We profess some values and act against them. I will come to that shortly, but add here that our not living by values may be hurting our love very badly. When we look for answers to our lost love, we must find out if we had violated our values. Let me give you some examples. What are the values you love? Honesty, speaking truth, helping others, understanding others, caring for others, being compassionate and many other values come in the values list of a majority. What about living by these values?

How many of us don’t lie? How many of us behave carelessly towards others/ how many of us cheat others for small gains? We are ready to sacrifice most of our values to reach our material goals. We justify all our actions on the way, but deep inside there is no peace or satisfaction in our heart. We know that we are different to what we began with.

Is the same happening with our love relationship? In love, we say- I will care for you. In love we promise total faithfulness. In love, we promise that we will sacrifice our comfort to make our beloved comfortable. In love we promise many things including never hurting our darling.

When it comes to living by these values, we break most of them. We bring down our love to a give and take and justify our wrong actions with every possible argument. But the end result is death of love. After that we blame our darling for breaking love. That is our tragedy.

The author C.D.Mohatta writes articles, advice and ideas at http://www.yourromanceguide.com/ on topics like love, dating, marriage, relationships, break-ups, etc. He also writes for screen-savers and desktop wallpapers at http://www.screene.com/ on topics like nature, spirituality, motivation, love-romance, holidays, animals, etc. The third site, the author writes for, is http://www.ecarduniverse.com/ – it has free ecards on holidays, birthday, love, friendship, family, expressions, celebrations and all events and occasions.

Phil Ashforth of Synergy Coaching argues the case for using a Business Coach.

The first thing that many business owners will ask is, “What is a Business Coach?” and the second, “Why would I need one?”

When you ask most people, they will rightly associate coaching with sports, athletics or football. It has only really been in the last thirty years or so that coaching as a profession has really developed into a serious industry, and that the world of business has fully adopted coaching alongside many other business support functions.

Often, businesses fear approaching business coaches due to concerns over competence, (there is no formal regulation in the UK currently) and the costs involved, which can vary greatly between companies.

That said, there are some excellent training and private accreditation companies for coach’s, that come with stringent standards and ethical codes of conduct. It is well worth checking an individual coach’s qualifications and experience before appointing and obviously, checking on costs at an early stage.

A Business Coach is usually a very experienced person within business, but does not necessarily have a specific industry expertise within each clients’ sector. This is how coaching mainly differs from mentoring or consultancy.

Essentially, a coach will assist in the setting of challenging goals in certain ‘topic’ areas and ensuring that agreed actions are prioritised and taken by all members of the team to achieve these goals.

A coach will also often have many strategies that can be offered to companies, these allow for structured processes to be created, and regular reviews and measurement to be applied.

Business Coaching can be effective, when compared with traditional training and consultancy as it is real-time, it is a living partnership that allows the business owner to have full ownership of decisions, to constantly reinforce successful behaviours and practises until they become engrained habits.

One of the main complaints amongst business owners is that they simply do not have the time to work on their businesses, this can be defined as taking quality thinking time over the ‘bigger picture’ elements that can move the business forward. Far too much time is often spent on day to day tasks, meetings, travel and dealing with interruptions.

The recognition that the business is not getting this vital attention, leads to stress and personal frustration, multiply this to the directors and senior managers of an organisation
and the effect on the whole workforce can become obviously de-motivational over a period of time, reflected in a potential decline in performance.

A Business Coach will work closely with a client to identify areas of possibility and improvement, but it is the client who ultimately decides on, and takes full ownership of the solution. This can seem unusual, but the reason is, that it is much more likely that actions will be taken, if the client has, albeit with careful coaching, originated the solution for themselves. This forms the basis of most coaching relationships.

Business Coaching is now a part of many organisations’ strategy to ensure many individual business areas are progressing to a structured plan that takes into account personal motivational drivers and a holistic view of the business overall.

As the world’s second highest growth sector after IT, according to the UK Coaching Academy, it looks as if Business Coaching is a profession that is here to stay and can add a tremendous amount of value to most businesses if they partner with a reputable coaching organisation.

