I doubt if anyone is not affected by this issue in some way. If not personally, at least someone you know has a problem with obesity and related diseases. The difficult thing about obesity related diseases is that the cure requires a lifestyle change. Medical doctors are often at a loss on how to get patients to have the discipline to change what is habitual in their lives.  The other unfortunate thing is that the motivation to make the change often only comes when it is almost too late.

Here are 7 important truths to recognize about living a healthier lifestyle.   

1. Health Issues Strike Everyone

My father was a mortician and he used to say that, “Death is no respector of person.”  What that meant is that at some point, everyone would face death in some way.  It might sound morbid but when you think of it, it is just a part of life.  The thing is you don’t have to rush to get to what’s going to happen in its own time.  Not taking care of yourself is another way to experience how health issues have no respect for individuals. Problems brought on by wrong lifestyle choices don’t care about your income, skin color, position in life or any other factor.  If you abuse your health you will suffer the consequences the same as anyone else. Lifestyle choices related to health can be changed. It takes responsibility and discipline but it can be done.

2. You Control Your Body

Unless you are in dire circumstances, most responsible, independent adults are in a position to be in control of their body.  If you haven’t known about food choices or not had the ability to select what to put into your mouth, it’s time to start taking on that responsibility.  Learn what’s healthy and what’s not then decide to add what’s healthy to your diet. Start moving about and exercising, be positive and think about what you can contribute to the future of your world. You have control over you, so stop making excuses when you really don’t have any to make.

3. Put Yourself to Bed

Rest is a vital component to health. Many professionals brag about their ability to stay up for hours on end working on projects.  Sure there will be times when long hours are necessary. But making it a habit can lead to serious consequences. A lack of sleep means being less productive and less effective overall. It is better to give your brain rest instead of wearing it out early.  Sleep is a way to replenish the body and make it stronger. A lack of sleep can be a trigger for high blood pressure or even a heart attack. The body needs rest.  It might take some time to get back into a normal sleep pattern but this is imperative for better health.

4. Start Exercising

Do you wonder why every President tries to show that nation that they are exercising?  It’s no secret that being active keeps a person healthy.  Leaders don’t show off their exercise routine solely for a photo opportunity.  It’s to influence the citizens to do the same. If the busiest person in the nation can spend time exercising, what’s your excuse?  Twenty to 30 minutes a day in deliberate movement is not too much to ask.  Walk a longer distance, take the stairs, pump some iron, or go dancing.  Just get that heart pumping and muscles working to get your body in shape.

5. Drink More Water

The human body is comprised of over 80% water.  As soon as you feel thirsty, your body is starting to become dehydrated.  Drinking water is often a problem for people in the workplace who can’t always get up and go the public restroom; but this is an important part of staying healthy and productive. Drinking up to eight glasses of water a day is imperative for health. If you can, bring your own water pitcher with a filter to work.  Knowing how much water is in the picture is a great way to measure how much you drink at work and how much you drink during the rest of the day. Try this for a week and you’ll have noticeable differences in how you feel. 

6. Get a Check Up

In order to know your base-line health situation, get a full medical check-up. Then you’ll know where to start with a health and wellness program.  If you have been sitting around not exercising, don’t just jump up all at once and try to run a marathon.  Find out where you are medically so you start in a reasonable manner with a new health and wellness program.  Hopefully, you will get a good report but even if you are on the verge of having health issues, knowing the problem is the first step to changing things around.

7.  Get a Health and Wellness Coach

Health and wellness coaching is a growing profession that’s here to stay and. As people start to recognize the need to take responsibility for their own health, they are looking for the support to change bad habits and an unhealthy life style. Health and wellness coaches are experts at helping you with nutrition, eating habits, exercise, and weight control among other things.  Find a person that will work with your schedule, lifestyle and particular needs. 

These 7 steps are the beginning of taking care of your health.  You have the responsibility for your body and health.  It doesn’t matter how important your position, or how smart you are. If you don’t live healthy you won’t be able to share your gifts with the world.  It’s time to get off the treadmill of life and start living healthy.

Certainly you have foods that that you particularly enjoy. These are most often comfort foods that are hard to give up. Not all of these are bad for you, in fact, some can be highly nutritious.  But if you make food choices that aren’t the best on a regular basis, here are some suggestions for making changes.

