In the year 2014 I want more time, better results and frankly more joy. Blogging and reading each item before I share has helped me greatly. I truly love to learn and feel me continuing to blog is not productive for my business so thanks for the 125k page views and the comments I appreciate your attention and focus.
Thanks and have a great 2014!
Alan
Saturday, January 4, 2014
The benefits of being alone
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The Gamification of weight loss
TED Blog
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Posted: 02 Jan 2014 09:55 AM PST
Mick
Cornett is the mayor of Oklahoma City. In this talk from TEDMED, he explains
why he challenged his city to lose a million pounds.
In 2007, Mayor Mick Cornett put
Oklahoma City on a diet, after the city made a less-than-flattering
appearance on a list of the most obese cities in the United States. In
today’s talk, Cornett shares the aha moments that led him to create This City Is
Going on a Diet, a somewhat unusual mayoral initiative.
 Mick Cornett: How
an obese town lost a million pounds“On New Year’s Eve of 2007,
I went to the zoo,” Cornett recalls in today’s talk. “I stood in
front of the elephants, and I said, ‘This city is going on a diet, and we’re
going to lose a million pounds.’ That’s when all hell broke loose.” Watch this talk to find out what happened next.
This week, we’re in the midst of
New Year’s resolution mania. And if you’re thinking that a community weight
loss challenge sounds like a smart way to help people stick to fitness and
nutrition goals, you’re in good company. Over the past few years, plenty of
games, challenges and competitions have popped up to promote weight loss and
exercise. Going beyond diet gimmicks, what sets them apart is the tendency to
be public, and communal.
Once considered a private — even
secret — matter, weight loss began to take on a public face with competition
shows like The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Fit Club. Now, workplace
fitness competitions are even getting built into
some insurance policies. Major US insurers like UnitedHealth
and Aetna are exploring apps, social media and Xbox Kinect games to gather
data on fitness habits (the idea being, of course, that fitter, healthier
people are cheaper to insure). Cash incentives are also driving competitive
dieting in the workplace. In a program patented in late 2011 by IBM,
co-workers could submit their eating and exercise data through an app and get
monetary rewards for good habits.
Apps in this space have exploded. DietBet invites
people to lay odds on their weight loss, winning money from friends and
strangers when they meet goals. HealthyWage is similar, boosting
motivation by asking people to place bets on how much weight they’ll lose. Skinnyo creates
friend groups to set up fitness challenges. Similarly, GymPact lets friends
give a digital pinky swear and commit to workout sessions or eating more
vegetables. While some of these apps are controversial, they all turn a
personal journey into something communal and game-based.
An initiative even more closely
resembling This City Is Going on a Diet: Shape Up Rhode Island, a statewide
team-based competition founded by a Brown University medical student in 2005.
Over the past seven years, an estimated 70,000 state residents have signed up
for the program; participants track the number of steps they take daily and
enroll in three eight-week exercise and diet challenges a year. Like
insurance companies, state and local governments stand to gain significantly
from a fitter, healthier population.
So does this work? Do communal
weight loss efforts really trump a more private approach? There have certainly
been promising results. In a study tracking Shape Up Rhode Island,
clustered weight loss among team members suggested that group influence
affected success. In this program it was recognition, rather than rewards,
that seemed to matter. Other studies have looked at the efficacy of cash
rewards. One published in 2013 in the Annals of Internal Medicine
split dieters into three groups — one that got a financial reward for losing
weight solo, one that split a pot of money for reaching collective goals, and
one that did weigh-ins without financial incentive. While the third group
lost about 1 pound, those who’d been given a solo financial reward lost about
4 pounds, and those who’d been part of the team lost about 10 pounds — and
were better at maintaining their weight loss.
Peer influence, it seems, is something
to keep in mind if you’re looking for ways to stick to weight loss goals this
year. While other research shows that digitized and
gamified approaches to fitness can be more hype than help, it’s notable that
many entries on Healthline’s list of the best weight loss apps
include social functions.
As anyone who’s tried to lose
weight (or quit smoking, or start flossing, or …) knows, the most difficult
part is sustaining will-power momentum after the initial excitement. In
Oklahoma City, Cornett focused on infrastructure changes to make a city that
“had built an incredible quality of life if you happen to be a car” more
walkable and fitness-oriented. To him, the key was cultural change — shaping
a city where residents talked about and cared about maintaining healthy
weight.
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How to get motivated when you are out of motivation
Have you ever noticed that sometimes it can be incredibly
difficult to stay positive and motivated?
Perhaps you’re not getting the results you expected for your goals.
Or maybe you’re getting results, just not the celebratory kind or magnitude you expected.
Perhaps you’ve been trying to achieve a certain goal for a while now and everything is simply taking longer than you thought it would.
Under these common circumstances it’s perfectly understandable that your patience might be beginning to wear a bit thin
Perhaps you’re not getting the results you expected for your goals.
Or maybe you’re getting results, just not the celebratory kind or magnitude you expected.
Perhaps you’ve been trying to achieve a certain goal for a while now and everything is simply taking longer than you thought it would.
Under these common circumstances it’s perfectly understandable that your patience might be beginning to wear a bit thin
And surely you won’t give up on your goals (after all, quitters never win). But, again, it’s definitely understandable if the roaring enthusiasm you once had for them is slowly dwindling.
Well, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Because the truth is that almost ALL worthy goals and dreams take longer to bring into fruition than we initially expect (which means everyone experiences dwindling motivation after sustained work, at some point or another).
