Taken from here:
http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/10-articles-that-changed-my-life/

#1 – Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

For teaching me to stop attributing value to unimportant things, and start trusting my instincts. Before reading Jobs’ speech, I was working a job I hated because it was really the only thing I ever tried. It was what I knew. Jobs says “You’ve got to find what you love.” His article helped me realize that I was wasting my life living someone else’s dream. If I settled for someone else’s dream, I’d grow old and die without ever seeking my own.

#2 – Violent Acres’ Most People Are Depressed For a Very Good Reason

For teaching me that being depressed had nothing to do with the serotonin in my brain — the reason I felt depressed was because my life sucked. I was making choices just to appease the opinions of people around me, when I should have been making choices to appease myself. This article helped me realize that medication was not the solution to my joyless lifestyle — the true remedy was to start making my own choices to live a more fulfilling life.

#3 – Steve Pavlina’s Don’t Die With Your Music Still In You

For teaching me that “to abandon a comfortable lifestyle that isn’t deeply fulfilling is to abandon nothing.” Steve’s article helped me understand I was defending a comfortable career without good reason. At the start of each workday, I was reluctant to get out of bed. At the end of each workday, the amount of satisfaction I received from the work I was doing was nil. Steve caused me to ask myself: Why should I stay loyal to such a meaningless job?

#4 – Brian Kim’s How to Find What You Love to Do

For emphasizing the importance of self-assessment. Brian made me take a good hard look at myself and figure out what it is that makes me happiest. What’s more, his article discusses how uncertainty and fear are the most common obstacles preventing you from doing what you love to do. His solution involves self-analysis: identify your skills and interests, then use your strengths to live your passion. In Brian’s words, “conquer indecision and ACT, and you will most definitely conquer all fear.”

#5 – Fred Gratzon’s Top 10 Signs You’re Made to be an Entrepreneur

For helping me understand that the reason I’m reluctant to get a job is because I’d rather be the boss, president, or sole proprietor of my own creation. Thanks to Fred’s article, I was able to see the entrepreneur in me: I’m always looking for a way for things to be simplified, made more efficient, or automated by a computer. There’s a reason I feel this way — and it’s for the same reason that I don’t want to have to answer to someone else.

#6 – Steve Pavlina’s 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

For teaching me that working for other people is stupid. Self-employment using passive income is the best way to earn money without trading away life’s freedoms. In other words, Steve helped me understand it’s possible to be “Happily Jobless.”

#7 – Darren Rowse’s 18 Lessons I’ve Learnt About Blogging

For teaching me to use the power of exponential growth. Like any other long-term investment, creating a successful blog takes time. Along the way, you’re bound to have ups and downs, and people will undoubtedly tell you that you suck. Darren says that so long as you be yourself, work hard, and are willing to experiment, your efforts will be rewarded.

#8 – Caro Clarke’s Are You a Writer?

For helping me realize my dream of becoming a writer. Although many people have tried to tell me that I’m a writer at heart, I always disregarded their comments under the belief that it wasn’t true. After reading Caro’s article, I recognized the writer in me: I get my inspiration from the world around me, and write every day because I enjoy it. When I’m not writing, I’m often thinking about writing. The signs are clear — I am a writer.

#9 – Danielle Gibbings’ Need a Reboot?

For being the very first source of encouragement from a complete stranger. Danielle discovered my blog during its infancy, and was inspired by the movement I was trying to create. She wrote about LifeReboot on her own blog to help lead more readers to my site. She read my site often and left encouraging comments. She sent me my very first donation. Danielle’s supportive attitude helped me more than she’ll ever know. She helped me build confidence in my decision to pursue writing, and caused me to realize how I was finally on the right track.

#10 – My own 10 Reasons It Doesn’t Pay To Be “The Computer Guy”

Chances are, some of these articles won’t affect you the same way they affected me. I believe that’s to be expected, since we’re all different people.

Think about it. Life-altering advice exists online. Advice to help you get out of debt, leave a dead-end relationship, or whatever type of self-improvement you can possibly imagine. All you need to do is consciously seek it out.

You’ll know once you’ve discovered it. The advice will resonate with you, inspire you, and maybe even change your life.

