Top 10 Hottest Psychologists of All Time

If you’ve read about the top 10 hottest poets of the 19th century, you may be wondering who the hottest great thinkers in other fields are. Psychologists aren’t necessarily known for their dashing good looks, but there have been a few rather attractive psychologists over the years. Here are ten of the hottest psychologists – male and female – of all time, in case you’re curious:

1. Virginia Johnson

One of the first psychologists to study human sexual response, we can thank Virginia Johnson and her former husband, William Masters, for much of what we know today about the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders. Ms. Johnson’s awe-inspiring beauty and depth of insight into human behavior easily make her one of the hottest psychologists of all time.

2. Lev Vygotsky

Vygotsy is one of the most famous and popular Russian psychologists. The research he did in the early 20th century in the fields of education and child development is still relevant today, and psychology students still study his theories regarding cultural-historical psychology. Not to mention, Vygotsky’s chiseled face is undeniably easy on the eyes.

3. Mamie Clark

In the 1940s, Mamie Clark and her husband, Kenneth Clark, founded a social service organization for children in Harlem and conducted groundbreaking research about children’s perception of race. Throughout her career, she worked tirelessly to help promote the psychological well-being of children in Harlem. Mrs. Clark’s kind heart and inquisitive mind weren’t the only things that stood out about her. Her stunning appearance was also known to turn more than a few heads.

4. Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis and is well-known for his theories about dreams and the human subconscious. Additionally, Freud’s distinguished appearance, innovative mind, and bravado made him swoon-worthy.

5. Anna Freud

Like her father, Sigmund, Anna Freud was a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis. Much of her work specifically dealt with child psychology as it relates to psychoanalysis, and she devoted her career to promoting her father’s theories. Anna Freud didn’t just inherit her intellect from her father. She also inherited his good looks.

6. Dimitri Uznadze

Dimitri Uznadze paved the way for other psychologists in the country of Georgia in the early 20th century. He co-founded the Georgian Academy of Sciences and published several important books regarding psychology, pedagogy, and the nature of human thought. Pictures of Uznadze reveal his strikingly handsome face. It’s not difficult to imagine that Dimitri Uznadze was a lady-killer.

7. Sabina Spielrein

Sabina Spielrein stood out in the early 20th century as one of the few female psychoanalysts. Her work in the field of psychoanalysis is still discussed today, and she has been featured in a number of documentaries and historical movies about the advent of psychoanalysis. As a young woman, she caught the eye of Carl Jung, and the two psychologists had a torrid love affair. She is remembered for her intelligence and her graceful beauty.

8. Hans Eysenck

Hans Eysenck’s theories about race and intelligence were certainly controversial, but few can deny the influence of his theories in the realm of psychology. During his career throughout the 20th century, Eysenck published important books and research regarding smoking, intelligence, psychoanalysis, the media, astrology, and much more. In his younger days, Eysenck was quite handsome, with big brown eyes and a charming smile.

9. Margaret Mahler

Margaret Mahler is known for working with troubled children and attempting to heal their emotional afflictions with psychoanalysis. She published an extensive number of works dealing with child psychology and the cognitive development of infants. Mahler also possessed a sophisticated kind of beauty.

10. Philip Zimbardo

One of the few contemporary psychologists to make the list, Philip Zimbardo is tall, dark, and handsome, even at the age of 79. In the 1970s, Zimbardo’s controversial study of prisoners and prison guards illustrated the deleterious effects of prison on the human psyche and is often cited and discussed in academic communities. Philip Zimbardo is currently a professor of social psychology at Palo Alto University, and a post-emeritus professor of psychology at Stanford. We can assume that at least a few undergrads have had crushes on him during his tenure as a professor.

Each of the people on the list above should primarily be remembered for his or her contributions to psychology. However, there’s no harm in daydreaming about any of these psychologists when the mood strikes.

Casey Wheeler is a blogger and freelance writer for psychology news and education sites, including onlinepsychologydegree.net. When she’s not writing and researching psychology, Casey likes to spend time with her twins and go camping. Please leave your comments and questions for Casey below!

