Self Improvement Newsletter- Issue # 513

Self Improvement Newsletter
Issue # 513, July 7-8, 2008

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* Self Improvement and Personal Growth Weekly Newsletter *
Issue # 513, Week of July 7-8, 2008
Publisher: David Riklan - http://www.SelfGrowth.com

In this issue:

-- Quotes of the Week
-- Recommended Product of the Week
-- Article: The 9 Principles of Creating Effective Team Building Activities - By Gina Gardiner
-- Article: Embracing Adversity for Achievement - By Chris Widener
-- Book Review: The Art of Influence: Persuading Others Begins With You - By Chris Widener
-- Brief News of the World
-- How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe from this Newsletter

Current Subscribers - 268,740 subscribers
Removal instructions are listed at the end of the newsletter.

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*** Quotes of the Week ***
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Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. - Mother Teresa, 1910-1997, Albanian-born Humanitarian and Missionary

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. - John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, 35th President of the United States

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. - Socrates, 470-399 B.C., Greek Philosopher

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*** Recommended Product of the Week ***
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* 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life Today! *

Finally, over 100 of the world's leading self-improvement experts have joined together to give you the complete collection of 101 insider secrets that show you how to instantly and positively improve your life! In this new book, "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life," experts including Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Denis Waitley will give you quick, simple, and proven success secrets. To learn more about this special offer, go here: http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/gwbook.html

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*** Article: The 9 Principles of Creating Effective Team Building Activities - By Gina Gardiner ***
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Many managers rely on serendipity to create effective teams. At times this creates excellent teams who in turn produce amazing results. Fantastic teams which jell think creatively together and become a force to be reckoned with. They often seem to grow out of nowhere. Managers enjoy the benefits without understanding how they could create the conditions to ensure great teamwork in all situations.

Relying on chance means that for the most part managers fail to maximize the potential resource a great team can offer. Choosing the right team building activities can make a substantial difference to how effectively your people work together.

1) Make time for team building rather than project development. Spending even a relatively short period of time on team BUILDING activities enhances understanding of the strength of working as a team. It offers a fantastic opportunity to deepen a sense of belonging to the organization and to communicate the strategic vision within the team.

2) Good team behavior should be modeled by all managers and expected from all team members.

3) Team building activities should ensure that members of the team have the opportunity to share their views and feelings in a safe environment where their opinion is valued and mutual respect is encouraged.

4) Team building activities which encourage the team to take responsibility for finding their own solutions encourage true ownership and cement relationships.

5) The strongest teams know their individual strengths and weaknesses and those of their colleagues. They work actively to make the most of the strengths of the team and ensure that weaknesses are addressed. Team building activities should inform this process. The central principle is that the collective team is so much stronger than that of the individuals.

6) Use team building activities to identify a collective language understood by everyone. This maximizes effective communication and minimizes misunderstanding. "What do we mean by high expectations?" "What does excellent mean in ---- context?" "How will we know when we have succeeded?" can elicit great discussion and generate a shared understanding.

7) Team building activities should have a clear purpose; the team should value them and see them as a productive use of time. A great starting point could be "What do you really enjoy about your job and why? What if anything gets in the way? What can we do as a team to make things even better?"

8) Challenging issues can be tackled through team building activities, but it is important not to score points, make someone feel isolated or picked on.

9) Team building activities can be really enjoyable too. The learning should be powerful and fun too.

Your team represents a valuable resource -- are you making the most of yours? Surely it is worth the investment of some time and carefully thought-out team building activities to ensure you nurture and develop the full potential of your staff.

About the Author:
Gina Gardiner is one of the UK's leading Leadership Coaches. Gina supports people at individual or organizational levels to develop confidence, leadership, and people skills. Gina is the author of two books, "Kick Start Your Career" and "How YOU Can Manage Your Staff More Effectively," and is also a Neuro Linguistic Master Practitioner and a qualified coach. To download her free management ecourse, go to http://www.graduatesolutions.co.uk

Check out the Experts page for Gina Gardiner, the Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to Team Building.

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* 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life Today! *

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*** Article: Embracing Adversity for Achievement - By Chris Widener ***
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"Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity." --Lou Holtz

Success in life depends upon being strong people with clear goals and indomitable spirits. Unfortunately most of us aren't born that way. We grow that way. And that growth can either come from us entering willfully into situations that will cause us to grow, or from the way we react when circumstances come upon us without our consent. The latter is what we call adversity.

Most of us spend our lives trying to avoid adversity, and I guess that is just as well. We shouldn't pursue adversity, but when she arrives, we should welcome her as a foe who, through our interaction with her, will make us into better people. Every contact we have with adversity gives us again the opportunity to grow personally and professionally and to forge our character into one that will achieve much later on.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts on adversity, and how it can help you to succeed in every area of your life and achieve your dreams.

Adversity brings out our resources.
Horace said, "Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it." When everything is going well, we coast. There isn't a lot of stress, and we don't have to draw too much on the resources that reside within us. But when adversity comes, we begin to draw upon each and every resource that we have in order to conquer the circumstances at hand. Adversity then, keeps us sharp. It keeps us using our personal muscle, if you will. That is a good thing because we grow through the use of our resources.

Adversity brings us together with others.
Sure, a team can have their problems with each other, but when they step on the court, when they experience the adversity of facing another obstacle, they pull together. One for all and all for one, as they say. The next time you experience adversity of some kind, keep your eyes open for how it can bring you together with your family, your co-workers, or your team. Then when you are through it, you will find a bond that was created that wasn't there before. Adversity makes us better people with stronger characters. Never underestimate the power of adversity to shape us inwardly. How will courage, discipline, and perseverance ever flourish if we are never tested? After adversity, we come out stronger people and able then to use our character and influence in an even greater way to lead those around us and to improve their lives as well as our own.

