Mike Paget is an inspirational writer. He is also the founder and CEO of an Online Business Company, a buisness dedicated to providing advice and information on resources for all relationships and issues related to self help. His passion is helping others, Mike Paget enjoys doing many things but above all his true love is writing and does a great job at reaching and inspiring others through his writing. Mike Paget has written his first book, which will be published sometime in mid to late 2010. He earned his Bachelors of Science Degree from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas and works as a dedicated Educator for The Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children.

Each day my job offers a new a challenge, I will see a young child waiting anxiously to share their story of horror and abuse. Although my position is very unique so I do get to see a brighter side as well, as an Educator I specialize in healthy relationships, leadership development, character building, how to deal with depression, bullying, bullycide, internet crime, and many other untraditional subjects.” I love children, they are the lights to my world”, Minnisha told me. Her long term goal as a young author is to eventually along with being a full time writer continue to build a buisness that will offer help and support to those in need.

“My grandfather taught me that compassion is one of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone”, Mike Paget said. Compassion is kindness, sympathy, consideration and especially empathy, the ability to put yourself, as best as possible, into another’s shoes to feel the situation properly. Thomas Merton, a gentle and wise scholar from last century best describes it as ‘the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things’.

It is a human emotion, yes. There are plenty of human emotions that I could speak of. But compassion is also a powerful force when applied. It generates loving energy to whomever it is directed to. It also gives the giver a feeling of love from within, an opening of the heart.

Compassion has the power to turn everything around. If we are able to view life from a compassionate place within, we let go of the ego and its need to be right, to dissolving the ego and working from the heart. It is choosing to be emotionally mature, letting go of ourselves and our need to validate.

Instead of carrying on after a disagreement with someone, both losing valuable time from the relationship due to stubbornness, hurt, or being unforgiving towards the other for years sometimes, we can choose to look at the situation from a place of compassion instead. It doesn’t mean that you necessarily agree with the actions of that person. It means that you make a conscious choice to not carry that energy with you anymore.

By choosing to look at a situation with compassion, we are more able to look kindly towards others, to see their own frailties and recognise our own. All of us are simply trying to be happy and avoid suffering. None of us are immune to learning, making mistakes, or having said or done something that has hurt another. We are all learning, constantly, whether we consciously choose to or not.

If we can remove our ego from the situation, our need to be right, and see the other person’s opinions or words as an expression of who they are now, which is a result of all of who they have been and what they have experienced up to this point, then the situation naturally softens immediately. We don’t have to agree with everything. Compassion is not about being walked over and trying to be a martyr by saving others. It is simply recognising that all of us have goodness and all of us have humanness, which at times shows up in less favourable or desirable ways.

If a person is speaking unkindly, they are not in their natural space. We are born as loving creatures with our hearts wide open. Through years of wounds and fears, we often act from a place disconnected from our own true wisdom. We have forgotten the loving person we truly are, or the person speaking to you in an offensive way has forgotten who they are. We do have a choice as to how we respond however.

We can add more suffering to suffering by causing hurt, or we can choose to come from a place of emotional maturity and view the situation through compassionate eyes. The ego will rear up and try to hold on. As you are now working from the heart not the head, the ego is losing power, which it does not like. But over time, as we grow and develop in compassion it becomes a natural state for us. Like everything, it gets better with practice.

I grew up in an environment where forgiveness was a constant lesson for me. Even though I endured emotional wounds that took years for me to heal, forgiveness was the only way forward. But how did I do that, when I had become so fragile, sensitive and fearful of exposing myself to more of the same year after year?

It wasn’t until I was able to develop compassion that things began to change. And they changed enormously. Through compassion we learn not to take things personally, because it is really not about us. It is the other person’s suffering that they are dumping on us. So if we are able to detach in a loving way and realise that no matter what has been thrown at us, it is really just a manifestation of the other person’s hurt, then we are able to have compassion for that person and let it go. This not only stops giving more power to negative situations, it allows healing to begin on all levels for everyone involved, including you.

For my own personal situation, I now reap the rewards of such courage by enjoying hugely changed, loving, mature relationships between myself and those mentioned, relationships that I could never have imagined possible.

Whether it is the person serving you at the supermarket, or an impatient driver on the roads, it doesn’t matter. There are opportunities to develop and grow in compassion every single day. It takes work to dissolve the ego and not want to get the last word in, or to be kind to someone who may reject your kindness. Make it about them though, not you. You can then wish kindness toward them and move on, knowing that the power of compassion is in place and is a force well beyond our comprehension, generating the change needed. It is a loving force that permeates every area of your life once developed.

So how does one begin to grow in compassion? How do you develop it? Compassion has to start with ourselves. This is the most difficult part of the whole compassion journey. It has to start with ourselves. We are our own harshest critics and until we learn to be kind and compassionate towards ourselves, we cannot grow in it for others. As Westerners in particular, we can be incredibly harsh on ourselves. Yet we are all children of God, whatever you conceive that to be, and we are all born with the desire to be happy.

