Archives: 2008 April

So how do you stay calm, composed, thoughtful, and maintain self esteem in a tough world environment? Here are some tips you may to consider as a starter guide to self improvement.

Imagine yourself as a dart board. Everything and everyone else around you may become dart pins, at one point or another. These dart pins when aimed at you can destroy your self esteem if you let them and pull you down in ways that you won’t even be aware of until it’s too late. Be ready with your positive altitude defense. Don’t let them destroy you, or get the best of you. So which dart pins are the most dangerous and that you should avoid?

Dart Pin #1 : Negative Work Environment:
Beware of “dog eat dog” theory where everyone else is fighting against everyone else just to get ahead. This is where non-appreciative people usually thrive. No one will appreciate your contributions even if you miss lunch and dinner, and stay up late. You will get to work too much without getting help from anyone. Stay out of this environment. It will ruin your self esteem. Competition is at stake anywhere. Be healthy enough to compete, but be sure that it is a healthy competition.

Dart Pin #2: Other People’s Behavior:
Bulldozers, brown nosers, gossipmongers, whiners, backstabbers, snipers, people walking wounded, controllers, naggers, complainers, exploders, patronizers, sluffers… all these kinds of people will pose bad vibes for your self esteem, as well as to your self improvement scheme. Keep far away from them or if this is not possible make sure that you have very short meetings.

Creative thinking and problem solving are skill sets that fortunately with a little work can be improved upon. Most of us would benefit by working at being better able to solve our problems.

As many Americans struggle through each day trying to make ends meet at a time of flat incomes and rapidly raising prices for food, gasoline, healthcare, and just about everything else learning to better solve problems is quite useful. In a recessionary economy there are going to be a lot of day to day problems that will need to be solved.

How many times have you caught yourself saying that there could be no other solution to a problem, that the problem leads to a dead end?  How many times have you felt stumped knowing that the problem laying before you is one you cannot solve. No leads. No options. No solutions. No Hope.

Did it feel like you had exhausted all possible options and yet are still before the mountain – large, unconquerable, and impregnable? When encountering such enormous problems, you may feel like you’re hammering against a steel mountain. The pressure of having to solve such a problem may be overwhelming.

But rejoice! There might be some hope yet!

With some creative problem-solving techniques you may be able to look at your problem in a different light. And that light might just be the end of the tunnel that leads to possible solutions.

First of all, in the light of creative problem-solving, you must be open-minded to the fact that there may be more than just one solution to the problem. And, you must be open to the fact that there may be solutions to problems you thought were unsolvable.

Barack Obama had the guts to say the obvious but is criticized by Clinton and McCain.

Obama used the word “bitter” to describe the attitude of many Americans who are dismayed at the corruption, ineffectiveness, and plain stupidity of their elected and appointed government officials in Washington , D.C. Immediately Hillary Clinton and John McCain went on the attack accusing Obama as an elitist who is “out of touch” with average Americans.

My own opinion is that it is Clinton and McClain who are out of touch. But then I include myself in the growing number of Americans who are bitter at the self inflicted wounds to America that have occurred during the George W. Bush administration.

From the ill conceived and mismanaged war in Iraq, to the tragedy of their mismanaged response to hurricane Katrina, to the unilateral policies that have cost us valuable allies and respect in this world, to establishing torture as an acceptable means of interrogation, to mismanagement of the economy, to the loss of America jobs, there is much to be concerned, and yes, bitter about.

It is unfortunate that any American who speaks the truth about these and other matters is immediately branded as un-American and out of touch.

Let’s hope that the America voters show in November 2008 who is out of touch. Candidates that will say anything to try to gain a few votes should be assigned a permanent position in the dust bin of history. America must have leadership who realizes how far and how fast America is falling off the pinnacle of being a successful empire and who are able to see the challenges that confront our nation.

Food inflation riots break out in Haiti as people take to the streets to protest price increases up to 50% over the past year for basic items like cooking oil and rice.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere so the increased prices for food has been especially painful for those living in that impoverished nation.

With prices of basic food items raising at an accelerating rate worldwide can further food riots be expected? I would say that unless the impossible can happen fast and the production of food commodities has a great leap forward the answer to that question is a big yes.

Demand is outpacing supply in rice, corn, wheat, and soybeans and there is only so much land suitable to grow these crops. Food stockpiles of these vital crops are at nearly 30 year lows. There is hardly any cushion of reserves to fall back on.

Unfortunately, even in a rich nation (for some) like America the cost of food is beginning to be a concern. There are already a record number of Americas receiving food stamps. As prices of food and other items rise the budgets of many working class American families are under great stress.

Could there ever be food riots in America? I hope we don’t have occasion to find out. But the effects of climate change that may cause long term, really long term, drought conditions across much of the food production regions of the US are a cause for concern.

People can get lean and mean in a hurry when there is the danger of starving.

In a year when political speeches are being made almost every day by the US Presidential candidates how do they measure up the what must surely be one of the greatest political speeches of all time?

No matter what your opinion of Dr Martin Luther King might be if you are at all fair minded you surely must appreciate his ability as a great orator. Just listen to the full “I Have a Dream” speech and see what a powerful delivery is made by Dr. King to a crowd of over one million people, black and white, who marched to Washington D.C. in protest of American’s long standing racist policies.

Of today’s candidates for President Barrack Obama is by far the most powerful speaker. But even as gifted of an orator as Barack is his speeches lack the passion and skill of Martin Luther King’s. Just carefully listen to the I Have a Dream speech. Dr King has perfect timing, perfect cadence, thoughtful words, a strong delivery.

Just words? Yes, but what words. Even a hard nosed bigot would have to be moved by the words, that is if they would only listen.

My advice to Barrack Obama. Do not be fearful of putting passion into your speeches. Watch the I Have a Dream speech. Watch it over and over. There is much for a politician to learn from that great speech.

My advice to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Find new speech writers. Your speeches are all about you. Not about the increasingly unfortunate Americans that you are making a lot of meaningless promises to. Come to think of it Barrack needs to be careful about this issue too.