James Smith’s Info Serv

Author: Donald N. Lombardi

For years I have been asked “How did you get it all together and do all you have done.

I do not believe people ask in idle curiosity. I think they have the same reason that compelled me, when I was sixteen growing up on the streets of New York City to ask myself how I could make my own dreams come through.

The average human being has the ability to achieve almost anything. Lack of basic capability is rarely the problem. We all have great reserves of untapped power. The problem is almost always in finding out what you really want. Before we go any further let me define how I am using the word want here. I am not talking about mere wishes now, I am talking about wants that gnaw at you.

Maybe you think you do not have any gnawing wants. If you think that, you are wrong! You have the wants. But they are bottled up where you cannot get at them. Your early experiences and training poured them in and pounded the cork home…And there they sit. Building pressure for their next destructive burst of envy and vindictiveness. They may leak out as blind insistence that all your problems are caused by others. That is rationalization which is the biggest trap and blocks any activity to achieving your goals.

Instead of trying to bottle your wants, learn to understand them. From such understanding springs the knowledge of how to use this vital force to power your drive for greater things. Your drive has to come from this source: There is no other that works for long. It is often the fear of failure that makes us bottle up our wants. But failure is not the worst possible result. Not trying is! If you try, you can succeed; if you will not try, you have already failed. Do you suffer from this fear? Then decide in advance that you have failed and after that go out and give the try you are capable of.
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Author: Eileen Edwards

Do you remember starting senior school? I do although it was many decades ago. A particular incident that happened in my first few weeks there remains really clear in my mind.

The school had only been built for a couple of years when I attended it. It had facilities not available at my junior school, an art room, cookery rooms, playing fields and a proper gymnasium. In junior school we had to do PT in the school hall.

Everyone was excited about going into the new gym and using the equipment. Once we were changed into our PT kits our teacher Miss Rothwell told us to go and wait for her in the gym, as she needed to have a word with another teacher.

Melanie couldn’t resist the wall bars no sooner had we entered the gym than she ran to the far wall were they were situated and climbed them. Then she froze, she couldn’t get down. At first we thought that she was acting the fool and didn’t take much notice. Then it became cleared that she was genuinely frightened and didn’t believe that she could get down.
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Author: Marsha Egan

So much to do — so little time to do it all. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard exasperated people lament that they just don’t know how they will get it all done.

That’s part of the problem — if our expectation is that we are supposed to get everything done that is on our to do list, our expectations are just plain unrealistic. We have essentially failed before we have even begun.

Quite simply, we can’t get it all done.

The sooner we make peace with that reality, the better chance we have of managing our days, weeks, and months with reduced stress and more satisfaction.

So, if we can’t get it all done, what SHOULD we get done? And therein lies the million-dollar question…
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Author: Linda Hampton RN MSN

We have all said a lie at least once during our life. It’s also safe to say that somebody has told you a lie too. When we figure it out, the result is that we feel the pain of betrayal. Interestingly, there are ways to discover lies.

Here are a number of things to watch out for:

1. Observe body language. Hints that an individual could be lying are fidgeting, playing with the hair, or wringing the hands. This isn’t a foolproof way though since it could just be that the individual is shy or uneasy.

2. A good indication is when a person crosses the arms across the body or places a barrier in between. Examples of these barriers are bags, cups, or books.

3. A person who lies usually avoids engaging in prolonged eye contact. When you try to look him or her in the eye, they will fidget and will instead stare at insignificant things such as the walls or the ceiling.

4. One of the most obvious giveaways is discrepancy in their stories. A liar can’t possibly keep up with all the lies being told. He or she will mess up the details in some way.

5. Look for the tiny details. If they only speak in general terms and avoid providing specific names or places, it’s a good bet that they’re lying.
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Author: Eileen Edwards

As a young woman I gave the following suggestion to my unconscious mind with interesting results. It was this ” all men will find me attractive and all women will relate to me as a friend”.

The unconscious mind is the part of the mind that never sleeps. It functions 24/7 it regulates our heartbeat and other physical processes essential for our survival. I had learnt that I could contact the unconscious mind and instruct it to bring the things that I wanted into my life. I had learnt about the law of concentrated attention and how the things that I thought about regularly and gave attention to would occur in my life.

This would happen whether my thoughts were positive or negative. Most importantly I had learnt that I could choose what to bring into my life by controlling my thoughts.

However I did not get it right on this occasion as the following illustrates. A colleague at least twenty years older than myself started to offer me lifts in his car. At first I thought that he was just being friendly. Then he started to ask about where I lived and who I shared my home with. This felt a little too personal, why would he want to know that? I don’t recall if he ever asked me out. I would have discouraged this once I realised that we had a misunderstanding. I do remember that he presented me with a bunch of flowers.
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