Learn From the Romantic Period - Part 3: Be Outrageous

"Great things are only possible with outrageous requests." ~ Thea Alexander

Get ready to be outrageous! In part three of this article, three characteristics from the Romantic Period are revealed as well as how you can apply each characteristic to achieve positive change and fulfillment in your life.

Here is a quick recap of Parts 1 and 2:

The Romantic Period was an artistic and philosophical movement (around the late 1700s to mid-1900s) when artists moved away from the strict laws of balance and restraint of previous periods.

Part 1 explored Self-Expression

Part 2 examined Emotion versus Intellect

Part 3: Be Outrageous

Here we explore a third characteristic: a love of the fantastic and exotic. Romantic artists might display this by using fantasy, dreams, exotic lands and cultures, or exotic, idealized historical periods.

You can apply the "fantastic and exotic" to your life by being outrageous in your thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.

Dream Big

Some of the greatest achievements in history started with what many considered outrageous dreams and ideas: the Wright brothers and their first powered and piloted plane, Walt Disney and his Mickey Mouse concept, Ted Turner and his 24-hour news station, CNN.

Dare to be an outrageous dreamer. Think BIG. When you do, you open up yourself to unimaginable possibilities.

Think Different

Romantics with a love of the fantastic and exotic probed more deeply into their creative imagination. Get outrageous by probing into your creative imagination! Challenge routine thought patterns by seeing things differently and asking creative questions.

Einstein,who was famous for questioning the ways things worked, said "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand." See how far your creative imagination will take you.

Change Your Attitude

Another way to be outrageous is in your attitude. When you are faced with a challenging situation, practice having a different attitude; this shifts your energy, allows you to see things in a new way, and leads to positive outcomes.

People who lost their jobs as a result of the economy, saw it as an opportunity to start a new business, develop a new skill, or get an education.

Master These 5 Tips to Get Ahead in the Job Market

During a work coaching session with a client in his late 40s, I was surprised and saddened when he suddenly opened up about his unexpected job loss. He used to be a senior operations manager, but he's now a middle aged man juggling the difficulties of finding a job and supporting his family.
Like my client, things haven't worked out easily for many middle aged men in the UK. Some of them are still jobless, even after two years of trying to seek employment. Those who were lucky enough, were able to find jobs but at half of their previous salary.
My work coaching session with him made me increasingly aware of the current reality for most middle aged workers. Men in their 30s to 50s count on these critical years to make a substantial amount of money to pay off their debts and to save up for retirement. However most of them find this difficult to do because of the competition, their age and the limited opportunities available.
Follow these work coaching tips to get ahead in the job market and to prevent unnecessary discrimination regarding your age:

1. Let go of your sense of entitlement. You were once a seasoned professional in your field but that doesn't give you the license to brag or to expect preferential treatment from recruiters, hiring managers or even your competition. Nothing is permanent in the world; even your achievements are forgotten. Don't live in the past. Be humble and accept that you need to learn new skills or be trained by somebody younger. Dropping your sense of entitlement will really help you, especially if you have to seek employment in another field.


2. Don't procrastinate with your job hunt. Even if your unemployment benefits will last for two years, you shouldn't wait long before starting your job hunt. Why? Because if you were let go, there's a huge possibility that other people are getting laid off too! The more you wait, the bigger your competition gets. Aside from that, the process of looking for a job, completing the requirements and training may take longer than you expected. If you don't want to run out of funds before your next paycheck comes in, I suggest you get moving- NOW!


3. Tap into your other skills and interests. You don't need to stay in the same industry to find a good job. If you have other skills or passions that could help you make a profit, make use of them. Even education or training you received but never used can help you find a job. Using your other skills, such as writing, teaching, cooking or handiwork can help you make a living. If you do these things well, you can even start a sustainable business.


4. Make your resume look young. What do I mean with this? Simple, age proof your resume by including only work experience related to the position you're applying for. That way, any unnecessary years are removed and you're not categorized as "too old" by any potential employer.