But, as long as you stick with your plans and goals - and remain true to yourself – your dreams WILL come into fruition.
That’s why it’s so important that you don’t give up. But to actually stick with it you’re going to need to keep yourself motivated.
So, the question becomes: How on earth do you stay motivated after you’ve been working toward your goals for a while, yet still haven’t actually achieved them?
Here are 3 surefire ways to keep your motivation high, even during those dreadful slump periods where you’re ready to call it quits:
1. Be honest with yourself
Now’s the time to take stock of your efforts so far.
Ask yourself:
What has actually worked up until now?
What’s giving good results?
What’s giving no results?
What’s giving results that you’re not really happy with
because you think these results are too small?
What can be done to improve or increase currently working
results?
What are some new methods or approaches for achieving your
desired goals that you haven’t tried yet?
Write down the answers to these questions. Doing so will
give you some much-needed clarity (and some surprising, newly invigorated
motivation).
More importantly, taking stock of your efforts so far will show you what you should do more of, what you should stop doing for now (or do less of), and what new, unchartered approaches are available to you moving forward.
2. Switch it up
If motivation’s dwindling, one thing you can do is step back and take some time away from what you’ve been doing for a while.
Often, the clarity we need is obscured by constant action…meaning that sometimes, the only way to get the clarity you need to move forward is by doing the counterintuitive thing: Taking a break.
And while you’re at it, during your break do something you know you’re really good at and always successful at. This will give you the confidence boost (and motivation boost) you crave when it comes time to revisit your long-term goals.
3. Remember, everything happens for your benefit
Often, when things aren’t going exactly as we planned (meaning our way) we feel frustrated, angry, sad, or hurt and motivation decreases accordingly. That’s why it’s key to remember during these times that everything that happens in our lives usually serves an ultimately positive purpose.
The world is not out to get you…if anything the world is fully supportive of your desire to succeed. And the fact that you have that desire to succeed means something (because a lot of people don’t have it at all).
So, take it easy.
Just because things are panning out differently than we might expect doesn’t mean they’re worse (often they’re actually better).
Keeping this in mind will give you the strength, courage, and creativity you need as you go for your goals and dreams…whatever they may be.
Now it’s your turn: What often deflates your motivation and what do you do to regain it when that happens?
Share in the comments below!
More importantly, taking stock of your efforts so far will show you what you should do more of, what you should stop doing for now (or do less of), and what new, unchartered approaches are available to you moving forward.
2. Switch it up
If motivation’s dwindling, one thing you can do is step back and take some time away from what you’ve been doing for a while.
Often, the clarity we need is obscured by constant action…meaning that sometimes, the only way to get the clarity you need to move forward is by doing the counterintuitive thing: Taking a break.
And while you’re at it, during your break do something you know you’re really good at and always successful at. This will give you the confidence boost (and motivation boost) you crave when it comes time to revisit your long-term goals.
3. Remember, everything happens for your benefit
Often, when things aren’t going exactly as we planned (meaning our way) we feel frustrated, angry, sad, or hurt and motivation decreases accordingly. That’s why it’s key to remember during these times that everything that happens in our lives usually serves an ultimately positive purpose.
The world is not out to get you…if anything the world is fully supportive of your desire to succeed. And the fact that you have that desire to succeed means something (because a lot of people don’t have it at all).
So, take it easy.
Just because things are panning out differently than we might expect doesn’t mean they’re worse (often they’re actually better).
Keeping this in mind will give you the strength, courage, and creativity you need as you go for your goals and dreams…whatever they may be.
Now it’s your turn: What often deflates your motivation and what do you do to regain it when that happens?
Share in the comments below!
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Written on 2/6/2013 Cece Suwal & Mark Brener,
coauthors of the national bestseller, A Guide To Your Supreme Power, and
cofounders of The One World Initiative, where you can discover your path to
money, love, power, success, life purpose, and meaning. Get your free course
on how to be happy and subscribe to their blog
to learn how to become rich.
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protecting your compuer while traveling
Dumb
Little Man: Ways to Protect Your Computer from Hackers While Traveling
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Posted: 03 Jan 2014 09:46 AM PST
Traveling is an occasion for excitement that's second to none.
It's a time where we escape the day-to-day grind and plan for the future. For
the various reasons we travel, business or pleasure, one constant remains
with us -- our laptops and mobile devices.
While we use our devices for different purposes and with varying frequency, we must all be aware of the dangers that exposed to our devices. Hackers understand our computers are vulnerable while traveling. These Internet ninjas are armed with several strategies to disrupt your travel and damage your device. This should serve as a short guide of hacker's tactics and what you need to do to protect your computer. Read more »  |
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California families striggle- Francis Rolland on real estate
Francis'
Silicon Valley Real Estate corner...
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Posted: 03 Jan 2014 03:39 PM PST
To keep things in perspective, which is always nice
when you live in the Bay Area of San Francisco, I thought this article was
worth reading.
According to the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan research group, many California families are struggling from paycheck to paycheck, and expensive housing, high childcare costs and rising healthcare expenses are the main factors. Nearly one-third of households in the state spent at least half their income on rent.  Full article from the LA times, which
also includes links to the richest and poorest cities in the US. Source:
LA Times - by Shan Li.Happy New Year! and thank you for reading, Francis Silicon Valley real estate specialist Detailed, local trends etc... Current mortgage rates
Francis C. ROLLAND - Since 1985 Realtor. HEC 76. MBA - CRS
Coldwell Banker dir: 650-947-2259
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