adjustment programme for Jamaica was to be a model for neo-liberalism and global debt negotiations throughout the Third World The story of the rise and demise of Manley's battle with the IMF is rich in lessons for today's anti-glottalization movement.

Jamaica is a tiny island nation in the Caribbean, the home of Bob Marley, reggae music and the birthplace of pioneering Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey Ever since Christopher Columbus landed and mistakenly thought himself in India over 500 years ago, the Caribbean islands have also been the object of colonialist occupation and exploitation.

Michael Manley was a symbol of resistance not only in Jamaica but internationally. He first came to office in the 1972 election Manley's early years in power saw a number of important progressive reforms for the population The previous ban on Marxist and Black Power literature was lifted. Secondary education was made free and accessible, and a partial land reform policy was enacted. 

Provoked

The foreign-owned electricity, telephone and bus companies were nationalized.

In January of 1974, Manley's government announced a plan to alter the system of tax breaks offered to US and Canadian bauxite (aluminum ore) companies based in Jamaica. 

These companies mined aluminum for the war industry. The PNP annulled previous agreements and imposed a production levy on all bauxite mined or processed in Jamaica.

This ruling severely provoked the anger of the US and other ruling classes. A massive, and now well-documented, destabilization campaign followed.

Aluminum and bauxite processing were shifted to other locations. The levy was claimed to be illegal and contested by the bauxite companies, which filed actions with the World Bank’s international centre for the settlement of investment disputes.

Local businesses, which had gone part way with Manley on the nationalization of foreign businesses, now buckled and found common cause with their international allies.

Lay-offs and soaring price increases set off an inflationary spiral that wiped out previous wage increases. Foreign capital inflow plummeted, and the CIA became involved with fomenting local political rivalries A terror campaign was unleashed as young Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members found ready access to weapons in a guns-for-ganja trade.

Sanctions

At first Manley attempted to hold a steady course Fueled by popular support among Jamaica's working class and peasantry, the radical prime minister resisted the terms of an IMF reform package. n the December 1976 election Manley was re-elected in a landslide, winning 47 of the 60 seats in the parliament. But after Manley's refusal to adhere to the terms of the IMF, the economy was strangled by sanctions while a media campaign sent a wave of fear among potential tourists Lay-offs increased, interest rates skyrocketed and everything from soap to canned fish was in desperately short supply.

This was the limit of social democratic reform. Manley would soon prove an unreliable ally of the poor and the working class – and there would not be sufficient independent organization among the mass of the Jamaican working class to steer their own course when he started to retreat.

In 1977 Manley announced Jamaica's "People's Plan" for economic and political reform. 

Despite radical rhetoric, by May of that year Jamaica had accepted an IMF "standby agreement" of £38 million to ease the balance of payments crisis,The IMF re-established a line of credit – with massive strings attached The loan was conditional on an attack on the standard of living of the population. The poorest were hit the hardest, with a dramatic cut in public spending as the leading edge of the programme. 

As Jamaica was put to various IMF "tests", repeated failures led to more and more regulation of the island's domestic economic programmes,Confusion and despair spread among Jamaica's population, especially young students and the poorest sections of workers and peasants. Political violence and the fortunes of the black market soared.

By the election of October 1980, the JLP under the leadership of Edward Seaga was back in office and with the largest margin of victory in its history – 52 seats to the PNP’s eight.

Only a year earlier, revolutions in Grenada and Nicaragua indicated that there was a growing mood of opposition to the US-dominated market model in the region But now Jamaica had set a pattern of moving halfway in opposing the grip of the imperialist market, and then backing down The JLP’s Seaga government was welcomed by the US as the new model of the times. This gave confidence to the likes of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher – and heralded the rise of neoliberalism. At the end of the eight years of Manley's "democratic socialism", the average income in Jamaica was 25 percent lower and the cost of living 320 percent higher. 

Like many social democratic governments before and since, Manley's reformist politics proved incapable of mounting the challenge needed to halt the force of global capital.

But at the end of Seaga’s term, Jamaica had paid out a total of £443 million to its foreign creditors, including £176 million to the IMF Jamaica's foreign debt had grown to over £2.2 billion, among the highest per capita in the world. It was in this context that Manley returned as prime minister to lead another PNP government in 1989. 

Poverty

He had abandoned the left rhetoric of his earlier government. Instead the market was seen as the triumphant model to pursue. However, even on the terms set by the IMF, Jamaica had clearly failed to meet anticipated development goals Rather than economic prosperity, Jamaica endured further decades of insufferable poverty. Today, even the IMF’s own economists are starting to recognize the problem. 

In a 2006 IMF-commissioned working paper, Public Debt and Productivity: The Difficult Quest for Growth in Jamaica, author Rodolphe Blavy struggles with the apparent "puzzle" of Jamaica's low growth rates.

He concludes that perhaps massive debt might have something to do with it, noting that Jamaica is "among the most indebted countries in the world".

Today we are in a new period of radical reform in the Global South. There are certainly many similarities between the politics of Hugo Chavez and the first government of Michael Manley.

But there are also differences. Venezuela has far more resources than Jamaica. The US is a less powerful player relative to its competitors in the world economy than 30 years ago. 

