For many people, the idea of getting healthy can be like contemplating climbing a mountain – a long, difficult challenge, months or even years of struggle with no guarantee of success.

For this reason, many people fail before they even begin. They see the long, difficult road stretching out ahead of them and turn away before taking a single step.

Sometimes, people take the opposite approach – they start off enthusiastically, jumping into action and racing along the road, only to get exhausted and demoralized and giving up before they have made much progress.

But there is another way. We all know the story of the hare and the tortoise: the success of the tortoise is a result of one simple thing – persistence. He doesn’t rush, he just keeps on going and, eventually, gets to the end of the road.

Developing excellent health is like this – it’s a long journey, and the slow and steady approach always beats the sprint. So don’t think you need to put in a lot of work. Just making a few simple changes to your lifestyle and observing them consistently will yield enormous benefit.

Drink water. Water is a natural detoxifier and you should drink 6 to 8 cups per day. Keep a bottle on your desk and drink water with meals. Replace one of those cups of coffee with water. The best indication that you are drinking enough is that your urine is colorless, not yellow.

Sleep earlier, get up earlier. According to Chinese medicine, the liver only does its job to detoxify the body between 10pm to 2am. Also, cell and tissue repair, and the building up of exercised (and therefore damaged) muscle all happens while we are sleeping or resting. Sleeping between 6 to 8 hours, depending on your body’s needs, will allow you to satisfactorily reap the benefits of a good night’s sleep: less stress, more energy, and less crankiness in the morning.

Cut down on calories. You don’t need to go on crash diets and starve yourself – this is dangerous and unsustainable. You need to get into a habit of eating less. Cut out starch (potatoes, rice, pasta) and eat more leafy vegetables. Eat fruit instead of sugary desserts. Cut out sugar in drinks. Eat nuts instead of candies. It’s nothing new – we all know this stuff. The difference is that some people actually do it.

Exercise. Don’t think that you need to spend hours running or lifting weights. Getting out of breath for just ten minutes per day, every day, is better than running for an hour, once per week. Start off walking as briskly as you can, then try doing star-jumps or skipping. Calisthenics (body weight exercises like Hindu squats, press-ups and crunches) are great because you don’t need much space or any equipment so you can do them at home. It doesn’t really matter what you do – just do it consistently.

Don’t give up. If you miss a day of exercise or start to eat too much sugar again. Don’t worry. The journey will always be ‘two steps forward, one step back.’ Just pick yourself up and go at it again. It usually takes 21 times of repetition until something sticks as a habit. In fact, every small thing we are used to doing in life is a habit. Keep going – slow and sure, and a healthy new you is guaranteed.

Mark Harrison is a freelance writer and educator. He writes for a number of self-improvement websites and is the author of several books. His writing covers a wide range of self-improvement topics, but especially focuses on increasing productivity while reducing workload, and managing change. Visit him at EffortlessAbundance.com

Love is always bestowed as a gift – freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved; we love to love. –Leo Buscaglia

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up. –James A. Baldwin

He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began. –Leo Tolstoy

Love doesn’t sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all of the time, made new.  –Ursula K. Le Guin

Love is the only satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. –Erich Fromm

Love is hard to get into, but even harder to get out of. –Unknown

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.  It is God’s finger on man’s shoulder.  –Charles Morgan

When love is not madness, it is not love. –Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Do I love you because you’re beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you? — Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Cinderella

Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.  –Mark Overby

Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly. –Proverb

The lover is a monotheist who knows that other people worship different gods but cannot himself imagine that there could be other gods.  –Theodor Reik, Of Love and Lust, 1957

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. –Peter Ustinov

Hate leaves ugly scars, love leaves beautiful ones. –Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

The art of love… is largely the art of persistence. –Albert Ellis

Love one another and you will be happy.  It’s as simple and as difficult as that. –Michael Leunig

Who would give a law to lovers?  Love is unto itself a higher law. –Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, A.D. 524

Who, being loved, is poor? –Oscar Wilde

To find someone who will love you for no reason, and to shower that person with reasons, that is the ultimate happiness. –Robert Brault

