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Sophistication is not a nice word. It comes from the noun "sophism" meaning a false argument,intention to deceive. Nowadays,sophistication implies elagance and a manner of behaviour which sets the sophisticate at a revered distance from the rest of us. There's a thin line to tread between enigmatic and being an outcast;knowing how to tread that line is what constitutes sophistication.To do so,consider the following suggestions: 1.Live where the rich live. Even if its a cardboard box. And refer to it as your pied-a-terre. 2.Become a gourmet. Keep freshly ground coffee(Brazilian or French roast)on hand and dry white wine. French mustard,English horseradish and Italian olive oil are a musts.(The sophisticates are fussy about their food.)Get an electric squeezer and always make fresh orange juice. Use linen napkins-never paper. 3.Profess to a hatred of flying, but try to fly as often as possible. 4. Walk slowly,even if you're in a hurry. 5.Perfect the art of understa...

Our lives easily become non stop pursuit of personal power. We have been socially conditioned to worship successful performance. In the process of working hard towards what we relatively consider success, we drive ourselves to the limit, totally disregarding our minds and bodies that need time for restoration. Which consequently wreaks havoc to our whole system of being. It is not healthy to labor too long without rest.Like in working out, if you do not allow yourslef some resting time it will cause you physical burnout. The effect on the connective tissues and the muscles are counter-productive. Metaphorically, the great energy of spring is preceded by the long quiet cocoon of winter. In people, the hours of sleep give us the power necessary to make our best effort. In the fiber of our muscles, the mitochondria of individual cells need many hours of rest to recover for the damage caused by the stresses of working out. You also give it time to let your muscles grow and therefor...

Find out what kind of a tourist you are.As the saying goes" you don't know a man until you share a camel with him". You may be Dr. Jekyll at home but wait until you travel, you're inner Hyde might surfaced. So which one best describes you? 1. Eddie the edgy. You go to the airport 5 hours ahead of departure. You always check where you put your passport and all other travel documents every minute.Every time the loudspeaker soundsyou zero in, never hearing what your companions are saying. You needa tranquilizer or a cocktail to calm you down. 2. Redmond the glutton. You plan to travel mainly to eat. You know where the finest restaurants are located. Breakfast turns to lunch just taking time to digest what there is to eat. Every meal is an event. Most of your travel memories are basically foie gras and raspberry souffles or any exotic food the country has to offer.One thing for sure you pack on pounds as fast as you pack your luggage. 3. Eric the erotic. You may ...

Succesful entrepreneurs didn't start off with one moment of epiphany.They usually work at their business for quite a time to achieve "overnight" success.First and foremost they sell something they love whether it's a product or a service. They have done research to make sure the market exists. They have the ability and means to supply that product or service again and again. Being in business is not just about making money.It is a way to become who you are.Your best idea for business will be something that is already deep within you. A business shouldn't be something you do to live but something you live to do. So here are three steps to take if you want to make your business a successful one. 1.Start as a customer. Years before the birth of plentyoffish.com one of the biggest online dating site on the internet today, Markus Frind, it's creator was frustrated of the fact that every dating site he surfed would always require to whip out you...

A practical wardrobe should reflect your personality,characteristics and values. oftentimes, we commit the mistakes of just pulling out from the heaps of clothes in the closet. There is always a way to figure out a collection that is relevant to your lifestyle, here are tips: 1. Fefine your lifestyle. List your hobbies, interests and places you visit often. this list is definitely your own. For example, you like motorcycle riding on weekends, so naturally you need a variety of motorcycle jackets and boots. If you are an international fundraiser then you need lots of suits, dinner jackets, silk ties, bow ties etc. 2. List your wardrobe requirements. Work from your existing collection. Check if you need leather goods, undergarments, colognes, socks, and the like. Choose the classic cut. You won't be outrageously following the latest trend but you won't be out of style either. Saves money. Buy pieces of neutral colors . Black ,white, gray ,brown, beige, camel, tan and cr...

The expressions of charm are endless. It is the vivacious lady who can keep a crowd in roars of laughter, but wouldn’t you say that a quiet girl who walks off with the season’s brightest beau has charm too? Charm can’t be confined in any rule or particular set of actions. Charm lies in being yourself- your best self. It lies in complete naturalness. Charm is the next best asset after looks and brains and can almost make up for looks. How do you attain charm? Some say it’s instinctual, others say it can be practiced consistently in order to acquire it. You have charm if: You let other people know about the things you love. Announce your interests, hobbies, passions , predilections and let it be known. On the contrary if you are a basic hater, cynical and all around hostile person , no amount of talent, skill, brilliance or fame you have could anyone describe you as charming. Empathy is a big part of charm. Show an appreciation of how other people are thinking and feeling. You ...

