Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Real 4thworld Husbands. Read on. (Article Courtesy Mr. P. Malata)

TYPES OF HUSBANDS

MR MONKEY  :  Mr Monkey is only married on paper but in reality he is still a bachelor. He married because of some family pressures, maybe impregnating the girl out of wedlock. Monkey is not responsible, he doesn't realize he is now a man and has a wife and child (ren) to look after. He still hangs around with his bachelor friends. They go out, braai, drink and be merry with young girls and his car pumps out loud music, it's actually a mobile disco. His house is like a lodge to him, he only comes home to sleep. He sleeps out once in a while and has his friends to testify to his wife that he slept at their place after drink or when the car had broken down. He is really a nuisance to the family.

MR LION :  He is very violent and is always boiling like acid and suffers from mood swings. His home is run through intimidation and dictatorship. There are strict rules and regulations for the wife and children and whoever breaks these is thoroughly beaten. His home is run like a high school. There are strict meal times and heavy padlocks at the gate. He takes pride in being in charge and behaves like a high school perfect. Half the time he is engaging in compensatory behaviour verbally and physically abusing his wife and children to compensate for his inadequacies elsewhere especially at the workplace.

MR GORILLA :  This one wants to be treated like a King. He treats his wife and children like his subjects. He wants the wife and children to perform some traditional respect gestures. He doesn't want to be called by his first name. The children found out his first name by mistake on a utility bill and they enjoy using this name when he is away and they are gossiping about him. When his food is served, the wife kneels and puts food in front of him and she retreats two metres and kneels again and announces that she has brought the food, as if he is not aware. He eats from plates that have lids. Only the wife knows what he is eating. The children don't. Gorilla has a strong rural background and has a number of beasts at his rural home/farm, where he goes almost every weekend. The cattle are his friends, they are more important than the wife and children for he spends most of his free time with them than with the family. The cattle are not sold to improve his life; he delights in seeing them multiply and enjoys the numbers. He's a very stingy man.

MR COCKEREL : He is that man who has a soft spot for women. They are his friends, just friends; he has no relationships with them. He is a husband for every women; he doesn't want to see a woman cry and is given to caring for these other women than his own wife. He gives these other women more than his wife in terms of his resources and time. At the work place, the women know him and they take advantage of him and take loans they never payback.

MR BABOON : He is very selfish, he thinks about himself first before the family. He is the best dressed in the family. His favourite word is 'my'. Everything is HIS - my car, my house, my wife, my children, my trees, my lizards (those that hang around his house). He is a very greedy man. He is heavily involved in what happens in the kitchen, even knows how may slices are in a sliced loaf of bread and how many oranges are on his oranges tree. He doesn't consider the emotions of the wife and the children. He is a dry man with no sense of humour and he rarely smiles and takes life too seriously.


MR FOX :  He is a very cunning man. He doesn't care much about the marriage. He is using his wife to solve his own personal and extended family problems. He knows his wife's weaknesses and capitalizes on these to use the wife for his personal gain. When he needs the wife to do something, he is friendly and 'loving' and when he gets what he wants he relapses to his usual dry self. His habits are very fast and his eyes swift, he won't look at you directly in the eye, speaks very fast as if he is reciting a poem. It's not clear what exactly he does for a living but he is always in town running from one corner to the other.

MR TICK :  Is a very lazy husband. He lives off his wife; he is literary hanging on his wife's skirt. He's stuck to the wife because of her money. He is dependant on the wife as much as the children. He is very loving in his own way - fond of calling the wife all sorts of little nothings, honey, sweetheart, sweety, lovely and all but will siphon money off the wife and spends it with other women. He has no initiative and has negated his role as a bread winner in the family.

MR PUPPY : This is a husband who is a cry baby, very childish and irresponsible. He is mummy's boy. Behaves as if he is married to his mother. He cannot make a decision without consulting his mother (and sisters). His mother and sisters run his home and family. He is always comparing his wife to his mother and expects the wife to behave like his mother. It is rumoured behind closed doors that maybe the mother bewitched him to make him 'loyal' to her. His sisters are busy trying to get him girlfriends from among their friends so that they will even spend more time with him through frustrating his wife. A very useless husband.

MR PYTHON : There is the visiting husband. Mr Python, a rare species. His house is a lodge. He only comes to sleep. Leaves home when the children are still sleeping and comes back when they are in bed. He is always at work or making 'deals' to make money but unfortunately he has no time for his family. He does provide materially for his family but he is always absent.


