To enable Brainstorming to be effective, there are certain rules to follow. One of the most important is that no one should make any judgment about anyone’s ideas. There should be a FREE-FLOW of ideas (that’s why Brainstorm is put under the WATER Element category!) and everyone’s ideas are to be respected and taken into account.

Let’s go through the steps of setting up an effective Brainstorming session:

1. Get into small groups of less than six (it was found to be more effective) and select a leader and a recorder (they may be the same person).

2. The leader must explain the focus topic and goals of the Brainstorming session. In short, he/she must make sure that everyone is clear on the topic being explored.

3. The leader should spell out the rules of an effective Brainstorming session. These will include:

There are no WRONG ideas!

Everyone plays a part to contribute.

No laughing and poking fun at people’s ideas. No CRITICISM!

Do not discuss or argue about the ideas given.

The person in charge must record all ideas without any biasness.

4. It is also important to set a realistic time limit. This is to prevent wastage of precious time and the group members tend to be more motivated to give their best, without delays.

5. Start the brainstorming.

6. Usually, anyone can contribute their ideas at any time, without any restrictions. But, there are groups that use a small game to enhance the effectiveness of their Brainstorming sessions. This includes getting the leader to start the Brainstorming session by throwing a tennis ball to another member for his turn to give an idea. And in turn, he/she will pass the ball to another member for his turn to give another idea.

Whatever it is, there are no real hard and fast rules about this. As long as ideas are continuously flowing from each member, the objective is met.

7. The recorder should write down all responses and enable the other members to see them. This help a lot in the brainstorming as sometimes, ideas of others can help spark more original ideas form the rest of the group.

8. Usually after the Brainstorming session, the group will need to go through the results and begin to evaluate the ideas given.

Certain questions to ponder upon include:

Are there ideas that are similar?

Can some of the ideas and concepts be grouped together for clarity?

Are there ideas that are really impossible to use at this point of time (maybe due to lack of resources or other reasons)?

Putting Your Elements to Work:

Here are some Brainstorming exercises for you and your group to practice:

1. Ideas to start a business with less than $100 in the bank.

2. Generate ideas to make an effective advertisement for a business.

3. To improve sales of a new product.

4. Generate ideas to get people to buy what I am selling (for example, Health Products) instead of flowers for Valentine’s Day.

5. To find ways to get rid of excess products (for example, food, flowers and others) that will be rotting in a week’s time.

Just a note for Solo Warriors:

Brainstorming is usually done in a group for obvious reasons. In any case, if you are ever caught alone with an IDEA FLOW blockage, you can still brainstorm alone by jotting down ideas on paper or laptop. The same rules apply and that is to jot ideas as they flow without considering whether they are good or bad. The evaluation of your responses can be done later after you feel that the flow of ideas is subsiding.

The Stone Soup Legend

There exists a tale, handed down from times long ago, of two travelers on a pilgrimage. Hungry and tired from a long day’s journey, they come to a small, impoverished, medieval village, where they decide to rest by the side of the road. One of the travelers builds a small fire, upon which he places a large pot, while the other, having drawn water from the town well, fills the pot and places into the vessel a simple stone. As the two men sit by the fire, bringing their “stone soup” to a boil, the local villagers become inquisitive of the curious antics of these strangers. Eventually, several townsfolk decide to investigate the matter and approach the two travelers to engage them in conversation.

Shortly thereafter, there is heard the sound of merriment, as the visitors, who turn out to be quite friendly, share their tales of the lands and people they have met throughout their journey and pilgrimage with the local villagers.

Finally, a young boy asks the travelers “But why, pray thee, are you boiling a stone?”

One of the pilgrims replies, “So we may eat stone soup.”

“It must be terribly bland!” says an old woman. “But I have a cabbage, which will add some flavor!”

“And I, some carrots, which will add color!” says another villager.

“Some potatoes!”, offers another, until, shortly, by the contribution of a little by many, a hearty stew was made, upon which the entire village and the weary pilgrims dined… and while doing so, shared their tales, talents, and camaraderie throughout the night.

The very next day, the travelers (who by now could be called “strangers” no more), continued their journey, leaving the little town, and its people, behind. But the villagers never forgot them, and the lesson they had learned. In fact, during the hardest of times, in such a time as this tale, that little village thrived, because the townsfolk never forgot how to make “stone soup”.

For tropical flavourings, sample fruity liqueurs such as a yellow banana, bright green melon, orange coloured passion fruit, or, if iced coffee is more your cup, try Irish cream drizzled over shaved ice. Colourful sodas such as grape, lemon-lime, cream soda, orange, etc. are great nonalcoholic choices. For vitamin packed alternatives, flavourings such as frozen unsweetened fruit juice, fruit or yogurt provide a nutritious base for tropical drinks, sorbets, or snow cones. Many cultures for centuries have enjoyed snow treats. Generally sweet, snow treats can alternatively be seasoned with chopped herbs, nuts and spices for a nice accompaniment to an entrée. Or, if you need to cleanse your palate between courses, a sorbet does the trick.

