Become Innovative in Your Life...

Author : receivesuccess

It's a talent that everyone has, yet they think they don't. The power of innovation. If you've ever marvelled at somebody's creative prowess, guess what, you can create and innovate too. It just takes time. Everyone is born creative. The box of crayons in kindergarten were not limited to those who possessed potential; because the truth is, everybody has potential.You know how long it took to learn to ride a bike or drive or to never commit the same mistake again? It's the same with innovation. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of time before this mind function comes easily when called. This article will teach you a few tips on how to bring innovation into your life.Don't listen to what other people say. Follow the beat of your own drum. Allowing for the input of other people will only bring cacophony to the music you are trying to make. If you have an original idea, don't waste your time and effort trying to make people understand. They won't. And the help you will probably get comes in the form of negative feedback. If all those geniuses listened to their peers, we would probably still be living in the middle ages.Spend time on it. I cannot stress that enough, although, please do not mistake this tip to tell you to quit your day job entirely. Do not. This involves some tricky time management but with a little discipline you'll be able to squeeze both in. Exercise. Take a walk. Run a mile or two. Send all those endorphins coursing through your veins. Exercising certainly clears and relaxes your mind and allows for anything to pop up. Record your dreams. Aren't some of them just the craziest things that your conscious mind would never have thought of? If you've had these dreams before, and I'm sure you have, this only shows you the untapped innovative power that you have lying within. So jot down those notes. Those dreams may just create an innovative spark in you.Find your own style. You can always tell a Van Gogh from a Matisse. You'll know Hemingway wrote something by the choice of words on the paper. So it is the same with you. People will appreciate your innovation more because it is uniquely yours and that no one else would have thought of what you were thinking. That will let people see how valuable an asset you are. Don't hide behind nifty gadgets or tools. You don't need the most expensive set of paints to produce a masterpiece. The same way with writing. You don't need some expensive fountain pen and really smooth paper for a bestseller. In fact, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of the Harry Potter Series on bits of tissue. So what if you've got an expensive SLR camera if you're a crappy photographer? Who cares if you've got a blinking laptop if you can't write at all? The artist actually reduces the number of tools he has as he gets better at his craft: he knows what works and what doesn't. Nothing will work without passion. What wakes you up in the mornings? What keeps the flame burning? What is the one thing that you'll die if you don't do? Sometimes people with talent are overtaken by the people who want it more. Think the hare and the tortoise. Ellen Degeneres once said that if you're not doing something that you want to do, then you don't really want to do it. And that's true. Sometimes you just want something so bad you become a virtual unstoppable. And that is passion. Passion will keep you going. Don't worry about inspiration. You can't force it; inspiration hits when you least expect it to, for those unpredictable yet inevitable moments you should prepare. An idea could strike you on the subway, yet alas, you poor unfortunate soul; you have no sheet of paper to scribble down a thought that could change the world. Avoid these disasters. Have a pen and paper within your arm's reach at all times.I hope this article has helped you bring more innovation into your life. Keep in mind that you're doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else's. But soon enough they will notice, and everything should snowball from there. Scott Sutton is a savvy and successful internet marketer working with the #1 most visited personal development website in the world. Learn more at:www.receivesuccess.com/new

Category : Mentoring

Why Are Nurses Leaving Clinical Nursing? Not Because of ER!

Author : Vickie Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD

A couple of years ago, Baltimore's Center for Nursing Advocacy started a letter-writing campaign against NBC and the producers of ER. This group was protesting the episode where a central character, nurse Abby Lockhart (actress Maura Tierney), chucked her nursing career to go to medical school. The Baltimore group claims the TV show "is perpetuating long-standing misrepresentations that are contributing to the nursing shortage."Never mind the fact that ER watched by 20 million viewers is far from reality television. The notion that the show is contributing to the nursing shortage is simply untrue. This TV program could depict nursing as the most glamorous career on the planet and real nurses would still be leaving their hospital jobs in droves.Nurses are quitting because they are understaffed, underappreciated, underinsured, underpaid and under-you-name-it. Most nurses complain about the lack of respect from doctors. Sure you hear about record-breaking salaries and bonuses, but compared to whose record? At an average pay of $22 an hour, nurses are still among the lowest-paid professionals in this country.Managed care is another reason nurses are leaving the bedside. It goes against everything our profession stands for. Under managed care, nurses are frequently denied the opportunity to deliver the quality of care they expect to deliver. Some patients die unnecessarily because nurses have too little time to spend with them. Yet when everything turns sour, nurses face more nder managed care, nurses are frequently denied the opportunity to deliver the quality of care they expect to deliver. Some patients die unnecessarily becresponsibility and liability than ever. Many nurses I know endure nightmarish schedules, working 26 weekends and five holidays a year. Nurses also face serious on-the-job risks, such as bloodborne pathogens, latex allergies and back injuries from those long shifts pounding hospital floors and doing more lifting with less help. Isn't it ironic that the injured and disabled are treating the sick? No wonder nursing numbers are shrinking.Speaking of disabilities, just look around at how many nurses smoke, drink and are overweight. Such symptoms of intense stress occur when people have too little time to properly care even for themselves.Nurses are finding their own answers to these dilemmas. According to an American Nursing Association (ANA) poll, almost 19% of nurses do not work in clinical nursing. A study by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research reveals more than 20% of hospital registered nurses plan to leave their jobs in the next year.The significant development is not the fact that nurses are leaving or even why they're leaving that's obvious. The news is where they are going. When nurses aren't valued in one arena, they take their nursing education and expertise and go elsewhere. They develop new careers outside traditional healthcare settings.Maybe the Center for Nursing Advocacy should contemplate that fact. They might even suggest that ER present an episode about a nurse who quits her hospital job to become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.Then those 20 million ER fans would really be watching "reality TV." Inc. Top 10 Entrepreneur Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD is the founder and president of Vickie Milazzo Institute, the oldest and largest legal nurse consultant certification company. Pioneered the legal nurse consulting profession in 1982. She is the author of the self help book for women, Inside Every Woman.

