I’ve been hearing a lot about thyroid disorders recently and how they’re so prevalent. I didn’t know much about the thyroid and what it does so I decided to read up on it. I used to have a roommate that took thyroid medication and she told me that if she didn’t take it she would die. That’s about all I knew. While looking into thyroid disorders, specifically hypothyroidism, I came across this ebook and decided to purchase it and see what it said.

The Thyroid

First we have to have a clear understanding of what the thyroid is, where it is and what it does. The thyroid is a butterfly shaped gland that sits at the base of the throat. It wraps around the larynx and trachea.

It takes iodine from food and converts that iodine to hormones. These hormones are called thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). T4 and T3 are then released into the bloodstream to control the bodies metabolism. The metabolism of every cell in the body is controlled by T4 and T3. When there isn’t enough of these hormones produced it’s causes the metabolism to slow and you have a hypothyriod condition. If too much is produced you have a hyperthyroid condition. Hypothyroidism is more common than hyperthyroidism and it’s what I’m focusing on.

The pituitary gland, a small peanut sized gland at the base of the brain, controls the thyroid. The pituitary monitors the amount of T4 and T3 in the bloodstream. When there isn’t enough it releases a hormone called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). This hormone tells the thyroid to increase the production of T4 and T3. When the amount of thyroid hormones in the system starts to become high it cuts back on the amount of TSH it produces. These two glands work in partnership with each other and both must be working properly to have good thyroid hormone levels in our bloodstreams.

Hypothyroidism

So now we know that hypothyroidism occurs when the thyroid doesn’t make enough T4 and T3. If these hormones aren’t in high enough concentration in the blood the metabolism of all the cells in the body slows down. This disorder is 5 to 8 times more common in women than it is in men. Women over 50 are particularly at risk.

How do you know if you have an underactive thyroid? Here are a few symptoms you can look out for.

• sluggishness
• fatigue
• weight gain
• muscle weakness
• dry hair
• brittle nails
• depression
• aching joints
• constipation
• feeling cold
• memory loss
• decreased libido
• infertility
• abnormal menstrual cycle

There are several things that cause hypothyroidism. One is an autoimmune disease that causes the  immune system to attack the thyroid called Hatshimoto’s disease. Hatshimoto’s disease is the most common reason for an underactive thyroid. If left untreated it could lead to the total destruction of the thyroid gland. Other causes can be a nodule on the thyroid or even thyroid cancer. Sometimes the problem is caused by a problem in the pituitary gland.

If you have a combination of the symptoms I listed above and feel like you may have a thyroid condition you should see your doctor to make sure. It could be something else all together.

The treatments for overactive thyroid all depend on what’s causing it. The most common cause, Hatshimoto’s disease, is treated with hormone replacement therapy. Nodules and cancer are treated with surgery. In the cause of a nodule they remove the nodule and try to leave most of the gland attached. Depending on the type of cancer it is, they may remove all or some of the gland.

The Natural Thyroid Diet

I bought this ebook quite a while ago and just got around to reading it recently. I enjoyed it very much. It’s informative and easy to read. The writer Louise O’Connor is an Australian naturopath.

In the book she gives a much more thorough overview of the thyroid and hypothyroidism than I have. Unlike most medical things that I read it’s very easy to read. Once the thyroid is thoroughly explained she explains her diet system to help balance thyroid hormone production. The basics are common sense things that I discuss on this blog regularly, like staying away from processed foods. She also identifies foods that are good and bad for the thyroid. Meal plans are laid out in the book to take all the guess work out of eating–if you like meal plans that’s great, personally I hate meal plans.

Overall I think the book is quite good and I’d recommend it to people with hypothyroidism. Click here to check out The Natural Thyroid Diet.

Photo by wili_hybrid

Everyone wants to be healthy. I sure do. The steps to achieving optimal health aren’t as difficult to manage as they might seem. Breaking down what needs to be done and trying to make those changes in your life over time will help you  feel and look great. Let’s look at what you need to do to achieve optimal health. Remember you don’t have to do all these things at once. Changing your life one piece at a time will bring better results because you won’t have the stress of trying to do too much at once.

Diet

The first thing you must accomplish is eating a healthy diet. This can seem overwhelming to some, but if you follow a few simple rules, it’s not that difficult to pull off. Here it is in the simplest terms. Eat real food. I’ve beaten this drum so much you’re probably really tired of it, but I want to make sure everyone gets the message and understands it.

