Five Easy Tips To Improve Your Health Today

Ted Rogers, a former collegiate basketball player and coach, now a public speaker who shares healthy lifestyle tips via his books, keynotes and workshops, recently addressed a group of people at a meeting I attended. His tips were so simple that I knew I'd have to share them with you.

Those of us who work from home, or sit at a computer for most of our work day, can benefit. 

Tip #1
Drink more water. It should be obvious, but he says most people just don't drink enough water to flush out what the body needs to flush out. Toxins. Waste. It's all inside of you unnecessarily. He suggests drinking an entire gallon (yes, think milk jug) per day but says you can attack it one sip at a time throughout the day. It's do-able. And he insists it's the single most important thing you can do for your health.

Tip #2
Breathe deeply--and more often! If you allow yourself to focus on taking deep breaths throughout the day, he says this will even help you lose weight. What! Is this a miracle fix? No, it's just the way the body's supposed to work. Naturally. One trick to try: Before you answer the phone, take a deep breath. Do this each and every time BEFORE you answer the call. It will act as your reminder. 

Tip #3
Colorize your foods. Don't supersize, he says, colorize! That just means add more vegetables and more variety of vegetable to your meals, and eat smaller portions throughout the day. In this case, color is the spice of life.

Tip #4
Activate the life you already live. This one's easy. Get up. Get active. You don't have to start an exercise program if that's not your thing. But you can introduce more movement into the things you already do. When you brush your teeth, for example, why not do squats or knee bends at the sink? Or when you answer the phone, instead of sitting down, stand up and walk around. You can also do what I do when I'm blow drying my hair. I touch my toes and stretch my legs at the same time. I also keep a set of hand weights by my desk. When I feel tension, I grab them and do a few curls or arm stretches of some sort. It feels good. Of course, you can always take the stairs instead of the elevator inside buildings, or park further away from entrances in parking lots. 

Tip #5
Pursue personal peace. This tip is about living life with laughter. Ted suggests keeping a laughter journal in your purse or pocket so you can record the funny moments that occur throughout the day. What you're essentially doing is training yourself to pay attention to the things that make you laugh and allowing yourself to take away the focus on what irritates you. Who needs that, anyway? 

BONUS
If you're experiencing negative stress right now, Ted says to take a moment to consider where it's coming from before you respond to it. It's probably not really caused by the guy who honked at you on the freeway or because you forgot to deposit that check. That negative stress goes deeper than that. When you become aware of and know the root causes of your negative stress, Ted says you'll be that much closer to managing it and possibly eliminating it altogether.

Your Action Step
Because these are simple solutions that anyone can adopt, take a second and write down here which of the five tips you will commit to doing this week. Blog about it on your blog. Then come back next week and pick another tip to adopt. Do that for the next five weeks and see if you notice any change in how you feel.

Are you pissing off the right people?

C'mon, look at this face. Who do you think I'm pissing off?

"Who are you pissing off?" That's the question that's sticking in my mind since hearing the keynote presentation a marketing consultant gave this weekend at a meeting I attended on Saturday.

Let me be frank. It's hard for me to consider this question. It really is. I don't like to piss people off, though I've certainly been on the recipient end, as I'm sure most of us have. And I know I've pissed people off before, but not necessarily on purpose. Still, when this guy asked that question of a group of us Arizona speakers, it certainly got our attention.

Seeing as I'm in a transitory state of mind, rethinking my business model and what I have to offer the world, I'm thinking I now have to consider the uncomfortable question. I have no choice. Not only am I curious about who I should be pissing off, if I'm not already, but I'm wondering exactly how I might do that effectively. Go figure! I'm also wondering if this might be something you want to consider for your business. It could be a little liberating.

You see, according to David Newman, the question has everything to do with how well you know your business, right down to knowing not only what service you're offering and why but also who will be your very best market to receive that service and how will you reach them. He said when you take a stand on what topic you're going to pitch or sell to others, you should be pissing somebody off.