And if there is a strong, independent movement of workers and the poor, the forces of resistance may well have a better chance of staying the course, But the history of Jamaica's battle with the IMF makes it clear that if the grip of imperialism is to be definitively challenged, it must be replaced with another system based on very different priorities And it will be the working classes and the poor, not the corporate bosses, who will have to set those priorities.

Michael Manley 1924-1997

Norman Manley, Michael's father, was the founder of the People's National Party. The rival Jamaica Labour Party was founded in 1962 by Michael's cousin Alexander Bustamante. Michael Manley won the Central Kingston seat in the Jamaican Assembly in 1967. He retained this seat in repeated elections until his retirement in 1992.

                                    This Cheap loan was one of the most expensive loan for Jamaica.  

USING CASH TO PURCHASE IS ILLEGAL!?

When is enough too much?  Did big Gov go too far this time?

House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions, and it flew so far under the radar most businesses don't even know about it. The simply mean that it is illegal to buy and sell any and all second hand goods. The law will be in every state in the US by as late as mid 2012

Law Bans Cash for Second Hand Transactions in Louisiana - Bill 195 - bye bye America

A new law passed in Louisiana has made it illegal for consumers to pay for second-hand goods with cash, in a ruling that has a substantial effect on the many flea markets in the state.

House Bill 195 states that "Anyone, other than a non-profit entity, who buys sells, trades in or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a non-profit entity, shall be deemed as being in the business of a secondhand dealer. A secondhand dealer shall not enter into any cash transactions in payment for the purchase of junk or used or secondhand property. Payment shall be made in the form of check, electronic transfers, or money order issued to the seller of the junk or used or secondhand property."

What This Means for Vendors

The bill will make operations for trading posts and flea markets far more strenuous in an attempt to stop fraud, as customers will be forced to use checks or money orders for transactions. The definition of the bill is broad enough that it also could be used to stop sales through Ebay or Craigslist. State Representative Rickey Hardy, who co-authored the bill, said that the paper trail will make it more difficult for criminals to sell stolen items for quick cash. "It's a mechanism to be used so the police department has something to go on and have a lead."

Attorney Thad D. Ackel, lead counsel at Ackel and Associates LLC, writes on the firm's blog a detailed description of what would be necessary for every cash sale. "For every transaction a secondhand dealer must obtain the seller's personal information such as their name, address, driver's license number and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the goods were delivered. They must also make a detailed description of the item(s) purchased and submit this with the personal identification information of every transaction to the local policing authorities through electronic daily reports."

In Ackel's legal opinion, the law is adding unnecessary steps to simple, everyday transactions. "This legislation amounts to a public taking of private property without compensation," he writes. "Regardless of whether or not the transaction information is connected with, or law enforcement is investigating a crime, individuals and businesses are forced to report routine business activity to the police. Can law enforcement not accomplish its goal of identifying potential thieves and locating stolen items in a far less intrusive manner?"

Now ask your self this question, how many of these bills that take away your civil liberties and threaten the life of your families and your self as pass under the radar with out you knowing? DO YOU STILL FEEL FREE?

The 6 great sins of BlackBerry.

Is Research in Motion’s  flickering flame fading even more?

A dismal earnings report Thursday afternoon shows the Canada-based Smartphone giant’s net income was down 59 percent in its fiscal third quarter.  when compared to numbers just one year ago. Revenue was off 10 percent. The company failed to meet Wall Street projections, even though most weren’t that optimistic. Specifically, shipments of the BlackBerry PlayBook – the company’s signature tablet PC – were less than half of what was projected. RIM’s stock took a bit of a tumble after the release of their underwhelming  earnings report last week, and it looks as though it won’t stop dropping anytime soon. Before the market closed for the day, RIM share prices continued to inch downward until it reached (at time of writing) $21.52: RIM’s lowest in five years.

It’s clear that consumer and shareholder confidence in RIM is slipping, thanks in large part to their company’s disappointing financials. Their recent quarterly earnings report indicated unit sales were down across the board: they sold nearly 3 million fewer BlackBerrys in this quarter than the last, and PlayBook sales dropped from 500,000 in Q1 to a comparatively scant 200,000.

 BlackBerry:

Ten years ago, Research in Motion (RIM) was a leading producer of mobile phones. All who ever meant anything in this world – celebrities, investors on Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs – were using iconic BlackBerry.

A year ago, BlackBerry was ahead of all other smart phones with more  number of users.

This year the company lost significant market share, and its shares over the past five months fell by more than 50%. What happened?

RIM:

RIM was founded 20 years ago in the small town of Waterloo in Canada by Mike Lazaridis, who has received his technical training at a local university. Lazaridis soon attracted another Canadian – Jim Balsillie, who began to help him manage the affairs of the company. They are both credited with turning the company into the Giant that it was; RIM Canada, and they continue to divide the responsibilities of CEO.

Today, however, the company runs a risk with out dated soft ware and system structure, like Nokia and Palm. How things went wrong so quickly?

RIM made a few mistakes:

1. They ignored the iPhone, until it was too late. iPhone appeared in January 2007. Mike Lazaridis, reportedly told his staff and technical team that the iPhone will not a threat because no one wants to have  their mobile phone as a personal computer. People simply just wants to check their mail  and that's it – this confidence was due to the fact that he created BlackBerry just for e-mail application.

