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Blog Carnival of Personal Power April 6, 2008

By Pinkblocks

It’s Blog Carnival again. This Carnival encourages articles by bloggers that deal with the development of our self/personality/inner being or whatever you like to call it. Making the right investment decision or how to be careful when using a credit card doesn’t really fit this topic.

We start with Rebecca Huff who poses the question: Do you ever let the urgent take over the important in daily life? Take back control with four simple steps. Rebecca Huff presents Mama Huff’s Blog » Urgent vs Important posted at Mama Huff’s Blog.

Rolf F Katzenberger asks: Do you need a Personal Mission Statement? What for? If you do it well, the statement will give you orientation, identity, decision support and sound relationships. It takes only 3 steps. Rolf F. Katzenberger presents 3 steps to your Personal Mission Statement posted at Evomend | Timeless resources for personal organization..

John DeWitt presents Aware Energy posted at THE JOHN DEWITT BLOG.

Hypnosis has been given many false pretenses through the media, movies and just plain rumor. Hypnosis is not the ability to have complete domination over one’s mind, nor is it domination over another human being. Covert Hypnotist presents What Hypnosis is NOT! posted at Conversational & Covert Hypnosis Blog.

Ben Hamilton presents We Are Atlas posted at Ben Talks….

ioventuresinc.com presents Increasing Performance Through Motivation posted at Teamwork.

Amy. S. Quinn presents Redesign Productivity: 50 Ways to Create a Motivational Workspace posted at Bootstrapper.

SJ Yee offers a detailed summary of the key concepts in the time management lecture by Randy Pausch… You can skim through it to get the points you need… SJ Yee presents Time Management for Lazy People posted at Personal Development for the Book Smart.

James Feudo says we all want to achieve greater heights of success, but sometimes we let obstacles get in our way. A common example of this is trying to get leadership experience when we don’t have a formal role in our job. This post lists some ways to overcome this obstacle. James Feudo presents Leadership – How to get experience posted at Overnight Sensation.

Raymond Le Blanc presents Successful Goal Setting in 7 Easy Steps posted at Time Management & Goal Setting.

GreatManagement states that: I totally believe if you want to improve a certain skill then you should model yourself on someone who already has had success in that skill. GreatManagement presents On Leadership by Allan Leighton posted at The GreatManagement Blog.

Scott Lee presents The Power of Assertion posted at Scott Free Thinking.

David B Bohl requests you take a look around America and you’ll find that we’re an image-obsessed society. It seems that too many people will stop at nothing in order to maintain a pristine self-image. But what happens to the rest of us, who have a strong desire for authentic, honest living? David B. Bohl presents Are You For Real? posted at Slow Down Fast Today!.

Frederic Premji offers an insightful article about what causes us not to do what we should be doing. Frederic Premji presents Why Don’t I Do What I Know I Should Do? posted at BlogMotivation.com.

Al Betz is the author of “Polishing the Pearl.” He also has a list of 52 things that lead to “outfluencing.” He has been a successful business owner for nearly 40 years. We all influence people through our silent communication signals. We hope you enjoy this article. Vee presents A Dose of Outfluence Keeps Stress at Bay posted at Polishing the Pearl Blog.

Shamelle presents It Doesn’t Cost Much To Consult With God posted at Enhance Life.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Misspent Youth? posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

Louise Pool presents island wench: Find Your Life Purpose in under One Hour posted at Island Wench.

Anmol Mehta presents Free Online Meditation & Yoga Classes posted at Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment and Kundalini Yoga.

CG Walters writes that gratitude is an act of internal focus, not external. In order to complete the spiritual process of a blessing experienced, it is not someone outside of myself that I need to offer acknowledgement to, but to my own spirit. CG Walters presents In Gratitude, You Accept Yourself and Are Doubly Blessed posted at Into the Mist.

Steven Vannoy and Craig Ross presents Can You Be Bought? posted at Vannoy & Ross.

Carter asks why we complain. Carter presents Why Do You Complain? posted at Success Factors - SuperSonicSuccess.

Mark Riffey presents Be the Google of your market niche posted at Business is Personal.

To quote Leonardo da Vinci “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” GP presents Present Simplicity posted at Innstyle Montana- Come on Inn.

