Commercial gardeners and farmers are known for their huge operations. We have all seen them on TV and in newspapers at one point or another, usually complete with tractors pulling spraying mechanisms. It is what is being sprayed over the crops that should concern you though. More often than not, the substance being sprayed is a combination of pesticides and other chemicals that are designed to protect the crops. Unfortunately, they will not protect you should you eat them.

Pesticides are effectively chemical poisons that are formulated to kill all sorts of pests, from plants and weeds to molds and fungi to insects and other creatures that may eat the crops. They contain all sorts of compounds depending on the formula and what they are specifically designed to kill. Farmers have used them for years. However, only recently has the question of what they are doing to the individuals that eat the crops arisen.

A lot of research has been performed over the past few years concerning the effects of pesticides on humans that consume the vegetables and fruits they are used on. Although the actual spraying of pesticides can cause problems if they spread to settlements or contaminate the water supply, most people that eat commercially grown fruits and vegetables will have eaten some of the chemicals in the past. Unfortunately, the research has highlighted some severe consequences of this.

So now you are probably confused because pesticides do go through safety tests, right? Well, yes they do but, according to Merryl Hammond in Pesticide Bylaws: Why We Need Them and How to Get Them, most safety tests are not up to the standard they should be. Single chemicals are tested rather than compounds and the effects are only tested on healthy people rather than the vulnerable. This is backed up by another fact from Hammond – it is actually illegal to describe pesticides as safe in any way in the United States.

As a result of the above and the very nature of pesticides, there are so many dangers that it is difficult to document them all here. Some of the chemicals are actually carcinogenic, meaning that they cause cancer, and can also lead to decreased fertility, organ damage, genetic faults, allergies, asthma and other similar illnesses and ailments. Vulnerable adults and children are at the most at risk because of their lower immunity. However, certain toxic pesticides can affect individuals of all ages and health levels so it is a serious problem.

The dangers of pesticides should definitely be taken seriously and you absolutely should be aware of what you are eating before you put any fruits or vegetables in your mouth. Growing your own vegetables or eating organic produce can definitely help you to avoid these dangers and stay healthy because you can have peace of mind that your food is completely safe. Always remember that healthy natural food is better for helping you to achieve a healthy body.

Of course, one of the best ways to know what chemicals are or, preferably, aren't on your fresh produce, is to grow it yourself.  For a complete guide to growing your own vegetables, check out our complete and practical guide to growing your own vegetables at home.

Motivation can be expressed as a driving force that drives a person to act and perform to achieve   something in life. It is essential for any task that we undertake. It is a key factor to complete the assigned tasks on time to achieve success. It is an urge that comes from within us and gives us a spark to perform.

Motivation can be of many types. Let us take a very simple example. When we are hungry, the hunger motivates us to eat. We eat to survive. So what motivates us to eat? It’s the hunger from within us. So motivation comes from within that makes a difference in our behavior and actions.

When we are self-motivated we are able to visualize our goals. It feels great to be a winner once we accomplish our goals, which in turn gives us that extra urge to be motivated again. Motivation can be related to the workplace. In an organization the manager is responsible to get things done from the employees. He therefore should be able to motivate his employees. Performance requires both ability and motivation. Ability depends on education and experience whereas motivation can be acquired by the influence of other factors.

But at the end what matters is self-motivation. Some of the factors which can enhance self-motivation are a) postive thinking b) right focus c) following the right direction d) having a cause etc. When we have a cause, we dream…when we fulfill the dream we are happy. We must not get demoralized with failure because everyday is a new day and we always have a chance to start again. 

For more information on how to use motivation to get the life you want, click here. 

Have you found that you often carry out an audit of your life, and find it lacking in certain departments? You try and improve your life and yourself by setting up plans and ambitions but you find that your lofty goals quickly fall by the wayside as your once burning enthusiasm curdles into abject apathy.I this sounds a bit too cynical for your liking answer me this: over the course of this current year, how many times have you vowed that you were going to take up a particular project, such as going to the gym more often, lose weight or learn a new skill?

And how many times did you actually stick to your guns and see that particular adventure through to its conclusion? I rest my case.

So many of us look to the New Year as a landmark time of the year as it provides us with the requisite motivation to alter our life for the better. At least, that is what we keep telling ourselves each and every year and yet, we end up making the same mistakes, falling prey to the same self-defeating patterns of behavior as we did for the previous 364 days of the year. New year resolutions? Give me a break: they would be better off being labeled as “exercises in self-delusion.”