5. Talk young. This is one of my favorite work coaching tips for people who fear discrimination regarding their age. Don't let the way you talk reveal your age. Quit the "back in the days" talk. Listen to how men in their 20s or early 30s talk and try to adopt their words but try not to go overboard with the colloquialisms. You should also stay up to date with the latest in the media by watching the news, reading the paper and surfing the internet. If you don't know what Facebook or Twitter is, then you certainly have a lot to catch up on.

Starting over is difficult, especially for middle aged men. For my final work coaching advice, I suggest that you keep your mind open to the options available. Accept the fact that you may not get the same job title or compensation. However that doesn't mean you can't go back to that position in the future. For now, work hard and find a job that can help you pay the bills and support your family. When you're stable enough, you can find another job that suits you better.

Trained at The Coaching Academy, the world's largest life-coaching school, Paul delivers his coaching expertise through face-to-face individual or group sessions, or remotely by telephone and online conferencing. Paul's clients come from diverse backgrounds, including from the worlds of art, business, and academia on both sides of the Atlantic.
Paul's unique and upbeat approach to coaching enables each individual to verbalise ideas, goals, and dreams; to explore options; to develop effective directions and plans; and to move forward at a comfortable-yet-productive pace--and all without ever feeling judged or criticised. The result is that Paul's clients are empowered to focus on possibilities and to achieve maximum fulfilment and success in all aspects of their lives.

Online Copywriting

If you want to improve your situation and your lifestyle, then the most important thing you can do is to try and improve yourself. Successful people in life knows that we make our own luck, and that 90% of what happens to us is dictated by the way we act and present ourselves to the world. On top of this - even that 10% that perhaps is outside of our control, can be made much better or much worse by the way that we look at life and the way we choose to react.

This is why it is so important to invest time and energy into improving ourselves and what we have to offer the world. Self development courses and education are worth their weight in gold purely because they create new opportunities and because they give you new skills and abilities.

One example of a great new skillset you can learn that will be highly useful whether you want to run your own business, or just improve your employability for others, is copywriting.

Copyrighting basically is the act of writing 'copy' - this being the sort of content that isn't editorial or journalistic. While a journalist will write content that includes opinions, jokes and ideas; a copywriter will write larger quantities of text that is more practical in nature - such as typing up transcripts, such as writing press releases, such as writing the blurbs on the back of boxes and books, and such as writing the instruction manuals. The great news for those people who have qualifications and certification in copywriting is that it is something that is in very high demand. Writing essentially is communication, and through your copywriting you make it possible for companies to communicate with large numbers of clients and customers and to create all of their filler and content as necessary.

What makes copywriting even more useful is the fact that the internet is today so ubiquitous. The internet here is a huge part of countless business plans as companies use it in order to promote their services and products in an affordable and effective way, and as webmasters make money simply from their advertising and their affiliate links. There is a lot of money here to be made, and if you want a slice of that pie then you will need to be able to write. As is often said online 'content is king'.

If you get yourself a qualification in copywriting then, what you will find is that first and foremost you make yourself more appealing to a range of prospective employers. Of course you will open up career opportunities as a copywriter, but furthermore you will also create a lot of opportunities for yourself in a range of other careers and professions because copywriting is a skill that is useful in practically all of them. It's another string to your bow that is useful, and it will make you a better communicator as well as allowing you to fill in for your colleagues in various capacities.

Furthermore, with copywriting though you will also be able to make it on your own should you wish or need to. You can do this simply by providing writing services to webmasters and online businesses for instance, and you can do so by using copywriting in your own business to help promote your products and communicate with clients and customers.

