Please forward this eNL to a friend! Free bonus:$125
shopping spree. In this issue:
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- Product Highlights
- Brainpower tip
- Time tip
- Finance tip
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- Security tips
- Health tip/Fitness tip
- Thought for the day
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1. Product Highlights
Quality Update |
This is a follow-up to the previous
eNL, in which I told you our #1 product is quality. And I told you I've been using a
tool that detects dead outgoing links and cleaning those up.
Many of the links on Mindconnection were put there back when Joe Garcia
was our linkmeister--that was in 1998 and 1999. About 80% of the Websites
listed then have since bit the dust.
That project is now completed, and I deleted over
100,000 dead links! That's a lot of Websites that went under. We are still
here.
If you are going to buy anything online,
check out Mindconnection first. There's a reason why we have outlasted so
many others. We just may have what you are looking for. We
always have the "mojo" that has allowed us to walk past thousands of
fallen competitors. |
2. Brainpower tip
Does it seem like there's an epidemic of behavior that is
petty, rude, and downright mean? Such behavior may
seem to be "normal," these days. We need look only to accounts of road rage
and powerful government bureaucrats to support the contention that people are,
well, contentious.
How much brainpower do people divert to fueling their
contentiousness? Here's one way of looking at it. Let's say you are an
attorney, and you bill $150 an hour for your services. You get in a fight with
somebody over something inconsequential, and you stew on that. Total time
involved: 3 hours. Total cost: $450. Total benefit: 0.
Now, not everyone bills at $150 an hour. One CEO made
$83,000 per hour, last year. Do you think he spends time in petty squabbles?
But for most people, time is not money and they
can't just bill $150 for an hour of work. They work 40 or 50 hours per week at
a job, and their income depends on their employer's wishes.
Or does it? If you divert brainpower into engaging
negative behavior, the "vibes" do carry over into your work--limiting your
potential advancement. Further, you are not spending that time developing as a
person, preventing problems, and so on. So, you are going to spend more (to
fix your problems) and get less. Your anger and negativity has the same effect
as a wage cut.
We have the power to choose to love--or to hate. That
is, we can choose to project kindness or to project contempt. Someone has a
bad day and snaps at you--what do you choose to do? You can snap back, which
gives you nothing. Or, you can say something like, "Gosh, I'm sorry you're
having a rough day. I hope it gets better for you."
Of course, there are those people who just need to be
confronted about their behavior--but again, you can choose to do that with or
without rancor. You can be assertive without being aggressive.
We aren't necessarily trapped into whatever behavior we
find ourselves doing, unless we let ourselves be trapped. But many of us
are trapped. And we're trapped in a room constructed of something
negative, such as pettiness or hatred. We're trapped because we simply cannot
find the door. Fortunately, it is within each of us to not only see that
door, but to throw it wide open.
When you feel put upon, frustrated, victimized,
inconvenienced, rejected, sh** upon, insulted, dehumanized, disrespected, or
in some other way at odds with another person or the world--you do have the
power not to let circumstances fill your head with brain-deadening panic,
fear, rage, or anger.
Sometimes, using this power seems beyond us.
But usually what happens is we get the negative feeling
and then assume that's the way it is. The fact is, those feelings come right
away and overwhelm the conscious mind. Those feelings do not have to be your
"final answer." Let the feeling do its thing, then take control. You can
keep negative events from sapping your spirit and using up your available
brainpower. The more you try, the more often you will succeed. |
3. Time Tip
Learn to relax. This seems counterintuitive. But,
what happens when you are rattled? A customer
contacted me, today. She was making a purchase her boss wanted her to make
for two people in her department. She didn't take the time to read three
lines of instruction for ordering that product. But, at least she e-mailed
me. I e-mailed her back, then called her. I
tried to walk her through this simple procedure, but she kept jumping
ahead of me. Because we had to keep emptying the shopping cart and
starting over, this 40 second process took about 5 and a half minutes.
Then, she e-mailed me later asking me to e-mail her a
receipt. The system sends receipts out automatically, but she tried to
print hers out and accidentally deleted it. To "save time,' she has her
e-mail client set such that deleted items are gone for good. She asked me
to snail mail her a paper copy, and I told her that was very time
consuming. I e-mailed her a replacement copy.
