A few days ago, I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in a few years. After the pleasantries, I asked her how she has been. She got a frustrated look and said, “I’ve been good, just really busy.” Then she asked me how I have been, and I thought about all of my projects, and also said, “I’ve been good, just really busy”. Now this is the part that I found interesting, she gave me a look in which I knew that she did not believe me. That’s what got me thinking about this topic.

If you ask anyone, at anytime, how they are doing, you will always get the standard response, “I’ve been good, just really busy.” My question is simple, are people really as busy as they claim? There are several reasons why people give the default answer of “I’ve been busy.” Lets take a look at a few of the top reasons:

• Subconscious: Again, my favorite topic, the Subconscious. The subconscious works by believing in repeated messages. If you always say “I’m Busy”, “I’m Busy”, “I’m Busy”, can you guess what the message that your subconscious receives… “I’m Busy”. Again, it doesn’t matter if you are telling the truth or not, to the subconscious, everything is the truth. So not only do you convince yourself that you are busy, but you feel better about yourself.
• Ego: Everyone likes to feel good about themselves, right? So if you say to someone “I’ve been busy”, even though they most likely won’t believe you, it still feels better than saying “I’ve been slacking off and watching TV.”
• Confusion With Being Productive: There is a huge difference in being “Busy” and bring “Productive”. Playing video games all day will keep me busy, but not productive.
• General Answer: For most people, saying “I’ve been Busy” is just a quick standard response.

Now, instead of saying that I’ve just “been busy”, and sending a message to my subconscious to find ways to prove itself right and focuses on keeping me “busy”, I say that I’ve “been productive”. My subconscious now focuses on finding ways on making me more productive.

Give it a try. For the next few people you meet, take a look at their reactions when you simply say that you are “busy” compared to if you say that you are “productive.” If you say you are busy, they will just pass it off as a standard answer, but if you say that you have been productive, they will ask you what you have been up to and show more interest in you.

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Before using Windows Live Writer, I would type all of my posts inside of Microsoft Word, so that I could use that I could take advantage of the powerful tools that Word has. I would then copy and paste the post inside of WordPress. From there, I would use WordPress’s limited picture capabilities to add a picture, and then post my entry.

Now within Live Writer, I can create my post, use the editing tools, and insert pictures, tables, maps, videos, and much more. Not only that, but Live Writer also downloads my CSS files for a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) experience. Once I am finished with my post, I can publish it, all from Live Writer. I believe that the true power of Live Writer is in it’s flexibility. The program offers a host of Plug-ins and at the time of this posting, there were 84 available. Lastly with Live Writer you can access any previous post, make changes, and then republish your post.

The only shortcoming of this program is that you can not, as far as I know, take advantage of your WordPress Plugins. Also SEO is very limited. Still I would recommend you give it a try by going to http://get.live.com!

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1. Find Live Music In Your Town

1. Get Up-Do-Date Information: I use Plaxo so that I always have everyone’s up-to-date information. For more information on this tremendous service, please read: Update your Address Books Automatically. Also, if you use MySpace and other social networking sites out there, they will make you aware of upcoming birthdays. For more information about using MySpace to promote yourself and/or your business, please read: 9 Ways MySpace & Facebook Can Work For You
2. Organize The Birthdays: I then created a spreadsheet that lists everyone’s birthday on 1 page and made it very easy to read at a quick glance. This spreadsheet is organized by month, so you can quickly look at November for example, and see that on the 16th, is my birthday. After you have added all of the birthdays per month, sort the names by birthday. Also, you may want to add November 16th to your list (my birthday)~Download my spreadsheet with sample information~
3. Create Cards: At the beginning of the month, I set some time aside to look at the list of birthday’s, and write out all of my birthday cards.
4. Send Out Cards: Since the cards are all made up, all I have to do it mail it out a few days before their birthday.

This method has been very easy for me to follow because I only need to look at it 12 times a year. Simple enough for anyone to use. Now don’t forget to add November 16th to your spreadsheet 

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Busy Waiting Room

Right now I am at the Dentist Office typing this on my laptop. While in the waiting room, I looked around and saw 5 people patiently sitting. Of the 5, one was reading a magazine, one was reading a romance novel, and the other three were sitting around frustrated because their appointment was at 11 and it was now 11:15.

Does this sound familiar? You go to an appointment, wait about 10-15 minutes in the waiting room, and then another 10-15 minutes for the doctor to actually shop up, about a total time of half an hour. The thing that amazes me is that everyone goes to their appointment, knowing that they will be waiting for at least a half hour, yet they don’t do anything about the time lost.

