No Clue What To Do You're a No Clue person if you know that you want to do something else but you just can't decide what that 'something else' might be. Sometimes you may not be entirely clueless - you might just be missing the clues, or just have some vague ideas which seem to lead you into scary uncertainty! What's Out There? If you've done the 'what's in here?' work on your confidence and motivation then you're ready to check out what's out there for you. Most people are clueless about finding work or a career that suits them, but knowing what is available is often the biggest hurdle. It's amazing how often people say "If I knew what was possible for me I'd find it easy to choose something else, but I just don't know what the possibilities are!" It's as if they have arrived at a restaurant and no-one has offered them a menu, so they don't know what food is available. There are some foolproof ways to check out your own 'What's Out There' menu and here are some starters! • Decide where you want to work first - if you want to stay in one region then target your search there. • Start with local newspapers and make a research project over a four week period to check the vacancy sections - circle vacancies that seem interesting and send for job particulars, even if you're unsure whether you are qualified for them - this is just research. • Check out a few national newspapers too - try The Guardian on Saturday for example, which has a mix of the week's vacancies, to get some ideas and send for details of jobs just to expand your ideas. • Take a look at the collection of vacancies that interest you and decide what sort of themes there are to your selection. • Score each job that interests you out of 10 as to how well suited you are to it - regardless of whether you might need to re-train for it. • Make a list of the possibilities - you are creating your own menu! • Workshadow or volunteer to check a job out • Do some internet searches to find out more about your top three jobs - there are many good careers sites on the web. • If you're over 19 years old, phone your local Learning and Skills Council to find out the telephone number of your local Information, Advice and Guidance partnership where you can book time with a Careers Adviser to explore your ideas. • If you are under 19 years, book some time with a Connexions Personal Adviser to do the same thing • If you are a university student or graduate contact your local university careers service who will offer you careers advice • Arrange to talk to anyone you know or a friend of a friend of a friend who does a job you think might interest you, and ask their advice. What's stopping you? If you've got this far, you should have some amazing new ideas but they'll stay as ideas, unless you decide to act - find out how you can do the thing you want to do! Phone round local colleges and unis and get their prospectuses. Remember you can still keep working in a day job while you re-train through evening/part time study for the thing you really want to do. It could take a long time! Yes it might, but many courses are just 6 months long or a year and if it did take three years, then think of that compared to 20 years doing something you hate - no contest! What Are You Like? Your values Getting to know yourself will help you work out what's going to make you stick to a career for the rest of your life - or at least for a couple of years! Your personal values are the things that are important to you and that you look for in your life and relationships. Personal values can include; family, money, the environment, independence, ambition or honesty. If a job matches things you care about, it's going to be a hell of a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning. It's important to set your goals in line with your values, otherwise you may end up where you thought you wanted to be only to be disappointed. Being clear about and knowing what's important to you is vital, and will be a great guide to you as you move onwards and upwards. It will • Keep you on track and motivated • Help with making decision. • Add to your sense of fulfilment Writing your values down in a list can help make this process clearer, or you could print off this worksheet and try the quick values exercise as a way of working out what your main values are. You could also try out the Careers quiz in BBC Science. Where are you now? Now you've taken a look at what motivates you, it's time to work out where you are now and what you've got going for you. A SWOT Analysis is a tool used in business planning, but it works just as well for people. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, and you need to look at all of these things to work out: • Where you're going • How you're doing • What you should do next This test should help you to identify areas for improvement, and can be the start of a personal plan for success. The first step in a SWOT analysis is to make a grid, creating four sections - one each for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For example: • Strengths and Weaknesses are usually things internal to you - about your skills, personality character etc. • Opportunities and Threats are usually external - about people you know, job openings that might occur, and other external factors that might impact on your life. Fill in the grid thinking carefully about all the things that are affecting you right now - there's a grid on our worksheet you can use. This exercise can help you identify any particular problems which might lie ahead. It can also remind you of your strengths and help you think about how you can use them to your advantage. Remember these values, strengths and opportunities - they can help you work on the next step; setting yourself goals. Goals Setting goals is the first step to success; this will give you focus and direction. You can't set goals without deciding what you're ultimately aiming at. Look into the future. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? • What sort of work would you do? • Where would you work? • How much would you earn? • What would your lifestyle be like? Think of someone whose job you'd like to do. Get creative, and think BIG! Write your goals down and think about them as a real possibility, rather than just a dream. Start getting SMART SMART is an approach to goal setting. It's a checklist to help you give yourself goals you have a chance of reaching. You can apply this to all the goals you have written down - if they include all of the following you can call them SMART goals. S: Specific Be as clear as you can. State exactly what you want, in detail. M: Measurable You need to know when you've reached your goal by having measures. E.g. If your goal was to become a journalist then your measure could be having an article published in your local paper. A: Achievable Don't set yourself a goal that's so high that you want to give up before you've even started. R: Realistic You want it to challenge you but not to be impossible. T: Time bound This is very important, otherwise you could dream forever. Set yourself some time limits - when will you achieve your goal by? It could be in six months or even ten years, depending on how big your goal is. Write it down. Make sure your goals fit in with your values, check that they're SMART and then write them down somewhere safe. You can use our worksheet here. It sounds strange, but having your goals written down makes them seem more real, and achievable. Now you're a bit clearer on what you want it's time to look at how you're going to do it. Page 2 of 6 Planning You've worked out what your goals are...now what? Imagine you've already reached your final goal and work backwards: how did you get there? What steps did you have to take? Write down all the steps you'd take in order, and think about how you can achieve them. For example; if your ambition is to write a novel, some of your steps might be; write a character description for three characters, write a brief plot outline, write five pages of the opening chapter etc. If you're using our worksheet do this bit in the 'Goals' section. This exercise does two things: • It makes your final goal seem more realistic and maps out your route to get there. • It breaks your final goal down into lots of mini-goals, which you can start working on right now! Keeping your plan alive We've all done it; written out plans or made promises to ourselves only to completely forget them or get sidetracked by something else. You need to keep your plan alive. Here are some suggestions: • Buy a diary Transfer the information from your plan into your diary, on the specific dates. Book them in as though they are appointments you have with yourself. • Tell friends and family It's important to have people around for support. They will be there to keep you on track, pick you up when the going gets rough and also share in your successes. • Reviews Look at your plan on a regular basis and check how you're getting on. Is there anything you need to add or change? You've worked out what order you need to do things in, you've set yourself goals and broken them down. Now it's time to put it all into action. Take Action The hardest thing about reaching your goals is taking that first step, but remember that every great book started with a single word, every great song with a single beat. So whatever you can do, no matter how small, is a start. Fear of failure If you don't get an 'A' in your exams it doesn't mean you're a complete failure as a person. See it for what it is i.e. that you're a perfectly ok person who has happened to fail at one particular thing. Try to learn from it and you'll have the strength to accept life's challenges. Don't beat yourself up for not succeeding, that's being unfair to yourself. Perfectionism What is perfectionism? • The desire to jump in and do things yourself because others just can't do it right • Not wanting to start on something unless you're sure you can do it well • The need to finish the job, and worrying if things are left 'hanging' Going through life as a perfectionist can damage your self-esteem. That's because the impossibly high demands you make of yourself and others will often result in disappointment. It will also make any rejection you might experience even harder to deal with. Preventing perfectionism begins by saying 'no' to unreasonably high demands. Make sure your goals are realistic and stop focusing on your faults. Procrastination Do you put things off? Find yourself making excuses to get out of doing things? We're all guilty of procrastinating from time to time, but when putting things off interferes with your life, you need to sort it out. • Know yourself. What style of procrastination do you take? Cleaning your room? Socialising? Reading? Running away? Day dreaming? Keep an eye on yourself and learn to spot the warning signs. • Get yourself a diary and use it every day. Write down what you are going to do or have already done. Carry it around with you every day, make it a habit. • Plan ahead. Break down tasks into smaller goals, and give these goals deadlines. Write these deadlines into your diary. • Make a 'to do' list that you write into your diary. Even small, easy-to-do things could be added to the list. Tick them off as you go along. • Break things down. Breaking a task down into manageable chunks usually removes the threat of having to do a large task all at once. Also, completing several small chunks is going to make you feel a