Two Kinds of Time Have you wondered why waiting for the elevator for a minute, seems longer than a ten minute coffee break? Why it seems like a few minutes when you actually talk to your girlfriend on the phone for an hour? And why it seems like an hour when you are on the hotseat for a minute? It’s because there is what we call physical and psychological time. Physical time is measured by the wobbling pendulum that swings back and forth or the vibrating atom or simply what the watch or clock says. Where as psychological time is the experience which minces and leaps with little regard to the clock or calendar. Larger units of time such as months and years pass more rapidly as we age. The first twenty years of our existence are the longest half of our lives. They take up more room in our memory than all the years that follow. Like, you remember what happened in high school more vividly than what you did a year ago. There’s a theory that a year to a five year old child is twenty ...

If you are single or recently divorced, one way to ease out of your loneliness is to entertain at home. Elaborate parties or just a casual one depend on your budget. The most important thing is , you get in touch with people and interact with them. If you have a knack of setting up spontaneous little parties that do not require much preparation, go ahead. You can serve canapés, sandwiches and a punchbowl of refreshing concoction. Fire up your creativity, you can serve Italian spaghetti with a lot of tomato and meat sauce. How about Chinese dish, salads tossed in large wooden bowls, the simplest apple and celery mixture or maybe avocados halved and filled French dressing. Coffee and cake for dessert. Also people seem to enjoy nibbling crisp little slivers of raw vegetable from a bowl of crushed ice .Celery, carrot and turnip are delicious served this way. I’m pointing out the simplicity of smart modern entertaining. Learn to entertain effortlessly. Plan now for a simple, joyous part...

In today’s world, the high cost of living forces us to spend much of our time working. Working at two to three jobs is no longer an isolated case. We have become workaholics and consequently make us reclusive and constantly attached to our desks and computers. But we have to realize that there’s more to life than just focusing on our jobs like the social part of our lives for example. Pursuing friends adds zest to our structured routine. And what a perfect way to enlarge our circle of friends than to entertain. In war and peace, in poverty or riches we can share hospitality whatever we have and invest the occasion with warm companionship with an air of festivity. No matter how charming or powerful the person maybe, he or she may never reach the peak of his individuality until he or she begins to reach out to others and to serve them. In the time of Alexander The Great, when he won over Persian Darius, he celebrated his victory by having a mass- wedding feast. His men took Persi...

Time is a fixed commodity. Which means you have limits as to what you can accomplish in a lifetime. It’s wise to decide which objectives are most important to your happiness and it is recommended that you prioritize. You can’t be a renowned author at the same time strive to be a grandmaster at chess. Nor you can’t place an equal value on becoming a notorious playboy, a gourmet chef and an empire builder all at the same time. Although it is possible to be a seven time bodybuilding champion, a box office action star and a famous politician at several stages in your lifetime. But that’s another story. Winning all the time isn’t everything. If your objective is to have a relaxing, enjoyable round of golf on a sunday afternoon, you don’t have to force a hole in one. Just play, relax and enjoy. A true ‘champion” doesn’t have to be a jack of all trades. They are exceptional in their fields, yet they are unsophisticated in other aspects. They spend so much time polishing their particu...

We cannot avoid stress. As long as we are living, stress is going to be a part of our lives. The bottomline is we need to learn how to manage stress and have a positive outlook so our bodies are not controlled by the stressful events happening in our lives. Each of us reacts differently to the exhaustion caused by poorly managed stress. That is due to environmental factors as well as hereditary predisposition. Some people are muscle reactors, some gut reactors and some are vascular reactors . Muscle reactors constantly brace their skeletal muscles such as in the neck and shoulders, causing tension headaches. In some cases, the tension moves down the spine. This is the cause of up to ninety five percent of all low back pain. Not knowing how to properly relax, these people become constantly frustrated in their attempts to relieve their hurting muscles. Thus they build up more frustration, causing more bracing and more pain. It’s a vicious cycle. Gut reactors are those who always br...

