The Blarney Stone is a historical stone, or actually part of the Blarney Castle in Ireland where it was believed that kissing the stone can grant you the gift of gab. Yeah, it seems strange in this day and age, but who are we to question tradition? It’s not like I’m saying that Santa Claus doesn’t exist (OOPS!).

There is so much to know about conversation that anyone, even I, could ever realize. You can go though watching talk shows; radio programs; clubs dedicated to public speaking; ordinary conversations; certain rules still apply when it comes to interaction through words. It may sound tedious, I know, but even though it’s your mouth that’s doing the work, your brain works twice as hard to churn out a lot of things you know. So what better way to start learning to be an effective communication is to know the very person closest to you: yourself.

1. What you know.
Education is all about learning the basics, but to be an effective speaker is to practice what you’ve learned. My stint as guest at every Toastmasters’ meeting I go to taught me that we all have our limitations, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to keep up and share what we know. (more…)

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What is a successful stay at home mom you might ask? I know when I tell friends that I feel like I am a SUCCESSFUL stay at home mom they question me with things like “HOW can you be successful if all you do is stay at home?” Well, my reply is usually something along the lines of “My children are happy, my family is strong, my house is clean, I’m organized and overall I have no worries.” If you are going to do something in life, do the best you can, right?

As a child I remember writing essays on “What I want to be when I grow up”. I’d often answer housewife because I thought it would be amazing to sit at home and do nothing all day. As an adult I have been able to be a stay at home mom and I do love it. The first few years were stressful, tiresome and so unorganized that I just didn’t think it was for me. It wasn’t that dream life I had often thought of as a child! After I had my second baby I found the key to success as a stay at home mom. (more…)

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I tend to keep lists in my head - I have to force myself to get them on paper, which is why I’ve fallen in love with all things Moleskine. When these lists start to build up, they cause a cloud in my head that not only is unproductive, but kills all hope of the good things and ideas on the list of ever being realized.

Quite a while ago I found a few things that can affect you so much, but are so basic, you may be missing them without even knowing it. I’ll mention a few here and will expand on them in later posts.

1.) HYDRATION

This might seem ridiculous, but did you know that 75% of the population is severely dehydrated at any given time? Chances are, this includes you. I know for a fact that it included me everyday - and still does include me sometimes.

First lets address why this is important. L. Lee Coyne, Ph.D., a well known nutritional consultant said, “nearly all the bio-chemical reactions that occur in body cells depend on water…[water is] vital to maintaining life but also affects physical and mental performance.” So, we can safely say that how your (more…)

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Codependency usually comes about as your response to another person’s chemical dependency. It revolves around your relationships with the people in your life. It involves the effects these people have on you. You, in turn, then try to affect them and their behaviors. As you begin to see them spiraling out of control, you end up trying to control their behavior.

The soul of codependency lays in you, though, not the other person. It is a silent war you begin within yourself. Usually it develops from low self-esteem. The codependent person does not feel worthy. It is a dysfunctional relationship with the self. Because you live a dysfunctional relationship internally it manifests externally to others. You don’t love yourself and you don’t trust yourself either. You tend to be out of balance and out of harmony. You may feel disconnected. You tend to live life in a reactor mode and give your power over to outside sources.

Chemical dependency is recognized as a disease. Codependency may not be recognized in the same means, but it can make you sick and will not help you or your (more…)

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Retirement is something that most people look forward to. The chance to take a break, to have all the time for yourself, to enjoy life after many years of hard work is indeed a very inviting prospect. However, financial instability makes the future of retirement a little bleak.

The Bleak Reality of Retirement

For many retirees, having an investment and savings can make a big difference when retirement arrives. In fact, recent surveys show that retirees today are only counting on their personal savings for support. Although the government gives Social Security, not all companies or employers provide traditional pensions for their employees. According to the Boston College Center for Retirement Research, in 2003 there were only 19% of workers who have traditional pensions to support them. This percentage continues to decline as more and more employers cut back pension plans for their employees.

Faced with this reality, it is clearly important to make the necessary preparations early in life to have reliable personal savings in the future. Investing in insurance, dividend-paying (more…)

Popularity: 100% [?]

A great writer, perhaps Thoreau, once said that many people were ‘living lives of quiet desperation’. If only it were that simple! His familiar saying implies that some people, perhaps a lot of them, are unhappy with the way their lives are now and want to change things for the better. I think it’s worse than that. While they may look in the mirror and don’t like what they see; while they may get up in the morning and don’t like the work they have to go to; while they see rich and successful people on their TV, in their newspapers, and in magazines; they don’t just feel unhappy and unfulfilled. They also console themselves with daydreams about how they could be there too, out there, where they want to be.

What’s wrong with that? Only one thing. It means you’re leading a ‘double life’. Just as ‘mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent’ was the alter ego of Superman, so there are plenty of other ’secret identities’, in every office, every factory, every workplace. While they may seem harmless enough, and are going about their daily lives in a humdrum way, you might just catch them once in a while, staring out of the window and dreaming of how things could be, given – well, whatever you think is going to save you, a win on the Lottery perhaps, or just ‘being ‘discovered’ by that talent scout, the photographer, that agent, whatever. Eric Berne, the man who invented ‘Games People Play’ back in the ’60s, called it ‘Waiting for Santa Claus’, and you can see what he means. There you are, where you don’t want to be, hoping against hope that one day you’ll be ‘rescued’ and off you go, to a new and (more…)

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The personal Challenge of starting each day with a cheerful good morning is something we should all take seriously. It is easy to pass up, because it seems so simple. Often we think dramatic change must require dramatic effort. Not so. This simple step can change your life in more ways than you can imagine.

Let’s start with the basic scientific principle like attracts like. Let me share this with you in a few different perspectives.

Have you noticed that people who complain about bills and debt — seem to become more in debt?

Have you noticed that people who complain and are negative — tend to have more negative things happen to them than their non-complaining counterparts?

Have you ever noticed that people who have seemingly boundless energy and optimism have something new and wonderful to report almost every (more…)

Popularity: 46% [?]

Many of us, whether we know it or not, live within a prison of our own making. This prison has no metal bars, nor can its walls be seen by the naked eye; however, it is every bit as effective in keeping us from our freedom as a real prison cell. It’s called our comfort zone

Comfort zones can take on a variety of different forms, from the area in which you live and the circle of people with whom you socialise, to the amount of money you earn.

The primary force that keeps you living within your zone is your fear-based belief about what will happen if you move outside it.

Regardless of how ridiculous or unrealistic that belief may be, you will accept it as truth depending on the level of certainty you feel.

Your comfort zone is not really comfortable at all, but is really a virtual prison that keeps you from evolving and growing as a human being. (more…)

Popularity: 49% [?]