Stay away from processed prepackaged foods. What are these food? That’s easy to explain. Any pre-made meals that you just pop in the microwave, chips and bagged or boxed snack items, most cereals, breakfast bars, energy bars and whatever other kind of bar you can think of, and most store bought drinks including sodas and most juices are all processed foods.

If you’re in doubt read the label. If you see anything on the label that you don’t recognize, don’t buy it. It’s that simple. When you’re buying real food, you’ll find that most of your food won’t have a label to read because it will come from the produce section. This brings me to my next point.

Eat a lot of fresh vegetable. If they’re organic that’s even better, but we’ll take things one step at a time. If you’re unaccustomed to eating vegetables you’ll have to take things even slower. Think of one vegetable you like. I know a lot of people who don’t eat vegetables and they usually have one vegetable they’ll eat. Look up a recipe for that vegetable online and learn how to cook it. Learn how to cook that vegetable in as many different ways as you can.

Once you feel comfortable with that vegetable and cooking it go to the produce section of your store and select a random vegetable that you’ve never eaten before. Buy it and then do the same thing that you did with the vegetable you originally liked. Learn how to cook it in as many ways as you can. Try all the vegetables in the produce department like this. As you sample different vegetables you’ll find things you like and things you don’t like. Remember to keep an open mind.

When buying dairy, meat and eggs you need to make sure you’re buying free range organic. This is important because of all the hormones that are given to livestock. You don’t want to eat those hormones yourself. Buying free range organic will help you get the best quality meat available to you.

Don’t forget about beans and grains. These are inexpensive additions to your healthy diet. Eat whole grains. Choose brown rice over white rice. I recommend using dried beans instead of buying canned beans. Always soak your beans overnight and rinse them well before cooking. I also soak my grains for five to ten minutes and rinse them before cooking. Don’t eat undercooked beans and grains. Beans and grains contain chemicals that make it difficult for you to absorb nutrients. Soaking, rinsing and properly cooking them helps get rid of these chemicals.

You don’t have to start doing these things all at once. Take it one step at a time. Baby steps will eventually get you there too.

Exercise

Exercise is a key ingredient for achieving optimal health. Getting regular exercise is good for your body and mind. Combining cardio with strength training will help you get the best benefits from your exercise.

Cardio is exercise that gets your heart rate up. It helps strengthen your heart and lungs. It’s recommended that you get at least 20 minutes of cardio 3 times a week.

Weight and resistance training will help build your muscles. If you don’t have weights you can do push ups, squats, lunges, and other exercises that use your own body weight as resistence.

Getting enough exercise will improve you bone health, tone your muscles and increase you metabolism.

Here are some posts I’ve written about exercise in the past:

10 Simple Ways to Increase the Amount of Exercise You Get Everyday

The Health Benefits of Yoga

Exercise for a Healthy Brain

Are You Stretching Correctly?

Strength Training for Improved Health

Rest

I cannot even begin to emphasize how important it is to get the right amount of sleep. Most adults need about 8 hours sleep. This can vary according to the person so try out different amounts of time to see what feels best to you.

You should sleep in a room that is completely dark. A dark room helps with melatonin production and helps your body get good quality sleep. Your bedroom should be so dark at night that you can’t see anything, not even your hand if you wave it in front of your face. You can get black out shades to block out all the light. My flat came with thick navy blue velvet curtains in the bedroom. They sure are ugly, but they do a great job of keeping out the light so I’m not complaining.

Go to bed early and wake up early. If you’re a night owl like me that’s a hard one to pull off, but it’s important. Your body has a natural rhythm. Doing most of your sleeping when it’s dark and waking up when it’s light out helps with your production of melatonin and helps you get a better quality sleep.

If you want more info about sleep check out this post.

The Importance of Sleep

Hydration

Drink plenty of water. Water helps hydrate the tissue in your body. It helps keep muscles and tendons healthy and keeps your skin looking great.

I’d recommend getting a good water filter. If you live in an area where the water is fluoridated you need to get a filter that will remove the fluoride from your water. Reverse osmosis filtration systems are expensive but effective. You can also look into activated alumina defluoridation filters or distillation filtration systems.