1. Don’t Set Yourself Up. It’s common to sabotage your eating habits when you grab whatever is available when you are hungry instead of stopping to prepare a proper snack or meal. For instance, if you just happen to have a box of chocolate cookies in your desk drawer when you’re ravishing, it’s too easy to reach for them when stressed or you think you are hungry.

2. Stay away from the grocery store when hungry. Being around food when you’re hungry is a key to eating sabotage. You might have the intention to only get a few things at the grocery store but when your stomach us empty, it is easy to abandon the pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that have to be prepared for the fried chicken wings at the deli that you can eat in the car on the way home.

3. Don’t snack while cooking. This habit that many of us have can be a real diet killer. It is really bad around the holidays. Depending on how much you snack you could consume an entire meal worth of calories before you sit down to eat the actual meal. Even if you are cooking a healthier meal, you can eat too much before the meal is even served.

4. Change one food habit at a time. Taste is a learned behavior and difficult to change.  Don’t force yourself to go cold turkey in giving up foods but take it in steps.  For instance, if you enjoy eating full-fat ice cream as well as macaroni and cheese, you know you need to cut back.  Don’t drop them both at once; just give up one food at a time. You can start by eating a lower fat version of the food such as a lower fat alternative.

5. Get a Coach. A Health, Wellness or Nutrition Coach can help you to understand how to eat in a way that becomes a new lifestyle, not just for a diet. Coaching can help you get rid of your bad or annoying habits through a series of positive supports provided during your sessions.

6. Make a plan. It is not enough to say that you will change your bad eating habits. That is a vague statement that gets you nowhere. You have to write it down and commit to it. For example, say that you will begin eating whole grains instead of white bread, or using lower fat dairy products over full-fat ones with more calories.

7. Keep a food journal. Record everything that you eat for a week. When you go back to it you may be amazed at all of the sweet, salty or fatty foods you consumed. Use the journal to create a list of the foods that are and are not healthy for you so you can make a plan to make changes.

We don’t always make the best food choices. Use the suggestions here to get in the habit of eating healthier.

Reports are now being released that obesity in the US is increasing.  This morning, a new report is out that 28 US States are reporting increases in obseity in the population. As a result, health issues are increasing.

One way to take responsbility for this is to start caring about your calorie intake.  If you are older than 40, it’s important to know that your metabolism has slowed down effectively burning less calories than you did as a youth.

Most people are not actually aware of just how many calories are eaten each day or just how many of them get burned up through body processes and activity levels.

Those individuals who are age 60 or older also lose muscle mass and as most of us know muscle mass helps us to burn calories. Without muscle mass, we add poundage to our frame when we eat more than our bodies need.

Men and women who are in their fifties burn 4 to 8% more calories than men and women in their 60s.

Individual who are 40 years of age or older need to be more careful about how many calories they consume each day and more diligent about being able to burn off what we do not need.

If you find that you are gaining weight, make changes now such as increasing your daily activity level, or eating fat-free or light products. Watch portion sizes and drink more than eight 8-oz glasses of water a day.

When counting calories don’t forget to count the calories contained in beverages, condiments, and of course desserts.

1. Effective behavior: As stated above a lack of role models acting in a leadership role in communities, business and organizations is a problem for many people. A leader is willing to behave in a manner that exemplifies the values purported by the mission statement of the organization. This behavior should be consistent over time and promote high ethical standards for others in the organization to model. 

2. Stand for Something. A leader makes his or her choices obvious to those around them.  That is, the leader stands for something.  The old saying is that if you don’t stand for something, you fall for anything.  By standing for choices with a solid foundation, a leader demonstrates how to maintain standards and how to come to a good decision. 

3. Works With Others.  A leader must be able to work with everyone including the person with the worse personality or the person that never speaks up in a meeting.  Leaders lead so others are inspired to be better.  Without the ability to get along with others, organizational goals will be hindered.  A leader gets past petty surface issues and deals with people at all levels in ways that bring about, and maintain, harmony. 

4. Unites others.  Not only do leaders work well with other but they inspire others to work well with each other. Leaders have the ability to unite colleagues around a common vision.  That means having the ability to communicate so diverse listening audiences understand what the future of an organization will look like and have the desire to be a part of that future by uniting their talents with others. 