Without love, what are we worth?  Eighty-nine cents!  Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely. –Laurence Marks

A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it. –Frank A. Clark

We loved with a love that was more than love. –Edgar Allan Poe

The hardest-learned lesson:  that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind. –Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire. –François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

We choose those we like; with those we love, we have no say in the matter. –Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

When a man is in love or in debt, someone else has the advantage. –Bill Balance

Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly. –Rose Franken

Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat. –Ben Hecht

Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies. –Swedish Proverb

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity. –Henry Van Dyke

Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket or a holding pattern over Philadelphia.  –Judith Viorst

Passion makes the world go round.  Love just makes it a safer place. –Ice T

When you’re in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks.  –Natalie Clifford Barney

It is astonishing how little one feels alone when one loves. –John Bulwer

Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while she mops up the floor after her husband has walked across it in his barn boots. –Author unknown, as printed in The Hoosier Farmer

Love is not singular except in syllable. –Marvin Taylor

Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old. –John Ciardi

People who are sensible about love are incapable of it. –Douglas Yates

Love never reasons but profusely gives; gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, its all, and trembles lest it has done too little. –Hannah More

The past is behind us, love is in front and all around us. –Terri Guillemets

Take away love and our earth is a tomb. –Robert Browning

It is the same in love as in war; a fortress that parleys is half taken. –Marguerite de Valois

You don’t have to go looking for love when it’s where you come from. –Werner Erhard

No one can understand love who has not experienced infatuation.  And no one can understand infatuation, no matter how many times he has experienced it. –Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

Love me and the world is mine. –David Reed

It would be impossible to “love” anyone or anything one knew completely.  Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object. –Paul Valéry, Tel quel, 1943

The love game is never called off on account of darkness. –Tom Masson

Sometimes it’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence. –David Byrne

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. –Robert Frost

You know you’re in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.  -Dr. Seuss

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. –Zora Neale Hurston

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. –Emily Brontë

An old man in love is like a flower in winter. –Portuguese Proverb

Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren’t even there before. –Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane. –Honoré de Balzac

Love withers under constraints: its very essence is liberty: it is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, nor fear: it is there most pure, perfect, and unlimited where its votaries live in confidence, equality and unreserve. –Percy Bysshe Shelley

Love is the poetry of the senses. –Honoré de Balzac

Love is a game that two can play and both win. –Eva Gabor

Without love, the rich and poor live in the same house. –Author Unknown

We picture love as heart-shaped because we do not know the shape of the soul. –Robert Brault

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow. –John Lennon

Love is the foundation from which your decisions about your life should be made.  — Darren L. Johnson

Love, and a cough, cannot be hid. –George Herbert

Desire creates havoc when it is the only thing between two people, or when it is what’s missing. –Mignon McLaughlin

Poetry spills from the cracks of a broken heart, but flows from one which is loved. –Christopher Paul Rubero

A man is not where he lives, but where he loves. –Latin Proverb

Love is not consolation.  It is light. –Friedrich Nietzsche

True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights.  If you hear bells, get your ears checked. –Erich Segal

Love is the greatest touch-up artist of all. –Robert Brault

You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.  –Author Unknown

Love is what you’ve been through with somebody. –James Thurber

Love is being stupid together. –Paul Valery

In this horror of solitude, this need to lose his ego in exterior flesh, which man calls grandly the need for love. –Charles Baudelaire

Love does not care to define and is never in a hurry to do so. –Charles du Bos

What “love” is I don’t know if it’s not the response of our deepest natures to one another. – William Carlos Williams

I learned the real meaning of love.  Love is absolute loyalty.  People fade, looks fade, but loyalty never fades.  You can depend so much on certain people, you can set your watch by them.  And that’s love, even if it doesn’t seem very exciting.  –Sylvester Stallone

The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of. –Blaise Pascal, Pensées

At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. –Plato

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words. –William Shakespeare

First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity. –George Bernard Shaw

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.  –Judy Garland

Fortune and love favor the brave. –Ovid

It’s useless to hold a person to anything he says while he’s in love, drunk, or running for office.  –Shirley MacLaine