End of the world – (Wordless Wednesday)

December 21 is the end of the world, so say many. And what an excellent day to end it all on. In order to celebrate this achievement of reaching our final goal…

Life Instructions (Wordless Wednesday)

Shhhh… It’s Wordless Wednesday. Just follow the instructions below and you’ll make it through the day.

Three Lessons from The Science of Self-Control

Whether it’s about getting our emotional lives under control, learning how to focus on our goals, or sticking to a diet, self-control is key.

But where does self-control come from? Would you be surprised to learn that gargling sugar water, thinking about a friend, or watching a video could help you improve your self-control? As it happens, that’s exactly what cutting edge science is telling us. Here’s why.

1. Self-Control May Not Be a Limited Resource

In recent years, some scientists have suggested that self-control is a limited resource. Why would anybody suggest this? Well, many experiments have shown that if you perform one self-control task, you will do worse on a second self-control task.

Some studies even started to suggest that this had to do with the amount of sugar in your blood: literal energy. After all, participants who drank sweetened lemonade did better on the second task than participants who drank lemonade that was sweetened artificially.

But then scientists had another thought. They tried asking participants to gargle sugar water instead. Remarkably, this also improved self-control. This experiment has been successfully repeated more than once. What is going on here?

It turns out that the presence of sugar on their taste buds was activating the motivational and goal-seeking parts of the brain. It didn’t have anything to do with the energy from sugar.

Researchers Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto and Brandon Schmeichel of Texas A&M University interpret studies like these as a sign that self-control is not a limited resource. Instead, it is driven by motivation and attention. They argue that your ability to control yourself really has more to do your beliefs about willpower, how difficult you think tasks are, the incentives involved, and the feedback that people give you.

Put another way, self-control depends on how committed we are to our goals and what we’re paying attention to, not necessarily how much energy we have.

Related post: Define Success

2. Make Self-Control Fun

If self-control isn’t really a depletable resource, why do we act like it is? A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that it’s because we have convinced ourselves that it isn’t fun.

In one of the experiments, the participants were asked to hold pieces of candy, like M&Ms and Skittles, put them in their mouths, and take them out without eating them. Afterward, they were asked to fill out a few surveys, and weren’t told whether or not they could eat the candy.

After measuring how much self-control each participant usually had, and how much candy they ended up eating, the learned something interesting: the people who were better at self-control thought the candy exercise was fun. The ones with less than stellar self-control? They thought it was work.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean the flip side is true. Which is why the experimenters also put together another test.

In a second experiment, they asked participants to perform a similar task. But this time around, half of them were given initial instructions that used the word “fun.” This subtle difference actually had an impact on their self-control during the experiment.

It was as though the people with less self-control had never considered the possibility that it could be fun, and the mere suggestion was enough to change their behavior.

3. Self-Control (and a Lack Thereof) is Contagious

We have a natural tendency to congratulate ourselves when we get things right, and pass on the blame when we don’t. But a study by the University of Georgia suggests that, when it comes to self-control, we should be taking a look at the people around us either way.

The study involved hundreds of volunteers and tested the impact of watching or even just thinking about people with good or bad self-control. Just how strong was the impact? Seeing the name of somebody with good or bad self-control flash across a screen for, get this, ten milliseconds, was enough to have an influence on people’s behavior.

The impact was also surprisingly broad. Thinking about somebody who has good self-control with their exercise routine can help you with self-control over your career. The individual behavior didn’t seem to matter. All that mattered was the amount of self-control.

The five experiments in the study had the following conclusions:

  • People performed better on a hand-grip test when they thought about a friend with good self-control.
  • Watching somebody choose a carrot over a piece of cake on a video was enough to improve somebody’s performance on a self-control test.
  • When a friend’s name flashed across a computer screen for ten milliseconds, they did worse on a computerized self-control test.
  • Writing about a friend with self-control improved results.
  • Writing about friends with good self-control caused people to more quickly identify related words like “achieve,” “effort,” and “discipline.”

What’s remarkable about these studies is how instantaneous the results were either way. They weren’t asked to completely restructure their social lives, just think about a friend…or see their name flash across a screen in the blink of an eye.

But beware, if you do this incorrectly, a different study suggests you can end up doing more harm than good. In an experiment at the University of California, participants who imagined themselves in the shoes of the person with self-control actually ended up with less of it. It was as though imagining themselves exercising self-control actually drained them.

