We live in an age of vampires. And their numbers are on the rise.

No, I’m not talking about the blood-sucking ones (I leave those to Buffy and Blade to deal with). I’m talking about health-sucking vampires.

Health-sucking vampires are those twisted creatures that consciously or not drain us of our vitality, vigor, and overall well-being.

You’ve met these villains of vibrant heath already – those that criticize your health endeavors, those that mock you for your health diligence, and those that would drag your health quality down to their unacceptable level.

It’s time to fight back. It’s time we become health-sucking vampire slayers!

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If a book costs $50, is that good value?

Your first response might be “no way!” It seems like a lot of money for a bunch of pages bound together.

If a book costs $2, is that good value?

“Hell, yeah!” That’s a bargain-basement price.

The problem is, the price of those books doesn’t necessarily bear any relation to the value which the books have to you. A textbook packed with useful information for college might be well worth $50. On the other hand, a trashy, badly-written novel might not be worth even $2 – especially when you factor in the time cost of reading it.

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In the hit film Inception Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who can enter peoples’ dreams to steal corporate secrets. At one point (spoiler coming) he enters a businessman’s dream and is driving down a city street in a parade of cars when a 300-ton freight train juggernauts out of a side road and smashes into the lead car taking vehicles, asphalt and everything else with it….

If you are a people pleaser, then not only are you in a dream-world where you think others control you, but you are also in that lead car. And each time you give in to someone and compromise your dreams you get hit…hard.

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Photo credit: American Things

When you’re worried about something, your thoughts start chasing each other round your head and don’t let up. You run the same scenarios through over and over, as if practicing them would make them turn out right.

Sometimes they’re in the past, sometimes in the future, but in either case – worrying about them isn’t going to fix anything. It’s just going to keep your thoughts in a groove they can’t get out of, upset you, keep you awake at night, and limit your creative response to the situation.

So what can you do?

Here’s a simple technique for calming your racing thoughts down. It’s as easy as watching a movie (and much cheaper).

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Photo credit: Carf

I believe we all want fulfilling relationships with other people. Which is why most of us have the desire to be very smooth socially and to make friends easy. However, there are few people who are naturally this way.

The good news is that social skills are perfectly learnable. Just as you can learn how to drive a car, you can also learn how to relate with other people in a way which creates powerful friendships.

There are certain things which if you integrate in your social behavior, will give you the ability to make friends with ease. Here are the most important of them:

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Today I thought I would take some time out and share some of the wisdom I have acquired after 4 happy years of marriage with my wife. After some careful consideration I realized that a blank page would not be an interesting post to read at all. It would be just too confusing. So what I do have for you to read today is 5 steps that I think could possibly help you not be as confused as I am written from my vast knowledge in the sanctity of marriage with my extensive 4 years of experience.

Now before we dig deeper into these steps I would first like to disclose that the steps discussed here so far have worked for me. They were also written from a man’s perspective. Please use any of them at your own risk.

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Do you feel as though your work, studying or chores always end up taking too long? Do you feel as though you could be more effective if only you could stay on task?

Maybe you’re convinced it’s a question of will power, or organization, or motivation. The solution, though, might be very simple.

One of the easiest ways to get dramatic improvements in your productivity is to use a timer. You can grab the one from your kitchen, use the alarm on your phone, or try one of the popular free online timers like e.ggtimer.com or Tick Tock Timer.

When you’ve got a timing ticking away, you’ll suddenly discover a new sense of focus which you never knew you had. Here are five specific ways in which your timer will help:

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Do you think your life is a failure? Why? Is it because you haven’t accomplished any of your goals? Or because you aren’t financially stable? Don’t have a beautiful home?

People can be very dramatic. We’ll stub our toe on the way out the door in the morning, and exclaim “Life sucks!”

We’ll create a goal to become a self-made millionaire, won’t work very hard to achieve the goal, and then 2 months later when we discover that our checking account has a balance of $3.24, scream, “I can’t do this!! I’m a failure!”

We use the word failure a lot. I’d venture to say we use it too much. And what does this word mean, anyway? What exactly is “failure”? Well, since I don’t know everything (sometimes), let’s consult with the dictionary.

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Photo Credit: 20-B Martin Puryear, Ladder for Booker T. Washington, 1996

Today I want to talk about seven inspiring success lessons.  If you’re going to succeed you must first master the lessons of success.  You must pass the test and qualify for success.  Marva Collins said, “Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.”  With that, here are seven lessons to help you “go to” success.

7 Inspiring Success Lessons:

1. Work

“The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won’t work – if you won’t.”

– Zig Ziglar

You can listen to and read all of the self-development in the world, but if you don’t put what you’re learning into action, things won’t change.  There’s a Swedish proverb that goes, “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.”  You have the potential to succeed, but you’re going to have to work the principles that you know.

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Let’s face it. Criticism has become a dirty word.

Pick up any thesaurus and you’ll find “criticism” in the company of “nit-picking, objection, disapproval, and objection.”

The truth is criticism doesn’t have to be a dirty word.

In a broader context, criticism is an assessment, review or observation that can even be in the form of appreciation. Nobody seems to ever talk about that one: When the criticism is good, we don’t call it criticism, we call it approval. We call it praise. We call it being appreciated.

And who doesn’t enjoy sincere appreciation for their work?

Anyways, for constructive criticism to occur three things have to happen: There should be interest on the part of the criticizer and the criticized, there should be bonding and trust that the discussion is for the right reasons, and the criticism should be presented as a discussion.

When the criticism meets these three criteria, there is a strong foundation for learning to occur, and for both members to benefit from honest criticism.

Here are the three advantages to constructive criticism:

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