If you haven’t been mortally offended with what you have read thus far, then congratulations as there maybe some hope for you yet because part of the problem is that it far too easy to simply give in when things get tough, or merely take us out of our cozy and well established comfort zone. Hopefully, you will find the time and muster the self-discipline to carry out the following advice and then you really can say hello to a much happier new you!

Ok, I want you to take a blank piece of paper, your favorite pen and then proceed to write down the five areas in your life that are the most important to YOU. Now the important part here dear reader is to ensure that you do this without thinking, do it automatically and “whatever springs to mind.”

Then draw a pie chart, and write down between zero and one hundred percent how content you are with that part of your life. You maybe rather surprised at the results that you come up with!

Now that you have identified the problem areas you want to improve upon (which is the most crucial step) now jot down your feelings about why you are so unhappy about the areas of your life that you want to work upon. Identify positive and proactive steps that you will or can implement in order to improve them and then number them. Once you achieve a particular step, make sure you tick it off.

Ticking off your steps keeps you on track, motivated, and allows you to see progress as it is made.

For more information on goal setting, check out Setting Goals Successfully 

As an ideal human being you need to set your goals to help you go where you want to be in life. By realising what you want to be in life you can set a platform from where you can start concentrating your efforts to achieve your dreams. Try to avoid distractions and obstructions which might come in the way to demoralise your efforts.

Try to build self-confidence within you when you set your goals. This would help you achieve your goals in proper time by properly organising your resources. You would ultimately be able recognise your ability to achieve anything in life that you wish to.

We should start by setting short-term goals and find out ways to achieve them. Once we are able to achieve the short-term goals we should start looking ahead towards achieving long-term goals.

We must always set goals for our lives. When we set a goal, there is usually an intention behind that goal. There need to be a source of inspiration to produce the initial spark followed by our motivation and zeal to achieve our goals. The enthusiasm should not die when we set ourselves to the journey of achievement of our goals.

When to set your goals to achieve something you should always start with creating a broad vision for the future. This would always keep you motivated Visual stimulation is a great way to keep you going. Try to create an image of things or people that keep you motivated. Make notes of things that help you go forward. Always try to remind yourself of the original moment when you had set your goal. This would take you further towards your mission. 

For more information on goal setting, check out our ebook called Setting Goals Successfully

Affiliate resellers are already making a living by selling products through the use of affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing is one of the most effective ways of generating both short term bursts of sales in a new market or with a new product and of generating long-term sales as the marketplace expands and more customers become available. The secrets of success for affiliate marketing come into play when you are able to encourage affiliates to market your products. Common sense may dictate that the higher the financial incentives are, the more people will try to sell your products and to a very limited extent, that is true. However, there are many other methods that you can use to encourage affiliates to market your products and many of them are surprisingly easy and affordable.

A series of affiliate marketing promotional tools can help you to greatly increase the number of people who are willing to promote your products. It is a lot easier for someone to post an existing advertisement on their website with their affiliate link safely tucked away in the ad than it is for them to write a series of articles about it and then try to hide their affiliate links throughout the articles. Hiding these affiliate links in the sense that they are not recognizable and the affiliate resellers will still receive their commissions when the product is sold will definitely help you to encourage your affiliates to market your products more.

Many affiliate resellers already use their mailing lists very effectively and have large lists of both prospective buyers and people who have already purchased similar products. A series of emails addressing the many different concerns that people may wish to have addressed before they decide to purchase your products can also help you to encourage your affiliate resellers to market your products more aggressively and more profitably. Affiliate marketing is generally much more successful when your affiliate resellers have numerous different marketing tools for promoting affiliate products.

The fact of the matter is that when it comes to affiliate resellers, they want to make money and they are willing to promote your products in order to make a living. While all of the affiliate marketing tools in the world will make it easier and profitable for your affiliate resellers, there is one thing that many people, product creators, marketers and others alike, often forget to focus on when it comes to successful methods of affiliate marketing. The product itself has to be worthwhile, beneficial and provide something of value to the end customer.

Affiliate marketing can only be truly (and financially) successful if everyone receives something of value. This goes all the way from the person who creates the product on through to the person who is using the product. If the product is not beneficial to the end user, the affiliate resellers will lose customers, the affiliate marketing will leave a bad impression about the marketers and their judgment and the company or creator of the product will very likely lose everything. If you are into affiliate marketing to any degree above “casual”, you already know this but as an affiliate reseller, it is your job to make certain that any affiliate products that you are reselling are up to par and are something that you would gladly use yourself under the same circumstances.