What have we learned here? It turns out self-control is something that you can shift right now, in the present. Merely framing it as a fun activity, thinking about a friend with self-control, and staying committed to our goals is all it takes. On the flip side, it also means that it’s a constant effort, a choice to take actions in the here and now, not something that you get to “earn” and “keep.”

Guest blogger Carter Bowles is a science and psychology blogger who is pursuing a degree in Statistics at Idaho State University. If you liked this, you may also be interested in his collection of infographics about the science of creativity.

The Festival of Frugality gets Happy!

Welcome to the 365th Festival of Frugality here on The Happy Guy’sself-help happiness” blog. If this was a daily festival, it would be one year old. Since time is relative, please feel free to celebrate as you wish. After all, this is a “Festival” and they do call these blog “carnivals”.

If you have a post you would like to see in a future edition of this carnival, please submit it.

Featured Posts

Here are a few I would like to draw attention to. It’s one of the fringe benefits of shuffling the host gets for through all these blog posts. A few that I feel really capture the spirit of frugality…

Ray presents 6 Examples of When Not to be Frugal posted at Squirrelers. Celebrating the idea of frugality and saving money is something for which I can get on board. However, there are actually some times when it might not be such a good idea to be frugal. From the post… “Did you see above, where I talked about plucking coins off the ground at the drive thru window, where people dropped them? The drive thru isn’t exactly indicative of optimal nutrition”

Glen Craig presents 7 Ways to Be Frugal Right Now posted at Free From Broke . Being frugal is a pretty easy way to help you reduce your expenses. This helps you stretch your dollar and save more. See 7 ways you can be frugal right now.

Frugal Family: How I Sacrifice “Stuff” to Give My Kids Everything They Need posted at Frugal Rules. For anyone who is a parent, they will know that certain lifestyles are not possible after you become a parent. You also see that many of those things you have before parenthood are just things that can easily be lived without. Many times you do not recognize the sacrifices and your children are better off for it.

Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey presents Best Ways to Save Money During the Holiday Season posted at My Personal Finance Journey. While there are things that have to be paid for no matter what and whose price is largely outside our control (mostly plane tickets and gas), there are still plenty of ways to save this holiday season. This post illustrates a few tips on how to save a little money during the holiday gift giving season.

Strictly Frugal

Amanda L Grossman presents Waste Not Want Not: Uses for Old T-Shirts posted at Frugal Confessions. My husband has a thing for t-shirts. Just like my beloved scrapbooks, he looks past the armpit holes, faded colors, and crackling insignias and instead sees

Jester presents Frugal Family Christmas Activities posted at The Ultimate Juggle. Enjoy a glimpse into our frugal family Christmas activities. These activities is why Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Jason presents Saving Money on Your Home Security System posted at Work Save Live. Lately I’ve been considering investing in a home security system for my home, and I’ve been researching some of my options for doing it. I want to be secure, but I also want to feel like I got a good deal.

Martin presents The Obligatory Save Money During Christmas Personal Finance Article posted at Studenomics. Martin presents The Obligatory Save Money During Christmas Personal Finance Article posted at Studenomics.

Sustainable PF presents 4 Tips for Teaching Your Child to Live More Sustainably posted at Sustainable Personal Finance. One day, a couple of years ago, as my son and I headed home from whatever appointment we had, we saw someone toss a can out the window.

Mr. Money presents 5 Tips for a Successful Homemade Christmas posted at Smart on Money. One way to reduce your costs during the holiday season is to go for a homemade Christmas. Not only can you save money, but you can also produce unique gifts that are personal for the recipient. Here are some tips for making your homemade Christmas a little more successful:

Steve presents Holiday Savings Tips by Top Personal Finance Bloggers posted at Grocery Alerts. The Holidays are sneaking up on us and I wanted to find out from some of the top Personal Finance Bloggers, their best tips for saving around the holidays.

Wayne presents Eat healthily and live well for less posted at Young Family Finance. Unless you’ve got a supersonic metabolism, chances are you are going to spend some portion of your life watching your waistline. Everyone wants to look good and feel fit, but with bad foods often tasting so good and being readily available keeping svelte is never easy.

