This really happened to me.
My home office PC had an automated backup program running that saved my data to a USB connected external hard drive. I figured everything was A-OK and there was nothing to worry about. In truth, I hadn't been careful enoough in selecting software that reported via email/popup/siren/flashinglights when something went wrong.
The external drive failed and I didn't notice. A couple of months later the local electrical utility company was doing some work about 2 miles from me. A truck backed into a pole holding a transformer... knocking out power in the area... and breaking my main hard drive in my PC. The one I thought was safely copying data to the external drive.
Emails, bookmarks, software, data, music files, photos, work, play, family tree data, contracts, etc, etc -- all gone.
Oops!
$1,500 later I had my data recovered to a new boot drive.
I also learned two things:
- Be careful about selecting my backup software
- Check to make sure it is running
A couple of months later I read about an online backup solution. Secure, automatic, remote, reliable, simple to set up and affordable. In fact, you can back up 2 GB of data at no cost if you want to try it out. When you need your data it is right there on the Internet. You can even restore using just a browser!
All of my valuable emails, pictures, scanned images & documents, genealogy databases and reports were gone... without warning. And it cost me a bundle of $ and some frayed nerves before I got lucky enoough to get them recovered. I don't want to do it again.
For 2010... promise yourself to visit
http://nolimitsuccess.info/mozy.html and when you forget about making backups you can sleep peacefully knowing your computer is looking after things for you. It will be a resolution that is easy to keep!
Happy New Year!
P.S. Did I ever tell you the one about the stolen laptop? I'll save that for next year!
Most recently seen here, and well worth repeating. I resemble these remarks.The following is floating around the Internet. Author unknown:
1.You try to enter your password on the microwave.
2.You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3.You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 4.
4.You e-mail your colleague at the desk next to you to ask if they're ready to go to lunch.
5.You chat on-line regularly with a stranger from the U.S., but you haven't spoken to your next-door neighbour yet this year.
6.Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have an e-mail address.
7.Your idea of being organized is multiple colored post-it notes.
8.You hear most of your jokes via e-mail rather than in person.
9.When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.
10.When you make phone calls from home you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
11.You now think of three espressos as "getting wasted."
12.You call your son's beeper to let him know it's time to eat. He emails you back from his bedroom, "What's for dinner?"
13.Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her web site.
14.You didn't give your valentine a card this year, but you posted one for your e-mail buddies via a web page.
Today's article is by Christine Breese, PhD, teacher, speaker and author. Christine discusses the problem with The Secret's approach to the Law Of Attraction. I know you will enjoy her insightful comments. .../PaulThe Secret: It's No Secret But There's a Problem
By Christine Breese
There is a lot of ado about the movie
The Secret. However, it has never been a secret! It's already built into your being. The Law of Attraction has always been in effect whether or not it has been named, just as gravity was operational long before it was named.
I am glad to see movies like
The Secret in the mainstream.
The Secret movie is THE most successful commercial enterprise that has put this message out there. It's about time someone got this out to the masses!
The movie,
The Secret: Law of Attraction, provides a chance for people to become aware of how their thoughts and emotions affect their realities. A positive thought creates positive experiences, a negative thought creates negative experiences. If the habit of positive thoughts and emotions become your natural state, your whole life will change. Whatever you focus on and feel, that's what you get. Positive thinking is a healthy habit to get into.
The problem with
The Secret, though, is what the movie fails to teach about the Law of Attraction. It is not the only way to create what you want and live a life of happiness and joy. In fact, the techniques in
The Secret will not bring you happiness and fulfillment, even if you master the ability to attain what you want.
The Secret does not teach about compassion, the heart, and caring about others. It teaches how to "get more of what you want," which encourages egotistic desire and wish fulfillment. This is a distraction on the path to true enlightenment.
What Abundance Means To MeI don't do visualizations or use the methods of
The Secret, nor do I believe that they are necessary. However, I lead a very fulfilled and abundant life and I have everything that I need. I live exactly the life I have always wanted to live. I am surrounded by amazing people, I get to talk about consciousness (my favorite subject), and I get to travel to distant places assisting people in their awakening. I get to read beautiful letters from people who have epiphanies and hear stories about people who tell me their lives are healed because of the courses I offer in my school, some videos I have on
YouTube, or from things I've written. I spend all my time doing what I love to do. This is happiness and abundance to me, this feeling of being in service to humanity's awakening.
