What The Humble Baked Bean Tin Teaches Us About Goal Achievement!

May 19, 2011 by 8 Comments

A recent series I watched on TV followed a young British engineer as he traveled around the country on a longboat, celebrating Britain’s industrial heritage. One episode featured the humble tin of baked beans, and in this article I want to cover what this teaches us about goal achievement…

Guy Martin is an engineer and well known bike racer. Well known in bike racing circles that is, I confess I had never heard of him before watching his TV series.

In ‘The Boat That Guy Built’ on the BBC, he wanted to remind people of a 150 year period when British inventions and engineering helped to change the world, to drive the industrial revolution.

He traveled around on his barge, fitting it out using traditional techniques, and I was drawn in by the whole series. One episode featured him making baked beans on toast, so he went right back to the basics and history of the can, making it by hand. This is where the goal achievement lesson comes in…

The patent for the tin can was given in the early 1800s in Britain, and it wasn’t long before it had been sold on and developed, as a way of storing provisions for the army and navy. This was state of the art stuff at the time, rather like NASA inventing ideas for the space program.

Within a few years though, maybe a decade or so, the baked bean had moved from being a novelty food for the posh to a common ingredient, and the tin can had gone from being experimental to being part of everyday life.

It was taken for granted.

150 Years Later

This is all over 150 years ago now, but the lesson we can take today is still fresh…

While it’s possible that your goal may be groundbreaking, it’s more likely that it has been achieved before. Someone, somewhere, will take it for granted. Someone, somewhere, will have gone through the trial and error process and got to the end result.

Yes, it will be new for *you*, there will be learning and set backs, but you can make the journey far easier if you seek out the knowledge of others who have gone before.

You will also have an easier ride of it mentally if you imagine yourself in the position of those who take your goal for granted.

Developing an assurance that your goal will happen, helps to motivate you when you come to step that are wary or nervous about – you’ll be much more confident to take it when you know others have been there before.

So to sum up, the humble tin of baked beans can teach us about trial and error, and it can teach us about repositioning goals in our mind as taken for granted rather than experimental.

I loved Guy Martin’s show, and the next time you are struggling with a goal, open a cupboard and stare at a baked bean tin for some inspiration!

Gordon Bryan is a writer from the UK, who loves writing about goal achievement. Grab his free 8 Step Goal Achievement Formula at http://thegreatgordino.com/free-8-step-goal-achievement-formula

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How to inspire your kids to greatness

May 12, 2011 by 2 Comments

To be able to go on to do great things, children need encouragement and inspiration. A child will try his or her best when a parent’s support is behind them. Sometimes it’s not easy to figure out exactly how to help kids with this, but there are some things you can do that are sure to inspire.

Follow Your Child’s Bliss

Pay attention to what your child loves. If he or she loves art, encourage the creation of paintings, sculptures, drawings, or whichever media they have an interest in and keep plenty of art materials on hand. If you notice your child looking at the stars and gravitating toward astronomy topics, make plans for trips to a planetarium. Know what your child is interested in and feed that interest in every way possible.

Give Your Child New Experiences

There is nothing like learning about different cultures and seeing new things to open a child’s mind. It isn’t necessary to take a trip to Japan or Africa to accomplish this. Learning about how things are done in a culture on the other side of the world can show a child that all humans are different and interesting. Going to plays, ballets performances, and museums also fall into this category.

Turn off the Electronics

On at least one night a week, turn off the television, computers, phones, and any other gadget that the family is attached to, and have the family create something together. Any child, regardless of interests, should learn to create. Whether you paint something on a canvas, put together a birdhouse, or build a piece of play equipment for the back yard, make something that your child can see every day and be proud of helping to create.

Look into Extracurricular

Whether it’s a day camp for a particular interest, Scouts youth organization, or sports team, get your child into some extracurricular activity. This gives kids the opportunity to work with other kids outside of a school atmosphere. It is important that your child be interested, though. Some children won’t mesh well with all activities.

