This week, Oddpodz shares the reality of keeping a business together while getting ready for an important trip. If you missed last weeks wrap up, click here.

1 – I’m going to Saudi, join me! Get the inside scoop of marketing, communication, travel & cultural lessons.
2 – Blog breakthrough – What does it really take? And what is the magic move that turns pondering into reality?
3 – How to get unstuck on a writing project – 10 ways. Learn to practice what you preach in a stress-free way.
4 – Forgive me, I’m using an excuse card tonight. Use these funny excuses if you’re having an off day.
5 – A road warrior’s check list, so the journey is a joy. What to pack when you’re always on the go.

For more on-the-road lessons view:
Networking in the sky. How to turn a seat mate into a good connection.
5 inspirational ideas and 2 revelations from an adventure to Chicago
What I learned from going to see Oprah

It sure can. Research shows that people who are happy are healthier and wealthier. Think about how much more energy you have when you feel great, you got a big new client, you are in love, you accomplished something difficult, it’s better than two shots of B12. And happy people experience less stress and attract other happy people which create a domino effect of momentum.

Identity small things that make you happy and do them  often. You will see a difference in your business, your support team and your life.

Here are a few things that make me happy.

• Going to an awesome movie.
• Hearing one of my favorite songs.
• Feeling the sun.
• Endorphins from exercise.
• Winning a tennis match.
• Smelling garlic cooking.
• Completing a tough project.
• Getting a massage.

The cool thing is, I can make all of these happen.

What are some small things that make you happy?
Now go make them happen.

Also, be sure to check out: Celebrate love being an entrepreneur everyday.

Running shoe is by Newton.

I’m still in Houston and today is the Chevron Marathon. Thousands of ambitious runners are headed for the finish line as they run, walk or crawl 26 long miles. Achieving this goal after months of training and preparation is huge.

The day will be painful, challenging, rewarding, joyous and emotional for most. Sounds like a day at the office when you are entrepreneur. I’ve recapped 26 steps that these runners have taken and you can apply to reach your goals.

1.) Start. Set your goals.

2.) Create a simple, doable plan – how will you get to your goal?

3.) Develop a working schedule that covers: research, training, execution and anything else that needs to be done.

4.) List out all your smaller milestones that are needed to meet your big goal. Make sure you set accountable measures and deadlines.

5.) Design a wellness plan that includes diet, exercise, supplements and stretching rituals.

6.) Re-think your sleeping zone, your bed, the noise and the lighting so you can sleep for 7-8 hours every night.

7.) Relearn the importance and practice of breathing often and in a full cycles.

8.) Research and buy the best equipment you need to achieve the ultimate performance.

9.) Decide who your positive support network will be including business associates, friends and vendors.

10.) Kindly lose any negative, non-achieving friends, business associates and vendors from your world.

11.) Exercise your mind by using both sides daily. From crossword puzzles to something creative like doodling.

12.) Hydrate daily with water, not wine. Wine can be consumed in moderation, but water needs to be drank at least 6 times a day.

13.) Establish daily learning rituals from reading the WJS, to listening to podcasts and watching webinars and practice what you’ve learned.

14.) Work on improving mental toughness every hour. Shake off mistakes and disappointments. Believe in the power of your mind.

15.) Push yourself beyond what you think you can do.

16.) Identify a handful of people that inspire you, follow them and learn from them. Whether you know them or not.

17.) Carefully assess your competition, their strengths, and weaknesses.

18.) Seek out legal advantages that will accelerate your journey to the finish line.

19.) Keep your eyes and ears wide open for potholes and flying objects.

20.) Practice, train and be disciplined everyday.

21.) Recover, refresh and revitalize often.

22.) Show gratitude and appreciation to people you know and people you don’t know.

23.) Visit, read and recite your goals every day.

24.) Affirm in writing what you believe and can achieve. This is your story that you own, read it out loud everyday.

25.)  Stay laser focused on your goals and dreams.

26.) Don’t waste emotions on feeling guilt, worrying, dwelling on the past or things you can’t control.

Bonus step

27.) Be proud everyday of every little step you’ve taken.

For more on entrepreneur list-styles, view:
Celebrate loving being an entrepreneur everyday.
Can being happier change your entrepreneur results?

Tiger Woods knows what this feels like. Sunday he was so close to turning the tide and winning again. He and fellow golfer Graeme McDowell were tied, in the hunt and Tiger failed again. He came up short. It’ been 378 days since Tiger experienced a major golf victory. That’s a long, frustrating dry spell.