Domestic Energy Assessors Help in Energy Conservation

Infovest21 Energy Assessors by David William Watts.

Domestic Energy Assessors can estimate how much energy is used by a household and the amount of energy that can be saved by a household by inspecting the premises. The British government is encouraging all nations to use energy assessors to assess and reduce the energy usage of every building and also to help calculate the efficiency of energy usage of the nation. Everybody in the threshold of the British government can request an inspection of their property by a Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) who will help the owner acquire an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) from a government approved agency.

Recent changes in the law of England states that every building of the country must be inspected every year by a DEA to assess the energy consumption of the country annually. The inspections of the DEA have many benefits for the owner of the property in helping him/her in certain ways.

• It is necessary for the people of England to request for inspection of their households by a DEA as once every year due to changes in the law. By doing this annually the government can keep track of the amount of energy usage every year and also calculate the efficiency of the country.

• The inspection is also needed when a person wants to sell his property or buy a new property or to renovate the household. By doing the inspection of the DEA, he agrees to abide the standards of usage of the energy set by the government. The EPC prepared at the time gives the owner freedom of usage of the appliances that are necessary for him/her. If he/she wants to expand the usage of energy by his/her house then he/she has to apply for a new EPC.

• The inspection is to be taken with great care as the reports will determine the quality of the household’s energy conservation scheme. Faults in the report will greatly hurt not only the owner of the household but also the DEA’s reputation as he/she is instructed to input the data accurately. As the data is needed to assess the household and provide the owner with the EPC, it essential for DEA to make accurate judgments and to provide viable data to the agency via the government approved software.

• People who does not follow the instructions of energy usage of the government and use illegal ways for using more energy than the allotted limit will be held by the government and prosecuted accordingly. The DEA helps to discover this kind of users who abuse the law and standards set by the government to help the people as well as the planet.

• It may seem that the industries of a country are using the most of the country’s energy, but by studying the data collected by the DEA, it shows that the households of England are using more energy annually as a collective group.

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Water Conservation – Why Low Flow Shower Heads Are Good For the Environment and You

Easiest Infovest21 Conservation Ways by Mark Kelly.

Water conservation is all about saving water and ultimately saves you money. Enjoying a hot shower is extremely relaxing however; the cost of a hot shower is four fold. There is the cost of the fresh water, water disposal or sewage costs, the cost to heat the water and the time required to take the shower. This article will explain how you can save on all three costs simply by switching to a water saving shower head.

The easiest way to begin conserving water in the shower is to switch to a low flow shower head. The lowest flow shower head that I have easily found delivers 1.6 US gallons per minute (USGPM), which uses 36 percent less water than an average shower head flowing at a rate of 2.5 USGPM. Don’t let the low volume fool you. We have two different water saving shower heads, both provide 1.6 USGPM and there is plenty of water to easily shower in.

Switching to a water saving shower head is one of the easiest things you can do to save money while showering. This is the type of change you do once and it pays you back for as long as you use it. Switching from a 2.5 to a 1.6 USGPM shower head can save a family of four up to 13,000 USG of water per year assuming each person is averaging 10 minutes for their shower. In dollar terms this is approximately $280 based on US averages found on the internet for 2009 in regards to fresh water, sewage and energy costs. For this analysis, I have assumed daily showers, your water temperature is a safe 105 oF (40.5 oC), that your inlet water temperature averages 55 oF (12.8 oC) and you are using an electric water heater.

Another great thing about water saving shower heads is that you do not have to pester the rest of your family to hurry up in the shower. Once the change is completed they can continue to take a long shower but you will know that they are using less water and you are saving 36 % of the cost every time they take a shower. As an example, when I changed my teenage sons shower head from a standard 2.5 to a water saving 1.6 USGPM head, he didn’t mention a thing about it and when I switched my brothers he quite enjoyed the water saving features.

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Goal Setting Means Getting Out the Piece of Paper

Unique Bret Dudl Goal Setting by Gary Gzik.

It doesn’t have to be New Year’s Eve to finally decide you want to set some goals. In fact, each day we set goals for ourselves. Whether they are small goals, like to meet for lunch with Sally, or large goals like deciding to lose 15 pounds in the next three months. The problem with our goals is that about 95% of people who set them fail to achieve them. Now it’s time to explain why.

What people don’t realize about goals is that you have to do more than just think them. First thing you should do, is write them down. Don’t write them on a piece of paper you won’t see 3 days from now, write them somewhere you will see each and every day.

Next, you need to decide what steps are going to help you achieve your goals. For example, if you want to find a new job, you may have to start by creating a new resume. Next, you might want to start searching online for job postings. And third, you may want to take a day to walk around to companies you are interested in and drop off your resumes. Writing out clear steps helps you picture the process to success. Also, it allows you to track where you are in your goal, so while you see progress, you can start to reward yourself.

