• Nature VS Nurture Theories of Personality in 21st Century

    Nature vs Nurture theories have wasted a lot of energy of human beings. Plato is considered first to realize that you are made of not only flesh but also an intellectual soul.

    The issue may be much older…

    In Greek Mythology, when gods created man, they endowed him with divinity. However, the man started challenging them. They feared his potentials and decided to deprive him of the might.

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    “Where to hide the divinity?” was the big question

    They considered heights of icy mountains, limits of shining stars and pits of the earth. But every place was accessible to man’s capabilities.

    Then they decided to hide it within the man himself.

    Since then the man has been climbing icy mountains. He has navigated deep seas. He has traversed moon. His machines have even touched Mars. But he is still looking for his ‘lost paradise’.

    Man, it is inside you!

    They call it personality now. It is ‘scientific’ to ask how it comes into being. Is it inheritable? Is it natural? Is it outcome of environment? Have you any will to change your behaviors or you are bound to follow the dictates?

    Nature vs Nurture theories focus upon these issues. The new discoveries in genome and quantum physics have revived the debate. Incidentally, more they discover, more they bewilder. The abstraction continues intensifying.

    How to Define Nature VS Nurture Theories

    There are three distinctive schools of thought.

    1- Personality is Natural:

    This group believes that your personality is result of evolutionary process. You inherit behaviors due to complex interaction of genes. They control your behaviors. So you don’t have a free will to act otherwise.

    2- Personality is Nurtured:

    This group argues that you don’t get your personality inherited. Your mind is a blank slate at your birth. It is your environment, education and culture that make up your behaviors. There are differences on the issue of ‘free will’ to change your behaviors.

    3- Personality is Spiritual:

    This group claims that your personality is result of neither nature nor nurture. It is gift of some deity. They are split on the issue of ‘free will’.

    Nature VS Nurture Theories and Evolutionary Psychology

    Darwin’s theory of evolution led William Hamilton, George Williams and many others to the idea of personality evolution. They proposed that like physical organs, your personality is result of natural selection for survival of the fittest. You do as your genes dictate.

    They suggest that fear of death, fear of injury, fear of snakes, shyness, addiction, criminality and sexual orientation are main examples of inheritable behaviors. Steven Pinker (2004) includes religiousness, liberalism and conservativeness in the list. William Paley considers cognitive capabilities, temperaments and cheating behaviors inheritable.

    However, there is strong criticism on this approach.

    1- There is no single universal behavior which can be proved evolutionary. Even fear of death, that seems natural to all, is overridden in crusades, suicides and suicide bombings.

    2- You are made of 25,000 to 30,000 genes. They are merely twice to the number in a fruit fly. Chimpanzees share 95% of your genetic characteristics. However, they don’t share even 10% of your behaviors.

    3- People don’t differ in behaviors as they do differ in skin pigments. Extroverts, introverts, optimists, pessimists, criminals, liberals etc are found in all societies and cultures. Even identical twins (with 100% similar genes) and fraternal twins (with 50% similar genes) behave differently in most of the cases.

    4- No genome scientist has related genes or a set of genes with any kind of behaviors.

    5- There are a good number of living organisms and fossils which suggest intermediary stages to the physical evolution. However, no such intermediary stages are available for personality evolution.

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    • Learn how to create instant emotions of happiness and abundance
    • Improve every area of your life
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    • Create a future you like

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    Nature VS Nurture Theories and Physics

    The discoveries in physics have always provided new meat to the nature vs nurture theories. The conclusions of Newton and Einstein helped the people to believe that future events can be predicted with the help of true knowledge of matter and natural laws. This led psychologists to suggest that your future behaviors can be predetermined. The whole mechanism of psychometrics follows this hypothesis.

    However, quantum physics has changed the situation altogether. Evidence proves that you can’t make two (almost) simultaneous measurements of observables correctly. For example:

    1- Position and momentum of a particle

    2- Position and direction of a particle

    3- Time and frequency of a sound wave

    4- Wavelength and magnitude of a sound wave

    The list goes on…

    The quantum physics has shaken determinism. So much so the scientists have to devise “Heisenberg uncertainty principle” which challenges that any physical event can be predicted precisely in time and space.