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. –Mother Teresa

Life is the flower for which love is the honey. –Victor Hugo

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit. –Khalil Gibran

Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.  –David Grayson

Love conquers all.  –Virgil

Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.  –Rainer Maria Rilke

Love does not dominate; it cultivates.  –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. –Voltaire

Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible – it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could. –Barbara de Angelis

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other. –Euripides

Love is always bestowed as a gift – freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved; we love to love. –Leo Buscaglia

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. –Peter Ustinov

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. –Robert Frost

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. –Aristotle

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. –H. L. Mencken

Love is love’s reward. –John Dryden

Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life. –Leo Buscaglia

Thank you for reading, please pass this article along!

This article will briefly explain the secrets to giving a great presentation every time.  Follow these secrets and you will be well on your way to sounding like a professional.

How to Give a Great Presentation:

1. Never Memorize

Never, never, never attempt to memorize your speech; make a few bullet points and refer to those bullets as you need them.

Some people choose to write their entire speech out before they give it, and that’s okay.  However, when it’s time to give your speech, don’t read it word for word.  Highlight a few key points in the speech.  Use those key points to guide you through your presentation.

2. Practice

Practice, practice, practice.  Perfect practice makes perfect, practice giving your speech using the bullets that you have created.  When you become a great presenter, you won’t have to practice as much.  But in the meantime, never forget to practice.  If you have three hours to prepare a presentation, use at least one of those hours to practice what you’re going to say, and how you’re going to say it.

3. Record Yourself

The best way to build confidence and make your practice time more productive is to record yourself.  When you record yourself you instantly have an audience.  Who is that audience?  It’s “you” when you play it back.  Preparing with an audience, even if it’s just you, adds a level of intensity to your practice, and will make your rehearsals several times better.

4. Use Your Hands

Use your hands productively when you speak, don’t just wave them about.  Use your hands to express yourself and to assist you in getting your message across.  Practice using your hands, it will allow you to release some of your nervous energy, and will cause your words to flow out more easily.

5. Squeeze Your Toes

Squeeze your toes while you present if you feel nervous.  Squeezing your toes will force your nervous energy into your feet where it won’t bother you as much.   It will allow you to focus on your audience and your message, so try it when you give your next presentation; you can even try it when you practice.

6. Vary the Tone

No one wants to listen to a monotone speaker, so change it up.  Get loud… and when you’re about to say something important, get low.  Make the listener hang on every word you say.  Go loud, go low, stretch your words, and then say some quickly.  Vary the tone to make the presentation more interesting.

7. Pause

The profound power of the pause.  When you would say “umm,” just go ahead and pause.  When you pause you sound more profound.

What feels like a long time to you when you pause, is usually just a second or two to your audience.  Don’t be afraid to pause; let your message sink in.

8. Act Like a Lion

Act like a lion, not like a deer.  A deer is constantly scanning it’s environment looking for danger, a deer usually looks afraid, but not a lion.  A lion is very deliberate in his actions, and you should be deliberate as well.

If you move while you’re giving your presentation, it should be a deliberate movement, eye contact should be deliberate, hand motions should be deliberate, all of your movements and words should be deliberate.  Remember the lion.

9. Start Slow

It’s not a race, you don’t have to finish your speech in record time.  Start slow, you can speed up if necessary, but a slow pace is usually more comfortable for the listener.  The listener will be able to comprehend your message a little better if you speak slowly.  You will also sound more profound.

10. Take It Seriously

Take every presentation very seriously.  You never know who’s watching.  People judge you based on how you present.  You may be an amazing employee, but if your speaking skills don’t match your work ethic you will lose points.  People expect leaders to be great speakers, so don’t let them down.

In Closing

Use the skills that you’ve learned in this article and you will be well on your way to giving a great presentation.

Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along.

