Choosing the right career is one of the most challenging tasks for many of us. Not all of us are lucky enough to get into the career we have always dreamt of, but can definitely get to choose one that matches our interests and passion. Many schools, colleges and universities have counsellors who guide you through the process of job search and career. A career is not just a job which offers you a great chance to make huge money but is a profession that offers you satisfaction and happiness. Besides counsellors there are other sources that assist and guide students and people looking out for new careers.

The website is managed by Daisy Swan who is a counsellor, career strategist and a coach besides a mother and wife. She offers you career counselling and guidance that can help in choosing the right profession.

These companies run miraculous compensation and benefit strategies too including the retirement packages that offers cut throat competitions in the global market to operate. Online lottery is a booming career these days and offers high quality benefits and highly efficient programmes to make a great survival for healthy and productive family life.

The online lottery system is deliberately designed on the principal of development and the growth of the employees. They offer enticing financial reward programmes too for their employees to make a good living.

The practices are based on local customs and existing traditions of any country wherein these companies operate. However, the promising candidates who want to apply for online career should be enrolled in some degree program with goodness of theoretical information. The candidates should also have undergone effective internship program for governing the practices smooth.For more information on how online lottery and gambling websites operate, visit http://www.vegaswinnercasino.org

One of my dear clients told me that he regularly repeats to himself “I’m embracing uncertainty.” This is brilliant, really, because it works for him as a way to pry his white knuckles off of the uncontrollable steering wheel of life right now. And to help him remember this phrase we’ve agreed that he’ll meditate and work out every morning before 9AM. After a lay-off he has more time to do this. The great thing is that he’s actually really doing what we agreed he would do and his mood, therefore, is less of ‘freaked out job searching desperation’ and more of having faith that he will connect with the right job. This is something we have worked on together, and something I work with a lot of clients on…who are you being as you go through the transition before you or that grips you. Our white knuckling doesn’t do us much good really, and we’re less pleasant to be around — for ourselves and others. So now I’m taking my clients lead — he’s my inspiration. I’m embracing uncertainty to let new things appear, more to be revealed, and knowing that from all of our global turmoil something new will be created. Necessity, after all, is the mother of invention, and we are an amazingly inventive society. And I notice that the movies I’ve seen lately speak to these messages — Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, Revolutionary Road to name a few seem to be talking directly to the shifts in our psyches — the shifts that are being required of us. Be present, be adaptable, reinvent, take risks, tell the truth and be real even if it means doing things that others might think are ‘unrealistic’ or ‘unusual’. Embrace uncertainty — an oxymoron that really works.

This article is from Euro Investor
Published: January 23, 2009

The Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) held its Sixth Annual Venture Awards Dinner Wednesday evening to honor Southern California’s best growth companies and to present the Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurism to Elevation Partners’ Ted Meisel. The awards dinner was attended by over 200 leaders in the Venture Capital community and CEOs and founders of successful venture-backed companies. It was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel and benefited The Hope Street Group.

Mr. Meisel, senior advisor with Elevation Partners, was honored for spearheading and nurturing a series of Internet-based companies that are household names today. He is perhaps best known for his role as CEO of Overture Services, the pioneer of search advertising. He joined the company (originally GoTo.com) in 1998 and led it to $1 billion in worldwide revenues by 2003, its fifth full year of operations, when Yahoo! acquired Overture for $1.8 billion. Mr. Meisel remained as president of the newly-named Yahoo! Search Marketing division for two years, integrating with other Yahoo! units and leading it to continued and rapid revenue growth and an expanded worldwide footprint.

LAVA also honored seven companies in the following categories:

Best Venture Financing in Biotechnology and Medical Devices:

KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. is a venture-backed company focused on the application of the tools of biotechnology to drive innovation in aesthetic medicine. (www.kytherabiopharma.com)

Best Venture Financing in Online Advertising:

Think Passenger The Passenger solution provides a private online community that allows collaboration with thousands of customers in real-time. www.thinkpassenger.com

Best Venture Financing in New Media:

Buzznet Inc. is a leading social media company focused on building the most active and engaged online community around pop culture topics. (www.buzznet.com)

Best Venture Financing in Clean Technology:

eSolar has developed a proprietary solution to make a dramatic reduction in the cost of solar thermal technology. eSolar is based in Pasadena, California. (www.esolar.com)

Best M&A Exit:

Blackboard Connect Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), formerly The NTI Group, Inc. (NTI) is the premier provider of mass messaging and notification solutions for educational and government organizations. www.blackboard.com

Best IPO:

IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: IPCM) is a leading national hospitalist physician group practice company focused on the delivery of hospitalist medicine services. www.hospitalist.com.