    Do you think that particles are too small to affect big events?

    Reconsider it.

    What would happen if Hitler had died in his young age of cancer, which can occur with a slight genetic mutation?

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    Nature VS Nurture Theories and Reality

    “What was the first cause?” Aristotle had asked centuries before

    It has been proved that the universe is not result of infinite series of collaborating causes and events. There was a first event; the big bang just 13.7 billions year ago. What was its cause?

    There can be only two answers:

    1- There was no preceding cause, or

    2- There was a first Causer

    When you affirm the first statement, you agree that there might be other events which don’t have preceding causes. The birth of personality is one of them.

    However, if you agree with the second statement, then you are siding with the spiritual school of thought.

    What About Environment?

    It plays very important role in making of your behaviors. However, any behavior that you acquire is amendable. Secondly, it is not only environment that influences you, the vice versa is also true. You can count hundreds of names who influenced their environments, cultures and societies.

    The best advice is to believe in your personality. Use your free will to develop and refine your behaviors. Utilize all out capabilities to collect small successes daily to build bigger one in future. Your way of thinking and style of doing shall determine your destination.

    Meanwhile, let the counsels of nature vs nurture theories to continue with their confusing debates.

  • Bring Your Presentations To Life and Get A Standing Ovation

    Presentation techniques are the tools that help us to bring a page of written text to spoken life. They are the means by which we animate words, inject interest and build audience rapport. Learn the following 7 techniques and you’ll have your audience clinging to every word you say.

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    1. Speak To Their Ears. Remember that your audience receives your words through their ears. They aren’t reading it. That’s why you should continually ask yourself, “how will this sound to my audience?”. In particular, you should check for…
    • The use of jargon, technical and bureaucratic language, long phrases and gobbledeegook. Avoid them.
    • Specific meanings: “next Friday” is better than “soon”.
    • Concrete words rather than abstract words: “microphone” is better than “sound amplification facilities”.
    • Anglo-Saxon rather than Latinised words: “talk” is better than “communicate”.

    2. Use Conversational English. Speakers who lack the confidence to speak directly to their audience tend to lean heavily on their prepared texts. This creates the risk of speaking the written word which can sound artificial and stilted. Conversational English on the other hand is natural and flowing. By creating the feeling of a personal chat, the conversational style helps to build audience rapport.

    Idiomatic, conversational English is distinctly different from written English. It allows for occasional ungrammatical and incorrect use of words and sentences, as long as the meaning is clear and sounds right. You would not, for example, say the grammatically-correct “For whom is it?” in place of the colloquial “Who’s it for?”

    3. Make Everything Make Sense. One of the most important points to remember about a presentation is that written English does not always make the same sense to a listener as spoken English. When we read written English we go at our speed and can pause, go back or jump ahead. When we are listening, we rely on the speaker to make sense for us. Notice the difference between these two ways of expressing the same sentence.

    Not: “The user will no doubt be familiar with the consequences of a machine failure at difficult moments.”

    But: “I expect you know the sort of thing I mean. You’re right in the middle of something worth saving when, Phut!, the whole damn thing goes up in smoke. Before your very eyes…”

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    4. Signpost Where You Are Going. The technique of Signposting, or Labelling, can be used throughout a presentation. Signposting, like the signs on a street, is a way of letting the audience know in advance what is coming next in your talk. It is used to tell the audience what you want them to understand from it.

    • We can signpost the whole talk when we start: “I’d like to do three things this morning. First, I’d like to look at our current position; then our plans and finally, the costs.”
    • We can signpost a sub-point: “My second area is to look at plans. First, this year’s; then next year’s…”
    • We can signpost any issue: “Let me give you an example of what I mean…”
    • We can signpost the end: “Just one more point before I finish…”

    Audiences appreciate signposting because it helps them know where they are.

