Pamela Yellen: Seven Tips for Keeping Your Financial New Year's Resolutions

Perhaps this year you'll finally get your financial house in order - roping in spending, slashing debt, maximizing income, and choosing investment and savings plans that actually deliver what they promise.

Whatever you resolve, you must find a way of sticking to your financial resolutions beyond Valentine's Day, past Mother's Day and Independence Day, all the way through Labor Day, Thanksgiving and New Year's Day 2013.

Don't get discouraged if you haven't succeeded in the past.? According to Marti Hope Gonzalez, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, before they ever succeeded, most successful New Year's goal-setters faltered for five consecutive years or more.? About 45 percent of people who set New Year's resolutions run out of inspiration before Feb.? 14.? But a subset of Americans -- about one out of every five -- does push ahead to achieve their stated goals.

Whether the resolution is to lose weight, exercise more, quit smoking, drink less or spend less, for a small percentage of the population, New Year's Day is the very trigger they require to set off on their final journey that previously seemed unattainable towards -- or away from -- a lifelong pattern of behavior.

What does it take to be one of the successful few? What can you do this time around to increase your likelihood of remaining on track come New Year's Day 2013... and beyond? Here are seven tips to help you permanently get your financial house in order:

1.? ?Realize we all have it within us to modify our behavior -- Researchers have discovered that we all have it within us to cross the "Resolution Finish Line," regardless of how ingrained our habits are.?There is no type of individual, class, religious or ethnic group that is predisposed to failure - or to success.? Nor is luck a key component.

2.? ?Understand that real, permanent change is usually driven by your own desire, rather than by the pressure others exert on you.?Those who are most successful at changing, according to Professors Edward L.?Deci and Richard Ryan, are those whose motivation to change comes from deep within.

3.? ?Have a heart-to-heart talk with yourself -- Where are you right now, and where do you want to be? Professor Deci recommends those who seek to change begin by having a heart-to-heart conversation with themselves.?"Sit yourself down in a chair and be ready to have an honest look at where you are at this moment and where you, based on your own desire, want to be down the road."

Even when the path to success is steep and clogged by obstacles, those who slug forward of their own volition achieve a "much higher sense of well-being, a much better sense of feeling good about yourself and what you are doing, and a general sense of vitality as you are living your life," he says.

4.? ?Enlist the support of one or more allies or a coach to encourage you and help keep you on track.?While the quality of your motivation is the key to success, there are actions you can take to reinforce your internal resolve.? Chief among these, many professionals agree, is enlisting the support of one or more allies to encourage you and point you back in the right direction should you begin to drift.

M. Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D., a Maryland psychologist who operates three mental health clinics, says a "coach" -- whether a professional for hire, a friend or a religious leader -- can help to reinforce your commitment.?"Some people need a coach to keep going -- someone who can say, 'that didn't work, what are you going to do next?'" she says.

5.? ?Set incentives and consequences. Consider using websites that give incentives -- and disincentives -- for sticking to or breaking your commitments, such as GoalPay.com.? This website is designed to allow friends and family members to monitor the progress and provide incentives to GoalPay users who have committed to change.

J.D.? Sherrill, a 30-year-old graduate of Arizona State University who has battled to quit smoking and shed weight, is one of the founders of GoalPay.?He says the inspiration for the website came from his own experience.?"The things that I kept to myself were easier to forget about and never actually follow through on," he says.

6.? ?Don't wallow in self-blame when you fail -- Put aside your emotions and plot a logical pathway back.?Steve Siebold, a popular author and speaker who coaches corporate sales forces on mental toughness and self-control, has interviewed hundreds of millionaires in an effort to deconstruct their secrets.

Siebold, author of How Rich People Think, insists that anyone can become wealthy.?One of the key differences between those who are defeated by financial roadblocks and those who knock down barriers along their path is how they respond to disappointment.

Siebold estimates that 40 to 60 percent of today's most successful investors, entrepreneurs and executives have failed multiple times.? Rather than wallowing in an emotional state of self-blame, those who rebound the fastest and most successfully set aside emotional thinking and put their minds to the task of plotting a logical pathway back.? "The key to the whole effort is their belief system," Siebold says.?"They believe this is possible."