Hottest New Company:

CFX Battery, Inc., founded in 2007, is developing, designing and commercializing innovative primary and rechargeable battery chemistries targeted to revolutionize the portable power industry. www.cfxbattery.com

“This event continues LAVA’s tradition of recognizing individuals who have dedicated their lives to supporting and advancing entrepreneurship,” said Nevena Orbach, President of LAVA and Co-Founder of The Orbach Company, Inc. “The value of an award in a difficult year speaks volumes about those who earn it. Business acumen, like character, is tested to a greater degree in challenging times such as those we are experiencing today. The winners and all the nominees deserve admiration for their accomplishments.”

“LAVA is pleased to support Mr. Meisel’s choice of charity, The Hope Street Group, with a contribution from this year’s dinner proceeds,” said Leonard Lanzi, Executive Director. Hope Street Group is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to building an Opportunity Economy in America, where anyone who works hard and invests in themselves has the opportunity to succeed, and where our nation prospers as a result.

About the Los Angeles Venture Association:

Founded in 1985, the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) is the most successful and longest running organization of its kind in Southern California dedicated to the development and growth of entrepreneurial ventures from start-up to middle market. Through its educational programs and annual conferences, LAVA provides a forum where entrepreneurs meet and learn from fellow executives, investors, bankers, financial advisors and other professional advisors. For more information, visit www.lava.org.

By: Daisy Swan
Crossposted from: 1TherapyPlace.com

Work feeling like work lately? Do you find yourself looking around and thinking that everyone else has this career thing figured out except for you? Wondering how getting up in the morning can be something you look forward to instead of dreading?

Learning as a link to satisfaction

Nine out of ten people I work with are bored by their work, their relationships, or their surroundings. When it comes down to it most of us need to make a change in how we see ourselves in our world to make important, although sometimes subtle, changes that lead to greater satisfaction. Our work touches all areas of our lives, so making change anywhere in our lives will impact our work. When was the last time you learned something new at work or outside of work? Not enough time in the day to learn something new? I doubt it. If you want to make a change in your work, make the time to learn something new. Challenge you to make at least one hour per day to do something differently so that you learn something new. Within four weeks you’ll notice a difference.

If you see someone who has achieved outstanding results in their work or life chances are they took time to cultivate their interest, knowledge and skills to get them to where they are. Don’t fool yourself into believing that you can’t get where you want to be. Change your thoughts to those that encourage you. Notice what you put your attention on—because what you pay attention to grows—if you’re telling yourself you can’t get what you want then you’ll be sure to prove yourself right. If you want to help people, or enjoy working with numbers, love being outdoors, working with animals—whatever it is, you can do more of it and learn more about it. Let your curiosity be your guide to become more knowledgeable. As you get closer to your interests, learning more about whatever they are, you’ll find more opportunities; they will become apparent to you as you get more involved in these interests. You’ll meet more people who enjoy similar things,and with this you’ll learn about more opportunities. It’s like learning a new word or concept; once you learn something new you start to see it everywhere.

Write it down and then look around

Give yourself some room to dream by writing down what you’d like to see in your life. Dream big, sure, and also give yourself a right sized dream. Remember that expecting too much to happen without taking action in the direction of your dream will result in discouragement. Start looking around to see what’s out there that can support your dream. If you need support in taking steps towards your dream, enlist a friend or a coach. Join a group or create a group. I challenge you to do this and then see what’s available to you within four weeks time. Something will have changed. You will know more about what needs to happen next to keep moving forward, or how you need to change course. You can do it. Let me know what happens 😉

Now, more than ever, we all have to be savvy sleuths being curious and active to find how our interests can lead to jobs, or the people who may know of jobs. “Green” jobs top the list for many job seekers who are not only looking for work but who also aim to make a difference in the world. Here are a few ‘green’ resources to add to your list. Don’t forget to look at all of the job search, networking and career transition websites, books and ideas on our the links and resources pages on our website www.daisyswan.com. When looking at this sights put your hesitation to get involved aside and get out there and talk to people. We’ve seen some clients make great strides when they let their interests and passions propel them to attend events, conferences, classes and networking functions to learn. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This is not a time to play timid. Everyone’s in the same boat. Get smart. Get going.
www.greendrinks.org
www.ecotuesday.com
www.startingupgreen.com
www.greenbiz.com
www.opportunitygreen.com
www.southcoastme.com
www.coopamerica.org
www.socaltech.com
www.startupbeat.com

This article is from The Huffington Post
By: Tracy Hepler
Published: January 16, 2009

As twentysomethings, we have the power to influence the future of our environment. Unlike our parents and Gen X, we haven’t become brand committed yet. Businesses and leaders are waiting to see what we do. With our practices, our wallets and the Internet, we have the ability to significantly steer the course of the Green movement.