Drinking Water is Good for Your Health

Stress

Cutting stress out of your life will decrease stress hormones that wear your body out and make you feel much better. Taking time to relax and enjoy a hobby, exercise, meditate, and spend time with family and friends will all help. I also believe that having a sense of spirituality helps relieve stress. Calming the mind helps calm the body and provides you with optimal health.

Photo by kevindooley

I was having quite a difficult time towards the end of last week. I don’t know what it was exactly, but I was very depressed and suddenly feeling quite hopeless. I moped around the house for a couple days complaining about everything in my life that I could think to complain about. It was just not a good scene. I’m sure my family was absolutely tired of me.

Usually, when I cook dinner I watch something online or listen to the radio. On this particular day, I decided to watch some videos on You Tube while I made whore’s pasta for my family. I looked up happiness. I thought that’s what I needed to hear about, because I was so unhappy. I ended up watching two videos. I’ll post them at the end of this but I just wanted to tell you about the impressions they made on me first.

Happiness is a Choice

The first video was about studies on happiness and how we tend to misjudge happiness or what will make us happy. In it the person asked the audience who would be happier after one year, a lottery winner or a quadriplegic. The audience assumed it would be the lottery winner, but in fact, both groups of people averaged the same level of happiness after one year passed.

There’s a scripture in the Book of Mormon that I just spent a ton of time looking for but couldn’t find so I’ll paraphrase it. If anyone out knows which one it is please put it in the comments. The scripture says that the same soul that possesses your body now will be the soul that meets God. Those that are happy will be happy still. Those that are miserable will be miserable still. Then in the margin of that verse I have written “Happiness is a choice.”

Those of you who might have a problem with depression probably disagree or at least don’t appreciate that sentence. I’ve written about depression, and I think there are times when it gets beyond anything you can control on your own.

I saw a television show on happiness once that featured a person with terminal cancer who said that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to him and explained how much happier his life was. It made me think that you have a choice in the way you approach situations. Some people choose to see the negative in everything and others look at the positive. Choosing to look at the positive in a situation you can’t change is in a sense choosing to be happy. I can choose to be upset because things are not going like I planned right at this moment or I can chose to see the positive and move on.

Don’t Worry

The other You Tube video I watched that evening was an interview with a Buddhist monk. It was about how Buddhist monks are the happiest people alive. During the interview the monk talked about being present in the moment. This is something else I have a problem doing. I tend to worry at times. Then I get stuck in a worrying rut that I just can’t seem to get myself out of. If you are in the present you can’t worry about the future.

Worrying doesn’t get you anything in the long run, but a whole lot of wasted time worrying. The time spent worrying could’ve been used to do something productive to make your future seem more positive to you.

Worrying won’t change anything only action will bring about change.

Trust in Life

My husband always says that you have to trust that life will give you what you need. He’s always accusing me of not doing that–not trusting. As a religious person I would equate that with having faith in God. I have to admit that at times my faith is a bit lacking, but as I look back on my life I can see how events happened in the right order.

There are things that I’m doing now that I’ve thought if I’d done that earlier look at how much further along I would have been, but if I examine the situation honestly I know that I won’t have been ready to do that earlier.

Strip everything away and look at your life honestly. Are you getting everything you need right now to learn the lesson that is most relevant in your life today? Who were you two years ago? Could’ve you have learned that same lesson then? Probably not. You probably weren’t ready yet, but now you have the experience and tools to do so. You just have to find those tools. You just have to recognize the lessons.

Writing and Sharing Experiences

I believe that journaling is a great way to examine your life and look inward. Writing in a journal everyday in a free form stream of consciousness manner will help you take an honest look at you life. Once you’ve found the lessons and tools you need to you can start learning and growing.

I don’t have everything figured out in life. I probably never will, but I hope that by sharing experiences we can learn from each other.

Photo by Pink Sherbert

When I was 16 years old I graduated from high school and started attending college. At the time, people always said, “Wow, you must be really smart!” I always responded by saying, “No, I’m just persistent.”

I’m a quiet, shy person, but I’ve always had persistence going for me. Sometimes I think it might be going against me, because I don’t know when to quit.

My persistence has helped me to achieve some basic goals that I’ve had ever since I was a little girl. I’ve studied and lived in Africa. My original goal was to go to South Africa, but the year I was finally able to go there was too much social unrest in the country so I ended up spending several months in Zimbabwe instead. I also lived and studied in China for a few months. I did all of that before I even turned 20.

