44 Priceless Moments Money Can’t Buy

If the economic downturn has clouded your mind with worry, then our new sister site, What Money Cannot Buy, is for you.  Over the past few weeks, What Money Cannot Buy users, a positive, resourceful group of individuals, have submitted dozens of simple pleasures and priceless moments that make them happy and don’t cost a dime.  So ignore the gloomy news forecasters and get your bliss on for free.
Here’s a sample of 44 entries that were recently submitted to the site:

1. Realizing you were smiling the entire time you were talking to someone, right after you hang up the phone.
2. The warm coziness of my own bed after I return home from a long business trip.
3. Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to settle a decision with one of your friends.
4. When a wild animal is tame enough to eat food right out of your hand.
5. Crying on my sister’s shoulder.  Without the help of my family and close friends, I would be lost in a world of emotion, stress, and confusion.
6. Picking and eating fresh fruit right off the tree.
7. The joy of watching a baby smile.
8. The proud look on my 4-year-old son’s face when he learns a new skill.
9. The bittersweet emotions that rush through your body on the very last day of high school.
10. Time with the love of my life.  Last May, my husband of 27 years was diagnosed with cancer and given 3 to 6 months to live.  We prayed, cried, loved, and laughed.  Now, 11 months later, we are still savoring every smile, kiss, and breath.  We know these moments will end sooner rather than later, but we are so grateful for the time we do have together.
11. The rush you get when you’re driving on the open road and your favorite song randomly plays on the radio.
12. The comforting sound of my father’s car pulling into the driveway when he finally returns from a long business trip.
13. When my baby girl looked up at me and said, “Daddy!” for the very first time.
14. Seeing two elderly folks who are madly in love.  It’s a sight of love that has surpassed the tests of time.
15. Kissing in the rain.
16. The feeling of cool morning grass under your bare feet when you walk out to get the newspaper at sunrise.

Become an Autodidact: 10 Ways to Become a Self Taught Master

Some of the greatest people in history have educated themselves to a large degree using a process known as autodidacticism. This is something that's more easily undertaken these days with the great wealth of online tools available to anyone.

Whether you've gone to college or not, you can learn just about anything these days on your own. Want to learn about the classics? Carpentry and home maintenance? Philosophy or cooking? Chess or computer programming? It's all online, and with a little bit of excitement, you can motivate yourself to learn a subject in a growing number of ways.

Why self-education? Well, besides the obvious reasons of wanting to improve yourself, prepare yourself for success, and just learn as much as you can, self-education offers a few extra benefits: you can learn at your own pace, and in your own way. You can follow your passions, and learn about things that excite you. There's no price for failure, but there's every reward for success.


How do you go about becoming an autodidact? The answer is simple: any way you want. I would suggest you set aside just a little time each day to learn a specific subject, but that really depends on your learning style. Some people learn all in one great rush: they'll stay up late hours for a few days in a row, consuming everything they possibly can about a subject. Others are overwhelmed by an approach like that, and would rather learn a little each day.

However you go about it, here are some of the best tools for the modern autodidact:

1. Wikipedia. A vast repository of great and useful articles, Wikipedia is the autodidact's dream. You could surf it for hours, days on end, or you could use one of many tools to make daily learning a breeze. One of the best is the Articles of the Day feature --sign up to get it in your email box. Another great option that I've tried is making Wikipedia's random page your home page.
   
2. Online Courses. Today you can learn from the best colleges and universities, from the comfort of your own home. Just a few of the online offerings: Berkeley, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame.
   
3. Chapter a day. Don't have time for books? Read them the easy way: a chapter a day is emailed to you or added to your RSS reader by DailyLit.com, which has a growing selection of free books.
   
4. Word a day. Improve your vocabulary by leaps and bounds through the FreeDictionary, which has some great features you can subscribe to,including these RSS feeds: Article of the Day, In the News, and This Day in History.
   