lot more positive than if you fail to finish one large unmanageable one. • Organise your environment, Pin boards, calendars, an address book - work out what you need and put it in place. • Fake it! Act as if you are a well-organised non-procrastinator. Imagine how you would think and behave and you'll pick up the habit. Now that you've faced your fear and stopped putting it off, it's time to start contacting people! Contacting People In the world of business there is a set way of speaking and communicating and it makes sense to use these rules. Speaking to people in a language and style they know, and are comfortable with helps to make a good first impression. Making contact by telephone Making contact by phone can be a daunting task. Here are some tips to help you overcome this. • Phone from a quiet place, free of distractions. • Don't eat or drink while you are on the phone. • Be prepared to sell yourself • Be direct and brief. • Do your research, find out who you will you be speaking to and what position they hold. • Speak with confidence • Plan what you want to say to start the conversation • Think about the questions you want to ask and write them down • Try to anticipate what questions the person you are calling might have for you and have the answers ready • Always treat the person answering with respect. You never know who maybe answering the phone! • Finally, always return any calls you receive within 24hours Communicating via email or letter How you write your letter or email is as important as what you say in it. If you're writing a letter, try to use a PC rather than sending a hand written version. This not only shows your computer literate but also avoids problems if your handwriting's a bit dodgy and difficult to read. • Address and write your letter or email to an individual, not an office or department. If you don't know who to write to, ring up the company and ask or check on the Internet. • Always have in mind why you're writing and stick to the point. • Don't sound desperate. Don't tell them that you are writing because you've tried everywhere else and this is your last chance. Be positive. Tell them why they are special and how fantastic you are. • Avoid using abbreviations • Don't use smilies in your email • If you normally address a person as Miss/Mrs/Ms/Mr X then address them the same way. If you normally call them by their first name then use that. If you are unsure, stick to the formal version. • Never send an email written in UPPER CASE, this is the equivalent of shouting in someone's ear. • Check carefully for grammar and spelling mistakes. Don't depend on the spell-check function of your PC, for example, if you use 'there' for 'their' the spell-check won't notice. • Make it easy for them to get back to you. Give your landline and mobile numbers and add your email address if you have regular access. • Always keep copies of what you send out, for future reference. You never know when you may need it. Once you've started contacting people you can start building up a network of contacts. Networking Networking means developing a broad list of contacts of people you've met through various social and business functions who might be able to give you: • Job leads • Offer you advice and information • Introduce you to other people who might be able to help Not all opportunities are advertised or publicly announced, lots of people get jobs through word-of-mouth or networking. Building up a network can increase your chances of getting to where you want to be. The best place to start developing your network is with your family, friends, and neighbours. Talk to the people you work with, and those you meet out and about. Keep in touch with former co-workers, bosses, and teachers. The key to successful networking Do • Get organized. You need a system for recording all the useful numbers and key information you collect, such as names, titles, company names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses, and dates of communication. • Keep in touch through regular phone calls, letters or email. Don't be afraid to ask for their help. Most people like helping others, but you must be prepared to return the favour. • Set yourself targets, such as making one new contact a week. • Keep your network informed of your situation and thank them for their efforts. Don't • Be false. • Lie to get on, you will be caught out. • Take without giving, you must be prepared to return all your favours. • Be prejudiced about who should be part of your network. You may be surprised - you never know who knows whom. Be prepared Just imagine it. The person who you would love to work for walks into the room. You know this is your chance. Your mouth becomes dry. Your head is a complete blank! Don't let this happen. Practise what you would say and always carry a pen and paper with you or better still, get some business cards made up. Sell Yourself Nobody will know what you want or what you can do unless you tell them. This is often the hardest part of promoting yourself. We don't speak up because we don't want to seem arrogant, or we're simply afraid of the reaction we'll get. Imagine you only had a very short space of time to sell yourself. You would need to be very clear what your strong points are. What would you say? If you've been using our worksheet have a look at what you've written down. Write a short paragraph about yourself saying why you're the one they want. Don't be modest, but do be honest. Do • Say who you are • Say what you're good at • Say what you want, or want to do next Don't • Spend any of that time apologising for what you can't do • Explain why you haven't done something Need some inspiration? Take a look at some of the jobs you could be doing. Page 6 of 6

