Quote for the day

I found this quote at Under the Loupe, the gorgeous blog by Annette Piper:

“The difference between a successful man and a failure, is not one’s better abilities or ideas, but the courage one has to act on them”-Maxwell Maltz

May it start your week off with the best of intentions.

New Careers - Kathie Thomas

Cherry Mag has a great article in the current edition. It is all about Kathie Thomas.

If you don't know who Kathie is then you should go and look her up. She is an inspirational woman who has managed to cram much more than the average person into her life so far. Kathie was the founder of the Australian Virtual Assistant business. She pioneered the industry and made it what it is today. There are many people working from home who will be thanking her for opening up this way of life.

You would think that after having been so successful in one area you could afford to sit back and relax. No, not Kathie. She is also an author and now a published photographer.

She is an amazing success but she is also a warm, helpful and interesting woman.

Go and read about her in Cherry Mag and have a look at her stunning photography.

Carnival - Living a Real Life

Welcome to the August edition of living a real life.


Shamelle presents Are You Constantly At The Mercy Of Circumstances? posted at Enhance Life.

Erin Pavlina presents Choosing Our Emotions posted at Erin Pavlina's Blog, saying, "A short while ago I was tucking my daughter in to bed, and as I was heading out of her room I noticed to my horror that she had used a red ink pen to gouge her full name into her brand new white dresser. Not something you can wash away, the wood was gouged deeply."

zenmasterben presents The positive side of anger posted at zenmasterben.com.

Outshined presents Living Your Life posted at Personal Web Guide, saying, "Instead of constantly being selfish or bowing down to the needs of others, "Living Your Life" is an article that discusses the benefits to living a balanced lifestyle with those around you. It details how to proceed through with your goals while not being hampered down by personal selfish needs or the needs of others."

Storm presents The Beauty of Simplicity posted at Ways To Simplify.

Lauren presents Nourish Your Inner Honey: Positive Pause - Holiday Honey posted at Holiday Honey, saying, "Take a moment and just be."

Scientific Living presents Fearlessness posted at Scientific Living.

OXM presents The Spark posted at Improving My Life, saying, "That spark is there, waiting for you to make a single move. It will take over from there."
work

Mark Yarrobino presents The First Step is the Biggest posted at Secrets to a Successful Life, saying, "For a lot of people, making any kind of change is extremely intimidating because it looks like a long road ahead that they’re not sure they’re ready to start walking down. But the truth is that it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it isn’t that way because it isn’t humanly possible to travel that whole road at once. Like any other road, you can only go down it one bit at a time."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of living a real life using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: living a real life, blog carnival.

Writing a Press Release

For many of us in business the idea of writing our own press releases seems like a daunting task. We can be so close to our businesses that it is hard to step back and look at it from an outside perspective. We need to be able to do that so that we can see what angle is going to bring most attention and then capture it in a press release.

So how could we go about it?

Impress the Press is an ebook that will help you to write your release. "Following our step by step, easy to understand e-book, will equip you with the necessary skills to write your own Press Releases to make sure your business stands out to media professionals." It is only $19.97AUD and is much cheaper than paying someone else to write the release for you. Even if you still decide to have a writer prepare your release Impress the Press will have shown you what your release should contain.

So what do you do with the release once it is written? You can go somewhere like Get the Word Out which is a paid online distribution service or you can use free online press release sites. Check out the list of free press release distribution sites at SM2. Of course, the best way is to use your contacts in the media so that you get your foot in the door straight away.

Not all of us have contacts. Some of us just have to do it ourselves. While reading Your Cheeky Monkey blog I found that Monique had just written her first press release and submitted it to PR Log. Monique is a great example of someone who is pro-active in getting her business noticed. She worked on her release, found an angle that distinguished her business from others and then published it at the PR site for journalists to find.

Why not have a go yourself? Use Impress the Press as your guide and see what you can produce.

Quote for the day

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.

Bob Edwards

Chill Out with the Family.

I wrote this article for last month's YOU magazine. After a cold, grey weekend full of kids and visitors it seemed appropriate to revisit it. Don't just shiver through winter. Let it be a season that brings you closer together with your special people.

Winter has raced in and flung herself all over us. Skies are grey and the winds are cold. It is a great time to stay inside and spend some time together as a family.

There is nothing better than lazing around feeling warm and cosy while the world through your window looks damp and miserable. It is even better when the whole family is lounging around together, isn’t it?

We are always so busy that there rarely seems to be time that you can spend together as a family. How long is it since you all sat at the meal table together and talked about your day? As the kids get older it is harder to get them together at the same time because their social lives start to interrupt. Now that winter is here why not use it as tool for getting everyone together?

Don’t only think in terms of sitting around and talking. I think any time spent together is good because it all adds to the common bond you have as a family. Why not sit in front of the open fire and listen to music? You could have a movie night at home. Sit in the dark with your popcorn and lollies just as you would have done in the cinema. Pick a family friendly film and curl up. Another idea is to have a cooking challenge where you team up to create a meal for the family. It is great for getting the kids involved in the cooking. They aren’t going to miss the judging either, so it guarantees that you eat together.

Yes, winter can be a long, cold season so warm it up by strengthening your family relationships. In years to come you will hear your children telling their children tales of the things you did together. What a lovely tradition to pass on.

Technology for the non-techs.

Technology has given us many tools to play with and they have opened up lots of opportunities that we would otherwise not have had. Simply being able to turn on your computer and play a game or run a business is something that we all take for granted now. Well, until something goes wrong...

Every day there are new pieces of software becoming available and it can be hard to keep up with them all. More to the point, it can be really difficult to decide if that piece of software or new technology will do what you think it will do. I bet you all have dusty CD's sitting on your shelves. You know, the ones that were going to solve that last crisis.

Kylie, from Tilda Virtual, knows all about that and she has created a newsletter designed to make it easier for us. She says." The newsletter is now called Techno Update – and it will be a monthly cheat sheet on the latest technology for online businesses trying to market their services or products. Topics will include VoIP, Content Management Systems, Customer Relationship Management Software, Setting up and promoting Teleseminars and much more.
Techno Update will give you all the information you’ll need to decide if using particular software or technology is going to help you to achieve your goals."

I think that Techno Update is a great idea. It will certainly help me to decide if that new program is going to do what I want.