There’s one crucial relationship in your life that I’m pretty sure you’re neglecting. And if you’re one of those people who gives a lot of themselves to others and always drops everything to give a friend a hand, you’re definitely neglecting it. Nope, it’s not your relationship with your partner, your mom, or even your kids. Important as those are, this is even more crucial. It’s a relationship I can guarantee you’ll have from the day you’re born till the day you die.

It’s your relationship with yourself.

So often, the one person in life who we criticise, judge, condemn and ignore is ourself. We decide that our needs don’t matter. If everyone else in our life walked out, this one relationship would be all we had left. And when we disregard our relationship with ourself, all other aspects of our life suffer: however hard we strive for success, things will always feel empty.

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Everyday is either a success or a failure, and if everyday is a success, you cannot fail to get rich. - Wallace D. Wattles

Your days are like elevators; they either take you closer to or further away from your goals.

If you’re constantly moving in the direction of your goal with momentum, it is self-evident that the goal will eventually be achieved; it’s only a matter of time.

An Example

Currently, I’ve been training with weights; my goal is to reach have what I consider to be my “best-beach-body-ever” when I take my annual trip to Hawaii.

This process has not been easy, and neither is it over, but I’m getting closer.  The road has seemed long, and I have not made progress everyday.  Fortunately, I have had many more days taking me closer to my goal, than further from my goal.  The momentum has been a positive one (because as the saying goes, you can’t stroll to a goal).

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Learning is one of the greatest joys in life and it can also be critical to staying employable and keeping our minds healthy as we grow older. Even with the great rewards that learning promises, however, few of us put much thought into how we might be better at it.

Here are seven practices that will help you take your learning to new levels.

Commit to learning

Most people can get on board with the idea of lifelong learning, but few of us really commit to making learning a regular, focused part of our lives. Commitment means setting clear goals for what you what to learn, how you plan to go about it, and how long it will take. Write your goals and your plan down, and set a specific time each week for reviewing your progress.

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With the world becoming more culturally diverse everyday, it is becoming increasing important for everyone to learn a new language. Whether you are learning for your career, education, or just want to increase you knowledge of other languages, the Internet provides a wide variety of tools that can enhance your learning experience. Here is a list of 15 free language learning tools to explore today:

Popling – Popling is free online web software that is great for practicing language vocabulary without any real effort. This unique software works by having a window (flash card) pop up at certain intervals on your desktop. You can either click on the window to study the full flash card or ignore it and the window will disappear.

Radio Lingua Network – The Radio Linga Network offers free online podcasts that you can use to enhance listening comprehension and language learning skills for 20 different languages. The podcast episodes range from one-minute quick lessons to longer, five-minute lessons.

Livemocha – Livemocha is a free community language learning tool with online interactive lessons, user created courses, and language partners that are ready to practice with you. The language partners are a great way build your language confidence though conversations with live native speakers. You have the option of either using conversation exercises or submitting text and audio files to native speakers for corrections and edits.

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A “factory manager” at a local factory called-in an “outside emergency maintenance guy” because one of his machines had “broken.”  The maintenance guy arrived at the factory shortly after receiving the call.  The “factory manager” then explained the problem he was experiencing to the “maintenance guy.”  The maintenance guy responded, “I know exactly what the problem is,” then he quickly replaced a screw in the machine, and the machine began to work like new.

The maintenance guy then said, “That’ll be $300.00!”  The factory manager responded, “$300! You just replaced one screw; that screw cost $1.00; I could have easily done that!”

The maintenance guy responded, “Yes, the screw did cost $1.00, but the knowledge of how to fix your machine cost $299, …and by the way, I only accept cash.”

What’s the point?  When you don’t know, you will pay the higher price!

This is why it’s critical to remain a student of life.  I’m always looking to learn and expand my mind, I’m always looking for leaders who’ve done what I’m trying to do, so that I can learn what they know.

Leaders are people with the knowledge you need, because they’ve been where you’re trying to go.  Hear me out, leaders aren’t necessarily “special,” they don’t “glow in the dark,” or wear a “halo,” leaders are just people who’ve experienced what you’re trying to experience.  They’re people who are a little further along the path that you’re traveling, and they have the knowledge to make your trip easier.

You follow leaders because they have knowledge.  There’s no need to worship them, or sing praises to their name.  You follow leaders because: “When you don’t know what they know, you will pay a higher price!”

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Image courtesy of LittleStar

If you’re reading Pick the Brain, it’s a fair bet that you have goals. You might even have written them down. Perhaps you read them every day, or have them pinned to a notice-board.

How many of those goals are materialistic ones? How many are focus on a dollar amount or a particular purchase?

I’ve been reading a book by Jack Canfield recently, and while I’ve found plenty of good advice in it, I’ve also been a little disturbed at times by his seeming equation of “success” with money and material goods:

Here are the life purpose statements of some of my friends. It is important to note that they have all become self-made millionaires through the fulfilment of their life purpose.

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…and we’re BACK!!

Ten days ago, PickTheBrain along with numerous other WordPress blogs, was hacked, and now finally we’ve debugged the system and are operating back at full force!

Thanks for the hundreds of concerned emails we received and thanks for your undying loyalty and patience!

Be well and get reading!

Erin

We know that exercise is good for the body, but it’s also incredibly good for the brain. As the authors of “The Sharp Brains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews to Keep Your Brain Sharp” point out, physical exercise is one of the four pillars of brain fitness, the other three being good nutrition, stress management, and mental stimulation.  Exercise gets rid of harmful stress chemicals and it boosts problem-solving, planning, and attention. Getting more exercise will help you improve your cognitive functions whether you’re a high school or college student, part of the work force, or an elderly person in retirement.

Below you’ll find interesting data from two books, filled with information on how our brains work, which describe the science behind the discovery that our brain functions much better when we exercise.   

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Life seemed so beautiful back then

With my six childhood friends I had so much fun

Everyday seemed new

They taught me all the things I never knew

“Stop dawdling away your time” yelled my parents

Coercing me to ignore their existence

Taming their presence every now and then

I miss my friends named What, Why, Who, Where, How and When

Penning these words in their remembrance

I still hope for their magical reappearance

These words poured into my mind as I sat down to analyze my curiosity quotient. Somewhere deep down our heart we all lament over the loss of wonder and curiosity we had in our lives while we were kids. In fact we secretly crave for the reappearance of this trait, that made our life so exciting back then. Wasn’t it your curiosity that taught you more than anything else when you stepped into this world? The only way a toddler learns about his world is by exploring the things around him out of curiosity. The benefits of curiosity are underestimated and even frowned upon once we step into the adult world.

We fail to realize that curiosity is as important to us as it is to a toddler. If you are aiming for personal growth and experiencing a more fulfilling life then it is worth improving your curiosity quotient.

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