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When circus elephants are very young their legs are tied to a rope. The rope is held in place by a large stake that is driven into the ground. Try as they may the elephants can not break free from the ropes. After repeated attempts to break free, the elephants become conditioned to believe that they cannot break free. So they simply quit trying. As they grow and reach maturity, that same rope continues to hold the elephants in their place.
Despite the fact that the elephant could break free from the bond any time they wanted to, the elephant does not believe that it could break free, so it doesn't even try.
How many of us are stuck in a rut, weighed down with the belief that we can't do something simply because of our outdated beliefs? How many of us refuse to attempt something new and challenging because of a limiting belief that we have? Or ever worse, a limiting belief that someone else may have?
Author Napolean Hill said, "What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
Kevin Saunders, Bronze Medal winner at the Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain, says, "There's always a way. Never give up." If you want something badly enough, you'll figure out a way to get it. Nothing can hold you back except yourself.
Two things are necessary to achieving your goals:
- Take Action: It is easy to stand up and take notice. What is difficult is standing up and taking action. St Francis of Assisi said, "Start by doing what is necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
- Believe in Yourself: Whether you believe you can or believe you cannot...you are right! While society has programmed us to believe that only a chosen few are deserving of the best, this is simply untrue. You have the power to decide what you want to accomplish in life, and the power to achieve lies within you.
Here is a list of tips to help you along your way:
- Say "Yes" to your dreams!
- Make a list of your goals, and sign that list. You are making a commitment to yourself, a contract.
- Visualize your success. See what you want in advance and then go for it.
- Act as if – walk, talk, and speak with the attitude and confidence of the winner.
- Eliminate excuses and "I can't."
- Treat yourself with TLC – tender loving care.
You are going to hit some bumps in the road.
Just remember, the bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to take the curve.
Constantly battling tummy bugs or colds and flus? Your desk at the office or in your home could be the culprit. Researchers found 400 times more germs at office work stations than in bathrooms. Fortunately, it's easy to keep your desk from making you sick. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Toss unwrapped snacks.
Unopened packaged foods are fine but anything you unwrapped or that's been opened is a bacteria magnet.
Do this once a day.
Wipe your keyboard, mouse, phone and desk with disinfectant wipes. Because so many people touch these areas, they're hotspots for spreading germs like the cold virus.
Cut the clutter.
They may look neat but women's desks are actually germier than men's. Women tend to keep more things around, such as candy dishes and tissues that invite co-workers to touch, leaving bacteria behind. And women should not put their purse on their desk, as they will transport germs from wherever else they have set it down.
Find another spot for lunch.
Keyboards, files and other supplies are havens for crumbs and bacteria. If you can't have lunch in the lounge or kitchen, wipe down your desk (before and after you eat) and use paper towels as an extra barrier.
Soap up.
Viruses are mostly spread by hands. Washing with soap and water is the best way to fight germs. But don't just soap up for 20 seconds and rinse – do it a second time to zap lingering bacteria! And keep instant sanitizers handy for quick touch-ups.
Today's popular wood and ceramic floors can be enhanced with the right rug. The right rug can work wonders. To achieve your desired effect and make any room look...
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Bigger.
Choose wall-to-wall carpeting that matches the wall color. Unbroken lines always look longest.
Smaller.
Lay an area rug diagonally across the room. The bare floor spaces seem to disappear.
Warmer.
Opt for carpeting with layers of warm colors like brick, terra cotta or burgundy.
Cooler.
Try bare wood or tile floors, skipping carpet altogether.
Richer.
Use multiple oriental rugs, as many as you can fit allowing them to overlap here and there.
Coordinated.
Choose a mini-pattern that incorporates the main colors in a room full of fabrics.
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Safer veggie-chopping.
Keep your cutting board from sliding all over the counter: Simply wrap a few rubber bands around both ends, and it wont budge.
Open jars.
Stubborn lid? Wrap a thick rubber band around it – it'll give you the grip you need to twist open.
Arrange flowers.
Take a tip from expert florists: To make a bouquet stand up perfectly, use rubber bands to tie together the flowers. Use an opaque vase so no one will see the secret to your arrangement.
Slip-proof hangers.
Stop heavy sweaters and dresses with thin straps from slipping off hangers by wrapping both sides of a plastic hanger with rubber bands to keep them in place.