Overcome by the heat of summer, need something to quench your thirst, having a pool party or you simply crave a light tasting dessert, a snow treat is the answer. Simply place the electric ice shaver on the countertop; place a bowl, cup or other container onto base platform to hold shaved ice; place ice cubes/pucks into ice chamber; push the child-friendly oversized on/off button to start shaving process; scoop ice shavings into paper cups, glasses or bowls; pour flavourings on top of snow.

1. Choose the right “delegatee”

Review the task and determine what skills are required. Delegation goes much more smoothly if you match the person with the appropriate skill set to the task you have to assign. Now if you don’t have a candidate that has all the skills you are looking for, decide which is the most critical one (analytical ability, attention to detail, communications skills) and make that match.

One of the rewards of delegation is the opportunity to help someone develop and grow. It is unlikely that you will always have a candidate that you can hand off something to and not have to provide some training or coaching. But learning to empower your employees will reap big rewards as their confidence grows with their abilities, and delegation becomes easier and easier, and your “Stop Doing” list gets longer and longer.

2. State your expectations clearly

When you assign a task, be very clear about the deliverables you expect, and qualify your expectations as much as possible. As a minimum, you need to communicate the “what” and the “when”. For example: “I want these invoices entered into my database by 5pm tomorrow”. Then, start adding qualifications to your request, such as: “Please make sure that the expense categories are correct, and if you are unsure, ask me and I will clarify for you because I want the reports to be accurate.”

In addition to communicating about the “what” and “when” of an assignment, I recommend that you also include information on the “why”. For example: “I need the monthly recap report done by 5pm tomorrow because I have a meeting with client X the following morning and need the information, so it is really critical that I have it.” Often, we assume that others should know what we expect. But if you have a new working relationship with someone, that is probably an unfair expectation. So, take a few minutes to think about what you need to communicate to save both of you a lot of aggravation, and possibly rework.

3. Choose an appropriate oversight level

No one wants to work for a micro-manager, but some managers are too hands-off when it is inappropriate. Note the skills and experience level of your employee and adjust your oversight level accordingly. The first couple of times they handle a complicated task, you may want to check in more frequently. After a few months, you could probably ease off on your involvement as their knowledge and confidence increases.

4. Provide feedback effectively and often

Once in a while, we get really lucky and have someone supporting us who does things perfectly the first time. But that scenario doesn’t happen too often. However, we can get the employee to the perfection level by providing appropriate feedback. Tell them very specifically what they did well (“Your accuracy is great. I rarely, if ever, find a mistake in your work. Keep it up.”), and what they need to improve on (“I really needed the monthly recap report for Company X done yesterday. I had a meeting with them this morning, and was not able to provide them with the latest information. That reflects poorly on my service. I need you to let me know when you cannot meet a deadline I have given you. Will you do that?”)

Specific, constructive feedback is the most effective way to improve performance. Even if you have a “star” employee, you still need to provide the feedback so that they will maintain their high level of performance. Work on giving more positive feedback. If the only time you provide feedback is when you are unhappy, your employees are not going to be very eager to talk with you.

Follow these simple steps and dive right into delegation. As you become more successful in delegating, you will feel more confident in adding to your “Stop Doing” list. Then use your time on something much more impactful for your business, or much more pleasurable for you.

1. Carefully examine what factors you are using to set project deadlines. Then set realistic deadlines. Start with the most important things first and rearrange projects that are within your control. Then set acceptable time limits for completion.

2. Be on the lookout for time sinkholes. Those little pesky tasks that steal valuable time from your day but that don’t really help you get much accomplished. Look at the activities you routinely perform each day and see which ones you can skip or limit to once or twice a week.

3. Get regular exercise at work- every day. Daily exercise even in short intervals can keep you alert, productive, and healthy. This regular exercise greatly contributes to mental and emotional fitness. Do stretches, biceps curls, and squats for 2 minutes 3 or 4 times each day.

4. Take control of your time, don’t let other people waste it. If someone calls or stops by to chat and you’re pressed for time, be polite, keep it short and schedule some time to get together outside of the office. Keep track of unnecessary or unproductive meetings. These can really waste time and sap your energy. Who ever is running the meeting should have an agenda they can stick to, helping the meeting be productive and concise.