Her problem is she's got too many demands on her time. So, she works
frantically to keep up. My advice to her would be to slow down and work at
her capacity. This way, she won't spend time fixing mistakes. I have been
in her mode many times, myself. I have to stop and realize that's what I'm
doing, then correct my behavior. If you find
you are doing things over, following up to correct mistakes, following up
with "oh, I forget to tell you" messages, overlooking key information, or
making other "I'm rushed" mistakes, then you need to stop what you are
doing. Get up, walk around, take a breath. Yes, this takes up time. But,
it relaxes you. Then, return to what you are doing and ask yourself what
is the most urgent item you need to do. Do it, while ignoring the rest. If
you can't decide which item is most urgent, just pick one at random (or
alphabetically, if you prefer). Then, move to
the next most urgent item. Repeat this until all of the urgent items are
completed. Of course, not all urgent items may be doable at the
moment--perhaps you need a resource you are waiting for, or you need to
reach a particular person. Once you have
completed the urgent items, ask yourself (or your boss, as the case may
be) which of the remaining items is most important. That is, which item
will provide the most benefit or prevent the most pain if you do it. After
you do it, move on to the next. Yes, you'll
have a queue of items waiting to be done. So be it. You can do only so
much. The rest will just have to wait. Just
remember, if you try to work too fast, you end up working half-fast. Say
this out loud: "I will not work too fast, because doing so results in
half-fast work." Now you get the picture. |
4. Finance tip
With their
never-ending gall, CONgress has handed us another jolt. The new bankruptcy
law prevents citizens from discharging their debts and getting on with
their lives. Members of CONgress, who spend like there's no tomorrow and
have run up an enormous national debt while making four times the wage of
their average constituent (with an option to raise that wage when they
feel like it), have decided ordinary citizens must be "accountable."
The winners in this game are the banks and insurance
companies--who are doing quite well, thank you very much. Now, I am a firm
believer people should pay their debts (though I don't believe employees
of a particular federal agency should be allowed to make up false debts
they assign to citizens and then make people pay, but that's another
issue).
However, something like 80% of bankruptcies are due
to illness, job loss, or a combination thereof. That is, these people went
bankrupt because they had enormous medical bills and/or could not work.
The picture that CONgress painted was very different. They pretended that
people who go bankrupt--that is, people so down and out they are willing
to ruin their reputations and destroy their credit so they can afford to
eat--are free-spending fools who deserve what they get.
CONgress needs to repeal this terrible law, but that
kind of decency and civility probably won't happen. It's the Golden Rule:
Those who have the gold make the rules.
But, there is some protection still left. Qualified
retirement plans such as 401(k)s still enjoy nominal protection from
creditors. However, a creditor can take your other assets and thus force
you to liquidate your retirement funds anyhow. So, it's really just a
shell game.
Also, a state court can tap retirement funds for
certain purposes. And nothing protects any asset from the claws of the
American Taliban. I can't mention the official name of the AT here, but
you can figure it out if you think of what federal agency is the most
powerful, most feared, greediest, and most corrupt. It's the same one that
stole 4300 computers from their own offices one year, and held toddlers at
gunpoint in a daycare center in another year. These folks are the Freddy
Kreugers of the Feds. But, I digress.
Bankruptcy, while a lousy option, used to at least
be an option. Now, it really isn't available to honest people who
need it. My guess is the percentage of low-lifes and scammers getting
bankruptcy protection will skyrocket, as will the number of people
choosing suicide, crime, or the underground economy as their way to deal
with crushing debt.
Now, I'm a merchant and I don't want to get stiffed.
But there's a cost to being a member of society, and sometimes getting
stiffed is part of that. I can tell you I have been screwed many, many
times by the credit card companies with all of the little games they play
for the sole purpose of ripping off merchants. But, I have never had a
customer use bankruptcy to leave me unpaid. So, I think this law went the
wrong direction.
Besides, nobody ever prevented a system failure by
eliminating a safety valve.
How can you avoid bankruptcy? Since illness is the
number two cause of financial devastation (the AT is number one), visit
www.supplecity.com and learn how
to take care of your body. Don't fall for the misinformation that leads
people into thinking they are healthy when they are not. Learn the facts,
and practice accordingly. You can't afford not to. Especially now that
Congress has all but declared war on the middle class. What were they
thinking? |
5. Security tip
Cell phones are
great. I keep my own county Sheriff's phone number on my cell phone.
Some years ago, I encountered a lunatic who thought I
had cut him off in traffic or something on an eight-lane highway in the
metroplex. I have no idea what his problem was, but he followed me for
over half an hour as I took my various exits from one highway to the next,
getting to where I was going.
I had spent that time pretty much ignoring the guy.
He spent that time making angry faces and gestures at me and trying to
intimidate me. Either that, or he was trying to show me what a complete
imbecile he was. I tried smiling and waving, but he stayed angry so after
a while I just refused to look at the fool.
When I was about 10 minutes from my final exit, I
called the Sheriff and told the dispatcher a road rage lunatic was trying
to force me off the road. I told the dispatcher where I was, and she told
me I'd have to call the local police for help. I told her I was barreling
down the highway at 65 MPH and could not look up that police station and
asked her to patch the call through. She said, "Sir, if there hasn't been
an accident, we can't ask another city to send a patrol car out there."
I told her, "Well, there's not going to be an
accident. There's going to be something very deliberate. I have a 5-cell
flashlight in my car, and it's the least of my weapons. Now, you can have
an officer intercept this fool or I will simply pull over and clean out
the gene pool. Your choice."
She then told me to take exit 10 (or whatever number
that was) and there would be a squad car heading that way from the other
direction to meet us. I said fine, and gave her the license number,
description of the car, and description of the driver.
When I got to that exit, I did a last-second
maneuver that allowed me to proceed down the highway (I actually wanted
the next exit) and committed my persecutor to that exit. I called the
Sheriff back and told the dispatcher what happened. She told me to hold
for a moment, then she told me they had nailed the guy and she asked me if
I wanted to file a complaint. I gave her my address to which to mail the
form.
