Editorial "Self-care isnt being selfish" When was the last time you truly relaxed?  Do you often find that another exhausting week ends and you glance at a book you bought six months ago and realise you simply haven't had the time to read it?  If this sounds horribly familiar then it's likely that you are prioritising the demands in your business life and ultimately your personal life is missing out. Self-care is a basic foundation for personal success planning.  It is an idea that a lot of people, especially home based business owners struggle with, as it means putting yourself, rather than your clients, first.  Very rarely do we prioritise our own fitness, nutrition and well being.  If you look after yourself, everyone around you will benefit.  Ultimately you will have more energy and focus for your own "big picture", be that your business or personal life or both. When you choose to change your priorities, your clients may take time to adjust to your new approach.  But explain what you are doing - tell than you will actually be providing a better service for them. Don't understimate the power or rest and relaxation.  It's often the first thing to be dropped off our "to do " list when the going gets tough.   Ask yourself, week to week, how do you relax and unwind, both physically and mentally? Find a few moments to think about what you are doing right now to take care of yourself.  Suprisingly few of us are as kind to ourselves as we'd like to be.  We're all caught up in the do-it-now trap, juggling life, errands, fitness, families and business.  Start with the basic checklist.  Are you getting enough sleep?  Are you eating a balanced, healthy diet?  Are you exercising regularly? Are you having fun? Are you taking time to rest and relax? Dont stop at just asking yourself these questions, put a plan in place today to make changes.  For example, list the specific changes you are willing to make to improve your nutrition or fitness.  When planning your self-care, consider your body clock and natural rhythms.  You probably already know if you are a night owl or an early bird - but do you take time out of you business schedule to keep your rhythms or are you scheduling these rhythms to suit other people?  Think about when you like to exercise or when you get an energy dip that leaves you craving a nap. Self-care is about taking the time to look after yourself in the longer term.  This may mean a complete lifestyle change or it may mean improving on some of your regular habits.  If you want to transform your life, you need to place yourself as top priority.  No matter how busy your life is, always remember that YOU can't take care of anyone else until you take the best care of yourself - after all, YOU are your own best asset. ~~ Jo ~~
Neat Trick Rainbow Folders We have become complacent about many things in our computers, such as the fact that all folder icons are yellow. You never noticed? Well, if that disturbs you and you'd like to change the colors, there's now a bit of software that will help you at http://www.rainbowfolders.aionel.net/. A more meaningful question might be why that disturbs you.	Advertisement MetaPros Webhosting Frustrated with your current web host? We gladly accept refugees from other hosts! Whether you're just starting out and looking for a simple web presence or you're an advanced website developer looking to integrate e-commerce and databases into your site, you will find that we have the services, tools and staff to help you every step of the way.
Guest Article How You Can Overcome Adversity By: Dave Cole Napoleon Hill wrote, "In every adversity, there is the seed of an equal or greater benefit". Doesn't it just seem that the more you try to get things accomplished, the more problems and obstacles that somehow, just crop up and are required to be dealt with along the way? Becoming a success doesn't just happen. Everything seems to be going along pretty well, when all of a sudden....up comes this major roadblock.... seemingly, out of nowhere to try and trip you up. Unfortunately these hindrances just don't come to us complete with big signs that would explain why they are there, and further more, just what steps we need to overcome these unwanted obstacles. Evan Hunter, a now world famous Novelist, had a dream.  