My idea of abundance might be a little different than someone else's, though. Instead of give myself the huge paycheck that I could give myself, I leave it in the care of The University Of Metaphysical Sciences and Universal Church of Metaphysics so that it can keep recycling out into humanity. I feel that is where the money will do the most good, rather than sitting in my bank account.
The act of amassing money and assets is harming the economy rather than keeping it flowing. I don't have a lot of things. To me that isn't abundance, it is greed.
Is Amassed Wealth Really A Belief In Scarcity?To amass wealth is a statement that you DON'T trust the universe to keep delivering what you want. How big does the financial safety net need to be before you feel safe from the day "when the universe dries up" and stops providing for you? By hoarding money, you are actually serving a belief in scarcity, not abundance. You should be willing to let the money flow back out into the world because you know it will keep coming back to you.
The techniques taught in
The Secret great for a beginner on the spiritual path. After all, didn't we all get started on the spiritual path because "we want more of what we want?" The egotistic desire at the beginning of the spiritual path is different for everyone, but few started just because they wanted to be of service to humanity.
So it's a good beginning, this learning of the Jedi mind powers connected to the Law of Attraction, but that's all it is--a beginning.
Then What Will Bring Happiness And Fulfillment?Those who are truly happy and fulfilled are those who have surrendered all egotistic desires, who don't care about amassing wealth or material things. An enlightened master is happy even if he or she doesn't have the bike, necklace, house, or a perfect mate. A message like
The Secret teaches you to measure how masterful you are by how much you are able to "create more of what you want" instead of surrendering what it is you want to a higher force and letting the universe do with you what it will.
So what other alternative is there if you are not to purposefully manipulate your reality with your mind and emotions? I would suggest offering your life to the Divine and allowing it to be used in whatever way God sees fit. This is how I have come to the life I have always wanted.
This takes quite a leap of faith. To surrender your life to be used by a higher power is a radical invitation, but I promise that you will be happy. The things you like to do, the skills you have acquired, and the preferences you have are all taken into consideration by this Great Choreographer (which is really you). You will not be forced to be an accountant if numbers don't make you excited. Whatever your interest is, that is how you will be used.
You can learn how to use the Law of Attraction to your advantage, and there is nothing wrong with wanting a better life. It would be useful to learn how to stay in a positive state of mind, but take it no further than that. Don't let your happiness or your peace be affected by anything outside of you. Instead of serving human desires with the techniques of
The Secret, serve a higher purpose -- something that you are already part of and made of -- and you will align yourself even more with the perfect life.
True Enlightenment
Let yourself be carried in the hand of God, and if you are meant to have the bike, necklace, the big house, the perfect mate, you will have these by default. So be abundant within yourself by being all that you are.
So what does an abundant life really look like to you? What is it that you really want? Do you serve the human self or the eternal self that sees all as illusion and knows better than to serve egotistic desires?
Go straight to realizing yourself as the source, and all will be delivered to you. It is a heck of a lot easier than all that visualizing, affirming, and strategizing! All you have to do is relax, be at ease, realize who you are, and do whatever shows up for you to do. Once you give yourself over to being used by the Divine, you will have lots of work to do in service to humanity. By default, you get everything you have always wanted.
About the Author:
Christine Breese, Ph.D., is the SelfGrowth.com Official Guide to Enlightenment and Psychology and Founder of the
University of Metaphysical Sciences.
A good friend sent me this today, and urged me to share it. I encourage you to share this post with your "friends" on FaceBook, myspace, Digg, your blog, wherever. And then I suggest you share it with your "real life" friends... along with saying something nice about them. .../PaulAre you too busy for a friend?One day a teacher asked her math students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each classmate and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in their papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list.. Before long, the entire class was smiling.
'Really?' she heard whispered.
'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and,
'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students from that class was killed in Viet Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before... He looked so handsome, so mature.
The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.
'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded:
'yes.' Then he said:
'Mark talked about you a lot.'After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a reception / luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, patiently waiting to speak with his teacher.
'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket
'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said.
'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said,
'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'Chuck's wife said,
'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.''I have mine too,' Marilyn said.
'It's in my diary.'Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued:
'I think we all saved our lists.'That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Send this message on, forward the link, share it on FaceBook or myspace, digg it, copy and paste it. If you do not send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful opportunity to do something nice and beautiful.
Here is a link directly to this message:
http://nolimitsuccess.blogspot.com/2009/09/are-you-too-busy-for-friend.htmlIf you're 'too busy' to take those few minutes right now to forward this message on, would this be the VERY first time you didn't do that little thing that would make a difference in your relationships? The more people that you send this to, the better you'll be at reaching out to those you care about.
Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.
May Your Day Be Blessed & As Special As You Are
Welcome to a guest article by Coach Trainer Dr. Bruce D. Schneider. He asks the vital, if non-musical question, Are you living your purpose? I hope you can answer in the positive.Are You Living Your Purpose?
By Bruce D Schneider, Ph.D., MCC"Whatever path a man travels, it is my path. Wherever he goes, it leads to me." - Unknown
Though we are all one energy force, one mind, and One Spirit, each soul incarnated into a specific form on earth for a unique purpose. We are here to experience different situations and similar situations differently, and to share these experiences with the Universe, our total consciousness. There are many different journeys to share. This is why there is more than one soul experiencing this world.
Your journey is now and exists at this moment, whether you realize it or not. It will be more enjoyable if you consciously pursue your spiritual purpose to bring the world to Love. You do this by expressing Love in whatever you do, and most easily express it when doing what you do best. Consciously following your spiritual purpose brings you ultimate joy, balance, peace, freedom, and happiness.
You have seen them. He is the conductor exuding power and poise as his orchestra performs a beautiful medley. She is the lawyer who fights for her client's life as if it were her own child on trial. She is the waitress who serves customers with as much enthusiasm and caring as her personal friends. And he is the gas station attendant who still cleans your windshield even when his co-workers won't. Who are these people? They are spiritual beings who breathe life into their work. They are people who express themselves in what they do, and not simply for financial reward. They do it because they couldn't do their job any other way. They are living their soul's purpose and consciously doing what they do with Love, and they are happier than most.
Have you ever felt something missing in your life? If so, this could be the reason: The soul has a twofold purpose in each lifetime: (1) the universal purpose to rediscover itself as Love, and (2) an individual purpose to experience a specific role it can do better or differently than any other soul in a given lifetime. The latter enables the soul to help itself and other souls more easily rediscover Love. In other words, your individual purpose is the best way to promote the universal purpose.
There are no "ideal" jobs. Not every person should be a healer or a teacher. We need conductors, lawyers, waitresses, and gas station attendants. Each person lives his or her purpose by performing his or her job in a spiritually loving way, which reaps the many rewards of a purposeful and relatively stress-free life.
We are specialEach of us can do something totally unique. The challenge is to discover your spiritual "niche" on earth, so you can realize your potential for happiness. If you live untrue to this niche, your energy will be unaligned with the Universal Energy, and you are likely to feel something missing in your life. You'll experience a feeling of dissonance, which can lead to disease.
Let us suppose, for example, that in this life you can best serve the journey of Love by expressing yourself as a salesperson. But because of your free will, you did not choose that line of work. This can cause "disease" in the form of unhappiness or even physical illness. Disease is a sign you aren't following a connected life, body, mind, and spirit. Clients who discovered this and how it was best for them to work, achieved more gratification in their lives. Some actually healed their physical conditions just by making certain changes in how they perceived their work. By understanding and living their individual purpose, they filled the void created by a disconnection to the Divine and removed the feeling that something was "missing."
Application: Hit the lottery and know your purposeOne of the surest ways to know if you are living your purpose is to imagine winning the lottery and having all the money you'll ever need. If you'd choose to continue doing what you do, it is surely your purpose. The rewards of living your soul's purpose go far beyond money. If you think you'd retire, you may just be burned out. If you do hit the lottery, take a vacation and then do what you do with Love, instead of just going through the motions. You never need to retire from Love. You can always serve your purpose and enjoy what you are doing and how you are doing it for a lifetime.
When you are connected to your spiritual purpose, your life becomes easier and more satisfying and rewarding. Why? Because you are no longer operating as an isolated individual out of tune with the Universe. Instead, you are working with the Universe, consciously connected to the Universal Mind and utilizing the vast potential of the energy around you. When you find your true purpose, the Universe has no choice but to help you by providing information and energy.
Adapted from "Relax, You're Already Perfect: 10 Spiritual Lessons... to Remember"About the Author:
Bruce D Schneider, Ph.D., MCC is a Master Certified Coach, licensed psychotherapist, Reiki Master, founder and director of the Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching, and author of "Relax, You're Already Perfect: 10 Spiritual Lessons... to Remember." Go to
http://www.IPECcoaching.com
A flower doesn't turn toward the sun because it needs to, but because it wants to, and so the process is effortless and joyful.
It was not raining when Noah built the ark!