2. Distracted from the main activity in hockey, Jim Balsillie – a passionate fan of hockey like many Canadians. Since 2006, he made four attempts to buy a different hockey clubs for $ 200 million he gave up the idea only in late 2009. You can see how it was during this time RIM loses its competitive advantage and gave it over to Apple. Since the first attempts of Balsillie to buy the hockey team until today’s stock price fell RIM to 16%. The average Nasdaq during this period increased by 24%, and the capitalization of Apple rose by 358%.

3.They waited too long before they start to refresh the stale lineup of smartphones. When Balsillie awoke from slumber of  hockey, and Lazaridis finally realized that users still want the iPhone, in April 2010 they were in despair, bought a company called QNX , which developed the operating system for next-generation phones for RIM. Unfortunately for RIM, the first phones with the new operating system will be available only at the end of 2012, as people increasingly refuse to use the current version of the BlackBerry.

4. Promotion closed ideology of corporate culture and an unwillingness to listen to the ideas of subordinates. Over the past few weeks, publicity received hate mail of employees, where they complain about the closed culture, closed  mindedness, which has a value of only “what they think Mike and Jim.”  Steve Jobs – a perfectionist, but at least it allows good ideas to rise from the bottom.

5. The problem of “big fish in small pond.” Waterloo – a small town, there are only 200 000 inhabitants. When Balsillie and Lazaridis stroll through the city, they are local gods. Anyone who met them, or if he worked at RIM, or his friend worked there, or his business depends on money brought by RIM in the local economy. This allows Balsillie and Lazaridis in the last four and a half years to console themselves with the fact that RIM – is still a great company, and Apple and Google are nothing special. Who would vote differently in a small town? If RIM was located in an area with more competition – for example, in Silicon Valley, where they would be “small fish in a big pond” – Balsillie and Lazaridis, probably would not be so complacent.

6. The strategy of  “Without China.” During trips to mainland China,  you will never see a BlackBerry – except that investors from Hong Kong. Compare this with Apple, which has sales in China, 10% of its revenues last year and this year we expect a lot more. His success owes partly Apple investment in China. RIM on the market did not appear.

Can RIM be saved?

I think not. The proposals that I have heard from shareholders, including, in particular, the separation of the company, the appointment of a new independent chairman of the board of directors, non-bi-capital management structure or even the displacement of both CEO's. It’s doubtful all medications for a patient with end-stage cancer.

Motorola in 2007, was in a similar situation. They had a terrible product line. Charles came and demanded Aikan separation into two companies and to attract new “professional” leadership in the field of mobile phones. They have conducted numerous layoffs and agreed to cooperate fully with the Android operating-system from Google. Nevertheless, after four and a half years  shares are traded much lower than they were at one time, and it is still unclear whether the new phones and tablets to raise a company to its previous level.

Forget about this, once great company. the Days of Research in Motion as an independent producer are numbered.

      BlackBerry headquarters 

The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People.

With a twist to the common list of habits that are useful to establish Success, here are 7 habits that you should do your best to.

Just like finding habits that can be useful for you, it's important to find habits that are holding you back. Most of these 7 habits can easily become such a normal, everyday part of life that you hardly notice it (or how its affecting you).  I've dabbled with all of them quite a bit. Not surprisingly I didn't get much of the important stuff done.

I would also like to add that these are just 7 broad habits you can establish to become highly ineffective in most parts of your life. I am pretty sure there are several more.


1. Not showing up. 

Maybe you've heard this quote by Woody Allen:

“Eighty percent of success is showing up”

One of the biggest and simplest things you can do to ensure more success in your life – whether it is in your social life, your career or with your health – is simply to show up more. If you want to improve your health then one of the most important and effective things you can do is just to show up at the gym every time you should be there.

The weather might be bad, you might not feel like going and you find yourself having all these other things you just must do. If you still go, if you show up at the gym when motivation is low you will improve a whole lot faster than if you just stayed at home relaxing on the sofa.


I think this applies to most areas of life. If you write or paint more, each day perhaps, you will improve quickly. If you get out more you can meet more new friends. If you go on more dates you chances of meeting someone special increases. Just showing up more can really make a big difference. Not showing up will not get you anywhere.


2. Procrastinating half the day.

 To keep it short, my 3 favorite ways to get out of a procrastinating state are:

 Swallow that frog. What does this means is simply to do the hardest and most important task of the day first thing in the morning. A good start in the morning lifts your spirits and creates a positive momentum for the rest of the day. That often creates a pretty productive day.

 How do you eat an elephant? Don´t try to take it all in one big bite. It becomes overwhelming which leads to procrastination. Split a task into small actionable steps. Then just focus on the first step and nothing else. Just do that one until it’s done. Then move on to the next step.


 The Get around to It Paraliminals I find this guided mediation to be very useful. After 20 minutes of mostly just lying on my bed and listening I’m far more productive for a few days. I don´t feel the urge to sink into that procrastinating state or the need to find out what's new over at one or five of my favorite websites.