5. Do you have the same deadline crunch every Friday or at the end of each month? Reexamine your work habits and identify all of the areas that are causing you to waste time or procrastinate. Start with a strategy of doing the most important things first and stick to the list. Keep yourself focused on these time management strategies and they will become a good habit, improving the quality of your work and giving you more time.

My experience is first hand. I dated many Asian ladies and have heard the comments. If we frequent a typical American club, I have had my dates threaten by American women in the restroom. In time, Asian clubs sprung up in the United States. At an Asian club, American women are welcome. I have never seen an American lady being threaten by Asians in a typical Asian club. It just isn’t their nature. The crowd in these clubs are usually Asian ladies and American men.

There are many Asian ladies in the U.S., especially from the Philippines. A lot of these ladies arrived via meeting an American G.I. I really don’t know the percentage, but there is no doubt that most Filipina ladies have a military connection in some way. They met in the Philippines, got married, and came to the United States with their military husband. Consequently, you’ll meet Asian ladies in clubs who are married. If you mingle with Asian ladies that frequent the clubs for any length of time, you will eventually meet ladies who are unfaithful. This unfaithfulness is how Filipina ladies are branded as whores by American women. This doesn’t carry the same stigma for American women who may do the same. Hypocrisy is always evident when behaviors of the two cultures are compared.

What the American GI has discovered is now catching on with non-military men. Asian dating sites have sprung up all over the internet. Some of these sites try to exploit the Asians’ sexuality. However, there are many Asian ladies who want to meet a sincere gentlemen for a relationship. As attractive as Asian ladies may be, American men are also captivated by the Asians’ behavior towards men. A man’s dream of having a wife who wants to please him, appreciates his love and treasures his efforts in making a home seems to have been found by American men in the Asian culture. You’ll hear American men call these values “traditional values” because at one time these were the values that held the American family together.

The tired argument about these women being a servant to their husband, is one sided. Do these women like serving their husband? Yes, most do. But not as slaves. They are not forced to do so, but have the desire to please their man out of appreciation and love. These ladies are doing what they want to do. I repeat, they WANT to please their man, do things for him and show their appreciation. In turn, these men are happy, want to provide for their wife and have no desire to look elsewhere for this appreciation. It’s chemistry that once prevailed many years ago in the United States and has been lost in the myriad of women rights in American society.

Why do Filipina women want to marry a foreigner from another country? I’m not going to argue the fact that these ladies want a better life. It’s probably true. I will argue that most women, no matter the country, want to marry in to a better life. Again, it is the hypocrisy of who you are that makes a behavior negative or not. Most women, in the United States, need to look in a mirror before judging ladies from other cultures. Besides wanting a better life, most Asian ladies want better treatment. In a Filipina lady’s eyes, men from the West treat women better then men from their country. Is there truth to this? The feed back I get from the ladies at my website is yes or at least they perceive it to be so. I’m sure the social status of your family makes a difference of how you are treated regardless of your gender, but I’m talking about the average Filipina lady. The difference is simple. In her country what she does for her man or husband is expected without appreciation. Here in the United States, most men come to expect a lady isn’t required to serve him, to want to please him, and love him for who he is. When an Asian lady does, his appreciation is certain. For an Asian lady, the man doesn’t have to be super rich or look like a movie star, just treat her well and show his love. It’s a merry-go-round with respect and love as it’s focal point. She wants to please him, he loves her for pleasing him, she loves him for showing he appreciates her love and so on.

All the above words, statements and my observations have their exceptions. There is no doubt, there are bad men in every country. There is no doubt that some women only are in it for the money or to get a free pass to the United States. These are the exceptions and it is this minority that the media and others will use to blanket a whole culture in a negative light. I’m sure most of you have seen in print or on the news about “mail order bride” scandals or “mail order bride” mistreatment as if this defines all courtships and marriages that develop through the internet. If a few instances defines the standards, then just getting a marriage license in the United States should have a warning imprinted in gold. No matter if a couple met through the internet or at the neighborhood church, you have your share of scandals and mistreatment. The last culture of experts that needs to be giving advise about how to meet and marry a women is the United States – is there any other country whose divorce rate is higher?

The Philippines does not condone online dating sites. For that matter, it is against the law. I’m not going to quote their law here, but it has to do with moral issues. Again hypocrisy!. If the Philippines are so worried about women rights, there are other issues they could concentrate on besides taking away a women’s right to find happiness, love and a better life for herself. She wouldn’t be looking elsewhere, if the Philippine government took care of her needs. Should I complain? Probably not, or most Filipina women would not be joining online dating sites to meet American men. My objection to this law is how it is used in the Philippines as a political vehicle rather then sincere concern for women’s rights. Hypocrisy, it is everywhere, isn’t it?

