Image courtesy of Hidden In France.

What are your most important priorities in life? What matters to you more than your job, more than your car or house, more than your hobbies and interests? What would you drop everything else for?

You might answer something like:
•    My partner
•    My religion or faith
•    My children
•    My health
•    My spiritual or personal growth

If your partner was very ill, you’d cancel all your plans to be with him/her – even if it meant missing out on an event you were really looking forward to.

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Image courtesy of Stephen Barnwell.

I was in an “on-line forum” the other day when someone asked the question, “How do you increase your income?” The person asking the question was no longer working their “day-job,” and was seeking to make money in other ways.

This person was making a few dollars each week teaching kids how to play basketball, but was looking to make additional money.

The Solution

In order to increase your income, you must increase your value; “YOU” must become more valuable.

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Image courtesy of wwcutie

Have you ever noticed how common lists are?  Why does it seem that almost every blogger in the blogosphere churns out list after list after list?  How many times do we need to read “12 Ways to Have a Great Day”?  What if you didn’t read this list?  Would you still be able to have a great day?  What if you spent the two minutes it took to read this list and simply made a list of your own?

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EQ is the acronym for Emotional Intelligence. So not only do you and I have an IQ
(Intelligence Quotient), we also have emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is not about traditional intelligence. It is about our ability to handle ourselves and others. It is all about our ability to get along with others and build relationships.

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Image courtesy of Doshiamit

How much is an hour of your time worth to you?

That might seem like a strange question to ask – but your answer to it has a big impact on many areas of your life, especially when you’re trying to make improvements.

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“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” ~ Benjamin Franklin.

Worry is a great destroyer of happiness. It is a totally unproductive thing to do, and yet most of us engage in it with great enthusiasm. I’m always amused when I hear things like ‘is this something we should worry about?’ or ‘What should we really be worrying about?’ The answer, of course, is that we shouldn’t be worrying about anything – there is always a better option.

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There is a persistent myth that living healthy is only for the well-off. With hundreds of fast food chains proudly boasting long lists of 99 cent menus – it seems like for those living on a budget, fried burgers and nuggets are the best option. However these are just marketing gimmicks that propagate the myth. Living healthy DOESN’T mean you have to go broke in the process. There are some excellent ways to save money and still lead a healthy and happy life. Here we look at some easy ways to save bundles and keep you and your family on a healthy track.

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photo credit: Dakimapics

There are no shortage of ‘experts’ that claim to know the secret of maximum productivity. At first someone will swear that the only way to really get things done is to multi-task: more done, less time. Then immediately someone will counter that it’s far simpler, more effective and rewarding and ultimately more ‘zen’ to do one task at a time: single-tasking.

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Artwork courtesy of Amy Buchheit

Some days, you wake up early, storm through tons of work before lunch, and come to the evening feeling as though you’ve accomplished a lot. For many of us, though, those days are the exception rather than a rule. Perhaps you’re reading this in the middle of a rather unproductive day. Maybe you woke up late, spent time procrastinating, had to deal with a dozen “urgent” little tasks, or simple got interrupted every five minutes.

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Some people appear to be hopped up on happy pills, being oblivious to any bad events going on around them. Others are all too quick to express their disgust at anything that doesn’t go exactly their way.

Could it be that the healthiest emotional mix is somewhere between the extremes? Say, four parts good feelings to one part bad feelings, shaken not stirred, and served with a twist of lime?

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