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25 Inspirational Quotes That You Must Read:

1. He that will not reflect is a ruined man. –Asian Proverb

2. Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow. –Doug Firebaugh

3. Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still. –Chinese Proverb

4. The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. –Robert Cushing

5. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. –Socrates

6. Go back a little to leap further. –John Clarke

7. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. –Theodore Roosevelt

8. I failed my way to success. –Thomas Edison

9. Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. –William Shakespeare

10. Failure teaches success. –Japanese Saying

11. Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. –Will Rogers

12. Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. –Earl Nightingale

13. Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. –Benjamin Disraeli

14. Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

15. It’s not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you. –Zig Ziglar

16. At least eighty percent of millionaires are self-made. That is, they started with nothing but ambition and energy, the same way most of us start. –Brian Tracy

17. When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word “succeed,” you find that it simply means to follow through.” –F. W. Nichol

18. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. –Albert Einstein

19. The truth is you can acquire any quality you want by acting as though you already have it. –Joseph Murphy

20. You must get good at one of two things; planting in the spring or begging in the fall. –Jim Rohn

21. The searching-out and thorough investigation of truth ought to be the primary study of man. –Cicero

22. The only journey is the journey within. –Rainer Maria Rilke

23. Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do. –Menander

24. Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous. –Abd-el-Kadar

25. If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old. –Lord Chesterfield

If you have an inspirational  life-changing quote that you want to share, please add it below.

  50 Lessons from Albert Einstein: 

1. A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
2. It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
3. Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.
4. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
5. It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.
6. It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
7. A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.
8. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
9. Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
10. No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
11. Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.
12. As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
13. I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
14. I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.
15. Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
16. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
17. Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
18. Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
19. Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.
20. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
21. Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
22. Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.
23. Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
24. In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.
25. Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
26. Force always attracts men of low morality.
27. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
28. He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
29. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
30. I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
31. I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
32. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
33. If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
34. If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
35. Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
36. Imagination is more important than knowledge.
37. Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
38. Never lose a holy curiosity.
39. Isn’t it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?
40. It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
41. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
42. Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.
43. Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
44. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
45. Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
46. Love is a better teacher than duty.
47. Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.
48. Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
49. Information is not knowledge.
50. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

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“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get,” said the Cat.

“I really don’t care where” replied Alice.

“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

- Quote from the Alice in Wonderland Movie

My brother called me the other day and asked me for some advice?  He was trying to decide between two job offers:

Job 1 – The first job was your typical 40 hour a week “office” job.

Job 2 – The second job was more of a career in the insurance industry, where he would start at the bottom, and after many years and many long hours eventually rise to the top (if he was good).  The second job did not pay as well as the first job (initially), but the potential pay-off of the second job was much greater than the first job.

So which job should my brother take?  Well the answer is…it depends.

Just like the Cat was trying to tell Alice, which road you take depends a great deal on where you want to end up.

Begin with the End in Mind

I asked my brother what was his life’s purpose.  He said his purpose is to “teach,” but he wants to make a lot of money first.

I told my brother to forget about the money, and I advised him to focus on his purpose.

I then asked him which job best supports his end result of “teaching.”  He said the first job best supports his goal because he would only have to work 40 hours a week, which would give him spare time to teach.

He continued on to say, but if I take job number two, I can work hard and make more money, then I can retire early and “teach” later in life. I again advised him to “focus” on his purpose, not money.

I cautioned him to think this process through carefully because things don’t end wrong, they begin wrong!

You Can’t Ride Two Horses Well

It would be very difficult to have a successful teaching career while you’re working 70-80 hours a week in the insurance business; no one can ride two horses well.  As they say, you can do anything, but not everything.

I recommended to my brother that he dedicate his time to achieving his life’s purpose, and I advised him to get started today by choosing the job that best supports that decision.

Tomorrow Never Comes

My brother was thinking that he could always start teaching later in life, but the reality is, tomorrow never comes.

Unless you decide right now to pursue your passions, they will probably never be fulfilled.  They will always be postponed until some nebulous time in the future.  You will eventually “miss out” in the one area where you could have had the greatest impact on the world.

You only live once, don’t go to your grave with one regret; don’t postpone your purpose.

The Money Will Come

My brother seemed to be overly concerned with making money.  I told him not to be anxious about making money.  The fear of not making money is the quickest way not to make it.