“"Extreme busyness is a symptom of deficient vitality, and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity." Robert Louis Stevenson said it. In this day and age of hurry, tension and frantic competition, we hurl ourselves through life at a breathless pace. The operative word is MULTI-TASKING. Is it worth it? Is it possible that a bustling display of energy might only be camouflage for a spiritual vacuum? When there’s no time for quiet, there is no time for the soul to grow. Even in the realm of bodybuilding program, rest is a major component. Scientist proved that our bodies secrete more growth hormone while we sleep. In order for our bodies and mind to operate efficiently we need sleep and rest and replenish its energy stores. A man who walks through the countryside sees more than the man who runs. If you are the type to cram your schedule and never having an idle moment, try to experiment with a little purposeful pausing. ...

Whether your botched relationship was short and intense or long lived and casual, take heart. There are proven effective ways in coping with break up. Coping with a break up is easier said than done. Getting through the first few months after your relationship went sour is the hardest. That’s when you feel the worst, the angriest and experience self doubt at its highest level.Here are some proven ways to mend a broken heart: 1. Get angry. Go ahead be indignant. Anger is a high octane but quick burning fuel. It will not sustain you for very long. Be mad as hell over your partner’s role in bringing down the final curtain. Write a note to be mailed letter expressing your anger to your ex. You are the only one who will ever see it. No need to equivocate or to hedge or redress yourself.. Just let the anger ooze out. You will be surprise at how relieved you will feel afterwards. 2. Do not perform an autopsy. Do not dissect or examine the corpse of a dead relationship. Leave the bo...

If you want to master how to reduce stress you have to know that it is ideal for people who are ‘left brained’ like lawyers, accountants ,writers etc. to have hobbies like gardening, chopping wood . carpentry etc.. For people who stand on their feet all the time and do manual labor for a living, should indulge in hobbies like scrabble, chess, painting to balance between physical and mental activities. If a certain activity bores you like, you can’t get over why people like to carry binoculars and watch birds then don’t do it because it might just add to the stress. There are many ways to swerve off the path of anger, anxiety, frustration, sadness or simply lethargy into a state of happiness once or several times throughout the day. Here are practical ways to reduce stress: 1. Pad your schedule. Always be reminded that goals and projects will take longer than you initially anticipated to accomplish. Allot yourself enough time, like give yourself twenty percent more time than you thi...

I never really believe in bringing items with you as conversation starters. Well what do you know, it actually works! I experienced it myself. After a visit from the veterinarian I brought my puppy along to the grocery store to do some shopping. I couldn’t believe it when complete strangers passed by and looked at us with eyes wide open and bright smiles. Some comments like “what a cute puppy” and “ is it a he or a she?” Some people even went to the extent of going near me and patted my mixed poodle -terrier three month old puppy. I said to myself “wow , what a way to meet someone!” It was effortless. You don’t have to risk rejection, muster courage, withstand dry mouth and weak wobbly knees just to talk to someone for the first time. So from that time on, I thought with the right props, the right location and time, you are bound to meet new people and rev up your “social rocket” out in the launch pad. Here are some tips on what to bring to get that good topics of convers...

To learn different kinds of jargon or technical terms is a huge advantage.Here are techniques on how to use jargon and see your sales rise to astronomical heights. What separates the average salesman to a super successful salesman is that, the latter knows how to speak many languages. No, I don’t mean Spanish, Italian or German but he can speak to a gentleman in uniform in military language, to a lawyer in a lawyer’s language . In fact the successful salesman can talk to many clients of different backgrounds. Every job or hobby has its own set of jargon or specialty terms. A successful salesman takes the time and effort to learn those terms of different fields of occupation and interests. Why? Is it important in increasing their income? Absolutely! When you speak your client’s language you are immediately establishing rapport. You are building a common ground between you and the prospect. You let the client know subliminally that you understand his viewpoints , problems and op...

“How you master your first musical piece, always determine what kind of a musician you are, whether you are average or excellent."That’s what a jazz guitarist told me . If you are the type of musician who thoroughly and tenaciously practices his first piece very well before learning another musical piece, then you have a better future if you want to make it to the professional level. People who plays guitar very well amaze me. I am in awe of their proficiency in playing the guitar because as a guitarist myself ( I consider myself a living room guitarist) I know how hard and how much time you have to devote in playing a musical instrument masterfully. If you take up guitar as a hobby or thinking of making a living out of it , here are a few ideas (I have gathered here and there from hobnobbing with local bands) to inch your way to better guitar playing. 1.Have a goal. If you want to be the next Red Hot Chili Peppers concentrate on songwriting and vocal harmonies, not ...