Expect Good Things, but Don’t Go Too Far

Letting your child know what you expect in terms of school and activities is a good thing. But be careful not to apply too much pressure. Becoming angry when one of their activities doesn’t work out the way you expected it to will only discourage your child. Celebrate over your child’s efforts toward something, rather than only rewarding a perfect result. Also realize that not all children will be good at everything. It may take a few tries before you and your child figure out the best activities and interests for him or her.

In conclusion, do not underestimate the importance of building your own inspiration as a parent. Read parenting books, discover inspiring family quotes, exchange with other parents and do not hesitate to try new activities.

And do not forget, the key is to spend quality time with your child. This is something your child will remember forever.

About the author: David is the manager of FamousQuotesIndex.com, an interactive database containing close to 30,000 quotes and citations from famous people and popular movies. This post has been featured in the Spring Homeschool Carnival and the Garden of Learning homeschooling carnival.

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How To Find Happiness in Five Minutes

May 10, 2011 by 4 Comments

Life is crazy isn’t it? And sometimes being happy and content just seems impossible. Life is hard, long, and at times painful. But the good news is that it is possible to find joy and be happy. It really is. Here are a few tips that can change your dreary day into sunshine and smiles. And you can make that happen.

• Realize that rain falls. When you accept that life will and does get tough and sometimes for entire season you can smile. Sure ,what you are experiencing may be really painful and even difficult, but those very things can help you grow. Know that this life will be filled with hard things but strive to overcome them and look for the light on the other side. You really can smile even in a thunder storm. Remember that things don’t stay the same and seek to learn all you can about yourself and other people when life hurts and feels unfair.

• Smile at a stranger. Take the time to care about other people. Even people you don’t know. It really is true that even small things like smiling are not only helpful. They are contagious. Be kind to the grumpy salesperson, let the rude driver pass you and buy a coffee for the person you don’t even know. Why? Just because you can. Make the world a better place.

• Forgive and move on. Most of us carry around hurts from the past. Some are huge and some go way back into our childhood. But guess what? You gotta move on. Don’t dwell on the past. You don’t have to forget or give up boundaries to protect yourself from an unhealthy relationship but letting go and forgiving can do wonders to your heart. Realize all the wrong and hurt you have caused, yes maybe even back in elementary school. Give grace to people and let yourself heal and grow by forgiving.

• Slow down. We all move way too fast in life. Sure there is a lot to see and many responsibilities but busyness steals away from the simple joys of life. Take time to visit that grandparent, pick up the phone and call a friend you miss. Pause and see the new flowers budding in the middle of the city. Open a door for someone or simply slow down when walking to your next destination. Cancel meetings that don’t need to happen, hug that little one that is changing by the minute, sip your coffee and quit making your schedule so full. Enjoy the time you have been given. Life moves fast. Don’t miss it. You know there are no dress rehearsals so get it right the first time.

• Be grateful for where you are at. Even if you are in a terrible divorce, have been wronged by a boss, or are grieving a major loss, seek to find the good. It may feel impossible and against what you want to do but you can choose to focus on the positive. Even in the worst of situations there are things to be grateful for. How about a healthy child? Food to eat? A family or even one person who loves you? Be happy and thankful for the big and small things you have in life. If you focus on what isn’t or what you don’t have you will only make life exasperating and no fun. Each day seek to focus on what you have to be grateful for. In fact, why not make a journal. You can do that right now. List all you can rejoice about. It may be as simple as a new bloom on a flower, or a hot shower, but even these little things will help your heart enjoy the life you have been given.
Try these things and see that happiness is right in front of you!

This is a guest post by Diane Johnson, who primarily writes about online classes and anything else that interests her. She enjoys traveling, reading, and sports.

Filed Under: Happiness

Dealing with Nit Pickers

April 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Not everyone has the courage to be honest, straight-forward, and easy to deal with. In every situation, disagreement, or problem there are always two pictures; the “little” picture, how something is seen by one individual, and the much larger picture, how it is seen by everyone else involved.

Self-centered people cannot see the bigger picture. All they see are their own needs, wants, and desires. Their entire world revolves around them. When forced to fight for one of their desires they rationalize reality, make excuses, and attempt to get their way by nit picking and splitting hairs.

How many times have you been able to reason with an unreasonable person? The instant someone disagrees with them they dig in their heels, close their minds and begin to “yea but” everything said.

