Are you easily distracted? Find it hard to concentrate or focus? Distractions such as emails, phone calls, co-workers, and thoughts about your home life can reduce your productivity at work. And this is a vicious cycle where by being inefficient just leads to more work, more anguish, and more inefficiency! The following from Health.com provides great tips to stay focused, complete tasks in an efficient manner, and essentially be more productive with less stress.
Health.com: 13 Ways to Improve Your Concentration at Work
Daily Dose of Inspiration
“You can be amazing, you can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug. You can be the outcast, or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love; or you can start speaking up.”
“Brave” Bareilles
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Food For Thought: Heart Month Recipes
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Mexican Bean Burrito Casserole
[/one_fifth]February is Heart Month and so much of prevention involves dietary changes to reduce the risk. The recipes featured this month will be delicious, heart healthy, and easy-to-make meals you can prepare in advance, freeze and enjoy anytime.
Daily Dose of Inspiration
image credit: www.weheartit.com
It’s Heart Month: Recognize The Signs
According to Statistics Canada, every 7 minutes someone dies from heart disease or stroke, making these two of the three leading causes of death. (Statistics Canada) February is Heart Month and we will be providing heart healthy tips, recipes and more. But beyond prevention, understanding the signs and symptoms of a heart attack is essential to early intervention and could save your life, or the life of someone around you. The following video starring Elizabeth Banks, and created by the “Go Red For Women” campaign, is both entertaining and factual. Please view this important video, it may save your life or the life of someone you love.
Daily Dose of Inspiration
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”
William James
Wash Your Car!
Working in auto insurance makes me slightly paranoid about issues of vehicle safety. Ideally, it would be great if car accidents could become extinct and people could go about their business without running the risk of becoming injured in their travels, but currently these remain one of the main causes of adult and child injury, death and disability. So, maximizing car safety should be on the top of everyone’s list.
Years ago, in the middle of winter, I was driving home from seeing a client at night. I was on back roads that were not lit. My headlights were on, but I could barely see the road in front of me. I struggled with this, assuming I had a headlight out, and managed to get to a gas station. There, I investigated the problem and realized my headlights were just covered in the road sludge so common in Ontario winters. I cleaned up my headlights with a window squeegee and voila! I could see again
Prior to this, the thought of washing my headlights never occurred to me. Why would it? Unless you encounter a problem, this is not something I remember being taught in driver’s ed, nor something my parents mentioned to look for as I was learning to drive. Some things we just learn in life the hard way – hoping to not be hurt in the process.
I remember when cars started to be manufactured to have headlights on automatically and all the time. I said to my brother “I don’t get why headlights should be on during the day, they won’t help a driver to see better” and he responded with “it is so other people can see you better”, I am sure adding a brotherly “dummy” in there too.
The other day I was reminded of these lessons again. It was a sunny day, but the roads had been a mess a few days prior. I was driving in the right lane and needed to change into the left lane to make an upcoming left turn. I glanced in my dirty side mirror and my rear mirror which was looking out my dirty back window, and I didn’t see anyone. I checked my side mirror again, and noticed something that looked odd. I focused more clearly and realized that there was another car to the left of me after all. This was a black car, covered in the grey muck of winter. The lights weren’t on, and what struck me was how much this car was essentially the color of the road. The road was a grey, dirt covered mess, and this car blended right in. Had the lights been on, or the car clean, I would have spotted this easily.
Really, both these issues with visibility when driving – to see and be seen – could be tackled with a simple car wash. Even if this seems futile with ongoing weather coming, the short-term benefits are immense. A clean car is easier for others to see, gives you better visibility when the windows and side mirrors are clear, and washes your headlights to make sure these are most effective. Besides, of course, the other benefits of washing road salt and sand from your paint job. Many gas stations have a quick car wash adjacent to the pump, and allow you to pay at the pump for convenience. Or, some car washes are even a drive-thru format and you don’t even have to leave your car. In the end, when it comes to road and driving safety, the added expense of giving your car a rinse could be “priceless”.
Daily Dose of Inspiration
“The best way to get rid of the pain is to feel the pain. And when you feel the pain and go beyond it, you’ll see there’s a very intense love that is wanting to awaken itself.”
Deepak Chopra
Daily Dose of Inspiration
This Sunday, February 2nd is “SuperBowl Sunday” and the Seattle Seahawks will face off against the Denver Broncos. The following video, a commercial for Duracell batteries, is the story of Derrick Coleman, a fullback for the Seahawks who is legally deaf. Derrick was sent this letter from a young fan, also hearing impaired, who wanted to pass along her congratulations and cheer him on in his big game.
The Alternative Limb Project: Fashion Meets Function
“It’s drawing attention to their disability in a positive way,” said de Oliveira Barata. “Rather than people seeing what’s missing, it’s about what they’ve got.” “Having an alternative limb is about claiming control and saying ‘I’m an individual and this reflects who I am.”
The Alternative Limb Project, started by London designer Sophie de Oliveira Barata, gives fashion to the function of prosthetic limbs. The pieces created are amazing works of art that exude the individual personality of the wearer. See more about the Alternative Limb Project here.