Here are some ideas of what you could do with that extra half hour of waiting time:

• Read a book on personal development. Sure romance novels and magazines might be entertaining, but do they even bring you 1 step closer to your goals?
• Don’t listen to music. MP3 Players have become very inexpensive; why not listen to some of your favorite personal development audios. I would highly recommend the Creative Zen Stone, very reasonably priced at around $40. There are hundreds of sites online where you can even download free personal development or motivational MP3s. For more information on this, read the following post: Personal Development Where Ever You Go
• Make those calls. Does your to-do list include making any phone calls? This is a great time to make those calls.
• Make contacts. Do you have your own business, home-based business, or Network Marketing business? Well this is a perfect time to talk to other patients waiting about your opportunity.
• Get some work done. Why not bring your laptop or your other work-related tools? That’s what I’m doing right now

Next time you have an appointment, don’t just sit there looking at all the pretty pictures in the waiting room, or all of the nice, shiny, tools in the doctor’s room. Instead, put some time into your greatest investment, you.

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I drove around for a week with those $800 tools, still untouched, in the trunk of my car. Yet, another error in my judgment. I thought about how much I had spent on the tools, and how much I had already lost by not listening to them. All the time I spend in my car listening to negatively influential commercials and music didn’t bring me a one step closer to my goals. I pulled over, took out one of the 10 CD sets, and started to play it in my car.
“Mindset Consciousness”, what an incredible title. I had received more than $800 worth of information, in the first 20 minutes alone.

Since then, I have spent thousands of dollars for personal development tools. The majority of time I am in my car now, I am listening to these tools. At first it was very strange, to not listen to music, but once I got used to it, the results spoke for themselves. It was a very small sacrifice to make initially; it’s also a sacrifice that few are willing to make. I have suggested listening to personal development tools over music to many people, and few ever have. They can’t live without music they all say. Now who is making an error in judgment?

I’m not suggesting you never listen to music. Music is an art and should be appreciated as such. But start slow, maybe you listen to a personal development CD for 10 minutes a day. You are still taking a step towards your goals. Simple disciplines like this are what will start to set you apart from others.

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Are you spending too much time watching TV?

This question isn’t as simple as it appears. No, I’m not talking about Plasma, LCD, 50″, 60″, etc and I’m not interested in a great deal you got at a Super Duper Clearance Sale. What I’m talking about is lost productivity. The average person watches 4.5 hours of TV a day, which doesn’t seem like that much, right? But you will be amazed at how quickly it adds up.

4.5 hours a day equals 31.5 hours a week, which in turn equals a little over 2 months a year! The average person spends 2 months a year watching TV and then wonders why they have so many incomplete projects, why their weight goes up slowly day by day, and how they wish they had more time with the kids.

Instead of spending all that time watching TV, get a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) instead and record your programs, watch them once a week and skip the commercials. The bottom line is that when you factor everything in, a TV doesn’t cost you whatever amount you paid for it, it probably ends up costing you over $40,000 a year! If you had an additional free 2 months at the end of the year, would you make the most of it? Well you have it, just hit the power button to turn off your TV, and turn on your life!

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Writing down your day

There are a great deal of changes that you can make to start becoming more productive right away, but these two are the simplest little changes you can make. The start of the day and the end of the day are extremely powerful times, but what can you do to take advantage of those times? Ask any successful person and they will always tell you, review, review, review, review. Let’s take a look at those two simple steps of reviewing now:

1. Morning Review: This is going to be the difficult one, especially if you like to sleep in, but wake up 5 minutes earlier than you normally would. I know it’s tough, who wants to wake up 5 minutes earlier, right? Well people who are committed to their goals will. You can still lay in bed all nice and warm, but take a few moments to review your day by taking a look at the list you made the previous night (look at step two for instructions).
2. Nightly Review:  At the end of the day, most of us are so tired that we are asleep before we hit the pillow, only to be rudely woken up by the electronic rooster (alarm clock). Instead, take a few minutes to review your day. Think about what went right, what could have improved, and how the steps you took to move forward in your life. After this, on a sheet of paper right down everything you have to do tomorrow. Write about the important meetings, the lunch dates, family dinner, appointments, etc. Not only does this help you stay organized for the next day, but you may already realize that you had forgotten an important step for the day’s activities.

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