How Changing Small Things Can Change Your Life

Change You Can Believe In

If you spend more time than you used to complaining and feeling frustrated, chances are that you have fallen into a rut and it is bringing you down. Although we as humans are creatures of habit to a large extent, there is no getting away from the fact that every once in a while following the same routine gets boring. However much you may instinctively dislike change, it can be the answer when things get just that bit too dull – and it broadens your horizons to allow you the chance to appreciate new things.

There is no change that is too small to influence your life in some way. Even waking up ten minutes earlier in the morning can give you a new appreciation of something. But most of us want more sleep, not less, and it is understandable that we are protective of our duvet time. It is for this reason that you should look initially for changes that will be more fun. The definition of “fun” differs for us all, of course. Some people don’t see the point in watching or playing sport; others are left unsatisfied by the cinema. Fun is anything that makes you glad to have the opportunity to do it.

When it comes to dinner time, why not try something you have never eaten before? Pretty often, even when eating in a restaurant, we will skim over the pages of stuff that we are unfamiliar with, and select the same thing we always do. Instead of this, why not stop for a while on a page that you normally flick past and give it your time? Changing something as simple as your meal rotation can give you a little bit of a boost when you need it most.

Food is just an example, of course. Sometimes change for change’s sake is a good thing, pure and simple. If you go through life never trying anything different, you will miss out on one of the most enriching parts of life – variety. I don’t know if you have heard, but it is apparently the spice of life. And it can be a very valuable thing, too. Even changing the desktop picture on your computer can make a difference on a day when you are feeling laboured and unmotivated. Buying a different breakfast cereal can also do the job. The point is not the depth of the change, the point is change itself.

However weighed down you may feel, and however weather-beaten it is making you, there is a real value in facing it down and refusing to become embittered. Changing your outlook can be as simple as deciding that you are not going to keep to the old rules, and making a bold strike for freedom. Try changing one thing every day, no matter how small it is. The difference that it will make, cumulatively, can be the difference between a positive mindset and a negative one. It’s a difference worth making.

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 Ahmed Dawn Dot Com site. This article originally published on the above website on May 5, 2009.

Baby Taj Mahal or Itimad ud Daulah Tomb | Agra, India | India Travel Blog

Baby Taj Tour Agra, India

Baby Taj (also known as Jewel Box) or The Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah is the tomb of Mizra Ghiyas Beg. Mizra Ghiyas Beg was the chief minister of Emperor Jehangir, father of Jehangir’s wife Nur Jahan, and grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal (Emperor Shah Jahan’s wife and the inspiration for the Taj Mahal).

Nur Jahan built the Baby Taj between 1622 – 1628. The designs of the Taj Mahal were inspired by the Baby Taj, but taken to the next level on a much larger scale. You can still easily see the resemblances of the big Taj Mahal in the Baby Taj.

Some striking similarities between the Baby Taj and the Taj Mahal:

- Both have 4 towers

- Both are made of marble

- Both are perfectly symmetrical

- Various other design aspects

In this episode, I will take you to the Baby Taj and give you a tour. This is one of my India travel videos. You can watch my full India trip here:

India Travel Vlog | Destination New Delhi & Agra

Jama Masjid Tour, New Delhi | India Travel Blog

Historic Jama Masjid in New Delhi

The largest mosque in India, the Jama Masjid was built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1644 and 1656. Shah Jahan is the same Emperor who also built the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

It took more than 5000 workers to build the Jama Masjid, which is made of red sandstone and marble. The mosque is 80m in length and 27m in width, has three gates and four towers and two 40-meter-high minarets.

It is simply an awesome display of Mogul architectural splendour. With its magnificent façade, the Jama Masjid can hold 25,000 people at a time.

Ten Tips to Survive Global Financial Meltdown

How You Can Survive the Economic Crisis

First Published: Oct 30, 2008 ADawnJournal.com

In light of the recent global financial meltdown, it is imperative that I write a post on how to survive this financial nightmare. The good old days of 2007 are but a memory now and all we can do is to hope that this nightmare will be over soon. In the meantime, here is what you can do to survive the current volatility:

1.   Protect Your Job – Stay put with your current job. A new job is a lot harder to find in a financial crisis like this. Give your boss more than you are required to do on a daily basis; volunteer on a new project, volunteer to stay on some extra hours when required, etc.

2.   Have an Emergency Fund – I recommend setting aside at least six months expenses in a separate account. You should never touch this account unless you lose your regular job or your regular monthly income stops flowing in. If you don’t have an emergency fund, start building it now. This is something you need to do only once in your lifetime.

3.   Reduce Your Debt – When you have debt, you are no longer in control of your life. You are instead working hard to pay interests to your financial institutions. If you lose your job, you will be in a more high-risk position than someone who does not have any debt. Stop borrowing more money and concentrate on paying off your existing debts.