Prejudice! James DeLelys presents healingthroughwords.com » PARABLES posted at Author James DeLelys.

Robert Phillips presents Lessons Learned from The General posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Aaron Brandon presents Just Start A Business? posted at Online Business, Blog.

Alex Blackwell presents Confessions from a Recovering Father posted at The Next 45 Years.

Arun suggests: Overcome your short term desires for long term happiness! Arun presents Conflicting Desires posted at Arun is Bringing You…Your Daily Remedy.

Ella Moss presents True Purpose of Life posted at ZODIAC TIMES.

Getting things done can be a big hassle. But if you take the time to ponder, prepare and prioritize, you can simplify your daily tasks. Here’s how. Tip Diva presents Top Ten Tips - Getting Things Done posted at Tip Diva.

HL Grove presents Making Your Dreams Come True posted at Hennie Grove.

Debra Moorhead presents Feelings . . . By Default or Choice? posted at Debra Moorhead . com

Edith presents Creating a Poverty-Free World posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Shane Wilson presents Small Actions = Big Changes posted at Shane Wilson.

Joel Chue presents relax and get hypnotized! posted at Self Hypnosis: Weight Loss, Quit Smoking Self Hypnosis!.

Semi-Charmed Wife presents Stop Reliving the Past posted at Semi-Charmed Wife.

Joel Chue presents Quantum Physics applied to Mind Power - Part 1 of 10 posted at Mind Power: Unlock The Subconscious Mind Power Secrets.

Brant Christopher explains how one hour a month can make a huge difference. George L Smyth presents One Minute How-To - How To Become Socially Responsible posted at George L Smyth.

Avani presents How to get clarity in thoughts posted at FoodForMind.

J.C. presents The Strange Thing About Worry posted at A Journey Of Dreams.

Funny question, isn’t it? Do you like the person you are alone with? If you are alone, there is no one with you … other than yourself. So what about it? Do you like the person you are alone with? Do you like yourself? Enjoy spending time with yourself? Look forward to being alone with yourself? Consider yourself good company? Are you comfortable with yourself? Would you choose yourself as a friend, if you were not you? Gabriella Kortsch, Ph.D. presents Do You Like The Person You Are Alone With? posted at Psychology, Transformation & Freedom Papers.

Joshua Seth presents How To Stop Procrastinating posted at Joshua Seth Blog.

Jeremy Neal presents The Positive Effects of Praise posted at Thoughts on Quotes.

Patrick A. Sizemore presents Waste Your Time Better posted at College Information for Smart Students

Surviving Infidelity helps you identify the signs of infidelity and deal with the situation. lintong presents Surviving Marital Infidelity - Signs of Infidelity » Getting Over Past Relationships posted at Infidelity.

Learn to overcome fear and achieve the success that you desire. Bob Crawford presents Overcoming Fear posted at Growing Your SELF Blog - Bob Crawford Online.

Giving yourself permission to change priorities is an important key to living a happier and prosperous life! Lorraine Cohen presents Letting Go Of the Guilt When You Need to Change Priorities posted at Powerfull Living.

Mark Schauss presents Blood Pressure Vaccine - Breakthrough or Another Reason to Drop Responsibility? posted at Toxic World Blog - Detoxify and Heal Your Body.

Elizabeth presents Small steps that ignite the flame of passion! posted at The best is yet to come!.

James D. Brausch presents A Day in the Life of a 98%er posted at Internet Business Blog.

Jonathan Mead presents Transcending and Including the Ego posted at Jonathan Mead.

Posted in Blog Carnval on Personal Power | 6 Comments

Equal rights for women still a pipe dream

By Pinkblocks

An article on BBC News online caught my eye. It dealt with the bias that women face worldwide. In a UN-commissioned report the findings were that women are discriminated against in almost every country around the world. The report was compiled by Fareda Banda, a Zimbabwean born law professor based in London.

In itself this was not news to me having come across various forms of discrimination myself. What really caught my attention was a comment by a reader that said ‘EVERY woman I know has experienced discrimination or abuse’. That seemed a particularly radical statement. It made me benchmark that against the women I knew sufficiently well to be able to make a call.

Here are a few examples. My best friend who lives in Cape Town, has been the main bread winner in her family unit ever since she got married at the age of 19. She recently took the plunge to extend her self-catering accommodation and bought the property across the road from her home. She had to have her husband’s signature on the documents as she did not have sufficient legal status to do this on her own.

