Actual Achievement Part 1
November 30, 2007
Sport is an excellent medium in which to explore the mechanics of achievement. My own background is in Whitewater Canoe Slalom, which requires power and technique in a constantly changing environment. How is this for a fitting metaphor for today’s business environment and life altogether? You need resources (power), like money, people or things and use them in skillful ways (technique) to adapt, grow and thrive in an ever changing and unfolding environment.
You may know exactly what you want (e.g.: Gold Medal), even have a detailed and well researched plan or process to get there and you will still encounter those factors that are not under your control, factors you haven’t accounted for.
Even if we were to collect all the experiences ever made in pursuit of this particular goal and were able to devise a plan taking all these experiences into account, we would still not be able to devise a fail proof plan.
No plan, no map can ever be 100% indicative of what actually happens! So how do we account for that which can’t be accounted for? Why am I actually stressing this fact? Isn’t it that ‘we win some and loose some’? It certainly can be, if you are OK with that?
When I went to the Olympics I had just won the World Championships the year before and I certainly went there to win, as did a number of other competitors in my discipline. I wasn’t going to leave it to chance. Since I was 8 years old I was competing in my sport and from about age 16 the Olympics was my declared goal and passion. Now I am here and NOW everything has to fall into place, or does it?!
So, what is the answer? Not to make a plan at all? Or to leave particular things open and unanswered, or to have a number of plans (A, B, C, ?), or to ‘do your best and don’t worry about the outcome’?
Before I give my take on this, I want to stress the important fact that at this point I was prepared to ‘peak’. I went through many troths to get to this peak and these ‘down times’, or ‘basic training periods’ are what provided the foundation for the peak. When you truly take in the inevitability of this principle you can use it to evaluate what benefits could be had by periodising the activities of your company or by taking account for times of action and replenishment in your life.
There is also an important qualitative differentiation. What you actually ‘do’ at your peak, the actual way (technique) you use your resources may be very different to how you operate at other times. This may have to necessarily be so, because of the sustainability of the effort, due to physical or mental strain. Again, taking this into account will give you more energy when you really want it, when you need it to make the difference to your competitors. When you always run on what you consider ‘high’, where will you get the energy to go to ‘highest’, or ’smartest’, or ‘most dynamic’, what ever the key quality is that you or your team need to excel.
Also know that there is no growth without recovery. It’s in times of recovery and replenishment that our bodies and minds grow and adapt. Understanding this and putting it to work effectively, is a huge area of gain for athletes and others wanting to grow and develop.
In summary for now, Actual Achieving doesn’t come from nowhere, resources need to be build and techniques need to be acquired. Peaking all the time is not possible and much can be gained from positively understanding and working with this. This much for honoring the process! More in part 2.
© by Oliver Fix
About The Author
Oliver Fix, Olympic Gold Medallist in 1996 and Olympic Medal Winning Coach in 2004, offers coach / consultant services that can propel you and your company into this outstanding level of success.
Find out more on his website: http://www.oliverfix.com and contact him at: oliver@oliverfix.com
Why People Get Sick
November 30, 2007
The body is a marvelous creation, a carbon, oxygen combustion machine, constantly burning fuel, disposing of the waste products of combustion, and constantly rebuilding tissue by replacing worn out, dead cells with new, fresh ones.
Every seven years virtually every cell in the body is replaced, some types of cells having a faster turnover rate than others, which means that over a seven year period several hundred pounds of dead cells must be digested (autolyzed) and eliminated.
All by itself this would be a lot of waste disposal for the body to handle. Added to that waste load are numerous mild poisons created during proper digestion. And added to that can be an enormous burden of waste products created as the body’s attempts to digest the indigestible, or those tasty items we all love - “junk food.” Add to that burden the ruinous effects of just plain overeating.
The waste products of digestion, of indigestion, of cellular breakdown and the general metabolism are all poisonous to one degree or another. Another word for this is toxic.
