One of my favourite quotes of all time is by the extraordinary gentleman by the name of “Will Rogers”:

This one line sums up what it is we all know in the great scheme of things - not a whole lot. We all have specialist knowledge that no-one else in the entire world knows. This may be trivia in the eyes of others but rest assured, you and I are unique in the fountain of knowledge we both possess.

Now before we get all cosy in the knowledge that we know something others do not, bear in mind that there is an infinite amount of things we do not know - none so ridiculously illustrated by the US Secretary of Defence - Donald Rumsfeld:

“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

What Donald was trying to get across only he will ever know!

So what is the value of understanding how ‘ignorant’ we all are?

For one thing, we can recognise there is soo much to learn in this life, no matter how much you think you know, there’s always more to digest. For another - no matter who you are talking with, no matter what you think of them, there is something they can teach you - this means the art of listening is one you should try to master, after all you were given two ears and only one mouth for a reason

Lastly, with respect to learning in general and Self Help Tips in particular, if there is information you already ‘know’ but hear/see again - be patient and remember no-one is trying to teach you to ’suck eggs’. Somebody else reading the same information is reading it for the first time and through repetition, the lessons you already have learned are being further strengthened.

You never waste your time provided you engage your brain.

Coming full circle back to a man as ignorant as the rest of us - Will Rogers. I’ll leave you with another of his thought provoking quotes:

Wishing you the best of success,
Tom O’Brien
Editor
http://www.SelfHelpTips.com

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What does Jennifer Aniston, Sedu Flat Irons & your self image all have to do with each other?

At first glance this may seem a somewhat tenuous link. But believe it or not, over 840 people search for the phrase “Jennifer Aniston Sedu Flat Iron” on the internet evey day! No doubt this is due to the ‘Rachel’ phenomenon from the hit series ‘Friends’.

There are hairdressers out there who are in two distinct camps - those who love ‘The Rachel’ and those that don’t - all because of the huge popularity of the style at the height of Friends and still enduring today.

So what does an iron - a sedu flat iron at that have to do with self esteem/self image? Well it’s a simple enough link - personal grooming, the need to flatten/straighten hair and present the best possible picture of oneself to the world is an intrinsic need. We all want to look and feel our best, regardless of whom we are - I’ll bet Jennifer Aniston has used a sedu flat iron or something like it to give herself a boost especially given the trials and tribulations of the last 18 months with the ‘Brangelina’ episode.

Back to self image for a moment, the way we perceive ourselves is critically important, so much so that positive self-esteem is the key to well-being. We all need a little pick-me-up from time to time and if it’s a haircut, a bar of chocolate or a trip to the salon - a little of what you fancy does you good - careful on the calorific intake though, too much will have a negative impact on your phyisical self-esteem!

It is all too common for individuals to devalue themselves and keep their self-esteem in check rather than recognising the positive elements of their character and building on these strengths.

That reminds me of the outmoded views of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. It was thought that to become a ‘better’ individual you should concentrate on your weaknesses. This is now known to be rubbish - concentrate on and improve upon the strengths you already have.

Wishing you the best of success in your life and self-esteem,
Tom
Editor
http://www.SelfhelpTips.com

Download PDF Version here (right click and select “save target as”)

86400 seconds in a day but there’s never enough time. I don’t know about you but there’s always more on my to-do list and as for information overload - well it’s just not funny.

The one thing we all have in common - no matter our background or current circumstance - is we have the same amount of time to do ’stuff’. Time utilisation is a skill in the same way that driving a car is a skill. There are some people who are much better than others and by studying them we can learn to make our own use of time more effective.

Here’s one tip that will help you do more with less time. Have you heard of these three little letters: RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary depending upon who you are talking to. It’s definition is irrelevant though - what you do need to know is that it will help you save time.

How can this help you save time? RSS acts as a ‘funneling system’ helping you find specific information quickly. Is it difficult to get to grips with? Not at all, if you can cut and paste, you can use RSS and as for the cost - well you can use this technology for no cost whatsoever.