3. When actually doing something, doing something that isn’t the most important thing right now.

One of the easiest habits to get stuck in, besides procrastinating, is to keep yourself busy with unimportant tasks.

To be effective you probably need some kind of time management-system. It might be something really simple, like using the 80/20-rule at the beginning of each day. The 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle as it is also known, says that you´ll get 80 percent of your results from only 20 percent of your tasks and activities. So you need to focus most of your energy on those few important tasks to be effective.


When you have prioritized using this rule just write down the top 3 most important things you need to do that day. Then, from the top, start doing them. Even if you just get one of the things done, you have still done the most important thing you could do today. You may perhaps prefer some other system, such as GTD. But however you organize your work it's still of highest priority to find the most important tasks so you don't spend days, weeks or months doing busywork that isn’t that essential anyway. Just getting things done faster isn't that useful if the things you get done are unimportant to you.



4. Thinking too much. 

And thereby seldom taking action. Paralysis by analysis can waste years of your life. There is nothing wrong with thinking before you do something. Do some research; make a plan explore potential upsides and problems.

But compulsively thinking and thinking and thinking is just another way to waste your time. You don’t have to examine everything from every angle before you try it. And you can’t wait for the perfect time to do something. That time never comes. And if you keep thinking you’ll just dig yourself down deeper and deeper and taking action will become more and more difficult. Instead you just need to stop thinking. Shut of your mind – it just helps you up to a point – and go do whatever you need to do.



5. Seeing the negative and downsides in just about anything. 

When you see everything from a negative perspective you quickly punch a hole in your own motivation. You find faults everywhere and problems where there are really none. You cling to details. If you want to find a reason to not do something then that’s no problem. From a negative viewpoint you can find ten reasons every time.

And so very little gets done, you whine to anyone who wants to hear – and many who don’t – about how crappy your job, life and boss is. Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,  as you create the life that is appropriate considering how you think and see your world.

A solution is to realize the limits of a negative perspective. And that your perspective isn’t some kind of 100% true picture of the world. Then try other perspectives. For instance, trying to establish a habit of seeing things in a more positive and optimistic light can be quite useful. In that vein, you may want to try the Positivity Challenge. It´s not easy, but if you do the challenge and try to only think positive thoughts for 7 days it can give you an insight in how much your perspective and beliefs changes how you interpret your world. And what results you get.


6. Clinging to your own thoughts and being closed to outside influences. 

It can be hard to admit that what you thought or believed was not the best alternative. So you cling to your thoughts harder and harder and keep your mind closed. This makes it hard to improve and for instance to become more effective. Even really considering the possibility that you can change your life can be difficult in this position.

One solution, obviously, is to open up more. To open up and learn from the mistakes of others, from your own mistakes and from other sources like books. This is easy to say though. It can, as almost anything, be harder to do. One suggestion I have is to, like I said about the previous habit, realize the limits of what you know and the way you are going about things. And then just try something new.

Another tip is to read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and especially look at the chapters about the Ego. If you stop identifying so much with your thoughts and your Ego, as Tolle prescribes, it becomes a whole a lot easier to let new ideas and thoughts come into your life. And to let go of old thoughts that aren’t useful to you anymore. On the other hand I’d like to add and counter-balance with these tips: don’t get stuck in reading, in just taking in new information either or you might become a self-help junkie. Use the new information, put what you have learned in to action and try it out.


7. Constantly on information overload. 

With information overload I don't just mean that you read a lot. I pretty much mean an overload in all input. If you just let all information flow into your mind it will be hard to think clearly. It's just too much stimulation. A few more potential downsides to this habit are:

Some of the input you receive will be negative. The media and your surroundings often put a negative spin on things for various reasons. If you aren´t selective in what input you want in your life then you’ll be dragged into this negativity too. This affects how you think, feel and act.

It creates an urge to keep up with what's happening but there are always ten more things happening so you can't keep up. This makes life stressful.

It becomes hard to make decisions and take action if your mind is constantly bombarded with information or trying to sort through it all. Personally I find that if I get too much information it leads to a sort of paralysis. Not much gets done. Or you get stuck in habit #3 and keep busy, busy,  busy at high speed with low priority activities.

To be able to focus, think more clearly and take action it’s useful to be more selective in what you let into your mind. When you work shut out as much distractions as possible. Shut off the phone, internet and shut the door. It is strange how much you can get done when you aren´t interrupted every fifth minute or have the opportunity to procrastinate by checking your Facebook,Twitter or favorite websites.

Now I´m not suggesting that you should stop reading all blogs or newspapers. But think about what you really want to read and what you read just read to fill your time. And have a look at other areas of input where the doors are wide-open.

For instance, you don´t have to let in all the negative emotions from your surroundings. If everyone else are procrastinating or are anxiously keeping themselves busy by doing low-priority tasks at warp speed it´s easy to be influenced by that mood. If you have a door, then it might be good idea to shut it and focus on doing more important things.

