INVESTMENT

When we think ‘investment,’ especially in an economic climate like now, most of us will ask "WHAT should I invest in now that times are challenging and so unpredictable? Is it properties, bonds, or equities? What will still give me the best returns?" 10%? Or 20%? Or more?"

We need to think different. And if you really think about it, there is ONE singular investment you can make that could bring you not 10% or 20%, 100% or hey, even way past 1000% in returns if you invest it well. In fact, investing in this could give you returns that could reap dividends for a lifetime. If you think it’s your car, or your home, or your stocks and bonds, you’re wrong. What’s that, you may ask?

The answer is simple: INVEST IN YOURSELF.Your most valuable asset is YOURSELF. Your knowledge and your skills are your intellectual assets - and it literally knows no price. Its value cannot be measured through dollars and cents - but it can be measured by the success of your life. Your knowledge makes YOU an asset (or a liability to others when there’s lack of it.)

When you’re mired in turbulent times, and the external economic situation is so uncertain, what’s left to rely on but yourself? Consider your other options:

• Property prices are unstable
• The share market presents itself as one long gloomy tunnel with no light at the end of it
• Doing the tried-and-tested thing of ‘saving’ your money can yield losses when interest rates are lower than the inflation rate!

For me, one of the main reasons why many people get trapped when a recession takes place and end up stalling in place or worse, regressing backward instead of moving forward and succeeding, is because they’ve got their priorities wrong. In other words, they’ve failed to focus on the ESSENTIAL.

They focus instead on the trivial things in life. They tend to concentrate on unimportant things that bring short-term benefits or short-lived happiness without paying attention to the more significant matters that will actually make a substantial difference in their lives.

What do I mean by this? Well, when I say ‘things’ I literally mean ‘things!’ We all know people who wouldn’t blink an eye spending hard-earned money “salary” (even in critical economic times like this) on the latest gadget like a smart phone or the iPod Touch, a game console, a new LV or Gucci bag and designer silk curtains and drapes for their apartment, luxury watches, designer eye glasses, new car and... the list goes on.But these same people would very well think twice... or ten times before deciding to invest in themselves through education, training and personal development. Funny isn’t it? Maybe because the latest LV bag is a tangible thing that they can hold and feel, and show off to friends. While the results of self-investment are intangible and it takes time to bear fruit.You know, we would never forget to feed our bodies several times a day (or more) but sometimes we literally fail to feed our minds just as often. We are all aware that failing to feed our bodies will cause our physical selves to suffer as our bodies starve or suffer from malnutrition. But truly successful individuals also know that feeding the mind works in much the same way as they feed their bodies. We all have to keep our minds healthy by giving it sustenance - be it through books, classes, seminars, and self-development courses. If not, we might very well have a healthy body but only with a mind that is weak and fast-becoming obsolete. And how can an underfed mind keep up with the challenges of our present economy?

Well... don’t you think that you owe it to yourself to invest in your most valuable asset?

You are your own best ally in times of adversity.It makes sense then that this is the year that you go all out to cultivate yourself. And you can do this by increasing your KNOWLEDGE. Think about it: knowledge gained is converted to abilities and skills that when put to proper use is converted to wealth. For yourself! And the best part of self-investment is that "no one can take your knowledge away from you"! It is always yours, to be further improved and polished for perpetual returns.

Your ability and strengths in your job, career, and business have a lot to do with what you have learned in the past. Most people these days don’t think twice about sending their kids to university or pursuing a tertiary education because it’s an investment for their future.

All the skills that you picked up during your years at school and university have become indispensable for the life you have right now. But hey! what got you this far may not get you further due to this present economy. In this current economy situation, it won’t be just about what you already know but how much MORE you can offer.This advice should be considered in a broader context - whether you’re looking for a new career or staying in your present one, building on your skill and diversifying it is the way forward.

Your time is your capital.

Many says, “hey I don’t have the capital to start my own business, or the money to quit my current job and find my ultimate dream job”. But you do have 24 hours a day - the same 24 hours a day that any other super-successful person like Bill Gates or Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey has. What do you do with YOUR 24 hours a day? Work, eat, watch TV and sleep? Time is the fertile soil for wealth and success and it must be cultivated! Invest in your time to gain new skills and knowledge TODAY instead of spend your time complaining about how bad things are.

Stephen R. Covey, one of my favourite authors, the author of bestselling "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" book describes that: "The key is in not spending time, but in investing it." When you think of it that way, two of the biggest investments you can make are in yourself and in your time. You don’t need a single cent for that!

Let’s not mince words about getting ahead in uncertain times - you’ll have to work harder and you’ll definitely have to work smarter. Professional experts and pundits all agree that diversifying your skills and learning new things puts you on the fast track towards career advancement and solidly cushions your job from being outsourced and protects you from being made redundant.

