Nothing is worse than having a goal, but being mugged en route to your desired destination. The sad truth is the barriers to your dreams are usually self-created. Personal development is hindered by four main thieves operating on a daily basis within your life.

- Attitude
- Motivation
- Habits
- Time

Everything you do is a choice. You could call it taking personal responsibility for your life, and the results you're getting. If your life isn’t flowing in the direction you wish, then perhaps it is time to dissect these four areas in a self-evaluation.

Attitude: Accomplishing great things in your life is impossible if your thoughts and words are contrary to it. When you wake in the morning are you happy to have the new day? Has your mind closed down to the potential each day brings? Doing an attitude self-check is essential to personal growth. Without maintenance on your attitude daily, it is near impossible to embrace opportunities which bring dreams closer to reality. If you take a good look around you, you will see people stuck on auto pilot, caught up in stoic repetition. An indifferent attitude is almost worse than a bad attitude. As you grow older, it becomes even more necessary to feed your mind, wash your belief systems and do daily maintenance checks on your attitude. Being unaware of poor thoughts is a sorry excuse for not being able to reach out for your dreams. Attitude accountability is reaching out for resources and self-help tools purposely. By not doing so, this thief surely will steal your joy of self-discovery.

Motivation: Simply put, motivation is having an “iron will”. If you donot mean to do something, you won’t. You might dance around thoughts of doing something while melting away on your couch, but until you actually initiate your will through actions, it is only fluff. The hard truth is you are the biggest poser in your own life if you have no motivation to accomplish a dream or goal. No one said finding motivation would be easy either. Every single person has or has had difficulties with motivation. It remains a number one challenge in personal development. There will always be the little voice inside you telling you to get motivated later. Until you make up your mind to exercise your will now, motivation will elude you, keeping it thief number two in personal growth.

Habits: Habits keep you in your comfort zone. Habits provide security.
They feel safe, whether they are good habits or bad ones. They can also keep you from moving on into new and uncharted areas of growth. Which habits do you possess? Are they a part of your problem or part ofyour solution? Sometimes poor habits become so ingrained into who you are, you don’t even notice how they rob your dreams. Developing new habits that are in sync with your goals, is the key to personal development. You must emit behavior which supports the results you want. The reason they are called habits is because you do them over and over and over. To keep this thief from robbing you, you must find ways to eliminate unproductive habits, and replace them with habits that serve you.

Time: The word speaks for itself. It is a universal container for holding all of our life meaning. Finding time, not enough time, out of time…and to each and every human is a lifetime. This is your food for thought: at the end of your life, how will you have defined your journey in regards to time? Did you make time work for you or did you do time? Each moment belongs solely to you, to your choices and to your dreams. Respect the value of each moment life gives you for all things meaningful. We all get the same 24, but some folks just seem to squeeze so much more juice out of their 24 than the rest of us. How do they do that?

There are tools available to help you beef up security against these 4 thieves. Most of them involve changing your thoughts, feelings, limiting beliefs, etc. The answers to the challenges in each of these areas lie in your "Inner Game" Or, to put it another way "It's all in your head"

Many of us remember the days when it was claimed that computers and other technological advances would give us so much more time. The reality is that all these gadgets have in many ways made it more difficult to manage our time. In the past we had letters and phone calls to respond to. Now we also have e-mails and text messages where people seem to expect instant responses. So given all of these challenges, how can you effectively manage your time?

1. Be clear on what your overall aim or deliverables are in your role and don't lose sight of this big picture view

2. Each day and week, take the time to determine what is important, what is not important, what is urgent and what is not urgent. In doing this remember to keep asking yourself whether a particular task is moving you toward or away from your overall aim

3. Recognise that many things that are urgent are highly visible and get your attention like a new e-mail may not be that important

4. Remember that activities that fall into the important but not urgent category are of key importance. These are the activities where you build foundations for the future through things like working on business plans, relationship building, making time for staff reviews, etc

5. Keep a diary of where you spend your time during the working day. When I worked in professional services, it sometimes felt like a bind accounting for every 15 minutes of the day but it certainly made it very visible to you where time was going

6. Use the information on where you are spending your time to set goals around changes you want to make

7. Track your success in making changes to how you are using your time

8. Set up appointments in your calendar for things like checking e-mails and returning calls

9. Review what meetings you go to and determine if there are some that could be delegated to someone else

10. Build some time into your schedule for the unexpected as it will arise from time to time

While managing your time is not always easy, taking control is a vital first step.

