Why Criminals Love Your Summer Vacations

Everyone loves a relaxing vacation during the summer months.

My family especially enjoys laying on the beach, hearing the waves crashing onto the shore, the smell of sunscreen and the laughter of children and parents playing on the beach or in the pool, can't help but put a smile on your face.

 For many in America, those 7-10 days are the only time they truly have to enjoy the company of their family and friends. I know families such as my own which vacation annually with several families during one specific week of the year. The tradition we created several years ago is the most highly anticipated event of each calendar year. As with most traditions, there are several events that must occur and these largely have to do with the fact that human skin can only stand so much direct sunlight before it reddens and burns. This provides the females and the teenagers within our families the window of opportunity to go shopping and hunting for discounted bargains.

This recreational activity is ideal for criminals because of the lack of personal awareness (you're on vacation) and your "guard being down" as well as the fact that a lot of people these days are trying to avoid using credit cards and are carrying cash to purchase items instead. I'm not calling for mass hysteria at Tanger Outlets across America but I am asking you to remember that a bathing suit, tank top, and flip flops doesn't give you immunity to being a victim of a crime.

Lets take a precautionary look inside the mind of a criminal and examine where your weak points in personal defense could exist. I'm going to list a few and discuss.

1. The Parking Lot:

For the criminal this can work to his advantage in many ways. The size of the parking lot, whether it is outside or indoors, the distance you have parked away from the physical shopping area. The number of entrances and exits from the parking lot. Are their security guards patrolling within the parking lot? Are their a lot of out of state license plates? Is there a heavy traffic pattern of shoppers coming and going, meaning steady traffic flow, making it difficult for the element of surprise to harm you. Criminals want to control the environment in which they strike, too many variables happening simultaneously works to your advantage. The easy solution here is a personal alarm. If you feel uneasy or threatened just pull the pin and 130 decibels will call attention to your plight, equalizing the distance from safety part of the equation to your favor.

2. Flip-flops and Multiple Shopping Bags:

Personal protection requires quick reaction. If you are attacked, lose the flip-flops and fight barefoot. Try to also have one hand free instead of both hands carrying multiple bags. Its better to make frequent trips to the car and unload into the trunk rather than one trip at the end of the day. That free hand should have your car keys in it with a pepper spray attached to the keychain. Keychain pepper sprays normally will have a range of 6-8 feet spraying distance and somewhere between 6-10 shots within the 1/2 oz models.

3. Texting and Sunglasses:

 Being Vigilant and Prepared requires you to pay attention to all of your surroundings. Put the cellphone away while coming from and going back to the car. Use sunglasses to your advantage by constantly scanning your surroundings for potential threats. The criminal can't see where your eyes are looking so look around a lot and keep the crook off guard. The disadvantage to the sunglasses would be of course if it darkened your ability to see clearly both up close and at a distance. In other words, Sunny day fine, Cloudy not so much.

I hope my advice and thoughts were helpful and everyone does have a safe and victimless summer vacation.
Take care and wear sunscreen!!


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7764497

Why Making Money Is Difficult

Are you frustrated at why you are not making money the way you would like to?
It appears as if things just don't seem to work out right? Yes you work hard, but it seems as if for every 2 steps forward that you take, 3 steps backwards follows. Making money just seems impossible and it's certainly not from a lack of effort. Why?

Chances are, that there are internal blocks more powerful than you realize that are sabotaging your efforts of making money.

The mind is composed of two parts, the conscience and subconscious parts. The part of the mind that wants to make money, achieve success and all that good stuff is the conscious mind. The part that may be stopping you form achieving your desires is the subconscious mind.

As renowned American developmental biologist and author of "The Biology of Belief" Dr. Bruce Lipton explains, our lives are run by habits, not desires. Your habits are simply your programmed responses to stimuli. The responses are in the form of thought and eventually action. All this is run by your subconscious mind. Your desires, on the other hand, are things that you strongly aspire to have. You control the conscious mind so you will take action to attain these desires.