The Great BlackBerry BlackOut

 The Great BlackBerry BlackOut of 2011 couldn't have come at a worse time for Research in Motion, manufacturer of the affected phones, with its market share tumbling and competitors excelling.
 the company lost at least 50% of its market share spilling over from last year and another  fall of more than 20% of its share in the US smartphone market in the three months to April, tumbling from 24.7 per cent to 19.7 per cent, while Android and iOS continue to make ground, now at 43.7 per cent and 27.3 per cent respectively.
 
so it is no secret to mobile phone user across the world that blackberry is on a verge to extinction with outdated software and poorly designed handsets, They ignored iPhone and android until it was too late. iPhone appeared in January 2007. Mike Lazaridis, reportedly told his staff that the iPhone will not be a threat because no one wants to use there mobile phone as a personal computer. People simply check the mail – this confidence was due to the fact that he created BlackBerry just for e-mail application.
 so now with sales plummeting the company had to layoff at least one third of its employees and shut down some of it operation just so that it didn't have to go out of business.

Reports of Sporadic outages of BlackBerry messaging and email service spread to the U.S. and Canada on Wednesday, as problems stretched into the third day for Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

U.S. Twitter users were reporting that their BlackBerrys weren't getting email on Wednesday morning. In Canada, spokesman Mark Langton of the carrier Bell confirmed that some of its BlackBerry subscribers were experiencing problems.

"A minority of BlackBerry users at all Canadian carriers are affected," he said in an email. "We understand the issue will be corrected this morning."

The widespread problems added to the woes of Research In Motion Ltd., the Canadian company that makes the phones. It's struggling with slowing sales and a tablet that's been a dud. Its shares are approaching a five-year low.

On Tuesday, RIM said a crucial link in its infrastructure had failed, and a backup didn't work either. It said it was now working to get through a backlog of traffic.

"The resolution of this service issue is our Number One priority right now and we are working night and day to restore all BlackBerry services to normal levels," the company said Wednesday.

In the United Arab Emirates, the two biggest phone companies said they would compensate their BlackBerry users for the mishap by giving them at least three days of free service. Matthew Willsher, chief marketing officer for Etisalat, the country's biggest telecom, said it was acting in response to the "exceptional and unprecedented circumstances."


Unlike other cellphone makers, RIM handles email and messaging traffic to and from its phones. When it encounters a problem, millions of subscribers are affected at once. There are about 70 million BlackBerry users around the world.

BlackBerrys first caught on among professionals in the U.S. and Canada, but in recent years, growth has been driven entirely by overseas markets. In RIM's most recent quarter, two-thirds of BlackBerrys were sold to people outside the U.S. and Canada.

One of the big attractions of the BlackBerry for overseas users is the BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, which works like text messaging but doesn't incur extra fees. That service was affected by the outage. On Wednesday, Apple Inc. is releasing software for its iPhones that works like BBM. Competition from Apple is one of the chief causes of RIM's diminishing fortunes.

RIM shares fell 46 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $23.95 in morning trading in New York.

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THE DAY THE WORLD COLLAPSE.

All eyes are on Europe and especially on Greece: Greece has been living beyond its means like the  USA in recent years, and its rising level of debt has placed a huge strain on the country's economy.
The Greek government borrowed heavily and went on something of a spending spree after it adopted the Euro Public spending soared and public sector wages practically doubled in the past decade Which has pushed the Greek government close to defaulting on its loans.

The Euro zone and the IMF are desperately trying to bail Greece out, but what does this rising cost of sovereign debt means for the massive budget deficits throughout the developed world.
It is no secret that America as the largest debt the world as ever seen and government spending as tripled since the Obama administration and it as become abundantly clear to all the countries that the US owes debt that they don’t plan to pay up their debt, so china, Japan and Russia as refuse to hold any more US treasuries and they are trying to get rid of the ones they currently hold, which simply mean that if the US cant get any more money to borrow from these countries then the US will eventually have to default on there loans too.

So if the euro and Greece economy should crash that will send shock waves in Europe and create a tsunami style ripple effect in the US and through out the global economy which will intern force a collapse of the already fragile US dollar. (It is very interesting to note that all of these events were carefully engineered by the elite, international bankers that designed it this way to bring these countries down on there knee in order to gain more control).
 the economy will not fail for the elites, only just for the people, when the next crash happen the next currency will be the new world order standard currency and people are going to suffer.
 Unless all the people can be awaken from their slumber and drunkenness and stand up for freedom and speak out and protest like all the ones that have made a sacrifice to gather at wall street to make a stand against the very elite that is trying to enslave them and then they will fall.

How long could they keep us from realizing what's going on? for as long as they keep pulling the strings and they will pull the strings for as long as they can , but someday it is going to come crashing down and I believe the crash is going to happen sometimes this month.

ARE YOU A SUCKER??

Why does it seem like the Jamaican government is putting a thick plastic bag over the heads of the Jamaican people, duck tapping it from the neck extremely tight see them gasping for air and at the same time in a stern voice telling them BREATHE EASY MAN!!!!! BREATHE EASY!!!!!

 I guess they make these unwarranted stringent monetary & fiscal policies base on Keynesian economics because they know that 99.9% of Jamaicans don't have a clue, or so they think and the other 1% are those who have an option to flee if the noose gets too tight.

so thanks to the governments Keynesian economic policies, we have larger deficits, bigger debt, more taxes, low productivity,high unemployment and now a second time around under the blood sucking hands of the IMF.