Many organisations have set up appraisals systems. Those that are most effective include 360 degree feedback. So what is 360 degree feedback and how can you start to put it in place?

360 Degree Feedback

The basic concept behind 360 feedback is getting views from those that manage you, those in your peer group and those that you manage. The idea is to get a rounded picture of your performance from a number of different sources in order to build up a picture of your strengths and development needs. In a well designed 360 feedback process you will also complete your own self assessment.

When you are first faced with the possibility of 360 feedback it can be daunting. The reality is very different. You discover:

1. Qualities that you never even noticed in yourself

2. People are delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to your growth

3. You are often your biggest critic and people think much more highly of you than you do

4. Where greatest benefit will be derived from your personal development activities as you will know where to focus your attention

5. You have many more strengths than you have development needs

Setting up 360 Feedback

There are a range of options open to you and one consideration will be financial. At the most basic level, you can send out an e-mail to people. Another alternative is to use software of there is a system in your company. There are also options to use technology even if your company does not have its own computer package. A Google search will identify some options.

In terms of those that you ask for feedback:

1. Aim for about 10-15 people

2. Have a range of managers, peers and subordinates

3. Choose some people who you anticipate will give you a high rating

4. Choose some people who you will anticipate will give you a low rating

5. Choose some people who you are unclear as to how they will rate you

When carrying out your own self assessment:

1. Don't forget to recognise your strengths

2. Be honest with yourself

3. See weaknesses as an opportunity for development

Go on give it a try and see the power of 360 degree feedback for yourself.

In order for any business to be successful today, it needs to have a good set of business strategies in place which have been developed and executed in the proper manner. In this article we will look at various ways of helping you to develop your own business strategies, as well as how to execute them in a well ordered, consistent manner. If you are like many other people today who are either thinking of setting up a new business, or are looking to expand the business they already have, then you need to have a good strategy in place to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible - right from the start.

There are things that you will need to do in order to evaluate those situations which are extremely critical if you wish to succeed in any business venture you have. Although you may find that there is sufficient space in the market for what you are offering, you will still need to look at other factors to ensure that you can achieve your goals and that your business will thrive. You will need to spend time looking not at just what your target audience wants and needs are, but also at those companies who you will be competing against... in order to grab your share of the market.

All this information you collect will help provide you with accurate knowledge of what the customer needs, rather than what you think they want. Below, we take a look at some of the things that should be included within your company's business strategy. These tips and techniques will provide any business with a sound basis for moving forward in the market they are in, when the time comes.

Market Research

This is vitally important to any business, whether they be in the corporate or private fields. It can help them as follows:

1. They will be able to organize their marketing activities much more effectively. 2. They will be able to develop both short-term as well as mid-term goals for their business. 3. They will be able to develop a number of different approaches on how they will sell their products or services to their target audience. 4. It allows them to make better profit projections for the business in the future. Plus, it also more accurately allows them to set their profit margins.

When it actually comes time to carry out your market research, there are a number of basic questions you should be asking:

1. First, the most important question of all is: who are your customers? 2. You will then need to ask yourself; what do they want, what do they need, and what resources do they have? 3. Do you need a particular support service or product in order for your business to run as smoothly and effectively as possible? 4. Can your customer base actually afford the service or product that you are offering? 5. Is there any way in which you can create a particular demand for your service or product? 6. Are you able to compete; in price, quality, and delivery -- with your competitors? 7. In what way will you be able to creatively price the product or service you are offering to ensure that your business makes an adequate net profit? 8. Just how many other businesses or corporations offer the same product or service as you? 9. How is the local economy in the area where you are targeting your service or product to be sold? 10. Which areas or segments of the market you are involved in are either growing or declining?

Market Data

It is vital that you know your market as intimately as possible. Not only does this mean you need to have a clear understanding of the product or service that you are selling, but you need to also understand a lot about your customers as well. You need to know as much as you can about how their social and economic situations affect their mindset -- when it comes to buying your type of products or services.

There are plenty of diverse resources you can use to obtain information relating to the above, and one such service is the Small Business Administration (SBA). They are able to provide you with a great deal of information immediately, and most of it is free.