7.? ?Don't set yourself up for failure by insisting on an all-or-nothing change -- Learn from the past, realize where you made errors and build on them like stepping-stones, says Judith A.? Belmont, a psychotherapist and author of The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life, a book about "thriving in the face of life's adversities, overcoming challenges, developing stress resilience, and making effective and long-lasting changes for a happier life."

Belmont notes, "There is no such thing as a perfect resolution." She describes most New Year's goals as "a setup for failure" because they embrace an all-or-nothing attitude toward change. She cautions against perfectionism and advises patience and persistence.? "It doesn't matter where you are on the journey, what matters is the direction you are going," she says.? "Learn from the past, accept shortcomings, realize where you made errors and build on them like stepping stones."

Only you, when you set your mind and heart to the task, can successfully generate a turnabout of your fiscal direction.? This could be the year that you surprise everyone - perhaps most of all, yourself - by keeping and maintaining your New Year's resolutions.

Have you made and successfully kept a New Year's resolution?? If so, what was the key factor that made it work?? Tell us in the comments box below so other readers can benefit from your experience as well.

As a consultant to financial advisors, Pamela Yellen investigated more than 450 savings and retirement planning strategies seeking an alternative to the risk and volatility of stocks and other investments.?Her research led her to a time-tested, predictable method of growing and protecting savings now used by more than 400,000 Americans. Pamela's book, Bank On Yourself:? The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future is a New York Times Bestseller.? Learn more at www.BankOnYourself.com

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-yellen/7-tips-for-keeping-your-f_b_1171514.html

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PFT: Chargers decide to keep Turner, Smith

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In the end, Chargers president Dean Spanos has decided to love the ones he?s with.

Amid rampant reports of sweeping changes in San Diego, the team has announced that coach Norv Turner and G.M. A.J. Smith will return in 2012.

?Bottom line, I believe these two men give us the best chance to get back to the playoffs,? Spanos said in a team-issued statement. ?A.J. Smith is the best man to improve our roster, and Norv Turner is the best man to lead that roster on the field.

?Together, we have stability and experience that?s hard to find in the NFL.? They?ve both been in this league a long time.? I don?t think there is anything they haven?t seen or experienced.? They?ve led us through some difficult situations.

?As we?ve seen throughout Norv?s tenure and particularly this past season, the players believe in him, respect him and play hard for him.? When we went through that tough stretch, no one quit.? The team kept playing hard, and that?s a tribute to Norv?s leadership and the respect the players have for him.

?Now we will take a hard look at everything, from player evaluation to coaching to the rash of injuries we?ve suffered in recent years.? Injuries have killed us.? And no one is ever perfect in this business.? Player evaluation isn?t an exact science.? We need to improve across the board and I?m going to make sure we do.

?We all have our quirks and faults, but I want A.J. and Norv on my side.? They are the right men to help us win a championship.?

Possible Translation?? ?I know they?re both a little goofy.? But If I would have fired these guys, there?s no guarantee I would have gotten anyone better.?

And let?s not be naive.? Spanos undoubtedly gauged the interest of guys like Bill Cowher and/or Jon Gruden, who would have infused excitement, sold tickets, and ultimately helped lay the foundation for a new stadium.? Presumably, both men politely said no and thanks.

Without a chance to land a superstar coach, Spanos apparently opted not to clean house, paying Turner for two years and Smith for three and news guys going forward who may not do any better.

Let?s also be extra-cynical.? Maybe Spanos actually wants to move the team to Los Angeles.? What better way to do it than to make a move (or, more accurately, not make a move) that will be horribly unpopular with the fan base?

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/03/chargers-announce-norv-turner-a-j-smith-will-return/related/

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Arab League: Syria army retreats but killings continue

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Syria's government has withdrawn heavy weapons from inside cities and freed about 3,500 prisoners but security forces continue to kill protesters even with foreign observers in the country, the head of the Arab League said Monday.

Nabil Elaraby said pro-regime snipers also continue to operate in Syria and he demanded a complete cease-fire. But despite the regime's ongoing crackdown, he listed the achievements of the Arab League monitors since they began work.

