Learn Something About Time Management From the American Indians

I don't consider myself an expert on the American Indians but I would like to share a thought about their lifestyle. I was listening to an audio book on the American Indians eating habits, when it got me thinking about something the author said. This might not be a topic of interest for most people but I found it fascinating.

While listening to the audio book, the author made a statement about the American Indians I will never forget. He said "American Indians spend about four hours each day working, gathering and preparing food." If you think about it, that's not too bad of a lifestyle.

I would imagine that we have a better selection and larger variety of food to choose from than they had. This of course would be a benefit to living in our society instead of theirs.

American Indians often spent a lot of time outdoors and for some reason, spending time in nature seems to be a good thing. I know a lot of people that would rather be outdoors than indoors, walking, jogging, hiking, camping and even gardening. It almost seems more natural for us to be outdoors than indoors.

Now with the Indians working about four hours each day, this is a little bit different then our standard workday. Most people spend at least 9 to 12 hours each day driving to and from work and actually working. I would imagine our standard workday would actually be easier than that of the American Indian. I can't imagine some of my friends or family members chasing after a Buffalo with a spear.

Does this mean the American Indians had it right, just because they worked four hours each day and spent more time in nature were doing what they truly wanted to. Know I can't truly say that they had it right, but I can say that they seem to do just fine living with nature.

Some of these civilizations lasted for centuries.

Something to think about, on your daily travels to and from work as you desire to be at the beach or hiking in the mountains. The philosophies we often associate with a good life, could actually be better instead of progressively adding unneeded stress and frustration to it.

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development. Check out one of his recommended books, You Can Have It All

Achieving Maximum Altitude

Like most people, there are not many things I like about flying. Except for one thing! When I fly, I always choose the window seat and wait for the best part of the flight! I just love when the plane cuts through the clouds and soars above them. I absolutely love flying above the clouds and looking down onto a sea of puffy cotton balls! It is at this point, when the plane reaches its maximum altitude. It is a moment of stability, weightlessness and pristine beauty!

How can we achieve our maximum altitude? How can we obtain those moments in life of flying above the clouds? Life's goals and personal visions are a lot like packing for a trip! The departures may be different, but the destinations remain the same. Here are some flying tips to reach you closer to your life's destinations:

Pre-preparation! It is the little details that get you to your final destination. Booking the flight, hotel, choosing your clothes etc. Making a list and checking it twice! Prepare a list to make your journey to your final destination a pleasant one. What are the little details that you need to check off on your list to bring you closer to landing your goals?

Pack only your essentials! When we have a goal or mission in mind, keep focused on only what you need to carry to achieve them. Packing for life's goals is a lot like reading a book: take what you need and leave the rest! If not, your luggage is too heavy to carry!

Compartmentalize everything! When packing your luggage, there is a place for everything: your shoes, your suits and your toiletries. Separate your life's goals much in the same manner. The immediate tasks, your short term goals and your future long-range goals. Like your luggage, tag and label them and check them often!

Listen to the instructions! On any flight, we are forced (we have no choice!) to listen to the instructions and know what to do in case of an emergency and where the exit doors are. Do we listen to instructions, advice and creative criticism from our mentors or family members? Probably not! But, like that flight attendant, they are there to protect us and make our journey a pleasant one.

Letting your loved ones know where you are! We have a family pact. When I am traveling, I always leave my hotel info and flight #'s with my family. It not only shows respect, bit it is a way of keeping them informed of my journey. When was the last time, you informed your family/friends where you are in your life goal's, your dreams, your destination spot? Share your life's itinerary with the people who are most important in your life.

Encountering turbulence! I wish all flights of life were smooth sailing! In trying to reach our personal goals and missions, we sometimes will encounter air pockets and altitude shifts. Know that they are only temporary. Hold you breathe if you have to. Grab a friend's hand in panic. Know that your 'plane' will stabilize again. As the saying goes: this too shall pass!

Say a prayer! My sister is a white-knuckled, terrified passenger. I always joke with her and say that if something happens to me on a plane, at least I am closer to heaven! (To say the least, she does not appreciate the humour!). All joking aside, there are not many people who know, that when I fly, I carry my rosary in my pocket. I, invariably, always say a couple of prayers along the way. Touching the rosary brings me peace and some calmness. In the air or on land, know that your personal prayers do not fall on deaf ears.

Clap when you land! Many of us have been on flights, when the pilot lands us safely on that runway, that we give a round of applause. When you goals have been met, give yourself a round of applause. You have landed safe and sound!

Give thanks! When leaving a plane, the airline staff and crew are always at the door saying goodbye and wishing you a safe trip. I personally thank each and every one of them. When reaching your goal's destination, give thanks to those that helped you get there. We are not on this journey of life alone. Have an 'altitude of gratitude' for those who have helped you on your 'flight' towards your goals.

Enjoy your trip! Treasure your moments. Know that with every flight in life, you will reach greater heights, soaring with greatness above the clouds.

Nominated for Canada 100 Most Powerful Women, Canada's Diamond Coach Adele Alfano http://www.AdeleAlfano.com is an Award Winning Professional Speaker, Author, Co-Publisher, who has helped thousands of people capitalize on their unique abilities to maximize their potential through her specially designed and created systems. Her proven techniques have helped people mine passion and purpose in their lives and in an evolving workplace. Adele is also the co-author, co-editor and Publisher for the first ever in a series of collaborative books titled Experts Who Speak Books

Lawn Care For Winter Preparation

Preparing the lawn in the fall for the snow and ice to come in the winter is an important part of lawn and yard maintenance. It is important to provide the lawn with a protective environment throughout the year to ensure that it will survive the ice that is to come through the winter season. The winter season full of snow and ice can allow mould to flourish within the lawn, creating a terrible environment for the new and regrowth of green and lush grass in the spring.

There are some lawn caretakers that choose to allow the leaves that fall on to the lawn to remain to provide the nutrients to the lawn that is requires through the winter months. This allows a layer of nutrients that the grass is able to live from during the cold months of winter.

There are many lawn caretakers that choose to remove these leaves from the lawn. Removing the leaves from the lawn will further discourage mould from growing on the lawn.

The lawn needs to be weeded before the winter. Weeds take away the valuable nutrients that the lawn needs throughout the winter months. Well before the first snowfall, the weeds should be removed from the lawn as the use the valuable water and light that can are given to the lawn. The best time to attempt weed removal is after the rain, when the soil is moist. The weeds should be removed entirely, including the root of the plant. This will ensure that the weed is unable to grow back. If you choose to remove the weeds through the use of chemicals, it is important to avoid repercussions that this may have on the lawn by ensuring that the lawn is properly filled with nutrients.

Composting is not only a great way to avoid soil erosion, but it can provide the nutrients to the lawn throughout the winter. It allows the lawn to become prepared for the winter by providing the valuable nutrients that will be required to keep the lawn alive. Many lawn caretakers are unaware that the lawn only hibernates throughout the winter season, it does not die. For this reason, providing nutrients through the winter season is an essential way to maintain the health of your lawn.

Aerating the lawn provides a welcome and healthy environment for grass to grow in the fall and be prepared for the frost, snow and ice that comes with the winter months. These air pockets allow for moisture to become present within the soil and therefore moisturize the lawn throughout the long winter months.

Avoid cutting the lawn when it comes close to frost. Cutting the tips from the lawn can create a harsh environment and leave the grass susceptible to disease and other disorders that may come from the lack of nutrients. When cutting the lawn, it is important to leave at least two thirds of the blade of grass. This will ensure that the grass has enough nutrients within the blades to recover itself. At least two to four weeks before the frost, the cutting of the lawn should be avoided.

Medical Residents Durham

Custom Homes Raleigh

Where's the Beef? - It's in the Recipe For Wendy's Hamburgers - So What's the Secret?

The real question in everyone's mind isn't "where's the beef?"; it's what is the recipe for Wendy's hamburgers? Well, until recently, I could tell you the answer to "where's the beef," and I could tell you that if you make a square burger that you "don't believe in cutting corners," and I could probably tell you every theory on why Wendy's burgers are square. What I couldn't tell you was the recipe for the delicious burgers.

Wendy's burgers have long been a favorite in my family. I ate one for the first time, because my sons wanted to try the square burger. They were saying, "oh boy, this is cool looking;" and I was saying, "boy, does this taste good." Of course, I immediately wanted the ingredients. I had three young boys who were about ready to go threw a growth spirt, so I needed to make affordable meals that they liked at home, more now then ever. I knew I could manage to make a cool looking, square burger, but I wanted it to taste just as good, too.

