3 Steps to Success

Issue #2371

• WEALTHY: When you’re completely baffled by investing lingo… (Andrew Gordon)
• HEALTHY: 5 safe exercise alternatives to joint-pounding cardio (Craig Ballantyne)
• WISE: Yogi Berra on work breaks

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• How many work breaks do you take? (Michael Masterson)
• Is there such a thing as too many keywords? (Alexis Siemon)
• It’s Good to Know… how to find a lost cellphone
• Add "immutable" to your vocabulary

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Language Matters

By Andrew M. Gordon

"Bagel land?" I would have thought the term had something to do with tennis - as in "That first set I got bageled" (meaning shut out, six games to none). But no. It’s a financial term meaning "zero" - as in "Your stock is heading for bagel land." Hmm. I’m in the middle of the financial industry and even I don’t know all the expressions being bandied about.

This is a much bigger problem for people who only take a casual interest in investing. They’re either utterly lost or completely intimidated, according to an AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) survey. My editor - Suzanne Richardson - e-mailed me an article on the survey. I’m sure it was a furtive plea on her part for me to use less financial jargon in my articles for ETR. She didn’t have to. I hate this lingo. And it bothers me no end to hear that at least half of the 1,200 folks polled by AARP don’t read financial literature because it is too difficult. A majority said they find it easier to read computer instructions than a mutual fund prospectus.

I’m not surprised. And I’d like to do something about it. So I invite you to e-mail me with any question you might have about a financial term you don’t understand. I’ll explain it in ETR, in plain Baltimore language, as best I can.

Let me get the ball rolling with this basic term: Total return. It includes the return you get from the share price of a stock going up or down plus the money you get from any dividends offered. Example: "Since 1972, non-dividend-paying stocks gained an anemic annual return of 2.5 percent on average. But dividend-paying stocks generated total annual returns of 10.9 percent."

So, tell me… what financial lingo is bugging you?

[Ed. Note: Breaking down incomprehensible financial lingo is only one way Andrew Gordon - ETR's Investment Director (who makes his home in Baltimore, MD) - can help improve your investing IQ. With his INCOME financial advisory service, he'll show you the best - and safest - stocks to invest in and profit from. Learn more here.

And be sure to send your financial questions to Andrew at AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name and hometown, and he may respond to your question in Early to Rise.]

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"I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four."

Yogi Berra

3 Steps to Success: Thinking, Acting, and Breaking Up the Day

By Michael Masterson

For the past few months, I’ve been sharing some of my personal productivity secrets in a series of articles to help you "Master Plan" your life so you can finally accomplish all your goals. Ultimately, it all boils down to how you spend your time. What you do and what you fail to do.

Setting goals is easy. Establishing priorities is pretty simple too. The tough part is following through. Fortunately, there are a few easy steps you can take to coach yourself through the process.

1. You must recognize that good intentions are not enough.

Writing up a list of yearly goals or New Year’s resolutions might make you feel great. It may even make you feel like you are on your way. But you can’t claim to be making any progress toward accomplishing anything until you start acting on your Master Plan.

2. Don’t spend too much time thinking about your future success.

Imagining what you want out of life - the big house, the luxury cars, the yacht - may give you pleasure. But despite what the think-and-be-rich gurus says, it won’t make you successful. You must spend most of your time taking action, not daydreaming about all the toys you will have "some day."

Most of the most accomplished people I know - and in that group I include some success coaches who preach the think-and-get-rich philosophy - don’t waste their time thinking about success. What they think about is how to do a certain task or solve a specific problem. They know that wealth and success will come to them if they have a good plan and follow it.

3. Break up your busy day.

Once you begin to implement your Master Plan, you will find that you will want to keep working for hours and hours at a time. Because you will be making progress toward your goals, you will be energized by the work itself. (If this has not been your experience with work before, be prepared to start enjoying your days a whole lot more!)

The extra surge of motivation will be very useful in getting lots more important work done. You’ll be working more intensely, more intelligently, and just plain longer and harder than ever. But because you’ll be working longer and harder, you’ll need to force yourself to take little breaks - three- to five-minute breaks to reduce stress, recharge your batteries, and ensure that your body is not stuck in the same position too long.

It’s not easy to take breaks once you are in a groove. In fact, you may be amazed at how difficult it can be. Most of the successful businesspeople I know think nothing of sitting at a computer or being on the telephone for four to six hours at a stretch. This is a testament to the motivational power of having a Master Plan, but it still puts a lot of pressure on your body and brain.

To make sure you take the breaks you need, I recommend a very simple device: an old-fashioned egg timer. Gene Schwartz, the legendary copywriter who was instrumental in the success of Boardroom Reports and Rodale Publishing, never sat down to work without setting an egg timer for 33 minutes. When the buzzer went off, he walked away from his computer and did something else for five minutes. He said the habit made him more productive. He said it was an important part of the process that made him a success.

When I’m writing, I set my timer according to the writing objective I’ve set for myself. Since I’m currently working on many writing projects at once, my daily goal is usually between 300 and 1,200 words. It takes me, on average, about 10 minutes to write 100 words. Therefore, I can knock off 300 words in a half-hour, 600 words in an hour, and a full, 1,200-word ETR article in two hours.

That’s how I break up my time - in half-hour or hourly segments with an occasional two-hour sprint. Between segments, I usually stretch backward and forward over a Pilates barrel I keep outside my office. Sometimes I’ll go outside and just breathe in the fresh air.