5. Influences Stakeholders. Organization stakeholders are people that have some type of vested interest in the success of an organization.  An effective leader is responsible to ensure that stakeholders understand the operating direction of the organization and they are supportive of the activities within the organization.  That means sharing the vision, mission, goals and priorities with the stakeholders so they can be a part of the organizations movement.   

6. Stays Committed. A leader grows in levels of trust and respect by those they influence by being committed to stated goals, no matter the cost. This commitment is to organization goals, to the people the leader leads, to getting through difficulties, and from not backing down from challenges.  Leaders are not blame-throwers.  When something goes wrong they are willing to face the difficulties and shoulder the blame as needed while working continually to find a solution to the problem. By being committed, the leader inspires commitment from others. 

7.  Futurists.  Leaders are the ultimate futurists. Never satisfied to stay in the status quo, the leader can see a better future then makes strategic plans to reach it with the backing of loyal followers. A leader is not complacent.  They capture an innate creativity that lets them form plans to move forward, never being totally satisfied with a situation at hand while a problem still exists. 

While these seven practices are not all encompassing to leadership, they provide a good frame for what to expect of a leader.  If you are a leader in your organization or business, expect to be a life-long learner of people and organizations.  Others will expect you to boldly take a stand so they can feel confident to follow where you lead.

“There is no such thing as failure.”  

Do you think it’s true? Maybe it makes sense to others but not to you. But what if you learned that you have the power to decide whether or not something is indeed, a “failure” or not, changing your whole idea about failure?  In fact, some highly successful people have already learned to look at the word failure in a very different way than others.  Let’s talk about why.

Why Others Watch a Leader Handle Failure 

Doing something that seems to be a failure shows the fact that you are only human. People watch how a person of stature handles a mistake and how that person recovers from it. Watching isn’t to be cruel, but it gives others hope that they too could recover from a mistake. 

Mistake making takes on a whole new form when a person sees how a leader faces and overcomes a problem. Everyone can have a failure or a setback but not everyone knows what to do about it. Making a successful comeback after a failure can increase your reputation, build confidence and show you as a person of integrity. The comeback doesn’t even have to be huge or earth shaking. It just has to happen. 

When “Failure” is Feedback 

What if starting today, the idea of failure took a radical change in your vocabulary? What if failure really meant a form of success? How could you acknowledge your success, even as you speak the word “failure”? Well, you can point out these ideas:  

• That everything you learned in the process of getting to where you are now is not going to get thrown out — you learned good things to keep along with the stuff that didn’t work.
• That simply being able to recognize everything hasn’t gone according to plan, or achieved the desired outcome (i.e. “failed”), is in itself a positive outcome
• That even if the specific method you used this time around wasn’t the right one for this situation, you can surely use bits and pieces and parts from what you learned in another project or idea.
• That you can eliminate and not repeat the same behaviors the next time a similar situation arises. Failing to achieve a goal in one way just increases your creative understanding of what works for a situation, project, or idea or what doesn’t.
• That you’ll know to do things differently in the future. You will create in a new way to approach a problem and your creating will be quicker and more confident as a result of knowing what not to do? 
• That the experience has enabled you to grow in some way. Adversities, set backs, failures, hard times — all of these things only make you a stronger and more confident person. 

Failure can simply be a great way to get you to pause in the midst of your process, and get some critical information to indicate that you may need to change directions, try something new, continue your learning, or shift your focus. 

Imagine what would happen if you didn’t get that feedback, and continued endlessly along the wrong path, towards the wrong goal, or without ever learning a new approach? It not a pretty thought. Therefore, make time to rethink the idea of failure. Failure can really be seen as positive feedback, providing information that gets you back on the right track! Without feedback you would surely be lost. The key is to quickly identify what isn’t working so you can change direction, try something new, or shift your focus. 

How would thinking of failure as a welcome invitation to understanding a better way to pursue you life dream change your thinking? Here are some tips: 

• Always have a clear idea of where you want to go and continue to re-evaluate it as you move forward
• Identify specific milestones or markers along the way, to let you know you’re on the right track and celebrate each success
• If something doesn’t appear to be working, or working fast enough, don’t hesitate to try something new
• Continually learn from others. These can be people you work with, experts in your field, mentors, or leaders that have travelled a similar road.