Category : General Medical: Hospitals

Get Personal by Adding Your Voice to Your Site

Author : Jeffrey Abbott
Many customers in today's online business world are shopping around online for a reason; either they are too lazy to go to stores, do not like the masses of people, or they might just want to shop in the comfort of their home. What ever the reason might be, we can conclude that they are not in a store, but rather they are on your site. Just because your businesses is online doesn't mean that you can't conduct your business like that of a normal store. Compare your site to a clothing store in a mall for example. When the customer comes in, a sales representative normally comes to the door and asks if they need help. A web site doesn't normally do this, but you can if you want to. Record an audio clip that not only includes a sales pitch and introduction but also a site map that includes the important parts of the site. Not only are you getting personal with your customer, you are also pointing them in the direction of your product. Here are a few tips to keep in mind about audio clips:#1 - Make Sure They can Turn it OffThere is nothing worse than listening to someone drone on on how they made massive amounts of money, and so can you! If you do include audio with your site, make sure you include a stop button. You might think you sales pitch is interesting and informative, but the customer might not. They might also want to play it over again to catch a part they missed, so make sure to include a play button as well.#2 - Include a PictureMaybe is just cause we watch TV alot but when we hear audio, we want something to look at. Take a picture of yourself and put it above your new stop and play buttons. It will add to the personal touch and also give the people something to look at while they listen to you.#3 - Don't Take too LongPeople have short attention spans so introduce yourself and your site, make your pitch, point them in the right direction, and then stop. You can always include more audio files with success stories elsewhere on your site.#4 - Don't be too LoudIt is hard to know how loud to make your clip but it is better to be soft than to be loud. The user can always turn up the volume if they are interested. Adding a volume "slider" next to your play and stop buttons and below your picture will round off the audio clip look.So there you have it, four great pieces of advice when looking to add an audio file to your site. If you can do it yourself, put one up there, but if you can't, get someone to help you. It is relatively easy and so it should not be too expensive. Good luck and be creative!Jeffrey Abbott is a respected author and editor of eMoneyReport.comVisit the site at http://www.emoneyreport.com and read reviews on programs that help you to make money from your own home. eMoneyReport offers a simple and easy format to find articles relating to all types of online business and website promotion.
Category : Politics

