There is more to life than increasing its speed. – Mohandas Gandhi
Archives for July 2011
Hay Fever Season is Here!
The following is a sponsored guest post:
The spring and summer months can cause havoc with your eyes and we are no strangers to streaming, itchy peepers that cause us much pain during the warmer months. These symptoms can be even more of a nuisance if you wear contact lenses. We look at simple ways to help combat the signs of hay fever and how to protect your eyes.
Firstly, if you live in the city, pollution will also cause irritation to your eyes if they are already feeling the effects of hay fever. During these months it might be an idea to stick to wearing glasses and prescription sunglasses are a must.
Use eye drops to keep itchy eyes at bay and seek prescription hay fever medication if over-the-counter remedies do not appear to be eliminating your symptoms. Eye drops will help keep the eyes moist, as dryness can be very uncomfortable. Taking a daily hay fever tablet may help keep itchy, runny eyes at bay while taking care of other irritants such as the runny nose and sneezing that many sufferers experience.
To avoid further irritation it is advisable not to sunbathe in contact lenses. Steroid eye drops can be prescribed in severe cases of hay fever but it is widely thought that these are too extreme for our delicate eyes and should be avoided if possible.
Try and avoid the outdoors during periods of high pollination and give yourself a cold-water eye bath whenever you can, this will work wonders for keeping dryness and itchiness at bay. The main point as always when it comes to eyes is not to scratch them. This will only irritate the condition more.
Letting hay fever get you down can ruin your summertime, so try and apply as many of these tips to your daily eye care routine as possible. For some, hay fever will always be a problem but learning how to manage it better is key.
If you need contact lenses, visit www.getlenses.co.uk.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Quote About Doing the Right Thing
Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Making a Speech
The Number 1 Question You Should be Asking Yourself
In the self help and self growth field, we ask a lot of questions. The reason, of course, is that any sort of growth involves seeing where you are now. REALLY seeing. There’s just no way to get THERE from HERE unless we know where HERE is. Two of my daughters (Emily and Stephany) and I recently went hiking. The trails winded through beautiful woods, with several swinging bridges over creeks. A few times we sort of misplaced ourselves on the winding trails. We had taken so many turns, backtracking wasn’t an option.
Just as we were beginning to get a little flustered, we found a huge mounted map – like the ones in malls. As we positioned our tired, sweaty bodies in front of the map, we all said, in unison, “Okay, where are we?” Complete with the Okay at the first. My girls didn’t fall far from the tree.
How effective would these maps be if they didn’t have the YOU ARE HERE point of reference? Can you say useless?
When it comes to self growth or improvement of any type, the questions bring us to a point of reference. Basically, they tell us… “You are here!”
Some of the most popular questions we are supposed to ask ourselves are:
- How do I spend my time?
- Do I spend my time wisely?
- Are most of my thoughts positive thoughts or negative thoughts?
- How do I react when things go wrong?
- How much exercise do I get a day?
- Do I eat enough fruit and vegetables?
- etc etc etc
However, a question that I, personally, believe is one of the most important questions is one that’s seldom asked. The answers to this question could make all the difference in the world. That question is: What influences you?
Influence. verb (used with object) <——- Guess who’s the object?!?!
1. to exercise influence on; affect; sway: to influence a person.
2. to move or impel (a person) to some action.
If you take only one thing away from this article, I want it to be this:
- Everything you do influences you
- Everyone you “hang out with,” influences you
- Everything you read influences you
- Every song you listen to influences you
- Every book you read influences you
You know, Influence, as in AFFECT, SWAY, MOVE, IMPEL….
Sometimes the Influence isn’t immediate. Take commercials. We can see a commercial, sometimes 8 or 9 times, before we decide we HAVE to HAVE what’s being shown. Take the new Taco Bell commercial. I’d seen this commercial (for a huge burrito… because everything’s bigger in America) probably about 8 times before it hit me a few nights ago, “I want that!!!” Fortunately, I have the sweetest hubby in the world and he went and got one for us to split. (Delicious by the way.) The commercials influenced me – they subtly swayed me, causing me to make my move.
It’s this sort of thing that makes parents panic when their kids hang out with the wrong kind of friends. Their son or daughter promises that they would never do the things their friend does, and maybe they wouldn’t for the first 8 or 9 weeks or months – but after a steady influential diet, the parent knows all too well that they can be subtly swayed, causing them to make their move – in a wrong direction. We are influenced by the people we spend the most time with.
Of course, the scenario isn’t just for kids. Adults are influenced by those they hang around with as well. If one individual is a real go-getter and has high aspirations and goals in life, hanging around people with similar mindsets will spur him or her along. When that much positive energy shares a room, it’s electrifying! However, if one of these firecrackers continually hangs out with someone with zero ambition or aspirations, it won’t be long before they’re dragged down to their level.
It is what it is. We are greatly influenced by those around us – for better or worse.
But it doesn’t just stop there. We’re also influenced by the books we read, the television shows we watch, the websites we visit, and even the music we listen to. Swayed, moved, impelled…
Picture a swimming pool for a minute. It’s a hot July day and you’re going for a swim (yay, you). When you first step in, it feels like ice water! You pinch up your face and hope no one notices your teeth chattering. Ten minutes later, the water that once felt like ice now feels like Heaven poured into a cement hole. No pinched face. No teeth chattering.
The water didn’t change. Your body acclimated to the conditions. Your body adapted and conformed to fit more comfortably into the situation. Now tell me it doesn’t really matter who you spend the most time with.