MR ELEPHANT : Finally there is Mr Elephant, the man who is caring and loving and provides for his family. He will not allow anything to come between him and his family and will fight tooth and nail to protect his family. He tries his best to fend for his family but only through honest means. He spends most of his spare time with the family and guides his family spiritually as well. A very responsible man who treats his wife as a partner and cares for the welfare of his in-laws. He values the children as God given gifts to be cherished, with no gender bias. - and I know that all husbands who read this column are Elephants. A perfect example of this kind of guy is actually the man who provided this information, Mr. Malata.

Tribute to Mr. Malata
If there is one human being I would really and truly call a Christian, its this man.  I have been priviledged to have him know me from when I was a very little girl.  I look back at all those years and Mr. Malata has been more than a big brother to me.  In fact, he is one of my heroes and I totally and absolutely trust and respect this man.  That trust and respect, he has earned again and again with deeds too numerous to mention.  Mr. Malata, I salute you.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Little Steps and Small Smiles

For one thing that you give time to, another is sacrificed. I am basically finishing the year by keeping the same hours I started with.  Today, I was at my desk in the office at five in the morning.  Yesterday I left the office at 10.00pm.  That is what happens when you work at something you love.  Time simply flies.  I have much to learn!  Its like my mind had been closed up and now, I am re-discovering this entire amazing world.  My sincere regret is that this week, I have not spent an hour with the twins but what I am doing is imperative for their future.  

Why I have gone on at this tangent is to bring out a sad but true fact about our lives, we the people in the fourthworld.  If we try something and it goes terribly wrong with the result of no riches untold, but huge debts both material and in kindness, its easier for us to go back to the drawing board and even come up with another plan.  The problem arises from implementing the second or third or fourth attempt.  Each is done with less zeal than the last and most people give up before they begin the attempt, that is why it would be easier and better to believe witchcraft stories, rivalries and to blame other people for our failure.  Success lies beyond the greatest failure, ask Abraham Lincoln (if you can find him) or any other people who tried hundreds of times and did not get it right but finally did in the end.  We ordinary people in the fourthworld need to harness the ability to try, try, and try again and make it a part of our everyday lives.  It is in the simple things that we fail first and it is also in the very same simple things that success is to be found.  For most, success is a build up of the small things, multiplied a hundred fold but the secret is in finding what works and implementing and perfecting that.   

A great place to start is to look at situations in your life which do not require money to resolve.  Why not sort out one of those situations and see what it feels like.  Before you know it, you will be doing a lot more of that and the more you do that, the more your mind opens up to the possibilities we simply pass by day in and out. Of course, it could also be that the black eye from my witchcraft research helped open wide my mind and renewed not only my zest for work, but for life as well but we cannot all have black eyes to enable us to open each other's minds  Another open secret to success is consistency.  There is no fee for coming up with your own simplified success recipe.  My version is going something like this
Effort = Outcome
Outcome + Analysis = Progress.
Progress + More Effort = Results  
Results + Analysis = Pattern.
Pattern   + Analysis = Problem.  
Problem   +  Analysis = Solution.  
Problem   +  Solution = Success.  

Monday, November 28, 2011

Beyond the Fear (And IF - with help from Judy Belmont)

This is a wonderful place to be.  Its where anything goes because you are prepared to deal with anything and everything.  Not prepared as in saying it, but being emotionally, physically and psychologically prepared to chart and stick to your plan for a way forward, as in end of the year, review, revise, refocus, reforecast etcetera.

Of course its not yet December but I am copying the Japanese this year.  They take time to plan, that is why most of their technological gadgets are successful.  Surely my life deserves more time and effort to plan for what should and must or may happen in the next twelve month beginning January.  This year I just cannot leave this to a last minute Facebook or Twitter entry for other people to 'like' and thats that!  Detail.  Minute, hour, day, week, month - some logical progression!  People, I am doing this for a reason.  Read the following article from Judy Belmont (reproduced with her permission) to find out why.  I first read this article  on life optimiser.

“IF ONLY …. I had taken the other job.”

“IF ONLY …. I had chosen another college.”

“IF ONLY …. I had gone to college!”

“IF ONLY …. I never broke up with her.”

“IF ONLY…… I never moved here.”

“IF ONLY …. I encouraged my kids to stick with music lessons.”

“IF ONLY …… I hadn’t said that!”

The list goes on and on. No one goes through life without some “if onlys.”