It is very interesting to note how the government deceived the Jamaican people into celebrating independence day with one of the biggest and most expensive gala, when they know very well that we are a colony seeing that we are colonized by the IMF ( if you don't believe me check for your self  to see what neocolonialism mean ) the IMF operates out of the US it is funded by the Federal reserve through international bankers.        

The bottom line is I believe that all the citizen of the country needs to WAKE UP and smell the F#*KING coffee, if you live in Jamaica then let your  voices be heard because chances are you are apart of the 99.9% of Jamaicans that are being  crushed if you don't then that mean your apart of the 1% that don't care and can take flight  when ever the goings get tough.

YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF AIR!!! SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER REST IN PEACE!!!!!!

THE GREATEST WORDS TO LIVE BY!

ONE DAY AT A TIME....

The most useless thing to do ................Worry

 The greatest Joy............................Giving

 The greatest loss.............Loss of self-respect

 The most satisfying work............Helping others

 The ugliest personality trait..........Selfishness

 The most endangered species......Dedicated leaders

 The greatest "shot in the arm".......Encouragement

 The greatest problem to overcome..............Fear

 Most effective sleeping pill.........Peace of mind

 The most crippling failure disease.........Excuses

 The most powerful force in life...............Love

 The most dangerous type of person.......A gossiper

 The world's most incredible computer.....The brain

 The worst thing to be without.................Hope

 The deadliest weapon....................The tongue

 The two most power-filled words............."I Can"

 The greatest asset...........................Faith

 The most worthless emotion...............Self-pity

 The most prized possession...............Integrity

 The most beautiful attire.................A SMILE!

 The most powerful channel of communication..Prayer

 The most contagious spirit............. Enthusiasm

 The most important thing in life...............GOD

 Everyone needs this list to live by...pass it along!!!

How to Achieve Any Goal and the Ultimate Guide to Motivation

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” - Henry Ford

One of the biggest challenges in meeting any goal, whether it be related to productivity, waking early, changing a habit, exercising, or just becoming happier, is finding the motivation to stick with it.

If you can stick with a goal for long enough, you'll almost always get there eventually. It just takes patience, and motivation.

Motivation is the key, but it’s not always easy, day in and day out, to find that motivation.

What follows is a guide to motivation using what I’ve learned over the last few years in a series of successful accomplishments, goals and habit changes. I’ve had many failures, but also many successes, and I’ve learned a lot from all of them. Motivation has been a particularly important topic of exploration for me.

What Motivation Can Achieve
What have I accomplished using these motivation methods? Too much to mention, just in the last 3 years:  learning to become an early riser, becoming more productive, starting a successful blog, writing a book, becoming organized, simplifying my life, quitting my day job, tripling my income, eliminating my debt, and much more.

That’s not intended to sound like bragging, but to show you what can be accomplished (just to start) if you find the right motivation.

How Does Motivation Work?
Before we get into specific methods, it’s useful to examine what motivation is, what it does, and how it works.

Motivation is what drives you toward a goal, what keeps you going when things get tough, the reason you get up early to exercise or work late to finish a project. There are all kinds of motivations, of course, from positive to negative. Having a boss threaten to fire you is motivation — you’ll likely work harder to complete a project with that kind of pressure. But I find that positive motivation works better — if it’s something you really want to do, you’ll do a much better job than to avoid something you don’t want (such as being fired).

So motivation, in its best form, is a way for you to want to do something. There may be times, for example, when you don’t feel like getting up early, and in those times you may seriously just want to sleep in (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But if you have a reason to want to get up early, something you really really want to do, you’ll jump up out of bed with excitement.

The best motivation, then, is a way for you to really want something, to get excited about it, to be passionate about it. Remember that, as there are many other types of motivation (especially negative), but in my experience, this is the kind that works the best.

There is only so long that you can go trying to motivate yourself to do something you don’t like to do, something you don’t want to do. But if you find ways to really want to do something, you can sustain your effort for much, much longer.

8 Ways to Motivate Yourself From the Beginning
I’ve found that it’s important to start out with the right motivation, because a good start can build momentum that you can sustain for a long time. If you start out right, you have a much better chance of succeeding. Here are some tips for starting out:

Start small. I’ve said this before, but that's because it’s one of the most important tips in motivating yourself toward a goal. Don’t start out big! Start out with a ridiculously easy goal, and then grow from there. If you want to exercise, for example, you may be thinking that you have to do these intense workouts 5 days a week. No — instead, do small, tiny, baby steps. Just do 2 minutes of exercise. I know, that sounds wimpy. But it works. Commit to 2 minutes of exercise for one week.

You may want to do more, but just stick to 2 minutes. It’s so easy, you can’t fail. Do it at the same time, every day. Just some crunches, 2 pushups, and some jogging in place. Once you’ve done 2 minutes a day for a week, increase it to 5, and stick with that for a week. In a month, you’ll be doing 15-20. Want to wake up early? Don’t think about waking at 5 a.m. Instead, think about waking 10 minutes earlier for a week. That’s all. Once you’ve done that, wake 10 minutes earlier than that. Baby steps.