I started this article to comment on why a lot of American women despise Asian women. Not all American women, but a lot. But the discrimination doesn’t stop there. It is evident in the media, politics and indeed in their own country. The people who are forgotten, are the couples themselves. Why not just ask them? If two people who found each other are happy, in love and want to be together, why does the media and politician think they know better. More then likely, it isn’t about what the couple want, but more about politics and sensationalism to sell news. Take your hatred, your narrow minded views and negative publicity elsewhere and let us find love even if we find it on the internet.

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It never crossed my mind that there could be such a thing as a redneck workaholic, until I read a column on “Are you a workaholic?”

“Did you read this?” I asked my wife. “Are you a workaholic? It looks just like those you-might-be-a-redneck jokes.”

My wife studied the page. “Maybe it was written by a redneck alcoholic.” She suggested.

“Workaholic, not alcoholic.”

“How do you know the writer is not an alcoholic?” she demanded.

“I don’t. But the column is about workaholics, and it reads just like a series of redneck jokes.”

“Well, maybe it was written by a redneck workaholic, then.” She suggested.

“No way. There is no such a thing.”

“Why not?” she wanted to know.

“Because workaholics sit late in front of computer screens and steroid-laced in-boxes, wearing $500 suits and $550 haircuts. Folks out here wear $19.95 jeans and occasionally wash their hair.”

“But many of them do spend late hours in front of their computers,” my wife pointed out.

“Like who?”

“Like you.”

“Oh, yeah…”

“Being a workaholic is not just about computers and offices and taking out a mortgage for a haircut,” she added. “Look at Buster.”

“Buster?”

“Sure, every time he’s set to retire, he goes and buys another machine,” she pointed out. “One year it was a backhoe. Another it was a dump truck.”

“Wow, he must be desperate this year.”

“Why?” my wife asked.

“Because this year he bought a whole combine…”

“Ooh, that does sound desperate.”

“…plus a farm to use it on!”

“See?” my wife smiled. “You don’t have to live in the city to be a workaholic. There can be such a thing as a workaholic redneck.

“That’s a pity. Being a workaholic means missing out on a lot of life.”

“That’s true, but it’s not just city folk who miss their kids growing up or are too busy working to help their wives clean the dishes.”

I took the hint and picked up a drying cloth. “You mean that anyone can get caught up in work, and lose sight of what’s really important? Even farmers, moat diggers and the guy who sorts through the trash at the dump looking for the tastiest morsels to throw to the gulls?”

“I suppose so,” she answered with that what-have-you-been-smoking look on her face. “Why not try to see if workaholic redneck jokes work?”

“Well, if you look forward to Christmas this year, because you might take the afternoon off from tilling the land, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“That’s the spirit,” she encouraged.

I tried another, “If you’re drinking your morning coffee from a dirty mason jar from yesterday, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“Very good,” she praised.

“If you stick family pictures to your backhoe window to remind you what they look like, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“Why not try one more, just to make sure?” my wife suggested.

“OK, if you bring your work with you to your son’s baseball game, you might be a workaholic redneck.”

“Uh, OK…” she began.

“And if nobody complains about the smell, you might live in a town full of workaholic rednecks!”

“You got it!” she shouted.

I realized that I had spent way too much time talking about workaholic redneck jokes. There was only one thing I could do to compensate.

I tossed aside the drying cloth, grabbed my lap-top computer and rushed to the outhouse to catch up on a few hundred urgent emails.

It’s interesting that something as beautiful as roses are also equipped with sharp thorns. An interesting play on our concept of taking the good with the bad from nature. The most esteemed of all cultivated plants, are the true roses. Rosa occurs indigenously in the north temperate zone and in tropical mountain areas, usually as erect or climbing shrubs with five-petaled fragrant flowers. The rose has been a favorite flower in many lands since prehistoric times. It appears in the earliest art, poetry, and tradition. It has been used in innumerable ways in decoration. In ancient times it was used medically. But, for many gardeners just being able to grow beautiful roses is reward enough.

You can search all over the web to find some great resources to help. Yellow roses, blue roses or climbing roses can all be found on the internet. Take your time to look around and consider what kind of roses you would like to have blooming in your garden.

In order to help you in treating your nail fungus, toenailfungustreatments.com has provided useful information about nail fungus treatment. It is stated clearly in this site that in order to avoid getting nail fungus, you must be able to keep yourself clean, from the hair up to toes. This is important as the causes of nail fungus can grow well in humid environment. As you might notice that your shoes are usually wet, nail fungus can occur more on your toenails. This results in a need of toe fungus treatment.

Then, you can also find information about the best toenail fungus treatment recommended by this website. Articles related to nail fungus are also available for your references. In brief, this website is a complete resource for nail fungus prevention and treatment. So, why don’t you make use of this good opportunity to learn more about nail fungus?