It is important to have a visual map laid out in front of you. Where people fail at goal setting is that they don’t put everything on paper. That means tracking what goes right and even what goes wrong. For me, I do this with a success journal. I start by writing down my goals and what I need to do to accomplish them. Each night, I reflect on what I did that moved me forward (or what I didn’t – it’s okay to recognize a set back as long as I carry on). From there, I do an overall weekly reflection and a monthly one. I ask myself key questions that allow me to truly analyze how I have made progress. The truth is, without my success journal, I’d get lost in the commotion of my daily life, and my goals would just become another dream I never seemed to accomplish.

It doesn’t matter if your goal is big or small – the key to success is writing your goals down and making reflections. When you start to see progress with your efforts, it’s most important that you reward yourself for all of your efforts. And, if you find it hard keeping yourself on track, go ahead and grab yourself a success journal – they’re completely worth it.

Bret Dudl
Bret Dudl
Bret Dudl
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Goal Setting For Your Workouts

Bret Dudl Achieving Dreams by Bud Jeffries.

You’re either moving toward a goal or moving away from it. But the key phrase is movement. Anytime is a great time to pick new goals for yourself or to assess where you are in accomplishing your goals. That’s important to do periodically.

For now, let’s talk a little bit more about shaping your goals.

1. Quantify your goals. Goals with a very general nature often fall by the wayside. For example: Don’t just decide, “I want to become bigger.” Decide, “I want to gain 20lbs and an inch on my arms.” The difference in these two goals is that one is very general and hard to assess. While the other gave you specific levels to achieve which are easy to measure. This should apply to whatever type of goal you’re setting be it strength, fitness, family, money, whatever.

2. Prioritize your goals. This is especially important for those of you who wish to balance your life or who had a lot of spread out goals. If you want to achieve multiple different tasks in multiple different areas you cannot allow your focus to begin spread so thin that you become ineffective. Many times goals will do this for themselves, or you will find that you become so pointedly active in one particular achievement that you realize that it was the thing you most pointedly wanted to achieve in the first place. Remember that balance in life leads to the greatest happiness so when you prioritize what you want don’t sell yourself short by picking only a physical goal. Become a whole person with intellectual, spiritual and physical attributes.

3. Plan. A goal without a plan is just a dream. Dreams are great but if you want to actually achieve them you’ve got to put the machinery in place for it to happen. Rarely does someone stumble on the achievement of a dream with no effort. And never physically. You don’t squat 800 pounds the day after you simply wandered into the right gym. You don’t do it without desire and the planning to back up that desire. Once you’ve established what you want specifically what you want the most and it what order you’d like to achieve them you can set down the steps to get there. It’s important to do the first two steps first because they will dictate how you plan. When you need to do what, how much time and effort you need to spend on each thing and what other resources you need to learn from or get involved.

4. Be realistic. What does this mean? This means that in the day to day planning to achieve your specific quantified and prioritized goals you need to think intelligently about the steps necessary to get to them. This means how much time can I reasonably spend achieving these things? Do I have the foundational tools of learning or physical skills to start achieving these things or do I need to work on them first? If you can squat 225 today more than likely you can build the ability to squat 500 pounds, but not next week. Not without really understanding the form and your body and how to set up a training program and spending time and effort to get there.

5. Be daring. I like talking about goals and how to achieve them. But I don’t want you to get caught up in the minutia of the baby steps necessary to get there to the point that you lose your excitement for achieving something great. You’ve heard nothing ventured nothing gained, well if you don’t dare to believe that you can be great at something then you never will. The overall belief in yourself to dare greatly and the excitement that you might be the best at something will keep a fire lit under you to make progress towards your goals. And it effects every other area of your life. If you’re constantly striving to be the best athlete you can be, and are intelligent about it, it can carry over to being the best man, the best father, the best friend, best businessman, or whatever you want to excel in.

6. Learn to enjoy the process. Goals are the key to getting things done. It can also be the key to driving you insane. Especially if you’re an alpha personality type of a guy. Or if you built the drive to achieve things no matter what. Another part of the balancing of life is to learn to want your goals, but to be happy where you’re out. I don’t mean the sappy acceptance of a bad situation type of being-happy-where-you’re-at. I mean that many people who have left bad situations and were super motivated and achieved whatever level of success we see of them, also found that just because they changed their situation, they didn’t get any more happiness. Spiritual fulfillment first, then focus on goals is the key. If I didn’t know Jesus Christ and had come to a place of internal acceptance, regardless of what else I achieved, I’d just be a guy with high achievements who was still unhappy.

Life is too short to not seek happiness. Life is too short to not seek greatness. You can have both. Dan John has said some excellent things regarding the fact that as your physical goals increase so must your spiritual and mental and recovery times. That means you can’t spend all your time with the iron and no time resting, praying, or being a real person. If you can achieve your best lift or make the most money or whatever your goal, by shutting everything else out and selling your whole life to that or if you can have a balanced life and happiness and still make the same goal, why wouldn’t you do that? Balance is actually the key to greater success.

Bret Dudl
Bret Dudl
Bret Dudl
Bret Dudl
Bret Dudl