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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My sister-in-law was visiting my wife  just a few weeks ago and she mentioned to us a project that she was considering.  She was planning on starting a new club at Louisiana State University (LSU), which is the college she is attending.  She asked us for our opinion on her new project.

After listening to her ideas concerning the project, I told her that the project sounded like an excellent idea, I also let her know that we would support her in everyway possible!  Lastly, I cautioned her of three common roadblocks to success.  I said, if you can overcome these three roadblocks, you will be well on your way.

The following three roadblocks show up any time you decide to accomplish a major task; you should expect these roadblocks and overcome them.  These roadblocks progress from considerations, to fears and finally obstacles.  Each roadblock in this progression becomes increasingly more challenging to overcome, but if you can overcome them, you will succeed.

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Every generation has had it’s own big world events and challenges, and of course, that’s what’s shaped the values, personality characteristics and lifestyle choices of each generation. One of the big events of our generation has been the birth and growth of the internet – an event that’s brought both challenges and opportunities for all of us. In an increasingly interconnected world where we have access to information about people and lifestyles all over the world, we all have more opportunities than ever before. So many of the barriers to entry that existed before, making life and leadership difficult, have been dissolved by the internet. It’s easier than ever before to find like-minded people all over the world, it’s cheaper than ever before to start a business and serve people all over the world, it’s easier and cheaper than ever before to educate yourself about anything you’d like to learn about, it’s easier than ever before to find out your rights, comparative prices on the stuff you’d like to buy, and the choices available to you, and it’s easier than ever before to create automated systems to provide the scaffolding that can help your life to run smoothly.

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Many of us have a tendency to spend money frivolously. I’m not talking about the rare folk who run up insane credit card debts on things they just can’t afford – but people like you.

Maybe you always come out of the grocery store with a few things you don’t need … and which eventually end up in the trash. Maybe you can’t resist buying new books, even though there’s a great library nearby. Maybe you end up buying things online when you’re surfing the net in the evenings.

Spending money unnecessarily is just a habit – but it’s one that can be detrimental to your financial goals. Here are five things you can do to break that habit and take back control of your spending.

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“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get,” said the Cat.

“I really don’t care where” replied Alice.

“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

- Quote from the Alice in Wonderland Movie

My brother called me the other day and asked me for some advice?  He was trying to decide between two job offers:

Job 1 – The first job was your typical 40 hour a week “office” job.

Job 2 – The second job was more of a career in the insurance industry, where he would start at the bottom, and after many years and many long hours eventually rise to the top (if he was good).  The second job did not pay as well as the first job (initially), but the potential pay-off of the second job was much greater than the first job.

So which job should my brother take?  Well the answer is…it depends.

Just like the Cat was trying to tell Alice, which road you take depends a great deal on where you want to end up.

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Charisma can help you in many aspects of life.  It can help you win friends, be popular with the opposite sex, and even land that new exciting job.  There is almost nothing that charisma can’t help you achieve.  For some, it is very natural to be charismatic.  They just seem to have that ‘X-Factor’.  However it is comforting to know that charisma can also be developed.  Here are 4 top methods to help boost your charisma…

1. Have goals you are working towards

There are a lot more followers than leaders, so if you want to stand out then be a trailblazer.  There is nothing wrong with being a follower, but people are naturally drawn to leaders.  Set yourself goals to work to.  Have a sense of purpose and a vision – a big goal that you are working towards.  You may or may not succeed to meet your goal, or it might change over time, but if you always have one, people will naturally feel drawn to you as you present the possibility of an exciting future.

Don’t simply pretend to have a goal as people will quickly see through you and you will lose all credibility.  In any case it is far more satisfying to spend life attempting to meet realistic goals.

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photo credit: shoothead

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

This quote embodies everything I know about willpower. It displays what we as people are capable of when we are pushed to the nth degree.

While this quote is indeed powerful, most of us still don’t understand how to increase our willpower. Whenever we perceive even a little step in the wrong direction, it becomes the end of world. Such thinking cannot yield good results. Remember that you have to always…

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