Issue #2491
- WEALTHY: The running (scared) of the bulls (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: A dieting “trick” so simple it’s hard to believe (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Anthony Doerr on translating experience into words
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Writing a journal isn’t just to ease teenage angst (Michael Masterson)
- What’s wrong with Subway’s jingle? (Jason Holland)
- It’s Fun to Know… about the bacon-flavored Bloody Mary
- Add “hachure” to your vocabulary
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Over Three Billion Served
Trading volume can be used as an indicator of changes in the market. Volume can tell you if a trend is likely to continue… or if it has run its course.
During the week of October 6-10, we saw several things we had never seen before. For one thing, the volume on the New York Stock Exchange reached 11 billion shares in a single day. A new record. Plus, the Spyders – the ETF that tracks the S&P 500 – saw over 800 million shares trade in a single day, and the weekly volume for the Spyders reached an incredible three billion shares. Those were both records.
You might also note that the week of October 6-10 saw the worst drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. That huge drop, coupled with the record volume, could indicate a capitulation point for the market – when everyone gives up and sells their stock. The second week of October could have been just that, the surrender of the bulls.
I would not recommend diving headfirst back into the market. There are going to be numerous layers of resistance to cut through. This market is best played cautiously. Lower your allocations and keep some cash on the sidelines. If, indeed, this turns out to be a bottom and a new bull market starts from here, there will be plenty of time to get back in.
[Ed. Note: With the market's crazy fluctuations, it's more important than ever to keep your investing strategies simple. Market analyst Rick Pendergraft has put together an educational program that lays out the simple steps you need to take to make money in any market condition. Not only do you get three months of Rick's best recommendations, you also learn how to make good investment choices yourself. Get the details here.]
“I guess whatever maturity is there may be there because I’ve been keeping a journal forever. In high school my friends would make fun of me – you’re doing your man diary again. So I was always trying to translate experience into words.“
Anthony Doerr
Tracking Your Success: Why You Should Keep a Daily Journal
It may seem a self-centered pastime, but keeping a journal is actually an excellent goal-setting tool. It can help you figure out a direction for your life, and then guide you where you want to go.
A journal you use for that purpose – recording, revising, and recommitting yourself to your goals – becomes a log of your successes, observations, achievements, problem-solving skills, and best ideas that you can refer back to again and again. But you can also include less serious subjects.
In my earlier years, I kept journals sporadically, usually when traveling or involved in some interesting project. I kept a journal for two years when I lived in Africa teaching English and philosophy at the University of Chad. I kept a journal twice during summer vacations – once in the French countryside and another time in Rome.
But when I started writing ETR, about 10 years ago, I began keeping a journal every day. I have done so pretty much nonstop since then.
Before my thumbs became arthritic, I wrote my journals in a book with a fountain pen. Now I do it on my computer. I liked the feel of writing out my words. And I drew illustrations, indulging my artistic fantasies. I can’t do that anymore, but I can import illustrations from the Internet.
I use my journal to get my day started. As a writer, I face the same blank page/screen every writer faces each morning. Rather than wait for the proverbial flash of inspiration, I begin by opening up yesterday’s journal entry, reading it, and using it as a springboard for the writing I will do that day.
My first effort is a sort of obsessive-compulsive account of the hours that have passed since yesterday’s journal entry: what I’ve eaten, what exercise I’ve done, what work I’ve done, etc. This is not meant for anyone else to read. (I’d be embarrassed if anyone did read it.) It serves to rev up my idling mind and limber up my fingers. I spend five minutes doing this, which is usually enough.
Next, I edit something that I wrote the day before. Often, it’s a poem or short story. But sometimes it’s an essay for ETR. This requires a bit more mental acuity. After a half-hour of that, I can feel the creative engine kicking into third gear.
Then I start my real writing. Fiction or non-fiction, this is the most important part of my writing day.
My journal is also the place where I track my health information – my weight, my blood-sugar levels, my doctors’ appointments and results – as well as the progress I’ve made on other goals in business and my personal life.
I used to keep my goals, objectives, and daily task list separately on a notepad. This past year, I’ve begun to include them in my journal, and that has worked out very well.
