Archive for September, 2009
How to Choose and Attract Friends Wisely
This post is by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of h.koppdelaney
A quick thanks to @zebrapolkadots for inspiring this post.
When Dale Carnegie passed away his tomb stone was made to read:
“Here lies a man, who knew how to surround himself with men better than himself.”
Carnegie himself chose this so that not only could he lift up those around him, but also because this had been one of the main keys to his success. The fact is that if you took the top five people you spend time with, you will normally find that your income, is the average of the five. Please note that while income should never be a determining factor for a friendship, as that would be an empty relationship, there is still something to this. It goes beyond finances to your habits, attitudes, and through those ultimately to your character and destiny. So having the right friends is important, but how do you get friends like this? (more…)
33 comments September 28, 2009
What Is A Better Life Anyways?
Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of Fazen
This post was inspired by @pcantone on twitter, who wrote:
@alittlebetter A better life=success, good health, happiness, fame and fortune?
I originally tried to give my answer on twitter. Half way through my third tweet I realized that I had more to say than could be sanely fit in 140 characters or less, and since I write about how to help you make your life just a little better it is definitely a question that deserves a good answer.
The truth is that what a better life means is completely dependent on what you are aiming at. For a PR agent it may mean becoming famous and revolutionizing his/her career field. For the family that is struggling to make ends meat a little bit more money each week could make a huge difference. There are some common elements a better life can be broken down to though. (more…)
8 comments September 24, 2009
How to Find Your Own Voice in the Crowd
This post was written by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of julianrod
This post was inspired by a great comment from Timothy Long. I want people to start trusting each other again. Even if its only little bits at a time I believe it will do more good than harm. What Timothy pointed out was that while individuals really are frequently trust worthy is that it can be a little harder to trust the masses. I don’t think the problem here is that people in mass can not be trust worthy. The problem is when people stop thinking for themselves.
As I stated in 5 Reasons to Believe in People Again People really are good willed, but we don’t always listen to ourselves and this creates many problems. First it creates problems on the individual level not listening to yourself can cause unhappiness, and can keep you from the potential you were meant to fulfill. On the societal level, it is used to make us to support political opinions that we don’t really agree with, buy products we don’t really need, and has even been used to bring about some of the darkest moments in history, such as the macarena dance craze.
So what can you do about this? You can learn to listen to yourself, and you can help others to do the same. Here are seven tips to get you started. (more…)
9 comments September 23, 2009
5 Reason to Believe in People Again
Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo courtesy of Hamed Saber
Turn on the news and the first thing you are likely to hear about is some scam, or brutal murder. We hear constantly about the dangers of identity theft, and people have been talking about moral decay since the 60’s. With all this in mind it is no wonder that communities don’t know each other anymore. Its not just a factor of size, its a factor of trust. The media tells us that people are scary, so we don’t bother with them. One major side effect of this, is that we have stopped believing in people. This creates a vicious cycle of tension between ourselves and our neighbors. We start assuming that everyone is out to get us, and because each of us begins to harbor this mindset and treat others with suspicion. Being treated with suspicion only confirms to the neighbor that you are hiding something, and the cycle continues. We have to stop this. Here are 5 reasons to start believing in people again. (more…)
22 comments September 21, 2009
How to Start Taking Time Into Your Own Hands
Post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo Courtesy of Robbert van der Steeg
Time seems to go by faster every year, and with the world growing faster, and more and more things grabbing our attention how can we keep up with up with everything? The fact is that there are a few things that you can do that will put time in to your hands.
Don’t give up on looking for time. The first thing you have to do is stop telling yourself that there is no time. Any time you tell yourself that there is not enough of something for you to find it your mind stops looking for it. However if you have told your mind that there is plenty of time, and that you just have to find it, than your sub-conscious mind will kick in and start pointing things out to you. One example of how this works is if you started looking for all the blue things in the room. Just the act of looking for the blue, makes the blue things in the room jump out at you, but how many yellow things did you find while you were looking for blue things? You probably found a few, but could you tell me how many there was without looking again? Chances are that you can’t because your mind was focused on blue. Let your mind focus on finding time, not on finding things to fill it. (more…)
6 comments September 18, 2009
Why Your Dreams Matter
This is a guest post by Maria Dixon Photo Courtesy of h.koppdelaney
Note from Justin: This woman has been the consistent influence that taught me how to never make an excuse for not going after my dreams. She has dealt with me since the day I was born, and for that I am extremely grateful. She is my mom. Now, she has been making some pretty big changes recently. She has started song-writing classes, she is looking to change careers, and she is really taking her dreams seriously. She has always been an inspiration for me so I asked her if she would write an article on starting to go after your dreams. This is what this dynamic woman who has had a heavy hand in my becoming who I am today had to say.
We all have dreams, that one thing that you want to do, that vision only you can see, but only when you are paying attention. It’s usually something that has followed us for years; something that doesn’t go away with age or circumstances. They can be quite irritating, these dreams. They haunt you in the middle of the night, tug at your heart in the middle of the work day, or scream at you when you see someone else following their dream.
It is also imperative that you follow your dreams. Imagine, if Ben Franklin had not “discovered” electricity, Thomas Edison would not even have known to dream of the light bulb, and I would not be able to type this article on a computer, in the comfort of my own family room. People call this the butterfly effect; one dreamer opens the door for another dreamer and so on and so forth. (more…)
5 comments September 16, 2009