One absolute freedom everyone has is the freedom to be wrong. When we like someone we unconsciously enlarge their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. When we dislike someone we minimize their strengths and enlarge their weaknesses. Personal perceptions are modified by emotions, biases, and beliefs. This happens to everyone. It is that old saying, “Nothing is either good or bad … but thinking makes it so.”

For years I thought it was my responsibility, my higher calling, to straighten out the uninformed. We all know where that led. Hundreds of hours were lost trying to raise people’s awareness with logic and reason. Logic only works with logical people.

What I eventually learned to do with nit-picking and hair-splitting people is step away, knowing that their minds were closed and they would have to live with whatever they believed … not me.

Viewed from the much larger picture the nit-picking hair-splitting people are only sawing sawdust. So what? Life is too short to be little.

This was a Guest Post by Dick Warn, author of The Miracle Minute.

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How to Deal With Your Grief and Stay Happy

April 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Every person in their life at some stage or another experience lots of worries. It could arrive by death for a loved one, money problems or probably a romantic relationship. Everybody on this planet experiences grief many times more than. What we need to understand is that grief is a regular part of our existence, and is something that you can’t avoid of. It’s normal for us to attempt and steer away from the emotions of grief as we generally don’t know how to cope with it.

Their are a several points that we ought to take into consideration when confronted with any form of grief. Down below, I have detailed these points for you to think about on how to cope with grief. This is a short stage procedure for anybody to adhere to:

  • Basically, we should accept what causes us the individual grief we are going through. Accepting the truth that we are encountering grief instead of denial brings us nearer to coping with grief.
  • We should analyze our actions and ideas and arrive to a last conclusion, regardless of whether we contributed to the grieving in one particular type or the other.
  • Lastly, as soon as we have analyzed all other crucial points, we then must begin the process of overcoming our grief since their isn’t a magical method to treat grief immediately. Like something in existence, issues want time.

With grief comes sadness; and sadness leads to discomfort, mentally and physically. These are some of the issues that accompany grief which sadly can’t be prevented for some, the best we can do is discover a way to soothe the process and move on with our lives. Usually keep in mind you are not by yourself, and whether you believe it or not time is the greatest healing that you could manage your self. Start with the crucial process and create down points on a daily foundation that lead you to the feeling of grief, sadness, regret and so forth, then perform on creating small adjustments to reverse these emotions one particular stage at a time.

This was a guest post by Live Life …

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Are You Really Happy?

April 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Being happy and achieving true happiness does not rely upon how much wealth you have, how successful you are and how famous you might be. It can’t even be acquired through money and getting all of the things we want. Perhaps at first, we could get in our mind that we can be happy if we get almost everything that we wanted. But then later on, we realize that these can’t make us happy. We just wanted them, and happiness is not a want but rather it is a need. We don’t want happiness, we simply need it.

For you to be happy, being the real you is all it takes. No one gets true happiness by putting the mask on and getting to play the clown. Instead, just by smiling through the crowd and revealing the real you is how it is being made possible. In order for us to be happy, we must be focused in our goals in life. We must know ourselves. Know the things which makes us happy and then set them up to your ideals. The next thing to do would be to organize your plans in life. Arrange the things you need in the right order so that it would be easy for you to come up with the most important one. The other thing is being a positive thinker. Almost all of us know the power of positive thinking. Make use of it to make yourself happy.

If you are quite discontented with what you are right now, relax, empty your mind and say to yourself, “Am I really happy?” If you think you are not, then start it right away…

More information about happiness at Live Life

Filed Under: Happiness

Words on Happiness

April 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is an excerpt from Words on Happiness Vol. 1 by Jen Bluekissed:

Walk in the other guy’s shoes.  Before you do, sanitize them so you don’t get foot fungus.  After you’ve walked a mile in them, give them back, and respect that he might not be willing to walk in yours yet.

Give of yourself.  When you die, what you’ve held back will be forgotten, but what you’ve given will be remembered by all those whose lives you’ve touched.

Most people act out of a desire to have their wants and needs met.  They do not act out of vengeance or specifically to hurt you.  If you are hurt in the process, realize that it’s probably easier for the them to ignore the pain you’re feeling than to deal with their own issues.