Developing Your Estate Plan

Author : David Grimaldi
You've spent years growing your wealth and building your estate, so it is just good sense to plan to protect your assets and pass them on to your beneficiaries according to your wishes. When you're ready to sit down and develop an estate plan, keep these tips in mind. Write a will. If you do not have a will when you die, the law of your state may then determine what happens to your estate, your assets and any minor children. In addition, even if you have a Will, the estate administration process, usually governed by probate court, can be slow, sometimes expensive and open to the public.Fund a living trust. Follow through if you set up a living trust. Until you transfer ownership of property or assets to it, the trust is not worth any more to you or your beneficiaries than the paper it's printed on. Unfortunately, many revocable living trusts are set up but are never funded.Re-title "JTWROS" property. Joint-Tenancy-With-Right of Survivorship titling of assets may reduce flexibility in estate planning. Although probate is avoided at the first joint owner's death, estate-tax saving opportunities may be limited. Use both spouses' estate exemption amount. Leaving all property and assets to a spouse may avoid estate taxes at the death of the first spouse, but it wastes the estate tax credit of the "first-to-die." A credit shelter trust can allow each spouse's estate exemption amount to be utilized, thus sheltering more assets from estate tax liabilities.Re-title ownership of life insurance policies. Most life insurance policies are owned by the insured, causing the policy's face amount to be included in that person's estate at his or her death. Policy owners may consider giving policies directly to the beneficiary or transferring the policies to an irrevocable life insurance trust. Either strategy could help reduce estate taxes.Choose an appropriate executor. Naming an inexperienced family member as executor could complicate the demanding task of settling your estate. This is especially true because the time following a death is often emotionally difficult.You might want to look into the benefits of naming a trust company or other corporate fiduciary as your executor. Organize your paperwork and files. If you do not provide your executors and beneficiaries with all the paperwork or files pertaining to your property, assets and wishes, improper distribution and management of your estate may result.Update your estate plan. Updating your estate plan from time to time is important so that it is implemented exactly according to your wishes. You will want to update your estate plan when there are changes in your family (births, marriages, divorces, deaths, etc.), when the value of your estate significantly increases or decreases, when tax laws change, if you move to another state or if your business or career changes. Be sure to consult your tax and legal advisors before making any tax-related or legally related decisions. And during the estate planning process, don't forget to involve your financial advisor in investment-related issues.For More Information If you'd like to learn more about Developing an Estate Plan, please call (866)651-8625.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
These materials are provided free of charge for general informational and educational purposes to our brokerage clients. These materials do not take into account your personal circumstances and we do not represent that this information is complete or applicable to your situation. We may change these materials at any time in the future without notice to you. We are not providing you with investment, tax or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, investment or other advisors to determine whether the analyses in these materials apply to your specific circumstances. Particular legal, accounting and tax restrictions applicable to you, margin requirements and transaction costs may significantly affect the structures discussed, and we do not represent that results indicated will be achieved. We are not offering to buy or sell any financial instrument or inviting you to participate in any trading strategy. Investments and services are offered through Morgan Stanley DW Inc., member SIPC.Morgan Stanley
Financial AdvisorDavid Grimaldi
Morgan Stanley
Financial Advisor
Madison Avenue Location
(866)651-8625
Category : Finance:Estate-Plan-Trusts

Killing Our Children

Author : Laurence B. Winn

How to Find a Niche For Your Blog

Author : Mike Seddon

It is important to realize that your choice of a niche can have a significant influence on the success or failure of your new blog.

Deciding on a theme can be a daunting task. What exactly are you going to write about? Your niche needs to be a popular topic that many people are interested in.

If you are going to blog about yourself, then you better have a very interesting life, or you will have difficulty keeping your readers coming back for more. You should choose a topic that will make it comparatively easy to grow your readership and build a strong following.

Since many bloggers write about their favorite subjects, its not a bad idea to start brainstorming by writing down a list of your hobbies, interests, and any areas of professional expertise. Now try to determine a niche you can target within one of those areas.

Should you blog about automobiles in general, or the latest sports cars? If you choose too narrow a theme then you may struggle to come up with regular, fresh content. And if you choose a topic thats too general your readers may be confused by a jumble of seemingly unrelated posts.

You might consider niches within the following general topic areas which have proven to be popular for blogging:

Automobiles
Computers & Information Technology
Digital Cameras
Gadgets
Music
News
Photography
Politics
Shopping

If you plan to use Pay-Per-Click advertising to get traffic to your blog, then remember also that the hottest topics might have the highest pay-per-click fees.

You can sometimes get great niche ideas by browsing at Blog directories and sites like Google Blog Search: http://blogsearch.google.com

Since it is so time-consuming trying to com up with the perfect niche idea, many bloggers and webmasters have turned to specialized niche discovery tools. I particularly recommend Online Gold Finder and NicheTopics.

With Online Gold Finder you can uncover profitable, undiscovered online markets with just a couple of clicks. Read more about Online Gold Finder at: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/goldfinder.htm

NicheTopics is quite handy in a different way. You get to use some great research thats already been completed by an expert. It is a ready-to-use report on 109 unique, untapped niches. Read more about NicheTopics: http://www.moneyforblogging.com/nichetopics.htm

The tools above are not free but consider for a moment. If you are planning or would even like - to make some money from your blog, then it will be worthwhile to start off with a well-researched niche.

If a particular tool uncovers a good niche that pays an additional $5 a day, it will pay for itself inside the first month!

Dont forget, it will be very difficult to change the theme and niche of your blog later. So invest some time wisely during your planning stage.

You will be off to a strong start in building a successful blog.