5. Take quizzes. One of the most fun ways of learning is through games and quizzes. If you do a quick Google search, you can find quizzes on just about any topic, including math, grammar, the U.S. Constitution ... you name it. Also try flashcards for effective learning.
   

Working Hard Is not Enough. Here's 18 Ways to Work Smart

All of us work hard in life - there is no doubt about it. We work hard in our jobs so we can excel at work. We work hard to maintain our relationships. We work hard so we can achieve the best results in our life.

After working hard for an extended period of time, there comes a point when we realize that there's only so much we can do by working hard. Don't get me wrong - working hard is important. I'm a firm advocate of hard work - I can be quite the workaholic. I can go on working non-stop to get something done. Hard work is definitely the brick of success.

However, when you have 24 hours a day, just like everyone else, you have to start working smart too (on top of working hard) to get the maximum value for your time and effort. Working hard gives you results, and working hard AND smart at the same time gives you the top results. In this article, I will share 18 of my best, personal tips on working smart. Apply them to your life and you will experience better self-management, higher productivity and more results. Here they are:

1. Get clear on the objective.
   Everything has an objective. It's just a matter of whether you know it or not. What is the end objective you are looking for? The people who don't know the objective of what they are doing are the ones who waste the most time. If you know your objective, you can be laser-focused and cut right to the chase. The clearer you are, the better.
2. Create a vision.
   Now that you know your objective, what is your vision? See the objective as your direction, and your vision as your destination. Knowing your objective lets you know where to travel in, while knowing your vision helps you charge forward.
3. Take the 80/20 route.
   There are always many different ways to achieve the same outcome. 80/20 route refers to the route that takes the least effort but gives you the maximum results. What's the most effective route that will get you from where you are to where you want to be? Take that path.
4. Go for high impact items.
   There are endless number of things you can do to achieve a goal. Go for the most important tasks - the ones that cause the highest impact. For example in school, I would not attend lectures if I felt they would not make a difference to my learning. As I develop my blog, I concentrate on the key tasks that make the most difference such as writing high quality content for my readers and spreading the word about my articles.
5. Create structures to maintain your flow.
   If you know how motivation works, you will know it comes in bursts and waves. It's not possible to maintain a 100% full motivated state every single second. Hence, you need to create/leverage on your environment to maintain your flow. Examples are your physical environment, people you hang out with, your routine and communities you are a part of.
6. Stop being a perfectionist.
   Being a perfectionist isn't all that perfect if it prevents you from achieving more. Release the perfectionist mindset. Stop obsessing about the details and specifics; they often take care of themselves.
7. Learn from others.
   There are great resources, smart people, direct opportunities and top books around you all the time. Learn to make use of them. When I started out in my personal development industry and with my blog, I read materials from the experts and consulted the top bloggers, which helped me gain important insights immediately. Even today, I continue to do so as I expand my work. There is never a stop to how much you can learn from others.
8. If it works, stick to it.
   If there is already a success formula that's working, then reapply that formula. There's no need to innovate or reinvent the wheel for the sake of it. Innovate only if there's value in doing so.
9. Ask for help.
   Most of us prefer to do things by ourselves and not disturb others. That's a great work ethic, but sometimes asking for help gets us further than just doing it alone. People love to help. Many readers often email me at The Personal Excellence Blog for advice/help and I make an effort to answer their questions, because I want to see them do well too. Ask and you might get an answer. If you don't ask, you'll never get.
10. Cut out the fluff.
    Going for high impact items (#4) means you have to cut out the fluff. There are the things that need to be done, and then there are the nice-to-do things that don't exactly contribute to anything in the long-run. Don't do things unless they are absolutely needed.

Strategies to Help Build Your Self Esteem

Everyone will go through a phase where self-image and self-esteem are questioned and molded. During this existential crisis it’s important to establish a healthy sense of self-worth and maintain well-being. This means avoiding people, places, and things that make you feel lousy, and starting to cultivate and engage in those activities and relationships that build you up.

To make sure you work through these moments of self-doubt, follow the five strategies below.