Need I say, it became a tradition to go to Wendy's, but I never got my hands on that recipe. My sons are now engaged to be married, so I figure grandchildren are next. This little revelation gave me cause to think back to those days when that unique burger from a favorite fast food restaurant could make the day special. That's when I decided it was time to search for the recipe on the internet to see if it could be found. After all, I could still make them for my growing family. Amazingly enough, after all these years, I found the recipe for Wendy's hamburgers, and countless other recipes I never thought I could find, all in one recipe book. One book - hundreds of sought after recipes.

The best part of finding this recipe book is still to come, because as days pass, should some of these famous, wonderful, recipes be lost over time, my family will always have access to them and their flavorful memories.

How would you like to recreate the most famous popular recipes at home? This famous cookbook exposes all of the most famous and most delicious secret recipes on the planet including restaurants such as Wendy's. Don't waste your time like I did!

Click here to check it out

How You Can Use Feng Shui in Your Office

These days work can be extremely stressful. More and more people are working longer hours and that is leaving them feeling incredibly worn out. Trying to balance work with family life as well as fitting in time for you can be a struggle. However, there are ways in which you can make life a little more relaxed and less stressful.

One way is to apply Feng Shui to your working environment. Since it would enable you to relax while you are working, using Feng Shui in your office could be the best thing you ever did.

What is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui goes by the theory that everything in life has an energy source or Ch'i. Controlling the positive energy sources allows us to benefit and live a more positive life. Feng Shui teaches us how to feed that positive energy and using it to improve our lives.

Feng Shui in the office will consist of re-arranging the furniture if needed, as well as adding different objects or colors representing the elements of nature. We will be following what is called the "Ba Gua".

A Ba Gua is a tool used to help determine the best locations in your home or office for certain functions, such as wealth, career, health, fame, love, travel and more. The ba gua is a map of the energetic qualities of your space. It is usually shown as an octagon with eight sections surrounding a central area, the tai chi. For practical use, the corners of the ba gua are extended to form a square, and then divide it into nine equal sections. The ba gua divides any space into nine areas. Each area corresponds to a different aspect of your life. Whether there's good or bad energy in that part of your space will affect the related aspect of your life. You will use this "map" to arrange your office.

Using Ba Gua within the Office

When you are ready to begin, make a rough blueprint of your office space and use the ba gua map to split the area in 9 sections. Then check the map and see which elements you need to incorporate into the office. Aim to keep a good balance between each area so that every aspect of your life benefits from the layout. A good balance is achieved by not having too much of one element and lacking another. Your space has to have a balance of the five elements of Feng Shui: Water, Wood, Metal, Earth, Fire.

One rule of Feng Shui that you should pay attention to in the office, is that the desk should be facing the doorway. This will not only help in a Feng Shui aspect but it will also help you to greet any incoming guests and you'll never be caught by surprise. When a person enters the room, the first thing that they will see is you at your desk. This gives you an air of importance and helps you look more professional.

Also make sure your back is against a wall, not a window. You need something solid supporting you. If you don't have another option, try to put a heavy piece of furniture like a bookcase or console between your chair and the window.

If you are interested in increasing your wealth (who isn't!), then you may want to place a picture of a waterfall on one of the walls related to your Wealth Area. Water is the element responsible for drawing wealth into your life, so items such as a fountain or an aquarium will help too. Plants also brighten up your space and help move the good energy around you. So why not place a plant on your Health and Family Area?

Follow your heart. You'll feel different about every change you make, so just keep what makes you feel more comfortable. Enjoy!

If you want to read more about Feng Shui and find very useful information, please visit me at http://www.lifewithfengshui.com.

Mold in Your Home - What to Do?

Oh, Poor Moldy Me! Or The Canary in the Coal Mine Speaks

No need to hire a mold inspector. Just send me, Amy Gray, into any area you suspect of having mold, and I'll come back with an instant report. As in the form of a splitting headache.

I don't get headaches that often. So if one quick trip into a damp, moldy, basement turns me into a migraine case, imagine what it is doing to your health on a day to day basis.

Let's backtrack just a wee bit. What is mold? Why is it in my house? And how the heck do I get rid of it?

Mold is everywhere. Just like dust mites. Outdoors, molds play an important role in breaking down dead organic material such as leaves. Indoors, mold can cause allergic reactions, asthma, eye irritation and as mentioned above, headaches. Continuous exposure to mold can create serious health problems.

Since mold spores are airborne and can be carried by house dust, the question then becomes: how do I make my house unfriendly to mold?

Answer: Control Indoor Moisture.

If you have mold growing on firewood, furniture, walls, refrigerators, in the heating or ventilation system or anywhere else, it is very important to act fast. The longer mold grows on something, the more damage it can cause to that item. And if it's in your heating or air system, it's flying all over your house on a regular basis.

I remember a client telling me he was setting aside some upholstered furniture to be used later inside his house. I asked to see where the furniture was stored. As we opened the leaky garden shed, the blast of mold breath was overwhelming. Inside, a version of mold Woodstock was taking place on formerly nice couches and chairs. Now they were bedecked with interesting patterns of white, black and orange mold designs.

Places that have water in them on a regular basis - such as bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms and basements - are a good first place to look for signs of mold. Walls that show water stains can be an accurate indicator that there is a leak somewhere and mold is most probably present.

For a very helpful site on mold, visit http://www.epa.gov/mold/index.html.
Our local American Lung Association has a program called the Master Health Environmentalist where you can sign up for a free home inspection to see if your home has airborne irritants, including mold, that may impact your health.

As the weather turns wet, keep your eyes open for mold. Or just call me in. But please have some aspirin handy.

Interested in more ways to clear clutter and gain control of your environment? Get great tips and motivating messages by subscribing to the Empty Your Nest newsletter at http://www.emptyyournest.com You can also download our free EBook: The Getting Started Workbook: Overcoming Fear, Procrastination and Overwhelm When Starting an Organizing Project. Just follow the link on the home page at http://www.emptyyournest.com

A History of the Chinese New Year

The Chinese Year is celebrated on the first day of the first lunar month and lasts for 15 days. The Chinese New Year is the major Chinese holiday and is also celebrated throughout Asia, not only in China. There are two cycles that coincide with the Chinese New Year the twelve-year animal zodiac and the ten-year heavenly stems.

The tale behind the Chinese New year is that villagers tried to protect themselves from a mythical beast called Nian or "Year". Each year on the first day of the New Year the beast would come to eat crops, villagers, livestock and particularly children. Villagers would put out food from Nian and hang red colored lanterns, as Nian was afraid of the color red. Nian eventually was scared off. Now to celebrate the banishment of this creature the New Year is celebrated by hanging red lanterns and using firecrackers.

The period around the Chinese New Year is known as the largest migration time in China as the New Year is a time to visit friends and relatives and many individuals travel to return home and visit with family. The day before the Chinese New Year the home will be cleaned from top to bottom to sweep away the bad luck from the preceding year and welcome in good luck. Other traditions like wearing new clothes and getting a haircut are also included in having a new start.

The first day of the Chinese New Year welcome sin the deities of earth and the heavens. Most individuals do not eat meat during this time. Most food is cooked the day before as the use of knives and fires are thought to bring bad luck. The first day is also when the family will visit the oldest or most senior members of their family. During the second day of the New Year the married daughter will visit her birth parents. Individuals also pray to the god and ancestors and also celebrate dogs.

The third and fourth days of the New Year are not traveling says as it is thought that individuals will argue more easily as well as being respectful to the dead particularly or any family that may have died within the past three years. The fifth day dumplings are traditionally eaten, as this say is the birthday of the Chinese god of wealth.

The seventh day is the commons man birthday and it is on this day that everyone turns one year older. Traditionally a raw fish salad is consumes. On the ninth day individuals will pray to the Jade Emperor of Heaven, as this is his birthday. Offerings of sugarcane are made and tea is drunk to honor a particular chosen individual. On the fifteenth day or last day of the New Year. Is the lantern festival where candles are lit outside homes to guide spirits home.

Henry Fong
Feng Shui Consultant.
Feng Shui Absolutely

Attract Positive Energy With Feng Shui Crystals

In the art of feng shui, the vibration that brings peace, harmony and positive energy to a space is derived from crystals. Though feng shui crystals are mainly used to enhance the beauty and dcor of a room, some also believe they have healing properties and bring balance to the environment of a home or office. One of the feng shui principles states that our bodies are interconnected with all that surrounds us, in either a positive or negative way. Thus, we can increase harmony and the flow of positive energy by placing objects of high vibration around us.

