My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

I’ve been stretching the definition of Self Help Blog a bit again, what with plastering that cute little banner ad all over the place:

But I have to admit, I just love that banner, the one with the woman looking so happy and joyful as money rains down on her. I want to look at that picture OFTEN, and if I could have it blown up and put it on my wall, complete with animation, I would. And well, you’re reading the blog of someone who actually was an Avon rep while still in high school!

But today, I want to get back to more traditional stuff — and post a few links to my most recent batch of ezinearticles   And the topic of choice has been time management, in part because I’ve managed to twist Jason’s arm and get the right to sell his phenomenal time management course to my readers:

Destiny Achiever: Time Management for Internet Marketers

Just take a look.  I think it’s amazing.  And there’s a ton of stuff in it — though don’t feel intimidated. Even just one or two modules will make a wealth of a difference to your stress levels and — especially — to your levels of achievement.  You’ll get a ton more done.

In fact, I’ve been playing catch up like mad since I started working with this course. I’m finally getting stuff done, cranking it out, one after the other, that’s been sitting on my desk for months!

To go with my new-found passion, I’ve been writing some ezine articles about that as well, along with some about stress management, separately and in combination, not necessarily disclosing what’s in that course though…

Either way, here they are:

Time Management Techniques

Time Management Exercises

Stress and Time Management

Inspirational Quotes for Stress Relief 

And here’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek article:

Increase Your Stress and Achieve That Heart Attack

And here are 5 MORE tips for how to stay calm under pressure:

How To Stay Calm Under Pressure: 5 More Tips

And in case you missed it, here’s the other article of almost the same title: the original

How To Stay Calm Under Pressure

article, with the first 5 tips.

And while we’re on the topic of stress relief, which includes getting out of the rat race (without getting yourself into REALLY hot water), here’s an article about how to pick a network marketing company that actually delivers the goods:

Smart Network Marketing Strategies

Of course, you can also click on one of the cute banners.  OR, if you prefer, you can simply download the PDF of that Shocking Lies report!  No opt-in required.  And feel free to pass it on to ALL of your friends, especially those who might be interested in liberating themselves from their day jobs.

Speaking of liberating themselves from their day jobs — Jason’s course actually includes the day job liberator, which is a whole module on how to do internet marketing while still holding down a day job — and build your business so you can say bye-bye to your boss!

Meanwhile, enjoy your weekend!

Elisabeth

Sooner or later, any self-help blog must address the issue of better Time Management.  Of course that word is really a misnomer.  Time cannot be managed.  It does what it does, which is to keep on moving.  What needs managing is us: what we do with that time as it passes or as we pass through it, or whatever.

And stress?  Well, stress tends to come from a feeling of not-enough-ness. Whether there’s not enough money, time, or  love, the result tends to be stress.

Money or its absence seems to be a big cause of stress. But time is even worse. We can always make more money, at least theoretically.  But once time is gone, it’s irretrievably gone.  There’s no way to get it back, let alone get more of it.

So how we handle time makes a big difference to our well-being — and to what we accomplish. It also goes with my favorite quote by one of my favorite (late) stress management experts: Roger Mellott:  He said: “Do what you say you value.”

Now most of us value living up to our commitments.  Most of us also value being liked.  And voila!  A big conflict.  Because in order to be liked, we commit to more than we can handle, and that can quickly bring us into conflict with our need to live up to our commitments. Ouch!

On some level, better time management skills allow us to work more effectively or more quickly, which in turn helps us get more done.  There’s a limit of course.

But still.  That’s the premise, and certainly doubling our productivity can do wonders for our income as well as our feelings of accomplishment.

And it can reduce stress because now we’re living up to the expectations of those w have made commitments to — and to our own expectations. And we may have more money too.

So how can we achieve better time management?  How can we be more productive?  Should we live by the 80/20 rule?  Well, there’s actually an even better way.

Check out the coolest time management courses I have ever come across. It’s by Jason Fladlien. Yes, the same guy who has been teaching people how to write 7-minute articles.  It was just a matter of time before he would expand his principles to other areas.

And his time management course is brilliant as well as a total steal!  It’s a multi-media course with workbook and extensive worksheets.  You can read the book first and then watch the videos for reinforcement and for all the details…  there’s also an audio-only webinar — which was the original time management seminar.

