James Smith’s Info Serv

Author: Rachael Stone

As Thanksgiving day gets closer, the thought of finding ways of saying “thank you” often comes to mind. In life kindness and gratitude open more doors than force ever will. That is why nurturing an attitude of gratitude is essential in all spheres of life. We are relational beings and as such will interact with various people. This can be in our places of work, neighborhoods, fellowships and even whilst running errands and accessing essential services. However, many of us don’t know how to effectively let someone know how much we appreciate them. So, here are some tips on how to express gratitude effectively.

1) Be Polite

Learn to say please and thank you to all and sundry. Be it your teacher in class or your friend when asking for a favor or even that irritating neighbor. This is important because you never know when your toddler or a person who looks up to you might be listening in and copying your style.

2) Give a Small Card or Gift.

You were a down on your luck student whose teacher thought deserved another chance and gave it to you. The teacher took precious personal time out to coach you on the subject that you have been performing poorly. Perhaps they enabled you to achieve a high honor. You would like to show your gratitude but are not sure what would be the best way to do it. There is a very simple way of excelling at it. Just say thank you with a card that says it all or give a memorabilia.

To be the kind of person who attracts the right kind of associations from school to work to home, you need to also learn people. Take time to understand the people you interact with. When showing gratitude by giving a tangible item, you need to show some forethought by getting something that will be liked. It is best when you get the item that is needed most but for some reason the person cannot get hold of it. Alternatively give one that will have sentimental value. This is why understanding someone and taking time to really know them personally will help.
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Author: Rich Nicholls

These are all questions that when asking ourselves, we need to be completely honest. If we are not honest, our frustrations will continue and we’ll never be able to move forward. The first step each of us needs to make is to identify what is holding us back from achieving our dreams. Only once they are identified can we work on them. In order to work on them, make a plan and set goals!

If you do the same thing tomorrow that you did today, you will certainly get the same results. If you want your life to head in a different direction, you need to do something different in your routine. The only way you can get out of the rut of an average life, is if YOU do something that will set you apart. It doesn’t matter what it is, start with baby steps. Go to the library and borrow a book on that hobby you have always wanted to learn, enrol in a distance learning course to increase your education, start exercising. The possibilities are endless, you just need to start, and start now! Never wait till tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes.

To give you some perspective, here is an example from my own life. I consider myself an entrepreneur. I have set high goals and standards for myself. Since adapting this new line of thought I have cut out tension relieving activities, and allocated that free time to goal achieving activities. I went from watching at least 15 hours of T.V. to watching no T.V. We recently got rid of our T.V. which was a difficult decision, but I am now reaping the rewards of allocating my time elsewhere. It is up to you to decide what you want to do with your free time, but this is a personal example of what I have done to free up some time. Now I spend that time studying and trying to build business relationships and feel that I am no longer living an average life. I’m living for something bigger.
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Author: aashish123

I came up with the title for this article with a children’s story in mind. I had just had a really yucky experience with a mean person who decided that I was to be their ‘target de jour’ and after recovering from the attack, thought, “How can we teach children to avoid mean people?” Then I thought that a simple but straightforward way to warn children about “meanies” would be to read them a story entitled, “Mean People Really Aren’t Nice To Be Around.” I extend an open invitation to any of you who might be inclined to write such a book and spread it around…I have a feeling that adults, as well as children could greatly benefit from reading it.

Unfortunately, I was taught to be “nice” at all costs (I’m guessing you can relate!) and have fallen victim to one-too-many a “meanie” (or “bully” as they’re fashionably called today) in my lifetime. But as I become older and wiser, I am proud to say that I am a victim of “meanies” no more. I have learned, through excruciating experiences, that the bumper sticker I see on so many Westfalias driving along the West Coast is indeed true: MEAN PEOPLE SUCK.

One of my most painful childhood memories dates back to the tender age of eleven when I was in grade six. As you can probably remember vividly, being a girl “tween” has got to be the worst initiation into becoming an adult known to womankind! In my grade six class, there were two “popular” girls I desperately wanted to be friends with. I would have lopped off an arm if it meant they would want me to hang around with them and be part of their little ‘clique’.

Unbeknownst to me, these mean girls had an evil plan to shred the very little bit of self-esteem I had to bits and rub my face in it. To make a long story more bearable-what ended up happening is that they each pretended to be my friend on a one-on-one basis (i.e., one would be my best friend for a week and loan me her favourite pair of designer jeans and tell me which boy in our class she wouldn’t mind playing ‘spin the bottle’ with) and then they’d switch off the next week and the other girl got to play “best friend” to me and make me feel like the most special girl in the whole wide world.
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Author: Dianne M. Buxton

How can you maintain positive emotions at the end of a day when so many things went wrong? Disappointments, disagreements, fatigue, stress and anxiety, negative emotions in others, the bad economy - all these elements can certainly ruin your day. Take a deep breath and start remembering the good moments.

Positive emotions are the signals from you that attract like-vibrating circumstances back into your life. Some days are certainly more challenging than others when it comes to maintaining a positive outlook.

Considering that billions of others are also practicing The Law of Attraction on the same turf that you are, it might seem that conflicts and frustrations are inevitable. The good news is, that this factor is an illusion. Creating good in your life does not rob anyone else, or vice-versa.
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Author: Willie Horton

I was recently asked why authors such as Ekhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra and Tony deMello (and myself for that matter) place so much emphasis on the present moment. My reader also asked me to explain why living in the past or future can be so detrimental - and that’s where this article starts!

Very often, we look back on our past - fondly, with regret, sometimes with longing. There’s no harm in that - after all, it is our life experience to date that makes us who we think we are. Without our memories, we’d wake up each morning, turn around in the bed and scream “Who the hell are you?” - of course, there could be benefits to that!

The real problem with the past is that our subconscious mind lives there by default. This is a major problem because psychology tells us that our subconscious mind (using the twin psychological “abilities” of automaticity and categorization - more like disabilities actually!) dictates our automatic reactions and enables us complete repetitive tasks without paying attention. Unfortunately, as we go through life and become accustomed to the people and places around us, everything becomes repetitive so we end up paying attention to nothing (research indicates that we only pay 1% attention to the here and now).

Here’s the problem. By paying so little attention to the present, our subconscious mind roams freely in a past long gone - thinking that it’s the present. It uses past experiences - our “programs” from our formative years, when we learned our beliefs in everything including ourselves - to dictate our current behaviour. How we behave now determines how people (who are buried in their own past) behave towards us and, as a result, our automatic behaviour creates our present everyday life.
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