Archive for March, 2009

March31

Pearls of Wisdom

By: RirianProject

Have you noticed lately that it seems to get harder to find things to be thankful for in your everyday life? It seems every time I open the newspaper or turn on the radio station, there is talk of more layoffs, violent crimes, or other horrific news. It can be so easy to get caught up in that way of thinking – and it can be even easier to get sucked into a feeling of despair and desperation.

A colleague of mine was writing on a similar topic not too long ago and it really got me thinking about the way I’ve been looking at life in general. I hate to admit it, but I was one of those people who were getting sucked into that feeling of despair! There was no light at the end of the tunnel – no way out. It’s hard to think otherwise in the economic situation that we have in North America.

I had to really dig deep within myself to remember the things that were told to me when I was a young child. I call them wisdom pearls because no matter how “down and dirty” things get, I can pull out those wisdom pearls, wash them off, buff them to a keen shine and they’re good as new.

Have you ever had your kids walk in to the house, boots filled with water and dirt? They were playing outside in the park after a huge rainfall and they seem to have found every single puddle and dirt pile that was outside. They come dancing up the driveway and in through the back door to your kitchen. The kids are covered head to toe in whatever it was they found outside, and despite your best efforts, your kitchen gets covered with the same grime that came in on the kids. As your angels run through the house to find some more fun, you take a look around and curse under your breath at all the work you’ll have to do (or worse yet – redo!).

Remember those pearls I was talking about? Well let’s pull out that pearl and get it shined up, shall we? When I was young, I WAS that child coming in covered head-to-toe in Lord knows what, and I remember my grandma telling me, “You kids mucking up Gram’s floor doesn’t bother me one bit – it means my babies are here with me”.

Doesn’t that pearl shine through all the muck your kids just brought in?

No matter how bad things look at the moment, we need to try to find the silver lining – no matter how hard we have to look. Sure, my little pearl isn’t going to send that mud caked all over your kitchen anywhere, but it sure does give you a different perspective.

So the next time your car breaks down in the middle of the road; or you walk in to your boss’ office as he hands you yet another stack of paper; or you have a mountain of dishes to wash by hand – remember Grandma’s advice. Your car couldn’t have broken down if you couldn’t afford to have a car in the first place. Your boss couldn’t have given you extra projects if you didn’t have a job (or if you weren’t good at the one you do have). And you wouldn’t have to do any dishes if you didn’t have any food to eat.

Posted in: Featured, Self Improvement2 comments

March31

How to create a Vision Board

By: RirianProject

Vision boards have many names – but no matter what you call them, the idea behind using them is a simple one. People utilize vision boards in an effort to surround themselves with the images of things they want to become, things they want to have, places they want to live, places they want to visit, or changes that you want to have happen in your life.

Vision boards can come in many different designs – it could be a cork board on which you’ve pinned pictures of things you want; or it could be a simple poster board that you have pasted the images torn from magazines; it could even be a folder on your computer that holds the images you’ve scavenged from the website that indicate all the things you long to have.

It doesn’t matter what form your vision board takes place. What does matter is that it will help you to add clarity to your thoughts and will give a feeling to your “vision” of what you’d like your life to be.

Get Started!

• Pick up a large poster board or bulletin board from the store.

• Find a huge stack of magazines. You can find these all over the place, and you’ll want to ensure you have a lot of different types of magazines. You don’t necessarily need to have magazines in your pile that you would normally read.

• If you’re using a poster board, you’re going to need glue. Don’t get the cheap kind of kids glue though because it’ll make your images ripple and look funny. You can get great glue from your local scrapbook stores. If you’re using a cork board, you’re going to need pushpins.

• Start to go through the magazines and tear out anything that “speaks” to you. We’re not going to put anything on your vision board yet – we just want to get a lot of images right now. You don’t have to limit yourself to just images – you could also tear out words and phrases as well.

• Once you have your pile of torn out images, start to go back through them and pull out your favourites.

• We’re almost set to get that board ready! There’s no right way to set up your board. You may want to just have a huge collage, or maybe you want a very linear look to everything. You may want to group like images together (health, relationships, career, etc)

• Now you can glue or pin everything to your board. If you’d like to write some text on there, go ahead and do that too.

• Remember to put a great picture of yourself on your board too.

• Hang your new vision board somewhere that you will see it often.

Posted in: Featured, Self Improvement6 comments

March29

Motivation: A to Z

By: RirianProject

People often ask how to get motivated and stay that way. One of my favourite quotes from Zig Ziglar is that “motivation is like bathing – recommended once a day”. The premise behind the quite is simple – motivation is not something that you do once and then forget about it.

There are a lot of ways that you can motivate yourself on a daily basis. One of my favourite ways is to find a really nice rock that you enjoy looking at – it could even be one of those ones from the stones that are engraved with an inspirational word. My rock says “HOPE” on it. Every morning, I wake up and put that rock in my pocket and I remember all of the things I hope to happen in the future and I consider the things that I must do in order to make those things happen. During the day, when I feel discouraged, I reach into my pocket and pull out that rock and remember why I’m doing what I’m doing.