The thing is, the subconscious mind controls 95% of what you do but you are unlikely to even notice. If what you desire (Making Money) differs from what your subconscious programming wants (status quo), then its like swimming against a really, really, really strong current. You efforts will be futile.
So what are these three major blocks to making money?

1. FEAR OF MAKING MONEY

This is the big one. You might be shocked at how fearful you are of success and a lot of money, even if you want it badly! Introspect for a second. What comes with making money and achieving success? Responsibility? Attention? A shift from what you know and are used to? Being treated differently? What else? As you slowly and deliberately think about the things that money bring, how do you feel about them? Is there a touch of discomfort perhaps with one or more of these things?
Lets take responsibility for instance. You get a lot of money; you have to worry about managing it, taking care of those close to you who would not have otherwise looked to you for support (not that you don't want to help but just the thought of the added responsibility). Remember, with all this money, people are looking at you!

You will also meet new people, people out of your usual circle. You get out of your 'comfort zone'. For those looking for true love, do you fear "gold diggers" may come looking for a bounty? Do you feel like a target? Does all of this make you feel uncomfortable on the inside at some level?

The stimuli are money and success and the programmed response is fear. This is programmed from what you have seen and heard. All this is run by your subconscious mind, which has your experiences stored in its infinitely large database. After fear, the secondary response may be procrastination from taking action to generate this money, or listing of excuse after excuse as to why 'it won't work'. You may also be prone to seeing 'difficulty instead of opportunities'. The list is endless. Fear may also come in the form of fear of failure, which results in anger, frustration and desperation. Think about this. Would you buy from a relaxed confident sales man or a desperate salesman? We all know how annoying, desperate salesmen could be.
The self-saboteur in you will operate under the radar without you noticing a lot of times. With 95% of the vote, your subconscious mind runs the show.

2. FEELINGS OF LACK AND UNWORTHINESS

Feelings of inadequacy hold back too many people from too many accomplishments. When you sit around people with money and success, how do you feel? Do you feel... unworthy? Do you start thinking about what you don't have? What you haven't accomplished? Do you feel like a lesser being, a failure? Do you feel poor? Other people pick these 'vibes' and respond to them. How many times have you seen or heard of people getting promoted simply because they 'acted the part'? This is where the phrase 'Fake it till you make it' comes from. When you feel wealthy and successful, you will act wealthy and successful. Eventually, you will be wealthy successful. It is not the other way round. This is called the 'Be-Do-Have Principle'. You have to be wealthy (feel), do the things that make you wealthy (action) and eventually have wealth.

So again the stimuli are making money and achieving success, the programmed response is 'I'm not worthy'; 'I'm a failure'. The secondary response is lack of confidence, lack of enthusiasm and lack of creativity. Your actions will be a result of these self-defeating assertions and of course the eventuality is failure, no matter how much you want success.

3. ASSOCIATING 'MAKING MONEY' WITH NEGATIVITY

Here is a good test that I have also done. Look for a picture of stacks of cash. What thoughts come to mind? Bank robbery? Drug dealers? Criminal dealings? Greed? Do you have some feelings of repulsion perhaps? What do you think of rich people? Do you think they have bad attitudes? Are they snobs?
When I first did this test, I thought of a bank robbers and drug dealers in movies. This is what I have been exposed to growing up. This is what my mind has been fed. Such a lot of money was always associated with something negative. Things that come to mind may include stories you have heard about lives ruined and families torn apart after making a lot of money. What all this is saying to you is 'MONEY IS BAD!" All this is stored in your subconscious mind. Again, the stimulus is making lots of money, and the programmed response is, ruined lives, torn families, changed person etc. If its something you find undesirable, your subconscious mind will go to work to 'protect you' from it.

LET GO OF THE BLOCKS AND START MAKING MONEY

If the subconscious mind was programmed to block money, you need to reprogram it to allow you to make money.
This is how you can do that...
Affirmations - Repetitive input of negativity led to it being perceived as reality by your subconscious mind. To reverse this, you need to repeat positive affirmations to yourself about yourself and your environment until the programming changes. You can also get recorded affirmations that you can listen to daily. Even if you don't concentrate on them, they still slowly shift the subconscious programming.
Gratitude - Gratitude creates a paradigm shift. By being grateful for what you have, you take away the feeling of lack. You can't feel successful and feel lack at the same time
Surround yourself with positive people - This is self-explanatory. Negative people feed you negativity and positive people give you the right 'programming'.