The monitors are supposed to verify Syria's compliance with an Arab League plan to stop the 9-month-old crackdown on dissent. President Bashar Assad agreed to the plan on Dec. 19. But since the Arab League monitors began work last Tuesday, activists say government forces have killed more than 150 people, the majority of them unarmed, peaceful protesters.

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports on demonstrations against Syria's regime

"Yes, there is still shooting and yes there are still snipers," Elaraby told a news conference in Cairo, where the Arab League is based. "Yes, killings continue. The objective is for us to wake up in the morning and hear that no one is killed. The mission's philosophy is to protect civilians, so if one is killed, then our mission is incomplete."

"There must be a complete cease-fire," Elaraby said.

But he also said tanks and artillery have been pulled out from cities and residential neighborhood, food supplies reached residents and bodies of dead protesters recovered.

Rami Abdulrahman, who heads the British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed that tanks had withdrawn from Syrian cities. But he said residents reported that the weapons were still a threat.

"They can bring the tanks back and use them to fight," Abdulrahman told The Associated Press.

Elaraby did not say when the heavy weapons pulled out of cities, but Abdul-Rahman said it was on Thursday.

The Arab League plan requires Assad's regime to remove security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders, free political prisoners and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.

Already, Syrian opposition groups and a pan-Arab group, the Arab Parliament, have been deeply critical of the mission, saying it is simply giving Assad cover for his crackdown.

Suggesting that the League did not have a figure for the number of Syrians detained since the uprising began, Elaraby called on the opposition and ordinary Syrians to aid the observers by sending them names of relatives or friends they think are detained by Assad's regime.

He did not say whether the League was able to verify the release of 3,484 prisoners or when they left prison.

"We call for the release of all of them," he said.

Elaraby defended the Sudanese general heading the Arab League mission in Syria, saying he was doing his job perfectly.

"He is a capable" military man with a clean reputation."

Controversy has swirled around Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi because he served in key security positions under Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Amnesty International said al-Dabi led al-Bashir's military intelligence service until August 1995, when he was appointed head of external security.

"During the early 1990s, the military intelligence in Sudan was responsible for the arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, and torture or other ill-treatment of numerous people in Sudan," it said in a statement.

"The Arab League's decision to appoint as the head of the observer mission a Sudanese general on whose watch severe human rights violations were committed in Sudan risks undermining the League's efforts so far and seriously calls into question the mission's credibility," Amnesty said.

Meawhile, armed Syrian rebels captured dozens of members of the security forces by seizing two military checkpoints in the northern province of Idlib on Monday, Abdulrahman said.

It was not immediately clear how many people had been killed or captured by the rebels, he said.

The Syrian government bars most international journalists from operating in the country, making it difficult to verify accounts of incidents.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, said on Friday he had ordered fighters to halt all attacks when the Arab monitors first arrived in Syria 10 days ago.

But a video shot by rebel fighters last week showed the ambush of a convoy of army buses in which activists said four soldiers were killed.

More msnbc.com world news:

NYT: Who leaked climate scientists' emails?

Arab Parliament: Monitors must quit Syria

Pope: Youth could be 'builders of peace'

Report: Toxic homebrew kills 16 in India

Argentine governor fatally shot in the head

Libya militia thwarts New Year's eve bomb plot

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/02/9892680-syria-killings-continue-despite-military-retreat-arab-observers-say

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Eight lazy ways to lose weight

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Forget dieting. Shedding a few pounds could be as easy as having a lie-in, turning down the lights and getting vaccinated

THE holidays are a time of excess. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet. Or perhaps not. Unfortunately, we don't all have the self-discipline and determination it takes to cut back on cake and hit the gym. But fear not. There could be other ways to shift the fat and stay trim.

Just to get this straight, if you overeat and under-exercise you will gain weight. However, growing evidence suggests that other factors also contribute to excess adiposity. Last year, David Allison at the University of Alabama at Birmingham highlighted this when he discovered that humans are not alone in piling on the pounds. He looked at wild animals, lab animals, even animals kept on the same highly controlled diets for decades, and found that all were becoming heavier (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol 278, p 1626). Allison concludes that whatever factors are fattening up the animals that live around us might also help explain the human obesity epidemic.

