Taman Sari Yogyakarta

Taman Sari dibangun di bekas keraton lama, Pesanggrahan Garjitawati, yang didirikan oleh Susuhunan Paku Buwono II sebagai tempat istirahat kereta kuda yang akan pergi ke Imogiri. Sebagai pimpinan proyek pembangunan Taman Sari ditunjuklahTumenggung Mangundipuro. Seluruh biaya pembangunan ditanggung oleh Bupati Madiun, Tumenggung Prawirosentiko, besrta seluruh rakyatnya. Oleh karena itu daerah Madiun dibebaskan dari pungutan pajak. Di tengah pembangunan pimpinan proyek diambil alih oleh Pangeran Notokusumo, setelah Mangundipuro mengundurkan diri. Walaupun secara resmi sebagai kebun kerajaan, namun bebrapa bangunan yang ada mengindikasikan Taman Sari berfungsi sebagai benteng pertahanan terakhir jika istana diserang oleh musuh. Konon salah seorang arsitek kebun kerajaan ini adalah seorang Portugis yang lebih dikenal dengan Demang Tegis.
Kompleks Taman Sari setidaknya dapat dibagi menjadi 4 bagian. Bagian pertama adalah danau buatan yang terletak di sebelah barat. Bagian selanjutnya adalah bangunan yang berada di sebelah selatan danau buatan antara lain Pemandian Umbul Binangun. Bagian ketiga adalah Pasarean Ledok Sari dan Kolam Garjitawati yang terletak di selatan bagian kedua. Bagian terakhir adalah bagian sebelah timur bagian pertama dan kedua dan meluas ke arah timur sampai tenggara kompleks Magangan.
Tertarik, silahkan berkunjung ke yogyakarta, sebelah selatan jawa bagian tengah.

Lemper

 
Lemper adalah sejenis makanan yang terbuat dari ketan dan biasanya berisi abon atau suwiran daging ayam atau sambal goreng, dan terbungkus oleh daun pisang.
Makanan ini terkenal di seluruh Indonesia sebagai pengganjal perut sebelum memasuki tahap makan besar. Pembuatan lemper mencakup persiapan daging ayam dan mengetim ketan (bisa dengan santan). Selanjutnya, daging ayam yang sudah disuwir dibungkus dengan ketan, lalu ketan ini dibungkus lagi dengan daun pisang, selanjutnya dikukus.
Terdapat variasi dari lemper, yang menggunakan pembungkus bukan daun pisang tetapi krep(crepe) yang dikenal sebagai semar mendem. Orang mengenal pula arem-arem yang menggunakan nasi alih-alih ketan.
Semakin nikmat bila perut kosong.

sego pincuk, nasi pakai piring daun pisang

Pada acara hajatan ini suguhannya adalah nasi pincuk.

nasi pincuk terdiri dari daun pisang yang dilipat sebagai pengganti piring. Sedangkan untuk isinya adalah telur kuah santan yang gurih, potongan daging ayam, dan sambal goreng, bisa sambal goreng ati ataupun tahu.

Nasi ini sangat gurih dan enak disantap sebagai makan besar.

tertarik, selamat mencoba.

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LUMPIA

LUMPIA merupakan makanan khas ala semarang. makanan yang terdiri dari tepung pembungkus, crepe. dan berisi sayuran dicampur dengan daging.

Lumpia banyak dijumpai sebagai oleh oleh dan biasanya dalam bentuk siap digoreng ulang. Tetapi untuk digorengpun juga tersedia.

Di semarang lumpia bisa dijumpai pada setiap toko yang menjual oleh oleh, sehingga untuk mendapatkan tidaklah susah.

Untuk di daerah semarang bisa dijumpai di daerah jalan pemuda atau disekitar stasiun dan terminal bis.

Lumpia cocok digunakan sebagai snack dan makanan penyambut tamu, selain gurih makanan ini sangatlah menarik untuk dicoba.