Crystal presents Continuing a Free but AWESOME Christmas Tradition! posted at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. Have you ever remembered something super cool and can’t believe you ever forgot about it? That happened to me last week. I really love my Christmas card tree!

Jay presents How to Buy a Classic Car on a Budget posted at Daily Fuel Economy Tip. Top tips if you are looking to buy a classic car.

Hank presents How To Switch On To Energy Savings posted at Money Q&A. Lets face it. Times are hard for everyone. That is an absolute and undisputed fact as the world recession continues to bite despite reports that the financial tide is slowly turning.

Tushar presents Get the Most Back posted at Start Investing Money. Benjamin Franklin once said that there are only two things in life that are certain- death and taxes. To many people, the thought of paying their taxes at the end of the year is a mind-numbing, heartbreaking prospect.

Maria presents How to Save Money for Care Home Fees posted at The Money Principle. We do eventually get old and we do get to a situation where we need care. This article offers some ideas about how to save for the care home fees.

Jon the Saver presents 10 Tips for Home Made Meals and a Fatter Wallet posted at Free Money Wisdom. Here are ten tips to make more meals at home and reduce your food bill each month and free up the money for other things in your life!

PITR presents Don’t be drastic on the plastic this Christmas time posted at Passive Income To Retire. With the possible exception of your summer holiday, chances are that Christmas is your most expensive time of the year.

Young presents How Much House Do You Really Need? posted at Young And Thrifty. As a fairly lazy dude who isn’t a big fun of seeing his Saturdays spent doing housecleaning (and yes ladies, I am a modern man and do my fair share), all I could see in a large house was endless dusting and vacuuming.

Pauline presents Spinach and leek pizza, make your man and kids eat greens! posted at Reach Financial Independence. A delicious frugal recipe at $2 per serving, all the family will want to eat greens!

FMF presents Gym Memberships are Good Deals — If You Use Them! posted at Free Money Finance. If you actually use a membership, it can save you a great deal over a per use payment structure.

ENTERTAINMENT BREAK

This is getting to be a long festival, so let’s take a break for some upbeat entertainment, which my singing daughter has kindly agreed to provide…

Budgeting

Matt presents 3 Excellent Behaviors you need to Stay on your Budget posted at Budget SNOB. If you don’t want your budget plans to go out the window follow these three behaviors.

PPlan presents Maximizing Your Experiences without Breaking the Bank posted at Provident Plan. It has been nearly two years since my wife and I were struggling to make ends meet.

Corey presents How I Would Have Retired Early posted at Steadfast Finances. Retiring early may be difficult to do, but it is certainly possible. Find out how many have accomplished this feat in record time.

SBB presents Why Your Budget Should be Flexible posted at Simple Budget Blog. Find out why budgeting is a fluid thing. Keeping to strict of goals or limitations can be a bad thing. Here’s why.

Tahnya Kristina presents How to Celebrate Your Financial Successes posted at ReadyForZero Blog. Have you thought about what you’ll do with your extra income when you become debt-free? This post talks about the possibilities so, when that day comes, you can celebrate your success while also preserving your long-term goals.

Amy presents PLanning a Budget as a Couple posted at Money Mishaps. Set up a simple budget to reduce the stress in your relationship.

MR presents Debt Free, Now What? posted at Money Reasons. This is my financial progress since I’ve become debt free. I also share the wealth accumulation strategies that I am currently using!

Glen presents Financial Considerations When Deciding How Many Kids to Have posted at Parenting Family Money . It’s safe to say most couple like kids. But before you add to your family you need to consider your finances. There are many expenses that come with a child.

Financials

Katie presents When and How to Start IRA Withdrawls posted at IRA Basics. How withdrawing from your IRA can affect you. How not to let inflation eat away at our hard earned savings.

John presents Are Banks Making You Sign Away Your Rights? posted at Wallet Blog. Big banks include mandatory arbitration clauses in checking account agreements and the statistics speak for themselves. It’s obvious that making consumers sign away their rights is a costly and legally-dubious practice toward consumers.

Daniel presents Beating Out Inflation posted at Make Money Make Cents.

