I have recently come to realize that I may not be the complete professional that I thought I was. So today I will work on my general professionalism. There are many attributes to a professional. Below I will just list the traits that I will improve firstly.

• Unnecessary comments – I often find myself making useless comments that only serve to belittle or put down others. This is incompatible with professionalism.
• Stop complaining – Complaining about things at work is useless if you are not going to change what needs changed, so why do it. You don’t want to become “that guy/girl” that only complains about anything and everything.
• Get along with others – Sometimes there are people that you just won’t get along with at work or even in life. But to keep it professional, we must get along to make work. Bickering and acting smug towards one another will seem childish to everyone else.
• Treat everyone with respect – Treat everyone around you with the same respect that you would want them to send your way. You will be regarded as respectful and a true professional.

Keeping it professional in life and your career will go along way with friends, co-workers, and family. Of course there is always a time and place to get goofy, but the most important thing is to know when it is the right time to act that way. The easiest answer is to just keep it professional at all times.

Today I want to get back into my workout routine. I have taken too long of a break during and after the holiday’s.

My plan is to start out with some light ab exercises such as crunches and sit-ups. Then I will do about 50 to 75 push-ups, and finally some reverse crunches.

Exercising is important for mind and body, revitalizing your strength and mental awareness. Try running for 30 to 45 minutes without rest and watch how much energy you have after. Working out gives you confidence and emotional clarity as well. Building up muscles naturally will give you strength and prolonged health throughout your lifetime.

Just ease into your choice of workouts and make sure to do them safely. Now I know that no one actually talks to their doctor before working out, but just know your limits to stay safe.

Good luck and let me know how your workout goes by commenting below.

Lately I have been feeling a bit bored with life. So today I just really want to find some extra excitement, without getting into too much trouble of course.

Only the day will reveal what kind of fun and excitement will come my way, but I am hoping to get into something just a little bit risky maybe. So here are some things I could try to spice up my time today just to get me started:

• Go run in the pouring rain for 3 miles (OK, maybe that is just crazy!)
• Go on a stakeout – I would love the thrill of waiting to catch a criminal in the act.
• Turn the lights out and watch a really scary horror flick up close to the big screen TV.
• Go explore - Drive around the town to discover new places. There are still tons of areas I have not seen in my town, and I have lived here almost 3 years now.
• Find a new way to make some money – It is always exciting to make money, especially when you discover a brand new way.

How about you all? What will you do today to build some excitement? Leave some comments, I love to read them all!

Today I will try to learn the most I can about Microsoft Excel. Using Excel can boost productivity in your personal life or business world exponentially. I have already found one spreadsheet online that will keep track of stock investments automatically through the net and formulas.

I want to be able to create new spreadsheets that will take care of my budget, do my checkbook, track my bill schedule, and maybe even shoot me email reminders about paying those bills.

Being able to create Excel Spreadsheets can become a way of earning passive income as well. If you create one that has not been created yet (which I don’t know if it is possible to do), then you might be able to sell it online and collect royalties. Those are payments to you that never stop coming as long as people are buying.

That is my goal for the day. I don’t fully expect to become an expert in one day, but merely learn the basics that will probably spark a new interest for me to keep building on my knowledge.

Has anyone out there made some money from Excel or other spreadsheets? Tell us your story by commenting below, and as always, thanks for reading.

I am writing this unusually short goal to let everyone know that my computer has somehow contracted over nine viruses! I am only able to get on my computer for about 5 minutes at a time. So I will keep this to a minimum.

Very shortly I will have the problem fixed one way or another, and then continue on with my normal posting. Wish me luck as I take on the most annoying bugs on the planet!

Here is what I am using for free virus removal:

• PC tools spyware doctor
• Pareleto Anti-virus

Does anyone know of more free anti-virus softwares available?

Check it out. What are some of your New Years resolutions for 2010? Wow, 2010….where has time gone people? Watch the short vid below, and don’t forget to post some comments on this, thanks!

Today my goal is to choose someone that looks like they need a pick-me-up, and do something nice for them. I have done goals like this before, but I really just want to make a dent today in someones life.

Being able to help someone in a time of need is really gratifying some times. Whether the person is just down on their luck, or is really having a personal crisis, a simple act of kindness towards them may be all they need.

If you have not checked out the movie “Pay it Forward” then I would suggest watching that right away as it is a great flick. It shows how the power of doing just very small random acts of kindness can really have a huge impact in the whole scope of things.

Check back this evening for an update and to see how my goal went. Please comment on any random acts of kindness that you saw or did throughout the day as well.

UPDATE: Was able to watch a friends kid while they took a much needed trip out to the club together. Just a small favor, but they seemed pretty happy. Anyone else help someone out today?

It is no secret that being and staying organized is not only beneficial to your success, but crucial to it as well. Unorganized clutter makes it difficult to find things, plus it makes it hard to concentrate. Try looking around at all those messy stacks and piles of stuff that you didn’t even know you had. You will find a mental cluster bomb!