See Your City From a Different View

Getting out of the car completely changes your perspective. Bicycling and walking through your community allows you to actually engage in your neighborhood rather than just being a spectator who drives by. The environmental benefit is that by committing to cycle within a 2 mile radius of your home you can keep up to 20 lbs of carbon out of the air (per round trip).

Volunteer in Your Community

Our soon-to-be President has asked for a renewed “Call to Service.” Most major cities and towns have environmental organizations that are looking for help. Whether it’s the big guns like the NRDC or small grassroots organizations, you can find a cause that is happy to have you. If committing isn’t possible, look into actions like Eco Running where you take a bag with you as you walk or run through town and pick up trash as you go along.

Kick Your To-Go Habit

We live in a to-go culture, so it’s hard to kick the habit. First thing, get rid of the plastic bottle. One plastic bottle can take up to 700 years to decompose in the landfill. Earth Lust and Sigg make functional, stylish bottles that are easy to carry. In 2006 Starbucks cut down over 900,000 trees to create over 2 billion paper cups. If you can drink your coffee there, ask for a mug. If you have to take it to go, get a portable mug. I’m a big fan of the stainless steel Hybrid Mug from revengeis.com. If you’re really committed, look into To-Go Ware. To-Go Ware is individual stainless steel containers and bamboo utensil you can take with you anywhere. Many restaurants will let you put your take out or doggie bags in these containers. All you have to do is ask.

Buy Green, Fair and Used

Designers are now using resources like bamboo, organic cotton, hemp, reclaimed wood, plastic bottles and old unwanted clothes to make innovative products. Green fashion no longer equates to hippie frocks, rather to high fashion runway couture by designers like Linda Loudermilk. Another element that is just as important is the who behind your product. If your new cotton tee is organic but is made in a sweatshop in Burma, you’re not doing the planet much good. Make sure the companies you support honor Fair Trade practices as well. Eco chic fashion boutiques seem to be sprouting up everywhere, but if you can’t find one near you visit two of my favorite online eco shops: thegreenloop.com and btcelements.com.

Look into vintage or recycled fashions. I’ve been able to score big designer names like Michael Kors and Alexander McQueen for $10. Visit stores like Buffalo Exchange or Crossroads if you live on the West Coast. Your local vintage shop will have great finds at cheap prices too. For furniture or electronics, websites like Craigslist.com and Freecycle.org are great ways to get products that are already out there and might be destined for the landfills if no one takes them.

When in doubt, it is always greener to buy used than to buy new even if the product is green.

Party With the Big O: Organic Beer, Wine, & Spirits

Food is not the only thing that should be organic. Look for organic beers from local brewers or companies like New Belgium. Countries all over the world have begun growing organic and biodynamic wines. There are a growing number of organic spirits on the markets too. A mention must go out to 4 Copas Organic Tequila for their smooth, white tequila that tastes better than Patron.

Educate Yourself and Spread the Knowledge

If there is one learn we can learn from the Obama Campaign it is the power of the Internet to organize movements. Friends, “Facebook friends” and strangers can build support to rally around mutual causes. Share your favorite green sites, blogs and tips with others. Become a supporter of green organizations and the individuals that bring you this information.

*Remember, every step helps no matter how small.

This article is from The New York Times
By: Peg Tyre
Published: January 9, 2009

SCOTT BERRY has always been a morning person. For years he would wake up at 5 a.m., shower, shave and, tamping down a twinge of regret, plant quiet kisses on his two sleeping children and his wife, before backing his BMW out of the driveway.

As the family breadwinner, he worked long hours at his job as a technology analyst for a boutique investment firm in Manhattan. The demands of his work and the substantial commute from his home in Darien meant he rarely saw Samantha, 8, and Max, 7, before his wife, Tracey, had them in their pajamas and ready for bed.

Then in December 2007, Mr. Berry, 49, lost his job. He immediately looked for a new position but found opportunities puzzlingly elusive. In mid-2008 came the rout on Wall Street. “The good news is, I don’t feel singled out for unemployment,” he said, running his hand through his light-brown hair.