If these toxins were allowed to remain and accumulate in the body, it would poison itself and die in agony. So the body has a processing system to eliminate toxins. And when that system does break down the body does die in agony, as from liver or kidney failure.
The organs of detoxification remove things from the body’s system, but these two vital organs should not be confused with what hygienists call the secondary organs of elimination, such as the large intestine, lungs, bladder and the skin, because none of these other eliminatory organs are supposed to purify the body of toxins. That is the job of the liver and kidneys.
But when the body is faced with toxemia, the secondary organs of elimination are frequently pressed into this duty and the consequences are the symptoms we call illness.
The lungs are supposed to eliminate only carbon dioxide gas; not self-generated toxic substances.
The large intestine is supposed to pass only insoluble food solids (and some nasty stuff dumped into the small intestine by the liver).
Skin eliminates in the form of sweat (which contains mineral salts) to cool the body, but the skin is not supposed to move toxins outside the system.
But when toxins are flowed out through secondary organs of elimination these areas become inflamed, irritated, weakened. The results can be skin irritations, sinusitis or a whole host of other “itises” depending on the area involved, bacterial or viral infections, asthma.
When excess toxemia is deposited instead of eliminated, the results can be arthritis if toxins are stored in joints, rheumatism if in muscle tissues, cysts and benign tumors. And if toxins weaken the body’s immune response, cancer.
The liver and the kidneys, the two heroic organs of detoxification, are the most important ones; these jointly act as filters to purify the blood.
In an ideal world, the liver and kidneys would keep up with their job for 80 years or more before even beginning to tire. In this ideal world, the food would of course, be very nutritious and free of pesticide residues, the air and water would be pure, people would not denature their food and turn it into junk.
In this perfect world everyone would get moderate exercise into old age, and live virtually without stress. In this utopian vision, the average healthy productive life span would approach a century, entirely without using food supplements or vitamins. In this world, doctors would have next to no work other than repairing traumatic injuries, because everyone would be healthy. But this is not the way it is.
In our less-than-ideal world virtually everything we eat is denatured, processed, fried, salted, sweetened, preserved; thus more stress is placed on the liver and kidneys than nature designed them to handle. Except for a few highly fortunate individuals blessed with an incredible genetic endowment that permits them to live to age 99, most peoples’ liver and kidneys begin to break down prematurely. Thus doctoring has become a financially rewarding profession.
Most people overburden their organs of elimination by eating whatever they feel like eating whenever they feel like it.
Eating is a very habitual and unconscious activity; frequently we continue to eat as adults whatever our mother fed us as a child. It is therefore not surprising that when people develop the very same disease conditions as their parents, they wrongly assume the cause is genetic inheritance, when actually it was just because they were putting their feet under the same table as their parents.
Read More at: http://www.XTherapist.com
How to Grow Cooking Herbs
November 30, 2007
Grow your own cooking herbs to add fresh zest and flavor to your menus year-round!
Is It a Cooking Herb or a Spice?
The first thing to know in selecting which herbs to grow is the difference between cooking (culinary) herbs and spices. The cinnamon stick you put in your hot chocolate or apple cider is a spice while the parsley on the edge of your plate is an herb. 1.Cooking herbs are usually the fresh or dried leaves of plants while spices are the ground seeds, roots, fruits, flowers, and/or bark. 2.Herbs grow very well in temperate zones, while spices generally come from tropical areas. 3.Herbs add subtle flavor, whereas spices are generally more pungent and add more robust flavor.
Herbs run the gamut of about 70 cultivars, broken into categories of medicinal, ornamental, and aromatic as well as culinary or cooking herbs. To start growing cooking herbs, it’s best first to select where and how you want to grow them.
Site Selection
Most cooking herbs thrive in just about any location that gives them plenty of light, good drainage and nutrition. In addition to outdoor garden spots, culinary herbs can be grown in patio containers, as indoor herb gardens, or in greenhouses using soil-less growing techniques like hydroponics or aquaponics.