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artikel : berpikir kreatif

The 7 Keys To Your Creative Genius

Here are 7 ways you can instantly access your natural creativity and create anything you like.
1. Think Like A Child. As adults we tend to think in a conditioned way aimed at showing how clever we are. Yet, as children, we were simply spontaneous and far more creative in our thinking. To re-capture your childhood curiosity, allow yourself to just wonder at things, to be completely present in the here and now, and to detach yourself from what you thought was real.
2. Make New Connections. To be innovative doesn't require a university degree; it simply requires making a connection between existing ideas. For instance, did you know that ice cream was invented in 2000 BC yet it took another 3900 years for someone to come up with the idea of a cone? It's when you take two seemingly unrelated items and use the spark of creativity that genius happens.
3. Be A Little Illogical. It is a peculiarly Western trait to want to tie things up in neat bundles. We prefer solutions to problems, and answers to questions. To be creative, you need to be comfortable with things that don't fit. The Eastern tradition is more in tune with incongruence. As in this Zen koan, or problem: what is the sound of one hand clapping?
4. Laugh More. Tom Peters says that the creativity of a workplace can be measured by a laughometer, ie how much it laughs. Humour is one of the greatest creative devices. It jolts us out of our normal patterns and puts ideas together that shouldn't go together. It has been found that after listening to comedy tapes, students' ability to solve problems rises by 60%.

5. Think Outside Your Limits. Many of the products we take for granted today are the result of people thinking outside their limits. John Lynn recalls attending a computer conference in the 1980's at a hotel when someone joked that the next thing they'd be thinking of would be computerised doors. When he went back to the same hotel 20 years later, all the doors used computer-programmed key cards.
6. Adopt and Adapt. To be creative doesn't require blue-sky thinking. You can still be creative by adapting what works elsewhere. An American airline that wanted quicker turnarounds on their flights adopted the techniques of Formula One pit crews. Another source of ideas is nature. Georges de Mestral adapted the way certain seeds stick to clothing and invented Velcro.
7. Remember Your Dreams. Dreaming and day-dreaming can create a rich seam of ideas, because that's when we relax and let the subconscious mind work by itself. The Roffey Park Management Institute calls this "washing-up creativity" because most flashes of inspiration come when we are walking the dog, sitting Archimedes-like in the bath, or doing the washing up.
Apply these 7 creative thinking techniques and make them part of your daily thinking and I guarantee that new solutions to your problems will open up to you with ease and speed.

Mempertajam kreatifitas

How to be More Creative and Enhance Your Creativity

Before thinking about how to be more creative, let me begin point out some real barriers that some people seem to have when wanting to enhance creativity, have a think if any of these things are applicable to you and your life;
1. Lack of time. This is not as major as you may think. Linking thoughts and ideas only takes seconds. It can happen anytime, anywhere. Provided you are in the right state and pay attention to your own experience.
Creativity in my opinion is more about the quality of the time you have and being receptive to yourself. Though this does take some time.
2. Fear of being judged. When I worked for a national newspaper and we had brainstorming sessions, individuals were often scared of expressing ideas. Creativity results in unusual ideas and perhaps even being different in some way. They can be thought of as strange, odd or challenging. Fear of being considered weird, stupid or just different often kills creativity. If I feared people thinking any of those things about me, I would not bother getting out of bed in the mornings; I love the fact that people think I am all of those things!!
3. Lack of self-esteem. When you do something creative, you go beyond the bounds of what has been safe and familiar in the past, to yourself and maybe even others. When you are not sure about yourself, being different in any way can feel risky or make you feel vulnerable. The danger is that you give up your new insight to just blend in. Smash out of those shackles!
4. Fear of failure. This inhibits us. If you are making a new connection in your brain there can be no inherent "right" or "wrong" about it. Failure can only have two meanings really; firstly, that it didn't work in the way you wanted it to. Secondly, Someone else did not like it. But so what??!! I have to tell you all that I get many comments on how I generate so many successful projects and am often asked how I do it. I always point out that these projects are actually only about 10% of what I have imagined. The other 90% didn't work or didn't get out of my brain.
Creativity is not reserved for genius only. Einstein was brilliant but he is not necessarily the best model of creativity for us. You do not need specialist expertise to be creative. The fruits of your creativity may manifest in many, many differing ways, in fact I expect so.
If at any time you doubt your ability to be creative, remind yourself that several times every night you create an entirely new dream, which you script, act in and watch, which involves all your senses and has effects that can last long after they are over. This creation is so very effortless most people don't even recognise it as such.
How to be more creative.
Ok, so how does one actually go about getting more creative. Let me give you some ideas;
1. Find the right frame of mind. Explore what states you associate with being creative. Discover properly what it is that triggers and maintains you being creative. What's your best time of day? The best environment? Do you need to be alone or with others or alone in the midst of others? Do you need sounds or silence or background sounds? Build a profile of your creativity state, then make time and space for it on a regular basis instead of waiting for some divine intervention and for it to just happen on its own.
2. Cultivate dreaming. Pay attention to your experience of life and attention to your existing creativity rather than dismissing day-dreams and dreams. Don't allow yourself to waste what you may already be discovering by ignoring it.
3. Ask yourself "What if?" and "What else?" and "How else?" Always go beyond what you fist thought, find more and more different ideas.
4. When and/or if you hit a problem, pretend your usual solution is not available. This can work in many different ways. If your PC crashes today, how else might you do your work? If you usually argue face to face, what would happen if you wrote your feelings down instead? Some solutions may be no better than the ones you're used to: others may offer you brilliant new opportunities. Do something different. I wrote about that idea in an earlier article entitled Do something Different, go check it out.<