But his plan for his next job — as an analyst in a venture capital firm or as an executive at a start-up — has been deferred. So Scott and Tracey Berry have faced a complex series of choices about work, money and the roles and responsibilities each would assume in the family. Their goals: to keep their domestic economy from mirroring the national one — and to stay married.

As unemployment has hit a 16-year high and Wall Street shakes off tens of thousands of jobs, affluent couples in the New York area find their families suddenly in flux. It’s not only the high-flying income and the attendant abundance that have evaporated. For many couples, it’s also the assumption of what their marriages would look like; the traditional model — executive husband and stay-at-home wife — may be a little dated, or unworkable.

One mother in TriBeCa, who is married, at least for now, to a Wall Street executive, put it rather bluntly: “My job was to run the household and the children’s lives,” she said. “His job is to provide us with a nice lifestyle.” But his bonus has disappeared, and his annual pay has dropped to $150,000 from $800,000 a year. “Let me just say this,” she said, “I’m still doing my job.”

The Berrys’ marriage isn’t as fraught, and they were never the kind of couple who lived bonus to bonus — which may explain why they, unlike most newly unemployed Wall Street families, are willing to open their lives to a reporter. In good times, they saved, set up college funds for their children and paid off their mortgage. Aside from a modest car loan, they don’t carry any debt. Despite their year of little work, their 11-year marriage seems as solid as their spacious five-bedroom Colonial home.

It helps, too, that they are not the only ones making adjustments. They live in an affluent bedroom community of New York, one whose very name has become synonymous with wealth. The median income for Darien, a village of about 20,000 in Fairfield County, is $180,000. The median price for homes sold last year was well into seven figures. But when Scott Berry walks along Darien’s commercial strip on a weekday, he sees many middle-aged men like him: part of the growing corps of the newly unemployed. At his local Y.M.C.A., the out-of-work Masters of the Universe and the professionals who relied on those huge salaries — architects, landscape designers and high-end contractors — can be found pumping iron together at 10 a.m.

“A lot of them have a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look to them,” he said. “If you have a massive mortgage and your wife has been out of the work force for a decade or more, being laid off can seem crushing.”

But, he added, “If you can learn to roll with it a little bit, you’ll be fine — I mean, you know, probably.”

The couple’s first upheaval was Tracey Berry’s short-lived effort to join the opt-out revolution. Two years ago, she left a job in Manhattan negotiating contracts for Ralph Lauren to spend time with her aging parents and children. After her husband’s job search stalled, Tracey, 47, found a job at a local reinsurance firm. It doesn’t nearly make up for her husband’s salary, but she is home by 6 o’clock every night.

Scott’s response to her new job was pure relief.

“If she wanted to be home more and we could swing it financially, I was happy for her to be at home,” he said. “Now, things being what they are, I’m happy for her to work again. I always wanted a marriage of equals. And frankly, having a wife who works or can readily join the work force is a good risk-management strategy.”

Tracey was more ambivalent. “I’m pretty vocal in my marriage,” she said. “I said to him, ‘I thought this was my turn to be home with the kids.’ I wanted another summer with them, but what are you going to do? Beat him up for it? I assumed I’d re-enter the work force at some point, and right now, I’m proud to be able to go out there and earn money.”

Shortly after Scott lost his job, the couple replaced their full-time nanny with a more cost-effective au pair and began choosing long-weekend getaways instead of weeklong family vacations. Some expenses, though, haven’t changed: they still shell out for membership at a local country club (“the most modest one in town,” Tracey said); they rented a condo last summer on Block Island; and they continue to pay hundreds a month for soccer, skating, T-ball and karate lessons for the children. They afford these things by dipping into the savings Scott put away during the flush years.

How to spend is a continuing negotiation — one that sometimes devolves into heated discussions, outright arguments and bouts of sulking. Tracey is trying, often unsuccessfully, to spend less on clothing for herself and the children. “Don’t make me look like a jerk,” she told a reporter, “but I cannot bring myself to buy my children’s clothes at Wal-Mart.”

“But do you have to buy them at Ralph Lauren?” Scott shot back.

