1. Decide What You Want. Some people get down thinking “I never get what I want,” but if you ask them what they want they can’t really articulate it. That’s usually because they haven’t put a lot of thought into it. Don’t worry, it happens to a lot of us. We’re just busy living life: going to work, going to school, buying the groceries, paying the bills, taking the dog to the vet, blah, blah, blah.

Get off that treadmill for one afternoon. Set aside 1-2 hours just for you! During that time, think about what you really want. Write down everything and then boil it down to your top 10, top 5, top 3, and number one thing that you want.

2. Reality Check. Goals should be realistic, but they need not be easy. So a goal to date Heidi Klum might not be realistic, but a goal to date a woman who has all the attributes and values you like would be more attainable. Maybe you long to go back in time or bring back a loved one who you’ve lost. That’s not realistic, but instead you could set upon a goal to live a life or find a person who embodies similar elements to what you had before. If your goal is to make $1 million dollars, break it down into shorter term goals that are doable. When you hit those short term milestones it will give you encouragement to continue on your journey. Lastly, remember that goals don’t have to be about getting things or people, they can also be about how you want to live your life on a daily basis. (more…)

Newsweek has a fascinating article up about Alcides Moreno, an Ecuadorian native who survived a 500-foot fall off of a Manhattan building. Most people don’t survive a 4-story fall. It’s a great article that I encourage you to read. But I was interested in summing up the physics and the lessons of surviving such a fall, based on the details of the story.

How To Survive A 500-Foot Fall:

1. Find a way to increase the air drag on your body. In Moreno’s case, he clung to his window-washer’s platform as he fell. The flat plank increased his surface area and could have slowed his descent somewhat. Anything you can do to increase your surface area and slow you down is a plus. Also, (more…)

1. Always maintain a calm, collected tone
Keep your voice even, keep your tone low, and do not lose your temper. If you find yourself getting upset, place the person on hold for a moment, take a slow, deep breath, and pick the phone back up. If they have hung up on you, mention it when you call back.

2 . Before you call, outline the situation for yourself, and decide how you want it solved
Write down several options you would be willing to accept, and keep the page in front of you when you call.

3. Always get the name of the person who answered the phone, even if you speak to them for only a moment
Write the name down, as well as any other person you connect to. Keep notes of who said what.
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According to car site, MonsterAuto.ca, vehicle cloning is all the rage: “Here is how it works. Thieves steal a car, usually a high-end “desirable” car or SUV. Then they take the vehicle identification number or VIN from a similar vehicle and slap it on the stolen car. Because each VIN is unique like a fingerprint, the stolen vehicle become a clone of a legitimate vehicle. Add some fake papers, and the thieves are ready to sell you a vehicle that looks perfectly legal.”

When the police come knocking on your door, you have no legal recourse – you have to hand over the stolen property. Statistics show that this horror story is happening to more and more people ever year. In 2007 there were over 1.3 million cars stolen cars in the US, with over 250,000 or 1 in 5 of these stolen vehicles sold to unsuspecting victims. In the UK, this is being called that fastest growing car crime. And Canadians are being hit just as hard.

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