5. See how many different results you can get with the same ingredients. I am sure many of you know that there is a cookbook called "Recipes 1-2-3" by Rozanne Gold, in which every recipe is made out of only three ingredients.
Some recipes use the same three ingredients but different processes or quantities come up with different results.
You can have some great fun by taking an every day object and imagine or think about how many other uses it can have, you can even think about how to combine them with other objects.
6. Think of different ways to do the familiar. Change the order in which you do things, use different things, use your less favoured hand; as soon as we break routine, we move from a state where we are on auto-pilot to one where we are alive and alert. You exercise unfamiliar brain connections and help build new links in your brain. A glorious feeling!
7. Look out for the difference that makes the difference. When you encounter something that strikes you as different, ask yourself what it is about it that is so different or new or unusual. Where does the key difference actually lie?
I want to mention a strategy that is well talked about in NLP circles and that I have used for many years and that is the Disney Creativity Strategy.
The Disney creativity strategy is for developing your dreams and giving them the best possible chance of becoming reality. It is named after Walt Disney, who often took on three different roles when his team was developing an idea; the dreamer, the realist and the critic. Robert Dilts, an NLP pioneer, modelled and developed this strategy as an NLP tools. The strategy separates out these three vital roles involved in the process of translating creative ideas into reality so that they can be explored separately for maximum clarity and effect.
However, the usual way to use it is to allocate three roles to different people (realist, dreamer and critic) to assess plans or tasks. Ask someone to act as the dreamer and tell you all the possibilities of the idea. Ask someone else to examine exactly what would be involved in putting it into practice (realist), and someone to take a hard look at it and really evaluate its strengths and weaknesses (critic). You may want to rotate the roles. If doing it on your own, be sure to keep the roles very separate and write them down. I do this with lots of my own ideas and with changes I want to make in my life.
You can even use this in a meeting broken down into three stages; Each role as a separate stage. Get everyone brainstorming and being creative first; then get them thinking about what would actually have to happen in practical terms; then get them critically evaluating the possibilities.
I suggest that you have some fun being creative and doing things differently to generate more creativity. It feels wonderful and if you have found that your progress to success or the outcomes you desire has been blocked or gone stagnant, then think about being more creative in how and what you are doing.

write for future

kompasiana

Menulis merupakan tabungan yang abadi, demikian ungkapan rekan saya dalam obrolan pagi ini. Dan hal ini memberikan cara pandang baru mengenai bagaimana sebuah tulisan mampu membawa anak cucu kita kelak mengetahui apa yang kita perbuat dan apa yang kita pikirkan serta memungkinkan untuk mengetahui capaian apa yang akan kita tuju.

Dan sekiranya penting adanya jika kita mampu mendeskripsikan secara jelas akan sesuatu yang sudah kita lakukan dan memberikan ulasan supaya anak kita kelak bisa bertindak lebih efektif dan efisien.

Segala sesuatu bisa kita pahat pada media dan sekiranya dibuka di kemudian hari benar benar memberikan petunjuk hidup. Sekiranya ada yang kita lakukan sesuatu yang tidak memberikan manfaat dan dengan tulisan dan ulasan yang dipelajari akan menuntun ke hidup yang lebih baik.

