Need to Make a Decision: Forget About It

The best way to make a tough decision is to collect the information you need and then forget about it.

This advice comes from scientists who have just published a new study focused on how people make decisions, and what kinds of decision-making strategies make people happy.

Decisions can be grouped into two basic categories: complex decisions – like buying a house or a car - and simple decisions - like choosing shampoo.

The scientists conclude that thinking really hard and carefully about a decision works well when the decision is pretty simple.

But when the decision gets more complicated, focusing all your attention on the decision isn't usually the best approach.

For example, imagine you are trying to choose between a bunch of different cars, and you have already read lots of details (some good and some bad) about each of the cars. The scientist found that thinking really hard about what car you should choose leads you to choose a car that is not the best one for you.

But if you don't specifically think about what car to choose (after you have read all the information), and instead play a word game for a while, then you are more likely to make a better car decision.

How can you make a better decision by not thinking about it?

The answer is that you really ARE thinking about it. You are just thinking about it in a different way. You are thinking "unconsciously." And this is a good thing. Your brain is working on the problem even though your attention is focused on something else.

Your brain is capable of juggling lots of facts and figures and possibilities at the same time when you let it work without specifically thinking about the decision. But when you are specifically thinking about a problem, your brain isn't able to consider as much information at the same time.

So, as you sit here thinking about not specifically thinking about thinking about decisions, think about the fact that not specifically thinking can be the be the best kind of thinking when the decision is complex and you've already done your paying-attention-to-the-details kind of thinking.

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Successful Living Podcast 2: The One True Secret of Success

The Successful Living Podcast is a show designed to give honest advice about what it takes to succeed in the game of life. The Successful Living podcast will feature discussions on various self-improvement and business building topics.

In this episode, you'll learn the one true secret to lasting success and how to use that secret to the best of your ability. The podcast runs for about 11 minutes and provides important information that any success seeker needs to hear and reaffirm in their own lives.

You can listen to the show in streaming media here.

Or you can download the podcast by clicking here.

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To start your own resume writing business go to Write Powerful Resumes or to learn how to make lots of money by starting your own online business check out the Info Riches website.

Religion and Well-Being

According to a recent study, faith-based positive religious resources can protect psychological well-being through enhanced hope and perceived social support during stressful experiences, like undergoing cardiac surgery.

Furthermore, having negative religious thoughts and struggles may hinder recovery. These results will be presented at the 114th annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Although the connection between religiosity and health-related well-being has been studied for years, recent research found that the connection between religion and well-being is more complex than past studies suggested. Lead author Amy L. Ai, PhD, of the University of Washington and coauthor Crystal Park, PhD, of the University of Connecticut, sought to better understand the mechanisms through which religious coping styles operate by studying the postoperative adjustment of 309 cardiac patients at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

The researchers found that perceived social support and hope contributed to less depression and anxiety for postoperative patients who used positive religious coping styles in their every day lives.

"The contribution of social support to hope suggests that those who perceive more support at this critical moment may feel more hopeful about their recovery," said Dr. Ai. Acts of positive religious coping include religious forgiveness, seeking spiritual support, collaborative religious coping (fellowship with others who share the same beliefs), spiritual connection, religious purification and thoughts of religious benevolence.

Negative coping styles are associated with the inability of patients to protect their psychological well-being against the distress of depression and anxiety that tend to predict poor postoperative recovery in the literature.

This relationship is related to poor mental health at both preoperative and postoperative times, indicating ongoing faith-based struggles. Negative coping patterns consist of spiritual discontent, thoughts of punishing God, insecurity, demonic thoughts, interpersonal religious discontent, religious doubt, and discontented spiritual relations.

"These pathways appear to be key in understanding how religious coping styles may be helpful or harmful to a person's ability to handle stressful situations. These findings imply that health and mental health professionals should be more attentive to faith factors as inspirational or motivational springboards in some contexts," said Dr. Ai.

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Budgeting Success

A budget is a plan on how you are going to spend your money before you get the money. Everyone should have a plan for your money. If you don't, your money will soon be gone with nothing to show for it.

The easiest way to create a budget?