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    5. Use Jokes To Build Rapport. Jokes are a way of amusing an audience while at the same time sharing something with them. The point of contact is the shared laughter. If a joke works it brings you together; conversely, if the joke doesn’t work, it pushes you apart. Jokes need to be appropriate, well-presented and, of course, funny. A blue joke from the Rugby club dinner speech probably won’t work well at the annual conference of the Women’s Institute. Equally a joke told badly where you miss your timing, tell it too quickly or forget the punchline is worse than no joke at all.

    This joke told by Patrick Forsyth seems to catch the mood of a farewell speech:
    “I remember the day after Nigel joined us and overhearing the impression he’d made on two young ladies from Accounts.
    “Doesn’t that Mr Green dress well,” said one.
    “Yes,” replied the other. “And so quickly.”

    6. Pause For Maximum Effect. Some of the best moments in a speech are, surprisingly, those moments when you stop. Knowing when to stop is the art of the creative pause. It can work for you in a number of ways:

    • to tease the audience, perhaps after a provocative question: “I bet you’d like to know how you could make a million…”
    • to pause before the punchline of a joke
    • to wait for an audience to settle after laughter or a general discussion
    • to give the audience time to think (for example, when looking at a new overhead)
    • to show you’re in total control by holding the pause just slightly longer than you need to.

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    7. Show Don’t Just Tell. Turning a simple presentation point into a narrative or story can entertain and involve the audience on a different level. It is a way of showing them not just telling them.

    Not: “Our personal computer has three kinds of memory storage: the random access memory, the hard drive and the floppy drive.”

    But: “Designing the storage memory for this particular computer was always going to be a tricky problem. The first team to look at it was Rob James and Ellen Smith. After several experiments they discovered that they could build in a huge RAM but their problem was what to do with the hard drive. This was new territory. Neither of them had worked on anything like that before. First, they tried a separate box. No good. Then a new casing. Still no good. They were about to give up when news came from Japan about an amazing new microchip…”

    Master these simple techniques and you’ll raise your presentation expertise to heights you’d only just dreamed of before!

  • Anxiety and Depression

    Anxiety and depression are two separate conditions. The exact relationship between the two is still under study.

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    Even though it’s very common to find them together, any direct relationship to each other has yet to be found. For the time being, the relationship between anxiety and depression is often referred to as
    comorbidity.

    Meaning unrelated but co-existing. Their symptoms can overlap each other, which can make the initial diagnosis of either condition difficult. The symptoms can also be completely independent of each other.

    A study by the National Comorbidity Survey reported that 58% of patients suffering major depression also exhibited lifetime anxiety. Agitated depression and akathitic depression are most often referred to when supporting these results.

    Both of these depressed states exhibit anxiety with heightened restlessness, suicidal thoughts or tendencies and a general sense of dread. While agitated depression includes symptoms of nonclinical and nonspecific panic, akathitic depression doesn’t.

    Even mild anxiety symptoms are being found to have an impact on the course depression takes in individuals.

    A study at the University of Pittsburg showed patients diagnosed with depression and also suffering lifetime panic symptoms experienced significant delays in the success of their treatments.

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    These patients also exhibited additional problems when facing the resumption of their normal activities.

    There are theories regarding the possibility that depression acts similar to anxiety in attempting to encourage avoidance of potentially harmful situations. Anxiety tries to avoid and prepare for physical danger, while depression tries to avoid emotional or psychological danger.

  • Memory And Your Health

    Want an enviable memory? Start leading a healthy life fused with exercises that boosts blood circulation to that area of brain that is responsible for memory. A sedentary lifestyle causes not only a lethargic body but also a diminishing static brain. While you take a jog make sure that that the exercise regimen also includes cardio vascular exercises. A lapse is memory can often be an indication of start of Alzheimer disease especially in elderlies.

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    With growing awareness of the disease it is more probable that people suspect disease the moment they identify a small gap in memory. It mostly occurs at the age of 50 or more with ageing and diminishing nutrition. A lot also depend on the stress level for memory to deteriorate before time. However, it is perfectly normal to forget a thing or two at later stage in life. Besides stress, people deprived of sleep specially those working odd hours are prone to memory loss. Only a well-rested body and brain can perform well.