However, some people make the land of “IF ONLYS” a place they live in, not just visit. Too many people think that if only they chose a different path in life they would be much happier, and spend too much time kicking themselves for what seems obvious in retrospect.

Here are seven tips to help you move through the Land of “If Only” to the Land of Today!

1. Use your broken dreams, disappointments and “what ifs” as stepping stones towards a better future. If you regard what you learned as lessons to pave a better foundation moving forward, you can see any setbacks from the past as laying the necessary stability for a better tomorrow. Make the most out of today rather than reworking yesterday!

2. Those who are stuck in the “woulda, coulda, shoulda’s” often have a hard time forgiving themselves for not knowing better or not doing any better, which seems so obvious in hindsight. Self-forgiveness is vital for moving ahead in life rather than spending time living with a constant pull from the past. Forgive yourself for not knowing everything when you were five!

3. Remind yourself that you do not know what would have happened if you chose the other path – it could have been worse! By thinking of how things could have been worse, we can put things into perspective. All too often, we think how things could have been better rather than focus on what could have been worse! And believe me, they could have!

4. Refuse to play the “Blame Game.” Often people stay stuck in “what ifs” because they can not let themselves “off the hook.” They see even their present difficulties such as misbehaved children or being suddenly unemployed as further evidence that they are to blame for all their misfortunes! They think “If only I had……then this would not have happened.” As the bestselling book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by Harold Kushner emphasizes, the world is not always fair and sometimes really good people get real bad breaks just because life is not often fair, not because you deserve it.

5. Realize that to be steeped in “if onlys” is to be stuck with unproductive regret. Regrets can be productive if you learn and grow from them. Differentiate between productive and unproductive regret. Unproductive regret keeps you focused on how the past would have been better, and productive regret helps you make better decisions and choices now as you immerse yourself in the present and look towards the future.

6. Allow yourself to grieve. There are five stages of grieving according to Grief Pioneer Dr. Kubler-Ross. They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. All are necessary to give up past expectations and make new dreams today. So do not get worried if you experience anger, feel very sad, and at times try to make deals with yourself, others and even God. Recognize that they are all stages of the grieving process and are necessary to the the final end stage of the grief process, which is acceptance. Acceptance helps you make peace with “what is” rather than what “should have been.”

7. Embrace “The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life!” Accept the fact that life is not smooth and predictable like American or Cream Cheese. Rather, it is more like Swiss with all its characteristic holes. Interestingly enough, it is a fact that the bigger the holes in the Swiss, the more flavorful, sweeter and more distinctive the cheese. Using this as an analogy to our lives, we have the opportunity of getting stronger and developing more character when we get through large life “holes” and obstacles.’ So, with the notion of The Swiss Cheese Theory Of Life, you can feel more positive no matter what comes your way, and will be able to “SMILE AND SAY CHEESE!”

Judy Belmont, M.S.
JABelmont@theswisscheesetheoryoflife.com
www.theswisscheesetheoryoflife.com
1259 South Cedar Crest Boulevard
Allentown, PA 18103
(610) 437-6151

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Judy Belmont answers her mail!

Agnes :  " Hello Judy, Thank you for a great article. I am going to, with your kind permission, reproduce the takeaway section on my blog, and put a link to your own website because I think people in my neck of the woods need this information."
Judy:  "Hi Agnes - Thanks for your interest - I would be happy for you to post it. You also might like this one also - http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2011/11/14/tips-for-moving-through-if-only/
Regards, Judy"

This was before I had done any background information check on Judy.  First, here are work Testimonials about Judy.   

I am a member of PMPI who attended the luncheon yesterday and was completely thrilled by Judy's presentation on the multigenerational work force. I am a baby boomer who is all too aware of the paradigm shift in our society but I could not quite analyze it so astutely. Thank you for making it clear the need to understand things from a different point of view. Marilyn Matthews,  Washington DC Accommodations

Judy Belmont and her skills in managing workplace dynamics is our hidden resource. Judy has assisted us managing the people imperfections effectively, with absolute dignity and to the mutual benefit of both company and employee. With Judy's assistance, we have provided the third dimension for our Human Resource. William Buss Manager, Labor Relations Mack Trucks, Inc.

