When you have way too much stuff and no system of organization, you end up with a house full of clutter. It starts to choke you and drain your energy. Only a person who lives with clutter can understand why somebody would hoard their possessions, or even their “junk”. A common feeling among people, who have a cluttered house, is that they know where everything is located, and many times, they actually do! What may look like a mess to someone else seems organized to the one living that way. It is actually difficult for some people to get rid of things and they tell a friend, “On my next vacation (or days off), “I’ll help you if you help me”. It seems like such a desperate job that it looks impossible. How do I know? Because I am planning on getting rid of most of the things in my home that have been “saved”, collected or just not thrown out for years. When your children are growing up, you tend to save things for them but usually in a more organized manner than when they grow up and move out. You are left your stuff and their stuff and lots of stuff that doesn’t get used any more. I am going to use this article as a blueprint for the way I attack my spare bedroom. I have decided that I am going to pretend to be moving and I only want to pack the “good, usable and necessary” stuff for my “new place”. That is going to be my motive and seems to be a great way to think about the extra stuff in your house once you decide to get rid of the clutter. Do you know how to separate clutter from what is actually valuable? There are shows on television and books that have been written, that try to help people determine what they should keep and what they should discard. The television shows are interesting to me, for a number of reasons like, there are many people to help you with the process of doing and deciding and there is a monetary gain to receive once the clutter is gone. In case you have never seen the show, the television people will add new pieces of furniture that will help retain the order and the organization of the home. They strive to organize things in ways that will be easy for people to maintain. The professionals give advice on how to sort all the stuff in your house. They say to separate all the stuff in 3 large areas designated to donate or sale, discard and keep. It is difficult for people to get rid of things that they have been “collecting” for years, especially if those items are attached to a lot of memories. There has to a limit on each thing that you handle so you won’t get bogged down in emotional memories. If you are wondering how to start the whole process, you will need to remove EVERYTHING from a room, including clothing in the closets and furniture.

There is truly a great array of wonderful and interesting animals on our planet. Many animals have abilities we as humans do not have. From the tiny humming bird to the largest mammals, there is a lot to learn for us. All of these remarkable species of animals are sharing the same planet with us. We are living in the same home with them so to speak. We know that the whole universe is moving and living by the natural laws of the universe. So here is the question, do animals use the law of attraction? All of us have heard many stories of dogs for example who found their way back home over hundreds of miles. The same is said of cats. How are these loving pets able to find back home. For many years we have called this ability in these animals instinct. What is instinct? Could instinct be really the law of attraction? When observing migrating birds we are surely amazed at the ability of even the smallest migrating birds to find their homes back thousands and thousands of miles with such an accuracy. Many have wondered about such admiring abilities. We know that everything in this universe moves and lives by the law of attraction. It may just be more than instinct in animals that enables them to do great things. It no doubt all has to do with the universal laws. The law of attraction works well for human being, could it be at the root why animals do such amazing things? Have you ever wondered about why bats can live their whole life without seeing so well? We know that they use sonar. Maybe too they have learned to harness the power of the law of attraction. How do the salmons find their way to the same breeding grounds for thousands of years?Is it simply “instinct?” Is there not more to it? You no doubt want to learn more about the law of attraction and how it works. Did you know that even many of the ancient cultures knew about the power of the law of attraction? This knowledge is not only fascinating but with this knowledge you can make some big changes in your life. When you meditate and learn about the mind puzzling abilities of even the smallest creatures on this planet it makes you wonder. How well do you think all these creatures may use the law of attraction? What do you think: Is it instinct or could it be the great power of the law of attraction?

Getting into a new community might cause you a difficulty in finding new friends. You barely know anyone. You feel lonely. Should you just sit down and hope that someone to come to you, take your hand, ask you to be his/her friend? I don’t think so. You’ve got to make the move. How to? 1. Look into Yourself Decide first what kind of persons you’d prefer to be your friends. Do you want to make friends with those who have the same hobbies and interests with you, or the same gender, or the same age? Or, do you wish to be friends with those who have totally different passions so you can find something else more interesting in life. 2. Don’t be shy! It might not be easy for some people, I know. But, if you keep being a shy person, you wouldn’t make friend easily. As I said earlier, make the move. Strengthen yourself, get rid of any timidity from your heart and approach someone whom you think you have a certain compatibility with. 3. Put that smile on your face Not a smirk but a sincere and nice smile. People would like those who smile a lot more than whose face is lifeless. 4. Be yourself Don’t fake anything. If you do, you won’t find it interesting to continue the relationship for you must feel tired of being someone else, not the real you. 5. Don’t be afraid to fail Don’t expect to get a very good friend at your first attempt. Be ready to fail. Friendship also needs chemistry. There is always a possibility that you don’t have any chemistry with the person that you earlier approached. Or, that person doesn’t have it with you. Some people are taking friends for granted. But, when they get into a situation when they actually have no friend and have to start one, they realize that friendship is like a flower that needs to be watered and fertilized.