 

What do we lose when we lose language? Asks Sunny Bindra

In which language do you think? When I was ten years old, it became clear to me that I generally think in English. Many years later, the repercussions of this seemingly innocuous discovery became apparent. Since then I have tussled with the idea of ‘my' language, and its loss.

‘My' language is Punjabi. But Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Kiswahili are also mine - I can speak and understand them (in varying degrees). I grew up with them; more importantly, I feel for them. I love their nuance and cadence, their idiom and rhythm.

Sitting above all of them, in terms of usage and general intimacy, is English. It is the language I find myself conversing in and writing in most of the time. I am devoted to it, but it also fills me with unease. Is it ‘mine'? And in giving it the crown, what have I lost?

English is the language of South Asians in Kenya today. It is the language of business, of general expression, of exuberance. Once upon a time, it was the language of external communication: our homes resonated with the sounds of Punjabi and Gujarati, of Cutchi and Hindi. Outside - in schools, shops, public places - we switched to Angrezi. But listen to the generation below thirty today: English is not only spoken in every single situation and every single interaction - it is the only language spoken.

So what? Languages do die out. There are more than six thousand still spoken around the world today, but by the end of this century more than half may have disappeared. Many argue that this is a good thing; that it reflects the end of isolationism and heralds a new integration of the people of the world. In the past, wars, invasions and colonisations often led to the loss of indigenous language. Today it is globalisation that leads the onslaught. English is lingua franca - you either speak it or you stay irrelevant.

So it is with the young wahindi of East Africa. The old folks may still be twanging the old tongues, but we who are modern can only express our freshness in English. All our learning - of medicine, of law, of science, of art - is conducted in English. Our expressions, our elations, even our put-downs - all English. "Take a chill pill, bro", I hear you tell me. We are part of the South Asian diaspora. We are entrepreneurs and achievers, and we're on our way to ruling the world. We can only do that in English. So don't fulminate - reciprocate!

And yet there is another interesting phenomenon at work. We don't abandon our songs and our movies - they have never been more popular. Bollywood keeps booming; our crooners keep crooning. Because of our films and songs, everyone has some sort of working knowledge of Hindi and Urdu. We can't really speak the lingo, but we get the drift and don't lose the plot. Hai na? It helps, of course, that the dialogues of most new movies are increasingly peppered with English (to sell to the diaspora) and have ve-e-e-ry simple plots (to sell to half-wits).

This ‘resurgence' of the cultural values of home is largely driven by the diaspora dollar. No matter how well the brethren do in far-off lands, after a while of trying to fit in and doing as the Romans do, a lament rises deep in the soul: this isn't mine! I want my songs, my words, my heritage. Sadly, this is not coupled with a desire to learn or relearn the mother tongue: it only manifests in a need to partake in ‘culturelite' - fusion music, movies with international settings, folk songs remixed and redux.

Why am I worried? Because you can only express a culture in its own language. Consider the following lines of poetry.

How will I ever prove to you my smitten heart's agony? The problem is: my face lights up whenever you are with me.

I know that it is the ‘garden path' that leads to heaven's door. Yet, whether it is there or not, Man lives in the happy thought.

Cheesy, but not too bad? The poet is struggling to make things rhyme, clearly (‘agony' with ‘me'; ‘not' with ‘thought'); but we can make out the glimmer of subtle thought: the lovesick one's painful yet comic dilemma; the poking of gentle fun at the idea of heaven.

Now, if you understand Urdu, read the original lines:

Un ke dekhay se jo aa-jaati hai munh parr raunaq
Woh samajhtay hain ke beemar ka haal achha hai.

Hamm ko maaloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat, lekin
Dil ke khush rakhnay ko, Ghalib, ye khayaal achha hai.

The original ghazal was penned, of course, by none other than the legendary Mirza Ghalib, one of the finest poets (in any language) to have walked on the face of the earth. The translation is from ‘Ghalib: Cullings from the Divan' by T. P. Issar. Mr. Issar has a genuine ‘feel' for the subtlety and magic of Ghalib's word-play. Yet not even he could begin to convey the artistry of the original. The fault is not his; when you change the shell, the contents cannot remain unaltered.

We cannot find our way back to the heart of our culture via translation. We will discover only a sad surrogate, a pale proxy of the real thing. Translations are useful in conveying the basics, and in helping multi-lingual people deepen their understanding, using the nuances of both languages; but we will not recapture in English that which was not conceived in English.

Language is a unique repository of knowledge, of culture, of traditions, of histories. It is a treasure trove of human experience. That is what we are going to lose when we finally cannot speak or understand our mother tongues: our knowledge of what we are.