My sister does not make any major decisions in her family through 40 years of marriage. She maintains that it is because her husband does everything so much better. Whether that is true or not, he makes the decisions from what religion the family practices, the number of children to have and what car is bought. They live in Germany, with other words in a developed country.

Sure one could say that as she and her husband are in their sixties, this could be considered a different generation and that things have changed for younger women. So lets have a look at the next generation down, women in their twenties. Here’s a situation to consider.

During November of the previous year, my younger daughter was a speaker at a Flash conference here in the UK and which I was fortunate enough to attend. During the final session, the organiser of the event thanked all involved and spent some time praising and pointing out the virtues of the relevant contributors.

Towards the end of this presentation he asked two of the handful of women speakers to stand up in the audience. He then proceeded to tell the delegates that if they would sign up for the following year’s conference they would have the pleasure of watching these two speakers in a mud wrestling competition.

The predominantly male audience, which is normal for IT conferences, was vastly appreciative in its response to this news snippet. I have no reason to believe that this was not a joke. However, none of the male speakers were subjected to this kind of sexual innuendo.

If one were to think this an isolated incident, then have a look at this report back on a panel discussion at the Interactive Festival in Austin called SXSW in March this year. The topic was ‘What Women Need to Succeed’. The panel consisted of five women who have certainly made it in the interactive media industry and are well qualified to voice an opinion.

One of the panelists referenced a recent discussion that said if men were stupid enough to think with their penises, then as a woman trying to get ahead in IT one should exploit this. By the time this statement reached my daughter who was attending the conference, but had skipped this panel discussion, it had morphed into a description more aligned to what Lewinsky got up to with Clinton.

One would almost be inclined to think that here is the answer to what has been bothering leaders in the IT industry for years, namely the lack of women choosing this career path. However, of course this is not the case. There are certainly other issues contributing to the fact that at any given time a room full of IT specialists will have about a maximum of 10% females amongst them.

Of course these few examples do not make a totally compelling case. However, they are a reflection on the developed world where discrimination is still found. And I have to agree with the person who left the comment that every women he/she knew had experienced discrimination. On examining my life and the women I know the same applies to my experiences and knowledge of life.

I would imagine that the reason why I had to examine this statement more closely was the fact that discrimination can be so insidious that one doesn’t actually notice it anymore. And in comparison to what women have to suffer in the Arabic, African and Eastern countries the developed world does treat it’s women well. Nevertheless, reports such as this one, should be taken note of.

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Best diet is to make yourself happy

By Pinkblocks

Lurking around the blogosphere now for over a year has given me a sliver of a view of mankind. I would imagine that this particular area in cyberspace truly reflects society, warts and all. This is where ordinary people like myself have an opportunity to voice an opinion however flawed it may be!

In this space one can find sublime penmanship but also the trashiest content. Some blogs are written using the most amazing language skills but there are also writers who cannot spell basic words. There are inspired site designs and at the same time one can find the most primitive of lay-outs that make the trashy print flyers you get through your post box look like works of art.

Every viewpoint is represented, whether political, religious, new age, health, wealth or self-improvement amongst many. Name the topic and you will be able to find a whole little sub-cyber community debating hotly about it.

Amongst these I have come across many blogs that deal with health and in particular weight issues. At first glance these blogs could be addressing a trend in lifestyles and one that could become widespread and endemic to the developed world.

One reads about statistics about overweight people and sees photographs of heavy folk who weigh in the hundreds of kilos. Eat out in a restaurant, especially in the developed world, and the food quantities that are dished up are fairly generous. The Americans are particularly prone to serving up a meal to one patron that could feed a family in poorer countries.

However, I don’t think that diets, or even the lack of control over the amount of food individuals consume, are the answer here. Overeating is a symptom of something else. Eating disorders show up bigger issues. In fact I would put other compulsive disorders such as excessive shopping into the same category.

They all have one thing in common. We are doing something, whether eating another packet of sweets, or buying another pair of shoes, in the hope of making ourselves feel better. And we feel awful because we are not coping with life. As has happened in other civilisations, large scale changes are happening in the developed world.

