With A Step

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step."

Lao-tzu,
6th century bce Chinese philosopher,
founder of Taoism from Tao Te Ching

Six Simple Steps to Living in The Moment

The notion of living in the present is both desirable and yet often confusing. How is it done, exactly?

Gill Hasson and Helena Pozniak offer six steps to a fulfilling life, right now:

1. Mindfulness Become aware of your thoughts and take control of your moods;

2. Gratitude Appreciating life's small pleasures has unexpected benefits;

3. Acceptance Let go of unattainable ideals;

4. Conquer Perfectionism If you're driven by the need to excel you need to enjoy life for its own sake;

5. Take Action Stop thinking, start doing; and

6. Be Creative Being absorbed in a task helps us experience life to the fullest!

This great piece of modern philosphy came via Phil Evans People Stuff Newsletter go here to subscribe http://www.peoplestuff.com.au/

Remember: "What others do or say is their stuff; how we react, or not, is our stuff"!

Hotels Hotels and More Hotels

Travelling constantly I often think there is nothing new to learn. With more frequent flyer points than is mathematically possible, a first hand knowledge of nearly every Airport Lounge from Mumbai to Auckland and in between, I could write the definitive “Guide to Business Travel on A Back Packers Budget.”

Well, even I can find something new and better when booking hotels in places you are unfamiliar with. My trusty http://www.wotif.com/ is great for Australia but doesn’t seem to work as well when we are travelling to India, Qatar and the UAE. A recent visit to India had me staying, on the recommendation of a business associate, in a hotel that raised the feeling “I have gone passed this… if I am 5,000 kms from home, I want to be staying in the comfort I have become accustomed to.”

As it was just a couple of days, I made do with the “3 star business hotel” without a decent restaurant, no gym, no wireless internet… you know, I made do.

My frustration lead me to searching the internet and I came across Hotels Combined. Oh was that something special. Not only easy to use ( don’t you just like those websites that say they are easy to use and then make you feel like an idiot ) Hotels Combined seemed to have every hotel on the planet listed.

Matthew is on his way to Doha in June and with just a couple of simple instructions we had 444 hotels to choose from. And for Dubai, I didn’t know that there were that many possibilities.

So I have a new edition to my Travel Favourites Hotels Combined. It will be getting a work out over the next 12 months as we stage our 100 city tour of the secret behind the secret world tour.
I am away then, looking for a place to stay in Manchester UK..

The Most Popular Books in the United States

A recent Harris Interactive poll of American adults has found that the Bible is the most popular book in the country among both men and women. Rounding out the top 10 are favorites that have topped best-seller lists for years:

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Stand by Stephen King
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Source: Early To Rise Newsletter

Work is love made visible

"Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you break bread with indifference, you bake bitter bread that feeds but half a man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night."

Kahlil Gibran,
20th century Syrian-born mystic poet, philosopher, and artist from The Prophet

Stupid Stupid Stupid

Bungee jump master Carl Dionisio, 37, had a great idea for a specialized bungee jump: he'd make his bungee ropes out of condoms.

It took four months to make the rope. "It was difficult as the condoms are slippery," said Dionisio, of Durban, South Africa. "When we tied knots they would just slip out." Still, he said, "latex is latex" and, after four months and 18,500 rubbers, he was "99 percent sure that it would work." Luckily, it did.

The only problem: it could only be used once.

Source: South Africa Independent