Which raises another point: why is it we don't speak our own language? What stops us? There are many answers: "No one speaks it anymore." "It's what my parents spoke, and I've spent years getting away from their outdated ways." "English is the world's essential language - it's what you need to get on professionally and culturally; I just don't have time to mess around with others."

Actually, you should never need to find the time to learn your own mother tongue. It is usually learned in the most natural way possible: by speaking it in the home in early childhood. That's the way our parents learnt it; and that's the way many of us did - by usage, not by going to special classes or listening to CD-ROMs. Sadly, the natural way is the way we have all tossed out of the window.

Listen out: the language of parents and children today is English. Children are instructed, guided, encouraged and admonished in English. Their learning medium is English; they learn the English alphabet and use English learning materials. English is the only medium they ever encounter. ‘Culture' they perceive as dimly understood ethnic rituals and songs. The future is clear, and it is in English.

If it was just another language we were assimilating, there would be little to worry about. But exclusive reliance on one language - someone else's - means that we are also assimilating someone else's ideas, knowledge, perspectives and view of the world. By making English the sole communication medium of the next generation, we are moving inexorably away from what it means to be us, towards someone else's idea of reality.

Why would we do that? A clue: I was on a family holiday at the coast recently, and listened to the conversations of the multi-hued families around me. The English families spoke, naturally, in English. The Dutch, Germans and French children all spoke in their natural tongues. The South Asian and African families all spoke in English.

Another clue: if you go down the social ladder and eavesdrop on South Asian (and African) families of a poorer background, you will discover that they are still, even in today's Anglophone, globalised world, speaking in their mother tongues. As affluence comes, however, the rustic sounds of the old language are dropped for the crisp professional tones of the world language.

I can only explain our wilful abandonment of our identity by thinking of self-hatred. A peculiar self-hatred it is, too. Is it the colonial experience that did it to us, and is that why continental Europeans and the Chinese have no problem retaining (and rejoicing in) their own languages? Why are we so willing to place our languages - and with them our poems and songs - on the rubbish dump of the past? What shame, what inadequacy are we running away from?

And when we want our children to learn a language other than English, we think of French. How unspeakably sad.

All that conditioning in childhood: all those Archie comics; Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books; Disney and Bond movies; Biblical epics; Shakespearean sonnets and Dickensian plots. We swallowed it without question, and it swallowed us in turn. We emerged unaware of Ghalib and Tagore; of raags and taals; of the Vedas and the Upanishads; of three millennia of cultural history.

Perhaps we should not be too harsh about this. Not all the abandonment of given tongues is happening because we're too blasé to care. In some cases, our mixing with the world has led to genuine difficulty. Sometimes, the environment is such that we are genuinely unable to practice and recapture what was once ours.

Yet, by and large, we are running very fast to be something other than we are. We are chasing shadows. Once you have accepted another's way of looking at things at the expense of your own, you have already assumed inferiority. Your way is better. Mine is something to leave behind. Will unique development models, methodologies and mentalities emerge from this mimicry? No, we will always remain clones and replicas - never quite as good as the original. Can you build anything great when you question your own foundation as a human being?

All of life's richness is reflected in its diversity. It is our varied experience of peoples, foods, tastes, sounds and attire that makes our lives exotic and interesting. Without diversity we are doomed to experience life as humdrum homogeneity. Language is the first loss; and all that is reflected in that language inevitably follows. It never ceases to shock me that we are going to stand by and let it happen.

Are there signs of a revival? Sanskrit is being learnt afresh in parts of India - and as far afield as Germany and America. The internet is being used as an effective medium by parents in diaspora to recapture Hindi and Urdu. Even right here in Kenya, demand is growing for language classes in temples and social centres. Perhaps the call of identity is stronger than we think. Aage dekho.

Sunny Bindra is a writer and management consultant in Nairobi. He writes a weekly column for the Sunday Nation.

sunwords@hotmail.com

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffett, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

  1)        He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

  2)        He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
 
  3)        He still lives in the same small 3 bedroom house  in mid-town Omaha ,  that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything  he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
 
  4)         He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
 
  5)        He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
 
  6)        His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year   to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.
 
  7)         He has given his CEO's only two rules. Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holders' money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

  8)        He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch television.

  9)         Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had  scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

  10)        Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
 
  11)        His advice to young people: Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself.