    There are many over the counter drugs apart from herbal medication to boost memory. Few people believe that taking Gingko Biloba helps in restoring memory others rely on memory formula enriched with vitamin and minerals. These herbs and medication expand blood vessels, fight free radicals, boost immune system and decreases the level of depression and stress. Other naturally occurring substance that helps in ensuring proper blood circulation to brain are rosemary, ginseng and green tea. Green tea contains plethora of benefits that surpasses any her from improving blood circulation to weight maintenance. Their antioxidant helps fight cancer and promotes healing. It is used across skin preparations as it acts as soother and healer. It is also known for its anti-aging benefits. Other medication promises to increase the concentration level and boost brainpower by improving oxygen flow to the brain.

    While aging people might want to indulge in the above-mentioned supplements and medication the younger lot can always look for memory building games online or otherwise. There are memory plans on internet such as pmemory.com, Brain age, Big brain academy that promises to build a phenomenal memory. But the first and foremost step toward acquiring a great memory is to squash the laziness syndrome and start feeling active. But surf to these online memory shacks are certainly not as good as visiting your local farmer market and grabbing a broccoli instead.

    These powerful veggies are sure to get the cognitive clock ticking. According to latest research studies broccoli, cauliflowers and other Cruciferous vegetables improves the memory and reverse the aging process by nothing less than one and half year. Spinach that is high on folate is proved to reduce the risk of Alzheimer by breaking the homocysteine, an amino acid that is toxic to the nerve cell. Usage of unsaturated or hydrogenated fats have also proved to reduce the risk of Alzheimer and memory loss.

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    However there are other reasons that can be attributed to memory loss called Amnesia it is a symptom that causes complete memory blackout generally caused by head injury, drug toxicity, stroke, paralysis attack, emotional shock, and infection. These memories can be recovered through psychotherapy but it few cases it is observed that the condition prevails for lifetime resulting in subject to live a completely new life.

  • How To Treat Panic Attacks

    Before I get into the treatment of panic attacks, we’ll go over some of the basics as to what causes panic attacks to occur. Excessive anxiety is on of the main reasons why panic attacks occur, in fact, all a panic attack is a sudden spike of fear/anxiety that comes unexpectedly and without any obvious reason. If you are reading this article, however, you probably are well acquainted with panic attacks, and probably know more than you want to about them.

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    There is no need to worry if you suffer from anxiety, or panic attacks. Nearly 1/3 of American adults have at least one panic attack, but don’t develop repeated attacks. Surprisingly, with all the talk about OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), bipolar disorder, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), etc, panic attacks actually surpass those in terms of emotional disorders.

    If you think you suffer from panic attacks, but are unsure, listed below are the most common symptoms of panic attacks:

    • difficulty breathing/shortness of breath
    • very fast-paced heartbeat
    • excessive nervousness, shakiness, or stress
    • paralytic terror every once in a while
    • choking or chest pains
    • dizziness, nausea, or feeling light-headed
    • sudden chills and/or hot flashes
    • excessive anxiety or fear
    • “pins and needles” on your fingers and toes

    If you suffer from a significant amount of those symptoms, there’s a good chance that you suffer from panic attacks. There are many ways to find information on how to treat anxiety attacks, unfortunately, there is no one set way to teach so I won’t be able to go over all of them in this article. You can contact local agencies to get you the help and/or the prescriptions you need to get over this problem. Don’t fret, however, it is a curable disorder and shouldn’t be left alone.

    Do an internet search on some of the following agencies: American Counseling Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Anxiety Disorders Association of America, Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Freedom From Fear, NAMI, National Anxiety Foundation… the list goes on. After finding websites to some of those different organizations, you can either call or usually write an Email and they will get back to you with some questions on your panic attack “level” and tell you the best possible way to treat your panic attacks.

    Panic attacks can alter our moods, our perception, and ruin some of the many moments in life that we would otherwise find breathtaking. Nobody should have to deal with panic attacks when there is help available—and there is plenty of help available when it comes to panic attacks and anxiety attacks.