Mr. Hunter was a radar man aboard a Destroyer in the US Navy. He had a lot of free time after his watch was over and decided that he was going to start on his road to fulfilling his dreams. He began to write mystery stories and sent them to magazines hoping they would get published. Every one he sent, was returned as being rejected. In fact, it got so bad, that his shipmates ran pools betting on when his next manuscript would be returned. Mr, Hunter, who is now 74, said, "I never got discouraged though". All the rejection notices: only fueled even further his desire to become a famous writer. After the Navy, he earned a degree in English. Then, found a job that would help him get experience in achieving his goal. He kept on writing, kept on getting rejection notices, but finally...sold 1 manuscript. The sale netted him $12.60, before taxes! All those years of writing, getting an education, and countless rejection notices had earned him less that 12 dollars for his efforts.  Just think about all he had gone through, all the work he had done, and how that skinny little check must have made him feel. Would you have gotten discouraged by this time?  But, Evan Hunter is a man who believes that optimism is the only way to go! He looked at that adversity, recognized it for what it was, then found that seed of an equal or greater benefit!  He began to take a very hard look at his technique. Instead of writing the standard fiction, Mr. Hunter decided to draw on his own personal life experiences and began to write what he knew about.  "The Blackboard Jungle", published in 1954, became an immediate success. Then it wasn't very long before he was getting 2 to 3 books a year published and had achieved world class fame.  Here's a man who overcame a lot of adversity trying to achieve his life's dream. He welcomes challenges.  He believes that it forces him to stretch his efforts and further forces him to streamline his work efforts. Always Remember This: It's NEVER what happens TO YOU that really matters. What is so much more important is, HOW YOU REACT....to those events and obstacles in your path. Have you got a stumbling block on your road to success today?  If so, that's good! Look for that seed of an equal or greater benefit.  It's always there, you just have to find it. The path to your success may not be easy. In fact, it will most likely be littered with debris, detours, and a myriad of challenges. How you react to those challenges is everything! Learn to recognize adversity for what it really is. A challenge in disguise, sent to spur you on to greater and greater heights and future accomplishments. --------------------------------------------------- Dave Cole Prosperity: The Choice Is Yours Copyright © 2004 Dave's E-zine provides you with valuable info on how to market your online business and how you canmake more money. Get your FREE subscription today.http://choosetoprosper.com ----------------------------------------------------
Tiptop Tip Blogs and Blog Advertising Ever heard someone refer to having "blogged" and found yourself wondering what they're talking about? Wonder no more. Weblogs (blogs for short) are web pages written in a journal form... think online diary. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about invasion of privacy here. Blogs are written with the express intent that the thoughts/musings contained therein are for public consumption. Note that while blogging is not a new phenomenon (it's been around widely since 1997), it is certainly a trend that's recently been building momentum. There are many sites devoted to the art of blogging such as blogger.com. Indeed, you'll even find entire directories focussed on the subject, for example, Google has a directory with the heading of Weblogs that includes links to a few thousand blogging sites and associated resources. Likewise with DMOZ and others. What does any of this have to do with you? Well, you might find that advertising on someone's blog (see blogads.com) is a great way to increase exposure to your company given the ever increasing popularity of the genre. It's usually quite inexpensive to advertise via this medium and there are lots of potential readers.	Web Site SunnyTice.com  It's all about bouncing back at SunnyTice.com where you'll find a growing list of resources for  “Resiliency Living”, the "capacity to learn and grow from life experiences (set-backs, trauma, loss, adversity, challenges).  It is the ability to bounce back even stronger, emotionally, and to continue to move ahead." Recognizing the basic need we all have to develop the many and varied qualities that go into maintaining resilient relationships in personal and business life, Sunny Tice a psychotherapist in private practice offers up a chance to refresh and renew with her new site and supporting free newsletter the "Resilient Life Times" where you can submit your favorite quotes   ResilientLifeTimes_subscribe@yahoogroups.com From Resiliency Living to Pet Loss Resiliency, you'll find positive steps to improve your outlook.  There's even a Resilient Relationships Word Search puzzle to download.  While you're there see how your Resiliency Skills measure up with the Resiliency Quiz and gain some insight for developing even more qualities.