1. Take the amount of money you get each month and divide it up into large general categories.

2. Then divide each of those large categories into smaller categories.

3. Then break down the small categories into the final amounts you plan to spend for each item in the category.

For example, first you would divide your money into housing, transportation, food, clothing, bills and miscellaneous. Now using the housing portion, break that down into house payment or rent, utilities, and maintenance. Then you break down those categories to their final amount. The utilities category would be broken down into electricity, gas, water and sewage. You would then assign dollar amounts to each one of these items.

Then, you would do that to each of the other large categories that you have listed on your budget such as the transportation category.

Break that category into auto payments, insurance, gasoline and maintenance. You would then assign an amount to each of these categories. Be sure to put some money aside for maintenance as there will be things you must do to keep your car in working order.

Also, in the miscellaneous category, you should allow for mad money because constantly being strapped for cash will cause you to break away from your spending plan. It boils down that you should be realistic with your budget.

To make your budget something that you can live with, you will need to make sure that the amount you have totaled adds up to less than the amount of money you bring in each month. If not, you will not be able to keep up with your plan and the whole thing will fall apart.

You have heard that you should keep a journal listing every penny you spend to see where your money is going. While it may be helpful and surprising, for most people it is impractical and will not be followed. The best way to keep up with small amounts is to take cash out of the bank for those purchases and do not go over that amount. When the money is gone, you stop spending with no exceptions.

With these steps, you should be able to put together a spending plan you can live with.

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Optimism May Lower Heart Disease

The most optimistic elderly men in a Dutch study had a lower risk of cardiovascular death over 15 years when compared with the least optimistic, according to an article in the February 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Studies suggest that a person's optimism can predict their well-being and physical health, according to background information in the article. Being optimistic has been associated with better health outcomes in patients with ischemic heart disease (caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries), and with a lower risk for all-cause death and cardiovascular disease and death. The study authors focused on dispositional optimism, defined as having generally positive life engagement and expectancies for one's future.

Erik J. Giltay, Ph.D., M.D., of GGZ Delfland, Institute of Mental Health, Deft, the Netherlands, and colleagues studied elderly men living in the Netherlands to determine optimism's effect on cardiovascular death. The study included 545 men aged 64 to 84 years who did not have pre-existing cardiovascular disease or cancer. Optimism was assessed in 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000 in a questionnaire given to study participants, who were asked to rate their agreement with the following items: "I still expect much from life," "I do not look forward to what lies ahead for me in the years to come," "My days seem to be passing by slowly" and "I am still full of plans." The men were given scores and divided into groups based on their levels of optimism.

The researchers found optimism to be associated with an approximately 50 percent lower risk of cardiovascular death in the men over 15 years of follow-up. Higher optimism scores were associated with younger age, higher education, less often living alone, better health, a higher physical activity score and a lower depression score in 1990.

On a scale from zero to three, with three being the most optimistic, the average scores decreased from 1.50 in 1985 to 1.27 in 2000. Current and past study results indicate that an individual's optimism changes only moderately over time, though it does tend to decrease with age. "Optimism can be estimated easily and is stable over long periods," the authors write. "It is yet to be established whether interventions aimed at improving an older individual's level of optimism may reduce the risk of cardiovascular mortality." (Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:431-436)

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Short, Intense Exercise May Be Best

A new study, published in The Journal of Physiology, shows that short bursts of very intense exercise - equivalent to only a few minutes per day - can produce the same results as traditional endurance training.

"The most striking finding from our study was the remarkably similar improvements in muscle health and performance induced by two such diverse training strategies," says Martin Gibala, an associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University.

Gibala's team made headlines last year when they suggested that a few minutes of high-intensity exercise could be as effective as an hour of moderate activity. However, their previous work did not directly compare sprint versus endurance training.

The new study was conducted on 16 college-aged students who performed six training sessions over two weeks. Eight subjects performed between four and six 30-second bursts of "all out" cycling separated by 4 minutes of recovery during each training session. The other eight subjects performed 90-120 minutes of continuous moderate-intensity cycling each day.

Total training time commitment including recovery was 2.5 hours in the sprint group, whereas the endurance group performed 10.5 hours of total exercise over two weeks. Despite the marked difference in training volume, both groups showed similar improvements in exercise performance and muscle parameters associated with fatigue resistance.