While feng shui crystals store energy, the specificity and properties of the energy depend greatly on their nature. Most are formed naturally deep underground over millions of years. There are also artificially created crystals but most believe they lack the mineral elements that attract the positive energy, balance and prosperity of the natural ones. The aspects of your life affected by the crystals vary with the type. For example, strong feelings of love and romance are centered on rose quartz. It can also help with feelings of lost love and grief. Place two large size rose quartz in the southwest corner of your bedroom for greatest effect. Hematite can be placed by the front or main door to protect from negative vibrations. They are also used in children's bedrooms to calm their anxiety and help with their difficulty getting to sleep. Large crystals can be placed by themselves on a shelf or table, you can also use several smaller stones placed in a bowl.

Periodically, feng shui crystals must be cleaned and maintained. Cleaning for the first time acts as a purification process and resets the vibration to adjust to its new owner and surroundings. Once acclimated to a new space, most followers of feng shui believe that these gemstones can be used for protection from negative vibrations, to increase concentration, combat insomnia and give a sense of peace and stability. They also add a stylish and exotic flair to any room or office.

As with most things, the price of feng shui crystals increases with size. Research the kinds you need for different effects in various locations in your house. Bigger is not always better, especially if you have a limited budget. Online stores and websites may offer discounted rates on the feng shui crystals you are looking for. That way you'll get the ones you need without spending a fortune. Just be sure that it is a reputable establishment so you can be assured you are getting the best quality for your money.

Cheri Brennan is a planning and organization specialist. To get more articles, tips and resources about Feng Shui, please visit http://fengshui.newinfohighway.com

Who is the Dark Angel?

Sometimes in metaphysics you will come across the phrase "dark angel." There are many interpretations of what the dark angel means when it comes to the psychic arts. Some of them are more psychological and other is more cultural.

The most common interpretation of the dark angel is Lucifer. Lucifer is one of the original favorites of the Archangels in heaven and he fell from grace. In essence, he was kicked out of heaven for misbehavior, but got to keep his angel wings. You often see depictions of Lucifer in angel art. He is one of the foremost players when it comes to the religious angels mentioned in the bible. Of course, if you are a practicing Satanist, you will never be asking your self if Lucifer is "angels or devil." The angel falls from heaven myth is absolutely crucial when it comes to studying the pantheons of angels and also drawings of angels. Lucifer is also one of the original natural angels, which is why he so often appears in angel art.

The feminine version of the dark angel of love is Lilith. Lilith is often described a first wife of Adam that is not mentioned in the Bible. As she was not made from man's rib, she became corrupted and was thrown out of the Garden of Eden. She is not mentioned in the Bible, but she is honored among some sects and even feminist sects that see her as the original earth mother. She is one of the amour angels in the sense that she symbolizes seduction.

Yet another interpretation of the dark angel is as a description of a lover. This could be a karmic relationship that is somehow troublesome or bad for you. The dark angel of love is someone in your life who you cannot stop thinking about or becoming obsessed about. It is the relationship that you are unable to handle or that causes you great grief. If you are a man, this dark angel is no doubt the "Lilith" in your life.

However, in contemporary times, most of us know the Dark Angel as a television series directed by James Cameron that ran from 2000 to 2002 on Fox television. The Dark Angel character was a genetically enhanced super soldier played by the actress Jessica Alba. She escapes from an oppressive government institution and trains to be an assassin with eleven other genetically enhanced human beings. Originally, this dark angel was supposed to be a film, but James Cameron could not get a film deal to support it. It is important culturally as the character paved the way for several more superwoman type characters.

Yet another common meaning of dark angel is the concept that it simply describes the dark side of you that succumbs to temptation. It is your shadow side that insists on not being connected to the light.

SpiritNow.com is the new website of Sylvia Browne - featuring content on psychics, astrology, angels, dreams, feng shui, and love. Visit SpiritNow.com today for a free psychic reading.

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

What you are thinking about remodeling your house and you live in Carlsbad. Let me give you some advice about some local contractors and some of the people involved. I used a company called Service Magic to find a local heating and air conditioning contractor. All I had to do was go on the internet , type in some information about my self and what I wanted to have done to my home. This didn't seem that bad of a idea at the time. But look what I found out.

I went to their web site, filled in my information and with in minutes I had received the names of at least 4 contractors. Wow this is neat. I didn't even get to start calling any of them when my phone rang. It was one of the contractors secretaries. She introduced herself and asked what would be a good time for someone to come out to look at the work I wanted done.

I was surprised at the speed things were taking place but in a way glad that I had a reputable contractor from one of the largest construction referral services on the internet. I told her 10:00 would be fine. I got a call shortly after that from one of the other companies. He wanted to meet me that mourning at 8:00 if it was Ok with me. I told him of course, let's do this. Then the next one called and I thought great you can come at 1:00. Well you guessed it the next one was coming over at 2:30.

The first contractor showed up as scheduled at 8:00. We talked about what I wanted done and he whips out his note book and starts figuring out a price. This took place around 15 minutes into the meeting. This guys good I thought. Being a General Contractor in Carlsbad myself, for a job like this I would go back to my office and figure out a price and then double check my figures for a accurate estimate. It took this guy less than 5 minutes to create a proposal of around 10,700 dollars for every thing.

Well I was thinking to myself, the job should be around 7,000 dollars but what do I know about construction. I informed him that I would think about it and that I was going to meet with a couple of other contractors that day. He ask me who the other contractors were. I proceeded to tell him that I probably shouldn't tell him who they were. Well your not going to believe this. He put on his physic hat and told me who was coming over. The only thing he didn't know was what time they where coming over.

Oh I forgot to mention before he left he told me he would knock ten percent off the job if I signed the contract right now. I pretended like I was excited just to see his reaction. He looked at me like he had won the gold metal in sales. I told him thanks but I bet your new offer with the ten percent discount will be good for the next few day. Right I asked. He wasn't looking that excited any more as he replied with a Yes it will be good for a while. I thanked him and he went on his way.

My 10:00 never showed but his secretary gave me the old, " He had to go do a emergency job and could he reschedule tomorrow at the same time. I said that would be fine. As a contractor myself I have always put the work I had to do first and foremost.

About 12:30 I get a call from my next heating and air conditioning contractor. He is running late but will be there at 1:30. I appreciate the call and I will see you then. The only problem now is that I have another contractor coming at 2:30. That give the next contractor less than one hour before the next guy shows up. I never liked going over to someone's house and running into another remodeling contractor.

The next contractor was very informative and knew his stuff. I listened and learned. He told me he was going to have to go back to his office and would have a price back in the mourning. Great I told him as I hurried him out the door.

The last contractor of the day shows up and wants to know whose been over to the house, was it these guys or those guys. I told him I wasn't going to tell him who was over. Now this guy was a salesman. He did a little more probing before he let me in on the fact that his company doesn't do complete home installations. He made up some story that his company only replaces the forced air units. I could tell he didn't want to do the job once he found out I knew what I was talking about. So I said my good byes to Mr. Salesman.

The bad part about him was latter on that week his company sent us some mailers. The kind that doesn't have your name on it and everyone in the neighborhood get's one. I couldn't believe my eyes when I started to read this letter. It said we would be glad to give you an estimate on all your heating and air conditioning needs or services. " We Do Complete Installs". I told my wife we could have used this a few weeks ago. Then I recognized the name of the company and now knew that the salesman had lied to me for sure.

That night I started to think about what was going on here it seemed like I was being set up. Everyone knew what was going on but me. It seemed clear to me that these people knew each other.

Well as time went on we ended up hiring the first guy that came over. He seemed to have the best product at the most reasonable price. His company also did a great job. Keep one thing in mind here out of five contractors that I gave the opportunity to bid the job. Only three showed up and from them I only got two bids. Why didn't I get more bids? Quite frankly I was to busy working at the time and of course the other two guys were always going to show up and that kind of strung me along. My mistake.

Here's the kicker to all of this. Service Magic calls me up one day to tell me they would like to start sending me construction leads as a General Contractor.

I listened to what they had to say and was almost ready to sign up with them again. That's right, I was signed up with them when they first started until they changed the rules on me. The salesman that originally contacted me said if I paid them the 100 dollar sign up fee they would let me pick what jobs I wanted to do. That lasted about 5 months before I noticed that they were not sending me siding referrals to pick from. I called them up only to talk to someone who didn't understand the State Of California Contractors Licensing Board.

Well I wasn't about to reinvent the wheel. I simply told them that I should a least get my money back, right. They said they would look into it further as I never heard from them again about my 100 dollars. Well things have changed at Service Magic since I was with them when they started.
As a home owner you don't think you are paying Service Magic because all you do is fill out a simple form giving some information about yourself.

I found out that Service Magic sent all four of these contractors my original information. Each contractor then had to pay 55 dollars each to Service Magic for a total of 220 dollars. All I have to say is how are they getting away with charging this much money for sending a out a simple referral to these contractors.

The contractor unfortunately passes this expense on to his customers. You as the home owners end up paying these fees as a cost of doing business with them. Some contractors think this is a great way of doing business but you might think differently in the future if you start paying over 100 dollars for a simple construction referral.