Spam The Tips and Tricks on how to avoid it. Spam is well known for reducing productivity, wasting time, infuriating people, and sometimes spreading virii. Here is a list of 8 tips that will help you avoid spam. Although there is little one can currently do to stop spam altogether, by using these helpful tips I have personally reduced my spam to almost nothing. 1. Use a catch-all addy such as those offered through Yahoo! or Hotmail for signing up for offers, contests, non-professional newsletters, etc. online. Periodically check this account and clear out all the spam. This will ensure that your e-mail account won't be closed due to inactivity. 2. Be careful what you sign up for online. Make sure you read the privacy policies of the site involved; some will sell your e-mail address and some won't. Be aware of check boxes in signup forms that, when left unchecked, allow the company to share your information with other firms. If you don't want your information shared, make sure you check that little box. (This may also work vice-versa, with the checkbox being left unchecked to ensure that your information is not shared with anyone. Read the instructions carefully!) Remember: Just because a company seems reputable and you trust them, don't believe they will keep your e-mail addy private unless they specifically say so in their privacy policy. 3. Remember what you signed up for -- if you sign up for a newsletter in the middle of the month, it may take another month for the newsletter to arrive in your mailbox. Keep confirmation e-mails in a separate folder in your e-mail proggie so that you can double-check that you did indeed sign up for any e-mail you think you may have received in error. 4. When you forward e-mails, be careful. Continuous forwards can result in anyone being able to harvest several e-mail addresses from just one of these bulky e-mails! If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature to send mass e-mail. Simply enter all e-mail addresses into the BCC field. Eudora also has the capability to hide the recipient's e-mails. If someone is sending you continuous forwards, ask the sender not to send things like this to you any longer. (These kinds of forwards are also an excellent way to get virii.) 5. Don't include your e-mail addy when signing guestbooks or online forums. Doing so will make your address available to all and sundry as e-mail addresses can easily be harvested from any website. If you want to use an e-mail addy on such things, use your "catch-all" e-mail address. 6. Along those same lines, be aware that posting to e-mail lists with publicly available archives will result in your e-mail address being shown to anyone who checks the archives or uses a bot to harvest e-mail addies. You can find out where your e-mail address has been posted by typing it into a search engine and searching. I recommend using Google for this, as it seems to currently be the most efficient search engine for this purpose. 7. If you have a website and believe your e-mail addy may be or has been "harvested" from it, you can use a JavaScript to prevent it from happening. You can easily get an automatically generated JavaScript for this purpose at Hiveware (http://www.hiveware.com/enkoder_form.php). Simply enter your information into the available form and it will return the code to you, ready for copying and pasting. 8. Never click on the "Remove" link found in many spam e-mails. This only enables the company or individual sending the spam to verify that their e-mail reached someone. Many will not remove you from their list as promised but will instead continue to send you spam (since they know they're sending it to a valid address) and may even sell your e-mail addy to other spammers. If despite your best efforts you still receive spam, you can still do something about it. SpamCop.com offers an easy way to report spammers to their ISPs (or hosting providers) for terms of service violations. (It is a violation of most ISP's and web hosting service's Terms of Service policies for a customer to send spam.) To get the information needed to report spammers, you're going to need what is called the "header." The header of an e-mail contains all manner of specifics about who sent the e-mail and enables any ISP to determine who the culprit is. To find the header in Outlook, first open the e-mail in a separate window. Now go to "View" and then "Options." At the bottom of the dialog box that opens, you will find a box labeled "Internet headers." Copy everything in this box and paste into the SpamCop.com form. Using Outlook Express, open the e-mail in a separate window. Click on "File," then "Properties." The dialog box is entitled "Highlights from report." Now click on the tab that says "Details." Beneath the words "Internet headers for this message," you will see a box containing all the header information. Copy everything in this box and paste into the SpamCop.com form. Visit http://www.abika.com/Reports/Samples/emailheaderguide.htm to find out how to locate the headers in almost every other e-mail program from Pegasus Mail to Eudora to Hotmail. Sending "hate mail" to the apparent sender of spam e-mail is counter-productive and a waste of your time, not to mention possibly encouraging more spam, some of which may have the potential to be malevolent. In some cases, your "hate mail" won't even go to the person who's really sending it. E-mail addresses can be "spoofed," or, in layman's terms, the e-mail appears to have been sent from a different address than it was truly sent from. This is why you must use header information when reporting spammers. It's the only way to determine who really sent the spam. If you believe someone with a privacy policy in place has used your addy for malicious purposes, contact them immediately. If they are of no help, contact their hosting service provider immediately and report them. To find out what hosting firm is providing service for any given domain name, head to samspade.org/t/. Enter the domain name into the first field on the page and click "Do stuff." A page will appear showing you the IP address that the domain name resolves to. Copy the IP address. Now go back to the first page and paste the IP address into the same field you used before. Click "Do stuff" again. The results will show you who the site is hosted by. Armed with these tips, the only spam you'll have to worry about is the stuff in the can!

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