Adversity makes life interesting.
John Amatt said, "Without adversity, without change, life is boring." How true. Have you noticed that while we are in the middle of adversity, we only long to get out of it, but we then spend a lifetime recounting it to anyone who will listen? This is because it spices life up a little. Imagine how boring life would be if everything always went well, when there was never a mountain to be climbed.

Here are some questions for you to reflect upon before I close:

If you are in the middle of some adversity right now, what resources are you drawing on?
Who are you drawing closer to and working with?
What part of your character is being tested, and built up?
What can you do to view this adversity as one who will be better for it on the other side?

About the Author:
Chris Widener is the president of Made for Success, a company helping people turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives, and achieve their dreams. Visit their website at http://www.madeforsuccess.com

Check out the Experts page for Chris Widener.

*****
Chris Widener's new book, "The Art of Influence," is an inspiring parable on the power of influence. Purchase it and receive more than $560 worth of bonuses! Go to http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/artofinfluence.html

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* 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life Today! *

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*** Book Review: The Art of Influence: Persuading Others Begins With You - By Chris Widener ***
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Chris Widener turns conventional wisdom on its ear in this diminutive but powerful tale that argues that business success does not derive from prestigious degrees but from the careful cultivation of personal integrity and a commitment to excellence. The author couches his teachings in an inviting story of Marcus Drake, a brash up-and-comer with a newly minted M.B.A. and lofty career aspirations, who spends a weekend with one of the world's richest and most powerful businessmen, Bobby Gold. Zooming from deal to deal in chauffeured limos and hobnobbing with sports luminaries, the young man is star struck and intimidated by the entrepreneur's clout and wealth, which he assumes are the result of aggressive deal making and profit-taking. In the course of a few days, however, Drake's eyes are opened to Gold's Four Rules of Influence, which reveal the difference between the "science of business" and the art of true influence. This slim allegory, with its archetypal characters, packs a far greater wallop of wisdom through its spare and modern-day prose than many ponderous and prescriptive business and leadership books do in far more pages.

*****
Buy a copy of Chris Widener's book, "The Art of Influence," and receive a great selection of FREE bonuses! Go to http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/artofinfluence.html

The list price of this book is $16.95. To purchase it from Amazon.com for $11.53, a 32% discount, go here.

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*** Brief News of the World ***
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Positive:

* Liver Donor's Family, Recipient Unite Online *

They were precocious toddlers, both blond-haired and blue-eyed, separated by a thousand miles between Miami and a small Kentucky town. The two girls would never meet, but would be brought together through unthinkable tragedy: Trine Engebretsen was born with a genetic disorder that would require what at the time was an extremely rare liver transplant, and Amanda DeLapp would die at just 18 months after being stricken with a brain tumor. In an operation in Pittsburgh in 1984, Amanda's family donated their daughter's liver to Trine, making her one of the nation's youngest patients ever to receive a liver transplant. (Click here for complete news story)

* At 41, Dara Torres is in the swim for a fifth Olympics -- She first competed in 1984: 'The water doesn't know what age you are' *

Dara Torres is 41, a mother, and is off to an unprecedented fifth Olympics as a swimmer. It is a feat that impresses everybody -- fans, the media and her fellow competitors. But it doesn't impress the swimming pool. "The water doesn't know what age you are when you jump in," the oldest woman ever to make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team told TODAY's Matt Lauer Monday. "So why not?" (Click here for complete news story)

* Filipina with Upside-down Feet Walks for 1st Time: Filipina with Upside-down Clubbed Feet Takes 1st Steps after Corrective Surgery in New York *

A Filipino teenager who came to New York so doctors could perform surgery to untwist her severely clubbed feet took her first unaided steps Wednesday in pink-and-white sneakers -- the first shoes she's ever worn. "I'm very happy," Jingle Luis said with a smile. "It was exciting." The 15-year-old girl arrived at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in May with her mother for surgery and follow-up treatment. (Click here for complete news story)

** For more positive news, please visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/news.html

Other:

* Baby's first smiles give mom's brain a buzz: Tiny grins light up reward centers that lead to quality care, study says *

Any mother who's ever felt a jolt of joy at her baby's first grin knows how intoxicating that can be. Now, scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine say there's more to the baby buzz than just a rush of happy feelings. Turns out that seeing your own child smile actually activates the pleasure receptors in the brain typically associated with food, sex -- and drug addiction. "It may be that seeing your own baby's face is like a 'natural high,' said Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor and Texas Children's Hospital who studied the brain reactions of 28 first-time moms. (Click here for complete news story)

* What Your Car Trunk Says About You: Market Researcher Explores the Junk in People's Cars to Gather Consumption Information *

Wearing latex gloves, Kelley Styring picks through the interior of a Chevrolet Malibu like a CSI technician searching for clues. The contents -- every candy wrapper, napkin or torn-up plastic foam cup -- is laid out on a sheet, logged and photographed as owner and paid volunteer Dennis Shaffier looks on. Passersby in the Northridge Fashion Center's garage glance nervously as if they'd come upon a crime scene. They haven't. ... (Click here for complete news story)

* Poe Cottage in NYC park to undergo renovation *

It was many and many a year ago in a cottage in the Bronx where Edgar Allan Poe lived his last years and wrote some of his classic pieces. Long a tourist attraction, the small five-room building will soon give visitors an even better sense of Poe's final years with a planned renovation and the construction of a visitor center. "This is going to be the first complete restoration," said Abigail Lootens, director of communications for the Historic House Trust. (Click here for complete news story)

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