The Carolina Panthers football team haven’t seen but one W since the 2010 season started and they have a whole team to help avoid the dreaded defeat zone. The list of athletes and entrepreneurs who experience being a loser every Monday is nothing new. Statistics indicate for every winner there are multiples of many losers. Being a Monday morning loser does not mean you are lazy, lacking talent, or don’t deserve to win, it does mean that you have work to do.

Whether you are an athlete or an entrepreneur, here are seven steps to changing the loosing story.

1) Shake it off, yesterday is history.
2) Review game film, the events, the processes in the activity and talk to others who witnessed it.
3) Re visit the equipment used, the uniform worm, and all the components that were part of the failing short.
4) Make adjustments, this could mean with the team, the routine behind the preparation, adding something, lessening something. Changing something.
5) Believe that you are a winner. Affirm there is no reason why you can’t be the victor.
6) Focus, focus. focus.
7) Don’t get discouraged. And don’t give up. If you do, you are are just guaranteeing your spot as a loser.

Tiger will taste victory again and so will the Carolina Panthers. And if you’ve felt defeat recently you will too.  Athletes are in business, entrepreneurs are athletes.

Stay competitive. Preparation is vital. See and feel the result, it’s up to you.

Don’t forget to check out: Forgive me, I’m using an excuse card tonight.

As entrepreneurs, we all want to move our businesses forward, score the next big goal and take the next prisoner. We often look to outside advisers and coaches to help carry some of the load and guide us.  Whether it’s because of their specialty expertise, their connections or their commanding accountability stature—the investment needs to deliver a solid return on cash out laid—or we are not happy and feel let down.

It’s always a scary thought to spend or not to spend on a real expert. They are usually not cheap.

Can this person make a significant difference? Or are they just a rockin sales person and you are feeling desperate and grabbing for any breathing person that seems like they can save you from your pain?

In the 30 some years I’ve been in business there have been times that I was feeling desperate and I searched to find a “save my ass expert soul”. They’ve ranged from experts and coaches on pricing, comedy, fund raising, story telling, performance and business planning,

I’ve worked with a lot of smart hired guns, coaches and consultants and a few great sales people that didn’t know much else, and what is consistent in all of these arrangements is they, the consultant or coach are only 50% of the power behind the results. You, as the buyer, must carry your load too or you are guaranteed to fail. You must provide them what they need, you must be able to carry the torch after they provide a sound road map and you must demonstrate leadership and excellent delegations skills too.

Do you shell out the investment or fly alone? Answer these questions.

• Will spending $5,000 on a new business commando get you $15,000 in new revenues?
• Will investing $10,000 on an HR adviser help find you that superstar next staff member?
• Will buying some education tool for $500.00 add to your bottom line?

I’ve not met many advisers or coaches with magic wands, even if their bio may convince you other wise. Here are a few pointers to getting the most with a coach or adviser.

1) Check references, not the ones they give you, but the ones they list on their web site.

2) Be clear on what the adviser’s role is. Get it in writing, are they biz shrinks and can they listen to a vent for hours? Will they deliver work product (something you can hold)?, or is their role more like a sports coach to push you and empower you to deliver? Or are they a pure consultant, providing how-to and then you need to execute? This is very important to know.

3) Make sure you have the time to spare. Coaches and adviser relationships take time. Can you allocate the needed hours to the cause? Ask them upfront, what will be required from you.

4) State and share with them what your expectations are from this investment. Tell them what you think success/results will look like in three specific bullets.

Examples:
-Find a strategic partner with a following of 10,000+ customers
-Increase sales by ____%
-Cut your operating expenses by 20%

5) Unless you can find a robot, they are human and they need positive feedback too. When they are adding to your success, tell them. And tell your friends and make referrals.

Hiring an expert coach, adviser or consultant can be gold. But without you actively participating in the process, executing on the advice they dish out and providing them the support they need to do their job—your result will be  limited to a pile of cheap tin.

We recommend you also check out: Get organized, professionally

This week, our team has produced 7 articles for your success. For those of you who might have missed them – some of us are busy as hell during the week! – here is your weekly OWW-UP:

1 – In Liar Liar is your brand on fire, Joe Melle digs into the evolution of advertising over the past 50 years, focusing on infomercials. Joe wonders how marketing professionals look at their peers’ work. He also questions the extent to which Ethic impacts infomercials messages and he challenges every one of us to think twice about the way we communicate about our products? See Joe’s post here.