Where can you get it? Right here!  Check it out and get a secret special deal just for my blog readers   Just send me an email by return mail when you get your welcome message and tell me that you want my blog reader special, and I’ll put you on the list for my special delayed-release bonuses — they will be doled out every couple of weeks or so over the coming few months!

Do I have the course?  Of course I do.  In fact, I’m actually in it!  And when Jason offered me the resale rights, I immediately took him up on it.  The course is that good!

Go take a look:  Jason’s Time Management Course.

And let me know what you think.

Have a fantastic — and very low-stress day, especially with your new-found Better Time Management Skills.

Elisabeth

I’m working on an article on how to overcome overwhelming stress and was thinking of some “intervention” strategies, things you can do to cut through the stress and get back to a state of calm or at least semi-calm functioning.

And as I was looking around on the web, I came across an amazing article by Eric Grey on now he uses the five elements (of Classical Chinese Medicine) to eliminate overwhelming stress.

So before I even go add my own 2 cents, I’ll give you the link to that article:

http://deepesthealth.com/2007/how-to-use-the-five-elements-to-eliminate-overwhelming-stress/

Here are a few of my own strategies that I was going to suggest:

If you’re with someone, get a good long hug.

If you’re alone, take a hot bath, preferably with relaxing aromatherapy.  If possible, with soothing music.  I really like Steven Halpern’s music for that, but there are many other kinds of soothing music out there.

I also highly recommend that you learn EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).  If you get my FREE stress tips report and then email me in return email with “Please send EFT ebook” in the title, I will send you my Easy Intro to EFT.  It has enough information to make a big difference in your stress levels within minutes.

There are many more things you can do, on a physical as well as on a mental and spiritual level, and I’ll talk about those next time, but for the moment, I just wanted to give a few tools to short-circuit the loop of intense physiological reactions you may get caught up in when you get into overwhelming stress.

More soon.

Elisabeth

2009 is here, and January is already halfway over. Can’t believe how quickly this happened all of a sudden.  And I have a very apropos artlce and wanted to give you a resource list of some of my favorite self-help articles (and other useful ones) for easy reference (with quick annotation):

Another take on New Year’s resolutions:

How to stay calm (or calm down) under pressure:

http://tinyurl.com/calmnow

Get a Great Job in 2009!

http://tinyurl.com/greatjobreview

Use EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to cope with job interview stress (or any other stress) (complete with step-by-step instructions):

EFT for Job Interview Stress

Sell Stuff on Amazon.com vs. Ebay and how to get the most buck for your stuff:

Sell Stuff on Amazon and make more money

Stress and the Law of Attraction, and how stress prevents you from getting what you really want:

Stress and LOA

Beat sugar addiction now that the holidays are over…

Beat Sugar Addiction

Job stress, health and consequences & what to do about it:

http://tinyurl.com/jobstresskillscareers

The ultimate (and probably controversial) stress management technique

http://tinyurl.com/BeBadSooner

And here’s a big vibration lifter:

http://tinyurl.com/gratitudearticle

Better than a sleeping pill:

Write yourself to sleep

Enjoy!

P.S.: I just counted and it looks like there are 11 of them…  The last one is a bonus!

I just came across a GREAT article by Jason Fladlien.  Jason is one of my favorite internet gurus and friends, and also quite the renaissance man, with a broad range of interests and expertise.

He’s also a great teacher of a range of things, from time management to copywriting, and I’ve pretty much subscribed to his stuff.

To think that I first found him when he offered a $4 ebook on how to write articles in 7 minutes.

As an English professor, I was almost insulted by what I thought was the devaluation of my craft.  But I was also curious and so I bought it.  And found myself very impressed.  While I still fall short of the 7 minute goal, Jason helped me reduce my article writing time to a fraction of what it used to be.

And with that $4 book came upgrades, and the book just got better and better.  Eventually I bought more ebooks.

But that’s not the subject of today’s post.  The following is:

Jason has a very unique and cool approach to NLP.  Much more straightforward and simple than what you can read in other places.

And in the article I”m going to point you to, he walks you through an exercise you will probably find just as useful as I do.

And no, there’s nothing to buy.  This is a freebie!

Check it out here:

Jason’s excellent article on NLP

Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!

Dr. K (also known as Elisabeth)

Is your job too stressful, and maybe getting worse? Do you wish you could quit?  Do you secretly wish you could do something else?  Do you want to find out how to find the perfect job for you?  And get it?