Di lain pihak kebiasaan membaca perlu dibina sedari kecil sehingga tabungan berupa tulisan yang sudah kita simpan benar benar bisa dibuka dan digunakan kelak.


tiada yang abadi selain perubahan, salam

teach to read

Do you know when to begin teaching your child to read?

It is never too early to begin teaching your child to read, or at least laying the foundation for early literacy skills, and it can definitely be left too late!

If you are not sure then think about this. Statistically, more American children suffer long-term life-long harm from the process of learning to read than from parental abuse, accidents, and all other childhood diseases and disorders combined. In purely economic terms, reading related difficulties cost our nation more than the war on terrorism, crime, and drugs combined.

Reading problems are a further challenge to our world by contribute significantly to the perpetuation of socio-economic, racial and ethnic inequities. However it is not just poor and minority children who struggle with reading. According to the 2002 national report card on reading by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), most of our children (64%) are less than proficient in reading even after 12 years of our attempts to teach them.

Even without knowing these worrisome statistics we are aware that reading proficiency is essential to success--not only academically but in life. As the American Federal of Teachers states: "No other skill taught in school and learned by school children is more important than reading. It is the gateway to all other knowledge. Teaching students to read by the end of third grade is the single most important task assigned to elementary schools. Those who learn to read with ease in the early grades have a foundation on which to build new knowledge. Those who do not are doomed to repeated cycles of frustration and failure."

More than any other subject or skill, our children's futures are determined by how well they learn to read.

Reading is absolutely fundamental. It has been said so often that it has become meaningless but it does not negate its truth. In our society, in our world, the inability to read consigns children to failure in school and consigns adults to the lowest strata of job and life opportunities.

And just when we thought the stakes could get no higher, over the last decade, educational research findings have discovered that how well children learn to read has other, even more life-shaping, consequences. Most children begin learning to read during a profoundly formative phase in their development. As they begin learning to read, they're also learning to think abstractly. They are learning to learn and they're experiencing emotionally charged feelings about who they are and how well they are learning.

What does that mean? Most children who struggle with reading blame themselves. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, the process of learning to read teaches these children to feel ashamed of themselves--ashamed of their minds--ashamed of how they learn.

And the sad truth is that they have nothing to be ashamed about. As Dr. Grover Whitehurst, Director Institute of Education Sciences, Assistant Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education (2003) says: "Reading failure for nearly every child is not the child's failure; it's the failure of policy makers, the failure of schools, the failure of teachers and the failure of parents. We need to reconceptualize what it means to learn to read and who's responsible for its success if we're going to deal with the problem."

Do you want to wait for the policy makers to find a solution? Do you trust that they will? Or would you rather make sure that the job is done right by taking charge yourself?

I know what my answer is because I know first-hand from witnessing my brother's life-long difficulties what an irrevocable impact a reading struggle early in life can make. It can mark your child for life!<

I'm not promising that your child can learn to read early or that they won't experience difficulty. After all, there is a significant number of children suffering from learning disabilities. These children will struggle. However, early instruction may ease their suffering and make the struggle a bit easier to handle. At the very least you will know that you did everything you could to help your child-and your child will know that as well. That cannot be wasted effort!

And you have a head-start on every educator because you know your child--herr temperament, her strengths, and her weaknesses. You are the person best equipped to begin teaching your child.

So we come back to the central question-when should your child's reading education begin? Traditional American Education models call for teaching a child to read between the ages of 7-9. Obviously we cannot begin teaching a newborn how to read. However, we can begin in infancy to lay the foundation for literacy which will in the end make your child a stronger reader.

Literacy is defined as an individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute, and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society.

Many of the simple things we do at home with our children support the development of literacy so you are already working to make your child more literate even if you are not actively beginning the process to teach your child to read. This includes simple activities such as reading to your child, reciting nursery rhymes, and singing songs.

But what if you do want to become a more active participant? There are many things you can do and it doesn't mean you need to invest hundreds of dollars in an expensive reading program. You don't actually need to spend much money at all to teach your child to read at home-or at the least prepare your child well for the beginning of reading instruction in school. Most parents already have the tools you need in your home to begin today!