2 – In Leadership: the quality of your presence, Thomson Dawson highlights how leadership is an effect of a quality presence. He tells us why determined people are time-oriented and how they get to the next step. See Thomson’s post here.

3 – In Business Requirements Doc & Website Dev RFP Example, Karen Post follows up her last week article How Two Websites Almost Killed a Baby. Our CEO tells us what Oddpodz has learnt in IT adding some insights from Allen Clary and Brian Burridge

See Karen’s post here and download Business Requirements and Oddpodz Request for Proposal as examples.

4 – In Why you should master the art of “downloading people”?, Kenji Crosland develops the concept of “downloading people” – or how to get as many pieces of information from anyone as you can. Among the tips Kenji gives us: don’t focus on narrow objectives and remember that everyone has valuable information. See Kenji’s post here.

5 – In If it ain’t broke, break it…, Jocelyn Rings gives us 7 lessons she implements while brainstorming. Through the story of the successful startup SeamlessWeb, Jocelyn’s advices make a lot of sense for those of us who live through a continuous brainstorming mode! See Jocelyn’s post here.

6 – In How QR barcodes make it easy to attract & keep new online friends, Lauren Angrick shows us a Japanese way to communicate through mobile devices which is going worldwide at the speed of light! See Lauren’s post here

7 – Lauren brings it back in A little known way to spruce up your Facebook page for free. In this post, she adds up a great tool to the Oddpodz FREE biz findz blog with Facebook TabSite. A website that allows you to create for free a tab within your Facebook pages. See Lauren’s second post of the week here

Seven days, seven posts! The O-team has given its best for your success. Which insight has been the most helpful for you this week?

I have always enjoyed cycling. I saw the movie Breaking Away as a child and wanted to be a bike racer. Those plans were deferred as I spend twenty plus years as a competitive equestrian which is an extremely time consuming pursuit. Recently, I traded in riding horses for riding bikes and it has become my new passion. This past Sunday, I rode in the Savannah Century (103 miles, to be exact). The course started over the Talmadge Bridge and went into South Carolina, then wound through rural southeast Georgia before heading back to downtown Savannah. The event was well organized, the weather was relatively mild for the southeast and the camaraderie was awesome. I did not ride as part of a team, so once I’d logged 30 miles and the crowd started to thin out, I had a large chunk of 5 plus hours on the bike to take in scenery and think. I learned a few things about cycling and myself and found that they are applicable to business.

1 ) Preparation is key. This is true of a Century, or any business event in life. I was a bit nervous at the start of the morning, because I had not logged as many training miles as I had hoped this summer. Our hot southern summer kept me off the road for a few days and other commitments chewed into my training schedule. However, I did have a good level of fitness and was able to perform well despite not sticking to my originally planned regimen. Sometimes, you can get by with less preparation than you would have liked. I did think about skipping the event, but I am glad I didn’t. So, even when you think you haven’t put in 100%, just go ahead and do it. If you come up short, you know how much you need to do next time.

2 ) Those that talk the most have the least to say. I sat quietly with my bike waiting for the SCMPD to close the bridge so that we could get on our way. I heard lots of people around me bragging about performances in other events and on training rides (long distances, high speeds). I thought I would be at the end of the pack and dropped by every group out there based on what I was hearing. Once we got out on the road, I saw several of the self-proclaimed speed demons drop back and even turn off the 103 mile course to ride the 37, 56 or 69 mile routes. The quietly confident riders performed the best.

3 ) Watch out for road hazards, and be polite and warn those around you. When riding in a large group, you have to watch out for things on the road and the other people around you, much like you would if you were driving a car. Stay focused. And, when you see something, tell those behind you, as someone ahead of you warned you.

4 ) You will encounter unexpected obstacles, and you’ll just have to find a way to get past them. As we approached a draw bridge with a metal grating, the entire group slowed down. The organizers of the event warned us that we should walk our bikes over the bridge if it had rained and the surface was wet. It was sunny and 90 degrees, so I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Perhaps people were just erring on the side of caution and walking across the rough surface. However, we were, in fact, slowing down to get past a 6 foot gator in the roadway. We had been warned about road conditions, but no one expected a gator to cross our path. We all slowed down and communicated to one another to slow down and to pass with care. The entire group (that I could see) got past the gator with no casualties.