Phil Ashforth DipM, DipINLPTA MCIM, is a Director at North West coaching company Synergy Coaching Ltd, see their site at www.synergycoaching.co.uk/bg telephone +44 (0)1772 641234.

Phil Ashforth

Phil Ashforth has been involved in sales and marketing for over the last twenty years. Within that time he has held senior positions, assisting both large and small-scale enterprises with their sales and marketing strategy and implementation.

He holds a recognised marketing qualification (CIM) at post-graduate level and is a member of several marketing bodies and attends regular seminars for his commitment to continual professional development.

As a qualified and experienced business growth coach, Philip has been trained by and is part of the Peter Thomson International Plc (PTI) network. PTI is the uk’s largest business growth consultancy. He has also been trained by, and is a member of Europes leading coaching organisation, The Coaching Academy.

For more information see http://www.synergycoaching.co.uk

I’m only just getting used the concept of mobile broadband; what with all the talk of laptops, dongles, USB ports and 3G internet I sometimes feel I might be communicating with someone off the set of Star Trek. Now the latest is a 3G Touch Watch Phone.

LG Electronics has announced it will unveil a wearable ‘3G Touch Watch Phone’ next year. The GD910 3G Touch Watch Phone will deliver the functions of a mobile phone on a small size watch like device. Equipped with a 1.43″ full touch screen the 3G Touch Watch Phone supports 3G HSDPA at speeds to 7.2Mbps, features mp3 playback, Bluetooth connectivity as well as video telephony with a built-in camera and operates text to speech. Other details of this device have not yet been announced except the thickness of the mobile body is 13.9mm. According to the company, the 3G Touch Watch Phone is expected to be available in the European market during 2009.

Well, what can I say, except… Wow. But I think I’ll stick with laptops, dongles and WiFi hotspots for just for the moment. In fact I’ve been considering mobile broadband for some time now. Mobile Broadband sounds terrific, but it’s got to cost a fortune. Actually after a bit of asking around there are many affordable mobile broadband offers you can choose from, and a variety of companies now offer great mobile broadband packages. I was recommended Mobile Broadband Genie which is a web service which provides expert advice and information to help you decide on which broadband services to purchase. It has some excellent offers to entice you to sign up to Mobile Internet broadband service.

I’m gonna go now and take another look at mobile.broadbandgenie.co.uk. Beam me up Scottie…

Most people love to get away from it all and take a vacation. If money is an obstacle there are ways to cut costs and find cheap travel. Getting to the destination of choice can be costly. If you are flying, traveling on a Tuesday will often get you the lowest rate . Being flexible with your travel dates may also help you find a lower fare.Another obstacle to cheap travel may be the cost of accommodations. Look for discounts through motor clubs and memberships to organizations such as the AARP. Consider booking a room with a kitchenette, which may reduce spending money on eating every meal out. Additional ways to find cut accommodations costs include, staying with friends or relatives or staying in international hostels may also be an option. Tickets to attractions may be able o be purchased at a discount rate through special offers or with coupons. Some employers offer reduced rates to popular attractions as a benefit to employers. Enjoy activities that don’t cost anything. Look into free events going on in the community, such as fairs and concerts. Pack a basket and head out to the beach or a park for a picnic. Take a walk through the downtown of a neighborhood you have never seen or go to a free museum. Regardless of your travel destination, often the best travel memories don’t cost a thing.

Take a look inside him. Ask yourself these questions.

1. What’s his EQ? Did you know you can measure it? Since your relationship depends upon your interpersonal skills, it would be smart if you both took the EQ-Map© and then worked with an EQ coach on areas needed. EQ can be learned. Go here – http://tinyurl.com/z94t .

2.Does he have deficits in the limbic brain? This is about eye contact, oxytocin, bonding, parenting, affection, using the word “we”. If all you’re getting is reptilian (sex ) and neocortex (intellectual), why give up good closet space when a Rampant Rabbit and Wikipedia would do? 3.How’s the left- right brain balance? Talking to someone who’s all left-brain is like getting facts from a machine. Talking to someone who’s all right-brain – they may not be organized enough to show up for the talk! 4.How “male” brained is he? According to Simon Baron-Cohen ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738208442/susandunnmome-2 0 ), the extreme male brain is good at systematizing, and low on empathy. It takes the average male 7 times longer to process emotional information than for a woman to. What if it takes him 70 times longer? What if he can’t get there at all?