This is why I stress that it is never too early to begin-if you work with your child's development and make learning fun and interesting as well as challenging.

My essential strategy as an educator is to create learning opportunities and then to get out of the way of my students so they can learn. Learning is an active experience that should fully engage the participant. I believe that when I am "teaching" that the student is only passively involved in the learning process. I see myself much more as a guide and a resource than a teacher in my classroom. I have taken this approach with my son's education and it has been very successful.

We have various learning toys and aids in our home and there are many lessons taking place each day (at home and away) but I have never drilled him on facts or even used flashcards.

If you can find ways to make learning fun and exciting-something that your child actually wants to do with you-then begin as soon as possible.

Your child will have plenty of opportunity for dry lectures, mind-numbing repetitive drills, and boring lessons as they grow older so don't even go there. If you can't make learning fun and more like play than work then don't even go there. Trust your child's education to the professionals and hope for the best. Remember, there are many wonderful teachers out there so you child is not doomed to failure even if you don't intervene. However, the system is not a success and it is likely that at some point during the process your child may be adversely effected by it! That's why I take an active role in my child's education. 

money work

How To Make Money With A Plug In Profit Site

A plug in profit site or a PIPS is a great internet business tool. A PIPS is a website that is fully automated and will be able to make you money 24/7 with little or no work daily from you. A PIPS is a good way to get started in internet business that is very easy to become successful with.

A PIPS is a website that is fully automated. What this means is that it basically runs itself. It takes orders and processes them, including making the shipping or delivery orders. It also will keep advertising tracked and organized. Along with keeping customer information organized.

A PIPS is basically the store for your affiliate marketing programs. You simply enter your programs into the site and market the site. Then you can sit back and watch the PIPS do the rest of the work for you. It really can not get any easier then that to make money online. This is a way that you can be successful and make money at the same time.

A PIPS helps you make working at home successful. It handles all the mundane tasks and eliminates the need for excessive record keeping or order tracking. The website is like the brain of your business and all you have to do is make sure it is fed with visitors. Of course, the PIPS will also help you see who is visiting and from where they have come so you know what advertising efforts are profitable and which are not. This allows you to monitor the site and the way in which it is working.

A PIPS is one of the easiest and best ways to get started in internet business. You will find with a PIPS that you will have the freedom and flexibility you have always dreamed of in a work at home business. Give it a try and you may be very happy that you did.

love 4ever

The Powerful Secret to A Loving Relationship

There are many factors that go into creating a loving relationship. Certainly it helps if two people have some things in common regarding how they like to spend their time. It also helps if they have common values around religion or spirituality, around politics, the environment, abortion, and personal growth. It helps if they both eat junk food or both eat organic food. It makes things easier if both are neat or both are messy, if both are on time people or both are late people. Physical attraction is also quite important. It's great if they have common values around money and spending.

Yet a couple can have all of these and still not have a loving relationship if one element is missing. Without this essential ingredient, all the other wonderful attributes will not be enough to make the relationship work.

This essential ingredient is about intention.

At any given moment, each of us is devoted to only one of two different intentions: to control or to learn. When our intention is to control, our deepest motivation is to have control over getting love, avoiding pain, and feeling safe. When our intention is to learn, our deepest motivation is to learn about being loving to ourselves and others.

The motivation to get love rather than be loving can create havoc within a relationship.

Let's look at a typical relationship issue and see what happens regarding the two different intentions. Jason and Samantha are feeling emotionally distant from each other, and they haven't made love in a month. The problem started when Samantha stated that she wanted to take an expensive vacation and Jason objected. Samantha got angry, Jason gave in, and they have been distant ever since.

Samantha's intention was to have control over getting what she wanted. She equates an expensive vacation with love – if Jason does this for her, then he proves his love for her. She used her anger as a way to have control over getting what she wants. She wants control over feeling special to Jason

Jason's intention is to avoid pain. He gave himself up to have control over Samantha not being angry with him. He hopes that by giving Samantha what she wants, she will see him as a good and loving husband.

However, because both Jason and Samantha were trying to control each other rather than be loving to themselves and each other, their interaction created emotional distance.

What would this have looked like if their intention had been to learn?