  • How to Improve Your Personal Life with Exercise and More

    Life can be difficult and full of worries, and when you’re not taking good care of yourself, things can become quite demanding. Without a proper diet and exercise, along with proper sleep, you could find yourself run down extremely fast. This caused unwanted stress and anxieties in our everyday living. A major part of improving your personal life revolves around elements that can keep you from going off the deep end.

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    Get exercise with a proper diet

    Getting the right exercise for your body does not consist of trying out for a marathon. Nevertheless, if you want to stay in shape and maybe lose a few pounds, here’s the perfect way to start.

    • Walk for 30 minutes twice a day with a backpack containing up to five books.
    • Instead of having an extra alcoholic beverage, eliminate it, replacing it with water.
    • Substitute daily one serving of starchy carbohydrate with two servings of green vegetables. Rather than skipping breakfast and lunch and overeating on snacks, try snacking consisting of five small meals daily. Make sure you incorporate that with fruits and vegetables.

    The key is to watch what you eat and drink. You are guaranteed to feeling better; giving yourself more energy that will allow you to tackle other tasks. Stress will be coped with much easier. Another way for stress is massage therapy.

    The Benefits of Massage Therapy

    Massage therapy offers many benefits. It helps to start your day relaxed, which is essential for balance. A simple practice would be starting at your head and scalp. What people fail to realize is that until they have massage they do no know how much stress they are carrying. Once you have an awareness of where stress is lodged in your body, you’ll know exactly which pressure points to work. This is what massage therapy can do for you:

    • Relief of muscle tension and stiffness
    • Greater joint flexibility and range in motion
    • Healthier and nourished skin
    • Improved posture
    • Faster healing from pulled muscles

    Getting enough sleep

    It is a proven fact that when you do not get enough sleep, this can make you ill. There are even studies that says healing is done while we are sleeping, meaning deep sleep produces the bodies highest form of hormones. A constant sleep pattern is necessary for the immune system to function at its peak. Have a regularly scheduled bedtime. Avoid exercising within three hours before bedtime. If you have problems winding down, do something relaxing like watching television, taking a bath, or listening to soft music.

    It doesn’t take money to improve our lives or even watching or favorite talk shows. All it takes is a little discipline and action, and we’ll be well on our way to better our personal well-being as we age.

    Proper rest, exercise and training your mind to think positive are a great way to improve your life. The best thing you can do is getting started now. Prolonging good health only sends you back to the same patterns. If you want to improve your personal life, you must take action and maintain that action for the course of your life.

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    Something to keep in mind is that exercise alone has proven to relieve people suffering with asthma, diabetes, heart disease, etc. In fact, studies have shown that people who exercise live a longer, improved and happier life. In fact, exercise has proven to relieve and even heal symptoms emerging from arthritis. If you have back pain, you will benefit from exercise since it will relieve your pain as well. To learn more, check out books at your library or visit the Internet.

  • Would you like to tap into your full potential? Discover the 99 questions that can help you realize the superhuman in you.

    This workbook will help you:

    • Discover your latent talents and hidden strengths
    • Learn how to create instant emotions of happiness and abundance
    • Improve every area of your life
    • Tap into unlimited source of power
    • Create a future you like

    99 Questions to Self is a comprehensive self-development workbook. If you like modern, practical, and interactive books, then you’ll love Manhardeep Singh’s self-help workbook.

    Buy 99 Questions to Self to start your journey of self-discovery today!

  • Dressing for Success:  Going Beyond the Clothing

    Are you an individual who has recently decided that you would like to improve your appearance? If you are interested in doing so, whether it be inside or outside of work, you may be interested in dressing for success.

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    When it comes to dressing for success, a large amount of focus is placed on clothing. For instance, many women search for elegant pants suits or dresses that can be worn to business meetings, job interviews, parties, or just to work in general. Men also do the same, but many tend to focus on business pants suits or dress pants. While it is important that you focus on these clothing pieces and others, you may also want to look beyond the clothing. A good percentage of your focus, if you are interested in dressing for success, should also be placed on accessories.