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” – Scott Hamilton Attitude is so important. It is probably the most important thing worth talking about in all the self -help material you will come across. Why; because attitude controls your mind which controls everything. It’s what makes the difference between a good athlete and a poor one; a successful entrepreneur or a failure; a great artist/musician and a poor one. Hamilton, our author today was no stranger to disability; he was two years old when he contracted a mysterious illness that caused him to stop growing. He was misdiagnosed as having cystic fibrosis and was told by doctors at one point that he had 6 months to live. Diet and exercise cured the problem though Hamilton achieved only a height of 5 feet 2 inches in his life-time. He didn’t allow disability to stop him. In 1981 ’82 and ’83 Scott Hamilton won the gold medal in the World Figure Skating Championships, and won the gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics. But Hamilton is not the only example of men and women overcoming great obstacles in their lives. There is Helen Keller, blind and deaf from a very young age; President Abraham Lincoln who rose from being a bare foot poor boy from Missouri, to becoming a self taught layer who eventually became our 16th President of the United States. The list goes on and on of people defeating the odds against them armed with simply a good attitude. A bad attitude can stop any man or woman’s dream. What is the secret to attaining the great attitude we talk so much about? Art Link letter said it this way: “Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.” That is the magic formula and nothing more or less. President Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigned from a wheel chair and won the Presidential election in 1933. He served an unprecedented 4 terms in office from 1933-1945 serving as a handicapped person serving through some of the toughest times our country has ever seem seen including the great depression and the 2nd world war. Hamilton is right when he says the only disability is a bad attitude. A bad attitude can prevent you from getting a job by acting poorly on a job interview, it can break up marriages and drive a person to use street drugs or become chemically Dependant. A bad attitude can keep a beaten house-wife to stay with her brutal husband till he finally beats her to death; it can keep us all imprisoned to our own bonds of self-limitation if we allow it. It makes us all make bad choices in life which leads to nowhere and can make us penniless pawns of society. Having a bad attitude has a bad ending in store for all who choose that road of self indulgence and self pity which is where a bad attitude always leads in the end. It is best to make the best of your life, what ever the cards are that you were dealt, and put a smile on your face and brave the day, each and every new day. Greet it with a good attitude and watch the difference it makes. Someone once said life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it. That is why having a good attitude is so important. Having a good attitude empowers you and when you are empowered you can empower others you meet. Today give it a try and put on that mask of a good attitude. Yes that’s right, sometimes you will have to fake it till you make but in the long run you will see that having a good attitude will get easier and easier until is comes as second nature to you. Today be empowered and decide to face your day with a good attitude!

Alcoholics Anonymous is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1935 by two recovering alcoholics, Bill W (William Griffith Wilson) and Dr. Bob (Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith). They were the first to put forward the idea that alcoholism was a treatable disease to a national audience. They also wrote the “Big Book” that is the cornerstone for Alcoholics Anonymous. The twelve steps outlined in the Big Book are now famous: 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. While many of these twelve steps have religious overtones, remember that this was written in a time when religion, specifically Christian religion, permeated American society much more than it does today. Today, Alcoholics Anonymous realizes that many people are either not practicing their religion, they’re atheistic, or they may practice a non-Christian religion. AA doesn’t care what you decide the “Power greater than ourselves” is—just that you realize you are not alone. At any Alcoholics Anonymous meeting there are people at every stage of recovery, from Day 1 to people with decades and decades of sobriety. Most Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are for members only—that’s one way they help create a safe, Anonymous environment. But there are also occasional “open meetings”, where members may bring spouses, relatives or friends. People will speak about the AA process, how they discovered it, and how it has affected them. In the more traditional “closed” meetings, it’s alcoholics only. This is a chance for the alcoholic to ask for help, ask sometimes pointed questions, but also to get answers. You may think you’re the only one who’s had a particular problem, but you’ll find someone else has conquered that before, and is willing to show you how. The only requirement to join Alcoholics Anonymous is a desire to stop drinking. AA is a non-profit organization that does not have membership dues or fees. At most meetings a basket is passed around to help offset the cost of meeting treats, coffee, or hall rental. Contributions are gratefully accepted but not expected. You contribute what you can, when you can. For many people looking to kick the alcohol habit, Alcoholics Anonymous is the supportive lifeline they need to take that first step back into sobriety.