Our parents grew up in environments where the people went to similar schools as their parents, had the same family doctor who attended to them since childhood, got married in the same church where the minister knew everybody in the congregation. With other words there was a stability of life that was reassuring.

This kind of stability is no longer a given. All patterns have changed. Jobs are no longer for life, or even in the same place where one grew up. Even careers may need to change as many jobs cease to exist over time. Adults are faced with a need for acquiring new skills all the time. Their competence is questioned. To add to this instability, current work trends are towards freelancing or consulting.

This kind of forced mobility impacts on family life and kids no longer go to the same school with their friends from kindergarden. They don’t have a doctor for life never mind getting married with a minister who knows the the name of any member of the congregation. In fact one is lucky if the minister can remember the names of the couple he is marrying.

What are some of the results of this change in the way society is working in the developed world. There are the obvious ones such as antisocial behaviour and more criminal behaviour resulting in overflowing prisons. In the USA 2 out every 100 of its citizens is either in prison or on parole.

Not so obvious results of an unstable society are ones such as obsessive-compulsive disorders. Eating disorders such as overeating could be one of the most obvious ones. However, obvious only from a physical appearance point of view. And not necessarily that obvious as to what causes the compulsive eating.

Diet programs, diet books, liquid food replacements, appetite suppressants flood the market constantly each promising successful processes to slim down. If that doesn’t work then surgery such as wiring up jaws, interfering with intestines, electric pulses to the brain, are administered to try to stop people from eating. Then of course there is the whole gym and exercise industry making money off the overeating trend.

What are the chances they are going to work? Minimal. After all people are not overeating because they are that totally clueless about food, nutrition or what’s good for them. They are overeating in order to comfort and reassure themselves that they are ok. It feels good to eat. A slab of chocolate for a job well done, a box of chocolates to say we love somebody, a bottle of wine to celebrate. Ok wine is not food, but it’s fattening!

We take somebody out for a meal at a restaurant for celebratory occasions. We use food to treat ourselves. Eating ice cream out of a tub in front of the TV is an image of a people who do not think ice cream scooped into a bowl is enough as comfort food goes. It has to be a big tub!

So what would be a great diet strategy? The answer would be a plan that makes people feel good about themselves. This would be something that allows them to believe that they can cope with their lives. It will reassure them that they are doing a great job at their chosen career. It will confirm that they are stars at building their personal relationships, at bringing up their kids and caring for anybody else they feel responsible for.

Of course it would kill the diet industry stone dead. There would probably be a ‘terminate with extreme prejudice’ contract out for you by the pharmaceutical companies, book publishers, fitness industry, ‘health’ food manufacturers and anybody else who is making money by selling a band-aid for heart ache rather than a solution to mend broken and stressed hearts.

Posted in Personal Power | No Comments

Blog Carnival on Personal Power January 24, 2008

By Pinkblocks

Introducing a collection of articles to you that are worth your while to spend time over. Blog Carnivals really offer great variety in reading material and the best part is the easy access to them without having to spend hours looking on the internet.

At the end of January, there will be a great Blog Carnival in the form of a ‘progressive dinner’. Five Carnivals spread over five blogs will host an amazing buffet of good stuff. Submit your articles to !!# a soup to nuts carnival. The main course will be featured on this blog. To see for yourself the kind of publicity already around this visit Kilroy at Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers. It’s such an event, you might want to participate with an entry of your own.

While you wait for that special event, kick back and enjoy what is on offer today:

Theresa L. Twogood presents What Is More Important Than What Day Your Birthday Is On Next Year? posted at OLIN e-Book e-Publishing Blog.

How do you define success? Are you successful when you achieve your goals you set out in life? Or do you feel successful even when you haven’t achieved them all, but are working towards them and feel good in life? David B. Bohl presents Success in 2008? It’s Achievable – And Here Is How You Can Do It! posted at Slow Down Fast Today!.

Stephen Pierce presents What Are The 3 Primary Factors of ALL Success? posted at DTAlpha TalkBack with Stephen Pierce.

Food is not what it used to be. In the relatively recent past, food was universally recognized as the fruits and nuts that grow on trees, the vegetables that grow out of the soil, plus some fish and game. If you were to take a ride in a time machine and show our ancestors what we eat today, they would recognize very little of it. Tupelo Kenyon presents Is Food Your Medicine or Poison? posted at Tupelo Kenyon.