5. How does he manage his anger? You need to experience this. Don’t make a decision until you’ve had your first big fight. Make sure you both trust yourselves and the relationship enough to be able to disagree openly and come to a resolution.

6.Will he be there for you? As Oriah Mountain Dream says, will he “stand in the middle of the fire with [you] and not shrink back?” It’s a sign of maturity and character to be able to stand and deliver when you feel like running.

7.Can he be faithful? This isn’t a philosophical issue. If it happens to you, it can hit you in the gut.

Male infidelity may be intellectually defensible, but emotionally it destroys the covenant of the relationship the way the radioactive contamination from a nuclear bomb destroys vegetation. It won’t be coming back in your lifetime, and without it, there is no relationship. 8.Does he know enough is enough? One should never use more force than is necessary. Can he think before he speaks and then deliver just the right amount. And no more. It shows empathy, self-confidence, and self-control. This means resisting all urges to deliver the big one-two he knows would really really hurt you in a verbal argument.

9.Do you laugh together? If there’s anything you can count on to get you through the long haul, it’s a sense of humor. Wit gets bonus points with me. It can be used in public, and can save your marriage on a 6-hour car trip with a carsick kid and a borken air-conditioner. Silliness … now that’s the sign of true lovers.

10.Does he say nice things to you about you and the relationship? The formula is 3 positive things for each negative thing. Does he do this? Is he willing to learn?

Successful companies have innovation in their blood. The single most important element in an innovative company is the creativity of their people. Creative thinkers don’t win by conforming to a given set of rules. Rather they reinvent the game by asking the 20 challenging questions and following 20 breakthrough strategies.

20 Challenging Questions to Ask:

1. What if….?
2. What do you think about….?
3. What’s the next step?
4. What can we do better?
5. How can we streamline?
6. What should we modify?
7. What should we replace?
8. What should we add?
9. What should we eliminate?
10. Can we make any new assumptions?
11. What will make it work?
12. What other ideas do you have?
13. What issues should we explore?
14. What patterns can you see?
15. How can we simplify?
16. How can we improve?
17. How will the customer benefit?
18. Have we forgotten anything?
19. What else?
20. Why?

20 Break Through Strategies to Follow:

1. Innovate for today as well as tomorrow.
2. Focus on what you can reasonably do…and stretch a bit.
3. Make innovation part of the day-to-day operations.
4. Develop a company-wide innovation process.
5. Assign responsibility to one person or team for the innovative process.
6. Provide incentives if you want your people to be creative.
7. Reward the whole team, not just individuals.
8. Train everyone in your company’s innovation process.
9. Focus innovation efforts on market needs & opportunities.
10. Target value and results instead of novelty.
11. Abandon old and the obsolete ways, but do so systematically.
12. Set high goals, but reward small improvements.
13. Focus on “new and different” as well as “better and more.”
14. Ask, “Is this the right opportunity?”
15. Establish specific accountabilities and targets.
16. Understand that innovation can require long lead time.
17. Accept innovation is an absolute survival skill.
18. Keep innovating; today’s success is built on yesterday’s results.
19. Remember, innovation is both hard work and fun.
20. Start small, but START.

Marcia Zidle, the ‘people smarts’ coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job – to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management.

Subscribe by going to
http://leadershiphooks.com and get the bonus report “61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers”. Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks – resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs – fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

Are you looking but not looking for love? Do you long to find your soul mate?

If you are looking without trying to seem like you are looking that is understandable. None of us likes to feel undignified.

Perhaps you could develop a new perspective about looking, and move into enjoying it, rather than seeing it as something that is beneath you. Looking could mean that you are ready to take responsibility for your own happiness, whom you meet, whom you choose to go out with, and the quality of relationship you want. The best approach of all is to consider the process of looking for someone as your great adventure.

Here are some ideas to help you in your search:

Tell people you want to meet someone.