Your Competitors

It is extremely important that you carry out as much research on specifically those who you will be competing against. If you can arrange it, visit as many trade shows or exhibitions as you can to see what your competitors are selling. Also, look at all the ways in which they are marketing their products or services. By doing this you will be able to keep abreast of anything new that they are planning or doing. Also take a look through all the latest industry publications that you can get a hold of, as these will help to keep you on top of what is happening in the marketplace and will also provide you with useful tips and techniques you can use to help you gain an edge over your competitors.

If you are already in business and are looking to expand it, then when it comes to planning new strategies for your business you should first take a look at refining those that you already have in place. It also is essential that you clarify all the business strategies you have in place for you business in relation to each department; from the financial side, through to marketing, sales, management, as well as the operational departments.

When it does come time for you to actually prepare the strategic plan for your business, there are a number of different things that you will need to be including within it. Any good business strategies will contain a number of different processes which look at: The Vision - where the business hopes to be in the future. The Mission - what they intend to do for their customers. Their Objectives - what they hope to achieve in the end. Their Values And Goals - what they hope to achieve and what programs will need to be put in place in order to achieve their goals.

By putting a good set of business strategies into place before doing anything else will in the long run benefit the company greatly. Certainly, the more aware of what it is your company needs to do in order to achieve its aims and increase its share of the marketplace at present will only help to build a much more sound and profitable business in the future. So, getting a good strategic plan in place is vital to the growth of your business, whether you are a completely new business or you are looking to expand the business you already have.

Most people have a broker that makes all of their investment decisions for them. They rarely even look at their portfolio to see what it contains, and they review their account statements only once per year, because their goal is for their account to grow in the long run.

However, you should not rely on your broker to do everything for you, because most stockbrokers have many clients, and do not pay close enough attention to your account to make the small trades here or there that can really help you maximize your return, or get out of a stock that is weighing down your portfolio so that money can be transferred into something else that would be more remunerative.

Simply put, your broker or financial advisor does not make the necessary short-term investment decisions to maximize the performance of your account. You need to become familiar with each stock you have in your portfolio so that you can make decisions on your own in the short-term, while still relying upon your financial advisor to structure your portfolio with a mix of the right instruments (stocks, bonds, money market, etc.) to help you make money in the long run.

To make your own investment decisions, you need to review the most recent balance sheet and income statement for the company, as well as some other important statistics. You can access these reports online on any stock quoting website. Simply enter the ticker symbol for the company you want to evaluate, and then there should be a link to their income statement and balance sheet on that page.

When looking at the balance sheet, compare the assets for the current reporting period to the previous period. Did the assets, such as revenue from sales, increase or decrease? Check the liabilities from the previous period as well. And, you should check whether shareholder equity has increased or decreased. This is important to you as an investor because shareholder equity is the true worth of a company to its shareholders. If the balance sheet does not have shareholder equity listed, simply subtract the total liabilities from the total assets to arrive at the number.

When looking at the income statement, you should look at the earnings figures. The earnings figures are listed at the bottom of the income statement. Have earnings increased or decreased since the previous income statement was issued? If there is a decrease, what is the reason? Is it because the company is struggling, or is it because of some non-recurring expense they had to pay that will not affect their earnings in the future? Earnings are important to you as an investor because a portion of this money is paid out to the shareholders in the form of a dividend.

Next, there are a few statistics that you should evaluate which are also listed on the profile for the company when you look them up online. The two most important statistics to look at are the P/E ratio and the PEG ratio. Typically, you can find these numbers under the statistics section for the company.

The P/E ratio is the price-to-earnings ratio. It is calculated by dividing the price for one share of stock by the earnings per share. Most companies have a P/E ratio between 15 to 25. Some companies trade at P/E ratios as high as 70 or higher, such as Google. If a P/E ratio is very high, the stock might be overvalued, meaning it could come down in price in the future. But, a high P/E ratio often means that the company is expected to grow its sales and earnings significantly in the future, so investors are willing to pay more than the stock is currently worth because the price will be justified in the long run, and the company will be able to pay larger dividends when its earnings increase.

A low P/E ratio could mean that a company is undervalued, meaning that the stock price will likely go up in the future. However, a low P/E ratio could mean that investors are abandoning the stock because future sales and earnings are expected to decrease. When evaluating the P/E ratio, you need to assess the overall situation and future sales expectations in order to properly interpret what the P/E means for you as an investor.