If Samantha's intent had been to learn, she would not have become angry. Instead, she would have wanted to understand Jason's objections. If Jason's intention had been to learn, he would not have given himself up. Instead he would have wanted to understand why this particular vacation was so important to Samantha. Both Samantha and Jason would have been caring about themselves and each other, rather than wanting to get love or avoid pain. In their mutual exploration about why they each felt the way they did, they would have learned what they needed to learn - about themselves and each other - to reach a win-win resolution. Instead of Samantha ostensibly winning and Jason losing, they would have come up with something both of them could live with. With some exploration of his financial fears, Jason might have decided that the vacation Samantha wanted would be fine. With understand of Jason's financial concerns, Samantha might have decided on a less expensive vacation. In either case, both of them would have felt fine about the outcome.

No matter how much Jason and Samantha have in common or are attracted to each other, their love will diminish when their intent is to control rather than learn. It's amazing how quickly love vanishes when one or both partners have the intent to control. It's equally amazing how fast it comes back when both partners have the intent to learn. 

enlightment

The Law Of Attraction - Make It Work Today!

All the ancient texts and religious writtings speak of it. Poets, teachers and sages have prnouched the good news of it for thousands of years. Books have been written about it. Songs have been song about it and people have made a fortune teaching it. But do you know enough about it to use it? The Law Of Attraction is probably the most powerful Universal Principle we know of, do you think, perhaps, you should learn a little more about it and maybe even use it to create your dreams?

The Law Of Attraction at its very basic level states that everything is created by thought and that thought attracts to itself physical things, people, situations and circumstances. Your predominant thoughts are activating the Law of Attraction this very moment and bringing these things into your life!

However, we do not just create and attract the material things that enter our lives, we also create the body we occupy, the personality we display and, ultimately, the person we are and we do it all through our thoughts. Are you creating the life you desire & becoming the person you wish to be or are you like Job and bringing upon you all manner of woes because you are giving your attention to them? Perhaps you are even identifying yourself as a victim and refusing to acknowledge the Law and use it consciously!

The Law Of Attraction is not as big a Secret, as the hit movie would have you believe. Having been in existence since the very begining of time, it is an unyielding, never bending, unbreakable Uiversal Rule. You cannot escape it! There is a great body of evidence that suggests mankind has known about, and utilised, the great Law for about 7000 years. But these teachings were hidden for thousands of years by those people who wished to control the population. Through hiding the laws of the universe and the knowledge that we create our own realities these dogmatic leeches could keep all the power for themselves and ensure no-one opposed their rule. The great Law Of Attraction was actually banned in the past.

It was largely at the beginning of the 20th century that the general public started to become aware of this great law due to the diligence, fortitude, integrity and grace of writers such as James Allen (1864-1912), Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) and Charles Haanel (1866-1949).

Wallace D. Wattles, born in 1860 and died in 1911, was also a forward thinking man. In his great work "The Science of Getting Rich" Wattles states a great truth, "There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought." How revolutionary that statement was in 1910.

Haanel set out in a 24 part correspondence course, which is now condensed into one volume called "The Master Key System", a complete guide to successfully using the Law Of Attraction! It was banned by the Church in 1933 due to its revelations. This is allegedly the book Bill Gates read before he created Microsoft!

Napoleon Hill revealed Andrew Carnegie's great Secret to the world - that thoughts create things - when he wrote "Think & Grow Rich" in 1937 (although it had taken him 25 years to complete).

James Allen wrote his famous work in 1912 and in "As a Man Thinketh" he tells people that "mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness."

However, although the teachings have been around for thousands of years and they have been readily and easily available to the general public for almost a century the great majority of people do not take the time to learn the workings of probably the most powerful physical law in the Universe.

I think you owe it to yourself to delve deeper into this mysterious Universe and learn as much as you can about the laws that govern your life. When you truly understand the Law Of Attraction and begin to work with it for you personal advantage, I promise you, your life will change in fantastic, unexpected and unlimited ways.

Begin now to utilise this gift and construct in your imagination the life you really want to live. Seek out ways to remove your own inner resistance and limiting beliefs

need to define

Are You a Leader or a Slacker?

Do you claim to be a Leader in your business or your field of expertise?