Greg Vanden Berge has been in the home building and remodeling business for over 30 years. With this knowledge he has created a few websites that provide useful information for home owners as well as contractors. His main goal is to educate professionals in the home related businesses, dealing with problems that can easily be avoided with just a little bit of information.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

Personal Development

Affirmations For Health and Fitness

There has been a lot in the media in the last few years regarding affirmations and how you can use them to make changes in your life.

An affirmation is a positive statement of fact that one makes to manifest their desired future.

Scientific Evidence

There is much scientific evidence that these positive statements are effective in improving physical health. They tell your subconscious mind to get to work making all the systems of the body function properly.

Change Your Energy

When you change unhealthy thought patterns, and start making positive statements about your health, you change the energy that flows to your physical body from your energy source, or subconscious mind. This is turn can actually change your physical body.

Here are some of our favorites that you can use to help you on your journey towards a healthier, happier life.

• All the systems of my body function perfectly.
• I am perfectly healthy in body, mind and spirit.
• I am well, I am whole, and I am strong and healthy.
• I never get sick.
• I am healthy, happy and radiant.
• I radiate good health.
• My body is a safe and pleasurable place for me to be.
• My sleep is relaxed and refreshing.
• I have all the energy I need to accomplish my goals.
• My body is healed, restored and filled with energy.
• I have abundant energy, vitality and well-being.
• I am healthy in all aspects of my being.
• I am always able to maintain my ideal weight.
• I am filled with energy to do all the daily activities in my life.
• My mind is at peace.
• I love and care for my body and it cares for me.

When you make these statements, joyfully envision your body in perfect health. Close your eyes and picture your healthy, vibrant new you.

If you make this a daily practice, in a short time you will no doubt see significant improvements in your body, your health and your life!

Katie Hayes writes about health and fitness topics. Read more about affirmations, positive thinking and the happiness-health connection at http://www.health-and-fitness-source.com

Need Help Remodeling In Carlsbad

What you are thinking about remodeling your house and you live in Carlsbad. Let me give you some advice about some local contractors and some of the people involved. I used a company called Service Magic to find a local heating and air conditioning contractor. All I had to do was go on the internet , type in some information about my self and what I wanted to have done to my home. This didn't seem that bad of a idea at the time. But look what I found out.

I went to their web site, filled in my information and with in minutes I had received the names of at least 4 contractors. Wow this is neat. I didn't even get to start calling any of them when my phone rang. It was one of the contractors secretaries. She introduced herself and asked what would be a good time for someone to come out to look at the work I wanted done.

I was surprised at the speed things were taking place but in a way glad that I had a reputable contractor from one of the largest construction referral services on the internet. I told her 10:00 would be fine. I got a call shortly after that from one of the other companies. He wanted to meet me that mourning at 8:00 if it was Ok with me. I told him of course, let's do this. Then the next one called and I thought great you can come at 1:00. Well you guessed it the next one was coming over at 2:30.

The first contractor showed up as scheduled at 8:00. We talked about what I wanted done and he whips out his note book and starts figuring out a price. This took place around 15 minutes into the meeting. This guys good I thought. Being a General Contractor in Carlsbad myself, for a job like this I would go back to my office and figure out a price and then double check my figures for a accurate estimate. It took this guy less than 5 minutes to create a proposal of around 10,700 dollars for every thing.

Well I was thinking to myself, the job should be around 7,000 dollars but what do I know about construction. I informed him that I would think about it and that I was going to meet with a couple of other contractors that day. He ask me who the other contractors were. I proceeded to tell him that I probably shouldn't tell him who they were. Well your not going to believe this. He put on his physic hat and told me who was coming over. The only thing he didn't know was what time they where coming over.

Oh I forgot to mention before he left he told me he would knock ten percent off the job if I signed the contract right now. I pretended like I was excited just to see his reaction. He looked at me like he had won the gold metal in sales. I told him thanks but I bet your new offer with the ten percent discount will be good for the next few day. Right I asked. He wasn't looking that excited any more as he replied with a Yes it will be good for a while. I thanked him and he went on his way.

My 10:00 never showed but his secretary gave me the old, " He had to go do a emergency job and could he reschedule tomorrow at the same time. I said that would be fine. As a contractor myself I have always put the work I had to do first and foremost.

About 12:30 I get a call from my next heating and air conditioning contractor. He is running late but will be there at 1:30. I appreciate the call and I will see you then. The only problem now is that I have another contractor coming at 2:30. That give the next contractor less than one hour before the next guy shows up. I never liked going over to someone's house and running into another remodeling contractor.

The next contractor was very informative and knew his stuff. I listened and learned. He told me he was going to have to go back to his office and would have a price back in the mourning. Great I told him as I hurried him out the door.

The last contractor of the day shows up and wants to know whose been over to the house, was it these guys or those guys. I told him I wasn't going to tell him who was over. Now this guy was a salesman. He did a little more probing before he let me in on the fact that his company doesn't do complete home installations. He made up some story that his company only replaces the forced air units. I could tell he didn't want to do the job once he found out I knew what I was talking about. So I said my good byes to Mr. Salesman.

The bad part about him was latter on that week his company sent us some mailers. The kind that doesn't have your name on it and everyone in the neighborhood get's one. I couldn't believe my eyes when I started to read this letter. It said we would be glad to give you an estimate on all your heating and air conditioning needs or services. " We Do Complete Installs". I told my wife we could have used this a few weeks ago. Then I recognized the name of the company and now knew that the salesman had lied to me for sure.

That night I started to think about what was going on here it seemed like I was being set up. Everyone knew what was going on but me. It seemed clear to me that these people knew each other.

Well as time went on we ended up hiring the first guy that came over. He seemed to have the best product at the most reasonable price. His company also did a great job. Keep one thing in mind here out of five contractors that I gave the opportunity to bid the job. Only three showed up and from them I only got two bids. Why didn't I get more bids? Quite frankly I was to busy working at the time and of course the other two guys were always going to show up and that kind of strung me along. My mistake.

Here's the kicker to all of this. Service Magic calls me up one day to tell me they would like to start sending me construction leads as a General Contractor.

I listened to what they had to say and was almost ready to sign up with them again. That's right, I was signed up with them when they first started until they changed the rules on me. The salesman that originally contacted me said if I paid them the 100 dollar sign up fee they would let me pick what jobs I wanted to do. That lasted about 5 months before I noticed that they were not sending me siding referrals to pick from. I called them up only to talk to someone who didn't understand the State Of California Contractors Licensing Board.

Well I wasn't about to reinvent the wheel. I simply told them that I should a least get my money back, right. They said they would look into it further as I never heard from them again about my 100 dollars. Well things have changed at Service Magic since I was with them when they started.
As a home owner you don't think you are paying Service Magic because all you do is fill out a simple form giving some information about yourself.

I found out that Service Magic sent all four of these contractors my original information. Each contractor then had to pay 55 dollars each to Service Magic for a total of 220 dollars. All I have to say is how are they getting away with charging this much money for sending a out a simple referral to these contractors.

The contractor unfortunately passes this expense on to his customers. You as the home owners end up paying these fees as a cost of doing business with them. Some contractors think this is a great way of doing business but you might think differently in the future if you start paying over 100 dollars for a simple construction referral.

Greg Vanden Berge has been in the home building and remodeling business for over 30 years. With this knowledge he has created a few websites that provide useful information for home owners as well as contractors. His main goal is to educate professionals in the home related businesses, dealing with problems that can easily be avoided with just a little bit of information.

His website http://gregvan.com provides all kinds of answers to remodeling and new house building issues that could create major damage as well as possible damage to your pocket book.

Visit us now for Home Improvement Tips

Another Crappy Rule In The Bible

How to Achieve Your Goals by Using Simple Proven Steps

Do you want to be rich? Do you want to live the kind of lifestyle you always wanted? Do you want to achieve the great success you always dream of? In fact, achieving great success is not as complicated as you might think. As long as you have the desire and willing to take the necessary action, it is possible for you to achieve what you want in your life.

If you are serious and truly want to achieve your goals, here are some simple and proven steps that you can follow right away...

1. You must be visionary and know what you want in your future. Many people live a mediocre life; they struggle through life without ever knowing why. The only reason for this is that they do not know what they really want in their life. Do you have dreams? Do you know what your goals are? Do you know what have any targets in your life? Knowing what you want is the first step to achieving it. You cannot hit a target that you cannot see.

2. Once you know what you want, you must then know why you want it. This is because without knowing why you want it, you will never achieve it. It is the reason that will propel you, motivate you and inspire you into taking action to make it comes true. If goal setting, visualization, law of attraction, affirmation, etc do not work for you, it is because your desire is not strong enough. Your desire will be backed up by the reason deep within you. So find out why you want to achieve what you want today.