Do you have an emergency number programmed into your
cell phone? If so, great. But, don't rely on the police to come save
you--it's not their job. Use the cell phone as an added security measure,
only.
The only reason I had any assistance from the police
was I had it on record they left me no choice but to very violently
confront a person who was threatening me. That would me bad PR and
probably a serious lawsuit, so they decided to help me instead.
I would much rather have the police handle these
things for any of us, but each of us must be prepared for police
assistance that falls into the category of late or never. |
6. Health tip/Fitness tips
Earlier in my harangue against our parasitical
CONgress (which, I must admit, does have a few good people in it), I
mentioned that medical costs are one of the primary causes of financial
devastation. Some things aren't all that
preventable. For example, you fall and break your back. Or, consider for
example my good friend and mentor Don B., who is a veteran. He's got
health problems from the years of his life he gave to this country. Not
much he can do about that, now. He gets some VA benefits and the
gratitude of those who know he served.
But most chronic diseases are preventable for most
of us. At the same time, they are often financially devastating because
the costs often exceed the insurance benefit limits before healthcare
professionals can bring the condition under control. We can surmise that
you can prevent financial devastation by preventing (or properly coping
with) the disease--and it behooves you to do so.
These illnesses that cause people to lose their
assets--including their homes--include heart disease, recurring cancers,
strokes, depression, and diabetes. All of these diseases have one thing
in common--excess body fat is a huge risk factor for all of them. Many
guides exist to tell us what "ideal" levels of body fat are, and those
guides are wrong. If you want to see a body that has an ideal level of
body fat, look at a sprinter. This is not 18% body fat on a man.
It's more like 6 to 8%. Do not accept the delusional excuse-making of
the "experts" (who are paid by the people who want to sell you the very
things that make you fat) to justify the fat lifestyle.
Smoking is also a risk factor for these illnesses,
but it's an insult to anyone's intelligence to tell them they need to
quit smoking. 'nuf said on that subject.
If you are sick, or a loved one of yours is sick, then learn about the
illness. Most doctors are too busy to keep up. So, it's your job to do
the research and provide your doctor(s) with updated information. Just
be sure you include the sources. Much of what passes for information is
pure hokum.
Even very smart people fall for total BS. Mensa is
the high-IQ Society, but you wouldn't know it by the things some Mensans
say. Now there's a Mensa member promoting the raw food diet as the cure
to all illnesses.
The big flaw in his position is our teeth are made
for mush. Humans simply have lousy teeth. I was talking with my sister
(who is a healthcare professional--a Physician's Assistant, which means
she can prescribe meds and is above an RN but below a doctor) about
this, and she said that in cultures where there's a great deal of raw
food eaten, people's teeth are worn down to stubs.
The "ideal" diet contains a mix of raw and cooked
foods. Some food preparation methods are not healthy, but all raw is not
healthy either. That's just one example of the "alternative medicine"
hype that's out there. In fact, there is no magic bullet. Even if you do
everything right, we have polluted water in our pipes and contaminated
food in our stores. And that's just for starters!
I'm not saying all "alternative medicine" is
crapola. What happens is the crapola folks call their quackery
alternative medicine though it's nothing of the sort. You can narrow
your search by looking at the facts provided by the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
So, weigh things carefully. Approach with a
combination of open mind and healthy skepticism. Look for the facts
behind the assumptions, and filter information carefully. Then, you can
present to your doctor useful information instead of a bunch of stuff
s/he will simply ignore.
You can contact associations that are devoted to your illness or to the
health of a particular organ. They have tons of information, plus
credibility with doctors. You may find them from a link at the American
Medical Association www.ama-assn.org.
Or, just do a search at www.yahoo.com
(I'm liking Google less and less, these day) and go to their Websites.
Type the disease name or organ name, followed by a word like
association, society, or fund. Think of some of the ones you know, such
as the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association,
or American Kidney Fund.
You can also try the words Alliance and Union. For
example, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and the
National Taxpayers Union. |
7. Thought for the Day
What would happen if you told one or
two neighbors, "I'm really happy to have you as a neighbor. I mean
that." If you don't know the answer, there's only one way to find out. I
suggest you do it. A few kind words can make everyone feel good. And
people remember things like that. Good friends don't just happen--you
make them. |
Wishing you the best,
Mark Lamendola
Mindconnection
Authorship
The views expressed in this e-newsletter are generally not shared by criminals, zombies, or brainwashed individuals.
Except where noted, this e-newsletter is entirely the work of Mark Lamendola. Anything presented as fact can be independently verified. Often, sources are given; but where not given, they are readily available to anyone who makes the effort.
Mark provides information from either research or his own areas of established expertise. Sometimes, what appears to be a personal opinion is the only possibility when applying sound logic--reason it out before judging! (That said, some personal opinions do appear on occasion).
The purpose of this publication is to inform and empower its readers (and save you money!).
Personal note from Mark: I value each and every one of you, and I hope that shows in the diligent effort I put into writing this e-newsletter. Thank you for being a faithful reader.
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