Emotional Freedom Technique - I strongly recommend this. It is often called 'awake hypnosis'. It is an acupressure technique that combines affirmations and tapping of bio-energy meridians of the body to reset bioenergy and reprogram your subconscious. It's very simple. I would recommend reading on this first so you are fully aware of what it is.

Take charge of your subconscious programming, your life and start making money!!!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7747879

Goal To Success - A New Month

It is a brand new month and a clean slate for ideas and projects.

The very first thing to do is to create a list of everything you would like to accomplish in the next 30 days. Make a list of old projects that need to be complete, personal goals you have, relationships that you'd like to focus on, tasks that you would like to achieve and a few just out of reach goals that you'd like to strive for. When you have a list of what you want to do in the next 30 days you will be ready for step two.

Step 2 can be done one week at a time or you can plan for the whole month in advance. Take the list of what you would like to accomplish this month and decide what you need to do and accomplish this week. Looking at each of the things you have listed, break them down to what you need to do tin the next 5-7 days, or every week so that you will have checked everything off your list.

Who will you connect with this week, how many blog posts or articles will you write this week, what personal goals need your attention, what project can you complete this week, what projects will you start, what marketing plan will you implement?

The reason it is so important to know what you'd like to accomplish each month is so that you can create a plan of action to mark each of those items off your list. Dreaming is great, but it is not a goal until you write it down where you'll see it every day. Start your day off knowing exactly what you'll accomplish so that by the end of each week and ultimately the end of the month you will have accomplished all the goals that both moved your business forward as well as helped you maintain your personal balance.

A list of goals, projects and ideas call out for action. Taking action is the only thing that will help you create the success that you know you are capable of creating.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5145913

You Deserve Happiness, So Stop Settling for Less

A scene in the film Me and You and Everyone We Know -- a quirky love story about a lonely shoe salesman and an equally lonely artist -- shows the artist in the store where the salesman works, waiting while a friend shops.

The shoe salesman glances at the artist's shoes and asks, "Are those comfortable?"
She says, "I guess so. I mean, they kind of rub my ankles, but all shoes do that. I have low ankles."
He looks her in the eye and says, "You think you deserve that pain, but you don't."

You think you deserve that pain, but you don't.

Too many of us go through life quietly enduring things that make us unhappy. We tolerate jobs that cut into our well-being. We stay in roles that rub and chafe and wear away at our happiness. In short, we settle.

A few years ago, while eating lunch with my colleagues in our corporate cafeteria, I looked around the room at everyone and then turned to my coworker. I asked, "Do you think these people are happy?"
He replied, "Right now they are."
"In general, though," I said. "Do you think they're happy?"
He stared at me. "Do you really think anybody is happy with their job?"
And there it was.

We grow up dreaming of being astronauts and princesses. We're told we can achieve anything we want. We're promised the world and permitted to dream beyond its limits. But at some point along the way, we abandon the concept of happiness completely. We build lifestyles of cubicles and commutes. We do what we think we should.

And then we wake up on Monday morning filled with dread and think it would be ludicrous to expect otherwise.

"Nobody likes their job," we justify, "so I shouldn't expect to, either."
The salesman in the film goes on to say, "People think foot pain is a fact of life. Life is actually better than that."
The artist's friend adds, "Your whole life could be better, starting right now."

Your whole life can be better.

You deserve to face Monday with something more than despair. You deserve to feel excited about something more than Friday evening. You deserve to love your job. You deserve to feel that your happiness still counts. Because it does.

Happiness should be a standard that life decisions are measured against, and any decision that undermines your happiness should be regarded as a poor one.

