The Power Of Change

Changing Why for Why Not Can Change Your Life

The most frequent complaint that many people have about the way their life is going just has to be “nothing ever changes”. People are sick and tired of their lives going the same way day after day. Most of us have probably had the feeling that we are living out the film “Groundhog Day” with ourselves in the Bill Murray role. Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, with little changing in between. And the effect of this is, all too often, to make us discontented and fed up with our lot in life. And what do we do? Well, we get up, go to work, come home and go to bed. As a wise man once said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

If we want our lives to change, it is we ourselves who need to take the first step in changing them. Life is not easy. Nor is it always exciting. And changing things is certainly not something that will happen overnight. But one thing that is undeniable is that too many of us shy away from changing things because we are concerned about how a change will affect our lives. Often the suggestion of doing something new is met by a response of “Why?”. “I could look for a new job, but why? I already have one!” “I could take up a hobby, but why? I have little enough time to myself as it is!” These same people will then complain about boredom at least once a day. The responsibility for changing things lies with individuals, not with anyone else.

When the idea of doing something different is floated, don’t just think “Why  should I?”. This just makes it easy to back out of changing your life. Not having enough reasons to do something is not an excuse – why not do it because it’s different? If it turns out you don’t like it, well, you live and learn. If it turns out that you love it, then you have added a new string to your bow, a new colour to your spectrum. In short, it makes your life a great deal richer. You could sit around for ever waiting for someone to convince you of the worthiness of an idea – or you could test it for yourself. You could go on forever asking “Why?” and all the person will be able to give you are their own reasons. Asking “Why not?” means finding out for yourself.

Sometimes people are scared of change – that’s normal. There is no guarantee that a change is going to bring all the joy you hoped it would. But opening yourself up to the possibilities out there is the only way you are going to experience the things you feel you are missing out on right now. It may sound like a naïve and wide-eyed interpretation of the world, but unless you give yourself the chance to do something different, you will carry on cursing the status quo. Better to light an candle than curse the darkness.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Entrepreneur Journey site. This article originally published on the above website on Mar 24, 2009.

Why Different People Qualify For Different Mortgage Lending Rates?

Special Mortgage Rates, Special Terms and Conditions

First Published: September 28, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

In an ideal world, everyone would have an absolutely equal share of money, opportunity and health, and what they would have would be adequate to live on comfortably. However, the world is not ideal, and through one reason or another some people find themselves having to be satisfied with what they have. In order to equalise things somewhat, there has to be a range of different options which can be applied in situations that require them. What this means in practice is that individuals will be treated differently according to their situation – with the proviso that it must be sustainable. This is why we see different people qualifying for different rates in terms of mortgage lending.

To take a hypothetical situation, an individual – let’s call him Mr. X – may have been living happily for many years in a comfortable job which entitled him to a carefree life, with a credit card bill which he paid in full every month allowing him to avoid interest fees. Suddenly, one day, a company moved into his area doing the same thing that his company was doing, but for a considerable amount less, and business migrated to the newer company. Mr. X found himself earning less commission, and was unable to keep up payments on his credit card, forcing him into a situation where his credit record was less positive than it would have been three years prior. Three years ago he qualified for an excellent mortgage interest rate. Now, he has to accept a higher rate.

This is clearly far from an ideal situation. Through no real fault of his own, Mr. X finds himself in a negative position. Is his bank wrong to approach things this way? From a business point of view, the answer is “no”. His situation created a position whereby he was considered to be more of a credit risk. Banks need to judge risk based on the facts that they have available to them, and quantifiable data. Although Mr X was generally a good payer, he has found himself in the same position as other people who may have been less responsible with credit payments. If the bank were to make an exception for him, though, they would have to do it in other situations and their margin would be reduced.

The price we pay for having a system of credit and borrowing in our economy is that it will sometimes “unfairly” penalise people who have conducted their accounts generally rather well. This system may be imperfect, but as we mentioned at the start of the article, this is not an ideal world. In order to make the best of your situation, particularly if you are one of the many people whose credit record has suffered from circumstances beyond your control, it becomes all the more necessary to look at ways of getting the best deal. This entails shopping around, saving for a deposit and in some cases waiting for your continued efforts to make payments to your credit accounts to be reflected in your credit score. And in the meantime, realize that positive behaviour is, eventually, rewarded.

Humayun’s Tomb - An Awesome Display of Architectural Splendour

What to Visit in New Delhi

During my trip to India I have visited a few historic sites and Humayun's Tomb is one of them. Today I will write a piece about this historic site, which is a must-visit if you are visiting New Delhi.

