15 Things You Should Know About Caffeine

As the most potent chemical component in coffee or tea, we are all very aware of caffeine. Next time you’re sitting around the coffee shop, enjoying a latte and perhaps talking about coffee in general, you can appear quite learned by tossing around these caffeine facts.

Via: Homeowners Insurance

The Optimist Creed: Promise Yourself

The Optimist Creed was authored in 1912 by Chistian D. Larson, appearing in his book Your Forces and How to Use Them. It was adopted as Optimist International’s creed in 1922. Many have found inspiration in The Optimist Creed. In hospitals, the creed has been used to help patients recover from illness. In locker rooms, coaches have used it to motivate their players.

Please print this page of The Optimist’s Creed to read daily. Use it as a powerful tool to become the most brilliant magnet for magnificence and joy in your life. Please share it with your friends.

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature you meet.

To give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

30 Habits that Will Change your Life

Developing good habits is the basic of personal development and growth. Everything we do is the result of a habit that was previously taught to us. Unfortunately, not all the habits that we have are good, that’s why we are constantly trying to improve.

The following is a list of 30 practical habits that can make a huge difference in your life.

You should treat this list as a reference, and implement just one habit per month. This way you will have the time to fully absorb each of them, while still seeing significant improvements each month.
Health habits

1. Exercise 30 minutes every day. Especially if you don’t do much movement while working, it’s essential that you get some daily exercise. 30 minutes every day are the minimum recommended for optimal health.

2. Eat breakfast every day. Breakfast is the more important meal of the day, yet so many people skip it. Personally, I like to eat a couple of toasts in the morning along with a fruit beverage.

3. Sleep 8 hours. Sleep deprivation is never a good idea. You may think that you are gaining time by sleeping less, when in reality you are only gaining stress and tiredness. 8 hours are a good number of hours for most people, along with an optional 20 minutes nap after lunch.

4. Avoid snacking between meals. Snacking between meals is the best way to gain weight. If you are hungry, eat something concrete. Otherwise don’t. Update: for clarification, I mean don’t eat junk food between meals, but eating real food it’s ok.

5. Eat five portions of fruits and vegetables every day. Our body and brain loves getting vegetables and fruit, so I highly recommend eating as much of them as possible. Five portions is the dose that’s usually recommended by many health associations.

6. Eat fish. Fish is rich of omega 3 and other healthy elements. At least one meal per week of fish should be enough for getting all these nutrients.

7. Drink one glass of water when you wake up. When you wake up, your body is dehydrated and needs liquid. Make the habit of drinking one glass of water after you wake up in the morning. Also, drink more during the day.

8. Avoid soda. Soda is often one of the most unhealthy beverage you can find. Limit your consumption of soda as much as possible and you’re body will be grateful for that.

9. Keep your body clean. I don’t advise spending your day in front of the mirror, but a minimum of personal care does never hurt.

10. If you smoke, stop it. There’s no reason to smoke anymore, and quitting is easy.

11. If you drink, stop it. Same as above. Don’t think that alcohol will solve your problems. It never does. The only exception is one glass of wine per day during meals.

12. Take the stairs. This is just a hack that forces you to do a minimum of exercise. Instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs.

Productivity habits

1. Use an inbox system. Make the habit of keeping track of all the ideas and things that comes to mind. You can use a notebook to do this, and then sync everything on your computer.

2. Prioritize. If you have a list of things to do, where do you start? One way is to prioritize your list. If you are in doubt, ask yourself: “If I could only accomplish one thing today, what would it be?”

3. Plan, but not too much. Planning is important, and you should decide in advance what you are going to do today or this week. However, planning for more than a few weeks is usually inefficient, so I would not worry too much about that.

4. Wake up early. Waking up early in the morning is a great way to gain extra time. I personally like to wake up at 5 am, so that by 9 am I have already accomplished what otherwise would have taken me many days..

5. Check your email only twice per day. Email can easily become an addiction, but it’s usually unnecessary to check it every 10 minutes. Make an effort and check your email only once or twice per day, see if the world will still rotate as before after you try this.

6. Eliminate unimportant tasks. Being busy all day does not mean you are doing important stuff. Eliminate every activity that’s not important, and focus on what really matters.

7. Clean off your desk and room. Having a clear room and desk is important to maintain focus and creativity.

8. Automate. There are a lot of tasks that you need to perform every day or every week. Try to automate them as much as possible.

9. Set strict deadlines. When you do something, decide in advance when you’re going to stop. There’s a rule that states that you will fulfill all the time you have available for completing a task, so make an habit of setting strict deadlines for maximizing your productivity.

10. Take one day off per week. Instead of working every day, take one day off per week (for example sunday) where you are not going to turn on your computer. Use that time for doing recreational activities like going for a walk.

Personal Development habits

1. Read 1 book per week. Reading is a good way to keep your brain active. With just 30 minutes per day you should be able to read one book per week, or more than 50 books per year.

2. Solve puzzles. Quizzes, word games, etc. are all good ways to exercise your brain.

3. Think positively. You are what you think, all the time.

4. Make fast decisions. Instead of thinking for one hour wherever you are going to do something, make your decisions as fast as possible (usually less than 1 minute).

5. Wait before buying. Waiting 48 hours before buying anything is a tremendous money saver, try it.

6. Meditate 30 minutes per day. A great way to gain clearness and peace is through meditation. 30 minutes are not a lot, but enough to get you started with meditation.

Career habits

1. Start a blog. Blogging is one of the best way to put your word out. It doesn’t have to be around a specific topic, even a personal blog will do.

2. Build a portfolio. If your job is creating stuff, building a portfolio is a great way to show what you are capable of. You can also contribute stuff for free if that applies to your work.

What do you think? What are the habits that changed your life?

W.O.M.A.N to Avoid Illness and Fatigue?

Water   Hydration is essential. Drink lots and lots of water – a good rule of thumb is drink half your body weight in water. So lets say you weigh 140 pounds you would drink 70 ounces in water, soda, coffee, and juice doesn’t count. Remember this during winter people tend to drink more hot drinks that dehydrate the body.

Oxygen   Cells need oxygen to produce energy. If you don’t have time to workout take 7 minutes to do some deep breathing.

Minerals   The body uses vitamins and minerals to perform many different functions – from building strong bones to transmitting nerve impulses and fight infections – your body needs vitamin C, calcium, potassium, magnesium, just to name a few.

Alkalinity   Eating high-alkaline foods help maintain the acid/base balance of your system. An ideal diet should consist of dark green and yellow vegetables, soybeans, sprouted grains and nuts, and essential fatty acids. Coffee, Hot Chocolate, and alcohol increase acid in your body which affects how you function.

Nutrients   There are seven groups of nutrients which your body needs to stay healthy – Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals, Roughage (Dietary Fiber), and Fluid (water).

Simply put,  to maintain the cycle of balance within your body, everyone needs a good W.O.M.A.N.