Experience Success
First and foremost, the most effective way to begin changing self-defeating thoughts and behavior is to experience success and accomplish goals. Psychologist Martin Seligman explains that it’s not the praise and positive things people say, but encountering and experiencing repeated successes. It’s important to seek out situations where you are likely to succeed. Start by setting achievable goals. As you begin to experience success your self-esteem will follow, and the pursuit of bigger goals can be approached.

Talk to Yourself Positively
What you think is what you are, and what you will become. This is why you must begin to alter self-defeating thoughts in order to experience success. Thinking we can accomplish something is probably one of the biggest keys to getting started and following through on a task. It builds resilience and provides a buffer in meeting set-backs. Think of somepositive affirmations that you can immediately believe in and connect with. There is no need to be overly positive and optimistic, just make sure to balance your real-self and ideal-self concept so there is congruence between the two. No one is perfect, so if you’re your own worst critic, take it easy on yourself.

Emphasize your Strengths
Similar to positive affirmations is focusing on our strengths. No matter how low our self-esteem may be, we all have strengths and weakness, and it’s important to begin focusing on ourpositive attributes and start building from there. If I know I’m good at basketball, and I enjoy it, why not focus on this activity. Work with your strengths and natural abilities. If your natural talents revolve around an activity you don’t enjoy, or your passions lies elsewhere, it’s time to develop your skills in other activities. Remember, skills can always be developed and we can always learn something new, but in the mean time, don’t forget about your natural talents.

Develop your Skills
If you are willing to take a more time consuming route to become the person you want to be, you can begin to develop skills that you don’t feel come so naturally. People can learn, grow, and develop in areas that before were completely uncomfortable. Particularly, in today’s age, there are countless references and sources of knowledge, where you can gain experience and understanding of almost any topic. Most likely, no matter what it is you intend to do, someone else already has experience doing and they can provide valuable wisdom into the process in order to make the transition much easier.

34 Little Ways to Share With the World

                                                               Share, and make lives better.

As kids, we’re taught that sharing is good, and yet competition is what is really drilled into us. We compete for profits, positions in a corporation, status symbols, space.
We’re tearing each other down instead of building each other up.
A culture of sharing has always existed, from the earliest tribal times, and it’s seeing a resurgence on the Internet these days. This is a good thing.
I’ve written many times before about helping others, developing an attitude of giving and compassion, and having faith in humanity. As have many others.
But now we’re going to look at where the rubber meets the road: how you can start sharing today. Build communities, beautiful public spaces, stop thinking about private property and how you can build fences, and start thinking about ways to use common resources to reduce wastefulness and to start tearing down those fences.
Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Help an entrepreneur with a Kiva donation.
2. Volunteer your services with a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or other charity organization.
3. Donate money, food, or others goods to charity.
4. Bake cookies or brownies and share with a neighbor.
5. Put your favorite recipes on a blog and share with the world.
6. Volunteer your expertise (whatever it is) to the world, and give those services to anyone who needs them.
7. Give step-by-step instructions for doing something valuable you know how to do, online, for all to read.
8. Give your books away to friends or charities.
9. Start a community garden in your neighborhood, or contribute to an existing one.
10. Start a CSA, or become a member of one that exists.
11. Become a member of Freecycle, and participate.
12. Join or form, and participate in a cooperative (food, bikes, books, housing, more).
13. Give people a ride in your car. Carpool.
14. Let strangers use your car when you don’t need it.
15. Hold potlucks every week, rotating among friends/family.
16. Look into co-housing.
17. If you own copyrighted work, uncopyright it.
18. Perform random acts of kindness.
19. When someone wants to repay you for something, ask them to pay it forward instead.
20. Contribute code to Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS).
21. Donate money to a small programmer who has created FOSS, or buy shareware.
22. Clean up a park near you.
23. Sign up, participate, and contribute to bike sharing, car sharing, and other sharing organizations.
24. Help transform streets back into public spaces meant to be shared by everyone. (more)
25. If you’re in southern California, check out Neighborgoods.