My sister A, who is an art director for theater and film, e-mails her family copies of her daily journal when she is on set. These are filled with photos and comments about her unusual life. I’ve never used my journal as a communication tool, but I can see from her example how it could be done.
To me, a journal should be like your house. It should be filled with interesting things that reflect the person you are. I hate houses that are designed by professional decorators. You walk through them and they all look the same. You know the people who own them, but you can find no evidence of their personalities where they live.
Keeping a journal can help you change your life. As I said, it can help you do better work, achieve your goals, communicate with friends and family, and get your working day moving. And it’s a terrific way to leave behind a record of who you were and what you were doing during your voyage through life.
If you are keeping a journal or thinking about starting one, here are three ways to make that journal work for you.
3 Powerful Ways to Benefit From Your Journal
1. Keep track of your goals.
Every month, I consult my list of yearly goals and create a list of monthly objectives. I keep both my yearly goals and monthly objectives on notepaper – a throwback to my handwritten days. But then, based on my monthly objectives, I put together my weekly and daily task lists – and those are input directly into my journal.
I highlight my priorities on my daily task list in yellow, and try to accomplish them all early in the day. And as I complete each task, I change its color from red to black on screen (the equivalent of scratching it out). This is a technique I’d recommend to you. The point is to give yourself a little psychological reward for completing your work.
At the end of each day, I note which tasks I’ve completed and which I’ve failed to complete. I also note how long it took me to complete each task. This helps me get better at estimating time commitments in the future.
The goal-setting aspect of my journal has become the most productive part. It may not always be the most fun, but it’s critical to the success of my long-term plans.
2. Stay creative and keep your writing fresh.
Writing in your journal every morning gets and keeps your creative juices flowing. You can record ideas for new products or services… draft memos to your team or letters to colleagues… jot down outlines for books you want to write… even practice your copywriting.
Copywriter John Forde recommends writing three pages of sales copy a day. He says it will keep your imagination in top form. I believe he’s right.
3. Remember things you’ve learned, books you’ve read, and observations you’ve made.
We all have great thoughts now and then. And what do we do with those thoughts? Scribble them on scraps of paper and then lose them, right? Nowadays, whenever I get a good idea, I make note of it by entering it in my journal and putting NTS (note to self) in front of it, highlighted in yellow. It is easy to spot these highlighted entries, so I can be sure they will be put on my goal list and not forgotten about (like so many of my good ideas were before I kept a journal).
I also record interesting facts and figures from my reading. (I make it a point to locate at least one useful fact or idea in every newspaper or magazine or business book that I read.) And I use my journal to list recommendations that I read or hear about: a new wine to try, a new book, a new CD from a favorite singer, a new restaurant, an exotic destination that I want to travel to.
It’s amazing how much good stuff you can accumulate once you get into the habit of putting things that interest you into your journal and highlighting them for future use.
So those are three important benefits of keeping a journal – but there are many more. A journal can also be a place to:
• record snippets of conversations that you can use later when writing your next (or first) novel or screenplay
• list reasons why you deserve a big salary increase (or reasons why you shouldn’t be let go during your company’s upcoming layoffs)
• identify all your assets and their locations, so your spouse or children can get to them in an emergency
• index your favorite recipes, quotations, images, etc.
• record the good deeds you’ve done and the blessings you’ve received
Keeping a journal takes about 5 to 30 minutes a day – well worth it when you consider the payoff: It will help you make better plans and accomplish more with your time.
And when you get much older, a journal can give you an unexpected bonus: hours and hours of fun, reminiscing about your rich, rewarding, productive life.
[Ed. Note: Sometimes the most powerful success tools are surprisingly simple. Case in point: keeping a journal, as Michael Masterson recommends. You can find three other super-simple but massively powerful goal-setting tools right here.]
The Missing Ingredient in the Recipe for Riches
By now, I’m sure you realize that there has been something missing in how you’ve been trying to get ahead. I mean, there must be something missing or you’d have made it by now, right? That’s just common sense.
So now I want to share with you what could very well be the missing ingredient – the one with the potential to set you up financially for life.
“His” name is Robert Cox and he’s already mentored 4 billionaires. Yes, billion with a “B.” And now, he wants to mentor you too.
What he’s offering is a one-time window of opportunity for changing your financial future… helping you make the kind of money you’ve always dreamed of.