My afternoons consist of meetings and phone calls, which have natural breaks so I don’t need my egg timer. (I schedule most of my meetings for 15 or 30 minutes. It is seldom necessary to have a meeting any longer than that.)

Like Gene Schwartz, I have found my mini-breaks to be very refreshing.

Sometimes, if I had a short night of sleep and an intense midday workout, I get very tired in the middle of the afternoon. When I feel that way, I lie down and try to nap for 15 minutes. I will do that anywhere and under any circumstances. I’m not embarrassed by it. I think people who don’t understand it should be embarrassed, not me.

Once, suffering from jet lag in London, I lay down on the floor underneath the conference table before a board meeting. Fifteen minutes before the meeting was to start, NR, a board member and multimillionaire German publisher, came in. Our eyes met. I thought he might say something. Instead, he took off his shoes, lay down next to me, and we both enjoyed a power nap.

To help alleviate the boredom of working in one place all day, I split my time between my home office above my garage (where I do my writing in the morning) and my office at ETR headquarters. I have outfitted both offices with efficient workstations and comfortable chairs. And I have pillows handy in case I need a nap.

In the late afternoon, after a good day’s work, I often reward myself by walking over to a cigar shop two blocks from ETR. I can do some additional writing there while enjoying an espresso and a fine Nicaraguan cigar.

I get home at 7:30, open a bottle of wine, and head to a favorite spot in the backyard where I do some light reading and/or solve a crossword puzzle. It gives me a chance to unwind and, if necessary, blow off a little steam. Sometimes, I’ll jump in the hot tub. The idea is to get into a good mood for dinner, which starts promptly at 8:00.

All these little breaks and naps and rewards enhance the pleasure of my day. No matter how much work I have on my task sheet, I’m never more than two hours away from some pleasurable experience.

If you find that your workday is one long trek down a dull road, try breaking it up the way I do and see if it doesn’t make you happier and more productive.

[Ed. Note: You truly can change your life and accomplish all your goals with simple strategies like taking a nap. For dozens more ways to achieve your dreams - plus tons of goal-setting tools and motivation to get going - sign up for ETR's Total Success Achievement Program. Learn more here.]

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SEO Don’ts: Keyword-Stuffing Your Home Page

By Alexis Siemon

One of the very first steps toward optimizing your website for killer search engine rankings is choosing the right keywords. But it’s easy to get carried away and start "keyword stuffing" - and that’s a big no-no.

Many beginners think that to get a site ranked in the search engines, it’s necessary to include all their target keywords in their home page copy and META tags. This is far from true. By trying to include all your key search phrases on your home page, not only will your copy sound clumsy, your META tags will look spammy as well. This is the opposite of optimization.

Instead, focus your home page on 2-3 slightly broader keywords that describe your website on a higher level. Then optimize your articles and product pages for more-specific terms. For instance, if you run a site about pets, try optimizing your home page for keywords like "pet advice" or "online pet help." Save your "dog," "cat," and "blue-fronted Amazon" keywords for pages about those specific topics.

[Ed. Note: You can get more little-known secrets to staying on the search engines' good side at ETR's 5 Days in July Internet Business Building Conference. Learn more about how you can build an Internet business from the ground up here.

And keep reading ETR for more search engine optimization Dos and Don'ts from Alexis Siemon, ETR's Search Engine Marketing Specialist.]

A Fat-Loss Program for Very Overweight People

By Craig Ballantyne

I’m often asked where really overweight men and women should start when it comes to a fat-burning exercise program. My answer is probably not what you’d expect.

You see, most people think overweight people should start with long, slow cardio. But that’s a definite mistake in my book.

Men and women who are significantly overweight run a serious risk of developing an overuse injury (sore joints, inflamed tendons, pulled muscles) with a repetitive cardio program. They would be asking their out-of-shape bodies to do the same movement several thousand times per workout - a recipe for disaster.

I’ve worked with many people from age 14 to age 75 - many of them obese, including men over 300 pounds and women over 225. We always started with resistance training - because, you may be surprised to learn, 90 percent of resistance training can be done lying down. Exercises done in that position can be super-hard… but they provide the perfect blend of safety and intensity for overweight, inactive folks.

Besides, for very overweight people, the key to fat loss in the first couple of weeks is nutrition, not exercise. They will get more results from following a healthy meal plan than trying to train like an Olympian. That said, they still need to get started on an exercise program that will build them up for future training… and that’s what bodyweight resistance workouts do.

Exercises like lying hip extensions, planks, side planks, stability ball leg curls, and kneeling push-ups can all be done flat on the floor, with no pounding on the joints.

Safety first! So if you are a beginner, even if you’re not overweight, get your doctor’s approval before starting any new diet or exercise program.

[Ed. Note: Whether you're severely overweight or just want to drop a few pounds, long, slow cardio is NOT the way to lose weight. Discover more common fat-loss myths and how to combat them with Craig's Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. Read more here.

And for a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-letter.]

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It’s Good to Know: How to Find a Lost Cellphone

So you can’t find your cellphone. No problem. You just pick up another phone and call it so you can listen for the ring. (Ah-hah! It was wedged between two cushions on the couch!) But what if there is no other phone where you’re at? A new service, PhoneMyPhone.com, is there to help. Go to the website, enter your cell number, and they will call your phone instantly. The service is free.

(Source: Lifehacker)

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Word to the Wise: Immutable

"Immutable" (ih-MYOO-tuh-bul) - from the Latin - means "not subject to change."

Example (as used by Roger Lowenstein in The New York Times): "Benefits [Social Security/Medicare] are not going away, but they are not immutable either."

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Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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