Well….  You can.  You may not want to quit immediately, but there is a way you could find a job that will be MUCH more satisfying and in fact positively enjoyable, working for someone who really appreciates you (including in the way we all really want to be appreciated, i.e., by paying a great, competitive salary).

But what about the economy, you may wonder.  Well, yeah, it’s a bit of a challenge right now, but people are still hiring really perfect candidates. People retire, quit, die, move to follow a spouse.  Managers and executives are still looking for replacements.

And if you’re the perfect person for them and they know it, you’ve got a really good shot at getting the job.

But how will they know? How will YOU know?

Enter my friend Pam Jonsson.  She’s spent many years of her life helping people just like you finding the perfect job for them.  She’s the keeper of job search secrets, and she is willing to share.

She wants to help you too.

No, not in person, though she’s open to doing consultations.

After years of people suggesting it to her, she has finally put together a really amazing program that helps people find their perfect job (ebook & audio, plus an email course for the fancy version).

It’s so new that we’re only now beginning to BETA test it, and so if you’re interested, you can get it now for an incredibly low price, especially considering the value you’re getting.

And yes, we’d like something in return:  success stories, and testimonials.

And you know what’s the best thing?  Before you buy anything, you can download a mini-version for no charge whatsoever.

It’s an audio and a PDF, and it may well change your life.

http://www.theperfectjobforyou.com

So go ahead and get ready to nab your perfect job.

And for a short moment, while I’m testing something, you may
(or may not) be able to sign up for it right here:

My Holiday Stress Buster Teleseminar Audio is now available!

Just one thing… If you listen to it, you’ll find that the tape stops right in the middle.  Well… for some reason, my line got disconnected.  I called right back in, so the pause shouldn’t be more than a minute.  Just wait a bit.

The program isn’t over until I say it is!

And where can you find it?

http://www.instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=5213595

Hope you like it. Let me know

Well, October, National Breast Cancer Month, is almost over, and I realize I should post at least ONE post on the topic…

I just went over to my Breast Cancer Survivor’s blog and posted something there, and I thought, hm, I think you all might like a comment too.

You see, I’m a huge fan of Lawrence LeShan’s, who wrote “Cancer as a Turning Point,” and I have to say that his book was MY turning point in life.

Did it make life easier?  Not always.  Actually a bit more complicated.  But I had more fun!  And was happier.

LeShan calls cancer “despair manifested on a cellular level.” His rationale is that if we are so miserable that we don’t feel there’s much to live for, our immune system will be happy to help us on your journey out of this world.  Now if we don’t want to take it that far, we better shape up.

His book is all about how to do that. And I made it my bible.  Together with an amazing set of cassette tapes by the late Roger Mellott: Stress Skills for Turbulent Times.

If you can round up a copy, get it.  It’s rapidly disappearing, but you may be able to still get a used copy on Amazon.com or Ebay.

Do try to get the real thing, i.e., “Stress Skills for Turbulent Times,” not the other one.  The first one is MUCH better and more fun to listen to, though if you can’t find it anymore, the alternative version, which I think is called “Stress Management for Professionals,” will also work.

Of course you can also get MY stress relief ebook   Just click on the pretty book cover on the top right.

And find things that make you happy.  Then do them!

Have a happy day!

Elisabeth

Stress can kill you.  You already know that, right?  First there are the obvious health effects of stress: heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, chronic fatigue, hormonal upheaval, and so on, plus conditions like acne, even herpes breakouts, and — it can make your hair fall out.  As if you weren’t pulling it out yourself already. (okay, some of us maybe).

And that’s just for starters.  Other effects of stress include that it also muddies up our brain, makes it hard to focus, affects our ability to drive safely, and on and on, and those things can affect our very livelihood — or lives.

So it’s important to get a grip on stress and on what’s stressing you. But how do you do that?

There’s of course acute stress and how to calm yourself down to function right then and there, and more longterm actions, both in terms of making you more resilient to the stress in your life, making your body less reactive and calmer overall, and in terms of making your life less stressful.

