Discover Your Passion: Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow

You’ve heard this cute advice a hundred times: Do what you love and the money will follow. If you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. But what if you have no idea what your passion is?

It’s time you find out.

It’s time to live your passion.

In real estate, there’s a concept called “highest and best use” (HABU). Properties are valued based on the best use of the land that will produce the highest value. For example, appraisers may value a two-bedroom house on a busy street next to retail shops as if a strip mall occupied the land, because the best use of the property that produces the highest value is a strip mall and not a house. In other words, other two-bedroom houses in the town might be worth $200,000, but an investor may pay $600,000 just for the land in order to build a strip-mall.

When you use the other 8 hours to create, you must focus on your HABU — your unique talents, skills, and experience that produce the most value. The dead weight that so many people drag around with them is their feeling of unfulfillment at work. Part of the reason for this lethargy is that most people feel underutilized and don’t have the flexibility to do what they do best. We get boxed into positions and job descriptions that we can do adequately, but usually don’t tap into our core strengths.

This is why creating during the other 8 hours is so much fun. You create your own job description. You are your own boss and you can focus on what it is you enjoy the most and do the best. You might not be performing at HABU during your working hours, but in order to maximize your chance for success during the other 8 hours, you need to focus on projects that use your best and most unique talents. Duh, right? I wish it were so obvious.

Over and over and over again, I see people starting businesses and getting engaged in projects that are so completely outside of their best use. They focus exclusively on what will provide them the “highest” value-that is, those projects that look like they’ll make them the most money — but they don’t first consider what their personal “best use” is. I’ve seen guys who can’t set the time on their VCR (I guess I’m dating myself) try to start technology companies. I’ve seen others who can’t balance their checkbook try to start finance companies. I’ve seen somebody try to launch a video game application who had no gaming experience (and in fact, didn’t even like games).

And guess what? All those ventures failed. Why? You have to be passionate about what you’re doing or you’ll give up after the first setback. The more you love what you do the more you will persevere. Also, when you capitalize on your unique qualities and gifts, you’re making it easier on yourself. If you start something you’re halfway into or that doesn’t capture your talents, you’re making it much harder to succeed.

Exercise: How to Discover Your Passion

 So what’s your highest and best use? Here’s a simple exercise you can do that will help you pinpoint where you should focus. Make three lists. On the first list, write down all of the things you are good at — everything that you do well and that you have mastery over. On the next list, write down everything you enjoy — hobbies, special interests, games, TV shows, etc. Finally, list everything that gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. Now for the magic . . . find common elements across all three lists. That’s when you’ve discovered your HABU. That’s what you should focus on in the other 8 hours.

Don’t go for the “sexy” ones just because you think they’ll be the most exciting or have the most potential. Focus on those that feel right for you — those that mesh well with your skills, interests, and greater purpose.

Source: http://www.pickthebrain.com/

Meaning of Colors

Color can influence our emotions, our actions and how we respond to various people, things and ideas. Much has been studied and written about color and its impact on our daily lives.

Many people believe that colors are powers, and that colored stones are especially powerful. Here are some of the meanings of colors and the energies contained in their corresponding stones.

Here the list of colors and their meaning:

• Red symbolizes: action, confidence, courage, vitality
• Pink symbolizes: love, beauty
• Brown symbolizes: earth, order, convention
• Orange symbolizes: vitality with endurance
• Gold symbolizes: Wealth, prosperity, wisdom
• Yellow symbolizes: wisdom, joy, happiness, intellectual energy
• Green symbolizes: life, nature, fertility, well being
• Blue symbolizes: youth, spirituality, truth, peace
• Purple symbolizes: Royalty, magic, mystery
• Indigo symbolizes: intuition, meditation, deep contemplation
• White symbolizes: Purity, Cleanliness
• Black symbolizes: Death, earth, stability
• Gray symbolizes: Sorrow, security, maturity

You can find more explanation in this article

Type of Stress

Managing your stress is no easy feat, particularly since there are different types of stress: acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress results from an acute situation, such as a sudden, unexpected negative event or a difficult task like organizing a wedding or planning for a conference. When the event passes or the task ends, the stress goes away. Acute stress has numerous symptoms: anger or irritability, anxiety, depression, tension headaches or migraines, back pain, jaw pain, muscular tension, digestive problems, cardiovascular problems, and dizziness.

Acute stress can be episodic, meaning that one stressful event follows another, creating a continuous f low of acute stress. Someone who is always taking on too many projects at once may suffer from episodic acute stress, rather than simply acute stress. Workaholics and those with the socalled Type A personality (i.e., perfectionists) are classic sufferers of episodic acute stress.

I sometimes refer to acute stress as the good stress. Often, good things come from this kind of stress, even though it feels stressful or bad in the short term. Acute stress chalxii lenges us to stretch ourselves beyond our capabilities. It is what makes us meet deadlines, push the outside of the envelope, and invent creative solutions to our problems. Consider a few examples of good stress:

• Challenging projects

• Positive life-changing events (moving, changing jobs, or ending unhealthy relationships)

• Confronting fears, illnesses, or people that make us feel bad

These situations can be difficult to endure, but often the outcome is good for us in the long term.

Essentially, whenever a stressful event triggers emotional, intellectual, or spiritual growth, it is a good stress. It is often not the event itself but your response to the event that determines whether it is a good or bad stress. Even the death of a loved one can sometimes lead to personal growth. For example, we may see something about ourselves we did not see before, such as new resilience. In this case, grieving a death can be a good stress, though we are sad in the short term. What I call the bad stress is known as chronic stress. Chronic stress results from boredom and stagnation, as well as prolonged negative circumstances. Essentially, when no growth occurs from the stressful event, it is bad stress. When negative events don’t seem to yield anything positive in the long term, but more of the same, the stress can lead to chronic and debilitating health problems. Some examples of bad stress include stagnant jobs or relationships, disability from terrible accidents or diseases, long-term unemployment, chronic poverty, racism, or lack of opportunities for change. These kinds of situations can lead to depression, low self-esteem, and a host of physical illnesses. In addition to acute and chronic stress, stress can be defined in even more precise ways:

• Physical stress (from physical exertion)

• Chemical stress (from exposure to a toxin in the environment, including from substance abuse)

• Mental stress (from taking on too much responsibility and worrying about all that has to be done)

• Emotional stress (from feelings such as anger, fear, frustration, sadness, betrayal, or bereavement)

• Nutritional stress (from deficiency in certain vitamins or nutrients, overindulgence in fat or protein, or food allergies)

• Traumatic stress (from trauma to the body such as infection, injury, burns, surgery, or extreme temperatures)

• Psychospiritual stress (from unrest in your personal relationships or belief system, personal life goals, and so on—in general, the factors that define whether or not you are happy)

The bottom line is that stress can make you sick. You have to reorganize your priorities so that you can reduce chronic stress as well as to incorporate a few new healing strategies to help combat acute stress. Finding ways to downshift while incorporating hands-on healing herbs and nutrients, inner and outer workouts, and self-care into your daily routine may dramatically reduce your current stresses.

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