Samuel Bryson presents Shower Power – Why We Get Our Best Ideas Where We Do: posted at Total Wellbeing.

Prelude to a new book. James DeLelys presents Am I the Only One? posted at Author James DeLelys.

Have you been promoted recently? Is some of your staff also your friends? Do you know how easy it is to loose all respect when you show favoritism? GreatManagement presents 7 Quick Tips For Managing Your Friends At The Workplace posted at The GreatManagement Blog.

Recently, I heard a racial slur against Jews because of what they supposedly did to Jesus Christ. This insult was not against the Jews that were alive two thousand years ago but against the Jews living today. Phil for Humanity presents The Blame Game << Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity.

Tina Su presents Your Guide to Conquer Fear of Public Speaking posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive..

This is a sure fire starter for anyone looking to accelerate their progress, productivity and success. If you’re looking for a way to get more done with less, take a read of ‘How To Super Charge Your Productivity’. Stephen Martile presents How To Super Charge Your Productivity posted at Stephen Martile.

Had lunch with a friend today, and we got to talking about that saying, “Leap, and the net will appear.” karen alonge presents safety nets posted at postcards from nowhere.

Dereck presents Why In The Hell Would I Want To Teach? posted at My Ten Thousand Friends.

Terry Dean presents January Monthly Mentor Club News posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Alex Blackwell presents And a Side Order of Positive Attitude, Too Please posted at The Next 45 Years.

Many of us have encountered times where we are working on a project every day and it seems, somehow, we do not proceed in the way we intended to. What’s the cause? Why is that so? In this article, Marcus Hochstadt provides two techniques that can catapult your accomplishments to new heights, once and for all. Marcus Hochstadt presents First Class Progress, Or The Power Of Deadlines posted at Marcus Hochstadt.

Matthew Paulson presents How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions posted at American Consumer News.

Louise Manning presents Effective leadership revisited posted at The Human Imprint.

5 popular myths about hypnosis that had put a fog on this great self improvement method busted! Stanimir Sotirov presents 5 hypnosis myths busted! posted at All About Your Body And Spirit.

M:RS presents Arnold Schwarzenegger?s Take On Modesty posted at Mission: Rock Star.

Albert Foong presents The life that has gone on before: The Perils of Compassion, Part 2 posted at Urban Monk.

Some insights and practical advice on how to deal with both choice and change. Carole G. McKay presents Letting Go posted at Gold Post-it.

6 great ways to boost your brain at work! 4mind4life presents 6 Ways To Boost Your Brain At Work posted at 4Mind4Life.Com.

Pretty Lady presents Pretty Lady: How to Leave a Loser posted at Pretty Lady.

Of all the practices that one can pursue to provide health, clarity, stress reduction, psychological resolution, and emotional and spiritual growth, the most consistently powerful method is that of “centering”—bringing yourself to your true energetic core—to what you are before and beyond your familial, societal, and egoic restructuring and reshaping. CG Walters presents Find Your Center: Find Your Peace posted at Into the Mist.

Joshua Wagner presents Getting Your Ducks in a Row posted at Total Possibility.

Nice piece about how healing begins from within….both personally and globally! Todd presents Healing From The Inside Out- A Remedy To Save The World posted at We The Change.

John Eaton presents Obsessional? posted at Reverse Thinking.

Describes how the our parents give us a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Warren Wong presents The Value Of Our Parents posted at Personal Development.

Carole Fogarty presents Easily delete obstacles and welcome a rush of amazing new opportunities: posted at The Healthy Living Lounge.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents New Year’s Resolution Haiku posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

J.C. presents 10 Things I Do To Make More Time posted at A Journey Of Dreams.

Alexander Marlin presents What Would It Feel Like To Be Rich posted at Life Improvement Tips For Thin and Small People.

Rich Vosler presents The Power of a Smile posted at Sales Training Tips.

The Law of Attraction teaches that everything in our lives, from the good to the bad, has been attracted to us by our own thoughts and feelings. We often hate to hear this, and may remain in denial. After all, most people do not wish to admit that all of the unpleasantries in their lives were self-created. Unfortunately for them, it is so. Fortunately for all of us, we can change the course of our lives quickly by deliberately manifesting the conditions for the ideal life we dream of. Richard Ingersoll presents Deliberate Manifestation posted at Applying the Law of Attraction.