The other important statistic, perhaps more important than the P/E ratio, is the PEG ratio. The PEG is the price-to-earnings growth ratio. It is calculated by dividing the P/E ratio by the annual earnings growth per share. This ratio helps you to ascertain whether the company is growing its earnings enough each year to justify the current price of the stock. If a company is not growing its earnings at all, then the stock will not go up. If the earnings are growing significantly each year, then the price of the stock will rise accordingly.

Since earnings growth is the real impetus behind an increase in the price of a stock, the PEG is probably the best tool for evaluating whether the stock has hit the wall or will continue to increase. If the PEG is less than 1, the stock will likely continue to go up. If the PEG is much higher than 1, then the stock might go down. However, a high PEG could mean that a company is expected to grow tremendously in the months and years ahead.

I hope this information will help you make your own investment decisions. Try to set aside some time to review each stock that you have in your portfolio, and then use the procedures outlined in this article to examine the value of the stock. This will help you grow your investments much more in the long run than if you rely solely on your broker or financial advisor to do all the work for you.

Life is busy and it is not going to slow down any time soon. A world of facsimiles, the World Wide Web, email, and even fast food, has created a culture where people want things done now. Patience is an increasingly harder virtue to find. This pressure to achieve endless tasks in the shortest amount of time possible tends to have a destructive impact on workers' attitudes and their ability to perform to expectations.

Daily 'to-do' lists are a commonly known tool, but one that many do not choose to utilize. Used properly, they help off-set the negativity of large workloads by allowing a person to focus on specific tasks.

Viewed against the larger backdrop of work, getting those few duties done may show little physical difference on a desk - new work comes in; completed files remain around in anticipation of the next stage; filing jobs continue mounting. No desk contains only a single day's tasks, and studying the broader workload creates an illusion of not having achieved anything substantial. However, when we employ a daily task sheet we gain a sense of accomplishment. It provides a mental dispatch of the job from the pile, even if the paperwork still clutters the view.

Pre-made pads are available to purchase, or as freebie promotions from companies, but a simple pad made from recycled photocopy paper will do just as well. With the tools sorted, it then only takes five minutes first thing each morning to prepare a list of tasks for the day. I recommend doing it daily so that each day begins with a clean slate and a series of achievable goals. Breaking it down into daily bites increases productivity while also creating a better frame of mind at the end of each day. A better attitude and positive outlook means a stable, happier work life.

When writing a list, add the tasks in order of their urgency, or rank them with a number according to importance. Be realistic and include only those tasks you would expect to be able to complete in one day, allowing some room to move in the list to cope with interruptions or shifting priorities.

I also recommend placing one segment of a long-term goal, or less urgent goal, on the list. This helps combat the feeling of only ever dealing with emergencies. If the project is to compile a report, with comparative graphs, demonstrating toy sales in 2006, then start with just a small part. This could be a task as simple as retrieving the necessary files, setting up the basic spreadsheet, or entering a chosen number of records into the database.

As each goal is completed, cross it off or place a check mark beside it. At the end of each day, throw the list away. This generates a physical and emotional distance from any tasks left incomplete. If tackled in order of importance there is unlikely to be any feelings of guilt over not having completed one of the lesser tasks.

A daily list must be dynamic, comprised each morning with the priorities for the day, and then expanded as fresh, urgent jobs develop. Used every day, this method will soon result in a much more accurate and healthy view of the overall workload.

From my own experience there were days I simply would have drowned under the deluge of work if I did not focus my thinking with a 'to-do' list. Piles of work are vague and deceptive. By quantifying work and applying realistic daily limits we gain a sense of accomplishment and a happier working life. Daily tasks sheets are a quick, simple, and effective key to achieving more goals and more satisfaction.

Perhaps one of the most troubling problems which usually occurs that takes the enjoyment out of having a glass of wine is when even though your glasses are clean, look very foggy. We have all encountered it at one time or another and probably all can agree that there is something detracting about a foggy wine glass. Before you decide to throw out your glasses or invest in a set of inexpensive ones with the thought that fogging is inevitable so you might as well be ready to throw them away when the time comes, there are a few things that you can do to prevent fogging and bring back the glorious sparkle and shine to foggy glasses that you remember from when they were first purchased.