Credit, Loans and Debt

Bob presents Myths About Debt Settlement posted at Dwindling Debt. Learn the truth about debt settlement.

KT presents Quick Pay Day Loans – What do you think? posted at Personal Finance Journey. Want a chance to comment on Pay Day Loans? Personal Finance Journey asks for opinions from readers, industry experts and users to comment and share their opinion.

Ryan presents Should You Consider Credit Card Consolidation? posted at Early Retirement Investments. Read my take on whether you should consider credit card consolidation.

Eddie presents What is a Short Term Loan? posted at Finance Fox. A short term loan was originally designed to lend a small amount of cash to consumers with the collateral being a check.

Miranda presents Down Payment Assistance posted at Wallet Hub. For some borrowers, saving for the required down payment on a home can be difficult. However, there are programs out there that allow you to receive down payment assistance.

Neal Frankle presents Auto Loan Refinance Made Easy posted at Wealth Pilgrim. It you have a car loan you might be able to save big bucks by completing an auto loan refinance. This is also one way to pay off your car loan early. Of course, before you take action it’s very important to confirm that it’s worth your time and that you will get the very lowest interest rate possible. Here are 4 easy steps you can take to accomplish this.

Carrie presents Christmas Shopping Debt Traps: No Interest Offers, Store Credit Cards, and Impulse Buys posted at PT Money Personal Finance. The temptation to accumulate more debt at Christmastime is great, but if you’re careful with how you approach the season, you’ll see there are traps you can avoid.

Liana presents Do Prepaid Cards Build Credit? posted at Card Hub. An increasingly popular question among consumers is “Do Prepaid Cards Build Credit?” It’s important to know the facts on this if you plan to build and maintain good credit by using plastic.

Jeremy presents Personal Loans Aren’t Always Bad Debt posted at Modest Money. On other finance blogs I often hear people talk about personal loans as some evil thing that should be avoided at all costs. While there are definitely times when you should be avoiding borrowing money, you should not discount the potential to manage your finances with a personal loan.

ANOTHER ENTERTAINMENT BREAK

Hey. It’s time for some more party entertainment. Bring on the (way too hyperactive?) dancers…

Investing

A Blinkin presents Freakin’ Menus posted at Funancials. Have you ever looked at a menu and become paralyzed? In the same way, have you ever contemplated investing, but didn’t because of the overwhelming options?

IMB presents Important Investing Principles posted at Investing Money. Learn about several important investing principles that can help you compete with experienced investors.

Luke presents Why you should dump your savings accounts for savings bonds posted at Learn Bonds. A number of factors have to come together to make replacing your online savings account with a TreasuryDirect account, not only a good financial decision, but a practical one.

Passive Income Earner presents Dividend Income – November 2012 posted at The Passive Income Earner. I have been readjusting my RESP investments since I dumped all my mutual funds. I wrote a few posts over RESP and most recently I have shared my RESP strategy. The recent market drops are also providing me with an opportunity to take some profits and add to others that’s how I rebalance my stocks. Usually one sector will stay up while others are down.

Dividend Growth Investor presents Buy and Hold means Buy and Monitor posted at Dividend Growth Investor. Experienced dividend investors have learned, mostly through practice, that successful dividend investing is focused on continuous analysis of new or existing investments. Some of the greatest dividend growth stocks today, could become the pariahs on Wall Street within a few short years, if it runs into financial trouble. As a result, serious dividend investors should keep a close tab on their portfolios of income securities.

Shopping

JP presents Yakezie Carnival:The End of Black Friday Edition posted at My Family Finances. For years, Black Friday has brought the crazy out in people. I mean standing out in the middle of the night in arctic temperatures brand of crazy. At the end of the ice-cold, wait-till-midnight-to-shop hysteria is an expensive piece of electronic equipment discounted by $100.

Tushar presents 10 Must-Have Mobile Apps for Holiday Shopping posted at Finance TUBE. Today I will be taking about 10 Must-Have Mobile Apps for Holiday Shopping. A recent survey show that 82 perfect of online shoppers will use shopping apps to save on Holiday gifts this year. They are trying to right to find right apps can be a challenge.