One goal. Too many people start with too many goals at once, and try to do too much. And it saps energy and motivation. It’s probably the most common mistake that people make. You cannot maintain energy and focus (the two most important things in accomplishing a goal) if you are trying to do two or more goals at once. It’s not possible — I’ve tried it many times. You have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely. I know, that’s hard. Still, I speak from experience. You can always do your other goals when you’ve accomplished your One Goal.

Examine your motivation. Know your reasons. Give them some thought … and write them down. If you have loved ones, and you are doing it for them, that is more powerful than just doing it for self-interest. Doing it for yourself is good too, but you should do it for something that you REALLY REALLY want to happen, for really good reasons.
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Really, really want it. This is essentially the same as the above tip, but I want to emphasize it: it’s not enough to think it would be cool to achieve something. It has to be something you’re passionate about, something you’re super excited about, something you want deeply. Make sure that your goal meets these criteria, or you won’t stick with it for long.

Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly. For example, when I had a friend who wanted to run His first marathon, so He started writing a column about it in my local daily newspaper. The entire island of Guam (pop. 160K) knew about  His goal. so He couldn’t back down, and even though His motivation came and went, he stuck with it and completed it.
 Now, you don’t have to commit to your goal in your daily newspaper, but you can do it with friends and family and co-workers, and you can do it on your blog if you have one. And hold yourself accountable — don’t just commit once, but commit to giving progress updates to everyone every week or so.

Get excited. Well, it starts with inspiration from others (see above), but you have to take that excitement and build on it. For me, I’ve learned that by talking to my friends about it, and to others, and reading as much about it as possible, and visualizing what it would be like to be successful (seeing the benefits of the goal in my head), I get excited about a goal. Once I’ve done that, it’s just a matter of carrying that energy forward and keeping it going.

Build anticipation. This will sound hard, and many people will skip this tip. But it really works. It helped me quit smoking after many failed attempts. If you find inspiration and want to do a goal, don't start right away. Many of us will get excited and want to start today. That's a mistake. Set a date in the future — a week or two, or even a month — and make that your Start Date. Mark it on the calendar. Get excited about that date. Make it the most important date in your life. In the meantime, start writing out a plan. And do some of the steps below. Because by delaying your start, you are building anticipation, and increasing your focus and energy for your goal.

Print it out, post it up. Print out your goal in big words. Make your goal just a few words long, like a mantra (”Exercise 15 mins. Daily”), and post it up on your wall or refrigerator. Post it at home and work. Put it on your computer desktop. You want to have big reminders about your goal, to keep your focus and keep your excitement going. A picture of your goal (like a model with sexy abs, for example) also helps.

20 Ways to Sustain Motivation When You’re Struggling
 The second half of motivation is to keep yourself going when you don’t feel the same excitement as you did in the beginning. Perhaps something new has come into your life and your old goal isn’t as much of a priority anymore. Perhaps you skipped a day or two and now you can’t get back into it. Perhaps you screwed up and got discouraged.

If you can get yourself excited again, and keep going, you’ll get there eventually. But if you give up, you won’t. It’s your choice — accomplish the goal, or quit. Here's how you can stop from quitting, and get to your goal:

Hold yourself back. When I start with a new exercise program, or any new goal really, I am raring to go. I am full of excitement, and my enthusiasm knows no boundaries. Nor does my sense of self-limitation. I think I can do anything. It’s not long before I learn that I do have limitations, and my enthusiasm begins to wane. Well, a great motivator that I’ve learned is that when you have so much energy at the beginning of a program, and want to go all out — HOLD BACK. Don’t let yourself do everything you want to do.

 Only let yourself do 50-75 percent of what you want to do. And plan out a course of action where you slowly increase over time. For example, if I want to go running, I might think I can run 3 miles at first. But instead of letting myself do that, I start by only running a mile. When I’m doing that mile, I’ll be telling myself that I can do more! But I don’t let myself. After that workout, I’ll be looking forward to the next workout, when I’ll let myself do 1.5 miles. I keep that energy reined in, harness it, so that I can ride it even further.

Just start. There are some days when you don’t feel like heading out the door for a run, or figuring out your budget, or whatever it is you’re supposed to do that day for your goal. Well, instead of thinking about how hard it is, and how long it will take, tell yourself that you just have to start. I have a rule that I just have to put on my running shoes and close the door behind me. After that, it all flows naturally. It’s when you’re sitting in your house, thinking about running and feeling tired, that it seems hard. Once you start, it is never as hard as you thought it would be. This tip works for me every time.

Stay accountable. If you committed yourself publicly, through an online forum, on a blog, in email, or in person … stay accountable to that group of people. Commit to report back to them daily, or something like that, and stick to it! That accountability will help you to want to do well, because you don’t want to report that you’ve failed.

Squash negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. This is one of the most important motivation skills, and I suggest you practice it daily. It’s important to start monitoring your thoughts, and to recognize negative self-talk. Just spend a few days becoming aware of every negative thought. Then, after a few days, try squashing those negative thoughts like a bug, and then replacing them with a corresponding positive thought. Squash, “This is too hard!” and replace it with, “I can do this! If that wimp Leo can do it, so can I!” It sounds corny, but it works. Really.