For a great product to help you assist and encourage your affiliates, check out Affiliate Customizer, software which allows your affiliates to easily customize the advertising they are doing for YOUR product.  It's a win-win! 

Being healthy and happy isn't just about what you eat and how much money you have.  Sure, what you eat is very important, as good nutrition plays a role in your immunity, energy levels, weight, and other areas, affecting your health in many ways both subtle and obvious.  Certain foods even help prevent certain diseases, and can help you heal when you are sick or injured.

How much money you have is also important.  Regardless of your personal associations with money, it is a form of exchange that can buy you freedom, experiences, education, travel, medical care, inspiration, the list is limited only by your imagination.  "They" say money can't buy you happiness, but it can sure give you more freedom to choose to spend your time doing and acheiving things that you enjoy. 

True happiness, seems to me anyway, to require personal achievement and growth, coupled with a sense of responsibility for your life, actions and consequences.  There is much to be said for the achievement you 'created', rather than the one you think you achieved by 'luck.'  Personally, I'm not a big believer in luck, but that's probably best left for another blog post at another time.

Anyway, I am going to leave you with the words of someone who knows exactly what he wants and how to create his own success.  We all know him as someone who speaks the words of other's, but these words are all his. 

I introduce to you, Will Smith :

For more information on getting the life you want, you can also check out our road map to a better life, "Get a Life."

Today, let's have a look at a form of exercise that is more than just exercise.  It is a lifestyle.

The practice of yoga offers innumerable benefits. There are physiological, psychological and bio-chemical benefits of yoga.

With regular practice of the Asanas, Pranayama and meditation, various ailments such as diabetes, blood pressure,

digestive disorders, etc can be cured.

Yoga helps reduces stress levels and enhances powers of relaxation; blood circulation is improved; our skin not only

becomes healthy but there is that additional glow as well that we have all yearned for; our immune system gets a boost;

our stamina is built and we achieve flexibility; helps in control and coordination.

Amongst the physiological benefits there is improvement in asthma, reduction in pain, improvement in respiratory

problems, high blood pressure is controlled, helps in reducing weight, there is relief provided to the joints i.e. arthritis

gets relief. Relaxation techniques and meditation help reducing pain.

Amongst the psychological benefits improvement in self awareness and mental performance is achieved. Apart from

these, spiritual benefits like discovering one self is achieved. With regular practice of yoga our concentration levels

increase, memory and attention improve, self acceptance increases, learning efficiency improves, and social adjustment

increases.

Some of the bio-chemical benefits of yoga are decrease in glucose, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, total cholesterol, s

odium; and increase in HDL cholesterol, hemoglobin, lymphocyte count, vitamin C, and thyroxin.

The benefits of yoga are very may and there is no better form of exercise that will help us receive so many benefits.

It helps unite the mind, the body, and the spirit.  So if you want to take the most of these benefits of yoga go ahead and

practice this great form of exercise and meditation.

For more information on Yoga, we have a great yoga package in the bookstore.  Click here to check it out.  

“If a ship does not know to which port it is sailing to, then no wind is favorable.”

How many of us are like a ship that is meandering through the sea of life, with no direction or meaningful attempt to acquire a form of navigation? Many of us are quite content to simply take a back seat and assume an entirely passive role when it comes to our life, and for others, whilst we designate certain “ports” (life ambitions and aspirations) the truth of the matter is that we end up getting distracted and derailed. Our journey alters from a linear one to one that is so confused and muddled that Odysseus himself would struggle to make any measure of sense of it.

Part of the problem is that many of us end up setting the bar a little too high meaning that our goals are not feasible or realistic in the long term, and as a result the inevitable happens: we fail to achieve them. When we fail to attain the demanding goals we set ourselves we mentally kick ourselves and become very depressed and withdrawn as a result of the perceived failure on our part. This self-auditing can be a positive feature, as it can provide us with the necessary motivation to propel us further into a particular path, but taken to an extreme…. we end up never even trying anything new, for fear that we fail.

Therefore, whilst goal setting is an important tool in order to ensure that we can channel our energies and because it provides us with a clearly defined ambition to work towards, it is imperative that we exercise care when it comes to goal setting, otherwise the idea of goal setting for the achievement of happiness will quickly become a bitterly ironic statement indeed.

Don’t list an overarching goal and then leave it at that, it is far better to take a big goal and sub-divide it into a series of smaller objectives, than leave it as it is. If your goal is to achieve a certain position within your job, then make sure you take the time to jot down a series of smaller steps and milestones that you will no doubt encounter and have to contend with on your path to the main goal.

