Blog Posts by Scott W

Many people haven't looked at their resume in years; they haven't needed to. But in 2009's collapsed economy, jobs are shaking out like coins from a piggy bank. If you've been laid off or you're worried you might be, blow the dust off your old resume and bring it back to life. Whether you are just updating or starting from scratch (who knew those floppies would become obsolete?), these steps will help you create an honest, positive resume.

1. Understand the resume's purpose. Your resume and cover letter are tools to land a job interview. Not the job, just the interview. Think of a resume as a fact sheet and a cover letter as an explanation of those facts. Lose sight of this and you may overwrite, over explain and convolute.

   But a resume is also your public relations advocate and should be flattering. Maybe your record isn't long or perfect, but don't let your resume knock you out of contention before you have a chance to talk your way into the job.

2. Research

Christmas is ahead and so is the holiday season. This is the time when people start packing their bags and gear up for a nice holiday with family and friends. And this is also the time when almost everyone of us finds it hard to plan and organize things in the right way. Whether it is finding the right hotel, booking flights or making a checklist of things to carry, everything seems to take too much of time and effort.

Keeping that in mind, I decided to list ten pretty cool websites which help you in planning and organizing things in a better manner, thereby making your travel hassle free and enjoyable. Previously, I've mentioned a list of seven great travel websites which could be of great help to any traveler. But this list, as you will see, is different. It's comprised of cool, free, mostly unusual websites which not everyone knows about. I hope you enjoy reading about them and then trying them out.

Tripeedo
Tripeedo is an amazing site which makes finding airfares an easy

Did you also know that stress can seriously accelerate the rate at which you age because of the incredible strain it puts on your body?

Stress was already at alarming levels before these past few months, but it's now at critical levels for so many of us. There is no escaping the media coverage of the planet's recent economical debacles and everyone, at some point, will feel some pain in their pocketbook.

So many people have lost the value of their homes, or they've lost their homes due to hurricanes, fires or bankruptcy, they've lost the value of their life savings and in some cases they've even lost their jobs to recent cutbacks. It's quite unsettling to hear financial experts compare this period to the crisis of 1929 and it's equally scary to hear the head of the most powerful country in the world sound the alarm on the current financial situation.

Most of us have never (EVER) thought about how dangerous stress can be to our health and very few of us make the conscious

Our lives tend to accumulate clutter in every corner: on our desks, in our drawers, on our shelves at home, in our closets, on our computer -- you name it, and clutter finds a way to fill every available space.

But having a simple, uncluttered life is possible, with some very simple methods.

Devote a little of your time to tossing clutter from your life, and keeping things relatively clutter-free, and you'll be rewarded with much more pleasing living spaces, with a less stressful life, and with better organization and productivity. Clutter weighs us down, distracts us, brings chaos into our lives.

Let's look at some ways to kick it out ... for good.

1. Your desk
   If your desk is covered in paper and other clutter, clear it off to create a pleasing work environment. The steps here are the basic decluttering steps we'll follow for many of the other steps below:
   • Clear everything off. Take everything off your desk and put it in a pile on the floor. Clear

One life habit that is often neglected is the habit of daily exercise. There are several reasons for this: too hard, too painful or the ever popular, I'll do it later when I have time. The excuses will continue to develop as long as you allow them to. At some point, you just have to pull the trigger. You just have to stand up to your procrastinating mind and spring into action.

Like most things in life that are worth doing, you have to develop a plan. No matter what the ultimate goal is, your plan must allow you to start slowly and sustain a new pattern or habit. Get educated on what you want to accomplish and jump in. I'll even help get you started on developing a plan for daily exercise.

1. Understand the benefits
   Most people vastly underestimate the value of daily physical activity. There are both physical health benefits as well as productivity benefits. The physical health benefits include obvious things such as burning calories and increased metabolism resulting in

Have you ever felt exasperated when you bumped into someone at the store but absolutely couldn't remember their name? Sure, it happens to all of us.

Despite being the strongest computer on the planet, our brains do lapse. It's hard to blame them really. As humans, we spend much of or existence stuffing our brains with stuff.

No matter how powerful our brains are, they need recuperation time to be kept in shape. Think of it as a tune up for your brain. Skipping brain maintenance is as silly as the person wandering the parking garage because they forgot where they parked. Is that you? Are you that person? If so, fear not; we are all that person at some point.

Now I am not a brain surgeon and I am not going to suggest you do anything surgical or dangerous. I am however an astute student of human behavior so I always look for simple ways to super charge my brain.

Here are some things you can begin doing as soon as today to begin the great brain tune up:

Eat Almonds

spring's best bouquetAfter 7 years of marriage I can honestly say that I would do it again; I'd marry the same woman without changing a thing. Well, maybe we would have spent our money a little more conservatively but as far as the the decision on marriage - it was a perfect one (no, I am not saying this because she reads my blog).

Unfortunately, as I consider our acquaintances and their marriages, it's clear that all marriages are not created equal. Cheating and chronic fighting surrounds us and often times we are stuck in the middle as these people come to us for advice.

Here are a handful of things that have become common themes. My assumption is that you've already talked about religion, having kids, sex, etc. If not, you really need to open up the communication.

So before you say "I Do", make sure you have at least considered these:

Ability to Compromise

There are subtle changes that most people can make in their lives in order to make their spouse happy. This is part of the never

It's something we're all looking for -- the perfect solution that will minimize our work life while still getting the stuff done that we need to get done. Well, that one solution doesn't exist, but with a combination of strategies, you can get to where you want to be.

Now, none of these tips will turn your life around. But they can make a big difference, and when used together, your work life might just be enjoyable, productive, low-stress and high fun. And these tips won't work for everyone. They're not meant to be used as a step-by-step guide. It's a list of strategies that work -- choose your favorites and give them a try.

1. One goal. Set a single goal that you want to accomplish this year -- I know that we probably want to do 12 goals, but it's too difficult to maintain your focus on more than one goal, and it diffuses your energy. Pick one goal for the next 12 months, and then a single 3-6 month goal that will lead to your 12-month goal. Then choose something you can