Being introduced to someone by people who know you makes a lot of sense. Networking and asking friends and relatives to scout for you is one of the most effective ways of meeting others. It helps to have friends screen potential dates. It can save you a lot of time in getting to know and trust someone. If you are out of high school or college, you are going to have to take the initiative if you want to date. That initiative starts with asking others for help.

Do some planning to get out more often.

I can’t think of anything worth having that does not take some planning, focus, and skills. Invariably, working for what you want also involves ups and downs. Did you sail through school with no struggles? Not too many people didand that’s my point. You worked for it, and made your way through the challenges with as much grace as possible. So be prepared to do the work to find places to go and people to go with. Further, design a dating plan that includes going places, scouting, sorting, and screening potential dates.

Be friendly and reach out to people.

Extend yourself to people to make some new friends. By building a stronger social network, and developing a good attitude, you will increase the likelihood of meeting someone. You need to practice your social skills if you are going to go new places and talk to new potential dates. A different attitude leads to different behavior which creates new and different results.

Learn to use the internet for dating.

Get a good book about how to proceed with effective internet dating. It’s important to learn how to write an interesting profile. Read other peoples’ profiles to get ideas about the ones you like. If you have tried one site and it did not work, try another.

Polish yourself up.

What would it take for you to feel attractive? Do you need a hair or clothes makeover? Do you need to start working out at the gym? Or perhaps you need to learn some new skills to feel better about your career potential? Ask yourself what would give you new energy and make plans to do something about it.

Don’t be afraid to acknowledge to yourself and to others that you are looking. The first step to getting who and what you want is to know what that is and stop keeping it a secret. The second step is to take action. Good luck. You can do it.

Visit http://www.tonjaweimer.com for more tips, skills, and insight on dating, relationships, singles, and love. Subscribe to our F*ree Savvy Dating Newsletter from master single’s coach, life coach, and syndicated columnist, Tonja Weimer. Copyright 2006, Tonja Weimer. (Please note source if reprinting this article.)

There is no sure fire route to commercial success but the probability of success can be increased. This is important for at least two reasons:

a) Resource Management. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100 worthwhile projects, which are winnowed down to four development programmes. And four such development programmes are required to stand any chance of getting one winner.

b) Time Management. Whilst it is often the case that sufficient time is not taken to develop a product fully, there is always time to go back and fix mistakes. The cost of product re-engineering varies from the low to high billions.

There are a number of techniques that allow better problem identification and idea generation (creativity) and better idea selection, development and commercialisation (innovation).

Innovation strategies include:

a) Valuing ideas according to their type. Random ideas and those resulting from solution spotting have the highest success rates.

b) Measuring strategic, technical and competency fits with the organisation.

c) Measurement of ideas according to their impediments. A new type of cell phone will be infinitely easier to produce than a time machine. The Internet has a far lower take up in Africa than in Europe because of infrastructure deficiencies.

d) Carefully selecting what criteria is used to allow or disallow an idea at various stages of the development pipeline. Not allowing an idea (or releasing it too early) may not give that idea a chance to blossom. However, keeping it in the pipeline takes away valuable resources that may allow another idea to bloom.

e) Adequate consumer benefit analysis. Many ideas are simply developed before focused, practical and appropriate end-user needs are thought through.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.

For most things in life, more is better.

As a business it’s better to offer more features, more services or more products.

What individual doesn’t want to have more money, fame, or control over his or her life?

So the same rule should apply to megapixels. And that’s how the myth got started.

The Megapixel Race

Think of the rush to add more megapixels to digital cameras like the arms race between the U.S. and Russia back in the 80s.

Each camera company felt the need to overcome the other, and the one number that made comparisons easy was megapixels.

It makes sense.

How would you rather compare 2 different digital cameras? Is it easier to tell that they are different because one offers low noise at ISO 800 while the other only offers ISO 400?

Isn’t it much simpler to say: “This one has 4 megapixels and that one has 5″?

It made comparing cameras a lot easier. Notice the use of past tense.

Why doesn’t it work any more? Because today there are many cameras that offer the same number of megapixels.