Reasons to Have Your Malfunctioning LCD Or Plasma TV Repaired

It's Sunday. All of the members of your family stay at home. You plan to have a movie marathon the whole day. While you were in the middle of the first movie you were watching, your television suddenly turned off. You tried to turn it back on but it won't. You've got no choice left but to either bring it to a repair service center or leave it there - whichever you decide to do, it still means the plan you arranged with your family is already spoiled.
There are so many benefits we can get from owning a television at home. It can be a great source of entertainment for your family. You can also get to be updated on the news about what's currently happening to the world. Some parents also find it educational since there are programs that contain shows appropriate for their children.
A television is an expensive investment. Regardless of whether you have a Toshiba, LG, Samsung or Sony television, chances are that you are still going to repair or replace your set sooner or later. But what if your TV suddenly broke down and stopped working? Will you bring it to a local TV Repair Shop and get it fixed? Or will you go buy for a new one and replace it? What if that certain TV of yours is a high-tech LCD or plasma TV? However, whenever such things happen, it always brings perplexity that most of us must overcome. That is, the dilemma to choose whether having the TV repaired or to junk it and buy a new set. The answer to this question is not as easy as it depends on the situation and on a number of considerations.
Buying a new set of TV certainly does have its advantages still. Almost every month, the TV technology is evolving thus; the newer ones will have to be more advanced than the TV you just bought a couple of months before. But purchasing a new Plasma or LCD TV is likely to be more expensive than having your broken one at home repaired. Depending on what's wrong with it, it may be more practical to have it checked first by a professional to diagnose what's wrong. You can either bring it to the manufacturer's service center (which may entail some costs, if it's no longer covered by warranty), or you could troubleshoot it yourself!
Getting a new TV isn't always the best solution when you encounter problems with your current one. By getting your model fixed as and when you need it, you can save a lot of money. If your TV set doesn't break down over the 5 year extended warranty period, think of the money you'd save!