Amazing individual indeed......

Two months ago a 3-minute movie titled: 212° was released ...The Extra

>>>>Degree. The response to this simple, but powerful video has been

>>>>overwhelming!!

>>>>

>>>>I Click on the link below. If you have seen it, I urge you to watch it

>>>>again, and pass it on to friends and co-workers to inspire them to reach

>>>>their goals in 2007. Click Here: http://www.212movie.com

>
> There was once a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the
> mirror and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
>
> "Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today," so she did
> and she had a wonderful day.
>
> The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw she had
> only two hairs on her head.
>
> "HMM," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle
> today," and she did and she had a grand day.
>
> The next morning she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw she
> had only one hair left on her head.
>
> "Well," she said, "Today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony
> tail." So she did and it was a fun, fun day.
>
> The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that
> there wasn't a single hair on her head.
>
> "YEAH!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"
>
>
> Remember you may not be able to control what someone says or
> does or some of the situations that life throws you, but you can
> sure control the way you react.
>
> ~Author Unknown~

The following are actual stories provided by travel consultants.

I had someone ask for an aisle seats so that his or her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.

A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"

I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts. "Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Capecod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ... click.

A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state."

I got a call from a man who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "But they look so close on the map."

Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a 1-hour lay over in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to drive between the gates to save time."

A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of llinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!

A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know who's luggage belongs to who?" I said, "No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?" After putting her on hold for a minute while I "looked into it" (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them."

A woman called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever."

A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express."

A woman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York" The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent: "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don't be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! I knew it was a big animal!"

1. Wake Up . . . Decide to have a good day. "Today is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up . . .  The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance; but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up . . . Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. "He who guards his lips guards his soul." Proverbs 13:3

4. Stand Up . . . for what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything.. "Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good..." Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up . . . to the Lord.
"I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

6. Reach Up . . . for something higher. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, And He will direct your path."
Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up . . .  your prayers.
"Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING."
Philippians 4:6

 

God answers Knee-Mail.

We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It's not so easy as you think. It's important to know how and when to eat.

What is the correct way of eating fruits?
* IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS!
* FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD
Let's say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.

In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.

So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals!

You have heard people complaining - every time I eat water-melon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat banana I feel like running to the toilet etc - actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!
Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will not happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.
There is no such thing as some fruits like orange and lemon are acidic because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Sehlton who did a research on this matter.

If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.

When you need to drink fruit juice - drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don't even drink juice that has been heated up. Don't eat cooked fruits because you don't get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste.

So stop making 'goreng pisang' or 'durian porridge' if you want nutrients. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.

But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it.

You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body.

Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprise when your friends tell you how radiant you look!
KIWI: Tiny but mighty
This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, Vitamin E & fibre.
Its Vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.

APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away?
Although an apple has a low Vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of Vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit
Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessels-clogging free radicals.

ORANGE: Sweetest medicine

Taking 2 -4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest Thirst Quencher Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene - the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are Vitamin C & Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for Vitamin C
They are the clear winners for their high Vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fibre, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.

I believe there are three kinds of people. There are winners, who know what they want and understand their potential and the possibilities. They take life on. Next are losers, who don't have a clue as to who they are. They allow circumstances to shape their lives and their self-image. 

I believe there is a third group as well. This consists of potential winners whose lives are just slightly out of alignment. I call them wayward winners. It may be that they just need to learn how to be real winners. Perhaps they've hit a bump or two that has knocked them off course and they are temporarily befuddled. 

A failed relationship, a lost job, financial problems, unformed goals, a lack of parental support, illness...many things can send us off course temporarily.

Wayward winners are not lost souls; they just need some tweaking and coaching and nudging to get them back on course. A map might be nice. Many of these wayward winners are easily identifiable because they are always searching.

Right now, there are many wayward winners out there braving rain, sleet and snow because they too still believe that they have untapped talents. They attend motivational seminars and listen to inspirational tapes and they plunge onward, believing that sooner or later they will find their way again.

Other wayward winners have temporarily given up. They are damaged and disoriented, their confidence badly eroded. They tend to drift through life numbly. 

The friends and relatives and loved ones of wayward winners see that they are out of sync and wonder why they can't be satisfied, why they don't settle down. They wonder how people who have such obvious abilities and great potential can be so disoriented and unsure.