Once I graduated from college I taught English in Korea for a few years and traveled around Asia. This was a great experience. I’m still pursuing my goal of seeing the world. I’m currently living in the UK and planning on traveling around Europe.

I’ve been able to do all this because I stick to my goals. Traveling the world may seem like a superficial goal to some, but it’s brought me much enjoyment and taught me tons. I like to live in different countries for a while not just go, see the sites and leave. This gives me a chance to learn the language and customs.

Travel is just one of the goals that I’m quietly working on. There are many others, but this isn’t supposed to be all about me is it. Let’s take a look at persistence, what it is, when is it good or bad and why you might want to have it.

What is Persistence?

Persistence is sticking to your goal even when it’s hard. It guess you could also call it sticktoitness. I’ve written about how when you’re working on a long term goal at times you don’t really want to. Our desires for things ebb and wane so we have to have persistence to accomplish any large long term goal.

When you have persistence you have the where with all to see the ultimate outcome and keep working to get to that outcome no matter what the present may be. Sometimes that’s not necessarily a good thing.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Sticktoitness is great because it can help you get to your achieve success. If you look at examples of successful people they all have persistence in common. Having faith that you can achieve your goal and that you can make your plan work an important key to success, but you also need to be able to acknowledge when things just aren’t working out.

When I started blogging a few years ago I started out with another blog. It was a music site that I enjoyed quite a bit. I was sure this blog would be a success. I worked on it daily trying to figure out how I could get more traffic and make the blg better. The problem was that the blog had no traffic. After about a year, I was getting maybe 10 people a day on the blog. It was pitiful. I persevered with this blog for a while, experimenting with different posting schedules and even different types of posts. I used social networking sites to promote it and did all the things you’re supposed to do for a blog. Still no traffic.

Finally, after much thought I decided to give up on the blog. It’s still floating around out there in cyberspace, but I haven’t posted anything on it in a very long time. It just wasn’t working out. Even though I loved the name and the idea, I knew it wasn’t working.

Persistence can turn into just plain hardheadedness if you don’t know when to quit. If you’ve been doing the same thing for years and you’re still not getting results, it’s time to try something else. I tend to be bad at that. I think I let that blog go longer than I should’ve. Writing about it now makes me want to go back to it and post something, but I’ll resist that urge.

Photo by tpuyol

There are a lot of people out there trying to tell you how to achieve ultimate health. Health is a thriving industry. There is so much conflicting information out there. How can you know what information is right? How do you decide who to listen to?

There are lots of health gurus willing to give you that advice. They all know what information is best. They all know what you should eat, how and when to exercise and which dietary supplements you absolutely must take. The problem is they don’t always agree either.

How can you know which of these gurus you should listen too. I’ll share with you what I look for when examining the advice of health gurus.

Rigidity

As you know from reading my previous posts, I believe that one diet is not necessarily right for every person. Some health gurus subscribe to sticking to one strict diet with no variation for the individual. I tend to steer clear of this type of thinking. Looking into what they’re saying doesn’t harm anyone. You should even try their prescribed diet if it makes sense to you, but if you fail to thrive on that diet try something else. Some people tend to listen to experts and ignore how they feel physically. That’s not such a good idea.

What are they selling?

They’re all selling something. I don’t blame them. We all have to make a living. Take a look at the types of products they’re selling. Do they seem overpriced? Do they really provide you with added value? Do they claim that only they’re supplement or pans or whatever they’re selling will help you stay healthy.

Only Listen to Me

Does this health guru claim to be the only one with the secret to a healthy life? Do they say listen to me and only me? Do they say only buy my products? I think this is a big indicator that maybe you shouldn’t listen to only them. There are plenty of people who have studied health, diets and nutrition. For one person to claim they have the secret to health that no one else has is questionable.

Use your common sense. You have a brain in your head and I’d hope you’d use it to figure out what you need to do to be healthier. Listen to your body and start doing the things that are right for you.

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography

Two days ago I realized I was making a mistake. This was a big mistake that has probably cost me a lot in my business and held me back a bit. The worst part about this mistake is that I realized that I’d been making it for about a year. That’s right, I’ve been making the same mistake over and over again for a year. Unbelievable isn’t it!