The Berrys have been at this long enough to make light of the well-worn nature of their disagreement. “It goes like this,” Scott said. “ ‘How can you complain about me not earning an adequate income, when you can’t control your spending?’ ”

On cue, Tracey chimed in. “And I say, ‘How can you complain about my spending when you don’t have an adequate income?’ ”

To try to keep their spending under control, Scott and Tracey collect their receipts each week. Every Sunday, Scott calculates their weekly expenses. Then he compares the balance in their savings account with the rising cost of college tuition. “There was a time when we had saved up enough to send both kids to Harvard,” he said. “Now I tell myself Harvard is not the only school.” Then he calculates how their dwindling savings will affect their annual retirement income.

“Right about then,” Tracey said, “he blows a gasket.”

At times like this, a big house helps. “We go to separate corners,” Scott said. “I have a big glass of wine and watch TV for couple of hours or do a sudoku puzzle to clear my head.”

Alone in another part of the house, Tracey decompresses by phoning girlfriends and makes a mental list of Scott’s virtues. “The danger is that we’ll have saved enough money for our retirement, but I won’t like him enough to want to spend it with him,” she said wryly, her affection for Scott clear.

IN many ways, couples today have better resources to weather the economic storm. This is the best-educated generation of women in history. If their husbands face a prolonged period of unemployment, women are more qualified than their mothers or grandmothers were to re-enter the work force or expand their jobs and make a significant contribution to the family’s bottom line. Gender roles have softened, too.

“In the past, working women were the target of great resentment,” said Stephanie Coontz, a professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., who studies marriage. “Husbands felt emasculated when their wives went to work. All that has changed.”

And while gallons of ink have been spilled about men who don’t do enough housework or don’t do it well, men today are more likely to cook, clean, set up a play date, phone the pediatrician and wash a load of laundry than their fathers ever were.

Which is not to say that they are perfect.

Scott does the daddy stuff with enthusiasm. “I love that he’s a great father,” Tracey said. “He takes them on outings. He coaches soccer. He’s signed them up for a Y.M.C.A. program and they all get Indian names — Samantha is Smiling Fox and Max is Flaming Arrow. It’s so adorable.”

But the vacuuming? “When I come home at the end of the day, the house is cluttered,” Tracey said. “There are dishes in the sink and stuff underfoot. I leave the recycle at the top of the stairs. When I get home, the recycle is just where I left it. I don’t want to be critical, but it’s taken some getting used to.”

Amy Reiss, a divorce lawyer in Manhattan, said that she had seen a spate of women seeking to end their marriages after they re-entered the work force or expanded their careers to replace their husbands’ income. The wives don’t resent working, she said. In fact, they’re pleased to contribute.

But “the husbands become what I call ‘clickers,’ ” Ms. Reiss said. “These are unemployed men who sit on the couch all day, holding the remote and watching TV, unable to step up and take over some of the household tasks and chores associated with raising the kids.”

Those women, she said, come to her looking for an exit strategy. The Berrys are not seeking Ms. Reiss’s services. For one, they are better at coping in lean times. Scott hopes he will be making money again soon: he is consulting on a start-up that may receive financing, which would generate a modest but regular paycheck.

He is still a morning person. The first out of bed, he wakes his wife and helps the children get ready for school. Once the school bus pulls away, he heads for his regular workout at the gym. By 11 a.m., he’s showered and dressed in a pressed oxford shirt and sitting at the computer in his home office. He writes a blog (scottjberry.com). He handles phone calls stemming from his consulting work. He knocks off at about 5 for dinner.

“My job right now is looking for a job,” Scott said. “I may not be getting paid, but when I sit down at my computer I’m ready to work — physically, mentally and psychologically.”

Learning to roll with it? He has become something of an expert. “We’re making a lot of changes,” Scott added. “It isn’t always comfortable, but we’re doing it.”

Tracey sounded more tentative. She and Scott sat on either end of the couch during an interview not long ago as she used two hands to tick off the number of marriages that she knows are foundering or ending.

“Economics isn’t the only reason, of course, but it doesn’t help,” she said. She paused for a moment, considering the distance she and Scott have traveled. Then she shifted her seat to move closer to her husband.

If you truly want to see things starting to happen at your workplace, you are going to have to learn how to be more self-disciplined. This means you will need to maybe work on building on a personality trait you might have never had to begin with. So the efforts might be bigger for you, but you have every chance of getting there. Here is what you could do throughout your regular work week.

Work On Building A Daily Schedule

One of the very first things you are going to have to do is learn how to adhere to your very own daily schedule. Set it up by yourself considering the most and the least important tasks of the day. Prioritize everything and make sure you always set blocks of time aside for each and every task. When the time is up, move on to the next task on your schedule. Try to leave room for making your phone calls and writing your emails at the end of the day so you do not get distracted by long conversations and additional problems that might rise up and prevent you from completing your tasks.