Supplement Insurance

There are those who believe everyone should take a multiple vitamin-mineral supplement and perhaps some fish oils or omega-3 fatty acids too. Others believe you can get all the nutrients you need from your diet. And still others believe no supplements of any kind are warranted for any reason.
What is to be believed? Who has the answers when you are standing in front of the supplements shelf at your local grocer?
When I first began looking into natural medicines in nursing school, I received a lot of mixed messages from my classmates. Although I believed in "medicine" at the time, I realized that something was missing from healing and sought answers outside of the medical field. The medical field has many wonders, and many people have received relief with using medical drugs and procedures. But I had learned, both professionally and personally, that medicine had its limits. Looking outside of the medical profession surely would give me insights that I sought.
And I found them in nature's medicines, vitamins, minerals and homeopathy.
But I also found a whole new world of dangers that could easily befall the unsuspecting consumer. The idea that "Natural is Safe" no matter what and how much was not true.
Supplement Insurance
The first Naturopathic Doctor I saw was one who believed everyone needed "supplement insurance," taking a multiple vitamin-mineral supplement daily no matter what ails you (or doesn't ail you). At first I had listened to her describe the nutrient-deficient foods on the market, even in fresh fruits and vegetables. She had said that without a supplement daily, no one could ever be healthy based on the poor quality of foods of the day. As time went on, I heard many more people with the same beliefs.
Then I went back to school myself-this time to become a Naturopathic Doctor. And I learned the dangers of just arbitrarily taking a supplement without needing it, and even more so if the person took medical drugs. Also, some supplements should not be taken with certain medical conditions, even if the person doesn't take medical drugs for that condition.
In 2010, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have estimated that 67% of Americans take at least one medical drug daily (with most taking 7 or more). It was also estimated that 72% of Americans take natural health supplements. Based on those figures, someone was taking both medical drugs and natural supplements at the same time.
Drug-Supplement Interactions
How many medical drugs have interactions with natural health supplements: 100%! Every medical drug on the market!
Granted, not every drug interacts with every vitamin or mineral, but every drug on the market interacts with at least 1 vitamin, mineral or herbal supplement-and some of those interactions can seriously harm the consumer.
An example is vitamin E. Vitamin E has been in the news a lot because of its heart-health benefits. But anyone taking aspirin, warfarin (Coumadin®) or another anticoagulant drug (i.e. blood thinner) should not take vitamin E as it greatly increases the risk of bleeding. Also with these drugs, a person should not take garlic or vitamin C. Yet, of those who have heart concerns that causes them to take the anticoagulant drugs, most reach for garlic and vitamin E because they believe these supplements are good for their heart and that they are natural so they are safe.
When working on the Cardiac Floor of a local hospital, a man was admitted because he was bleeding. He had been on an anticoagulant drug AND was taking garlic and vitamin E. He had to be admitted because he couldn't stop the bleeding from a minor cut on his chin from shaving. The anticoagulant effects of the vitamin E and the garlic intensified the anticoagulant effect of the warfarin (Coumadin®) leading to blood that would not clot.
Granted not all the reactions can be life-threatening if you combine natural supplements with medical drugs. But sometimes the reaction could be that the drug does not work as effectively, or that it does not get flushed from the body as fast as expected, leading to elevated drug levels, or it increases the risk of photosensitivity or skin rashes.
Supplement-Supplement Interactions
Yes, sometimes supplements interact with each other. For the most part, the reactions are not as dangerous as mixing drugs and supplements, but over time, the side effects can be of concern. Herbal supplements can deplete vitamins or minerals as well, such as Horsetail depleting vitamin B-1 (Thiamin) or Kava depleting Niacin.
Also, combining supplements that have the same healing properties can cause an additive effect, such as the above-mentioned Vitamin E and Garlic. Combining the two in high amounts can increase the risk of bleeding substantially.
Food-Drug Interactions
Most people do not think of food as having healing properties aside from being able to settle the symptom of hunger. But all foods have nutrients and such that can impact a person's health beyond just providing energy. For example, eating a diet rich in iron can help a person with anemia, and to alleviate the symptoms of anemia (fatigue, headache, pallor, shortness of breath).
Several spices used in daily cooking have medicinal value as well. As such, they can interact with medical drugs. Raw, fresh garlic, as mentioned earlier as interacting with anticoagulant drugs, has the same anticoagulant properties as the encapsulated form in the health food stores. Eating garlic while taking aspirin or another anticoagulant drug can increase the risk of bleeding.
Also, some drugs are better absorbed on an empty stomach than with food, whereas others require food to be absorbed best. Always check with your prescribing physician or pharmacist to learn which of your drugs need to be taken with food, or without food.
And then there's grapefruit juice. Very healthy for a person to drink, and loaded with Vitamin C, but if you are taking a medical drug, do not take the drugs with grapefruit juice as this juice interferes with the absorption of almost all medical drugs.
Food-Supplement Interactions
Some nutrients are better absorbed on an empty stomach whereas others definitely need food. If all your nutrients are taken once daily with breakfast, only some will be utilized and absorbed.
Also, vitamins are better absorbed in the morning, while minerals are best absorbed in the evening.
Nutrient Depletion by Drugs
Most drugs consumed by people decrease levels of some nutrients in the body, such as the vitamin B-1 (Thiamin) depletion by antidepressant drugs. Unfortunately for those taking antidepressant drugs, they usually are not told to supplement with Thiamin to prevent deficiency. Many of the side effects of these drugs can be alleviated with a simple supplement of Thiamin or by eating a Thiamin-rich diet.
Summary
Taking supplements just to take something to ensure health does not ensure health. Mega-dosing can lead to health compromises, taking the wrong combination of supplements can be dangerous, and taking a supplement just for insurance can cause health problems to occur. I see hundreds of people each year whose health deteriorated after taking too many supplements; they all had thought they needed to take the supplements to stay healthy and never had thought to look at the supplements as the cause of their current health problems.
And remember: just because they are considered natural does not make them automatically safe. Work with someone knowledgeable in both natural medicines and medical drugs if you want to safely mix the two for your optimal health-to do otherwise would be unwise.
Be Safe in Health
Sign up for Homeopathic Center of America's Be Safe in Health Series. Receive three (3) comprehensive vitamin, mineral, herb and/or drug reports monthly detailing their interactions, safety, and depletion information. These reports are a must for anyone working with others in health, and for the family who wants to optimize their health using natural means.
Best wishes,
Dr. Ronda
Disclaimer: The information provided by Dr. Ronda Behnke Theys is for educational purposes only. It is important that you not make health decisions or stop any medication without first consulting your personal physician or health care provider.