5 ) Know your limits, but push through them. I knew I could not keep up with people traveling upwards of 25 mph, but I also knew that I could move out of a comfortable pace and challenge myself by keeping up with a group that rode slightly faster than I rode alone on training rides. At about 85 miles, with my bike computer temperature gague reading 107 degrees, I felt pretty tired, but I knew that after traveling that far, I could make it the last 15 miles.

6 ) Going it alone is tough. I did not ride from the start with a group, so I didn’t have anyone to work with to share the burden. I have a friend who is an elite cyclist and competes in events all over the world. He always says that after a big climb, he never wants to find himself riding in a flat valley to the next climb all by himself; it’s just tough, it’s much easier to have at least one rider to help keep a quick pace. I rode by myself for the first 40 or so miles until the my first stop at the third rest stop. I tend to enjoy working alone, but it is a challenge. I realized how much easier it was to ride in a paceline where one person pulls the group along for a while, then moves to the middle or back of the pack to recover while the others take turns leading.

7 ) There are nice people out there. I passed one particular group a couple of times, but working together, they always caught me. After the third time, one member of the group asked me if I’d like to join them as they rode by. I said, “Yes, thank you!” It was much easier to reach the end with a group willing to share the work. And, you find yourself pushing yourself harder when you are in front and want to help everyone along. I rode stronger and faster when I was in the group. Granted, this was not a competitive event, but I was really impressed and inspired by the camaraderie and helpfulness. People at the rest stops were helpful and people that rode by at faster paces would shout words of encouragement.

8 ) Be a productive member of the team. For a while in the first part of the ride, I found myself with a riding partner for about 8 miles or so. Over my left shoulder, I saw a shadow. I looked back often and saw that person constantly. He was drafting and by riding behind me he could ride faster with less effort. I gestured for him to move in front a few times, but he would not. It was irritating. So, if you are in a group, doesn’t matter if it is two or twenty two, don’t hang at the back letting everyone else pull you along. Pitch in. Even if you can’t stay in front for as long as some of the other members, get up there and do your best. If people see that you are doing your best to help, it will be appreciated.

9 ) You can do more than you think you can. Mind over matter is for real. At mile 87, we were departing the last rest stop and the sun had reemerged. I looked at the computer on my bike and it said the temperature was 107 degrees. I was hot and tired and when I went to the front of the group, I looked down and my pace was slowing. I thought I was done, but I found something in some reserve somewhere inside and I picked my pace back up and powered through the tiredness and burning quad muscles. My body really would have liked to have stopped, but the mind kept it going.

10 ) Finish lines feel good. As soon as the finish line was in sight, the pain, lactic acid and bad feelings melted away. It was amazing that the feelings of accomplishment and pride demolished the yucky ones. I was riding for personal reasons and proud of myself for finishing, but there was someone waiting for me at the finish line who was proud of me, too, and that made crossing the finish line that much sweeter. So, you always have to keep your eye on the prize while you are in the path to your goal. Finally, make time in your busy life to put time into building friendships and relationships. Having those people in your life to share in your victories make them that much more rewarding.

Don’t forget to view: Outdoor advertising – effective tool? Dangerous distraction?

5 convincing reasons rituals can put you on a winning track.

Rituals are one of the most important tools you can use to achieve balance, mental toughness and your goals. Repetition of habits creates an awareness of your values and what’s most meaningful. Disciplined patterns of thinking and acting can enhance your ability to respond to pressure, recover from mental and physical depletion and concentrate on your goals.

In Jame E. Loehr’s New York Times bestselling book, Stress for Success, Jim works with and interviews top Olympian athletes, business leaders and people with extreme pressure cooking careers. He noted they all follow daily routines or rituals, enabling their health, happiness and performance to go to a new, higher level.

Studies show that rituals:

1. Help us shift gears to oscillate between stress and recovery.
2. Increase personal control and facilitate living a life consistent with our deepest values.
3. Bring order and structure to chaos and change.
4. Stimulate past emotional states by activating sensory memory.
5. Help us execute complex tasks with perfection—mentally, physically and emotionally.

I’ve always had rituals. You probably have some too. But I’ve recently created a list of them and consciously go through them daily. I’ve found in doing this my productivity has significantly risen and I’m feeling a lot less stressed and much more fulfilled.

Below is my daily list. I’ve thrown it in a chart and actually mark off the rituals as I do them everyday. And when I think about blowing a ritual  off, I ask myself, what would Michael Phelps, Madonna or whoever I admire do? The answer is they would do the ritual, and that’s why they have been so successful. When I have a big event to do,  give a presentation, speech or tennis match, I add other items that are specific to those situation. For instance, when I speak, I practice a number of times before the gig, and imagine a room with a standing ovation. For tennis, I perform mental and physical exercises before I walk on the court and talk to myself and tennis ball.