4.   Reduce Your Expenses – Do you really need to have five features on your cell phone that you never use or one thousand cable channels that you never watch? When was the last time you visited your gym? Although your gym membership fees are still appearing every month on your bill, do you go? If you can reduce you expenses here and there for small amounts, it will all add up and turn into a large amount at the end of each month.

5.   Have An Additional Income Flow – Start looking into generating a second income. You can earn additional money on top of your regular nine-to-five job by starting an ebusiness, writing a book, starting a blog, doing a part-time job, starting a home business, etc. I earn additional money from Invest Now and from A Dawn Journal. It’s always good to have a secondary income source and keep increasing it gradually so one day you will earn enough money to quit your traditional nine-to-five-job. Read ADJ regularly to learn more on this.

6.   Continue Automatic Saving Plan – If you are saving automatically from your paycheck or bank account, there is no need to stop it. Continue your long term saving plans. One major mistake we always make in market turmoil is that we stop putting money aside and end up spending this extra money. When conditions return to normal, the automatic saving plan you stopped never gets started again.

7.   Learn To Invest – If you are not familiar with investments, learn how to invest. Asking you to learn investments may sound conflicting in a financial crisis like the one we are going through now, but don’t make the mistake of staying away from investments. There will always be volatility in the market, but when it comes to achieving long-term goals nothing beats the stock market. Research has shown that the stock market has averaged an annual 11% rate of return over the last 120 years. Cash has managed to return only 4% annually for the same 120 years. You may be surprised to know that stock markets actually have outperformed home values by a considerable margin in the long run. Stay invested for the long run—through good and bad times, through market ups and downs. Take a few courses, read investment sites, blogs, and financial books to increase your knowledge. In Invest Now, I discussed how anyone can start investing with $25, and I also provided lots of tools to realize your financial goals.

8.   Live A Simple Life – Simplify your life—live rich, live longer. It’s that simple. Do you really need that latest iPhone, HD Plasma TV, BMW, and gigantic house? We spend our precious life energy on the weekdays to earn money so we can spend it on the weekends. We work to pay our daily expenses, but we end up spending more than we make on things we do not need. So we go back to work to get money to pay interest on money we’ve already overspent. Stop using credit cards, live within your limits, help other people, and donate to charity whenever possible .

9.   Diversify, Diversify, Diversify – The old adage “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is still true to this day. Regardless of market conditions, some sectors will always go up and some will always go down. Try to spread out your investments across different sectors such as index funds investing across a variety of businesses, cash, real estate, bonds, cash, natural resources, and so on.

10.   Relax: Don’t Panic – Relax—this is not the end of the world. Avoid unnecessary risks by not making panic-filled emotional decisions. We survived the Great Depression , the 1970s oil shock, the 1980s crash, the 2000 tech crash, and we will survive the 2008 meltdown as well.

Kuala Lumpur Travel ; A Vibrant City

Travel Guide: Kuala Lumpur

It is not always easy for other Asian cities to live up to the standards set by Dubai, especially given that Dubai is very much one of those cities that is a standing monument to the extraordinary – but if you are looking for a city that will offer all the things that Dubai does without costing as much, then Kuala Lumpur is a genuinely excellent choice for any tourist. It may be dominated in some people’s eyes by the Petronas Towers, but KL, as the locals call it, is really about a lot more than just some of the most striking architecture in the entire region. The city has become the focus of a Malaysian tourist industry which is very much interested in developing for the future while retaining clear links to Malaysian history.

To get anyone interested in visiting Kuala Lumpur, the first step anyone should take is to show them the city’s skyline. It will rapidly disabuse anyone of the notion that KL is the Petronas Towers and little else. A night-time cityscape of this magnificent location is a sight which goes far beyond impressive and right to the point of visually and architecturally stunning. For six years up until 2004 the Towers were the world’s tallest buildings, and they are still the tallest in the country now. Of course, Kuala Lumpur is not all about the architecture. Many people these days do not see fit to visit a country or a city unless they can shop ‘til they drop once there. If this is what you are after, the city of Kuala Lumpur is ideal.

While outside, the Western tourist may well find that the temperature can get a little bit severe. In actual fact it rarely, if ever, drops beneath 66 degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius), even in the winter months. The shopping malls are air-conditioned and may well be the best places in the city for getting a bit of a breather if the heat is becoming oppressive for you. Assuming you are well equipped to deal with the heat, however, then you can take to the streets and enjoy the markets (which can get very busy but offer a real range of bargains and an opportunity to practise your haggling). You have surely been to shopping malls and seen inside them fountains, big-screen displays and other center pieces, but only in Kuala Lumpur will you see a shopping mall with a canal running through it.

You won’t be short of hotels to stay in either, no matter what your price range. While in a lot of other cities you will get a feeling you are paying for the name (of the hotel or the city), KL offers a great range of hotels where even the best by public decree are less than $150 a night on average year round. For people used to a Western climate it may well be the ideal winter break. Not too hot overall, but hotter than a Western summer, and affordable too. A really interesting experience