RSS Benefits

• Unlike email, RSS is anonymous - you never have to divulge any personal information, you are a subscriber to an information source, the publisher may know how many subscribers he/she has but they won’t know who they are.
• You can unsubscribe successfully - 100% guaranteed. Again when compared with email, this is a huge benefit because not all email subscriptions are easy to cease for a variety of reasons. This is not an issue with RSS, you are fully in control of subscribing or unsubscribing at any time.
• Information is automatically brought to you - You don’t have to go hunting for information from websites anymore, with RSS you set up your feed (each subscription is called a feed or channel) subscription and the information automatically comes to you.
• Review much more information - Every RSS message comes with a concise summary, rather than wading through an entire email only to find out you should have saved your time by not reading it in the first place! In addition, if you’re surfing the web looking for information, you are distracted by ads/graphics etc all vying for attention and your time. By reading only the concise summary, you decide whether you delve deeper into the message or skip on. This means you scan then dig deeper rather than wasting your time.
• Highly and easily customised for you. If you’re interested in a specific product, you can receive information for that product only. If you’re interested in specific companies, you can receive information only on that company. If you’re interested in specific books/TV programs/films/celebrities, you can receive information only on those things that interest you. It’s the equivalent of having a rifle and sniping the information you want rather than using a shotgun and trying to blast information from the Internet. Some RSS newsreaders (more on that in a minute) will even let you keep a watch for specific keywords/phrases in any number of RSS feeds! What you track is limited by your imagination.
• It’s “open” - this is not a proprietary technology. It is universally accepted and the standards are widely known and distributed (granted there are different versions of RSS and an alternative called ATOM - but you as a user don’t need to know about these things). The benefit of this is that you can get your information delivered to you in your browser, in your RSS reader, on your PDA, on your mobile phone - you can be ‘ahead of the competition’ by being up to date on whatever topic you choose, whenever and wherever you choose.
• New User Benefits - RSS is relatively new, those people that adopt, use and maximise their use of the technology will have an advantage over those that don’t. If you rely purely on email or active searching of the net yourself, you are relying on 20th century technology and ways of doing things. RSS is one of the first 21st century tools you need to know.

How you can save time

To subscribe to an RSS feed, you need to have an RSS reader. This can be a dedicated program on your computer like the one I use (this one does cost money but is more feature rich and saves me more time than free readers) or you can use one of the many free readers out there like the Pluck reader that ‘plugs-in’ to your browser. You can also have integrated RSS feeds for your Google, MSN and Yahoo accounts for free - check your accounts for more details.

RSS and Email

Does this mean that email is dead? Not at all, RSS is a lot newer than email, only geeks and early adopters will fully embrace this technology for some time to come. Widespread adoption will take time.

There is a drawback for those of you subscribing to RSS blog feeds that have mailing lists delivering the same information - a matter of timing. In the case of SelfHelpTips.com for example we have a main mailing list (which if you’re reading this from an email - you’re on it which will also have much of the same content as our blog - I Got Off My Assets.

Such information is normally delivered at regular intervals but not so as to deluge your inbox. You need time after all to digest and assimilate the information contained within.

With RSS feeds from blogs however, you get whatever is posted immediately with no interval so you could be snowed under with information that should have been delivered and digested in a more leisurely fashion.

Now this is a problem but there is also a solution - subscribe to both the RSS feed and email lists! “What is he on - I thought he wanted to help me save time” - I hear you but bear with me:

You should only subscribe to RSS feeds and email lists covering the same content on an infrequent basis (otherwise you’ll become inundated with information to wade through), which ones you do so are up to you. I suggest you do so when the information being delivered deals with content you want to learn and master self help tips being a great case in point .

Remember you will remember more through repetition.
Remember you will remember more through repetition.

Wishing you the best of success,
Tom O’Brien

Editor

http://www.SelfHelpTips.com

© 2005 www.selfhelptips.com Time Management Skills - Self Help Tips - Helping you, help yourself, help others

Welcome to the first post of the SelfHelpTips.com weblog - “I Got Off My Assets“.

Why the name “I Got Off My Assets”? Well, I was researching how people name their weblogs, I came across Elliot Back’s website which had some interesting statistics on what people are calling their blogs.

So, I concluded I wanted to use a name that was:

• Unique
• Inspirational
• Motivational
• Noticeable

I think the above name has achieved all of the above in a tongue in cheek fashion.

So what are you likely to find in this blog?

In a nutshell: Anything and everything to do with Self Improvement and Personal Development.

SelfHelpTips.com is continually having more content added daily dealing with all aspects of the self help genre. Here are some of the topics covered:

• Achievement
• Belief
• Business
• Career
• Confidence
• Communication
• Creativity
• Emotional
• Fitness
• Goal Setting
• Happiness
• Inspiration
• Learning
• Memory
• Motivation
• Organizing
• Relationship
• Self-Esteem
• Spiritual
• Stress
• Success
• Time Management
• Visualization
• Wealth

We have an Article Directory, a Reviews section covering self improvement products and services and also an awards section for websites that provide extraordinary products/services or information to the world of self help.

Lastly I hope you’ll enjoy your visits and the information on this site as much as I enjoy researching and putting it all together.

Wishing you the best of success,
Tom O’Brien
Editor
Self Help Tips