When you speak softly and carry a big stick, try not to do so in the house of someone who keeps a loaded pistol near his/her bedside.

When upset, make sure to tell the people you’re talking with afterward whether or not you’re looking to vent your frustration or for them to help you fix your problem.  Your friends need guidance for when to listen and when to speak.

Deliver the goods you’ve promised.  If you can’t, chocolate always helps to smooth things over.

Keep your sense of awe and wonderment.

Spend time near flowering trees.

Root for the underdog, but don’t necessarily place a bet on them with anything other than Monopoly money.

Hold your friends close, your enemies closer, and your family closest.

Smile, even when you don’t feel like it.

Allow yourself anger, frustration, sadness, despair, envy, bitterness, etc., but schedule a time to end those things so that you can again feel hope.

What isn’t said speaks as loudly as what is said.

Make time to ponder and reflect.

Own a teddy bear to hug when you’re down.  People are great for hugs, but teddy bears aren’t ever too tired or too busy for a good squeeze session.

Money is a finite resource.  Treat it as such.

Love is not a finite resource.  Give some away, and you’ll always get more back, even if it comes from unexpected places.

Forget you’re a grown up sometimes.

Schedule a day every now and again to have no responsibilities.

Allow yourself to cry when crying is necessary.  Do decide that you will stop crying after you get it out of your system.

Try not to marry your job.  It won’t be there to take care of you when you’re old and start getting dementia.

Deliver bad news with compassion.

Hands are shaped for holding other hands for a reason.  Try it sometime.

Be careful whom you trust.  Trust is a privilege, not a right.

We are fish in a giant fishbowl.  Very few things are secrets if the right people employ the right tactics to know your business.  Live life knowing that someone will probably find out.

Jen Bluekissed chooses to see the world in color.  She kisses in color too.  Her work can also be found on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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You Suck

March 29, 2011 by 6 Comments

…the air out of a room when you make it all about you.

…the life out of everyone around you when you make it all about you.

…the joy out of every endeavor when you make it all about you.

…the lightness out of every quest when you make it all about you.

…the potential out of every business when you make it all about you.

You fill.

…every room,

…every person,

…every endeavor,

…every quest,

…every business with life, with energy, with potential,

When you make it all about them.

++++

The challenge is to serve, solve and delight from a place of genuine personal interest without relying on the experience to complete you.  Be who you are, but can you be a filler rather than a sucker.  That didn’t come out totally the way it was meant, but either way…who would want to be a sucker?

Agree, disagree…need more latte?

Reprinted with permission from personal development and marketing blog – JonathanFields.com

Filed Under: Happiness

Give Hugs and Get Healthier

March 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

When you’re feeling gloomy and someone comes up to you to give you a hug, it could really lift your spirit. But did you know that there are also health benefits to hugging? Studies have shown that it causes the release of a hormone called oxytocin. That hormone has been proven to help lower levels of stress and anxiety, reduce blood pressure, boost the immune system, increase tolerance to pain and perhaps even speed up the healing of wounds.

Hugging also just feels good and helps boost your mood. When you really need it, it could help alleviate feelings of loneliness. That is exactly what happened in 2004, to an Australian man only known by the pseudonym of “Juan Mann”. For a few months, Juan Mann was feeling lonely and depressed, suffering a great amount of personal problems. One day, he went to a party and someone randomly gave him a hug. That hug made him feel so much better that he began thinking that there might be other people, like him, in desperate need of human contact.

He came up with the idea of going in public places to give free hugs. He prepared a sign and headed to his neighborhood mall. The first time he did it, he waited fifteen minutes before an older lady finally came up to him and hugged him. From that moment on, a worldwide campaign was launched. Now, all over the world, people stand in public places and give free hugs. What a wonderful initiative.

Hugging and touching is accessible to all. It serves as a powerful way to express our appreciation and our love to the people around us. So, why not do it more often? If we do so, not only will we be improving the quality of our health, but also our happiness, the happiness of those around us, and our overall feeling of wellbeing!

Here is a video of free hugs given in Italy:

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This is a guest post by Alina Boutros who writes 500 Days to Happiness

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