It’s no longer enough to compare cameras on megapixels alone. Now you actually have to understand more camera terms to find the one camera that you really like.

What Megapixels Are Good For

During the rush to add more megapixels to digital cameras, something got lost along the way: what megapixels are good for.

What also got lost was the fact that not everyone NEEDS an 8.0 megapixel camera.

Despite what the ads and salespeople tell you, it’s just not necessary for most of us.

Megapixels are good for one thing: printing your digital photos. The more megapixels your camera has, the larger the size you can print.

An 8.0 megapixel camera will produce beautiful prints at 12×16 inches, while a 4.0 megapixel camera is limited to 8×10.

What do the pros use? Anywhere from 16 to 22 megapixels. This is what’s required for magazine and advertising work. It’s no coincidence that their cameras cost anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000. You pay a lot of money for that many megapixels.

So what about average Joe photographer out on the street?

If he rarely needs to print photos larger than 8×10, then a 4.0 megapixel camera will suit him just fine. No need for anything more than that.

Find Your Megapixels

The first thing that you need to decide before you go out and shop is how many megapixels you really need.

Here’s a quick rundown of how you might use your digital photos and the appropriate number of megapixels for each one:

1. You want to e-mail to friends and upload to websites – 2 megapixels will get the job done. If you’re never going to print your photos, you don’t need a huge amount of megapixels. Less megapixels results in smaller file sizes for your digital photos, and will make it easier for you to e-mail them to everyone you know.
2. You make standard prints – while 2 megapixels is enough for a 4×6 print, I recommend you go up to at least 3. This just gives you some additional breathing room if you get a spectacular shot and decide you want a 5×7.
3. You don’t like tiny prints – if what really gets you going is a nice 8×10 print, then you’re going to want 4 megapixels or more.

When you decide on the right number of megapixels first, you’re going to save a lot of money.

First, you’ll save money on the camera itself, since the price of a digital camera is directly related to the number of megapixels it can capture.

Here’s the real kicker: you’ll also save money on the hidden cost of owning a digital camera. What do I mean by this?

Photos with more megapixels result in larger files which require more storage space. When you get an 8 megapixel camera, you are also going to have to pony up for at least a 512 MegaByte memory card to go with it to store all of those giant files.

Furthermore, all of those files are going to take up a ton of space on your computer’s hard drive. If you’re not diligent about weeding out the photos you don’t like then your hard drive is going to fill up fast.

With a 2 megapixel camera, you can get by with a 64 MegaByte memory card, and you won’t have to worry about running out of room on your hard drive for a very long time.

In Conclusion

I hope this article has helped to debunk the myth of megapixels for you.

If you already own a digital camera, now you know what all of those megapixels are really good for.

And if you’re just about to get a brand new digital camera, you’ll save yourself a lot of hard-earned dough by making the right choice about how many megapixels you really need.

——————————-
Chris Roberts purchased his first digital SLR camera 3 years ago, and hasn’t looked back. He continues to learn and write about digital SLRs to this day on his web sites, the Digital SLR Guide and The Best Digital SLR For You

“Virtual Real Estate Investing” is a relatively new concept. There are many variations on what this term means, encompassing everything from using the internet to aid in real estate investing efforts to participating in online games such as SecondLife.

To separate fact from fiction, I asked Bryan Ellis for comments. He’s the man many consider to be the father of this new form of investing.

Ellis says he adopted the term “virtual real estate investing” sometime before Y2K after he realized that making money online is conceptually very similar to making money with physical real estate.

Bryan Ellis cites the similar strategies one can employe to make money from “virtual property” and “physical property” as a primary parallel of the two markets. He points out that control of a domain name or even a specific web page is much like controlling a real estate property ” those assets can be monetized in similar ways: By selling them for a profit, by leasing them, by offering advertising, etc.

I must admit: Its easy to see the parallels. After all, if you own a valuable piece of real estate, it’s “valuable” because other people are interested in that specific piece of property. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. So it doesn’t matter if you own physical real estate or virtual real estate – you’ll likely use similar strategies to turn them into money in your pocket.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing., Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.