50% Off select Jim Rohn products! www.nightingale.com Increase Your Value! Philosopher, motivational counselor, business executive, and bestselling author Jim Rohn tell us how to increase our income by becoming more valuable.

…but thanks to you, we’re now a little prettier on the outside, too.

Wanted to thank you again for all of the notes and comments on our 2 design choices a couple of weeks back and hope you like the final product!

Coming up we will still have all the great content you’ve come to expect from us along with a new newsletter program and more…

So stay tuned…and ENJOY!!

Be well,

Erin

We hear quite frequently that it is possible to help maintain your memory by doing such things as work on crossword puzzles and fill in Sudoku grids. However, there are not a lot of college students doing the crossword in the paper. Instead, more and more, people are far more likely to be online, looking for amusement via the Internet.

The good news is that online games do not necessarily mean brain decay. Indeed, you could actually get a little help boosting your brain power for your university assignments with a little help from the casual games you play online and via Facebook. Recent studies suggest that casual games can actually make you smarter.

A recent study from East Carolina University suggests that casual games could actually enhance your cognitive ability. The study was presented at the Games for Health Conference, held in Boston. After six months, researchers came to the conclusion that casual games were actually helping to increase the smarts of participants. If you want to boost your brain power, here are 10 casual web and facebook games you can play:

1. Bejeweled Blitz: This fun Facebook game is a favorite for many. The idea is to line up jewels, swapping them to make patterns. If you line up three, you get points, and you get even more for lining up four and five in a row. When the jewels are lined up, they disappear, and jewels above fall into the vacated slots, and can make new rows. The real trick is that you have to see how many points you can get in one minute. On Facebook, you can share your scores with your friends, and even have friendly competitions. The game requires you to think quickly, and engage in problem solving. A great game for improving your thought reflexes.
2. Snood: “Fire” blocks adorned with different faces and attempt to make groups of three or more. With Snood, when you hit a face with a matching face, everything that’s touching it disappears, meaning that you can clear out quite a few Snoods in one go. Snoods build up on the bottom, so you have to be careful to make sure that you are clearing them out. Otherwise, you end losing as the wall falls lower. Progressive levels make it more difficult, and the wall lowers faster. Engages problem solving skills and requires analytical thinking. As it progresses, you also need to be able to think faster and faster.
3. Minesweeper: A time sucking classic, Minesweeper requires that you carefully problem solve to avoid hitting a mine and being blown up. Your first couple of moves are always a crap shoot, but once you get beyond that, reasoning skills are needed. You uncover a number on a grid, which tells you how many mines there are surrounding touching that particular square. You have to figure out where the mines are not, and click on those, eventually clearing the area without clicking on a mine. It’s nice to know that this time waster has value for your brain, helping you make significant improvements to your deductive powers.
4. Word Challenge: If you are a wordsmith, you can boost your brain power with help from this fun Facebook game. The object of the game is to see how many words of three or more letters you can form using the letters provided. You get bonus points for using all the letters. You can play against your friends, and compare scores. Includes fun bonus round opportunities to allow you to guess friends names (and see their pictures). A great way to spend some time brushing up on your word skills. Requires fast thinking, creative thinking, and an ability to recognize words. A great way to improve your vocabulary, since you can see the meanings of words you do not know.
5. Blocks With Letters On: A fun anagram puzzle, designed to challenge your ability to make words, and solve problems. select a letter, and then move it to the left or the right. You can’t just drop it in place, though. You have to think about what order to use when creating the word from the give letters. There is a lot of sliding as you work to position the letters so that you can slide them into place to make a word. This game require you to think ahead, and solve problems. On top of that, you need to be able to unscramble the letters to make a word. A fascinating puzzle that can help you increase your thinking ability.
6. Tetris: Another classic favorite, Tetris can actually help you improve your brain. Tetris is one of the most popular casual games out there, an arcade style game that has provided entertainment for years. Now you can play it online. It is possible to play for free. The idea is to adjust shapes so that they fit together to complete rows. You can see what’s next, so it helps you figure out how to place things most efficiently. A great game for problem solving, spatial recognition, geometry skills and thinking ahead. Also, since the falling bricks speed up, it helps to be able to think fast as the game progresses.
7. Factory Balls: With factory balls, you are problem solving in a major way. A box appears, with a picture of the type of ball you need to make. There are pictures of different actions, and you drag the ball to the action, transforming it. Sometimes you need to complete multiple actions in order to properly get the ball to look like it should. Once you have completed your task, and the ball is properly transformed, it goes into the box and you get a new ball to change. Try to empty out your supply of balls as quickly as possible, changing them with precision and skill.
8. Space Invaders: Blow up nasty aliens in order to save Earth — and get a little brain boost. You get points for shooting certain aliens, and for shooting their ships. But you have to be able to avoid getting shot yourself. If you are worried, you can hide beneath barricades, but once they are destroyed, you are out of places to hide. And, of course, you can’t hit any of the invaders if you are hiding behind a barricade. Work quickly to get all the invaders before they get you. A classic game that is simple, yet forces you to think faster as the invaders speed up.
9. Pickies: Build these cute little guys by joining four different parts, with matching colors. You can use bombs to remove parts you do not want. You get extra points for getting more of the same colors. You only have a limited time, though since once the jars with the parts in them reach the top, you are done. Keep making the little guys, until you can’t make any more. A fun one for all ages, it is a good game for kids to play as well. This game requires puzzle solving skills and some creativity. A fun way to challenge your brain, and get a little smarter.
10. Perfect Balance: Stack different shapes on top of each other so that they balance. You can change their position. The idea is to get all of the shapes to remain on the screen, without falling off. The “Harmony” trial includes soothing music, meant to be relaxing. Just listening to the music, and meditating, can help you improve your ability to learn. But, when you stack the objects, you are exercising problem solving skills, since you can decide which order you stack them in. A great game that requires some serious thought.