"Our study demonstrates that interval-based exercise is a very time-efficient training strategy," said Gibala. “This type of training is very demanding and requires a high level of motivation. However, short bursts of intense exercise may be an effective option for individuals who cite ‘lack of time’ as a major impediment to fitness."


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10 Tips for Successful Money Management

Money management is something none of us really want to do, but know at some point in time we have to. In order to get on the path to true financial success - managing your money properly is key.

Fulfilling our pledge to enjoy all of the extras in life, now and in the future, depends on our ability to afford the things we want. It's never too soon therefore, to take a good look at our finances, develop a plan, and find all the opportunities to make our money grow through good financial management.

Here are the 10 best rules to financial success and good money management, say the advisors at Alterna Savings:

1. Plan. Assess your needs for the future, major purchases, and periodic expenses.

2. Set Financial Goals. Determine your short, mid- and long-range, wealth-building goals.

3. Know Your Financial Situation. Determine your monthly living expenses, periodic expenses and monthly debt payments.

4. Develop A Realistic Budget. Follow it closely and evaluate it regularly comparing actual expenses with planned expenses.

5. Don't Allow Expenses to Exceed Income. Pay down your credit cards, pay more than the minimum amount, and don't charge more on the card than you are repaying to your creditors.

6. Save. For periodic future expenses, try: 1) Saving 10% to 15% of your net income; 2) Accumulating 3 to 6 months salary in an emergency fund; 3) Putting money in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) or in other tax-deductible plans, such as savings for your child's education (RESP).

7. Pay Bills on Time. To maintain a good credit rating, contact your creditors if you are unable to pay when bills come due. The Ontario Association of Credit counseling Services can link debtors to professional advice if they are overwhelmed with their situation.

8. Distinguish Between Needs and Wants. Take care of needs first.

9. Use Credit Wisely. Know the total you can comfortably afford and keep payments within 15% to 20% of your net income.

10. Keep a Record of Daily Expenditures. Detail how you spend money on a daily basis, so you can adjust your budget as needed.


To start your own resume writing business go to Write Powerful Resumes or to learn how to make lots of money by starting your own online business check out the Info Riches website.

Successful Living Podcast 1: We Become What We Think About

The Successful Living Podcast is a show designed to give honest advice about what it takes to succeed in the game of life. The Successful Living podcast will feature discussions on various self-improvement and business building topics.

The debut show features the topic: 'We Become What We Think About.'

In the first episode, you'll find out why that statement is so important to your success and how it relates to the 4-step process of achieving goals. The podcast runs for about 13 minutes and provides important information that any success seeker needs to hear and reaffirm in their own lives.

You can listen to the show in streaming media here.

Or you can download the podcast by clicking here.


To start your own resume writing business go to Write Powerful Resumes or to learn how to make lots of money by starting your own online business check out the Info Riches website.

Music Promotes Mental and Physical Health

Music does seem to be good for the soul and the brain. According to the latest scientific studies, music can enhance performance and induce better health, build up the immune system and improve cognitive functioning.

A recent volume of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences takes a closer look at how music evolved and how we respond to it. Contributors to the volume believe that animals such as birds, dolphins and whales make sounds analogous to music out of a desire to imitate each other. This ability to learn and imitate sounds is a trait necessary to acquire language and scientists feel that many of the sounds animals make may be precursors to human music.

Another study in the volume looks at whether music training can make individuals smarter. Scientists found more grey matter in the auditory cortex of the right hemisphere in musicians compared to nonmusicians. They feel these differences are probably not genetic, but instead due to use and practice.

Listening to classical music, particularly Mozart, has recently been thought to enhance performance on cognitive tests. Contributors to this volume take a closer look at this assertion and their findings indicate that listening to any music that is personally enjoyable has positive effects on cognition. In addition, the use of music to enhance memory is explored and research suggests that musical recitation enhances the coding of information by activating neural networks in a more united and thus more optimal fashion.

Other studies in this volume look at music's positive effects on health and immunity, how music is processed in the brain, the interplay between language and music, and the relationship between our emotions and music.

So take the advice of these latest studies. Get out your favorite CD, relax on the sofa, listen to some music and improve your life.


To start your own resume writing business go to Write Powerful Resumes or to learn how to make lots of money by starting your own online business check out the Info Riches website.