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Happiness and inner fulfillment are independent of the external conditions in life. The myth of " I’ll be happy when I get the house in Hollywood Hills, the beamer, the job, the model wife….is very much propagated in our society. We should realize that we had it backwards. Inner fulfillment should come first to be truly and unconditionally happy. And how do we go about this? There’s this simple step that can be done on a daily basis in minimum time. Here it is. If you want to be wildly successful in the future, start pretending and acting like one today. Dress better, have bounce on your steps, wear that 1000 kilowatt smile, have a happy disposition and if the weather is bad, bring your own sunshine. Act as if you already own a Fortune 500 company. Whatever you want to be, be that now. Practice being happy now. Pretend until pretense becomes real. Our brain likes pattern and familiarity. If we always think we are lacking and unhappy, the brain filters the incoming data to support ...

As we grew older, wiser and more mature we have come to devise our own individual unique ways to cope with problems and deal with the daily stress that comes with adult responsibilities. I have listed below my own ways to keep me motivated, inspired and not let life’s journey drag me down. Hope you will find ideas here that will work for you too. -Sustain a "can do" attitude. Life, like mountaineering is never without hitches. An expedition is never smooth sailing. You can get sick, the weather is bad, you lose your equipment so on and so forth. Pretty much like our lives, it’s not always happy times, sometimes we experience rejection, relationships or business deals gone sour. The key is to focus and stay determined and be patient. You have to keep on keeping on until we reach the summit of our goals and aspirations. -The swiss cheese method. A swiss cheese have a lot of holes in it right? You attack a problem, use and budget time, do tasks, pay bills and debts the swiss che...

A How-Not-To-Guide: Hypothetical question: If you won 100,000 dollars what will you do with it first? If you think of what you are going to invest it in or earn with it then you are going to be successful. If you first, think of what you are going to buy with it then hmmm….you are going to have a pretty rough time financially. Let’s admit it, saving is boring. It’s not about oversize plasma tvs or fancy vacations. Saving and budgeting are essential ways to financial freedom. I know, I know nothing new and phenomenal here. Even if you are not an expert on tax exempts or budgeting you just have to DO THE MATH. It’s like, you don’t care about dentistry, but you have to brush your teeth! Forego these rationalizations: " I worked hard at my job so I deserve these 1,000 dollar boots", "I can’t wear anything but pure silk against my skin," or " Genuine leather is me." Instead adopt this attitude: " If I don’t own it, I won’t have to dust it." It is thos...

If you love exploring the undersea world with thousands species of exotic fishes, hundreds kinds of corals and hundreds marine species then you enjoy making money as a scuba diving instructor. But first things first, before you can teach scuba diving lessons you have to be a diver first and foremost. You can be a diver by, first taking up open water diver course, then advanced course, the rescue diver course, then dive master course and finally dive instructor, absolutely in that order. You will need to spend money on the courses and equipments ( rent or bought). Equipments such as buoyancy control device, regulator, swim mask, snorkel, fins, booties and wet suit plus resort accommodations. The open water course is familiarizing yourself with the basic equipments and practicing within a controlled body of water like a swimming pool before venturing out to the open sea. Then you take practical and theoretical exams to be certified as an open water diver. The advanced course entails nigh...

Tourist guides are most often than not, the travelers first contacts in a foreign country. To be a successful tourist guide you must have excellent communication skills and preferably knows two foreign languages aside from English. Multi-lingual guides make ten percent more money. You also must be presentable, friendly, punctual and articulate. Aside from language proficiency, you must take a seminar sponsored by the Department of Tourism to get accreditation which is a requisite to secure a permit to work as a tourist guide. After you get your permit associate yourself with travel agencies. They serve as your booking agents. They give you your clients and returning travelers. Your fee should be based on one flat rate for the whole trip. Ask your customers for a deposit which is approximately1/3 of the package cost of the tour to confirm their reservations. This will protect you in the event that individuals cannot make the trip for whatever reason. Just like any field of endeavour, yo...

I used to feel proud of myself when I crossed off the items on my to do list after accomplishing the tasks that I set out to do. But then I realized I haven’t really accomplished much in my life. Or at least accomplish the thing that really matters to me. Sometimes we kid ourselves with trying to do too much, appearing extremely busy with so many activities that we are not really mastering or excelling at any one thing. That’s what I did, I was crossing off the wrong items or should I say the low priority activities. The best thing to do is really knowing and setting what your most important goal is and how long to do you think you can accomplish that goal. I call this my A1 goal. The things that are urgent for the day but do not contribute to my A1 goal I call my "maintenance tasks" like doing the laundry, paying bills, balancing checkbooks, house repairs, grocery shopping, cooking etc. I now schedule the time in accomplishing my A1 goal, by scheduling I mean I block that ti...

Let’s face it negotiating is part of our daily lives from trying to convince your boss to give you a pay raise, the landlord to give you a reasonable rent control and to convincing someone to be your girlfriend or wife. It’s all a matter of convincing or persuading. Though some of us are good at negotiating I can say there is also a lot who suck at it. But like any other skills, negotiating can be learn and hone to a polished degree through constant study and practice. Let’s first examine our negotiating boo boos and try to correct them. -We talk more instead of listening more. Top negotiators get all the important information they must have from the other party. By listening more they position themselves to know their deadlines which a very crucial information in negotiating. If we talk more, then we are revealing way too much like our deadlines, or issues that are important to us that the other party may make comprising very hard for us. Once they know our deadlines, the one worst th...