This post is written by Miranda for The Knowledge MavenTop.

While you are yet mastering the art of strategic business management, allow me to share some ideas on how to survive the stressful yet exciting and challenging world of business.

Determine who your market is. Most management gurus recommend the identification of your target customers before you get on with all the other plans and preparations necessary. Reversing the process would not be beneficial for you especially when you are yet starting to build your business. Know that the vital element towards succeeding in your chosen entrepreneurial field is the identification of who the market is. This allows you to foresee which products or services would best be needed and availed of by your prospective customers.

If you are going to battle it out against a vast number of competitors, you have to make sure that you know what you’re going into. Think of business as some sort of role-playing game. You get to pick which battles you want to be in and you get to choose which battlefield you want to fight in. So, if you are to emerge victorious, you need to make sure you always make the right choices.

Secure proof of your market value. This is one of the basics in *business growth strategies. It can be the most tedious thing you’ll ever have to do but it sure would help you attract more customers and even potential investors. Here are a couple of stuff you can do:

- Get product testers or quality analysts to make sure that the highest standards are being upholded.

- Try getting the press to cover your business. Minimal features can be significant infomercials for your enterprise.

- Gather testimonials. While it is oftentimes difficult to solicit these from your customers (remember: most of them would think they have better things to do than scribbling notes on what they think about your company), testimonials are not impossible to get. However, you have to remember that these can only be obtained by making sure that you exceed your client’s expectations when it comes to the products and the services that you offer. If you are able to do this, it wouldn’t hard for you to get that positive review you need.

Note: Thank you for reading the second installment of my personal development series. As you may have noticed, this write-up has not been concluded yet. Watch out for the continuation of this article tomorrow. Ciao!

For those great visitors who are reading loads of my content, i just thought i would explain this post, it is just standard and best practice to have your website terms and conditions on your website for your users, I would like to do things as properly as possible and therefore I wanted to add this to my website and it would be good practice for you to place one on your website as well.

I just thought i would warn you since this probably isn’t your typical post on internet marketing, comedy, personal development etc.

Okay non legal stuff over

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The person that did this video did a great job, have to say i really liked it- anyhow here it is
Les Brown with his – You gotta be hungry speech – the remix
Enjoy

You never hear many people walking around complaining they have too much time! well at least not in the working environment!