We are in an exploring age. In search of treasure and discovery we fathom the deepest sea, scale the highest mountain and we even journey toward the stars. With the same intent we are beginning to travel to the depths of our own conscience through meditation. When you start practicing meditation and relaxation techniques on a consistent basis, you will find that it is easy, convenient and cheaper than spending a few hours on a shrink’s couch. Meditation and relaxation techniques have many benefits. When a person is in an emergency or stressful situations the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) rushes into our bloodstream. This process brings a welcome burst of energy. But if you’re not in any danger at all, it does cause unhealthy increase in blood pressure and heart rate. Through meditation and relaxation techniques we can reshape our emotional reactions in a high pressure situation. We can meditate effectively if we know how to reach the alpha state by learning the different stat...

First of all work-life balance is not a myth. It is not the quantity of hours divided equally for work and personal pursuits. It is basically not 50-50. Doing so, would mean struggle trying to constantly juggle either side the equation of work and play. Suffice it to say when you struggle you are not balanced. I believe work-life balance is something achievable. First you must know your priorities, it should be crystal clear. Know what you value and what gives you the most pleasure. The key to balance is quieting the noise inside our heads. Meditate. Spend at least 30 minutes a day on meditation. Tap your inner resources to gain wisdom, calmness, the aura. Some people like to keep a lucky and gratitude journal in order to feel centered. By all means do it on a daily basis. If you spend your day accomplishing something in your work and spending off work hours on something you enjoy , then I would say you have a pretty good day. You have achieve the work-life balance. It’s that simpl...

Yep, that’s the word all right. I did not misspell it. "Musterbation" is a word that Dr. Albert Ellis( a renowned American psychologist) described a kind of frame of mind that we whip ourselves with a lot of "shoulds" or "oughts." When we "musterbate" we flagellate ourselves with a set of rules and standards, lots of "musts", "oughts" and "shoulds" that we feel intense pressure to perform. It’s as if you are forcing yourself to do the tasks. We defeat ourselves by the way we force ourselves to get moving. We feel like an ex-convict under a tyrannical probation officer. Every tasks seem unpleasant and dull we can’t stand to face it. For example, have you experience desperately wanting to lose weight but ironically you ended up lazing around not exercising and stuffing yourself with greasy hamburgers and sinfully rich chocolates? How about telling yourself that you ought to write and finish that report tonight, so...

Writing articles is a great way to generate traffic to your website. If you distribute and submit articles to various high page rank article directories you can get many inbound links to your site and consequently improve your page ranking as well. Many years ago writing ten to twenty articles would really make an impact on your stat counter. But not so today, you have to crank out as many articles as you possibly can in order to gain momentum or what they call enjoy the snowball effect.So here are 10 formats to guide you in writing articles the faster way: 1. Tips/advice/lists- Easy to read, lots of white space chunks of information. Example: Ten ways to…Six great ideas for…Three steps to… 2. Cause/effect- you set up a situation and describe the result or you may want to trace multiple causes and effects. This format uses lots of transition words such as: due to, as a result, therefore, so that, consequently, thus, for that reason. 3. How to- an oldie but still a goldie. Reade...

Have you had problems so difficult, that you feel you are at your wit’s end? Why don’t you try possibility thinking? In the book " Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do" by Robert H. Schuller, says that possibility thinking can show you how you can make the ideas that God will give you and solve your problems. Never throw away an idea just because it is impossible. Give it a chance. Never underestimate the value of an idea. Every positive idea has within it a potential for success if it is manage properly and put it in action. Tough people ( those who weathered severe economic and emotional storms in their lives) always have their "antennae" alerted for opportunities in every situation. They are always communicating and interacting in anyway they can. They turn casual remarks and vague invitations into fruitful openings. They are always on the lookout for the tiniest threads of hope and positive directions to take. The solutions to a crisis may not b...

" Sixty percent of all human communication is non-verbal, body language. Thirty percent is your tone, so that means that ninety percent of what you’re saying ain’t coming out of your mouth." – Will Smith from the hit movie "Hitch." Most people are not aware of their own body language, let alone anyone else’s. To win the game of dating, love and business be conscious of body language and learn to how to interpret it. In the area of dating, you can read signals that a certain lady have the hots for you through her body language. You can respond appropriately to these signals if you are aware of it from the get go. For instance, at a party you met someone attractive. She displays these flirting moves by smiling and gazing at you. She tosses her hair back on her shoulders consequently exposes her neck and sometimes subtly leaning on you while having a little chit chat with you. Next she finds excuse to touch you like "accidentally" brushes your hand wh...