This could be anything from learning how to develop and design websites, to learning a new language, or taking up part-time courses that train you in a secondary job field that is unrelated to your day job - be it real estate, internet businesses or even stock trading. The opportunity to gain wealth presents itself in numerous opportunities; and likewise, the chances to gain knowledge and skills in whatever interests you are endless if you’re interested enough to go for it.

Think and Act wisely. Gather new knowledge and skill to weather the financial storm, who knows? it might gain you Great Wealth along the way.

Island's Life

Am I loud and clear or am I breaking up?

Am I still your charm or am I just bad luck?
Are we getting closer or are we just getting more lost?
I'll show you mine if you show me yours first
Let's compare scars I'll tell you whose is worse
Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words

We live on front porches and swing life away
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave 'til the end
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

I've been here so long I think that it's time to move
The winter's so cold summer's over too soon
Let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow
I've got some friends some that I hardly know
But we've had some times I wouldn't trade for the world
We chase these days down with talks of the places that we will go

taken from Arron's Blog, Australia.

Take Control of Your Life

Everyone is talking about what a difficult time it is now – the economy is failing, jobs are unsecure and incomes are affected. When you hear about this news, are you the ones that think “Why am I in this predicament?” or are you the ones that say “What can I do about it?”
and that will be the determining factor if you are to fail with the rest or succeed like a selected few.

Those who fail will:
1)Complain
2)Do nothing about it.
3)Complain even more
4)Hide and ride it out.

Those who are different will:
1)Keep abreast with the news but not be pulled down by it
2)Be cautious but take advantage of opportunities
3)Knowledge is King. Read and learn more to improve self.
4)Seek alternative means

So you can either be in the first category or join the rest of us who seek alternatives. Everyone has 24 hours a day, so why not choose to invest your time, knowledge and effort into something that will give you returns (money & time) for the rest of your life?!!

As the old says; "you seek it in the good times and seek more so in the bad times". You take control of your life, you decide your life, not other people. So take charge of your life and believe in yourself.

This MTV is one of my old time favorites (old school songs). Its my "life's inspirational tune", hope you like it too, enjoy!

The Powerful Law of Universal

“Your brain cannot distinguish between a well-formed idea and reality. Dreams can seem real, actors on the movie screen can fool you into believing you are watching reality but your brain is more powerful than any movie,” said my rich friend, in between bites on his lobster as we sat in the gourmet restaurant overlooking the beautiful sight of the sunset sea in Singapore.

When you formulate a quality idea and commit to its transformation into reality, this creates a vaccum that suck (or attract) all the supports that needed for your idea. And because the thought does not actually have physical form nature sets about balancing itself by turning your ideas into concrete reality, it’s just following its own immutable laws.

If you forget the idea (keeps changing your idea), if your thoughts are un-clear and if you do not commit to your idea then in nature law nothing is happening. And if you continue to have the same or improved idea, clear thoughts and well formed, then nature will turn your ideas into reality for you. Of course, you have to participate in its creation by keeping the idea well formed and supervising its creation.Every idea needs resources to bring it into reality. You can either pay for those resources and this is costly indeed or you can have nature, the Universe provide them for you. Those coincidences that you have experience now and then is called Universal Convergence.

In other words, all the power of Universe converges on your ideas and your thoughts and creates the opportunities, resources, the people and situations for the ideas to become reality for you. If you really stay alert to the possibilities, you will notice these coincidences, it creates opportunities for you to act on them. Many people don’t notice these coincidences, they are too busy with other important matters, and not noticing the resources the Universe is providing for them.

Big ideas take quite some time to manifest and the Universe bring together all the pieces of puzzle that will become your idea. People, resources, experiences, learning, all of these are vital for your ideas. You may not have the experience or skills necessary to cope with the idea, the Universe will set about educating you first.

The Universe in not hampered by time and so it goes about its work as quickly as is can, which is sometimes for too slow for those of us who don’t notice the subtle things, the small coincidences, the little doors that opened the paths that are made for us to get us in the right direction.Recently i came across this video that I think you’ll enjoy. It offers advice on how to attract wealth by using the “secret law of attraction.”

When You Feel Good... Good Things Are Attracted To You. Sounds simple, huh?

Here is the manifestation process.
The first thing that happens in the process is that you have to ask for what you want. You're actually doing this all of the time without realizing it.

When you open up a letter with a bill, and when you feel miserable about having another bill, you're actually asking for "more money". Cool, huh?

So you don't actually have to ask for anything specific. You've already done it, without you probably knowing about it.