Timothy Gary presents How to Make Time Out of Thin Air posted at How to Make Time Out of Thin Air.

Patrick A. Sizemore presents Motivation - Make Mondays Sexy posted at College Information for Smart Students.

Create and use a time-tested tool to keep you inspired and motivated to make 2008 your best year EVER! Lorraine Cohen presents Powerfull Living » Using Treasure Mapping To Attract Your Vision posted at Powerfull Living.

A great checklist for starting off the new year! Frederic Patenaude presents How to Make 2008 the Healthiest Year of Your Life posted at Frederic Patenaude Talks.

This is a story of one of the angels that God put in my path when I was at a difficult place in my journey and I needed direction. Patricia Singleton presents Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker: The Most Influencial Person—#2—Survival posted at Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker.

Allowing a teen to develop into the adult she will become through support and actions. Christine presents High School, Hair Color and Choices posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France

This article is a look at how we can allow “our story” to own us - or we can own that we create our story to begin with. Andrea Hess presents What’s Your Story? posted at Empowered Soul Blog.

Joe Caterisano presents How to get organized posted at Self Help and Personal Development.

This website is perhaps one of the most important websites on the web. Nicholas presents Conscious Flex: How to Find Your Passion and Make It Your Career: by Nicholas Powiull posted at Conscious Flex.

For years, researchers and exercisers alike have spoken about the power of the mind as it relates to exercise and overall health. This article cites a specific study, as well as my own personal experience that allowed me to lift 50 pounds with my mind! FitBuff presents Power of the Mind - Much Stronger Than Your Biceps! posted at FitBuff.com’s Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog.

Never ever forget and realize as soon as possible, that the brain is NOT a flexible a thing. We are creatures of habit and have to learn to use this to our advantage… inflexible brain posted at FreeMyMind.Net.

Posted in Blog Carnval on Personal Power | 7 Comments

The takeaway society

By Pinkblocks

One thing that really surprised me about the UK when I first moved across was the number of furnished homes that were for rent. One hardly comes across that in South Africa where most people accumulate their own living things.

It’s not uncommon for the locals to pack a few boxes, tuck them under the arm and saunter off to their new abode. Clothes, bed linen, the favourite coffee mug and their tech gadget that is what is being moved.

It’s therefore not surprising that rental is the option for goods and services. Why buy umpteen movie DVDs for instance when it is cheaper to rent. And those disks don’t clutter up the environment. Travel light is the motto.

Perhaps the iPod would be the most appropriate example of the take away society. With one hit the iPod dispenses with shelves full of CD’s. It means at least one box less to carry when moving.

What if you want to buy your DVDs instead of renting? Don’t worry, Amazon’s Unbox or TiVO have records of what movies you bought. You could eventually download your bought DVDs over and over again for free.

We don’t need boxes for our photo albums either. Everything is either stored on our computers, on Flickr or even on Facebook. What about those handy telephone booklets we used to record our friends’ details in. No longer necessary. Those can all be stored on Facebook, or other online diaries.

Speaking of diaries, you still use one of those hard copy ones? Okey. I do. But there’s ‘upcoming’, Google calendar, your mobile phone, PDAs, you name it, for storing your meetings and important notices. And these applications e-mail you reminders.

Books, I can hear you shouting out. What about our books. Surely we still carry those around with us? Well yes, but Amazon’s eBook the Kindle is looking like a winner. So another few boxes less. I used to have ten boxes of books. I have whittled those down to one, and even that one I stored with a friend when I relocated to the UK.

Have a look at some of the business success stories of recent years and wonder whether these have been driven by the nomadic society we are becoming. Just think about the internet and Google as an example. I needed a locksmith to fix the front door yale lock. I googled for the ones within our postal code area. I actually have two telephone directories I could have checked. Never occurred to me!

This search facility is incredibly important because we no longer know the environment we live in as intimately as we used to. When you live in an area for years, you know every shop and service. Instead we can’t do without GPS features on our phone or on a gadget in our car.