It is difficult for others to understand the rawness of a broken heart or the aching emptiness of an unguided spirit. You and I know. We have been there. Wayward winners know that there are possibilities out there, but too often they feel locked out from them. Some are afraid to risk any more because of what they have risked and lost already.

I know now that as difficult as it may be for you wayward winners to do, it is necessary to continue to test yourselves. Even though you have been hurt before, it is the only way to grow. We all have the capacity to change, to lead meaningful and productive lives by awakening our consciousness.

You know there are going to be tough times as you go about changing your life, so brace yourself and you will be able to handle them. When you get into your seat on an airplane, what is the first thing they tell you to do? Fasten your seat belt. Brace yourself for the turbulence.

When you decide to move your life to the next level of accomplishment, you must fasten your mental and spiritual seat belts because it is going to be a while before you reach that comfortable level again. You will reach it, but you must endure the turbulence of change in order to grow. 

Try this technique to help you through the difficult times of change and growth. Find four reasons why you cannot succumb to your fears and your troubles. Find those deep sources of motivation that can lift you out of the turbulence and above the clouds. 

You must change your life because, for example: 

You have not yet tapped the talents given you. 
You want to leave something more for your children. 
You want to live life rather than letting life live you. 
You want to do what makes YOU happy. 

It is in these rocky early moments of bringing change to your life that you discover who you are. In the prosperous times, you build what is in your pocket. In the tough times, you strengthen what is in your heart. And that is when you gain insight into yourself, insight that leads to self-mastery and an expansion of your consciousness as a life-force in both your personal and professional lives.
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Written by Les Brown - As a renowned professional speaker, author and television personality, Les Brown has risen to national prominence by delivering a high energy message which tells people how to shake off mediocrity and live up to their greatness. Visit his web site at http://lesbrown.com/

A Lesson From Wonderland - Having a lovely and bright young daughter, I just began to re-read some of the children's classics I enjoyed in my childhood.

Although Lewis Carroll's masterpiece, Alice in Wonderland,
is frequently (and mistakenly) considered to be for children
only, its pages contain many basic lessons in life.

Take, for example, this wonderful little excerpt...

"Is this the right way?" said Alice to the Cheshire cat.

"That depends a lot on where you want to go," said the cat.

"I don't know where I'm going," said Alice...

"Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," said the
cat.

How many of us have found ourselves in this situation --
walking, talking, working, and getting by just fine without
ever really knowing where we are going?

That's exactly how life is for the 95% of people who don't
set S.M.A.R.T. goals!

S.M.A.R.T. Goal-Setting

Unlike dreams, goals must adhere to strict rules. In order
to be smart goals, they must be...

Specific
Motivational
Attainable
Relevant
Trackable

Using The S.M.A.R.T. Goals System - Goals must be Specific
in order to be of any use -- you can't just say you want
things to be better. "Better" is not specific!

Goals must be Motivational. They must have the emotional
power to excite you enough to expend the time and effort
necessary to achieve them.

Goals can be ambitious, but they must be grounded in
reality.

They must be Attainable. Setting a goal like, "Some day,
somehow, I want to be president of a major corporation and
very, very rich," does not meet the requirements. A goal
that says, "I want to make $100,000 this year by selling one
million dollars worth of widgets," is Specific,
Motivational, and Attainable.

Intermediate goals must be Relevant to your ultimate goal. For example, "I want to sell a million widgets this year, be the top salesman in the company next year, and be Vice President of Sales two years from today."

Your goals must be Trackable. You must be able to measure progress as you go along. If your goals are not trackable, you don't know where you stand on the road to your goal.

Now do this exercise.( I mean it. Really do it!)

1. Write down how much money you want to make in the next year, starting today. $____________________

2. Divide that figure by twelve. That's how much you have to make each month. $____________________

3. Divide that figure by four. That's roughly how much you have to make each week. $____________________

4. Divide that figure by five. That's how much you have to make each day. $____________________

5. Divide that figure by eight. That's how much you have to make each hour to achieve your annual income. $____________________

Example:

This year:$ 120,000
This month:$ 10,000
This week:$ 2,500
Today:$ 500
This hour:$ 50

Now, what steps can you take to help achieve that hourly goal now, today?

_______________________________

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Andrew Wood, is recognized worldwide as a business, marketing, leadership, and personal development expert.