There are plenty of people giving advice on the latter, yet depending on what our situation is like, it’s not always going to be easy.  Yet every little bit helps.  I just read a great suggestion about reducing clutter somewhere (probably one of the other self-help blogs I’m linking to in my resource box or in a post about it). I always envy people with those neat homes right out of architectural digest.  Mine is overrun with paper, and it makes me feel overwhelmed at times too.  This tip helps:

Take 10 minutes every day (or maybe more often…) and just do one of the following:

1) Grab stuff you don’t need anymore and put it in bags/boxes to be taken to your local Goodwill or other thrift store, or, depending on what it is, just throw it out.  I keep mine by the door and when I go somewhere, I take them with me to drop them off at their destination. Books for the local library or my favorite thrift store with a nice book section, clothes at the thrift store or the local consignment store, and so on.

Yes, it seems like just a drop in a bucket, but everything helps, and if you’ve ever had a dripping faucet, you know how quickly those buckets can fill up…

2) Alternatively, pick a corner, a drawer, a shelf, or something small like that, and straighten it up, clean it up, sort it, especially focusing on removing as much of no-longer-needed stuff as possible. And then move to the next one, for your next 10 minute increment. Repeat often.

If it is hard to let go of stuff, there are a few techniques that help.  If you experience symptoms of stress when trying to throw or give things away, the usual stress management techniques I discuss in my FREE report might help.

Or you might want to go deeper.  You may want to program your own mind to make it do what YOU want it to do.

I’ve just come across an interesting resource which you can also get for free (well, a significant part of it anyway, and then you have the option of upgrading).   Click here for your FREE 5-part e-course and other information on how you can reprogram your own mind.

If you take advantage of these resources or others like them, you’ll find that they can reduce your stress and tension quite a bit.

Now just remember to breathe…  nice and deep breaths, slowly.  There’s an interaction with your nervous system, involving your Vagus nerve, that signals to your body that it can calm down now.

Have a very relaxed day.

Elisabeth

P.S.: Get your FREE program your mind ecourse here

I’ll tell you where.  You know how when you’re stressed, especially over a huge big project, or way too long a to do list, and so on, it can make things go into a tail spin.  How to relief that stress?  Do things one task at a time, and while each one is in progress, that’s where the focus is.  Same thing I told my student many times.  How to handle test stress: One question at a time.  Now what does that have to do with Marlon Sanders’ Promo Dashboard?

As it turns out, plenty.  Promoting a product launch, or even just getting people to sign up for a newsletter is a big project with lots and lots of details, and when any of the steps are missing or stump me or you, it all grinds to a halt.  And gets very stressful.

So Marlon took that prime stress management approach to making product promotion basically uhm, well, not entirely stress free, but much less stressful and overwhelming than it could be.

Of course just looking at the various icons — and seeing that once you click, there are multiple tasks to complete under each one of them, can feel pretty daunting too.  Yes, that dashboard has got a heck of a lot of stuff on it.

But it’s all organized.  One task at a time.  And thoroughly explained.  And all are pretty much in the exact order in which you have to complete them.

So you can just focus on each of the them one at a time and not worry about anything else until it’s done, and then go on to the next one, and so on.

Way cool!  And a great model for other kinds of projects as well (Marlon knows that of course.  After all, he has used that dashboard principle successfully with the Info Product Dashboard, the Marketing Dashboard, the Affiliate Dashboard, and the Design Dashboard, before he even got to the Promo Dashboard.

But back to other applications for the dashboard principle:  Whether it’s an elaborate Thanksgiving dinner for the family reunion or a house cleaning project or planning a long trip or writing a dissertation, the principle is the same.  Figure out in which order things have to get done, and then tackle them one at a time, and while you’re at one of them, don’t look at that loooooong list of stuff  you still have to do.

Although an occasional glance at all the ones you have already finished can be increasingly encouraging as you work your way through the project.

The result.  A whole lot less stress!

So, if you’re at all interested in internet marketing or making money online, you really should check out Marlon’s Promo Dashboard.  It’s simply great!  And heck, for the price you could even get it if all you need is a great model for how to organize a complex process.  It costs less than a one-hour consultation with one of those organizer people.  You can see it by clicking right here:

Marlon’s Promo Dashboard

Oh, and the best part — it’s like you have a tutor at your beck and call.  I just discovered a big thing I know I really need and wanted to learn but didn’t know how to do and felt very intimidated by.

And guess what.  The dashboard walked me right through it, step by step.  And I also found similar explanations for stuff I had only recently learned the very hard and sometimes expensive way.  I really wish I had had that dashboard sooner.

So take a look at my favorite stress reduction dashboard

And if you’d like a freebie bonus 7 tips stress busting e-report, you can have that too.

And have a verrrry relaxing day!

Elisabeth