Remember, no one has to stay in the same place in life. If things are not working in the direction you are headed, stop and go another way. If you tried something one way, make a change in your activity until you find out what really works. Life is a series of starts and stops. Just think of how much experience you have in different areas of life when you try something and learn new things from that experience.

Keep trying new things; never plan to stop learning, trying, experimenting, and creating. This gives a leader the confidence needed to succeed. Consider the idea of rethinking failure as a way to reach success and strengthen your leadership skills instead of a way to set you back. You will take more risks, try more challenges and increase your overall successes.

It’s so easy to get into the habit of saying “Wait” or “I’ll do that later” instead of taking up the mantel of responsibility and just getting on with living life fully today. This isn’t saying you have to ignore the facts:

• Yes, the timing must be right to pursue your dreams.
• Yes, you have to get the right obligations out of the way, like taking care of family, children, elderly parents, if that’s what you are supposed to do.
• Yes, you may have to finish the fight on the hard challenge that have come your way.

But once those have gone and you know the time is now, you have to get started on living the true purpose of your life.

• Do you ever wonder why certain people have a yearning in the heart to do something big?
• Do you think this is a universal yearning or do you think some people are content to be where they are in life?

It seems that for some the yearning is stronger or more real than others. I believe everyone is born with a purpose to fulfill in life that will leave the world a better place as a result. That task may be small or only touch one single life. But touching that life will cause a ripple effect that will reach out to places unknown.

I also believe that some people refuse to do what is on their heart. Knowing that there is a great thing to do, they refuse to answer that life calling and ignore it until life is over for them.

• You know in your heart that you are supposed to be doing more.
• You know you are supposed to be doing greater things.

I believe a life purpose is set in the heart of every person at birth. When you refuse to heed the persistence of that life calling, you live a life unfulfilled.

• Are you denying the call of your life purpose?
• Are you letting the past, or your fears, or unforgiveness, or confusion keep you from identifying what is great about you so you can start sharing it with the world?

I’ve been in settings where the most unlikely person got up and made a presentation that changed the direction of everyone in the room. Through very simple words or a brief exercise or by sharing a piece of art or playing a simple arpeggio, lives were changed.

What are you supposed to be doing with your life? When will you start doing it?

• You can see people coming to you saying “Yes” I want what you have to offer.   
• You see your products or services being purchased and your cash register full of cash.  

But keeping a vision alive is not the first step to building a successful venture.  The first step is to ask the most important question you will have to answer prior to being a success. That question is, Why? 

• Why are you doing what you do (or want to do) in business?  
• Why have you chosen (or will choose) to focus on a particular field, discipline, idea, etc.? 

It’s important to know why you intend to do something as intense as operating a business.  Starting or operating a business based on the wishes and dreams of others or based on the traditions within a person’s family. Perhaps you grew up in a family business and felt obligated to carry it on. But now, you might feel discouraged and unmotivated.  The business could have great potential but your lack of enthusiasm makes the marketing lackluster or almost non-existent.  When, you think about why you are in this particular business, its not because of your personal passion but because of the dreams of others. 

Working in a business because of the expectations of others is not always enough to motivate you to go through the ups and downs of business. You must have a passion for what you do.  It’s when you love the work, and want to do the business, that you are in the right field. 

This brings you back to why answering the question “Why” is an important first step to create a vision for your business. 

• Why do you even want to serve a certain target community, locally or online, in this manner?  
• Is this something you would choose to do on your own, or do you feel forced to go into this business or service?  
• Do you know that this business is the best use of your talents and skills?  
• Are you honoring your personal and business values through this business?

Answer the why and you’re on your way to understanding what you need to be doing in your life through business. 

Take time to find your true heart’s desire in business and pursue your true dreams. Then you will be a business professional who is ready to continue building your business in a way that enhances your quality of life and motivates you to continue on to success, no matter what obstacles you will inevitably face along the way.