Don't bind yourself up in a mortgage if you're going to use it as an excuse to stay in a job you hate. Don't move to a city you hate for a job you hate just because it pays well. Don't arrange your life so that you work an hour from home if you're going to spend the commute missing your children grow up.
Do not settle for shoes that hurt your feet.
Do not justify a job that pains you in other ways.
Happiness is a basic necessity. Expect happiness -- and then figure out how to get it.

To borrow one last line from the movie, "I am prepared for amazing things to happen."
I deserve it. You do, too.

Give With Your Heart!

If you had to measure your giving last week what would be the total? I don't mean financial giving but the total areas of your life where you could stretch and give things like your time, talent, self, ideas, help, guidance, friendship, and love. For some it's high, for others it's low and for the rest it may be barely in the middle.

In a society of ME we often forget about others and too many times we equate giving with dollars. Last week, a friend's aunt passed away and I said, "if there's anything I can do please let me know" a simple phrase that we say often but do we really mean it? The friend called later in the week to ask if I could provide a ride to the airport. I cringed. It was raining horribly and I didn't want too. Remember, I did say, let me know if there is anything I can do. (I wonder if God cringes when we ask for help?)

While in the middle of my dilemma, a colleague called for some assistance on a project (giving my talent). I mentioned a friend had a family death and needed a ride to the airport. I don't want to go, even though I did offer my help. My colleague replied, "the worst thing you can do is offering to help someone if it's not going to build your business." I was stunned especially after I'd spent countless hours assisting this colleague with a project that would not benefit me at all. I thought wow how selfish and my heart was convicted. I immediately got in my car to take my friend to the airport and I was glad to be in a position to do it. I prayed for the family and safe travels.

When we give of our time, talent, self, money, ideas, help, guidance, friendship, and love;

WE receive abundantly! When we give with our head it's easy not to give at all because we can think our way out of giving. That's what we do when we haphazardly offer to do things but we really don't mean it or even if we do mean it at the time we don't really expect people to take us up on it. When they do take us up on it we try to think (head) our way out of it.

When we give with our hands it's easy to take it back. We cancel commitments all the time; we take back that in which we've given way more than we should consciously and unconsciously. We take (hand) back our love, we take (hand) back our friendship, and we take (hand) back our assistance. We control our giving by taking it back and the moment we do we block our blessing and the ability to be a blessing to someone else.

Giving with our head and hand will keep us on the low-end of the giving spectrum. But when we give with our heart amazing things happen. When we give with our heart we give genuinely and not out of obligation. When we give with our heart we give in agape love which is selfless, sacrificial and unconditional and when we give with our heart it allows us to give more time, talent, self, money, ideas, help, guidance, friendship, and love. Let's be genuine, faithful, agape heart-givers this week and increase our giving and watch how we are abundantly blessed in our own areas of need while we bless others.

Dr. Taunya A. Lowe is the CEO of The Resurgent Group of Metro Atlanta, LLC and The Impact Experience, LLC, a human services and leadership development consulting firm located outside Atlanta, GA. Dr. Lowe is a speaker, trainer, coach, with the John Maxwell Team, a professor and entrepreneur. She is a skilled change agent with a focus on developing people and organizations. She enjoys combining her photography and writing to motivate, inspire and lead people toward growth and change.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7512783

The Starfish Story

One day a man was walking along a beach, when he noticed a boy hurriedly throwing things into the ocean. Approaching the boy the man asked ' Young man , what are you doing?'

The boy replied, ' Throwing Starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out.If I don't throw them back they will die'

The man laughed and said ' Don't you realise there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of Starfish? You can't make any difference'

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another Starfish and threw it into the surf. Then smiling at the man the boy said,

' I made a difference to that one'

The Power of Intention – 10 Steps

“Everything that is created in the universe is here already. We are not really creators as much as we are re-combiners of everything.”
“All of us have the capacity to attract to ourselves what seems to be missing in our lives.”
“If you think about shortages, you’re going to attract more shortage! If you think about what’s missing, you’re going to attract more of what’s missing in your life.”
Wayne Dyer