3. After you follow through the first two steps, this step will be easy for you. You have to have the courage to venture out of your comfort zone and take the necessary action to make your goals and dreams come true. If you are just standing right there without doing anything, you will never reach another point of your life. You have to be willing to make the decision and take the action to achieve your goals.

These are the simple and proven steps how you can achieve your goals in your life. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Therefore, take the first step now to find out what you really want to achieve in your life, know the reasons and take the action right away.

Fail to achieve your goals or live the kind of lifestyle you desire? No problem. Just follow through my proven, step-by-step and FREE Success Blueprint system... You're about to discover how to master your mind, design your very own destiny and transform into living a successful life that you always desire

For more information, please visit http://www.TheMillionaireSecrets.net/success-blueprint.html

Advantages of Framing With Steel Studs

I have heard all sorts of stories over the years of the advantages in framing with steel versus wood studs. One time I even heard you could build an entire house with the amount of recycled steel from a large automobile such as a Cadillac. I find this hard to believe unless you're building a very small home.

My personal favorite for framing with steel studs is that they are extremely straight. I have built nonbearing partition walls using 12 foot 3 1/2 inch wide steel studs and after the drywall you can lay an 8 foot level to check it for straightness on the wall with amazing results.

If you use 3 1/2 inch wide steel studs with 5/8 of an inch drywall you will get an extremely durable and sturdy wall. Framing was steel studs is common in office renovations or remodeling. Most of the steel stud framing is done via the drywall contractors.

Steel studs and termites do not mix. You'll never have to worry about these little buggers or other uninvited house pests damaging your walls.

Over the years I have heard stories that steel framed buildings are earthquake and fire proof. They might be more resistant to fire than wood but keep in mind when metal is hot enough it will bend and warp making it unusable.

When I hear people talking about a fireproof building built with metal framing components my first thought is all of the other materials used in building the house that are not fire resistant. Don't get a false illusion when buying a house framed with steel studs and think it is 100% fire proof.

As far as steel framed buildings being earthquake proof this is another story. I really can't comment too much on earthquake damage to a steel building. The problem with earthquakes is they seem to create fires. So even if you're building does survive an earthquake it could get damaged by a fire in the area.

I have framed more wood homes than steel homes over the years and my steel stud construction is limited to nonbearing partition walls usually located in office buildings. I love framing with metal because of its light weight and ease of construction.

I still love framing with wood. There is something about what framing that I have always loved and always will.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as

well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on House Framing Ideas

When Do We Get To Meet God

Time Management in the Workplace - Slow Down and Still Get More Done

Do you know what an overworked machine looks like? It functions at its optimum level right before it finally breaks down.

Does this seem like you?

Has your life turned into one big race to beat the clock? Does it feel like no matter what you do, you can never seem to catch up? Has this pressure to catch up caused you to go into overdrive - working faster and harder - fearing that one day you too might just break down?

Being on overdrive leads us to belief that we are being more productive. However, the reality is, it can be the quite opposite. When you are on overdrive, you are in a "do, do, do!" mode, without being able to slow down and step back.

As a Result, Time Management in the Workplace Suffers.

Instead, step back and slow down. Doing this can be very beneficial to your overall productivity in the workplace. Slowing down allows you to plan so you can do more with less effort and time. It also allows you to think more clearly and strategize better as you are less stressed and have more energy.

So, if you seem to be caught running on all cylinders, yet can't seem to get anything accomplished, it's time to step on the brakes and slow down.

Listed below are useful strategies for time management in the workplace, which you can use to ease yourself out of overdrive, yet still be as productive as you want to be.

Time Management Strategy #1 - Learn to delegate tasks. Whenever possible, delegate less important errands, especially repetitive tasks that can be done by a lower level staff member or assistant. Assigning minor tasks to others gives you extra time to take care of the more important projects and assignments, especially those that are critical for decision making and those that impact the bottom line.

Delegation not only saves you time, but money as well. The less time you waste on petty errands, the more time and money you can save by focusing on the bigger goals. Of course, there will always be tasks that require your attention and personal touch, so focus on those tasks yourself.

Time Management Strategy #2 - Brainstorm. Hold meetings with your staff to brainstorm better time management in the workplace techniques. They may have fantastic ideas that they have not voiced because they were never given the opportunity. Their specific skills and experience puts them in a good position to make thoughtful recommendations on use of time, ease of work, and improving job efficiency. This will encourage your staff to work together as a group to become a more effective, time efficient unit.

Remember, heed smart ideas and give credit where it is due. Otherwise employees will be unwilling to share their ideas in the future.

Time Management Strategy #3 - Go for a Walk. Slowing down means clearing your mind from the cluttering effects of your office. The best way to do this is go outside, walk around, and get some fresh air. This may sound like a waste of time, but it is very effective in de-stressing which plays a big part in easing you out of overdrive.

Also, talking a nice relaxing walk helps you remove all the ancillary worries from your mind that can get in the way of important obligations you have to focus on. By eliminating these distractions, your mind can be freed to better focus on these obligations, be more creative, and hence, be more productive.

In the workplace, it is easy to find ourselves falling into a fast track routine. However, the fast track might not be the right track. Meaning, it might not be the best pace for you to do the things you need to get done. Instead of the fast track, focus on the smart track.

The smart track is to slow down, relax, and plan ahead on ways you can save time. Doing so will allow you to do more without burning out like our overworked machine we mentioned in the first paragraph.

To learn more time management in the workplace strategies and how to achieve a work life balance, visit http://www.selfmadeeasy.com, a self help and personal development company.

Slow Market Home Pricing Advice

Homes are going to be sold in good markets and bad. When times are good, people often forget that bad times will be coming eventually. During good times, people often get caught up in the hype of the real estate boom. During tough times, houses will be sold eventually, or taken off the market and sold later. If you need to sell the home as soon as possible, for financial or other reasons, you will have to adjust your price with the current market and don't get greedy.

This is the hardest thing for most people to do, lower the price of their home in order to sell it in a slow real estate market. Don't get caught up in the value of your home, six months or even a year ago. Last year's prices are not going to be this year's prices and you need to get that through your thick skull. If the average homes in your neighborhood are selling for $250,000 and you have a swimming pool or done some upgrades, maybe a room addition. Your home is going to be worth more than the average selling price.

Most real estate professionals will price your home according to the length of time you have to sell it. If you're in a hurry to sell, they don't have time to test the market. The price of your home would need to be competitive or lower than homes selling in the area. Whether homes are selling fast in a good market for selling slow in a bad market, if you have time, you can ask a little bit more for your home. If the market hasn't reached the bottom, waiting could actually hurt you, because the prices of the homes in the area would still be dropping.

Listen to your real estate professionals advice when pricing your home. That's what you're hiring them for, they are in the real estate business. Your neighbors, relatives, friends and people you work with, will probably be guessing if you asked for their opinion on pricing your house.

Your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Finding that person is the key to selling your home, finding that person as soon as possible could give you the illusion that you sold your home to cheap. Don't worry about it, your final objective is to sell the house.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a home buyers guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

If you really think your home is safe, check out these pictures about home water damage.

Religion Articles

How to Stay Positive No Matter What

Now more than any other time in our recent history is as important that we find ways to stay positive no matter what. Why? Because your success depends on your mindset, not on the economy or on the marketplace. How do I know this to be a fact? I've interviewed hundreds of top producing real estate agents all over the USA and Canada, and when I asked them the secret to their success, unquestionably and without a doubt and independent of each other, they all said the same thing, "My mindset."

These are top producing real estate agents that have been in the business for sometimes 10, 20, or even 30 years. They've been through up times, down times, and all kinds of different markets, and they said without a doubt it was their mindset, and I feel that this is kind of a best kept secret. I think when times get tough, people start to look outside of themselves for answers and what they really need to do is look inside themselves and ask themselves the question, "How can I stay positive, how can I stay hopeful, how can I stay optimistic?" And this article will provide you with some tools to make it easier to be in a positive mindset no matter what.

The first tool is to really stop watching, or listening, or reading the news. Why, because the news is based on negativity. The news amplifies fear and negativity in order to capture more listeners, more readers, and more viewers. The media is a business like anything else and there's a saying called, "If it bleeds, it reads." So the more scared they can make people, the more people will buy more newspapers to find out what's going to happen, or turn on the TV more, or in some way stay fixated because they're in fear, they stay fixated on what the media is telling them.