Like most people my initial reaction to learning about this mistake was to want to beat myself up. It was such an obvious mistake. I didn”t understand how I could’ve been making it for so lone. Then I  realized that there are some good lessons that we all can learn from the mistakes we make.

Acknowledge the mistake

If you don’t admit you’ve screwed up how they you expect to fix it. The first step in learning from your mistakes is admitting that you’ve made them in the first place. This can be one of the hardest steps for many people, but once you’ve accomplished this step you can move on to correcting your mistake and making your situation much better.

Accept responsibility

Blaming others for your mistakes won’t get you anywhere. We all know someone who blames everyone else for their situation but never takes responsibility for themselves. This approach to life doesn’t only take away the power you should have in your own life but limits your ability to change and overcome your difficult situations. Ask yourself what you did to contribute to the situation.

Don’t beat yourself up.

Take responsibility but don’t beat yourself up over it. This can be hard to do. We tend to be our worst critics. When your mistake is as obvious as mine was it’s easy to tell yourself that your an idiot over and over again.

That doesn’t help anything. You’ve already made the mistake. Being extra hard on yourself about it isn’t going to make the mistake go away.

It may be a cliche thing to say, but we all make mistakes. It’s part of being human.

Repair the damage.

Once you’ve realized you’ve made a mistake you need to fix it. If your mistake has hurt someone you need to apologize and try to correct the situation.

When it involves another person, restitution for mistakes made can be very difficult, but acting in sincerity is the best way to move forward. Remember that you can’t force someone to forgive you. You must give the other person the time and space they need to process the situation and make the choice to forgive.

The mistake I made while quite big in some ways is easy to correct, luckily. My corrections will just take up some time, but once they’re done, they’re done and I can move forward and past that mistake.

Evaluate the situation

What lessons can you learn from your mistake? At first you may think that you can’t learn anything, but I encourage you to sit down and spend some real time evaluating the lessons you can learn. It’s only by doing this that you ensure that you don’t make the same mistakes again. You really don’t want to do it again, do you?

You may need to talk the situation through with someone else or even write it down in a journal. Talking about a situation or writing it down can make it easier for you to process the information and can make the information more memorable.

Move on

Once you’ve done these basic steps there’s no need to dwell in the past. Move on. You have other things to do now.

Photo by Just SallyRye

It is said that many of use live far below our potential. The other day I was talking to a friend who described his situation like this. He said that he knew what he was capable of and what he could become. He could see it, but it seemed just beyond his reach. He didn’t know how to get there. He hadn’t found the skills yet he needed to get there.

Do you ever fell like you have the same problem. What is you potential? Have you reached it? Do you think you’ll ever reach it?

Finding Your Talent

We all have talents. Everyone can succeed at something. Sometimes determining what that talent is can be quite difficult. If you aren’t sure what your talent is, don’t be ashamed. There are many people in the same position as you. To discover your talent try to answer these questions.

• What do you do in your free time?
• What do you do for fun?
• What are your hobbies?
  

If you keep a journal go back and read past entries to see what kinds of things you used to like doing.

Think back to when you were a child.

• When you were 10 years old what did you like to do?
• How did you spend your free time?
• What did you think about?
• What did you imagine yourself doing when you grew up?
  

Answering these questions can help you determine what you’re most passionate about. Whatever you have a passion for you most likely have a talent for also.

Don’t assume that your talent is something artistic. Many people say, “I don’t have any talents.” They say that because they don’t have an artistic skill. They can’t paint or draw or play music. Talents aren’t limited to artistic pursuits. Non-artistic talents include counseling others, public speaking, making others feel comfortable, and problem solving. There are countless other things I can name.

I believe that your talent or passion directs what you should be doing in your life. If you can make that thing your life’s work, you’ll feel fulfilled.

Stretch Yourself

Once you have a clear understanding of what your talents and gifts are you can hone them. You can do your best to make yourself better at that thing. Honing your gifts will help you move closer to realizing your full potential.

Continue learning new things. Don’t be intimidated by not knowing something. In order to reach your true potential you have to stretch yourself. It is only through pushing your limits that you grow.

Once you’ve tested yourself evaluate the results. Your successes show you your gifts. Your disappointments clearly define your limitations.

Stay Focused

Keep your goal in mind and avoid distraction. Many times people make goals only to forget about them. Writing your goal down and reading it daily will help you remember what your main focus should be. I suggest taping your goal up someplace where you’ll see it a lot.