Kate presents Gift Card Deals for Restaurants, iTunes and Shopping Read more:http://www.mydollarplan.com/gift-card-deals/#ixzz2DoX825q5 posted at My Dollar Plan. There are some great deals to be had on gift cards this holiday season. We have a list that will help you save on some great Christmas presents!

Glen presents Add Smart Credit Card Use to Your Holiday Shopping Plan posted at Credit Card Smarts. We tend to spend a lot during the holidays. Why not maximize those purcahses with some smart credit card use? See why you should use your card.

Other

Lance presents 2013 Standard Mileage Rates Announced by IRS posted at Money Life and More. The IRS has released the new standard mileage rates for 2013 that many companies use to reimburse you for business miles driven on your personal vehicles.

Jack presents Debt Collection Practices: Wage Garnishment posted at Money Saving Ethics. Learn more about wage garnishment.

Corey presents Average Tuition Increase Rates: Why High Projections are WRONG posted at 20s Finances. Statistics show tuition increased 4-7eac year in the past 10 years. While that is high, find out why it won’t continue at this rate.

Danielle presents Alternative Options in the Mortgage Market posted at Saving Without A Budget. Learn about other avenues to homeownership.

David presents What is a ghostwriter? at A Ghostwriters Blog. What is a ghostwriter? Can you afford one…or can you afford not to use one?

Don presents Are You Pretending To Be Rich? posted at MoneySmartGuides. You might be -pretending to be rich- if you do the following things that I write about in this article!

SFB presents The Lengths We Go To For Free Money: The $10 Survey posted at Simple Finance Blog. We’ve all seen the offers to take surveys for money but when one online survey took far too long, I questioned my motivations for the free money.

Sam presents The Do’s and Don’ts of Starting a Small Business posted at The New Business Blog. Start your plan for the best way to start a small business.

Jake Thompson presents Bank on Yourself posted at Becoming Your Own Bank. Why does bank on yourself sound too good to be true?

Daisy presents Spending Money Isn’t Bad posted at Add Vodka. Spending money gets a bad rap. Read why I don’t think spending money is a bad thing.

Ashley presents I Don’t Just Want a Nest Egg… I Want Nest Chickens posted at Money Talks Coaching. My husband grew up on his grandpa’s farm. From this experience we have several grandpa-isms in our house. One of them is I don’t count my eggs…

Suba presents My Daughter’s Fortune Gives Me Peace of Mind posted at Broke Professionals. A fortune cookie from a local Chinese restaurant had me praying for financial security for my children.

Emily presents How to Be an Exemplary Boomerang Kid posted at Evolving Personal Finance. Young adults moving back in with their parents should follow these suggestions to maintain a good relationship and meet their goals.

Invest It Wisely presents Consider All Your Options Before Relocating posted at Invest It Wisely. There are many factors involved with relocating to a new city that should be considered if you hope to avoid the negative impact of debt, isolation and depression.

Daniel presents How an Internship Abroad Helped Shape My Career Path posted at Sweating the Big Stuff. Most internships don’t have a profound effect on the future, but mine helped propel me to choose my future career and the way I think.

Kyle presents The Top 5 Things To Protect a Company’s Staff posted at The Penny Hoarder. In the wake of natural disasters that seem have hit the United States over the last few years, it is important for companies of all sizes to look at ways that they can protect their staff, as well as ensure continuity of their businesses. Here are the top five ways that every business can protect their staff.

Mike presents The Power of Becoming Aggressive and No Longer Waiting Around posted at The Financial Blogger. Why you need to become more bold to reach your goals.

GRAND FINALE

No party is complete without a marching band…

Zig Ziglar (1926-2012) Motivational Quotes

Zig Ziglar passed away yesterday.  He was perhaps the most effective motivational speaker of all time.  I recall a decade ago seeing him live.  He described his early days as a salesman: “I was not an overwhelming success. I was not even a whelming success. But I did sell a few things. I sold my car, I sold my TV.”

Of course, he eventually became a whelming success, and even became an overwhelming success. But only because he kept at it, inspired either by a dream or by a tight stomach. But he did not give up.

Along the way, he left us with some sound bites to ponder, probably the most famous of which is: “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

Zig Ziglar: "There are no traffic jams on the extra mile."