Another success story is Amazon of course. It’s a mobile online shop. You don’t even need to know where they are. You can shop for your groceries, clothes or entertainment online. You could live without leaving your home and your home could be almost anywhere in order to receive anything you want.

What about our jobs. Surely there is some stability there or even continuity of experiences. Not either. The trend shows an increase in freelancers or nonemployer businesses. According to the US Census Bureau there was a growth of 21% between 1997 to 2004 in the number of nonemployer businesses in the USA. With formal jobs being shed at a rapid rate, there is no reason to presume that this trend was a one off.

So what do you do when you can’t nip into the office next door or amble across to another workstation to get advice if you are stuck? Then you Twitter it to your buddies who are all checking the Twitter dialogue box all day long. You have instant help and and advice from a string of friends.

Recently I have been learning about the technology available to small businesses. The support available in the technology is huge. As an example, one can hire online boardrooms per hour, per day or per month. It’s software that simulates the entire scenario. All that’s required is a computer, video camera and broadband and we can video conference with anybody anywhere at whatever time suits all participants.

If you are wondering what new idea might be a winner in order to make you those first millions, besides buying a lotto ticket, then think of any service or product that could help with making people’s lives as nomadic as possible. But then this is hardly new is it? We’ve come full circle. We just don’t use tents for our homes and camels or horses for transport anymore.

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2008 the same as usual I should think

By Pinkblocks

Predictions for 2008? Highlights of 2007? I’m sitting in Brighton, speculating about this. Candles are lit, the Christmas tree is still ok, although the needles are starting to malt quite rapidly. And it has roots, so we hope to plant it out in a forest somewhere. That is if we can find a forest where we are allowed to do that. UK is one of the more over-regulated countries.

Listening to Mandoza and Freshly Ground while outside the fireworks are starting to increase in volume. It will be a crescendo in a while. Kind of nice duet. In Australia they are already sleeping off the hangovers. Even in SA, the first drunk drivers will be heading home and the sober ones will be wondering whether they will make it home in one piece. Will it ever change?

So what will be heading towards us? I have already predicted that 2008 will be the year of the mobile phone. Yes again. And maybe marketers will finally be able to persuade mobile phone service providers that there is a lot of money available to throw at mobile phone users. We will see.

Then there are a myriad of other techie predictions, by far more knowledgeable people than I am, that all sound fabulous. There is the first PC by HP that has some kind of touchscreen feature. Open source is supposed to get bigger this coming year. The end of software as we know it has been predicted, what with computer users being able to do everything via the browser, even when off-line. Google is certainly trying to find its space in that bit of sunshine.

Computers will get faster, Apple will bring out a super thin laptop in two weeks, plus some very fast hand held gadget. An update to the iPhone is also on the cards at Macworld. And so it goes on. However, personally, I would put the real money on the company which could find some solution to end the endless unwanted e-mails I get on enlarged body parts, mostly one which I don’t have, and performance enhancing drugs. It’s about 220 so far today.

Besides that the details of my company credit card have just been stolen, including the pin, and same is being used at an ATM near you if you live in Canada. Never mind the trolls that lurk around in cyberspace ready to pounce leaving horribly abusive and personal attacking comments on blogs or anywhere else where they can leave their mark.

Besides the techie world, there will be some changes in the world. Some changes will be horribly abrupt ones and inflicted by the nasties of this world. Others will come slowly. One thing is for certain, the ordinary folk will again have to cope with the rubbish that most of the politicians dish up.

But then there will be the great bits as well. The marriages, wedding anniversaries, the new babies, personal victories such as graduating from a college or learning a new skill. The human spirit will somehow again overcome all sorts of hardships. There will be some ordinary folk again showing that we all can be heroes, just because it was required at that moment in time. It’s not all bad! People are actually incredibly amazing! So happy New Year to all those humans who celebrate that now. And happy wishes just because, to anybody who doesn’t.

Posted in People | No Comments

personal power and self help

Blog Carnival of Personal Power April 6, 2008

Equal rights for women still a pipe dream

Blog Carnival of Personal Power March 16, 2008

Best diet is to make yourself happy

Blog Carnival on Personal Power February 24, 2008

Blog Carnival on Personal Power January 24, 2008

The takeaway society

Blog Carnival on Personal Power January 7, 2008

2008 the same as usual I should think

Blog Carnival on Personal Power December 22, 2007