Please note, the information Bob will share with you is not available anywhere else, at any price. If you want to learn how you can get in on this life-changing opportunity, please read on.
Reader Feedback : “I look forward to, and love, my daily ‘fix’ of ETR.”
“I’ve just got to say how much I look forward to, and love, my daily ‘fix’ of ETR. I like it even more than my daily ‘fix’ of coffee – and that’s a damn lot!!
“Many thanks to you and all your colleagues. Keep up the good work.
“Cheers!”
Mike Coates
Liverpool, England
[Ed. Note: Want to get your name and opinions published in ETR? Let us know how reading ETR has helped you - maybe even changed your life. Send your comments to ReaderFeedback@gmail.com. Include your name and hometown... and we may print your e-mail in a future issue.]
ETR Insider Report: Are You Unintentionally Advertising for the Other Guy?
“What are you doing for lunch today?” I asked Jessica Kurrle, ETR’s Marketing Director.
“Hmm… I definitely want a sub. I’ve had this sub song stuck in my head all morning. You know, the one that goes: ‘5… 5 dollar… 5 dollar foot-long.’”
“Oh,” I said “The Subway song.”
“Is that what it’s for? I didn’t remember that it was for Subway, just the song. I can’t get it out of my head. And it’s making me crave a sub sandwich.”
Jessica is always thinking like a marketer. After a second’s reflection, she commented: “That’s not very good marketing, actually. They did a good job coming up with a catchy tune and lyrics – but they didn’t clearly connect that to their particular brand. It’s like they’re advertising for subs in general, not Subway.”
No matter what product you’re marketing, keep this in mind. As Jessica says, “Make sure you market for the brand and not just the product.”
For example, a great commercial pointing out the benefits of a trampoline exercise would boost all trampoline sales. But if you own Joe’s Trampolines and you’re paying for that commercial, you want to stress that only Joe’s Trampolines have the highest-grade elastic material, with the right amount of buoyancy to give you the optimum workout.
[Ed. Note: When you market your product, you want people to think of you... not someone else! You can get specific, easy-to-follow advice on how to make your advertising sell with Eugene Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising. The strategies you'll find inside have made billions over the years. Find out how much they can help you.]
H2O Weight Loss
File this one under “hard to believe.” Still, researchers from California believe they have found a simple – free – way to lose weight.
The researchers looked at 173 overweight women (aged 25-50) who reported drinking less than one liter of water per day. These women were then instructed to increase their water consumption, and were studied for a year.
Remarkably, the researchers found that the increased water intake was associated with a significant increase in both weight loss and fat loss. The results suggest that if an overweight woman drinks less than one liter of water per day, the simple act of drinking more water may be beneficial.
The researchers think that drinking the water may promote weight loss by lowering total energy intake and/or altering metabolism. So while it is hard to believe that weight loss could be that simple, the results of this study support the many personal trainers and nutritionists who insist that their weight-loss clients immediately begin drinking more water.
If you drink next to no water, add three cups of water per day to what you’re already drinking this way: Drink one cup immediately upon waking, another cup as soon as you get to work, and a third cup in the afternoon, just before you leave work. That’s easy, isn’t it? And it might just give your fat loss a boost.
[Ed. Note: Adding water to your diet may help you drop a few pounds. But you should be eating right and exercising to get the best results. For ideas about which foods you should be eating and which foods to avoid - and recipes for delicious, healthy meals - sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter.
And for the secrets of a short workout you can do to build muscle and burn fat at the same time, all while getting in and out of the gym in under three hours a week, check out fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training program.]
It’s Fun to Know: A Bacon-Flavored Bloody Mary?
Mixed drinks have been taken to a new level of manliness. “Everything is better with bacon,” claims the owner of Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse (although we can think of a few things that wouldn’t be). He invented the Bacon Bloody Mary by frying up some applewood smoked bacon and letting it soak in vodka for a month. After much straining, he was left with the cloudy, bacon-flavored vodka that he is using to make his cocktail.
(Source: Boston Herald)
== Highly Recommended ==
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If you don’t have an Internet business yet, or if your company is smaller than $1 million, then you need something different… something that lets you start off small.
One man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How’s that for starting small!
Let me show you how you could get a similar Internet income stream running for almost nothing.