So in an effort to help you solve one of the most complained about phenomena known to mankind – here is a lecture given by the late Randy Pausch on the subject of time management.

Very funny, very motivating and a great speaker!

Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar is by far one of the most famous and recognizable names in personal development.

In this video Zig Ziglar uses the example of a pump to demonstrate how most people live their lives, and how we get out of life what we put in, not the other way around!

To get what you want out of life as Zig Ziglar says you have to “Prime the pump”

Abuse of Street drugs and powerful prescription drugs has been all over headlines, reportedly creating mental and physical repercussions which millions around the world have discovered can be avoided through the principles contained in L. Ron Hubbard’s best-selling self-help book Dianetics.

Released 59 years ago Dianetics uncovers the single source of psychosomatic ills, depression, stress, self-doubt and instability which not only leads to the overuse of powerful mind-altering anti-depressants, but also street drugs – both just cloud the underlying situation itself and destroy lives and darken personalities.

Dianetics does exactly the opposite as written by L. Ron Hubbard in 1950 — “It [Dianetics] produces a condition of ability and rationality for man well in advance of the current norm, enhancing rather than destroying his vigor and personality.”

By using the techniques in the book, you can find out what is controlling your life. The book provides more than just a “mere explanation” of the things which ruin a person’s life. It provides simple techniques to handle the single source of one’s fears, anxieties and stresses, and so provides a solution in overcoming personal problems that are often met with a prescription for a pill or the consumption of a street drug.

Authored by L. Ron Hubbard, who has 19 New York Times Bestsellers, 230 million works sold across 150 countries of earth. Mr. Hubbard is also 3-time Guinness Book of World Records holder of the most published works by a single author, most audio book titles on Earth and most translated author. For more information on Dianetics visit www.Dianetics.org, and for and overview on the life and works of L. Ron Hubbard visit www.lronhubbard.org.

Louis Steiner is a freelance author in the field of mental health.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/bestselling-self-help-book-uncovers-factors-prompting-drug-abuse-1160710.html

“I am successful,” “I am a wonderful person,” “I will find love again,” and many other similar phrases that students, the broken-hearted and unfulfilled employees may repeat to themselves over and over again, hoping to change their lives. Self-help books through the ages, from Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking all the way to the latest, The Secret, have encouraged people with low self-esteem to make positive self-statements or affirmations.

New research suggests it may do more harm than good to many people.

Canadian researcher, Dr. Joanne Wood at the University of Waterloo and her colleagues at the University of New Brunswick who have recently published their research in the Journal of Psychological Science, concluded “repeating positive self-statements may benefit certain people, such as individuals with high self-esteem, but backfire for the very people who need them the most.”

The researchers asked people with and low self-esteem to say “I am a lovable person.” They then measured the participants’ moods and their feelings about themselves. The low-esteem group felt worse afterwards compared with others who did not. However, people with high self-esteem felt better after repeating the positive affirmation–but only slightly. The psychologists then asked the participants to list negative and positive thoughts about themselves. They found, paradoxically, those with low self-esteem were in a better mood when they were allowed to have negative thoughts than when they were asked to focus exclusively on affirmative thoughts.

The researchers suggest that, like overly positive praise, unreasonably positive self-statements, such as “I accept myself completely” can provoke contradictory thoughts in individuals in individuals with low self-esteem. When positive self-statements strong conflict with self-perception, the researchers argue, there is not mere resistance but a reinforcing of self-perception. People who view themselves as unlovable, for example, find that saying that are so unbelievable that it strengthens their own negative view rather than reversing it.

These findings were supported by previous research published in 1994 in the Journal of Social Psychology, showing that when people get feedback that they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better.

Dr. Wood goes even further. In her Psychology Today blog, she says that most self-help books advocating positive affirmations may be based on good intentions or personal experience, but they are rarely based on even one iota of scientific evidence. She cites psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The How of Happiness as an exception.