Audio in Internet Marketing 

1. Audio is one of the best ways to let people you may never meet in person get to know your personality. This is one of your biggest assets as the owner of a small business and audio makes it extremely easy to communicate your personality to your audience and target market group.  By listening to you, people can come to like you as a person.  Psychology shows that people will be more likely to purchase from you as a result. Use audio messages to connect with your audience and influence them to get to know and like you. Even a simple welcome message is a great start. 

2. Audio helps promote you as an expert in your field. People buy from people or companies they consider to be an authority or expert in the industry. Audio is an exceptional tool for you to use to demonstrate your authority on your niche topic as it lets you provide extended information in a short period of time.  Even 5 minutes of hearing you speak with authority has a lot of impact.  Produce how to audio messages, interviews and lessons as tools to demonstrate your authority on a topic. 

3. Audio Adds Proof.  People often make purchasing decisions based on the opinions of others. This is called using social proof. This opinion is particularly important if those “others” are people your target market respects, admires, or desire to be like. Easily tap into this social proof trigger by interviewing experts in your field and posting audio testimonials on your website. 

4. Audio is easy to produce.  Nothing beats the ease of producing an audio product.  You can use free audio software such as Audacity or purchase audio recording software to use.  Normally all you need is a good microphone that hooks right into your computer to start recording audios.  You can write out a script or talk about what you know without one.  An audio can be completed in a few minutes and uploaded to your website for your target group to hear. 

5. Audio is versatile.  You can easily take the audio you produce and create other information products.  Get the audio transcribed and you can have an ebook, book or home study program.  That means, you do the audio once and recreate it into many different, effective formats.  Learning to work with audio is a valuable tool in this modern business world. 

6. Audio is transportable. Because you can download an audio file to an ipod or other portable device, it remains one of the most popular ways to share information.  Being able to transport the audio to other areas makes it highly convenient.  Being able to listen to recordings at will when it’s convenient increases the audience base. 

7. Audio is Comforting. People love to recognize a voice.  Don’t you enjoy hearing the voice of your favorite person on the telephone? What about hearing an actor in the distance; doesn’t that peak your interest?  The same goes when people start to get accustomed to your voice.  Hearing a familiar voice can be very comforting to people.  Let people get to know you through your audios and you create a fan base, while developing and growing your business opportunities.

Unconscious goals are undefined with no specific direction.  Here are reasons why goals must move from unconscious to conscious to bring success to your life.

1. Unconscious goals are not specific. Everything you do in life is a forward motion. That is it takes you from where you are currently to another place.  If you don’t set specific goals for that movement you won’t have control over the outcome of that forward movement.  You’ll go somewhere but without consciously setting where you want to go; however, you’ll still get somewhere. 

2. Unconscious thoughts blame outside forces. Many people go through life just taking things as they come along.  If the day goes well, it’s one for joy.  If the day goes bad, it’s normally attributed to an external source such as  “bad luck” or to the activities of others people such as those that “don’t like you.” When you leave yourself open to whatever comes it’s a conscious unconscious decision.  No one is to blame except you as the opportunity to take control of your thoughts is your own.

3. Unconscious thoughts control the day. The brain doesn’t turn off simply because you haven’t consciously used it during your day.  Thoughts continue to take place. In fact, you’re thinking at all times about something.  Like other muscles of the body, a brain that doesn’t get exercised gets flabby.  Flabby brain, flabby thoughts.  Flabby thoughts don’t have the muscle tone for a firm foundation. That means your thoughts and ideas can be shifted and turned at the whim of outside forces or the attitudes of those that surround you.

4. Unconscious goals have no pattern.  Because you haven’t stopped to think specifically about what you want to do and how you intend to achieve, your life tends to go up and down with no pattern.  Because you don’t’ know what you want to achieve each day, anything you do is good enough.  Sometimes, you might have to stop to think if you got anything of importance done for the day since you didn’t plan to achieve anything.

5. Unconscious goals are vague. Goals you’re not conscious of are vague.  When you think in vague terms about what you want such as that you’d prefer to live a better life or have more money for instance, but without setting a specific goal your mind can’t create the ideas needed to guide you toward your goals.  Instead, “more money” can be a few pennies more than what you had yesterday.  A better life might mean getting through one more green light driving home than you got driving to work in the morning. Vague has no substance on which to build success.  