More Zig Ziglar Motivational Quotes

Here are a few more motivational quotes and snappy tidbits from Zig Ziglar. Which is your favourite? (I can’t decide between the tartar sauce and the traffic jam.)

“Remember that failure is an event, not a person.”

“Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs.”

“A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.”

“If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

“People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons.”

“Other people and things can stop you temporarily. You’re the only one who can do it permanently.”

“Optimists are those who go after Moby Dick in a row boat with a bucket of tarter sauce.”

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands.”

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”

“Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.”

“A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job.”

“If you go out looking for friends, you’re going to find they are very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”

“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”

“Every choice you make has an end result.”

“Kids go where there is excitement. They stay where there is love.”

“When we do more than we are paid to do, eventually we will be paid more for what we do.”

Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.”

“Money won’t make you happy… but everybody wants to find out for themselves.”

“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”

“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

“Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.”

Motivation gets you going and habit gets you there.”

“People who have good relationships at home are more effective in the marketplace.”

“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”

“Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.”

“Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”

“Motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.”

“Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they’re on the same side.”

“Money will buy you a bed, but not a good night’s sleep, a house but not a home, a companion but not a friend.”

Thus ends the string of memorable quotes, although this is but a small sampling. Zig Ziglar has left his legacy in sayings that will be repeated for ages to come.

A Walk in the Woods – saving money and getting fit

One thing about being a parent is the incredible array of expensive things children can ask to do, such as theme parks, go-carts, movies, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, etc.  But there are still plenty of old-fashioned freebies that don’t cost an entry fee plus a round of four-dollar drinks, such as the traditional walk in the wood.

If your child is like my 11-year-old…  “Let’s go!”

If your child is like my 9-year old, you might be tempted to give up before starting.  After all, what is the fun of walking in the woods to a rendition of “This is boring.  Why did we have to go?  I told you I didn’t want to.  You’re evil.”

However, there are several strategies I have used to make the boring walk in the woods fun enough that my 9-year-old ends up having the most fun of any of us.

  1. Play “follow the leader”. Start walking backwards.  Don’t say anything, just do it.  Your kids will ask what you are doing.  Just tell them to do the same.  “It’s fun, why don’t you try it?”  Then switch to sideways.  “Can you do this?”  Then leap like a frog.  Skip. Spin.  Before long, the kids are leading and you’ll have to follow.
  2. Count the leaves. You can tell how many types of trees there are by the different leaves on the trees, or on the ground in the fall (I wrote this before the snow covered up the ground here yesterday).  The more they can identify, the better.  If there are some they like, but can’t identify, bring them home to look it up.  Make it a contest, collecting one of each type of leaf and seeing which child collects the most different leaves.
  3. In the fall, count the colors. You will surely start off with just yellow, brown, green and maybe red.  But some of those reds are almost pink.  And some are brownish.  Challenge them to discover how many colors they can find.
  4. Tell ghost stories. What?  You think you need a campfire for that?  OK, then tell them stories about when you were their age.  Kids love to hear about how their parents were when they were young, at least until the teenage years.
  5. Sing. Ask each child in turn to lead the group in song.  Current hits, old classics, sing-along songs.  Whatever they like. Advanced tip: compose a song together, about walking through the forest.
  6. If there are birds around, bring some seeds. We occasionally “walk” in the local bird sanctuary where there are a fair number of chickadees.  I put “walk” in quotation marks because what we usually do most of is stand around with outstretched arms and open hands with seeds in them.  But apart from the minor cost of the seeds, it is a free activity, in the fresh air with some exercise and interaction with animals.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

So there are ways to make even a “boring” walk in the woods an exciting adventure that costs much less than a theme park or a movie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes, today is Thanksgiving for readers in the USA, and just as good a time as any for the rest of us to focus on giving thanks.

In fact, while Thanksgiving will be overshadowed for many Americans by tomorrow’s “Black Friday” shopping crush, the rest of us will be free to retain some of the peace and calm that Thanksgiving should bestow.

You can thank God if you believe or your lucky stars if you don’t. The important thing today is to thank.

If you spend as much time on the Internet as I do, you could be forgiven for thinking that we should be most grateful for iPhones and bacon.  Feel free to be thankful for these.  But surely there are more important things, better things, to be grateful for.