It never ceases to amaze me how people change what I say in order to be able to rebut it. Some people “advocate” anarchy, meaning they suggest doing away with government altogether, abolishing it, and forming a free society. That is NOT what I am suggesting, any more than I am suggesting that Santa Claus be abolished. I am arguing about what IS, not what SHOULD be. The only “should” I’m suggesting is that people “should” open their eyes to reality, accept the truth, and throw away the insane, self-contradictory, horribly destructive superstition upon which ALL of the political beliefs of 99.9% of the population rest. I don’t want to CHANGE reality; I merely want people to RECOGNIZE it, and then deal with it as they see fit. When people tell me that they don’t think my ideas will “work,” or aren’t “practical” or “realistic,” it tells me that those people aren’t reading what I wrote or listening to what I say. About 90% of political discussions I have with people amount to this:

Me: “Santa Claus isn’t real. He doesn’t exist.”

Other guy: “But Christmas would never work without Santa! We can’t do away with him! You’re being too idealistic. The people would never get Christmas to work without Santa! They’re just not charitable enough. Sure, there should be limits on what Santa is allowed to do, but we can’t have NO Santa. That would never work! Your idea is too extreme. We need Santa to do SOME things!”

Let me break this down to something which is both amazingly simple, and yet which hardly anyone ever thinks about (and which you will NEVER hear discussed in any mainstream politic debate, or in any “educational” institution):

Fred and Bob are hungry. There is one sandwich on the table in front of them. They both want it. Who gets it? It depends upon who “owns” it–who has a rightful claim to it? To whom does it belong?

The concept is pretty darn simple. Now try this: Who owns me? Do I own myself, or does someone else (an individual or a group) own me? At this point almost everyone responds by saying that I own me–but almost NO ONE actually believes it.

What does it mean to own something? It mean to have the exclusive right to use it as you see fit, to dispose of it if you wish, to give it away, to sell it, whatever. For any given thing–including me–SOMEONE has to have the “final say” on what is done with it. So the question is, who has the ultimate say over what is done with ME?

I do. And from that one simple statement, ALL of my political beliefs can be inferred. Trouble is, most people never bother to consider what all logically follows from that one simple statement.

There are four guys, including me, in a room. I want to play the piano. They want to play doubles dominoes, which they can’t without four people. Now, they have the right to try to talk me into playing, or pay me, but when it comes right down to it, who has the RIGHT to decide whether I play the piano or play dominoes? Me.

There are 22 guys, including me. I want to draw dinosaurs, and they all want to play official-rules football (which requires 22 people). NOW who has the ultimate right to decide which I do? They can beg, persuade, try a guilt-trip, bribe, bargain, etc., but in the end, I AND I ALONE have the right to decide what is done with me. Why? Because I own me, and they don’t.

If this seems so self-evident and so obvious that you’re wondering why I would bother explaining it, that’s a good thing. Hold onto your brains as we compare that painfully simple concept to the authoritarian indoctrination we’ve all been exposed to.

If I own me, then I own what I produce. (The owner of the cow is also the owner of the milk.) If I build a chair, with my own time and effort, it belongs to me. And if I decide to trade my chair for someone else’s basket of apples, then the apples become mine. They belong to me, every bit as much as I belong to me. If I instead trade my chair for a few silver coins, the silver belongs to me. No one else. Me. I own me, so I own it.

Okay, I think I’ve about beaten that point to death, and at this point hardly anyone would disagree–at least, they don’t THINK they disagree. Do you think I own myself? If you say “yes,” try this little test: If I want to spend all the silver I got from selling a bunch of chairs, to buy a boat from someone else, do I have that right? If I own me, I certainly do.

Oh, but wait. Some guys decided they get a cut of what I earn, which they call a “tax,” in order to do stuff and buy stuff THEY think is important. Is that okay? How about if it’s only a 1% “tax”? Then is it okay?

If you answer “Yes,” you do NOT believe I own me; you believe that “government,” or the collective, or my neighbors, or something else owns me, but that I don’t own myself.

As with the sandwich, SOMEONE has the ultimate right to say what is done with it. If anyone, or any group of people–whether wearing the label of “authority” or not–has the RIGHT to take what I earned–essentially, the right to take a piece of me–and I do not have the right to overrule them, then THEY OWN ME. It’s no more complicated than that.