Let me start with an example of what Wayne Dyer is speaking of in his last quote above, as this is a very important concept to grasp. A few months ago I woke up feeling shear dread about going to the office. I felt I could not go in and face the day. I said to myself “If I were sick with a cold or flu I wouldn’t have to go to work.” What do you know! Five minutes later I was displaying symptoms of the flu. I was coughing, sneezing and a headache and nausea had set in. Going to work was out of the question. This is how powerful intention setting can be. Even though it had a negative outcome it still gave me the result I wanted at that time.
We each have the power to manifest into our lives the things we want and need. The only puzzle piece that is missing, in most cases, is the strength of the belief that we can. Like in my story above I really believed that I would be better off sick than going to work healthy. By now we have all heard the phrase “It is not about seeing and then believing, it is about believing and then seeing.”  The ability to manifest is innate in our being. We have the connection to source. Like a golfer we just need to hone our skill through practice.
We always receive some result to any intention we set. However, in many cases the person awaiting the result can miss the actual realization of their desire altogether. They just do not see the manifestation of the intention because they may be looking in the wrong place or just not seeing at all because they are expecting something different.  For example, someone has set the intention to have a new “perfect” love interest come into their life. They set all the parameters of the person and no one shows up. Yet the person can be someone they are already in some sort of relationship with at the present time. Someone who was not available prior or they didn’t see the individual for who they truly are and they miss the opportunity altogether.
One example I like to use that really explains this well is when I was in the market for a new, previously owned, vehicle. I shopped around on car lots. I browsed the regular spots online. I even read through the car sales magazines. Finally after many weeks of searching I finally found the vehicle I was looking for. It was just missing a couple of features that I wanted.  So I purchased the car.  The second person I showed my new car to let me know very quickly that a friend at the office just sold the exact same vehicle except it had all the features I had been looking for and at a better price. What is worse is she had actually told me about it two weeks prior. I just had not been paying attention.
So I have given you examples of both positive manifestation and negative as well. The question you are probably asking at this point is “How is it done?” “What is system that I find works?”  It is very simple:
1. Choose something for yourself that would be for your greater good. Remember that what you intend to manifest will come to fruition. As the old adage goes “Be careful what you ask for. You may just receive it.”
2. Be very clear about what you want to manifest. Write it down. Make it reasonable though. The more unbelievable the description the harder it will be for you yourself to truly belief it. Example: I am 5 foot 3 inches tall and my intention is that I am 5 foot 10 inches tall. Probably not going to happen!
3. State the intention in a positive way. No no’s or not’s.  Negatives are not recognized by the Universe. For instance “I don’t want my husband to leave his socks on the living room floor” could rather read “My husband picks up his clothes from the living room floor and puts them away.”
4. State it in the present, as if it has already occurred or you have received it as in the example above.
5. Set it in emotions. Feel that you have already received fulfillment. Be happy about. Celebrate!
6. Send it out to the Universe with thanks and appreciation.
7. Be thankful!!! Be grateful!!!
8. Let it go so that the universe can bring it back to you fully formed. If you hang on, especially with expectations of how it must come to you, you will be placing limits on how the Universe can deliver it.
9. Share your intention with other positive individuals that will support you with their thought. You can even start an intention circle that has like minded people get together on a regular basis to share your intentions and most importantly verbally support each other.
10. Every morning re-visit your intentions and gratitudes. This is important. Keep your intentions somewhere you can see them. You can even make a vision board that pictorially represents your intentions and keep it in a prominent place in your home. As mentioned above revisiting your intentions does not mean hanging on to them. Let them go and manifest themselves. If you try to keep control of the manifestation process guess what, you will be in control and where has that gotten you so far.
I have found that all the best manifestations that have occurred in my life were when I followed the above process and then completely letting go of any control whatsoever. Amazing things happened. That is how I met my current partner who is everything I hoped for. It is how my new book The Midas Tree was born and many more wonderful things and experiences.
I know, without a shadow of a doubt that setting intentions works and it can for everyone. If you truly believe and are willing to see it when it arrives then you too can have your dreams come true.