After some reflection, these boil down to three for me.  You will probably have a similar list, although not necessarily identical.

HEALTH: My eyesight is not what it used to be and my knees do hurt at times, but all in all I am quite healthy.  Since we come in this package called a body, there is little we do that is not greatly impacted by our health and fitness.  Some of that is within your control, some is not.  Give thanks for that part that you have been given, and do what you can to enhance it with sleep, exercise and proper food.

FAMILY: I know how lucky I am to have a loving family.  I know not everybody is so blessed.  Again, my blessings are a result of the chances I have been given, but also the result of actions I am constantly taking to enhance these gifts.  You need to work at love. You have to put others first. You have to build trust. To hold onto love you have been given, you have to love others. Like health, family is a gift that can be lost if neglected.  Which brings me to the third item, which I have a hard time articulating…

STRENGTH: I chose “strength”, although it might not be the most accurate word.  What I mean is the good and giving in me – strength to do what is right, patience with people around me (which is not always easy in the high stress of an active family), strength to love even when frustrated and feeling more like saying “Oh, yeah?!?”  If there is one thing I pray for the most, by far, it is this strength, this focus.  I wish I could say I always have it, but I don’t.  But I know how many times I find that strength that could just as well be absent, and I am deeply grateful for that gift.

I could also have added “freedom” to this list, thinking of so many people who live in repressive regimes or under the control of a repressive person.  Or “peace”, thinking of people living with the daily threat of bombs in the Israeli region.  My prayers go out to all those people, too.

But today, I have chosen more personal traits that I enjoy and appreciate in peace, but would need so much more if I was in a place of conflict or repression.

There are millions of little things to be grateful for, of course, and we should never pass a moment without being grateful for something.  Never flush the toilet without feeling gratitude that you have a flush toilet.  Never drink water without feeling gratitude that you have fresh, disease-free water to drink.  Never staple papers together without feeling the gratitude that you have this little convenience.

And what I said earlier about bacon and iPhones…go ahead an be thankful every time you use them. Gratitude is a pillar of happiness.

But today is a great time to look at the big picture.  To give thanks for the gifts you have that make you the wonderful person you are.

Apparently, FaceBook does not bring happiness after all – study

Thank you Carsten Grimm of the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) for your latest study on happiness.  Apparently, people like sex and booze (no surprise – we all have a little red demon on one shoulder) and volunteering and religion (no surprise – we all have a little white angel on the other shoulder).

 

Temptation - angel and devil
And apparently, they really hate being sick, doing housework and studying.  No surprise there either.  However…

Surprise!

…they also hate FaceBook and texting.  Yes, this is a surprise, because these are two activities that have become very popular, even ubiquitous.  In fact, this study counters a previous study by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business found that people were as addicted to checking FaceBook as they were to smoking or sex.

To measure happiness, researchers measured three aspects of each activity: pleasure, meaning and engagement, and found that sex ranked tops in all three aspects.

Alcohol and partying came second for pleasure but only 10th in for meaning.

Recovering from sickness was ranked lowest for pleasure (no surprise), but FaceBook beat it out for meaning.  Yes, FaceBook has less meaning for us than feeling sick.

Other studies are less encouraging

Nevertheless, there are still some worrying studies out there for those of us who feel that something as intimate as sex and relationships should have our full attention.

Like that survey from Gazelle.com that found four percent of people use their phones while having sex.  Which also found that over one in four iPhone owners “almost always” use their phone while in a social setting “such as during a meal or while at a party”.

Like the Storage Options study that found that half of all Brits check messages while pretending to listen to their partners.

Like the Vodaphone study that found that one in three Brits would answer their mobile phones during sex.

Like the Meredith Parents Network study that found that 12 percent of American moms use their phones during sex.  Since “81% of moms said shopping was the #1 way they use their Smartphone”, we can guess what is really on a woman’s mind in the heat of the moment.

Related post: Study says we should turn off the TV for happiness.

Related post: Americans happiest working, Europeans happiest playing

However, we now have at least one study that puts meaningful and intimate activities above the wireless umbilical cord.  That should be of some comfort, however small.  Here is a summary of the results.

 

What makes people happy