You will always have greater money making potential when you’re doing what you love.

In conclusion, whenever you’re at a cross-road, be sure to make the decision that best supports the overall mission and goal of your life.  If you do, then you will be well on your way.

Thank you for reading, please be sure to pass this article along!

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The New Year is the perfect time to make changes in our lives. We can set new goals and try to improve our situations. Today let’s take a look at some common areas of self improvement people pursue as New Year’s resolutions and some ways you can make real changes in your own life.

Here are five potential paths to self improvement you could pursue in the New Year and some tips and examples to point you in the right direction.

1. Get a new job or a promotion.

Maybe you aren’t earning enough money. Perhaps you just don’t like your current employer or line of work. Here are some things to consider if this year feels like the right time for a change in your career.

• Consider going back to school if you want to change your entire career path.
• Focus on building confidence, either to ask for a raise or succeed in interviews.
• Express an interest in a new position at work — you may be looked over if no one knows you’re interested.

2. Start a business.

Maybe you’re just tired of the 9-to-5 grind as a whole and you’d like to start working for yourself in the New Year. Here are a few tips if you want to make that happen.

• Ideally, save to cover six months of expenses before quitting your current job.
• Visit your local SCORE chapter or another mentoring program for advice early on.
• Come up with a thorough business plan, especially if you’ll seek financing.

3. Improve your health.

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Self improvement is about more than financial changes. Your health is a major factor in living a happy life too. So why not work to become healthier in the New Year? Here are a few ways you can do that.

• If you’re a smoker, stop smoking even if it means taking things slowly.
• Start a new exercise regimen, even if it’s just a daily stroll to get you started.
• Look for ways to make your favorite recipes healthier, and carry those tactics into your everyday cooking without having to sacrifice flavor or go on a fad diet.

4. Improve your relationships.

Self improvement is as much about how you relate to others as what you do for yourself. So this year see if there are things you can do to improve your relationships in your daily life. For example, you might do one of the following.

• Start spending time with the kids in the evening, such as reading to them before bed.
• Get in touch with friends or family members you haven’t talked to in a while.
• Plan date nights with your spouse, where you’ll get a baby sitter once in a while to enjoy some time alone.

5. Cut down on stress.

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Stress can wear you down over time. It can affect your health and your mood. Some of the things we’ve already talked about might help you decrease stress as a side effect, but here are some things you can do to more directly address the problem.

• Write down your top three causes of negative stress, and vow to deal with them.
• Try a new relaxation technique — yoga, deep breathing, meditation, etc.
• If you’re trying to do too much, cut back on your commitments — it’s okay to say “no.”

Everyone’s self improvement will be different because we all have different areas of our lives that we feel could be better. What are yours? What can you do about them as you ease into the New Year? Share your own self-improvement tips and ideas in the comments below or tell us how you plan to improve your life in coming months.

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Do you wish you could earn an undergraduate or graduate degree online? It isn’t always possible for us to take time off of work to pursue further education and sometimes on-campus courses just don’t fit within our schedules. Whether you need more time to work at your own pace or you’re so motivated that you want to complete courses faster than usual, an online degree program might be a good option for you.

If you’re thinking about distance learning and pursuing an online degree, here are ten respectedU.S.colleges and universities offering these programs. Some examples of degree programs offered are also included below.

1. Arizona State University

• BS in Communication
• BS in Film and Media Studies
• BA in History
• BAS in Internet and Web Development
• BS in Nursing
• BS in Political Science
• Master of Engineering
• Master of Arts: Criminal Justice
• Master of Education
• Master of Business Administration

2. Boston University

• Master of Criminal Justice
• Masters of Music, Music Education
• Master of Science in Computer Information Systems
• Master of Social Work
• Doctor of Musical Arts, Music Education
• Doctor of Occupational Therapy

3. The City University of New York (CUNY)

• BA in Communication and Culture
• BS in Business
• BS in Health Information Management
• BA in Sociology

4. Drexel University

• BS in Health Services Administration
• BS in Business Administration
• BS in Communication
• BS in Psychology
• BS in Computing and Security Technology
• Online MBA
• MS in Sport Management
• MS in Hospitality Management
• MS in Information Systems
• MS in Computer Science
• MS in Electrical Engineering