The second tool is stop being around negative people. Your colleagues are going to want to constantly come up and talk to you and tell you how bad it is. Maybe your clients or prospective clients are going say to you on the phone how bad it is, and even friends will do the same thing. You will go through a day and everybody will want to tell you how negative it is. Here are my suggestions. First, avoid those kinds of people that are negative and second, if you're stuck with them in an elevator or your car, I suggest you do what a former client of mine does. When the other person is talking negatively, my client just tunes them out and just says, "Well that may be true for you, but that's not true for me." It's like an inner mantra "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me." You're creating your own inner environment.

The third tool is a technique that I've used with my clients this past 12 years as a real estate business coach. It's a very powerful tool called The Stop Technique, and there's three steps to it, and the first step is just called Stop. The way it works is that if you start to notice your mind going in a negative direction such as, "Oh I can't succeed in today's economy. Oh I just don't have what it takes to be successful or to make money. I have to work really hard and struggle and sacrifice." Any of those negative thoughts that will bring your energy down, your job is simply to catch those as early as you can in the beginning and say, "Stop." Take a deep breath, and then put in a positive new thought.

You can put in your choice of however many positive new thoughts you have ready in your aresenal. If some of your negative statements are about yourself like, "I'm not good enough, or I'm not smart enough, or I'm not experienced enough," or whatever those kind of disproving thoughts, I would say a really good generic thought to put in, an empowered belief to put in is, "I love and approve of myself unconditionally." That takes care of those self judgmental statements. Another kind of self limiting belief is something that you continually tell yourself, "Oh well, to succeed I'm going to have to really struggle, and sacrifice, and stress out, and work hard, and then I won't have a life." If that's been your primary belief then you put a stop on that when you hear it coming, and in inside you're saying to yourself, "I'm not going there. I'm not going there." You take a deep breath and positive new thought could be, "I'm committed to working smarter, not harder."

One of the things that's great about this technique is that it really forces you to become aware of what you're thinking from moment to moment, and it's what you're thinking from moment to moment that will create a negative or positive mindset. If you're continually thinking negative thoughts either about yourself, or the market, or about money, or any of that, then guess what, you're going real fast into a negative mindset. Then what happens is what you believe tends to come true, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. For example if you tell yourself, "I don't have what it takes to succeed in today's market," and you tell yourself that over, and over, and over again, your thoughts will create your reality and then you'll find that you don't have what it takes.

Henry Ford said, "Whether you believe you can or you can't, either way you're right,". The way to create a positive mindset is to continue to bring your thoughts back to, "I can do it,". You need to have unwavering faith in your ability to be successful. The way you do that is to retrain your mind. The stop technique is the most powerful technique for retraining your mind, but you may have to use it a few hundred times a day at the beginning. Your mind has been going down that negative track in a very undisciplined way for a long time and like wild horses that have been all over the place, you now have to reign them in and that is going to require a lot of vigilance at the beginning.

Dr. Maya Bailey, author of, Law of Attraction for Real Estate Professionals, integrates 20 years of experience as a psychologist and 12 years as a business coach with her expertise in the Law of Attraction. Her powerful work creates a success formula for real estate professionals ready to double and triple their incomes. Get Dr. Maya's free report, 7 Simple Strategies For More Clients in 90 Days, by visiting http://www.90DaystoMoreClients.com Also, check out her new Success Program, designed to help you get focused , motivated, stay on track and create a Positive Mindset, no matter what. http://www.positivebuzzsuccessprogram.com

Finding Homes Using the Internet - Home Shopping

You can simply type the words real estate or homebuying into any search engine on the World Wide Web and you will come up with hundreds, maybe even thousands of websites that are extremely helpful and full of great information. Like the one you're on right now.

Finding homes with the internet, combined with a skilled real estate salesperson, provides you with the most effective technology available today. Most websites start out, having you select a state you would like to search in and then, select a city, with your price range.

By answering their questions, this narrows the search down to all of the homes available in the area. The internet has made home shopping very simple. Considering what you had to go through in the 1970s. You found a realtor or by looking in the yellow pages, sometimes you found a good realtor and if you are lucky, maybe you would find you a good home.

Most of the time, the first homes you would look at, were owned by the real estate professional you were working with.

There are however a couple of problems with using the internet to find your dream home. Some of the verbage used and photographs taken can create a wonderful illusion of a tropical paradise but the reality, it's a regular home in a decent neighborhood.

Some of these photos are taken by skilled photographers who take advantage of every angle and tend to give an illusion of grander. When you actually start driving around and looking at these homes, only then will you get a reality check, of what the home actually looks like. You'll get used to it.

After you've looked at a few of your future dream homes, you will get a better idea of what I'm talking about with these wonderful pictures and the extraordinary home descriptions like "Beautiful Three Bedroom House with an Ocean View." When reality it's a two-bedroom house with an extra closet for the third bedroom and the ocean is 45 miles away, but you can see it on a clear day if you actually climb to the top of the largest tree on the property.

Take your time when searching for your dream home and don't let any one push you into making a decision if you're not ready. If you find your real estate professional a little too aggressive or pushy, get out of your contract, if you've signed one and find another, more helpful real estate salesperson to help you with your home purchase.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He has just finished a home buyers guide to take some of the frustration out of home shopping.

Find other real estate tips and great advice, from another one of the Internet's best website creators.

Meditating On Religious Scriptur

Essential Laws of Fearless Living by Guy Finley - Book Review

I recently read the new book, The Essential Laws of Fearless Living by Guy Finley. Guy says that we have an insatiable desire to be someone in the world. What drives that? The wish for power, he asserts. We think that power will put us above the world of the ordinary. It will move us out of our unremarkable daily lives and into a life of excitement and pleasure. We are running from the fear of being no one. But, as Guy points out . . ."what we resist persists." So by living in fear and discouragement because we are unable to move away from the fear, we are only bringing more of the same feelings! It's a vicious, never-ending circle. We try using power to control and possess others - a really bad idea Guy points out because by trying to control another person, we are, in fact, giving our power over to that person. So not only are we not in control, someone else has control over us! Not exactly what we had in mind. So instead of trying to control others, give to others what we ask from them. That is the secret to receiving what we wish for from others

Most of us automatically resist the unknown. But in order to become fearless, we must practice self-liberation. We live in negative states of self-doubt and fear. But if we realize that these states are voluntary, not mandatory, we can begin to free ourselves from their imprisonment. The more we think negative thoughts, the more we sink into negativity. And the more we live in negativity, the more we react negatively. We must realize that negative reactions make nothing better!

So how do we become fearless? By letting go of those limiting beliefs. And how do we find our limiting beliefs? Through self-reflection and thought. Put a question to ourselves - such as, what do I fear? - and really think about the response. Self-awareness puts us in touch with the higher intelligence that already lives within all of us.

Stop trying to change the world that we see. Instead begin by changing the way we see the world. Work on the inner first and the outer will follow.

Annette Greco is co-owner of a successful home remodeling business, author of The Kitchen Remodeling Cookbook: The Survival Guide to Cooking When Your Kitchen Can't and co-founder of On The Level Consulting. The remodeling business requires a successful combination of sales, marketing, administration and production. It is even more important for the small remodeling company to execute all areas well and in the right combination. Find out how to maximize profits while minimizing time and stress. Sign up for On The Level Consulting's FREE online newsletter to find out how. Visit http://www.onthelevelconsulting.com

Advantages of Framing With Steel Studs

I have heard all sorts of stories over the years of the advantages in framing with steel versus wood studs. One time I even heard you could build an entire house with the amount of recycled steel from a large automobile such as a Cadillac. I find this hard to believe unless you're building a very small home.

My personal favorite for framing with steel studs is that they are extremely straight. I have built nonbearing partition walls using 12 foot 3 1/2 inch wide steel studs and after the drywall you can lay an 8 foot level to check it for straightness on the wall with amazing results.

If you use 3 1/2 inch wide steel studs with 5/8 of an inch drywall you will get an extremely durable and sturdy wall. Framing was steel studs is common in office renovations or remodeling. Most of the steel stud framing is done via the drywall contractors.

Steel studs and termites do not mix. You'll never have to worry about these little buggers or other uninvited house pests damaging your walls.

Over the years I have heard stories that steel framed buildings are earthquake and fire proof. They might be more resistant to fire than wood but keep in mind when metal is hot enough it will bend and warp making it unusable.

When I hear people talking about a fireproof building built with metal framing components my first thought is all of the other materials used in building the house that are not fire resistant. Don't get a false illusion when buying a house framed with steel studs and think it is 100% fire proof.

As far as steel framed buildings being earthquake proof this is another story. I really can't comment too much on earthquake damage to a steel building. The problem with earthquakes is they seem to create fires. So even if you're building does survive an earthquake it could get damaged by a fire in the area.

I have framed more wood homes than steel homes over the years and my steel stud construction is limited to nonbearing partition walls usually located in office buildings. I love framing with metal because of its light weight and ease of construction.