Combine Several Tasks

Overwhelming tasks that are simply too demanding to be handled all at once can be successfully regrouped and reorganized while broken into several smaller tasks. Smaller tasks will become a lot more manageable and help you better prepare your brain for the next ones, giving you that sense of accomplishment and momentum. It is also important to perform those tasks that you enjoy most; keep in mind your self-discipline is going to make room in your life a lot faster if you are going to mostly embrace only tasks you enjoy. If you love to complete future projections of the company’s revenues but you hate having to look into old databases and compare information, you could outsource this particular daunting task. Focus on the most pleasant tasks and ask for help or hire someone for the smaller tasks.

Discipline Does Not Equal Perfection

Stop trying to make everything perfect; focusing your entire time and effort on reaching perfection is going to hinder your entire efforts of being more disciplined. External factors that are independent from you will eventually force you to slow down the completion pace of a project or postpone it altogether for a while. If you cannot go on and take on a different project or task until you see that particular problematic project done, you will become anything but disciplined.

Last night, after our delicious Thanksgiving feast, I watched The Sound of Music with my son until past midnight. You might not think a 12-year-old boy would want to watch this with his Mom, but I explained that I thought it was an important movie for him to watch for several reasons. One, his history class has been studying the Holocaust and I thought it would provide another perspective on that horrid period of time; two, my son is very into music now and I told him he should have a good historical perspective on some of the music that others have built their music upon. I even mentioned that I know people go to The Hollywood Bowl every summer to enjoy The Sound Of Music Sing Along! Rodgers and Hammerstein have staying power.

It’s been decades since I’ve watched the movie – I’ve seen this movie at least 7 times in my life already – and last night I was again so moved by the wisdom and depth of the characters and the music. The songs resonated so much for me and while I so wanted to sing along (I didn’t to spare my son) I felt the goose bumps that come from the recognition that those characters were singing songs that are great reminders of things easy to forget. And that’s where the ‘corny but true’ comes in …
Sometimes I find that I have to remind myself, and my clients, of the words Maria so boldly sang – I am confident I have confidence in me! – when life gets so overwhelming, confusing and confounding and, particularly lately, scary. We have to regularly practice talking positively to ourselves – those of you who have lost your job or are worried about losing a job listen up here – it’s so important to think of the message of My Favorite Things. In fact, I recently was feeling the heaviness of the world’s turmoil, the sadness of some of my clients, and the frustration of not being able to fix everything! So I knew I needed to enrich myself and spent a few hours at a spa using a gift certificate I received for Mother’s Day. I had to remind myself of the things that are going well, spend some quality quiet time reading and listening to good music. I needed to walk around Santa Monica and people watch. And I even indulged in the best fix for low mood – I bought a new lip gloss. Ok, I know that might not work for 50% of you out there, but you get the idea. A few hours of self-care and reminding myself of a few of my favorite things had me feeling re-energized and re-inspired.

I hope you’ll do this for you, too. Clearly we all have many mountains to climb these days. And we usually learn the most from the times that we make it up those mountains. So here you go, just in case you haven’t heard (or seen) this lately or even ever …

Climb every mountain, search high and low
Follow every byway, every path you know.
Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, ’til you find your dream!

A dream that will need
all the love you can give,
Every day of your life
for as long as you live.

Climb every mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, ’til you find your dream!

From The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein

This article is from The New York Times
By: Rony Caryn Rabin
Published: November 19, 2008

Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers — but they don’t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds.

That’s what unhappy people do.

Although people who describe themselves as happy enjoy watching television, it turns out to be the single activity they engage in less often than unhappy people, said John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and the author of the study, which appeared in the journal Social Indicators Research.

While most large studies on happiness have focused on the demographic characteristics of happy people — factors like age and marital status — Dr. Robinson and his colleagues tried to identify what activities happy people engage in. The study relied primarily on the responses of 45,000 Americans collected over 35 years by the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, and on published “time diary” studies recording the daily activities of participants.

“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”

But the researchers could not tell whether unhappy people watch more television or whether being glued to the set is what makes people unhappy. “I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy,” Dr. Robinson said.

Still, he said, the data show that people who spend the most time watching television are least happy in the long run.

Since the major predictor of how much time is spent watching television is whether someone works or not, Dr. Robinson added, it’s possible that rising unemployment will lead to more TV time.