Judy Belmont's programs have been outstanding and I have been very impressed by the quality and delivery of her presentations. Her excellent performance has been communicated to me by various employees that have participated in the programs.   She possesses a strong knowledge base and passion for mental fitness and developing life skills. Her reliability and sincere dedication to her craft is very apparent.
Aldo Cipriotti  Program Manager  StayWell Health Management

It has become quite evident that Judy is a leader in her field. Clients request her to conduct their training and the students consistently rate her at the highest levels. She has a unique ability to engage her audience and deliver authentic instruction applicable to their workplace.
Pam Klass  Penn State Corporate Training Bethlehem, PA

Judy's style of presentation easily generated a spirit of pleasant interaction among the attendees, many of whom did not know each other, and her humor and insight made us wish she could continue the topic well beyond her allotted timeframe. Judy is an excellent speaker, and I hope to attend another of her outstanding seminars very soon.
Patricia E. Infanti, PP, PLS  NALS Secretary/Treasurer

Judy has been conducting training workshops for Penn State for several years. Workshops have been for audiences in government, industry and education. Judy is extremely diligent and thoroughly organized . All programs are well developed and delivered in a superb manner.Attendee evaluations of the programs have always awarded Judy the highest accolades.

Lothar Gumberich  Management Development Coordinator  PENN STATE UNIVERSITY - Lehigh Valley, PA

Judy's brief resume.
Judy Belmont, MS, LPC, is a licensed psychotherapist and wellness speaker with over 30 years of experience. She has spoken nationally on a variety of mental health and wellness topics, and is a member of The National Speakers Association. With her insights about the common issues and challenges that people face as a foundation, she has spoken extensively on topics including resiliency, positive thinking, communication and managing stress effectively. 

In my neck of the woods, most people do not bother to answer mail.    Judy is not just anyone, but someone with 30 years experience, and someone who is good at what she does.  If she were in my world, where most women do not even accomplish a tenth of what she has done, it would be retirement, that is if they have not migrated to go and become someone's maid or driver in the first world. Services, education etcetera work most of the time in the firstworld because of people like Judy.  They are a source of the best information no textbook can ever hand down, a combination of the book knowledge and real life experience, experience which thankfully, they put down on paper for others to utilise.

Now, I have to do a typical fourthworld action, meet today, beg tomorrow! (sorry Judy!) I am going to request Judy to mention this blog to her friends. Why, so that they tell their friends and hopefully, some day soon, those people will in turn tell their people at home about this blog and the information on this blog will start getting to the intended recipients.  We are brilliant in having to channel most things through the first world in order to sort out our own backyards, like the numerous liberation wars, education, hunger alleviation, medical research!  Even getting one of our own to wake us up to the possibility of everything being possible had to pass through the first world, talk about Mahatma Gandhi, and lately, our shining beacon of the power of possibility, the very President of the United States of America, Mr. Obama.  How beautiful if would be, if one day, the fourthworld said "thank you" to the rest of the world and 'we do not need any more donations'.  This said, not because of political pride or misconstrued actions, but because we have turned all the begging bowls into something sustainable and livelihood supporting.  To me, we are living in the century of possibility.  We have the opportunity to change our minds and change our lives but for that to happen, we should be prepared to work and work hard.  I  surf the web and research personal development blogs which really help change lives. I take that information and apply it to my own life, and as I see changes, I recommend what works for everyday common people's lives, like mine! That is how I came across Judy Belmont.

Thank you Judy. 

Friday, November 25, 2011

Self Made Millionaires - what it takes


Catherine L. Hughes  :  Age: 64  Occupation: Founder and chairperson, Radio One
Advice to young entrepreneurs: "Sometimes the ones who love you the most will give you the worst business advice."   By conventional standards, Hughes wasn't destined to build a successful multimillion-dollar media company. She was a teen mom by 16 and a high-school dropout. However, she later completed high school, followed by brief stints at area universities in her hometown of Omaha, Neb.

Those early years were rough. Hughes, who was divorced by then, slept with her son on the floor of her radio station because she couldn't afford to live anywhere else. "My mother tried her best to talk me out of the radio business because of that," Hughes recalls. It's for this reason that she advises young entrepreneurs to be wary about who they divulge their challenges to -- even family. "If I had listened [to my mother], I would be a government employee right now and there would be no Radio One."


Bert Jacobs    Age: 46  Occupation: Co-Founder and CEO, Life is good
Advice to young entrepreneurs: "Try to shoot for a timeless business."
You've probably seen the beret-wearing, smiling face of "Jake," the Life is good logo, on the company's tee shirts and products. Co-founders Bert Jacobs and his brother, John Jacobs, 43, started peddling their tee shirts on the streets of Boston -- going door-to-door at college dorms and sleeping in their van to save money -- in 1989. It would take nearly six years, however, before their shirts finally caught on with consumers, thanks to "Jake."