If you need to you can break your goal down into smaller tasks. This will help it seem more attainable. Here are some tips for achieving long-term goals.  Now that you have these goals if you need some motivation to continue moving forward check out this post about doing something for your goal everyday.

Be Patient

It’s not all going to happen at once but if you do these things and are diligent you’ll be able to reach your potential in any field you chose. If you can see what you want to become you can achieve it.

As you’re working to achieve that goal, don’t waste your time always looking to the future and ignoring the presence. Life is a process that we’re here to enjoy.

If you need more advice on discovering your talent check out this post on Skelliewag titled, How to Find Your Hidden Talent.

Photo by Matheus Sanchez

Many people look to traditional diets to stay healthy. Diets like the Mediterranean diet and the Okinawa diet are among the most popular.

History

Traditional diets have been eaten throughout generations by in different regions of the world by different ethnic groups. All of these diets exclude processed food that have become the norm in today’s society. They also have in common the consumption of seafood or organ meats. Both of these are sources of B12.

Benefits

The most research on traditional diets has been done on the Mediterranean diet. This diet was first made studied by Dr. Ancel Keys in 1945. The diet itself didn’t gain popularity until the 1990’s when Dr. Walter Willett re-introduced the diet to the US.

The diet is commonly understood to include lots of fresh vegetables, legumes and fruit and some poultry and seafood. It includes very little red meat and uses olive oil as it’s primary source of fat. While this is what is commonly considered the Mediterranean diet it is not typical to the the entire Mediterranean area. Some of the areas in the Mediterranean include butter and lard as their staple fats.

Okinawans have a long life expectancy. This is what has made their diet so popular. The diet consists of lots of vegetables, fruit, legumes and rice. They eat seafood  and soy as their primary protein sources.

One of the things that really effects the life expectancy of Okinawans in my opinion is that they don’t overeat and they don’t eat processed foods.

People who eat both of these diets have low incidents of heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases associated with aging.

The Downside

No more processed foods. If you love McDonald’s or your addicted to chips following a traditional diet will cut out all those goodies. That’s not really so bad because those things aren’t good for you anyway.

My Two Cents

Following a traditional diet no matter what diet it is has one thing in common–the elimination of processed foods. If you look at all the diets I’ve covered in the past few weeks, the thing that makes them healthy is the elimination of processed foods. Do you see the pattern here? It looks like the best then you can do for your health is cut out processed foods.

As far as following a traditional diet goes, I think the best thing to do is find out were your ancestors come from and start eating the traditional diet of that region. If you’re a bit of a mutt like me, you can just pick a diet and try to stick to it.

I love food from different regions of the world. My diet doesn’t follow any one tradition, instead I miss and match and eat what I think tastes great. Following common sense is what has worked best for me. I don’t eat tons of fat. I’ve cut out processed foods. I eat no refined sugar  (except for the birthday cake I ate the other day). I’ve seen my health improve once I started using this common sense approach to eating.

If you’re in need of some good recipes try checking out MediterrAsian. I love this site. Their recipes are great.

Photo by yomi955

I try to keep up with the latest internet marketing programs. I’m always checking out new launches (I hate that word) and finding out about the latest hyped up you-can-make-money-online program. I’ve always done this. It’s like a form of study to me. I see the same patterns repeated again and again.

Some of these programs seem more genuine than others. If it’s too good to be true it is. If someone promises you that you can make a large amount of money is a short span of time with no effort, that’s probably not true.

Too many people are looking to get something for nothing. Everybody wants to find the quick and easy way to make a buck. It’s not just true for this generation. These types of programs have been going on for a long time. Look a pyramid schemes as an example. They’ve been around forever.

This desire to get something for nothing leaves you always wanting more. Can you really gain anything of value without putting in effort and time to obtain it?

Adding Value

If you want to work for yourself, if you want out of the grind working for The Man, you need to figure out what your passion is and then you need to use that passion to add value to the world. I think the best way to earn money is by adding value and giving people something that they truly want and need.

What do you love to do? Can you think of a way to turn that into a business?

Some of best examples of that in the blogging field are Darren Rowse of Digital Photography School and Problogger, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Write to Done and Steve Palvina. If you look at the content of their blogs, you’ll see that they add value. Steve writes posts that are longer then what I care to read once a week. Leo posts several times a week and Darren posts daily without fail. I think their posting schedules proves that how often you post or the length of your posts don’t really matter. What matters is the value you add to your chosen community.