I still love framing with wood. There is something about what framing that I have always loved and always will.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as

well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on House Framing Ideas

Are Your Prayers Being Answered

Changing Habits Can Change Your Life - Goal Setting

Creating super habits are easier than you could ever imagine. Most people have something they would like to change in their lives. If you ask anyone, they are usually able to answer this question, "If you could change anything about yourself, what would you change." All the self help and personal development programs and books available today are full of useful information that nobody seems to take advantage of. You've seen the TV commercials and listen to other people tell their stories, about how they lost weight.

Are you one of those skeptics that find these stories hard to believe. Do you think it's possible to create a life changing habit within 30 days? If you don't think it's possible, have you ever tried to change something about yourself you don't like.

If you haven't tried, how do you know it's impossible. If you have tried to create change in your life, did you quit, did you quit shortly after you started. This is often what most people do. They either quit before they start and never even get started, or they quit within a short period of time after they started. Usually these people have an excuse, most of the time their excuse is quite simply, it was harder than I thought.

Creating super habits in 30 days is possible and you don't have to be an over achiever to accomplish this goal. Creating these habits will require some effort on your part but the rewards most of the time are worth the effort.

I challenge you to change something about yourself you don't like within the next 30 days.

Go to the next step for more information.

Finding Something You Don't like about Yourself

Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a self help video library filled with great movies on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.

Change Your Thinking About Life

What do I do when I get down and out. Well that use to happen to me often and I seemed to suffer with some minor depression. It would seem like time would stand still. I would look at the clock and notice the time. Let's say 2:23 in the afternoon. I would look back to see what time it was about fifteen minutes latter and it would be 2:26. Wow what in the heck is going on with this clock.

I just couldn't believe it seemed like the day would never end. I would just sit there and think about all the stuff going on in my life, good and bad of course. This seemed to last until I was in my early twenties. I just didn't want to feel like this any more. I made a Conscious design not to get depressed period. I never wanted to feel like that again.

I read a book on ESP and in the book it described visualizing a rose as you went to sleep. I started doing this every night and while I was doing the exercise it seemed to make me feel relaxed in a way I never had felt before. The reason for the exercise was to teach you to visualize something peaceful. This in turn would put you in a peaceful state of mind.

Then a thought came into my noggin. What if when ever I start to feel bad or seem to be going into a sort of depressive state of mind I change my thoughts. It worked... I would start to visualize something else that made me feel comfortable and give me a peaceful feeling. Man was I surprised with my results.

Keep in mind I didn't think of this all on my own but I did put the pieces of the puzzle I needed to together that I needed to change my life. It seemed like I could use this form of self control in different parts of my life. If I was at work and someone made me mad.... Well this didn't work all the time... I still got mad. Let's pick something else OK.

I would worry about something on the job that wasn't going right. Then I would get irritated over something else that wasn't even related to what I was worrying about. Why did I take it out on the other person when what I was really mad about was something else. We do this all the time in our lives. We seem to get mad, get even or give up. Why do we do this and what can we do to stop it.

My main point to all of this is we can change our thinking and change our lives. We can learn new things to change our thinking. We don't need to give up hope that we will always be like this. Change the things you don't like about yourself. Do it today. If you need some help there is a great book that will help you change your life for the better.

You can find it at http://www.live.spiritualideas.com This book has a lot of tools to create the change in your life you want to have a more full filling life.

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown. Ross Perot.

Start Living Your Dreams Today and Create a Wonderful Life For Yourself And Your Family. Greg Vanden Berge is one of the best inspirations on the planet. You will be hearing a lot about this guy in the future. You can count on it.

Will All Men Ever Hate Jesus

Everything That's Beautiful is Cracked, That's How the Light Gets In

What is beauty anyway?

The answer to that question seems to come at us everyday through magazines like; People, Chatelaine, Men's Health, Vogue, Hello, Esquire, newspapers, television shows like; Extreme Makeover, Entertainment Tonight, The Miss Universe Pageant, Access Hollywood and the advertisements that come with those publications and shows, that purport to know what beauty is. We seem to take for granted that the narrow, superficial societal definition of beauty is essentially related to physical appearance and attraction. But have you really stopped to ponder what beauty is, really?

Leonard Cohen; singer, songwriter, novelist and poet said that "everything that's beautiful is cracked, that's how the light gets in." I do believe he has captured the essence of beauty.

Beauty is in the nature of our flaws. It is in our reflective self-awareness and acceptance of our imperfections that we discover our true beauty. Once we begin to reach that level of maturity and self-esteem, approaching self-actualization, we increasingly behave and even radiate an inner goodness, grace and dignity, which becomes evident to the people around us. Acceptance of ourselves is eventually what leads us to becoming self-actualized. It allows us to transcend our imperfections, highlight and focus on our strengths and forge a life for ourselves and for those who we love in a congruent way with the essence of our being.

To translate; "that's how the light gets in," is meant to mean quite literally becoming "enlightened." When the light shines through the cracks in our outer armor rather than blinding us, it illuminates areas in our lives that we need to bring attention to. Those cracks or flaws are what often keeps us from achieving that level of esteem that all of us desire, whether we are consciously aware of them or not. We can do two things in relation to our imperfections, work to bring about change that will perhaps eliminate or minimize them or just come to accept them as a part of who we are in the world.

So, don't be afraid to let the light shine through the cracks, open up to it, bask in its warmth and glow, work with it to bring harmony to your life, find your true self then share it with the world.
I believe that in spite of the seemingly complex nature of our world today, our true self is actually love reflected. Become a positive force for good, it will make you feel better.

James Ladd
Your Personal Coach

JAMES LADD B.A., C.H.R.P., C.P.I.R. Life & Business Coach, author and speaker, who has without a doubt been down the "Road Less Traveled," having survived and thrived after a double lung transplant in August of 2003. Jim comes to this place in his incredible life journey with a dynamic combination of work and life experience. Jim worked as an Organizational & Human Resource Development Specialist for over 35 years in the private, public & non-profit sectors and also managed a provincial government employee assistance program serving over 15,000 employees. He has authored and facilitated a wide variety of training programs covering such diverse topics as; managing organizational change, conflict resolution, performance management, managing and/or coping with stress, interviewing & counseling skills, supervisory & management skills. His most recent publication titled; "THE PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION GUIDE: Raising Awareness of Self to Slay the Dragon," is available through his website. In the community he became an award winning football coach over the course of 25 years (Coach of the Year 3M of Canada, Coach of the Year, Developmental Category, Coaches Assoc. of Manitoba

Repairing a Leaking Toilet

Let me explain how a toilet works. First when you go to flush the toilet a little arm pulls a rubber flapper up and lets the water drain into the toilet bowl. The water draining into the toilet bowl forces the old water out along with the number two or number one waste and extremities.

If the toilet sounds like it is running there is a good chance that the seal between the rubber flapper and the plastic rain at the bottom of the toilet is broken somehow. The sound you are hearing is water running around this ring and in to the toilet bowl.

This leak is actually causing no damage to the toilet itself but is wasting water. Hence the water bill will be a little higher if you don't fix the leaking toilet. The best way to find out if this is actually your problem is to take the toilet tank lid off. Then stick your hand down into the toilet bowl and press gently on the rubber flap.

If the water stops leaking or starts running faster this is your problem. Turn the water off to the toilet. There will be a shut off valve on the wall under your toilet bowl in the bathroom. After you turn the water off removed the plastic flap and examine it.

You will be looking for a warped toilet flap or of some sort or grooves on the flapper itself. Take the toilet flapper down to your local home improvement store and buy a new one. Go home and replace the new toilet flapper and this should solve 90% of your leaking toilet problems.

There is one more thing it could be. With the toilet tank lid off, check to see if water is overflowing into the little round plastic pipe. This plastic pipe should have a small hose running from the float valve assembly into it.

If the water is over flowing from the toilet tank into this little plastic pipe you will need to adjust the float.

First thing you will need to do is while the toilet is running lift up on the float lever arm. If the water stops you can simply bend the metal arm of the float lever. The purpose of bending the arm will force the float deeper into the water there for stopping the water from rising over the small tube in the center of your toilet.

There are few parts to a toilet and most parts can be purchased at your local hardware or home improvement centers. Toilet repairs like this can be made simple and the parts used to replace are inexpensive.

Happy Toilet Repairing.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more House Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and Some Great Plumbing Ideas

Nothing Will Be Impossible

How to Breathe Health into Your Body Through Conscious Breathing

A look at how the breath can be used to bring balance into area of our Body and Mind.

The Breath is very powerful it has been used for centuries by Yogis to create different effects on the body and mind.