Next, the universe will answer your request. The universe (or you could call it the Law of Attraction) will begin to match you up with what you've been asking for. It begins to set into motion new experiences for you relating to what you've just asked for. So if you're asking for more money, the Universe is lining it up for you in a future experience.
Obviously, this isn't your work! In fact you haven't had to do anything so far, as asking is automatic and so is the Universe's job of answering.

If you wanted more money but you feel disappointed that you've only got a paycheck of $2,000 this month then that is an example of you not being in alignment with the desire of "I want more money".

Now, there's two ways of achieving alignment.
The first way to achieve alignment is to pretend that you already have what you want. When you pretend you already have something, what you're doing is feeling as if you have already achieved the desire. That's when this visualization stuff comes into it... You can see yourself in possession of what you want and feel it as if it's already here.

The second way of becoming aligned is by feeling good. Think about it this way... when you feel good about anything, what are you in alignment with?
Would you feel good when you have more money? Mmmm... Yes!
Would you feel good when you have that new relationship? You bet!
When you feel good you're in alignment with everything that you consider to be good.

You're already manifesting stuff all day, every single day. So in order for you to begin manifesting stuff that you do want, you have to become deliberate about what you feel. You can't feel miserable and manifest a million dollars.

In fact you can't feel miserable and manifest much of anything that you want. Bad moods will usually escalate the amount of negative circumstances that are attracted to you.

And guess what?..."in the last two weeks i have had a Surprise Injections Of Real Cash in my ATM machine", its real!, i did it! so can everyone.

Identify Your Financial Challenges and Barriers

Growing up, I always wondered what made wealthy people so differnet than the middle class or low-income earners. After all, we are all human and for the most part capable of the same things. If something has been done in the past, then it can be done again. It’s amazing how World Records are broken all of the time. As one person sets the bar higher, a new level of expectations for excellence is created, which drives people to the next level. When you change you change your mindset from those thoughts that may be preventing you from achieving more in life - whether financial or other personal goals - you can completely change your ability to achieve more.

I don’t watch a lot of television expecially the news, but one of my favorite shows is The Biggest Loser. You constantly hear people on The Biggest Loser ranch saying, “I can’t,” but the trainers push people beyond what their mind would ordinarily allow them to achieve. The contestants constantly surprise themselves at the things that they are actually capable of, just because they had someone right there to enable them from removing any mental barriers.

Think about what it is you really want to achieve - not just to get out of debt or earn a six-figure income, but think about what ultimate goals you have. Be realistic, but stretch yourself beyond your belief system of what you are able to achieve and write down what your ultimate goal is. Most people think, “With a 5% raise a year, I can be making $X in 10 years.” That sort of mindset is holding you back from accomplishing what you are actually capable of.
What big picture objective would you wish you could achieve:
Earn a million dollars in a year?
Build a multi-million dollar business?
Own multiple real estate buildings that bring in $100,000+ in monthly cash flow?

These goals may seem unrealistic at first, but they are obtainable. Figure out what your ultimate goal is and then ask yourself what you need to do to get there. What resources would you need, what type of education would you need, and what barriers are in the way that need to be deconstructed? Work backwards in your thought process in terms of where you want to be, what you need to get there and what you can start doing today to put the wheels in to motion.
Taken from Ryan Tylor in Mindset

Prison Break

I enjoy watching the Original TV's series of "Prison Break" in DVD pack, which now showing season 4 already.But now, there is new version of prison break, it's home-made, watch this...

Home version of "Prison Break".

Ricky Martin Double-up the Joy

Meet Matteo and Valentino Martin!Born via surrogate in early August 2008, Ricky Martin's 4-month-old twin boys make their debut in this week's issue of PEOPLE magazine. A joyful Martin, 36, spoke candidly at home in Puerto Rico about his desire to be a parent, the decision to seek the help of a surrogate and juggling caring for twins – he has no nanny!I'm so happy! Everything they do, from smiling to crying, feels like a blessing. Being a father feels amazing. This has been the most spiritual moment in my life - Martin says. Adoption was one option, but it's complicated and can take a long time. Surrogacy was an intriguing and faster option. I thought, 'I'm going to jump into this with no fear.' - add Martin.

I don't have a nanny. I'm doing this on my own because I don't want to miss a moment. I have a personal assistant who helps me, someone who takes care of me while I'm taking care of them, but I'm the one who changes the diapers, the one that feeds them, the one that bathes them, the one that puts them to sleep. For any parent, the first couple of months tend to get a little bit intense.Valentino loves to sleep. I call him 'Mr. Peace and Love' because he's so chill and serene. Matteo is more alert and active. He was up at 3 a.m. the other night and just hanging! I love to read books to my sons and tell them stories. I play music for them so they develop their own personalities. I want to give them information and raise them with honesty and love, and give them self-esteem and a lot of acceptance.