You can't be "middle of the road," he said, "that's roadkill." Your business won't go anywhere if you remain in a neutral position. In other words, you want to own your expertise. The niche that follows will not only be yours and yours alone, but it will also be more valuable.

And that's going to piss someone off. 

He asked us to pair up and discuss the idea with a partner. Once we did that, he asked us to share what we learned. A writing consultant said she pissed off authors who think they know it all. They really don't want to be edited. Yet, it's clear their copy needs improvement. Oh, the arrogance! Another marketing consultant in the room said he pisses off general marketers by having a niche market that nets him more work and more money than they earn. Well, why wouldn't they be upset?! As for me, I had a hard time deciding who I pissed off purposefully and what it might mean for my business if I did come up with a list. After all, the writers I hang out with make a point of trying not to burn bridges. We don't want to piss people off. Newman's idea veers off from that philosophy, doesn't it?

Then again, I don't want to be middle of the road but am not sure which way to turn right now. It's equally as uncomfortable. But I know I won't get too far without solid footing. Taking a stand, of course, sounds like a very good idea. While pissing people off seems a little, well, off. I'm not so sure about that.  

One thing I am sure of...I'll be thinking about it this week as I continue assessing the next steps in my career. Who am I pissing off? The more I think about it, the more I think this is actually going to be a fun experiment. It'll be like getting in touch with my "inner child," the little girl who marked up the basement walls in crayon when I was five years old. After I was forced to clean that mess up, the wall looked better than ever. Now, that's an interesting prospect.

What about you? Who are you pissing off these days?  


Stay tuned for more detail about pissing people off and why it might be good for your career. David Newman has agreed to chat with me further about this later in the week. I'll either post the transcripts or the audio. This should be interesting...

Photo Essay: remembering Arizona's White Mountains before the Wallow fire

West Baldy Trail near Greer, Arizona

Pine trees in back of Red Setter Inn, Greer

Alpine, Arizona in May 2010

Deer in the meadow across from Molly Butler Lodge, Greer

A quirky character at the old Greer Lodge

A break from the blogathon? Yeah, right!

I thought I might take a break after the blogathon to catch up on paperwork, but I couldn't help myself. I had to post. And now I'm wondering, how do you handle a backlog of paperwork:

a) stack it up?
b) ignore it till later?
c) take care of all paperwork as it crosses your desk?
d) did I say, ignore it?
e) none of the above?
f) a mix of the above?
g) other?
g) if a mix or other, how do you respond this way and why?

Where to host the random book giveaway

Today, we officially celebrated the end of the 2011 WordCount Blogathon with a Twitter party. Participating bloggers met on Twitter.com at 10 a.m., PST, to discuss what we loved and hated about the blogathon. We discussed what we learned and what we could learn more about. But I'll leave the serious wrap-up of what happened and who said what to Michelle Rafter; she'll blog about it tomorrow.  I just wanted to announce the cool thing that happened to me at the party.

I seized the opportunity to offer a book giveaway. I've done this before, at real parties. But without the inspiration of Jennifer Willis I might not have done it this time. I hadn't even thought of it, till I saw that she was giving away of copy of her new book, Valhalla. So I figured I could add to the fun, diving in at the last minute with a book giveaway of my own and a surefire winner on board. Michelle always offers prizes at the end of the party, anyway, so it makes sense to celebrate with our own creations and expertise. Seems to make the whole affair more personal and appreciated.

And it took the sting off my last giveaway that flopped. If you'll recall, I had a giveaway in early May here. When the winner didn't step up to claim her prize, that contest fizzled out, and I didn't have a back-up plan. Lesson learned: always have a back-up plan. That being said, today's Twitter party became my back-up plan without me even realizing it. Plus, I managed to find another guest poster in Willis. We'll work that out in the future, I'm sure.

Until then, let me congratulate the winner of my book, Backroads & Byways of Arizona. I'll be mailing a signed copy to Kim C. who is known as @mymommynme on Twitter. In the blogging world, look for her fitness tips. Congratulations, Kim. I hope you enjoy the book.

And thank you to all who joined me here during the 31 days in May. We did it! And now we can take a well-deserved break.