6. Unconscious goals waste time.  Having no pattern to your achievements or not knowing where you want to go or why creates the consistent frustration of having a starting and stopping motion in life. First you want where you’re going then you change your mind.  It’s like trying something on then deciding to change your clothes three times before being able to walk out of the house.  You don’t know exactly why you take specific actions so nothing seems to work.  This starting and stopping wastes time and lets you feel you’re taking two steps forward and five steps back with every action.

7. Unconscious goals are costly.  What are your income goals.  Unconscious goals will say “I want to be wealthy” or “ we really need to bring in some money today.”  These type of goals cost you the possibilities of actually reaching income goals. What is wealthy in your definition?  Unless you are specific about this, wealthy might be having an extra $20.00 bill in your pocket.  Now you are wealthy because you have that much more money.  Bringing in more money today could result in getting one sale but if it is the first and only sale for the month, you’ve reached your unconscious goals but could still face bankruptcy in another two months or less.  There is no reason for the mind to create ways to bring in more funds since you haven’t determined what you really need.

Hopefully these examples illustrate the power of unconscious goals for the detriment of your success.  It also gives you reasons to take the time to think through your goals and create goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, and time oriented.  

#1. Don’t Wait. 

When conflict happens, take care of it as soon as possible. Don’t wait until it starts festering and getting out of control. For instance, if there’s been a miscommunication or a difference in how to reach goals, address these issues immediately.  Communication problems and goal ambiguity are two of the most common causes for conflict in the workplace. Knowing this is important because you can be more conscious of when these problems are occurring. Address these issues as soon as you realize they’ve occurred and you’ll prevent a small conflict from snowballing into a big one. 

#2. Get Clarity. 

When you’re in doubt about what’s causing a problem, ask question and get clarity. You can tell if someone is upset but you may not know why.  Instead of waiting, start asking questions.  Ask the other person what’s upsetting him or her so you can discover if there’s been a misunderstanding.  Ask about their opinion on the problem, it you’ve been misunderstood, or if you’ve misunderstood them. Just be sure to get clarity so you can clear the air.    

#3. Restate the Issues. 

A great lesson in communication is restating an issue that you hear to be sure you are clear on it.  To make sure you heard what was stated and that you and the other person are understanding things in a similar manner, mirror what they’ve said back to them.  An example is, “It sounds to me that you’re saying,” or “I understand you’re saying.  This will help bring  quick clarification and prevent real conflicts from sparking. 

#4. Be Ready to Apologize.  

Saying you’re sorry is not a easy thing to do. But taking the high and admitting a mistake or just being the first to end the conflict by offering an apology can go a long ways.  An apology goes miles towards lowering someone’s defenses. It doesn’t have to be long and drawn out; just a simple, “I’m sorry we’ve had this misunderstanding,” lowers the tension and puts the other party in a more compatible frame of mind.  

#5. Criticize with Care. 

The art of giving constructive criticism is necessary in the workplace. To give constructive criticism use the sandwich principle. That means you’ll sandwich any criticism between two bookends of praise. For example, “You have a wonderful way of motivating the team.  I think if you could work on following up with them regularly our projects will run more smoothly.  You know your team well so I’m sure they’ll be responsive.” 

#6. Share Expectations. 

Not knowing what the other person wants or needs can be the beginning of conflict.  Be sure to be clear about your workplace expectations if you’re the boss or the one carrying out the work. Use clear and concise language to avoid people misunderstanding you. Remember it’s okay to ask for clarification because you really want to be sure you’re understood.  

#7. Stay Positive. 

Nothing helps to beat conflict like a good positive outlook.  Even though you can expect conflicts to show their ugly face almost daily in the workplace, you can take the position to approach each day, task, and co-worker with a positive attitude. As a result, you’ll find that many potential conflicts will simply fade away.  Being position has a contagious effect so share that positive feeling with everyone and make the whole workplace experience a better thing. 

Still can’t get along?  When all else fails, don’t be afraid to ask for mediation.  Sometimes people just can’t get along or they just don’t communicate well.  This means working together is going to be extra difficult.  If a situation arises and the steps you’ve taken to remedy the conflict aren’t working, ask for help.  Many larger companies offer mediation services or you can bring in a superior to help clear up the situation.