Sharing with people information they truly need, something that you’re an expert in is how you add value. Maybe this can happen in your current job. Maybe you have  a hobby that you truly love. Whatever it is you can try to use that to help you make money.

I’ve used SBI! to make websites. They have a really good program. Using something called the Action Guide, you are guided through the steps needed to chose a niche and set up a website that will attract targeted traffic.

SBI! provides you with tools that help you chose keywords to write content and helps you write content that will be picked up by search engines. They have so many tools that are very useful for making a successful website. They aren’t as cheap as other hosting companies, but they provide so much more to steer you towards success.

Blogging is great. I love blogging, but if you don’t think you can write regular posts you might want to consider building a content website. Content websites don’t loose targeted traffic from the search engines if you go some time without updating it like a blog does. A website built using the right tools can be left alone and still gain traffic.

One thing that I really like about SBI is that they never claim to be a get rich quick scheme. All over their main page they tell you that this will require work and time. It’s true it does, but writing about something you love and earning money in return is so worth the initial work that goes into setting up an SBI website.

If your interested in trying SBI this check out their main page.

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Are you angry because you think you deserve something you haven’t gotten yet. This may sound shocking to you but maybe you don’t have it yet because you don’t deserve it yet. Sometimes we walk through this life with a sense of entitlement. Why does so and so have that, but I don’t? we wonder. Why can’t things just work out for me like they have for blah blah blah? Have you ever wondered that? Is there someone in your life that you think has more than they deserve? Who are you to make that judgment?

What’s Holding You Back

Most times the stumbling blocks that are holding you back are the ones that are the most difficult to see. You can see all the work you’ve done and all the rewards others seem to be getting that you’re not, but you just can’t seem to see why. This is when honestly evaluating your situation is most important.

How can you determine your stumbling blocks?

I like to use others as examples. I find someone who has gained success in a way that I’d like to. They don’t necessarily have to be in the same profession as me or have a similar talent. I look for someone who has gained success by being themselves and being kind of quirky. Than I track their career. I look for information as far back as I can find on them. I become a stalker of sorts–not really;)

Through learning about the steps they’ve taken in their careers, I can try to determine what I’m doing wrong in my own. The same things aren’t going to work for everyone, granted, but you can draw from what others have done to get ideas about yourself.

When you’re struggling to reach your goals, their is often one key thing that you’re missing. There’s one thing that for some reason you’ve skipped out of the equation. Studying others can sometimes help you see what that one thing is.

Once you find that thing don’t think about it one day and then merrily forget about it and go back to your old habits. You have to work on it consistently. That means everyday. That means more than you probably want to. Why? Because you have to unlearn a behavior. Maybe it took you all your life to learn that behavior. Now you have to unlearn it.

If you want something really badly and you feel like you deserve it but you don’t have it. Guess what, you probably don’t deserve it. That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Our efforts in life give us what we deserve. When you come to terms with that you’ll be able to do the work you need to get the what you really deserve. For now, you have what you deserve. You are not entitled to anything more than what you earn. You can earn the things you want not just by working hard, but by working smart.

Put Your Faith In Life

I’m sure you’ve been stuck in traffic at some point in your life. When you’re in traffic, how do you react? Are you angry? Are you frustrated? Do you angrily grip the steering wheel and swear under your breath?

Or

Do you notice your surroundings? Watch the sun setting in the distant? Laugh at the children making faces in the car next to you?

Do you see the world around you or do you only see yourself? Do you notice the beauty in all things or do you only notice the inconvenience and frustration? Do you take advantage of the time you have or are you only worrying about the future?

Enjoying the process is one of the most important qualities you can have in life. Life is a process. If you’re doing all that you can to reach your goal, you have to trust that you’ll get there.

The time that you spend worrying and fretting about it is time wasted that you could be using to reach your goal. I think that holds too many people back. Don’t think about what you should have, try to figure out what you can do to get it.

Know that God or the universe or whatever you chose say will take care of you, if you’re doing all you can do you’ll be taken care of. Trust in that. Let all the fear and doubt out of your mind. You don’t need it. It does you no good.

Moving forward is just that. Don’t look back or even look too far ahead. Focus on the now and you’ll get there eventually.

Photo by circo de invierno~