I have noticed that many people claim to be Leaders, but I consider them Slackers instead. A Slacker is someone that basically likes to give instruction or direction, but takes no action on advancing themselves or their business.

Does this describe you, your up-line or someone else on your
Mastermind Team? Here are some clues that might help you out.

Leader: Praises his/her team and offers encouragement
Slacker: Quick to find fault and slow to give praise

Leader: Holds himself/herself to a higher standard that his/her team
Slacker: Has a high level of expectation for his/her team but doesn't hold
himself/herself to that same standard

Leader: Leads by example and is a role model for his/her team
Slacker: Blends in with crowd and never steps up to take a leadership role

Leader: Has deep rooted belief in his/her business and leads new teammates
through the growth process (learning the business and facing obstacles)
Slacker: Convinces a person to join his/her team then pawns them off on someone
else or simply pushes them to the side (Referred to as "sign and drop")

Which of these characteristics, best describes you and your teammates? Be honest with yourself.

Just remember, that a leader must lead and nourish others through the growth process. If he/she loses integrity and fails to take action, then this same failure mindset will ripple down to his/her teammates. A team will duplicate their leader and their leader's actions.

Let me ask you one last time…Are you a Leader or a Slacker?

motivation break

Change Your Mind; Change Your Luck

When I was a young man, even a teenager for that matter, I always had an optimism that was hard for others to overcome. Even in the midst of the all the negative influences from family and peers, this positive optimism was difficult to beat down. I was powerful, I was lucky, life was magic. I remember it like it was yesterday.

It didn't matter how many times I was chased home. It didn't matter how many times the girls bullied me. It didn't matter how many times my father beat me. It didn't matter how many times the teachers picked on me. I just knew; This is not it! There is more greatness to come!

When I was kicked out and made to join the military, I wasn't feeling particularly lucky at that time but I still had that positive attitude. Sure there was grief, and I knew, I just knew that there were still great things to come. I did my military service and got out and that pervasive optimism, while struggling for a while arose and pulled me into the most amazing journey within another set of circumstances that saw many wonderful things happen.

As I remember, my body begins to remember. There is an energy that lives inside the memory, it's not just the mind. I am lucky. Life is good. Great things will happen. This is exciting. What next? Bring it on. Even when the bad stuff happens, it's acceptance was easy. "Okay, that's okay, this will pass and even greater things are coming." That's all I had to say. More often than not, these statements have proven true, time and time again.
It's the power of your mind and body. The power of belief. The power of faith. The power of trusting. It's inside - not outside. Energize yourself, your body, your mind, keep checknig in, keeping boosting yourself. It's a game and so is life. There are no winners and losers; just you. Abundance is everywhere, there is plenty of love, money, opportunities, peace, and more to go around! Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.

I'm writing this today from the memory that has come alive in my body, not just a mind-memory. The outcome has been new friends, new opportunities, new clients, new energy, new aliveness, joy, and happiness. Not just with life - even more - with me, my purpose, my talent and gifts, and the embracing of this knowledge and truth.

If you find yourself strugglnig with those truths of yourself, look at the negative influences that pull you from peace and eliminate them from your life. Better to be alone and soar like an eagle than to be in the company of oppressors and jealousy that robs you of your magic, your inspiration, your value, your purpose, and your life.

A victim no longer, take responsibility for the choices, the people, the actions, that are keeping you prisoner to your fears. Time for freedom, for love, for magic, for purpose and passion. Live out loud! Love freely!

E BOOK, write?

How Do You Write an Ebook?

There is only one way to climb a mountain - step by step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You must create it step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should take before you begin. Once you've gone through the following list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook's working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you'll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader's queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books, as long as it's not too cute. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you've got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you've built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don't, they don't belong in your book.

For example, your thesis statement could read:
We've all experienced insomnia at times in our lives, but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to give you back a good night's sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book. Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?

* Will you book positively affect the lives of your readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader's attention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?<

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook "user friendly"

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up the density of the page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader's respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don't hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader's eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as "negative space." Reader's eyes need to rest in the cool white oasis you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that's easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they've gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don't forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don't mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. (By the way, that's called a "comma splice.")

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography. That's it! You've written a book! Now all you have to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download request from your website visitors.