So here are my 5 favorite FREE services to stay organized:

• Google Calendar- A free service by Google to organize your daily, weekly, and monthly events and appointments. The free service will also remind you by email and/or pop-up to stay on track.
• Todoist.com – A free website to keep track of all your to-do list. It even integrates Gmail and other popular services into the tasks.
• Accuweather.com – OK, so this isn’t directly related to organization, but it does help to have your weekly weather posted right to your desktop to schedule your day’s plans.
• You! - Take a weekend and clean up that clutter. You will be surprised at how much stuff you can throw away, and also how much easier it will be to concentrate after you are done. Give it a go!
• Clutterless recovery groups – After you have de-cluttered your home or office, why not give this group a try to stay that way.

There are other useful ways to stay clutter free, you just have to find your favorites. Try giving some of these a try, and check out www.unclutterer.com as well for organizing product reviews.

Anyone else have any organizing tips?

Today’s goal will be to start the New Year out with a resolution to stop smoking cigars for good or at least cut WAY down. I realized the other night that I somehow forgot to include this one on my 2010 New Years Resolution list. As a matter of fact, I some how managed to smoke a whopping 5 cigars on New Years Eve itself! Whoa, talk about a black lung!

I felt the pain the next day too, and so ever since I have decided to either completely stop or cut way down on puffing the stogies. Just today I realized after my usual stress of the first day back to work after a wonderful vacation to central Florida, which was really craving another cigar. This is even after remembering how I felt the day after I smoked all those cigars.

So I have compiled a list of 5 ways to quit sucking down the cancer that will hopefully help me and others to quit for good.

• Cold turkey- This method is my personal favorite, it is what I used to completely stop smoking cigarettes about 5 years ago. It takes tremendous will power, but can be done. You just have to create a greater reason for quitting in your mind than the many reasons that WILL come up for you to “just have one more.”
• Nicotine gum- It is what I am currently chewing to curb the craving. I bought the expensive gum about 9 years ago, and occasionally chew a piece. Now, I know that it is probably way past the expiration date, but hey the shit was expensive, and it still works!
• Nicotine patch- It’s like the gum, but a patch that you do not chew. PLEASE DON’T CHEW IT! You will not have pleasant results.
• Chantix- A stop smoking pill that makes the nicotine cravings go away, and makes the cancer sticks taste real nasty. Nuff said.
• E-Cigarette- Relatively new to the “stop smoking scene”, but has gotten great reviews. It is basically an electronic cigarette that looks and feels like a real cigarette, but you are only inhaling the nicotine vapor that it produces. I even heard it has many different flavors, making it a tasty treat too! If I were full blown smoking again, this would be my #1 choice.

These are my favorite 5 ways to the many approaches to quit once and for all. If you smoke, you may want to make this goal your goal too for the New Year. So take one more smoke then squash it for good. (Just kidding, don’t do that, well the one more smoke part anyway.)

Day 10 – How to market your business.

There are several methods to market your business or e-business. The two main categories are online and of course offline. In this article, we will discuss a few points about each method of marketing.

Let’s first discuss the online method of marketing.

There are several ways to market you business on the Internet to drive tons of customers your way. Online marketing has a unique advantage over offline because it offers cheap instant advertising that you rarely find in the offline world.

Here are a few ways to get it done:

• Build a website- Many brick and mortar stores and businesses create websites to handle orders and customer service, but you could also use it to market to new potential customers.
• Buy ad space on popular websites- Find similar types of businesses on the web and purchase ad space on those sites. Some of the most popular ad services are: Google Adwords, Chitika, Adbrite, and Yahoo publisher’s Advision.
• Sponsor contests- Use your company’s name on contests around the net. You will have to provide the prize or money to the website holding the contest.
• Forums- Post questions and answers on your trades online forum. Do Not blatantly spam these sites or they will kick you right off! But, there are ways of gracefully working in your business name.
• Service directories- There are online directories that exist solely for the purpose to display companies and what they can do for you.
• Email- Make sure you display your company’s name and info on every email you send out, the rest is viral.

There are many other ways to market your business on the Internet that I didn’t discuss here today, but that should get you started. Now let’s look at the ways to market outside the web.

Offline Marketing methods:

• Vehicle stickers- Slap a magnet or sticker to the back window showing your company’s name and info on it. This can work pretty well depending on how much you drive, the traffic amount near you, and how creative you can get with it’s design.
• Pens, stationary, and letterhead- Make sure you display company info on anything and everything you can. You could even hand this stuff out at a trade show, everyone loves free stuff.
• TV, radio, and magazines- These are all very expensive generally speaking. There are ways to cut cost such as time of day, low cost stations, and choosing a smaller size advertisement. Also, Google Adwords offers a relatively cheap local radio advertising option.
• Billboards- Again, this method is very expensive but effective. People love to read things as they drive due to boredom. Come up with a creative billboard ad and you could drive thousands of customers to your company.
• Sponsor sporting events- You don’t have to sponsor NFL games or the like, just start with small venues like your local high school football game.
• Product placement- This is another method that will cost some real dough, but you will get good results. This works well for gadgets and technology firms. Basically, you approach a television program and ask for the chance to include your product on a popular TV show. For example, if you sell a new CT scan machine, maybe you would ask the powers to be from the TV show “House” to include it on the next episode. They would get a realistic prop, and you would get your logo out there.

Ideally you will want a mixture of online and offline marketing to create the perfect campaign. Test and try different methods to see what will work for your particular business.