    When it comes to accessories, you will find that you have a number of different options, particularly for women. Clothing accessories that those dressing for success may want to examine include jewelry, hair accessories, belts, shoes, as well as purses or handbags. If you are woman who is interested in dressing for success, you may also want to examine clothing accessories, such as the ones previously listed.

    Although clothing and clothing accessories are often associated with women, there are number of accessories that men can also benefit from as well, especially those who are looking for success. Men looking to improve their professionalism or appearance in general are urged to examine shoes, jewelry, such as watches, belts, and neckties. With a little bit of shopping or researching online, you can easily find that men have just as many accessory options as women do.

    As nice as it is to hear that you should use clothing accessories in your quest to shop for success, you may be curious as to why you should do so. For starters, it is common for many men and women to wear clothing accessories anyways. With that in mind, many men and woman have certain accessories that they like to wear. For instance, women may only own or two handbags and men may only own and regularly wear a couple pairs of shoes. This is more than acceptable, but it is important to take a look at your ensemble as a whole. For instance, a leopard print handbag, although not every successful to begin with, will not match or flow together with a plaid printed business suit, and so forth.

    When shopping for clothing accessories, in your quest to dress for success, it is important to realize that you do not need to purchase matching accessories for each outfit that you purchase. What you may want to do instead is purchase a number of accessories that are comprised of neutral colors. For instance, a black, brown, or off-white handbag or belt will likely go with a number of different outfits. The same can be said for shoes, jewelry, and other clothing accessories.

    If you are interested in not only buying dress for success clothes, but dress for success clothing accessories as well, it may be beneficial to make your purchases at the same time. This will help if you are looking to match all accessories and clothing pieces together. With that mind, your shopping can also be done later. For moneysaving accessories, you may want to consider shopping online.

  • Determination in the Inner Self

    Many people are not successful at their attempts to take control of their life and frequently say that they lack willpower. Instead of building their self-determination to accomplish their goals, they give in to desires. Other people are successful at taking control of their life. Many of those who are successful will use strategies that help them to improve strength their abilities.

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    It seems that many of people are customary with the accepted expression “as within so without”. This idiom has become a cliché that is universally employed by entities who do not wish to claim or take control of what happens to their life. It seems that people rather blame others for the things that happen in their life. Blaming others is not the way to build self-determination.

    We all have to take a good measure of responsibility for our behaviors and actions. When an entity chooses to live by their own determination that entity can take control of his or her life. The person is competent to direct the dealings and path of their life in a more positive way.

    One of the greatest acts of responsibility is learning to reach inside the self and find answers to resolve problems. Life is assumingly an endless journey of self-development. Our reflection of self is what leads us to the decisions we make in life. Many of us have felt stuck in one place. It is at these times that the driving force inside of us is waiting to come alive. It is this voice that is the key to freeing us from the chains that bind our mind and body and that bring us to a standstill from inner and outer development. If we follow this inner voice, the voice can guide us to self-development and determination.

    Sometimes we all have to use a number of different processes during the guidance session. In a guidance session, an entity can work on their body, energy and their inner strength. It is looking into these three areas that provide us with an inner director to self-explore the messages and signs that are constantly occurring in our lives. By translating these signs, we are clever to reach our greater prospective. The goal of a thriving management meeting is to enhance the awareness of a person. With heightened responsiveness, an entity is capable to make changes in their life that will direct them to self-determination.

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    Some people use different measures to help them develop insight and look inside the self to explore the feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Many people experience many different perspectives when they go inside the self. When we look at our life from several angles, we can more undoubtedly see how and where we need to make changes. These changes will direct to a more positive life. As entities, we are not traveling alone and we do not have to continue drowning in the pool of quicksand. The only thing we have to do is make the decision to change our lives in a positive way. Each of us can do this. The power that leads to self-determination and a better life is within all of us.

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    When you search for answers often you find them waiting for you. If you need to build your willpower and self-determination but cannot see your way to get started, visit the World Wide Net to find additional help. You will find a wide array of articles written on this topic online. Reach out and let the information grab you, take you by the hand, and lead you to self-determination’s door.