What are your rituals? Have you had any experiences that you can share?

Also view: 4-simple habits of champion goal-getters.

The peak summer vacation season is still in full swing. And with it comes the dilemma small business owners have been facing since the beginning of the Industrial Age: Take therapeutic time off to clear your mind and recharge, or make the choice and fear that you’re not going to be available when an urgent client need arises.

Fortunately, these days it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing choice. There are technologies available that can help you stay in contact with the office and/or your customers while still allowing you to get away from – well, if not all, at least most.

Virtual phone service for small business – These services are the most significant vacation-enablers, because they offer so much flexibility and mobility at such a low cost. A virtual phone service provides businesses with a single phone number for the entire business. The service then allows you to assign extensions to different people in the organization, both inside and outside of the main office. A virtual receptionist greets callers with a professional greeting and provides a dial-by-name directory, generally helping get callers get where they need to go.

Where they really pay off come vacation time, though, is with their smart call forwarding capabilities. You can set your office phone to forward all of your calls to your mobile phone, allowing you to answer them just as though you’re in the office. You can even specify when the phone rings and when it goes to voicemail if you want to keep normal “business hours” while you’re basking in the sun or climbing that mountain.

If you don’t want to be disturbed at the moment but want to stay on top of things, you can set your virtual phone service to send all calls to your business voicemail, then receive an email telling you when you have voicemails waiting. It’s a great way to organize your time so you can both participate with the family and service your customers.

Internet fax service – If your business relies on faxes, having an Internet fax service is indispensable during a vacation. After all, if you’re vacationing hundreds or thousands of miles away from the office it’s going to be a little tough to pop in just to check faxes. Of course, even if you’re enjoying a “staycation” you probably want to avoid the office so you don’t stop by for a few minutes and wind up there all day.

With an Internet fax service you can send and receive faxes anywhere you can get an Internet connection. And on any device – a laptop, smart phone or even one of those hotel lobby PCs. You have a choice of using your email account or a secure online portal so there’s no worries about how to get connected.

If the fax requires further action from someone else, forwarding it is as easy as forwarding an email. You can even add comments before you send. With most Internet fax services you can even have the fax sent to one or more partners’ or business associates’ emails as well as your own – just in case you’re having too much fun to take care of it right away.

Technology has definitely added to the sense of urgency in our everyday lives. But the right technologies can also help restore some order.

So as you enjoy the nearing final days of summer, make sure you have the tools that will allow you to keep your business running while you are taking some time off. It’ll make getting away from the office a literal day on the beach.

Steve Adams is the vice president of marketing for Protus, a provider of communications tools for small-to-medium-businesses and enterprise organizations, including the MyFax (www.myfax.com) internet fax service; my1voice (www.my1voice.com), a virtual phone service; and Campaigner, an e-mail marketing service. He can be reached at sadams@protus.com.

Welcome our new guest blogger AmyK Hutchens. AmyK is an intelligence activist and will be contributing insight a variety of topics.

For every six minutes you experience a high state of negative stress it takes your immune system six hours to recover. That doesn’t stress you out does it?!

Experiencing a rotten, lousy, no good, stressful day creates a chronic cycle that wears your immune system down, leaving you exhausted, sick and feeling even more stressed. The goal, however, isn’t to get rid of stress…our brains are hard-wired for it, and we actually need some stress (called
eustress) in order to function. The goal is to short-circuit the negative cycle.

Stress has been around since the first human tried to light a fire and failed, only to have his girlfriend show him how it’s done. Telling your brain that “not having enough time in the day” does not equate to “being eaten by a sabre-tooth tiger” doesn’t work. Attempting to convince your brain that the wooly mammoth in front of you is really just your boss or your mother-in-law is next to impossible. Your brain doesn’t distinguish the difference. You’ve got better odds teaching your brain that the saber-tooth tiger is actually a house cat and that your mother-in-law really doesn’t
care that you can’t cook.

Seems simple. It is simple, it’s just not easy, especially when your mother-in-law sighs every time you look at your cookbook.

Stress starts in the brain and then spreads throughout your body. The part of the brain that processes your emotions also controls your immune system. Ever experience a stressful week and then get a chance to take a few days off only to find yourself nursing a cold while on vacation?  Within
seventy-two hours of a significantly stressful event your body manifests some type of physiological symptom. It’s as if you internally vent on your way home, your brain hears you and empathizes with you, and then gives you a migraine, or acne, or both! Really, your brain was just trying to prove you
right, you are stressed, so voila, your body now proves it too!