- Charlie Byrne
ETR Associate Publisher
Word to the Wise: Hachure
A “hachure” (ha-SHOOR) – from the French for “crosshatch” – is one of the short lines used on maps to shade or to indicate slopes and their degree and direction.
Example (as used by Zadie Smith in White Teeth): “It was an extreme close-up of an old man, the contours of his face clearly defined by line and shade, hachures on a topographic map.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
Similar Articles:
- Tracking Your Success: Why You Should Keep a Daily Journal – It may seem a self-centered pastime, but keeping a journal is actually an excellent goal-setting too…
- Checking Your Progress – I read an interesting health brief in ETR recently. (ETR is first on my reading list every day. I re…
- 3 Things You Must Measure to Lose Weight – One of the biggest mistakes folks make with a weight-loss program is not recording their diet, their…
- H2O Weight Loss – File this one under “hard to believe.” Still, researchers from California believe they have found a …
- How Often Should You Weigh Yourself? – I know you hate to look at the scale. Some trainers even suggest throwing the thing out. But the tru…
- Using Daily Task Lists to Accomplish Your Goals – I didn’t always plan my days. For most of my career, in fact, I didn’t. I had written goals. And I r…
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i just want to say thank you so much for all the inspiration you have given me since i have started reading etr… i have become living proof you can change your life with a few small changes in life like reading etr and making a simple list of to do’s. i have gone from a person suffering frome depression and anxiety and over thirty thousand dollars in debt. to a man of confidence and comfort with a brighter future than a thousand watt lightbulb… the world doesnt need oil- the world needs ETR!
best regards,
Jon
This is actually my first time viewing any of the links that you’ve sent to me.. I found some of the titles to be very interesting and of course something that I’ve been looking for which one is to become a success story.. In reading I hope to find something that would unleash the many thoughts and help me put them to work for the betterment of many persons that are involves in my now and future life.
Will keep in touch.
Keeping a journal IS important. I enjoyed this piece by Michael Masterson. I’ve kept a journal off and on over the years, since I was about 9 years old. It’s a wonderful tool to help you be the best you can be, and, like Masterson says, a big bonus is reading your old journals from years gone by. Sometimes, funny, sometimes tragic, but always an eye-opener. You may or may not wish to share your journal, that is completely up to you. Why not begin journaling right now? It can only help.
I enjoyed reading the article about drinking more water to lose weight. I agree that drinking more water does help to lose more, but what’s even better, is to drink it ICE COLD !!! When you drink ice cold water, your body has to boost your motabolizum in order to warm up your body temperature again. I know, because I’ve dropped more with it than with just cold water.
Good Luck and God Bless, Linda
This reply will make a good “entry” on a page in my journal. I’ve kept a daily for >30 years. It’s helpful to flip back, read a page out the life× to reminisce but I find myself fanning pages out of necessity. When did I sign an important document at work, who did I talk with at the IRS office, when did my boss give me a verbal and of course the scrutiny preceding each tax season. My handwriting reflects mood &attitude inscribed in a continual development of stick figures and hieroglyphics. This is a history /alibi of/for me. Goals I post where I see them daily as a conscious or otherwise reminder. To-do lists are binderclipped bound index cards. Task accomplished, card is culled out, fresh blank card takes its place. Long term carried cards with add hock ideas & info get action, even if that action is getting carried in shirt pocket until time permits or ink fades. To keep my year fully recorded, during times of high adventure or places where I would not chance loosing a volume of near misses, dreams and their “hidden” meanings, moon phases/ energy levels and what gave me gas…I print that months calender affording enough space each day to include a departure time, the tickets I have, all else I just need to know when to go to local airport. Calender w/numbers and vacent boxes get filled in with locations and stick figures is tucked into a reporters notebook which I’ll draw out and on (while waiting coffee) collecting stories of how great I feel today and my recollections of last night. I never wonder why I take ~10 minutes /day to record, recall, &conjur…after thirty years, ~11K entries, I’m afraid not to. ~J.
Great article, but a quick question – do you also keep your daily business notes (from meetings and such) in the same journal or do you keep those separately? It would seem like you would want those together with your daily and weekly most important tasks, but it wasn’t clear from the article.
Keep up the great work!
Cheers,
Alan