Ownership is digital: either I own me, or someone else does. It can’t be both. When there is a conflict of ideas about what should be done with me, ONE side–the side which OWNS me–has the final say. If we disagree, whoever has the moral RIGHT to enforce his decision is the rightful OWNER of me. If you believe in “taxation” at all, in any form and to any degree, you believe that someone ELSE has the final say, which means THEY own me, and I don’t.

As you ponder that thought, don’t be tempted to rant about what we “need,” or what “works,” or what is “practical” or “realistic.” There are two options here, and ONLY two options: 1) I own me, or 2) someone else owns me. So which is it? Don’t tell me what you think is “necessary” for civilization, or how society has to be arranged, or whether my philosophy would “work.” Don’t bother fishing for excuses for your answer, and don’t try muddling the waters with rhetoric about “consent of the governed,” or “giving up some of our rights,” or what will happen to society if people don’t accept your answer, or any other evasions. (In other words, don’t parrot the obfuscations and bunk that has been force-fed to all of us in order to obscure and mangle what should be a painfully simple concept.) Just tell me, WHO OWNS ME? (At the same time, you will be answering another question: “Who owns YOU?”)

Everyone makes mistakes and the busier you are, the more mistakes you will make. The only question is “How well and how effectively do you deal with the inevitable ups and downs of life?”

Here you will learn the difference between a positive and negative worldview. You will learn how to benefit from your mistakes and how to remain positive in the face of adversity.

Let the Light Shine In
This is achieved through the simple exercise of self-disclosure. For you to truly understand yourself, or to stop being troubled by things that may have happened in your past, you must be able to disclose yourself to at least one person. You have to be able to get those things off your chest. You must rid yourself of those thoughts and feelings by revealing them to someone who won’t make you feel guilty or ashamed for what has happened.

Using Stumbling Blocks as Stepping Stones
There are two ways to look at the world: the benevolent way or the malevolent way. People with a malevolent or negative worldview take a victim stance, seeing life as a continuous succession of problems and a process of unfairness and oppression. They don’t expect a lot and they don’t get much. When things go wrong, they shrug their shoulders and passively accept that this is the way life is and there isn’t anything they can do to make it better.

On the other hand, people with a benevolent or positive worldview see the world around them as filled with opportunities and possibilities. They believe that everything happens as part of a great process designed to make them successful and happy. They approach their lives, their work, and their relationships with optimism, cheerfulness, and a general attitude of positive expectations. They expect a lot and they are seldom disappointed.

Flex Your Mental Muscles
When you develop the skill of learning from your mistakes, you become the kind of person who welcomes obstacles and setbacks as opportunities to flex your mental muscles and move ahead. You look at problems as rungs on the ladder of success that you grab onto as you pull your way higher.

Two of the most common ways to deal with mistakes are invariably fatal to high achievement. The first common but misguided way to handle a mistake is the failure to accept it when it occurs. According to statistics, 70 percent of all decisions we make will be wrong. That’s an average. This means that some people will fail more than 70 percent of the time, and some people will fail less. It is hard to believe that most of the decisions we make could turn out to be wrong in some way. In fact, if this is the case, how can our society continue to function at all?

Cut Your Losses
The fact is that our society, our families, our companies, and our relationships continue to survive and thrive because intelligent people tend to cut their losses and minimize their mistakes. It is only when people refuse to accept that they have made a bad choice or decision-and prolong the consequences by sticking to that bad choice or decision-that mistakes become extremely expensive and hurtful.

Learn From Your Mistakes
The second common approach that people take with regard to their mistakes, one that hurts innumerable lives and careers, is the failure to use your mistakes to better yourself and to improve the quality of your mind and your thinking.

Learning from your mistakes is an essential skill that enables you to develop the resilience to be a master of change rather than a victim of change. The person who recognizes that he has made a mistake and changes direction the fastest is the one who will win in an age of increasing information, technology and competition.

By remaining fast on your feet, you will be able to out-play and out-position your competition. You will become a creator of circumstances rather than a creature of circumstances.

Action Exercises
Now, here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, imagine that your biggest problem or challenge in life has been sent to you at this moment to help you, to teach you something valuable. What could it be?

Second, be willing to cut your losses and walk away if you have made a mistake or a bad choice. Accept that you are not perfect, you can’t be right all the time, and then get on with your life.