Twenty percent of the oxygen of every breath you take goes straight to your brain. When we’re stressed, one of the first things that changes in our bodies is our breathing – it gets shallower and we take in less oxygen…so right now just breathe. Take a deep breath …inhale slowly, exhale slowly
and repeat. Your brain thanks you, and, it will think more clearly for you, more rationally, thus preventing you from throwing that cookbook at a certain someone.

The mere thought of the holidays sends some people straight into stressed-out orbit. The ubiquitous themes of time, not enough of it; money, not enough of that; food, way too much of that; and relationships, pleasing everybody, can cause extra anxiety.

This year, give yourself a present first: the ability to stop the stress cycle early, before it sends you to bed. And while it may seem like a great place to escape your boss and mother-in-law, there are better ways to spend the holidays.

Short Circuit the Stress Cycle
1. Prioritize & Simplify
Reducing stress is not about creating balance it’s about getting focused. Balance is a myth. Let’s get real – when it comes to life activities there is no such thing as balance, only priorities. If you strive for balance you’ll only add to your stress levels, not reduce them, but if you change your priorities, your focus, you will immediately start reducing your stress and feel more in control of how you utilize your time.

Successfully dealing with life’s pressures, demands, and hassles means you need to appropriately respond and manage the tasks at hand in order of priority. Create a list of what you value and need to accomplish over the next two days. (Don’t forget that YOU should and need to be on that list.)
Assign each priority a chunk of time and then live within the parameters of that scheduled list. Follow up that time-framed list with another list of new priorities or re-prioritized activities. Every two days (or week) you can create a new list that outlines and accounts for all your responsibilities.

Simplify 1 thing each day. It may be a priority that you serve your family dinner tonight. It’s not a priority that you cook it. You can pick up take-out, or pull something out of the freezer. Choose 1 activity each day and find a way to reduce the time it takes, or the energy it requires of you
to complete it.

2. Place yourself in time-out.
The purpose of putting a toddler in time-out is to re-set her attitude and improve her behavior. (If only we could use that with our colleagues.) Take some time to be silent and reflective, even if it’s just 3-5 minutes. There is scientific proof that doing so can decrease blood pressure, pulse rate,
and improve blood circulation.  By removing yourself from a stressful environment or giving yourself a moment to biologically shift, you aid your immune system in getting back to healthy. A few deep breaths while you’re in time-out is an added bonus.

3. Get a giggle.
Laughter reduces your stress hormones and literally changes your body chemistry. Humor releases endorphins and antibody enhancers which aid your immune system. Schedule 30 minutes to watch a funny sitcom or read a humorous book. If 30 minutes just doesn’t exist today, then give yourself a
five minute giggle and watch a youtube video. There are many short clips of truly funny comedians and silly people who will definitely give you a smile that will last awhile.

4. Put it in perspective.
Changing your perspective, your thoughts, is the most effective tool we have for reducing our stress and it’s the least used tool by people when they’re experiencing stress. When stressed out individuals scream, “I don’t have five bleep-ity-bleep minutes to watch a YouTube video!” there is one
thought, one shift in perspective that helps a lot. “It’s only five minutes. Big bleep-ity-bleep deal.” There are 10,080 minutes in a week. Take 5 of them, so the other 10,075 minutes are more peaceful, more positive, more meaningful. Typically, upon hearing this news, these frenetic, time-obsessed
totally stressed out individuals stop holding their breath and suck in a large volume of oxygen. It’s a great start!

The objective isn’t to fight circumstances. You’re not insane, just stressed. Sane people know that arguing with reality only creates more stress because reality always wins.  Let it win, and let it go. The goal is to change your perspective to less painful thoughts. Your boss may still growl and snarl, your mother-in-law may still sigh, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if you handed her the spatula and said, “I’m so glad you’re great at cooking. Please, by all means, my kitchen is su kitchen.” And with that,
you have not only changed your perspective, you’ve simplified your life, and given yourself a thirty minute time-out to go watch that sitcom you’ve been wanting to watch all week. Life is good.

AmyK Hutchens, Founder and Intelligence Activist, AmyK Inc., is a speaker, business strategist and executive coach. She is best known for helping business leaders capitalize on how the brain and human perception filters work to help them be more effective in business and their personal lives.