How To Stay Young As the Years Go By

Great article by Harvey Mackay, ALARC's Off n Running.
Posted by ONR Creative Director, Melissa Gacek

Youth, it has been said, is wasted on the young. That would be a travesty if it were true. Fortunately, youth is not only a time of life; it’s also a state of mind. I stopped counting after my 39th birthday, but I still consider myself young. And I intend to stay that way!

Having a youthful outlook and attitude is possible at any age, just as being an old fogey can start at a very young age. As I said, I choose youth!

Want to stay young at heart? Here are some ideas to help you:

• Keep only cheerful, positive friends. You can pick your friends, and I like to choose those who are positive and people who challenge me. They make me feel good. They don’t drag me down or make me angry at the world. Negative people see the difficulty in every opportunity, while positive people see the opportunity in every difficulty.

• Keep learning. I think Henry Ford put it best when he said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” I’ve always said that you should be in school all your life—never stop learning.

• Enjoy the simple things. Don’t forget to take time to enjoy the things that you like to do—go for a walk or to the movies, read a good book, watch a favorite TV show, spend time with your family. You have to have a good balance in life.

• Laugh often. Starting your day with a good laugh, or at least a big smile, is as beneficial to your health as it is to your mood. Scientific studies at Northwestern University and Fordham University concluded that laughter benefits the heart, lungs, stomach and other organs. It relaxes tensions, changes attitude, and increases the body’s natural painkillers. And it has no harmful side effects.

• Stay in shape. Exercise is good for your mind as well as your body. Studies show that healthy employees have decreased absenteeism, better performance and improved morale. I’ve always felt that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. The human body is the only machine that wears out faster if it is not used.

• Cherish your health. There is nothing more important than your health. Stay in shape so you can improve your chance for good health. If you’re healthy, do what you can to preserve it. It your health is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

• Be happy. You are responsible for your own happiness. We sometimes convince ourselves that life will be better after we get a better job, make more money, get married, have a baby, buy a bigger house and so on. Yet the accomplishment of any of those events may not make any difference at all. There is no magic secret to happiness. Happiness starts in your head.

• Don’t stress out. You can’t escape stress, but you can avoid creating unnecessary stress. You just need to find a stress reliever. Mine is sports—going to a sporting event, playing golf, swimming or jogging. If the stress just won’t go away, then you have to make some changes in your life that might be more stressful in the short-term but healthier in the long run.

• Don’t take guilt trips. Rather, take a trip to some location or maybe it’s just the mall, but escape occasionally. I remember a story about the worry tree. At night an accountant would go home from work and place all his worries on a tree in his front yard. The next morning he would pick up those worries on his way to work, but surprisingly, they weren’t as heavy the next day.

• Visualize yourself as youthful and with endless energy. I learned years ago that visualization is the most powerful means of attaining personal goals. Visionary people can achieve whatever they want by determining a plan to attain it and expecting positive results. It doesn’t do the planning and it doesn’t anticipate the obstacles. It gives you a real idea of what is possible, if only you want it bad enough. Vision is not so much what you think as how you think. If you can visualize it, you can make it happen.

Mackay’s Moral: If you want to stay youthful, stay useful.

The Tiara Experiment

In People Magazine this week, there is a brief article describing the transformation of Michelle Obama's hairstyle to give her more height and the appearance of wearing a crown.

I found this a strange coincidence because a colleague of mine, Sue Henry, is seeking out individuals for a study on the "Tiara" Experiment. Her basic premise is finding women to journal about their experiences imagining they go about their daily activities wearing a tiara. How would you feel about yourself? Would you feel more confident, powerful and self-assured in your decisions? Absolutely. You can read the full post on her blog: http://suehenryblog.typepad.com/ if you would like to join the experiment, there is a link on her site.

So, I thought I would give it a try myself. I figured it couldn't hurt. Singing at my church (I share lead singing with a male vocalist) this weekend, I envisioned myself wearing a tiara, and low and behold, I stood taller, more relaxed, calmer, more confident. I felt comfortable looking out at people during the songs (rather than "blocking them out"). And I felt my performance was improved significantly.

If only, we were still four years old, like my daughter and her friends, we might actually wear real tiaras and princess dresses around. This could really create change and more enjoyment for our inner spirit.

To be continued....

Social Media & Blogging

As custom joomla website developers, we frequently have clients wanting to apply social media, rss feeds, video links, photo galleries and more to their websites. They ask, how can social media really help our businesses? Should I get involved with Linked In and blogging?

Well, I'll be honest. I get Facebook, I feel that’s pretty base level; an easy playing field to figure out. But I admit I am treading in uncharted waters when I step into the land of Linked In. A little more sophisticated. With a constant barrage of invites to join Linked In, I myself found Linked In to be a bit hard to de-mystify. I stumble around and head out, not sure what to do? I myself wondered how can I use Linked In, and why should I use Linked In?

So, I attended a workshop today on Social Media & Blogs (by Sue Henry Talks) in order to see what the fuss is. I hope to help guide myself, friends (especially those in job transitions) and clients through this process... I hear so many people tell me they avoid joining Facebook because of the mindless hours spent sending trinkets and updating everyone on their latest (mundane) escapades. There's more to social media than we see on the surface...

In the end, Sue helped simplify the process. She identified how to use blogging, Linked In and Facebook as tools to make more opportunities, money and grow your business using websites, profiles and social media tools. It’s affordable, it just takes a little time in your schedule, and can lead you to the right people you want to connect with.

So, go for it…don’t be afraid. Start tomorrow with just 2 easy steps:

1. Get on board with one of the 3 (Facebook, Linked In or Blogging) (your competition is, why shouldn’t you?)
2. Be relevant, professional and identify what outcome you are looking for in doing so
Till next time…