Revive a broom.
Broom's fibers bent out of shape? Slip a rubber band around them overnight and in the morning your broom will be as good as new.
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Residential electric heating systems are clean, nearly one-hundred percent efficient, and easy to maintain.
Unfortunately, electric heat tends to be the most expensive heating. Generating electric heat involves inefficiencies and energy losses during conversion from fossil fuel to heat energy, from heat energy to mechanical energy, from mechanical energy to electrical energy, and finally from the transmission of electricity to your home. In the end, it would be cheaper and more efficient to burn the fossil fuel directly in your home.
Except for one mitigating factor: delivery of the fossil fuel to the home comes at a cost. In remote areas where the delivery costs of fossil fuel are high, electric heat may be a less expensive option.
Heat Pumps
An electric heat pump does not generate heat, it just collects heat from outside and moves it inside. When you heat your house with electricity, you convert one unit of electrical energy into one unit of heat energy. With a heat pump, you might then use one unit of electrical energy to collect two units of heat energy, giving you one-hundred percent more heat than you paid for! At about the freezing point, the electricity cost to pump heat into your house becomes more than the cost to generate heat directly. For this reason, heat pumps are not used in very cold climates.
Electric Furnace
An electric furnace is a simple and relatively trouble-free system. It has no heat exchanger, no gas valve, no igniters and no chimney. It simply has an electric resistance coil placed directly in the air stream. A blower moves air through the furnace and circulates the warmed air throughout the house.
Air conditioning can be added directly to the furnace, using the same ducting that circulates heat to also circulate cool air.
Electric Baseboard Heaters
Electric baseboard heaters provide heat exactly where you need it, as you need it. Baseboards allow you to set back the thermostats in the rooms you are not inhabiting, saving a significant amount of energy. Unfortunately, you cannot add air conditioning to this system without adding an independent ducting system.
Electric Hot Water Boiler
An electric hot water boiler uses electric elements to heat water. The heated water is pumped into radiators or convectors throughout the house. In terms of size, electric hot water boilers are small and inconspicuous.
Electric Radiant Heat
Today, under-floor electric radiant heat is popular in bathrooms and kitchens, usually added as accent heating rather than as the primary source of heat.
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From frills-free dialers to GPS-equipped mini-computers, your choice of cellphone says a lot about you. The cell phone is more than a mode of communication – it's a personality statement. Just find yours among the popular types below to learn what your chattiest gadget reveals about you.
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No-frills: You're a sociable wit.
The more basic your cellphone, the more sophisticated your social skills are.
Brightly colored or bejeweled: You're a sensitive stylista.
You are emotional and sensitive to your environment.
GPS- and Internet-enabled: You're a daring individualist.
Your high-tech phone shows your tendency toward complexity and your ability to embrace change.
Video- or camera-ready: You're an observer.
You are a true visual thinker, seeing details others would ignore.
Equipped with a full keyboard: You're an assertive CEO.
You show an adaptability common in leaders who know that embracing new information is essential to staying ahead of the pack.
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These tips reveal how you can get more years out of your dishwasher and microwave.
Average Life Span: 7-12 years
Go for powder soap, not gel.
Powders easily dissolve in water, while gels create buildup that can eat away at the inside of your dishwasher. Extend life: 3 years
Skip the pre-rinse.
Leaving small food particles on your dishes rather than rinsing them first will give you a better wash. When enzymes in food interact with chemicals in the soap, it boosts the scrubbing effect. You're less likely to have to re-wash, which eases strain on your dishwasher. Extend life: 3 years
Microwave: Average Life Span: 5-10 years
Keep it clean.
Wipe down your microwave weekly to prevent spills from generating extra heat that can damage the unit. Extend life: 3 years.
Open the vents!
If your microwave is above your stove top flip on the ventilation fan whenever you use your burners. Extend life: 3 - 5 years.
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In some geographic areas, suppliers bill electricity at variable rates, higher during peak demand time and lower during low demand. This system encourages consumers to cut back on energy use when the generating station is maxed out.
Electric thermal storage heating systems use energy during off peak hours to heat a thermal mass, such as blocks of ceramic, located inside the home heating unit. During peak hours when electricity is most expensive, the electric heat shuts off but heat continues to ooze out of the ceramic, thus heating the home.
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