Before we start to discuss the different techniques, which can be used to balance the body. Lets look at normal breathing. It is good from time to time to make sure that you are using the full capacity of our lungs when breathing.

Lets take a few deep breaths, breathing in through the nose with the mouth closed; if this is possible for you to do comfortably. It is important to breath deeply right down into the abdomen and then to fill the chest. It is also important to breath out fully using the diaphragm to empty your lungs fully, as unless you get most of the stale air out you cannot breath in fresh air.

Even using just normal breathing like this and staying conscious of the breath, as it enters and leaves the body, can be very powerful.

To effect healing in any area of the body, stay conscious of the breath, and take your awareness to the dis-eased area; spend a few minutes with your awareness in that area being conscious of the feelings and emotions, which come up. Keep being conscious of the breath as you breathe.

The breath uses Air, one of the five elements, to connect with your source energy. The source energy comes into your body through the breath. This is sometimes referred to as Prana. When you stay conscious of your breath while breathing you get control over this prana or life force, and can direct it using your awareness, to different parts of the body to bring healing and balance into that region.

Even spending a few minutes a day doing this type of conscious breathing can make major changes in the health of your body and mind.

When major events happen in your life it is quite often a good idea to take a few deep breaths before we choose how we would like to react to that situation. It gives us time to think and quiets the mind and connects us to source energy, so that our reaction is coming from love and from our heart.

Message channelled by George Lockett (C) Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved.

* New book * "A Journey into the Self -- the multi-dimensional nature of being human": HealerGeorge Web Site and New Book

Description: What is this book going to do for YOU? For those who are seeking a complete energetic makeover, as you read it you will feel a stirring and awakening in the depths of your heart. For those who have questions about Shifts in Consciousness, Energy Balancing and Healing within the body, you will find clear answers.

Read HealerGeorges Blog: Curezone Blog or ask at question at: Ask HealerGeorge

Creating Your Electricity

Creating your own electricity and generating your own power has always been one of my dreams. Having a self sufficient home, not only a house that takes care of itself by generating its own electricity through windmills or solar panels but the satisfaction knowing that no matter what happens to the electrical companies you will always have electricity at your home.

What a wonderful feeling it would be to get a check back from the utility company instead of paying them every single month. I don't know about you but my utility bills are ridiculous and seemed to be going up in price constantly. I can't believe all the fees they have been charging for years to all of their customers. If you add all the fees for every person in the city or county this comes to a large, a very large number and it's getting worse not better.

Generating your own electricity with solar or wind power is definitely green thinking. This is going to be the wave of the future as fuel used to create electricity continues to rise in price. I really can't imagine what the price of electricity is going to be like in 10 years as the mass consumption continues to rise in developing countries.

We have got to start taking care of our own needs through solar or wind power. We have got to start creating our own electricity to become self reliant. The more self reliant we become as a nation the less dependent we will be on major corporations, especially large power conglomerates.

Creating our own electricity can also be used for electrical cars that can be purchased in the future. Think of the money you will say in fuel costs as the price of gasoline continues to increase as well as less pollution into our environment.

This is definitely the wave of the future and common sense tells us this. I suggest you read this article again if you haven't figured out some of the problems coming our way in the future.

Think green and together we can start saving the planet.

While searching for new alternatives and trying to get some advice on creating your own electricity I came across a book you can purchase in digital format. This book seems to have quite a bit of information on creating your own electricity for a totally self sufficient home.

This book has been created in digital format to reduce the consumption of trees and the waste involved in creating a regular book. What a wonderful idea for helping our environment in quite a few ways.

While searching for new alternatives and trying to get some advice on creating your own electricity I came across a book you can purchase in digital format. This book seems to have quite a bit of information on creating your own electricity for a totally self sufficient home.

This book has been created in digital format to reduce the consumption of trees and the waste involved in creating a regular book. What a wonderful idea for helping our environment in quite a few ways.

For more information visit http://www.gregvan.com and look for Get Earth4Energy Here Create your own electricity! Save 1000's with Earth4Energy

Impact Of Christian Mentors

Best Seller Books on Relationships May Make a Fool of You, Read This Before You Decide

If a break up happened between you and your ex, you may be interested in reading books on relationships. But how do you determine which books are really worthy of your time and money you will spend on them, and there are many books there in the marketplace?

In this article, I will give you some general advice that will help you choose the most suitable books on relationships. So be ready for the facts that few people know about.

First thing you have to do is, not to be fooled by well-chosen words that come in the letter after the author's name. Actually many authors consider school and classrooms as their sanctuaries from the tough life outside. As a result, they end up with a lot of letters after their names when they hit are still young, but they don't have real experience from engaging with people and realize the real situation on the ground. They use the certificate and degrees to make you feel they are real life expert while the truth are they are experts behind the luxurious desks and their range of expertise is highly theoretical. I doubt this kind of expertise will work in a real life situation.

Instead, you should look for books on relationships by authors who have survived their own dilemma and break up situations, or have helped people form their own close circle do the same. Or they just give you a general advice and charge you for their fifty minutes hour as a relationship therapist.

Next, you don't want to find books that simplify the whole situation to "work on yourself for 30 days and leave your relationship aside." This is not a good recipe, although it is popular in the relationship books and reports. Many of the e-books on the market make this as their main idea and they surround it with a 50 pages of fluff and filler, these types of e-books don't deserve your hard earned money to spend nor your precious time to read.

Instead, you should search for a book that will give you fresh ideas, things you had never heard of before, things that will entice the positive change deep in your soul.

For instance, will these books tell you what the woman think of most when you break up with her? Will it give you a simple real life coaching and give you specific things to do and to practice? Will the book show you how to save your own heart and mind after an unsuccessful affair? Will it give you some proven-to-work techniques to end your pain and enjoy peace of mind?

Finally, look at the recommendations of the book. Do the testimonials seem genuine and from the heart?

You want to find books on relationships that helped a wide range of people, from all paths of life, and representing all the social levels if it looks like both a 20 years old guy from South Africa and a 35 years woman from Missouri have used the book and were impressed, chances are this is a useful book.

The marketplace is over-saturated with these kinds of books. Unfortunately, most of them are twaddle because they were not written by someone who has a real life experience.

Finding the best books on relationships is considered as a research and a quest. Actually you will need hard work and determination to maintain a successful relationship. Should not you invest the time and money to find out what is the best of the best from them?

Ayman Dweck has survived a broken relationship and healed his broken heart, he had helped many people around him to do the same, you can read about his experience in this Free Squidoo Report.

And to read more about the best books that can help you survive a break up situation and continue with a successful plan to get your ex back you might want to Check this knol page

Window Header Framing Problems

As a building contractor it is my job to assemble the house to meet the specifications from the architect and the structural engineer. I do this by looking at the building plans and installing the specified lumber sizes. I can take it upon myself to install a larger size wood beam or window header adding an additional cost to the job of course. I don't think so.

It's not uncommon for a framing contractor that has an additional 5 foot scrap piece of 4 x 8 left over that he now has no use for. He can then choose to use the 4 x 8 instead of a 4 x 6 for the window header. This type of building is common and acceptable.

If the structural engineer calls out for 4 x 6 window and door headers do not take it upon yourself to replace the 4 x 6 with a 4 x 4. I have seen too many framing contractors or carpenters make an on-the-job judgment like this.

A good example would be a single story house with 2 foot wide windows that require a 4 x 6 window header. As the carpenter builds homes over the years he can come to his own conclusion that a 4x4 will work fine for this application. Again keep this in mind as a framing contractor and a carpenter you are assembling the home not designing it.

Do not change the sizes of any headers or beams.

A long time ago carpenters used a standard rule of thumb, you could go up two sizes larger than the window opening for your header. Let me give you an example of what I'm trying to explain.

A 4 foot wide window opening would require a 4 x 6 window header. A 6 foot window opening would require a 4 x 8 window header. This should give you an idea of what I mean by going up two sizes larger than the window opening to figure out the lumber necessary to use for your window header.

This rule of thumb does not necessarily apply in today's building industry. The reason for this is structural changes from earthquake damage. The structural requirements that are required for building a home require a lot more metal bracing and strapping. Therefore some of the lumber requirements for beam sizes and window headers will be different.

This message is for general contractors, framing contractors and carpenters. When installing a window header and you take it upon yourself to change the size you also assume the responsibility if the building fails. This type of mistake is common and you guys know what I'm talking about.

It's not worth it. Keep in mind you are the assembler and not the designer of the building you are working on.

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books to help professional building contractors as well as the weekend warriors. He is currently working on more Building and Remodeling Library and adding useful content to help solve problems created by the lack of construction knowledge in the building industry.

Visit us and get more information on building and remodeling your homes and House Framing Structural Repairs

Ask And You Might Receive Or Ask