Is trust in your facial features?

Came across this interesting article in the Boston Globe where psychologists from Princeton found that certain face shapes / features are interpreted as more trustworthy than others.  So just by looking at someone we make unconscious decisions as to whether to trust them or not. 

 

Career planning after 50

In prior generations, workers in their 50s were either enjoying the final years in the executive suite or counting the days until back-breaking manual labor was over. The over 50 workers were busy planning retirement, buying fishing gear, checking out motor homes and looking at retirement in Spain.

Look again – today’s over 50 workers are planning their second career move. They may retire from the present job at 55, 60 or 65, but they have no intention of retiring from the workforce.

In fact, they’re as excited in planning the next career as they were in securing that first job. Many are more excited because they know themselves better than they did at 18 or 21. They’ve developed work skills and preferences over the span of their career and combined with their self awareness are looking at different ways of finding fulfilment.

Here’s the great part of this new generation of non-retiring older adults: they’re energized by this second chance to have a new career choice. Whether the city manager chooses to take a less stressful job running a recreation center or the teacher from an inner city school decides to set up a craft store to make a business out of a hobby, the over 50 workers are merely transitioning to their second and possibly third careers.

What is excellent?

I was having lunch with a friend recently and, two mouthfuls in to the sandwich, she proclaimed it was excellent.  The excellent part apparently was the taste, texture and visual appeal.  Then another friend was talking about her views on the excellent and not so excellent garden centers around Cheshire.  So what is it that makes something or someone excellent?  Clearly it’s a subjective experience but is probably about being the best it or you can be against various criteria.   The criteria being the subjective part.  However I’ve noticed that we tend to find it easier to label sandwiches, plants, large entities and anonymous things as excellent rather than people.  I suspect this is because we can be idle and find it easier to identify criteria for excellence in these situations.  I also think it’s to do with the element of risk and reputation.  If you think a sandwich is excellent and next time it isn’t, so what.  If you say James is an excellent web designer and next time he isn’t, do we feel there is a part of our self and ability to judge that’s flawed?  Or is it by saying they’re excellent we put them on a pedestal and then feel hurt when they fall off, forgetting to realise we put them up there in the first place.  So then excellence is a standard, a clear specification of criteria which when fulfilled, is the best it can be.  Perhaps some of the problems come from unconsciously assuming that everyone else would come up with the same set of criteria you did, or that this criteria is even repeatable.

 

The impact clutter has on your goals

The first 2 letters of GOAL spell GO – Anon

Only 148 days to go to the end of 2008, today you are investing in you 218th day of the year.  Interesting if not slightly scary thought.  So how are you making progress with the goals you set yourself, either personally or at work? 

One of the most common reasons for people not making progress in their goal is because it isn’t very well thought out – more information on this in our August ezine.  Sign up if you haven’t already done so because as well as offering more in depth pragmatic material, it often features exclusive offers and advance invitations to our teleseminars and events.  

One other reason for slow goal progress is that you’ve got too much clutter in your life, your desk, office, wardrobe, wherever. If that’s affecting you then this tip will give you the burst you need.

How many cars are there in your garage?
The answer for me is 2, cos that’s what it was designed for. It also contains the bikes, lawnmower, BBQ, deckchair, buckets, birdseed, and the car wash / polish stuff. What else would you expect to find in a garage. 
Well some people seems to think it’s the natural home for old beds, tables, fridges, broken vac’s awaiting repair when you get the time, and anything else that you can no longer fit in the house but can’t or won’t dispose of. In the meantime your car sits out on the drive or road, not too bad in summer, but a pain in the middle of winter.

What’s her problem you may think, well if you want to start taking back control in you life, I find garages a nice easy place to start.  So get in there this weekend and take everything that’s of no use to anyone to the tip.  Then either repair the broken vacs or equivalent or bin them too.  Finally anything which could be of use to someone else either give away or advertise in your local newspaper / eBay.  On this last point be firm with yourself, if no-one takes it off your hands within 2 weeks bin the item as well.  Now you should have a lot more space and the items in your garage should be things you use on a regular basis, if the answer to this is “well not in the last 12 months” then get rid of that too.  Finally buy some shelving or brackets and utilise the wall space.  Whether you now choose to park your car in the garage, and there can be insurance premium advantages, is up to you, but hey at least you have a positive choice.

If you do this right, then trust me, when you open the garage door you’ll no longer feel overwhelmed by the sight of so much clutter, and you’ll have the energy to get on with the task you went into the garage for, rather than the commando run you probably had to do in the past.  Now just imagine if you can achieve that energy shift in your life from sorting out your garage what would happen if you did it in a bigger area of your life?  Don’t have a garage, well wardrobes are also lucrative places to start