About the author:

Mike Seddon is a writer, entrepreneur, and webmaster. He is the author of the popular e-book, How to Build a Money Making Blog, available from http://www.MoneyForBlogging.com

Category : Writing

Speed Up Your Surfing with Bookmarks

Author : Deepak Morris
Do you visit the same sites often? Do you, for example, log into your web-based email account, visit online forums / networks, visit blogs, etc. on a daily basis?If so, and you aren't already using bookmarks to manage your online activities, this article will tell you how to speed up your surfing by using and managing bookmarks. If you're already using bookmarks, the article has useful tips on exporting your bookmarks and saving them on a website. This comes in handy when you're away from your computer - on a vacation, say - and still want to visit the sites you surf regularly.1. First, the basics1.1 What is a bookmark?Bookmark is Netscape / Mozilla's term for a shortcut link to a website. Internet Explorer calls them "Favorites". When you bookmark a site, your browser places a link to it under the "Bookmark" or "Favorites" menu at the top. For the sake of brevity, we shall be using the term "bookmark" to mean bookmark or favorite site throughout this article.1.2 Bookmarking a site:Bookmarking a site is the essence of simplicity. When you visit a site that you'll be visiting regularly, simply press Ctrl+D (Hit the D key while keeping Ctrl pressed). Depending on your browser, this will add a link to the bookmarks straightaway or ask you to confirm that you'd like to add the site.1.3 Using bookmarks:Bookmarks offer a quick way to visit sites. Once you bookmark a site, you don't have to type the URL (address) of the site when you wish to visit it.When you want to visit a site you've bookmarked, click the Bookmark or Favorites menu item. You will get a drop down list of all your bookmarks or your browser will open a new pane / frame with the list of sites. Some browsers add bookmarks on their own, so don't be surprised if you see links to sites you never bookmarked. Clicking on any of the bookmarks will take you directly to the site.1.3.1 TIP:If you're using Mozilla Firefox, right-click on the bookmark to get a context-sensitive menu that allows you to open the link in a new window or new tab. You can thus continue to work in the current window while the bookmarked site opens in the new window / tab.2. Managing BookmarksIf you bookmark a large number of sites, your list of bookmarks can get pretty unwieldy. You may need to manage or organise your bookmarks so that you can find them quickly.Internet Explorer has an "Organize" button that opens a window with various options, such as "Create New Folder", "Move to Folder", etc. Mozilla Firefox / Netscape have a "Manage Bookmarks" link that similarly opens a window to manage your bookmarks.2.1 What you can do to manage your Bookmarks1. You can create folders that will contain similar bookmarks. This is useful when you have several sites of the same type in your bookmarks list. For example, you may create a MAIL folder and store links to Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. there. You may create a NETWORKS folder to store links to online networks like Ryze, LinkedIn, Ecademy, etc. You may create a FORUMS folder to store links to discussion groups you frequent.2. You can create separators, lines between bookmarks, so that you can see at a glance the groups of bookmarks. This is useful when you have too few bookmarks to store in folders, but too many to allow you to find the desired bookmark quickly.3. You can move bookmarks up or down in the list or into folders. You'll need to do this in order to keep bookmarks to similar sites together. To move a bookmark, simply click-drag it to where you want it, up or down in the list.4. You can change the properties of the bookmark, such as its name or description.3. Export your BookmarksBoth, IE and Mozilla Firefox allow you to export your bookmarks to an html file that you can store on your hard disk, floppy disk or CD. This provides a back up in case you lose your bookmarks (if you have to re-format your hard disk because of a virus, for example). You can import the bookmarks from the file at any time.3.1 To Export your Bookmarks from Internet ExplorerGo to File-->Import and ExportThis will start the Import and Export Wizard, which will guide you through the steps to export your bookmarks. Make sure you save the file to a drive other than C: so that it will remain available to you in case you have to re-format your C drive.3.2 To Export your Bookmarks from Mozilla Firefox / NetscapeOpen the Bookmarks Manager window by selecting Bookmarks-->Manage Bookmarks.Click File-->Export in the Bookmarks Manager window (NOT the main browser window).Navigate to the Drive / Folder where you want to store the file and click "Save". It is good practice to save the file on a drive other than C: so it remains available to you in case you have to re-format your C Drive.4. Store your Bookmarks on the WebThere may be times when you're away from your computer, but still need to access your bookmarks. There are many free sites on the net that allow you to store your bookmarks so they are available to you no matter where you are.If you google "Free Bookmark Managers" (with the quotes) you will get links to dozens of web-based Bookmark Managers that allow you to store your bookmarks on their servers. You may need to create an account with them to use the service.To upload your bookmarks to your account you may first need to export them to a file (explained in "3. Export your Bookmarks" above). You may then upload the file to your account by following the directions given on the site.So what are you waiting for? Start bookmarking sites now and enjoy hassle-free surfing.Deepak Morris
http://www.freewebs.com/deepakmorris/
Category : Crafts