If we can take the example of achieving a certain post in your employment, then you may include the skills that you will need to cultivate in order to actually grow professionally, and develop as a person.  Expand your resume, cultivate personal connections, and acquire more degrees and educational qualifications. Engage in relevant voluntary work that will help you develop the tools for achievement and success.

Life Resource Downloads has many tools for improving your life.  In fact, our Self Improvement category is growing all the time.  Click here to check it out.

 How many of us are unhappy about the way our life is, and long for something more? Numerous psychiatrists and sociologists have used and relied upon a number of buzz words and labels to not only define this sense of unhappiness with life but also, to actually pinpoint the causes for it. Emile Durkheim, the so called father of modern sociology developed his theory of functionalism and made reference to the phenomena he dubbed “anomie” to describe the individuals alienation from society as a whole. Robert Merton sought to expand upon the workings of Durkheim and developed his own theory, “Strain theory” whereby the lack of access to legitimate avenues for success alienates members of society.

However, the problem with all of these different theories is that they attempt pigeon hole an entire society  into a clearly and somewhat rigidly defined label with little to no consideration for the subtle nuances and differences that exist between different people. Therefore, the only person who can ever truly improve your life is….you. You ARE the master of your destiny, and the direction which your life will ultimately take. Exercise that right, use that responsibility and take charge of your fate, and achieve all that you want!

In order to resolve a problem it is necessary for us to first actually identify just what exactly it is, and so the following exercise should go some way to assisting you to narrow the range down. Write down all of the various outlets in your life (such as work, family, hobbies) and then note the degree of satisfaction you have with those areas. Be honest, and do not hesitate when jotting them down.

Once you have identified your weaker areas, the next step is to work out just why you feel so blue about them. Are you spending too much time in some parts of your life, to the detriment of others? Does this have the effect of knocking you off balance as a whole? If so, then it is important that you take proactive steps to resolve such unhappiness and disharmony.

Identify the steps that will make you happy, such as getting a promotion to ease money woes. Once you have done that, you need to then identify the smaller milestones you will need to achieve in order to fulfill the larger objective. Make sure that you set a deadline for these goals and mark them in a prominent position so that you do not lose sight of them (both literally and figuratively speaking.) Try and set a deadline that is realistic, but which poses enough of a challenge so as to actually move you out of your comfort zone if even for a little while.

 Happy New Year.  Make It Whatever You Want It To Be !

What did you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner today? No matter what foods your list contains, you can guarantee that everything you have eaten is not within it. Taking a quick look at the back of any food packaging will reveal an extensive ingredients list with all sorts of letters and scientific words that very few people actually understand. If you are one of the millions of people that do not understand them then ask yourself the question – what are you eating?

There are so many additives and preservatives added to food today that it is importable to keep up to date with that we are putting into our systems. Preservatives are used to ensure that foods last for as long a time as possible by preserving their color, scent and taste, although it can be argued that some preservatives alter all three artificially. Some decades ago, preservatives were natural because they often took the form of salt and vinegar. However, today they tend to be artificially created in laboratories.

Additives are also created in much the same way and can be used for the same purposes. However, they also enhance the flavor and lower the overall price of the food, meaning that we benefit from reduced costs in the supermarket. This may sound like a good thing right now but it is not so good when you realise that some hidden additives and preservatives actually have serious adverse effects in some individuals.

Visiting the FDA website can be incredibly insightful if you want to know more about the specific hidden and unknown preservatives and additives that are mixed in with our food today. There is currently more than a thousand different approved additives listed and you can find them all within the products on supermarket shelves. However, the FDA is a little less forthcoming about the side effects. Some are known to cause migraines, organ damage, cancer, allergies and even birth defects should an individual have an adverse reaction to them.

Unfortunately, the above information is not the scariest of that available on the unknown additives that we eat. Instead, that honor goes to the fact that food companies are not legally obliged to list everything that is contained within their products. According to an article by Dr William Rice, entitled “The Dangers Of Food Additives”, there are 93 different additives that do not have to be declared in bakery goods, 31 in cheese products, 76 in drinks and 58 in any desserts that are frozen. This is scary given that we can have absolutely no idea exactly what we are eating unless we make it ourselves or go organic.

It is time that everyone started looking a little more closely at what they eat on a daily basis because all of us should have absolute knowledge about what we put into our bodies. As technology has progressed, we have lost sight of that but now is the time to take back the power and make our bodies much happier and healthier as a result.