That being the case, identifying these alternative factors should give us new ways to fight the bulge. The good news is that researchers worldwide are beginning to do just that. It is not yet known how much each factor contributes to obesity, but we can nevertheless suggest ways of avoiding them - and some are far less painful than dieting or pounding the tarmac.

Get vaccinated

If you catch a cold this holiday season you may have to stock up on new clothes as well as tissues. That's because at least one common cold virus has been linked to obesity. Nikhil Dhurandhar of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana discovered that adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) boosts both the number of fat cells in the body and the amount of fat inside these cells. He also found that obese people are nearly three times as likely as those of healthy weight to test positive for Ad-36 antibodies, indicating current or past infection (Obesity, vol 14, p 1905). Another study reported that children with Ad-36 antibodies weighed an average of 23 kilograms more than children without them (Pediatrics, vol 126, p 721).

The "fat effect" of Ad-36 might persist for several years in humans, although nobody knows for sure. Meanwhile, another 10 microbes have been reported to make animals fatter. While it sounds alarming, this could actually be good news in the fight against flab. "If indeed some infections contribute to obesity in people, we could have a potentially very simple and effective prevention strategy - vaccination," says Dhurandhar.

Chill!

While extreme stress tends to make people lose weight, the everyday kind can have the opposite effect. So, for the sake of your waistline, take a deep breath, and don't let the festive family bickering get to you.

Failing that, try giving the new-year diet a miss. One recent study found that moderate calorie restriction made mice much more sensitive to stress, and this effect persisted once the diet was over. The mice went on to choose more high-fat food than those that had never had their food restricted (Journal of Neuroscience, vol 30, p 16399).

Brain imaging studies by Rajita Sinha, director of the Yale Stress Center at Yale University showed that stress increases activity in the ventral striatum, a region associated with reward and habits (Neuropsychopharmacology, vol 36, p 627). "So it increases craving for high-calorie foods in those who have a habit of consuming them," she says. Instead of counting calories, she recommends mindfulness, stress reduction and meditation techniques to cultivate an awareness of how your thoughts and behaviours can undermine your health. "They can help with taking control over the urges and stress-related eating of high-calorie food." Everybody say "om".

Chill some more

Over the past three decades, homes in the US and UK have become warmer. Fiona Johnson at University College London and colleagues think this may be making us fatter (Obesity Reviews, vol 12, p 543). Simona Bo of the University of Turin, Italy, agrees. In a study of more than 1500 middle-aged adults, her team found that those whose home temperatures ranked in the top third were about twice as likely to become obese over the six-year period of the research (International Journal of Obesity, vol 35, p 1442).

Shivering obviously burns energy, but you don't need to be freezing for your body to chew through extra calories. Most fat on our bodies is a type called white fat. But when temperatures get down to about 18 ?C, brown fat - which is abundant in babies and which adults mostly carry around their necks - starts burning energy to warm you up. Unfortunately, if you are not regularly exposed to cold, your brown fat deposits shrink and so too does your capacity to burn off that extra holiday treat. Any change will help, though, says Johnson. You burn steadily less energy as environmental temperatures rise from 15 ?C to 28 ?C. "So turning down the thermostat by any amount is likely to have some small effect," she says. Do try this at home.

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Greek Gambling Ardour Cooled by Debt Crisis

But with Greece looking at a fifth straight year of recession and thousands of households reeling from waves of pay cuts and tax hikes, the spare income left to Greeks can no longer fuel their prodigious love for gambling.

"I've sat at card tables where the pot could have been up to 6,000 euros ($7,800)," reminisces 39-year-old George, who in past years was winning up to 4,000 euros annually to supplement his income. "Now it's barely a tenth of that."

Results coming in from the country's casinos are equally sombre.

While attendance looks steady, bets are down across the board with revenues declining by around 20 percent, Greek weekly Pontiki reported on Thursday.

The country's leading casino Loutraki recorded an 18-percent fall in turnover while runner-up Regency Mont Parnes lost 22.7 percent, Pontiki said.

Five other Greek casinos saw revenues decline by between 3.5 and 25.6 percent.

In another report, Eleftheros Typos daily this week said casino bet totals will likely close at 2.2 billion euros this year, a billion lower than in 2008.