Does that mean positive affirmations are of absolutely no value. Not according to Dr. Wood and her co-researchers. They say they positive affirmations can help when they are part of a broader program of intervention. That intervention can take place in a number of forms such as cognitive psychotherapy or working with a coach who has expertise in the behavioral sciences.
What kind of intervention is best to use to make positive affirmations most effective?

That’s where we encounter even more controversy.

Traditional cognitive psychotherapy may not be the best intervention according to Dr. Steven Hayes, a renowned psychotherapist, and author of Getting Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life. Hayes has been setting the world of psychotherapy on its ear by advocating a totally different approach.

In an article in Time magazine, John Cloud describes Hayes’ work. Hayes and researchers Marsha Linehan and Robert Kohlenberg at the University of Washington, and Zindel Segal at the University of Toronto, what we could call “Third Wave Psychologists” are focusing less on how to manipulate the content of our thoughts (a focus on cognitive psychotherapy) and more on how to change their context–to modify the way we see thoughts and feelings so they can’t control our behavior. Whereas cognitive therapists speak of “cognitive errors” and “distorted interpretation,” Hayes and his colleagues encourage mindfulness, the meditation-inspired practice of observing thoughts without getting entangled by them–imagine the thoughts being a leaf or canoe floating down the stream.

These Third Wave Psychologists would argue that trying to correct negative thoughts can paradoxically actually intensify them. As NLP trained coaches would say, telling someone to “not think about a blue tree,” actually focuses their mind on a blue tree. The Third Wave Psychologists methodology is called ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), which says that we should acknowledge that negative thoughts recur throughout our life and instead of challenging or fighting with them, we should concentrate on identifying and committing to our values in life. Hayes would argue that once we are willing to feel our negative emotions, we’ll find it easier to commit ourselves to what we want in life.

This approach may come as a surprise to many, because the traditional cognitive model permeates our culture and the media as reflected in the Dr. Phil show. The essence of the conflict between traditional cognitive psychologists and psychotherapists is to engage in a process of analyzing your way out your problems, or the Third Wave approach which says, accept that you have negative beliefs, thinking and problems and focus on what you want. Third Wave psychologists acknowledge that we have pain, but rather than trying to push it away, they say trying to push it away or deny it just gives it more energy and strength.

Third Wave Psychologists focus on acceptance and commitment comes with a variety of strategies to help people including such things as writing your epitaph (what’s going to be your legacy), clarifying your values and committing your behavior to them.

It’s interesting that that The Third Wave Psychologists approach comes along at a time when more and more people are looking for answer outside of the traditional medical model (which psychiatry and traditional psychotherapy represent). Just look at a 2002 study in Prevention and Treatment, which found that 80% people tested who took the six most popular antidepressants of the 1990′s got the same results when they took a sugar pill placebo.

The Third Wave Psychologists approaches are very consistent with much of the training and approach that many life coaches receive, inclusive of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and many spiritual approaches to behavioral changes reflected in ancient Buddhist teachings and the more modern version exemplified by Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now). The focus of those approaches reinforces the concepts of acceptance of negative emotions and thoughts, and rather than giving them energy and fighting with them, focus on mindfulness, and a commitment to an alignment of values and behavior.

So what can we learn from all this? Two things–first, just engaging in positive affirmations by themselves, can do harm to people with low self-esteem, and provide only little benefit for those with high-esteem, if those affirmations are not part of a comprehensive program of self-growth, preferably with a knowledgeable professional; and second, the traditional cognitive psychotherapeutic approach at trying to change people’s negative thinking through logical processes may actually be counterproductive, compared to an approach that has people accept their thoughts, not resist them and give more energy to them by thinking about them, but rather engage in positive behaviors and thinking.

On the next post, I’ll be interviewing Stephanie Frank, President of Success IQ University, a Master NLP Coach and Certified Hypnotherapist, who has worked with hundreds of individuals practicing the concepts and ideas in this blog, and achieved huge success with her clients. She’ll tell us how.

Ray Williams is Co-Founder of Success IQ University and President of Ray Williams Associates, companies based in Phoenix and Vancouver, providing leadership development, personal growth and executive coaching services and products.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/why-dont-i-feel-better-the-truth-about-positive-affirmations-and-selfhelp-books-1157017.html