Think about the benefits. Thinking about how hard something is a big problem for most people. Waking early sounds so hard! Just thinking about it makes you tired. But instead of thinking about how hard something is, think about what you will get out of it. For example, instead of thinking about how hard it is to wake early, focus on how good you’ll feel when you’re done, and how your day will be so much better. The benefits of something will help energize you.

Get excited again! Think about why you lost your excitement … then think about why you were excited in the first place. Can you get that back? What made you want to do the goal? What made you passionate about it? Try to build that up again, refocus yourself, get energized.

Read about it. When I lose motivation, I just read a book or blog about my goal. It inspires me and reinvigorates me. For some reason, reading helps motivate and focus you on whatever you’re reading about. So read about your goal every day, if you can, especially when you’re not feeling motivated.

Find like-minded friends. Staying motivated on your own is tough. But if you find someone with similar goals (running, dieting, finances, etc.), see if they’d like to partner with you. Or partner with your spouse, sibling or best friend on whatever goals they’re trying to achieve.
 You don’t have to be going after the same goals — as long as you are both pushing and encouraging each other to succeed. Other good options are groups in your area like being part of a running club, for example or on-line forums where you can find people to talk to about your goals.

Read inspiring stories. Inspiration, for me, comes from others who have achieved what I want to achieve, or who are currently doing it. I read other blogs, books, magazines. I Google my goal, and read success stories. Zen Habits is just one place for inspiration, not only from me but from many readers who have achieved amazing things. I love, love, love reading success stories too.

Build on your successes. Every little step along the way is a success — celebrate the fact that you even started! And then did it for two days! Celebrate every little milestone. Then take that successful feeling and build on it, with another baby step. Add 2-3 minutes to your exercise routine, for example. With each step (and each step should last about a week), you will feel even more successful. Make each step really, really small, and you won’t fail. After a couple of months, your tiny steps will add up to a lot of progress and a lot of success.

Just get through the low points. Motivation is not a constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes, and comes and goes again, like the tide. But realize that while it may go away, it doesn’t do so permanently. It will come back. Just stick it out and wait for that motivation to come back. In the meantime, read about your goal, ask for help, and do some of the other things listed here until your motivation comes back.

Get help. It’s hard to accomplish something alone. When I decided to quit smoking, I joined an online forum and that helped tremendously. And of course, my family helped every step of the way. I couldn't have done these goals without help, or without the others who supported me. Find your support network, either in the real world or on-line, or both.

Chart your progress. This can be as simple as marking an X on your calendar, or creating a simple spreadsheet, or logging your goal using online software. But it can be vastly rewarding to look back on your progress and to see how far you’ve come, and it can help you to keep going — you don’t want to have too many days without an X! Now, you will have some bad marks on your chart. That’s OK. Don’t let a few bad marks stop you from continuing. Strive instead to get the good marks next time.

Reward yourself often. For every little step along the way, celebrate your success, and give yourself a reward. It helps to write down appropriate rewards for each step, so that you can look forward to those rewards. By appropriate, I mean 1) it’s proportionate to the size of the goal (don’t reward going on a 1-mile run with a luxury cruise in the Bahamas); and 2) it doesn’t ruin your goal — if you are trying to lose weight, don’t reward a day of healthy eating with a dessert binge. It’s self-defeating.

Go for mini-goals. Sometimes large or longer-term goals can be overwhelming. After a couple weeks, we may lose motivation, because we still have several months or a year or more left to accomplish the goal. It’s hard to maintain motivation for a single goal for such a long time. Solution: have smaller goals along the way.
Get a coach or take a class. These will motivate you to at least show up, and to take action. It can be applied to any goal. This might be one of the more expensive ways of motivating yourself, but it works. And if you do some research, you might find some cheap classes in your area, or you might know a friend who will provide coaching or counseling for free.

Never skip two days in a row. This rule takes into account our natural tendency to miss days now and then. We are not perfect. So, you missed one day … now the second day is upon you and you are feeling lazy … tell yourself NO! You will not miss two days in a row!

Use visualization. Visualize your successful outcome in great detail. Close your eyes, and think about exactly how your successful outcome will look, will feel, will smell and taste and sound like. Where are you when you become successful? How do you look? What are you wearing? Form as clear a mental picture as possible. Now here’s the next key:
 do it every day. For at least a few minutes each day. This is the only way to keep that motivation going over a long period of time.

Be aware of your urges to quit, and overcome them. We all have urges to stop, but they are mostly unconscious. One of the most powerful things you can do is to start being more conscious of those urges. A good exercise is to go through the day with a little piece of paper and put a tally mark for each time you get an urge. It simply makes you aware of the urges. Then have a plan for when those urges hit, and plan for it beforehand, and write down your plan, because once those urges hit, you will not feel like coming up with a plan.

Find pleasure again. No one can stick to something for long if they find it unpleasant, and are only rewarded after months of toil. There has to be fun, pleasure, joy in it, every day, or you won’t want to do it. Find those pleasurable things — the beauty of a morning run, for example, or the satisfaction in reporting to people that you finished another step along the way, or the deliciousness of a healthy meal.

“Never, never, never, never give up.” - Winston Churchill

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