5. Kent State University

• Computer Technology
• Master of Library and Information Science
• Master of Public Administration
• MA for Journalism Educators
• MS in Knowledge Management

6. Rutgers University

• Master of Library and Information Science

7. Stanford University

• Master of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Master of Chemical Engineering
• Master of Management Science and Engineering
• Master of Computer Science
• Master of Mechanical Engineering

8. UCLA

• Master of Science in Engineering

9. University of Massachusetts

• Isenberg Online MBA
• Bachelor of Business Administration
• BA Psychology
• BA Women’s Studies
• BS Hospitality and Tourism Management
• BS Information Technology
• Doctor of Nursing Practice
• Master of Education
• MS in Family Therapy
• Master of Applied Linguistics

10. Virginia Tech

• Master of Aerospace Engineering
• Master of Information Technology
• Master of Political Science
• Master of Ocean Engineering
• Master of Agricultural and Life Sciences

It’s important to note that even online degrees can sometimes have residency or campus visit requirements (although not all do). Others based around hands-on careers will often require internships to get you the hands-on experience you need. Make sure you thoroughly review the requirements of any online degree program before applying.

Have you taken online courses for college credits? Have you earned your entire degree online? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

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I’m a freelance writer. I’m a business owner. I set my rates, I decide what services to offer, and I decide which clients to work with and what projects to take on. I’m not an employee. Neither are you if you freelance — in writing, design, consulting, or any other area. Yet I see freelancer after freelancer still using resumes to try to land gigs. What’s worse is that I see clients occasionally demand them in job ads, making it clear they don’t quite grasp the difference between working with employees and contractors.

My advice for freelancers is to bury that resume. Stop sending it out and start acting like the business owner you are. You can land better gigs and get more respect as an independent professional when you stop starting business relationships giving people the impression that they can treat you like a traditional employee. Why are resumes a potential problem? Let’s talk about it.

Why Resumes Aren’t the Best Option for Freelance Professionals

As a freelancer, you are not an employee. You should not be treated like one. You’re a business owner. You have freedom and flexibility employees don’t have. And in exchange for that you take on added responsibilities like paying more taxes and business expenses which saves clients money. Clients also can’t treat you the same way they treat employees. For example (in the U.S. specifically) clients of freelancers generally can’t determine basic things like when or how you’ll work or what tools you’ll use. You’re the business owner. Those things are up to you.

When you start that relationship with something like a resume, you put yourself in line with employees. That’s not the image you should start out with. All a client needs to know to make a hiring decision is that you’re qualified to do the job and what you plan to charge for it. They can get that information in other places without insisting on kicking off the relationship in employer-employee style.

Benefits of Focusing on Portfolios Instead of Resumes

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Your professional website and portfolio are pretty typical ways to handle things as a freelancer. Your portfolio can be either online or offline. Here are some of the main benefits of focusing on portfolios instead of resumes:

• You focus on what matters — samples of past work or case studies for those offering consulting services — rather than often-irrelevant things like where you worked as an employee ten years ago or what your GPA was in school. Resumes are more for people and jobs where real results aren’t easily shared and where it’s more about long-term commitment to an employer than specific projects and results. As a freelancer, you’re generally being hired for the latter and samples in a portfolio establish more credibility than a resume ever could.
• You present yourself as a business owner up front rather than an employee-like worker, which can make negotiations on rates and other contract terms easier. When you hire an accountant or plumber they don’t give you a resume. As a freelance professional, you’re just as much a business owner. Businesses don’t send resumes. Their websites, case studies, past work examples, and testimonials do the talking for them.
• You put the emphasis on your best work and don’t have to worry about gaps in your employment history or other negatives often highlighted by resumes which are often irrelevant in freelancing. When timing is relevant (such as showing you’re up to date on the latest technical trends if you’re a freelance programmer or designer), you still have the option to highlight that.
• No emphasis is put on how long you stayed with each previous client or employer in a portfolio. In freelancing it’s very common to take on one-off projects and very short contracts. Resumes traditionally focus on longer-term employment. Hiring parties who are used to those traditional resumes and the implications of leaving a company after a brief period could paint you in a negative light, even if only subconsciously. That’s just one more risk you have to take.