I will be making a video on this as well and will provide a link here once it’s done. Humayun’s Tomb Tour |  New Delhi, India

Humayun's Tomb - The tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun in Delhi, India is an awesome display of architectural splendour. It was commissioned by Empress Bega Begum, his first wife and chief consort, in 1569-70 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993.

After the Emperor Humayun's death in 1556, his wife Bega Begum was so grieved that she dedicated her life to building the most magnificent mausoleum in the Empire.

Humayun's son, Mughal Emperor Akbar, regularly visited the tomb during its construction.

Akbar’s grandson Shah Jahan was mesmerized by the architecture of Humayun’s tomb and he used many aspects of its design, including the double dome of the Taj Mahal.

This is the first structure to use red sandstone with white marble border linings at such a grand scale. It is a rectangular mausoleum crowned by an onion-shaped doom that looks like similar to the Taj Mahal, but instead of white marble, red sandstone was used.

The tomb is surrounded by a huge garden. This type of traditional garden was popular in the Mughal dynasty and known as char-bagh. The rectangular garden was divided into four squares by a central fountain.

How To Organize Your Home Office

Three Tips to Organize Your Home Office

First Published: Dec 5, 2013 SimplePersonalDevelopment.com

Your home office should be a place that offers you solitude and makes you work uninterrupted with passion and enthusiasm. However, if not properly organized, instead of offering you work-environment bliss, it will turn into stress and a distraction generating machine. Today, I will discuss three simple steps you can take to organize your home office.

Location – Your home office should ideally be somewhere with less home traffic, for example, away from the kitchen or living room. However, for many this may not be an option if you live in a small space. You can use portable wall dividers, partitions, screens, etc. If your room offers you an outside view, for some being able to look out the window or glass wall during work means more productivity. For others, it may be exactly the opposite. So set up your home office in such a way that it does not interfere with your natural rhythm to become productive.

Better Tools Offer Better Productivity - You should invest in ergonomically suitable furniture, high quality computers, monitors, lighting, and other necessary equipment you require for your home office. These may cost you more initially, however the output that comes from a comfortable and well-equipped workstation will pay off in the long run.

Minimalism – Like every other aspect in life, being minimalistic offers advantages as well when it comes to your home office. A home office full of clutter and unnecessary furniture can cut down your productivity significantly. I remember when I had 2 big screen monitors (occupying two computer desks) in my home office because I thought it looked cool. Once I got rid of one monitor and desk, I felt much better with more space increasing my productivity in the end. Get rid of all your clutter and things you never need, keep things in their place, manage all files, cables, and wires properly, and see how your productivity can shoot up.

Why Does McDonald’s Give Free Coffee?

Free Coffee at McDonald’s

Published Date : January 27, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

No, McDonald’s or other coffee retailers do not give away free coffee because they are nice folks. The old adage “there is no such thing as free” still applies in modern days. Although it looks like retailers are giving away coffee absolutely for free, their Return on Investment (ROI) is fetching more money in the long term than they are losing money for offering free coffee in the short term. Today, I will simplify free coffee giveaway campaigns so you can see behind-the-scenes reasons for giving away free coffee.

Brand Awareness – Think of it as an advertising campaign to promote brand awareness. Most people know McDonald’s for Big Macs and McNuggets – hardly anyone knows them for their coffee. And brand awareness is even more important when McDonalds is comparatively a new player in the coffee war in a country like Canada where people are religiously loyal to another coffee chain like Tim Horton’s and don’t mind driving 4 miles in minus 40 degree Celsius extreme cold weather for a cup of Tim Horton’s.

Dramatic Publicity – People love free stuff and the word will spread faster (that there is free coffee) than any other form of advertisement. I noticed even my 80-year-old dad somehow found out about it when McDonald’s ran their free coffee campaigns and started going to McDonald’s twice daily to grab his free coffee. The publicity and attention you get by giving away free coffee is priceless.

Habit Forming – It is possible that if you do something for a few days, it becomes a habit and then it becomes even harder to break the cycle that you have been doing for the past few days. When McDonald’s is making you take a trip or two daily for one to two weeks to pickup your free coffee, a good percentage of customers will not be able to discontinue that trip once the free promotion is over and will become long-term or lifetime customers.

Return the Love – By nature, we humans are emotional and prone to return the love and kindness given to us. After enjoying free coffee for a week or two, some of us will be psychologically inclined to develop a brand loyalty because the coffee restaurant treated us nicely and generously by providing free coffee.

So you see, what seems to be a simple cup of free coffee on the surface is not that simple at all. Retailers know how our minds work (they have highly-paid psychologists and behavioral scientists working round the clock to get inside consumers’ minds) and they are right to assume one cup of free coffee today will turn into many cups of paid coffee in the future.