"In the beginning, we made every business mistake in the book," says Bert. The brothers didn't have a business plan or growth strategy -- a formula for disaster, if you go by what's taught in business school.


Ali Brown  Age: 40   Occupation: Entrepreneur, business consultant and publisher, AliBrown.com
Advice to young entrepreneurs: "It's important you seek out other business owners for information, advice, support and resources." Fed up with her dead-end job at a New York City ad agency, Brown decided to quit in 1998. Armed with her brother's hand-me-down computer, she launched her first marketing agency, AKB Communications, from her kitchen table.

While having her own business was exciting, the uncertainty of self-employment had its challenges. Brown remembers all too well maxing out credit cards and draining her bank account to stay afloat in the early days. One night in particular, she tried to withdraw $20 from an ATM but was denied because her balance was only $18.56.   When it comes down to deciding if entrepreneurship is the right move for you, Brown says, "Entrepreneurship is for those who are willing to take the leap of faith.

Jill Blashack Strahan  Age: 52  Occupation: Founder and CEO, Tastefully Simple
Advice to young entrepreneurs: "Having goals is absolutely critical."
For Strahan, starting her multimillion-dollar company, Tastefully Simple, a direct sales retailer of specialty food products, began with "a dream and a shoestring." She grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota and later started selling gourmet food baskets, which inspired her business.

In the beginning, the entrepreneur fed her fledgling company with $6,000 of her own savings and some loans from a friend and the Small Business Administration. Strahan's first headquarters was a 1,200-square-foot space with a concrete floor and no running water. Early orders were packed on a pool table. Today, the Tastefully Simple offices take up nearly 200,000 square feet on a 79-acre lot.

So, basically, any one of us in this, my fourthworld, is on the right track for a million.    







Eureka!!

I will tell you why.  This post is a milestone.  When I started blogging here three months ago, I was not sure that I would be able to keep at it.  Not only have I done that, but today, I have exceeded the twenty-two posts which have been my best for a month so far.  What do I say,  Eureka!!

In fact, here is what Steven Pressfield said in one of his posts:-  "Gravity, like habit, can be a mighty ally because it leads ineluctably to another Newtonian phenomenon: momentum.

Our Little Prince planet, we discover, possesses not only mass but motion. It’s moving through space. Our energy, our intent, our attention are powering it. Now what?

Keep it moving.

Don’t stop. Don’t second-guess. Don’t look down. Take courage from how far you’ve come already. From a speck to a blob to your own tiny planet. Now keep going.

Don’t worry, you won’t fall off. You’ve got gravity working for you."

For me, keeping the course and keeping at this is an immense source of satisfaction, especially considering that I had to come up with what to write each day from scratch.  Now for adding value and monetising this blog. Why?  Multiple income streams have made people in the first world rich.  Not just that, the money makes itself while they sleep, that is why they take three to four holidays each year when the average in my neck of the woods is none in a lifetime.   One of the saddest things that I still think of is that Esther flew for the one and only time in her 30 year of life - as cargo.  There is a whole huge wonderful world full of delightful places to see, exotic foods to taste and amazing places to stay that was made as much for people in this, my fourthworld as any in the first.  I have every intention for me and my loved ones to see, savour and enjoy that world. 

Different schools of thought, great results

One leading self development life coach says keep nose to the grind and work sixteen hours a day in order to succeed.  Another says, don't push intellectual work into factory work because it will send you to the bottom. This is typical of people in the first world.  They cannot decide on one method that works so they come up with all manner of explanations, courses, theories, experiments,  religions even a political system, which, because no one can agree on anything,  they then call democracy.  People, the craziest thing about this is that this works.  If it did not, we would be having the millionaires and billionaires here, in this fourthworld, instead of so many in the first.  So, maybe what we need to do, is learn to listen to each other no matter how different our opinions on anything are.  From listening to divergent views we need to respect each other's view, so much so that we incorporate that which we do not want to, but have to, in order to succeed.   

I think having open minded people around one, people with a common purpose and determination to succeed invariably produces the desired result.  The beautiful example is one of Mahatma Gandhi when he first said that a few people with total belief and faith in what they want to do can change the world.  The fact that he said it, and then went on to do it is not amazing, but just a beacon along illuminating the way for everyone else in the fourthworld to go for their dreams, and achieve them, and not only achieve them, but enjoy their success.