If you’re prepared to treat your freelance career as a business in other ways — paying extra taxes, marketing your services, dealing with negotiations and collections, etc. — there’s no good reason not to do the same when trying to land gigs. Resumes are for employees. Build a solid portfolio instead and start your next professional relationship off on a higher level as the business owner you are and not as if you’re some temporary employee stand-in. And remember that if a resume is requested, it’s okay to say “no” (tactfully) and offer a portfolio. I’ve been taking on independent gigs for over a decade now, and rarely have I refused to provide a resume and had a prospect balk (and if they do, these days I walk rather than letting clients start things off by treating me as an employee, and sometimes they still come back) . Most have been perfectly happy with a portfolio instead. But when you’re dealing with new business owners or people used to traditional HR practices, often they just don’t know to ask for it.

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Guest posting can be a good way to grow your own audience. It can help you build name recognition and authority status in your niche or industry. It can help you maintain an active network of fellow bloggers in your specialty area. And it can drive traffic to your business website or blog.

When planning a guest posting schedule, how do you choose which sites to target? Where exactly should your guest posts go? Here are three things to consider when deciding which sites to submit guest posts to.

1. Target Niche and Audience

The most important thing in choosing a guest post destination is the audience of that site. You should have your own target audience (or market) in mind. Contact those that target a similar audience. But don’t take a narrow-minded approach either.

For example, I write about freelance writing. If I wanted to set up a new virtual blog tour, I could obviously target other freelance writing blogs. But it’s smart to look beyond the obvious. I could also submit guest posts to more general freelance sites if the posts focused on the business side of freelancing. I could also target sites for work at home moms (WAHMs) because that audience has an interest in work at home opportunities like freelance writing. I could even target small business sites, reaching out to others who are self-employed.

2. Reader Engagement

Community engagement means more than comments. - Credit: Fotolia.com

One of the best signs that a website is a good stop on a blog tour is reader engagement. Remember, you don’t just want link juice. You want direct traffic and an ability to connect with people who could become your future customers or regular readers. The more comments a blog tends to get, the more likely it is those readers will engage with you as well.

Of course you should look at comment quality too — several “great post!” comments don’t have much value, whereas a few comments that really add to the conversation are much better.

That said, don’t rule a site out completely just because it doesn’t have comments. Many guest posters limit themselves to blogs. But guest posting is really just an old PR tactic (previously done in print media by submitting authoritative free content to trade magazines). It’s not blog-specific.

Consider non-blog sites in your niche as well, even if they don’t have comments enabled. Look for other signs of reader engagement. For example, if they have social media sharing buttons you might be able to see how many people “like” or “tweet” average content there.

3. Size, Traffic and Post Frequency

How old or big a site is, how often new posts are published, and how much traffic a site gets are also worth considering (although far less important). Yes, it would be great if all of your guest posts went to busy blogs with huge visitor counts.

Don’t ignore the little guys though. They sometimes offer more value to guest posters. Why? Because their audiences can be more targeted, your post won’t get buried as quickly in their new updates, and owners of smaller sites can be more likely to aggressively promote your content. Plus, you never know when a “small” site is going to become a major player in your niche.

I submitted one guest post to a site like this a couple of years ago, and not only has the blog’s audience grown enormously but the owner still very actively promotes my article via social media.

Hopefully this gives you a few things to think about when comparing sites for guest post submissions. Guest posts should be strategic; you can’t give free content to everyone, so choose wisely. Oh, and as a site owner myself I’d like to add one more thing: please make sure a site actually accepts guest posts before submitting one. You’ll save everyone time in the process.

How do you choose sites to submit guest posts to? Do you only guest post on blogs, or do you take an expanded approach? Have you ever taken guest contributions offline to traditional media? Share your thoughts, tips, and stories in the comments below.