The country's state gaming operator OPAP also saw sales fall by over 17 percent in the first nine months of the year and profits drop by over 21 percent.

"Undoubtedly, the losses are also due to the advent of illegal betting websites," a gaming industry insider told AFP.

"But there is certainly a crisis here, and it's getting deeper... Greeks still want to gamble, but without spare money in their pockets to do so, bets are a fifth of what they were previously," he said.

In 2006, OPAP had named Greeks the world's third most avid gamblers in terms of bets per person, and said they accounted for 30 percent of sports bets placed in all of Europe and 20 percent globally.

In 2002, the government had banned electronic gaming and sent police to raid Internet cafes, arrest operators and seize their hardware.

The decision was ridiculed after the draconian law applying it even extended to online chess and backgammon, and the European Commission later forced Greece to pay a fine over the issue.

Now, with the country over 350 billion euros in debt and no growth forthcoming from an economy choked by austerity measures, state policy has come full turn.

The government recently sold to OPAP licenses for thousands of new video lottery terminals nationwide, and early next year plans to sell most of its 34-percent stake in the gaming operator and to fully privatise ODIE, its troubled horce racing organisation.

The culture ministry, which supervises gaming in the country, earlier in the year said there were believed to be over 250 betting websites, up to 20,000 slot machines and up to 150,000 computers running gaming programmes in the country.

And the head of Greece's recently-established gaming commission EEEP told parliament earlier this month that the illegal turnover from all games of fortune in the country is estimated to be worth seven billion euros a year.

"People wager smaller sums now but it can still add up to hundreds of euros a month," said Damianos, a store salesman. "I have a colleague here who plays Kino (an online number-guessing game operated by OPAP) three times a day, even though his winnings never match the money he spends."

Source-AFP

Source: http://www.medindia.com/news/Greek-Gambling-Ardour-Cooled-by-Debt-Crisis-95554-1.htm

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Dropbox Automator triggers monotonous tasks with the uploading of a file

There are plenty of tools and apps out there that automate the essential computing tasks that face us every day. Some are time consuming others are simply monotonous -- but they must be done. Dropbox Automator combines time-saving task mastery with perhaps our favorite cloud storage solution. The service watches a designated folder for uploads, when a new file is added an action is triggered -- everything from converting documents, to resizing an image or tweeting a link. And that's just scratching the surface. There are already plenty of automation scripts in the fledgling service's repertoire and devs can add there own by creating a SOAP webservice. Hit up the source link to get started now.

Dropbox Automator triggers monotonous tasks with the uploading of a file originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All-Greater Houston fall sports

All-Greater Houston cross country athletes of the year
Boys: Cy Woods' Craig Nowak
Girls: Willis' Cali Roper (Karen Warren / ? 2011 Houston Chronicle)

All-Greater Houston cross country athletes of the year
Boys: Cy Woods' Craig Nowak
Girls: Willis' Cali Roper (Karren Warren / ? 2011 Houston Chronicle)

All-Greater Houston cross-country athletes
Cy Woods' Craig Nowak

Friendswood's Ryan Teel (1941)

Cross country

Q&A with boys athlete of the year Craig Nowak

Nowak claimed his second state championship on Nov. 12, winning the Class 5A boys title at the UIL state cross country meet with a time of 15 minutes, 16.05 seconds on the 5,000-meter course at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. He won the 1,600 run at the state track & field meet in May.

He also won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship South Regional in November with the third-fastest time ever posted on the North Carolina course and finished third at the Nike Cross Nationals earlier this month in Oregon ? an achievement the Oklahoma State commitment says he?s most proud of.

Q&A with girls athlete of the year Cali Roper

Roper claimed her second state championship on Nov. 12, winning the 4A girls cross country title with an 11:07.22 on the 3,200-meter course at Old Settlers Park. She won the 3,200 at the state track & field meet in May.

The Rice pledge also won the Foot Locker South Regional with a personal-best 17:02 and finished 18th at the Foot Locker National Championships in San Diego, Calif.

All-Greater Houston cross country team

Source: http://blog.chron.com/prepsports/2011/12/all-greater-houston-fall-sports/

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