Outdoor Cooking Herb Gardens
For easy access, plant your herb garden as close to your kitchen as possible. Herbs grown in full sun have denser foliage, darker color, and higher levels of the essential oils that add flavor to your recipes. Good air circulation and drainage are also important to the success of your cooking herb garden. The size of your cooking herb garden, of course, depends on the space you have available for growing. Generally, an area 20 by 4 feet accommodates a satisfactory variety of cultivars.
Many herbs overlap in category. Border your cooking herb garden with some cultivars that have ornamental or aromatic qualities as well as the culinary. However, remember that the main purpose of this garden is for use in your kitchen.
Place cooking herbs that you use frequently in less conspicuous areas so that you won’t leave big holes in your garden when you harvest them for cooking!
Most culinary herbs thrive under the same growth conditions as the vegetables they enhance and as such are a natural addition to your vegetable garden. Some cooking herbs even have properties that repel common insect pests and garden diseases, which is an added benefit to your vegetables.
The best time to amend soil with nutrient rich compost is when you till your garden plot. Herbs have coarse roots that benefit from chunky organic matter, which helps excess water drain away and also helps provide good air circulation.
After planting your cooking herbs, skirting them with a two to three-inch layer of mulch helps soil retain moisture. In addition, composting and mulching helps you maintain the neutral to slightly alkaline soil that most herbs prefer.
Linda is an author of Gardening Tips and How To Artciles. The next part of this article is available at our site Gardening-Guides.com
Where you can download the whole series as a free full color e-book. Just follow the links.
A Wealth of Kid Hobby Ideas
November 30, 2007
A Wealth of Kid Hobby Ideas
by: Deng Gang
Every young person needs a hobby. An interesting kid hobby will help children learn as well as keep them entertained for hours. It might even help them stay away from a bad peer group and stay out of trouble. Some kids might think of video games or TV as an appropriate kid hobby, but most parents would like to see their kids doing something more challenging or educational.
A good kid hobby is playing a musical instrument. The guitar can often be self-taught from a book if a child has the interest, but for piano playing or other instruments, you will probably have to invest in lessons. Practice is, of course, an essential part of mastering any musical instrument.
Another type of kid hobby is pursuing an art or a craft. Kids can learn to draw, paint, or make scrapbook pages. They can learn needle arts, such as embroidery, sewing, knitting or crocheting. Beginning carpentry is a very useful kid hobby that may turn into a career, or at least skills that will be used for a lifetime.
Tinkering around on gas engines or electronics is another kid hobby that can lead to useful skills.
There are all sorts of things that kids might like to collect for a hobby. Some of the more common collections are of stamps, coins, and rocks. Stamps are interesting because they can be from many different countries, becoming a geography lesson. Coins and stamps both are of historical significance, and encourage reading to learn more about different eras in history. Rock collecting as a kid hobby requires looking into science books.
Other collectibles include bean bag toys or figurines of a certain thing, such as owls, frogs, or unicorns. Anything a child has an interest in can be collected. If a kid is interested in dolphins, for instance, she may not only collect dolphin figurines and posters, but also be motivated to read books about dolphins.
Construction sets also make a good pastime for kids. Many people may think of these only as toys, but children who have grown up with these sets and added components to them down through the years can create some pretty impressive models. They are also gaining skills in reasoning and perception as they build.
Making model, such as cars, boats, and airplanes, has always been a popular kid hobby. If your child is interested in making models, be very encouraging in the beginning. Model car kits can be very complicated and require a great deal of precision. If your child’s first few creations leave a little bit to be desired, don’t laugh or scold, or he is likely to never want to try to make anything again! Get the easiest kit he is willing to make and then patiently help him as much as needed.
Many kids enjoy sports, making any athletic activity a great kid hobby. Soccer, basketball, and little league baseball all come to mind, but don’t forget about track and field events. Maybe your child would enjoy distance running or gymnastics. An active kid hobby will help your child stay in shape as well as make an interesting pastime.