I know that some think that it’s perfectly all right to put wine glasses in the dishwasher, and some machines even have special sections on the top rack to hold wine glass stems in place. We all know that crystal should never be put in the dishwasher, so I assume said stem holders are for everyday glasses. My dishwasher has them and I still won’t use it to wash wine glasses. Why? There are two main reasons for this, the first is that dishwasher detergent tends to be a lot more harsh and abrasive and can etch your wine glasses making it fog with repeated washing, and second is that the temperature in a dishwasher can become so hot that it can actually cause a glass to crack.

With that being said, when washing wine glasses by hand the best method is actually quite simple, especially since you should be able to simply rinse out yours glasses to clean them. First, it is important to remember to use lukewarm water and not hot water. Abrasive cleaning agents should be avoided at all costs; and if you feel the need to use soap it is best to only use mild liquid dish soap. Remember to never use hard scrubbing sponges and cloths and to rinse the glasses thoroughly or the soap will leave a film deposit which will fog with build up and time and thus defeats the purpose of taking care when washing your glasses.

If you have taken care of your glasses and hand-washed them and still find they are starting to fog, there is still something you can do. Soak the foggy glasses in straight white vinegar for two to three hours. Then wash with warm water and mild liquid dish soap and repeat the soaking process if necessary to remove the remaining residue. It might be a bit of a time consuming process, but it will be worth it in the end when you have sparkling glasses that look beautiful!

The Chihuahua is know by no other name and has been popular north and south of the Rio Grande for many years. It is the oldest purebred canine native to the North American continent.

The Chihuahua’s origin is filled with tales and extends back to the Toltec civilization of Mexico in the ninth century. Discovery of the earliest Chihuahuas were in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Ancestors of the Chihuahua could include a small hairless Chinese dog, which could account for the size reduction of the original Chihuahua. The ancient people in Mexico first developed a prairie dog or gopher, which was mute, longhaired and larger than the present-day Chihuahua.

Tales are many about the uses of this tiny dog in Toltec and later Aztec religious rites. Nearly all Chihuahua fanciers accept one fact: This is that the modern Chihuahua that was discovered in Chihuahua, Mexico, in the mid-1800s stands apart from all other canines. This tiny breed prefers its own kind to all other dogs. The Chihuahua can be sociable with other dogs, but most definitely still is more content when surrounded by other Chihuahuas. Because of this fact it probably is not a good idea to own other pets if you desire to own a Chihuahua. Your household will be better of with multiple Chihuahuas if that is your chosen breed.

The Chihuahua has no claims of ties to royalty and any hunting abilities or heritage. The Chihuahua is known primarily as a wonderful little social able human companion and that is the main purpose of the Chihuahua today and in time past. The Chihuahua is quite content to have no work assigned to it. He fits nicely even in the smallest spaces and is content to spend his days lying in the sun or being pampered by its humans. The Chihuahua makes a perfect pocket pal and can travel with you just about anywhere almost invisible to strangers. The Chihuahua is not a big eater; therefore, food expense for the Chihuahua is quite minimal. He actually requires no kind of special care beyond a warm place to sleep and his treasured humans.

Chihuahua is usually most comfortable with senior adults and other adult families. They do not fit well into homes with preschoolers, toddlers or young adolescents. Preschoolers may try to grab at the Chihuahua, toddlers are likely to step on it or fall over it and young adolescents in their busy rush of a day may injure it.

Personality

The Chihuahua will usually claim ownership of one family member with whom it bonds tightly. He is brave, loyal, affectionate and intelligent that can be highly sensitive and stubborn. He does not do well walking on a leash and being taken for long walks. It is just easier to pick up the Chihuahua and carry him on your walk rather than have him in a collar and on a leash. They are mostly house companions and adornments. Some are able to learn tricks and may even enjoy performing for guests.

Appearance

The Chihuahua has no height standard but usually stands about 5 inches tall and weighs no more than 6 pounds. Its skull is described as an apple dome shape, with or without a spot spot. Its muzzle is short and pointed. The Chihuahua is shown in smooth- and longhaired varieties. The smooth variety’s coat should be soft, glossy and close. The longhaired variety coat has a soft texture withor without waves or curls, its ears are edged with fringes, and its tail, feet, legs and neck are well feathered. Colors are any color or combination of colrs, solid, marked, or splashed.

Grooming

You will need a cushioned bristle brush and a medium-toothed comb for both the smooth coat and long haired varieties. The long haired Chihuahua is easy to maintain with weekly brushing. The short haired coat also benefits from weekly brushings. You can use a chamois cloth to bring the coat up to a shine in the short haired Chihuhua.