Third, learn from every mistake you make. Write down every lesson it contains. Use your mistakes in the present as stepping stones to great success in the future.

———————–

The Golden Hour
By: Brian Tracy

You become what you think about most of the time. And the most important part of each day is what you think about at the beginning of that day.

Start Your Day Right
Take 30 minutes each morning to sit quietly and to reflect on your goals. You’ll find when you read the biographies and autobiographies of successful men and women that almost everyone of them began their upward trajectory to success when they begin getting up early in the morning and spending time with themselves.

Feed Your Mind With Positive Ideas
This is called the Golden Hour. The first hour sets the tone for the day. The things that you do in the first hour prepare your mind and set you up for the entire day. During the first thirty to sixty minutes, take time to think and review your plans for the future.

Use Your Quiet Time Effectively
Here are four things that you can do during that quiet time in the morning. Number one is to review your plans for accomplishing your goals and change your plans if necessary.

Number two is think of better ways to accomplish your goals. As an exercise, assume that the way you’re going about it is totally wrong and imagine going about it totally differently. What would you do different from what you’re doing right now?

Number three, reflect on the valuable lessons that you have learned and are learning as you move toward your goals.

Practice Daily Visualization
Number four, calmly visualize your goal as a reality. Close your eyes, relax, smile, and see your goal as though it were already a reality. Rewrite your major goals everyday in the present tense. Rewrite them as though they already existed. Write “I earn X dollars.” “I have a net worth of X.” “I weigh a certain number of pounds.” This exercise of writing and rewriting your goals everyday is one of the most powerful you will ever learn.

Fasten Your Seatbelt
Your life will start to take off at such a speed that you’ll have to put on your seatbelt. Remember, the starting point for achieving financial success is the development of an attitude of unshakable confidence in yourself and in your ability to reach your goals. Everything we’ve talked about is a way of building up and developing your belief system until you finally reach the point where you are absolutely convinced that nothing can stop you from achieving what you set out to achieve.

Everything Counts
No one starts out with this kind of an attitude, but you can develop it using the law of accumulation. Everything counts. No efforts are ever lost. Every extraordinary accomplishment in the result of thousands of ordinary accomplishments that no one recognizes or appreciates. The greatest challenge of all is for you to concentrate your thinking single-mindedly on your goal and by the law of attraction, you will, you must inevitably draw into your life the people, circumstances and opportunities you need to achieve your goals.

Become A Living Magnet
Once you’ve mastered yourself and your thinking, you will become a living magnet for ideas and opportunities to become wealthy. It’s worked for me and for every successful person I know. It will work for you if you’ll begin today, now, this very minute, to think and talk about your dreams and goals as though they were already a reality. When you change your thinking, you will change your life. You will put yourself firmly on the road to financial independence.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do every single day to keep your mind focused on your financial goals:

First, get up every morning a little bit earlier and plan your day in advance. Take some time to think about your goals and how you can best achieve them. This sets the tone for the whole day.

Second, reflect on the valuable lessons you are learning each day as you work toward your goals. Be prepared to correct your course and adjust your actions. Be absolutely convinced that you are moving rapidly toward your goals, no matter what happens temporarily on the outside. Just hang in there!

The definition of Panspermia:
When G.O.D. masturbates?

Next on Fox News……..
“My eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord…”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia
(For anyone that knows not of what I speak.)

In reaction to this story….
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814093819.htm
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ken_saladin/saladin-gish2/saladin2.html

• Change what I can
• Find the best in what I cannot change
• Focus on changing my reactions to situations when I cannot change the situation itself
• Reward myself for sticking with a situation until I get the job done, so to speak

Kyle Cassidy, , who published an illustrative book called, “Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes” which gave us an inside pictorial view of gun owners across America, was just featured on the front pages of MSNBC and Newsweek. Just thought I’d mention it because it’s such a great accomplishment and he should be congratulated. Great photography and great work guy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20178856/site/newsweek/?GT1=10252

And although this isn’t even in the same league as being featured in National News, our local news station did happen to feature some of my recent weather shots I took during a severe lightning storm in July.
(see this post ==> http://audiomind.livejournal.com/224553.html )

http://www.wcnc.com/weather/pix/?image_id=115264
http://www.wcnc.com/weather/pix/?image_id=115262

Below were the two images featured recently……