If you’re skeptical about the assertion that music, websites, and television shows influence people, think about it for a minute. These things influence fads, fashions, and even the way we talk. They’re just done subtly. Now you know I love a lot of television shows, and several of my favorite ones are “reality shows” (Survivor, Amazing Race, Biggest Loser). However, I don’t have a problem with saying that many reality shows are influencing society in negative ways.
For one thing, everyone’s always mad and yelling on most of them! Grown women screaming, pulling hair, and turning over tables. If an individual gives themselves a steady diet of this ridiculousness, there’s no way they can keep from being influenced… even if the influence is slight. One reality show…. one single reality show… set off the entire FAKE BAKE fad! A tv show.
If you’re really serious about self improvement, enlightenment, and growth, I urge you to ask yourself, “What things influence me?” (The answer is simply the things you spend time with or doing.) Then sit down with these influences – each of them. Gather them around the table with you:
- the books and magazines you read
- the music you listen to (and can I just wax old fashioned here for a minute and ask if anyone’s capable of making songs that don’t involve alcohol,sex, or drugs?)
- the websites you visit
- the e-mail you read
- the games you play
- the hobbies you enjoy
- the places you go
- the people you spend time with
- your most frequent thoughts – the ones on repeat cycle
Now put each one under interrogation:
- Are YOU helping me get where I want to go?
- Are YOU making me a better person?
- What have you done for me lately?
One final thought: If anything isn’t moving you TOWARD becoming the person you want to be and having the life you want, it’s taking you FURTHER AWAY. Choose your influences wisely, they’ll leave a lasting mark.
Why You Have to Buy the August Issue of SUCCESS
The newest issue of SUCCESS is, as always, outstanding. It’s one of those rare things in life that exceeds your expectations every time out of the gate.
Good on them.
I always love the articles (literally authored by some of the most successful men and women on or off the planet) and the Free CD that comes inside each issue is greatly enjoyed. More than once, I might add. I love listening to the motivation, information, and inspiration as I’m doing whatever it is I’m doing at the time (cooking, driving, sitting in the yard…).
Options:
- listen to music that gets me nowhere
- listen to the sound of my own thoughts (which I often do, actually)
- listen to motivating men and women as they share very moving stories, lessons, and experiences
You could say it’s a no-brainer.
In the August 2011 issue, one of the stories on the CD is the moving story of Louis Zamperini. What has Mr. Zamperini done that’s so motivating and inspiring? What sort of story does he have to tell? Only this: He survived being lost at sea, endured torture that would have destroyed lesser men, and came out a stronger person. His is a fascinating story, but it’s nowhere near as fascinating as the man, himself. Honestly, if the only thing this issue of SUCCESS had was the article on Louis Zamperini, it’s still be worth five times the cover price.
Here’s the opening paragraph. You tell me:
Adrift upon the face of an endless Pacific, Louis Zamperini and his pilot clung to the tatters of a life raft as days blurred together in relentless hallucination. Sun and salt water transformed their skin into a crust of sores and fissures. Sporadic rainsqualls dropped just enough water for occasional sips while birds and small sharks they caught bare-handed provided meager sustenance. – “The Indomitable Man” by Tom Horn – SUCCESS August 2011, page 16
Okay, so we’ve established that the issue is MORE than worth it already. But, as is the case with SUCCESS, there’s always much more.
One of my favorite motivational, self growth, and positive thinking authors is Jeffrey Gitomer. I can, literally, read a quote from one of his books and feel half convinced I can rule the country. Orison Swett Marden is another absolute favorite. When I spend any amount of time reading Mr. Marden’s words, I’m asking myself, “Why should I stop with just the country when there’s a whole world out there.”
I’ve always wondered why Orison Swett Marden doesn’t get the same attention as other great men such as Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. I’ve never come up with the answer to that one. Maybe it’s the name.
At any rate, the article by Jeffrey Gitomer (“Orison Swett Marden: An Original Thinker”) is outstanding.
An excerpt? “Born in 1850, Orison Swett Marden was placed in the guardianship of a neighbor, who bound out the child to families who needed an extra farmhand. Life was extremely cruel, as he suffered whippings at the slightest provocation, near starvation, and subfreezing temperatures wearing threadbare clothes during harsh New Hampshire winters…. Persuading his guardian to allow him to attend school, he worked and paid for his education, liberating himself from his difficult youth. He ultimately earned degrees in oratory, business, law, and medicine. He became an entrepreneur, and in the late 1880s he founded SUCCESS Magazine.” – Jeffrey Gitomer, SUCCESS Magazine August 2011, page 41
After reading the article, my admiration for Orison Swett Marden only grew.
My third favorite article in this issue won’t come as a surprise to anyone. You don’t have to spend much time on Self Help Daily to see my fascination with and love for animals. My eyes lit up when I saw an article about the amazing Jane Goodall. It’s also a great, great read and leaves you realizing what a marvel and force of nature Jane Goodall is.
I hope you’ll grab the August issue of SUCCESS and see why I’m so excited about it. Better yet, grab this issue, then subscribe to the magazine so you won’t miss any of the rest. Orison Swett Marden would be extremely proud of the exceptional publication (and website!) his dream has grown into. It can be thought of as his most impressive lesson and legacy. A young boy without any advantages or encouragement learned early in life that he if he were going to outgrow his circumstances, he had to shake up his world. He didn’t waste time feeling sorry for himself, he didn’t bother with blaming others, and there’s no indication he harbored bitterness or anger.
No chips on his shoulders, they were too busy working!
Orison Swett Marden had a dream… what would, to many, seem like an improbable dream. He made his dream come true and his name, his books, and his magazine (a true SUCCESS) still touch people today and will continue to do so for countless years to come.
“All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.” – Orison Swett Marden