A friend of mine recently sent me an email that had the A-Z guide to Motivation and Happiness. I’m not sure who the author is, but I thought I’d share it with you today.

A – Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

B – Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.

D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.

E – Enjoy! Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.

F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t lose sight of them.

G – Give more than what is enough.

H – Hang on to your dreams – they are your driving force.

I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay away from toxic people.

J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be you. The key to failure is to try to please everyone.

K – Keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.

L – Learn to love yourself.

M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.

N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

O – Open your eyes. You need to see things how you want them to be!

P – Practice makes perfect.

Q – Quitters never win, and winners never quit.

R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.

S – Stop procrastinating.

T – Take control of your life.

U – Understand others.

V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.

W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.

X – “X”-amine yourself. Be true to who you are!

Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.

Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!

Posted in: Featured, Motivation2 comments

March26

Your Developing Child

By: RirianProject

The first five years of a child’s life is extremely important. I’m sure that most parents or parents-to-be are aware of the different milestones by which the doctor’s will monitor the progress of their child, but how many people really understand what is happening in those first important years?

In the first three years alone, you can really think about your job as a parent as one in which you must build your child’s brain. The substantial amount of development that is taking place – including the formation of brain connections – is phenomenal.

Building your child’s brain is so much more than just having and introducing educational toys, or reading to your child. In addition to just teaching your child – colours, shapes, animals, etc – you must also address the emotional security and social interaction of your child. You’ll be teaching your child that he is a part of this world, and you’ll need to show him or her how to live within it. This type of teaching will give your child a solid footing early on, and will help him to thrive later in life – like when he or she goes to school.

Children also need to have their language skills nurtured. From the moment your child is born, it is very important to talk around your child – and to make a conscious effort to do so. Long before your child can begin to say, or even understand your words – it’s important to spend your days surrounding our baby with words. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have the hottest new product for teaching your baby how to talk, it simply means talking to your child every day – all through the day – and ensuring the rest of the family is doing the same.

Doctors have narrowed down segments of time within your child’s first few years in which they seem to really “take on” a particular emotion or social issue. Knowing and understanding what your child’s theme is can help a parent to better understand and address their child’s needs.

In the first two years of life, a child is learning about his or her sense of security and developing language. Your baby will learn security when you come to him or her when they cry; by keeping them warm, dry, and fed; and by holding them. Speaking to your child throughout the day is very important – as is speaking to them in a soothing and cheerful way.

At the age of three, your child is focussed – and sometimes obsessed – with being with you. In those first three years, your child’s brain develops very rapidly. As they move from the “terrible two’s” most parents find their three year old to be a very cooperative and loving child who loves to spend time with their favourite grown up. Still inquisitive as ever, your child wants to learn how everything in the world works. You’ll notice a lot of “whys” at this age! Your child is able to understand language quite well, so now is the time to really capitalize on their good natured ways. Talk to them – learn about them – and most of all, love them!

At the age of four, your child’s world begins to expand as they prepare for school. As their ability to understand letters, numbers, and other such school related skills, they seem to be drawn in by any school-like activities. And at five, they are transitioning to a brand new stage of childhood as they enter kindergarten.


Photo Credit

Posted in: Uncategorized0 comments

March25

Adventures in Creative Thinking

By: RirianProject

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

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.

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.

Now, with this optimistic mindset, we can try to be a little bit more creative in solving our problems.

Secret #1

Maybe the reason we cannot solve our problems is that we have not really taken a hard look at what the problem is. Understanding the problem and having a concrete understanding of its workings is integral solving the problem.

Secret #2

Try to take note of all of the constraints and assumptions you have the words of problem. Sometimes it is these assumptions that obstruct our view of possible solutions. You have to identify which assumptions are valid, in which assumptions need to be addressed.

Secret #3

Try to solve the problem in smaller parts. Solve it going from general view towards the more detailed parts of the problem. This is called the top-down approach. Write down the question, and then come up with a one-sentence solution to that from them. The solution should be a general statement of what will solve the problem. From here you can develop the solution further, and increase its complexity little by little.

Secret #4

Although it helps to have critical thinking aboard as you solve a problem, you must also keep a creative, analytical voice at the back of your head. When someone comes up with a prospective solution, tried to think how you could make that solution work. Try to be creative.

Secret #5

It pays to remember that there may be more than just one solution being developed at one time. Try to keep track of all the solutions and their developments. Remember, there may be more than just one solution to the problem.

Secret #6

Remember that old adage,” two heads are better than one.” That one is truer than it sounds. Always be open to new ideas. You can only benefit from listening to all the ideas each person has. This is especially true when the person you’re talking to has had experience solving problems similar to yours.

You don’t have to be a gung-ho, solo hero to solve the problem. If you can organize collective thought on the subject, it would be much better.

Secret #7

Be patient. As long as you persevere, there is always a chance that a solution will present itself. Remember that no one was able to create an invention the first time around.

Remember the mind-mapping we discussed a few days ago? Try that approach to open up your creative pathways!

Posted in: Featured, Self Improvement0 comments

© Copyright Ririan Project. All Rights Reserved.