Study: Alcohol more dangerous than heroin, cocaine

LONDON — Alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, according to a new study.

British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole.

Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.

Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamines, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. When considering their wider social effects and harm to others, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances, followed by heroin and crack cocaine. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.

Devastating consequences

The study was paid for by Britain's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and was published online Monday in the medical journal, Lancet.

Experts said alcohol scored so high because it is so widely used and has devastating consequences not only for drinkers but for those around them.

"Just think about what happens (with alcohol) at every football game," said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam. He was not linked to the study and co-authored a commentary in the Lancet.

When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin. But experts said it would be impractical and incorrect to outlaw alcohol.

"We cannot return to the days of prohibition," said Leslie King, an adviser to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and one of the study's authors. "Alcohol is too embedded in our culture and it won't go away."

King said countries should target problem drinkers, not the vast majority of people who indulge in a drink or two. He said governments should consider more education programs and raising the price of alcohol so it isn't as widely available.

Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classify drugs. For example, last year in Britain, the government increased its penalties for the possession of marijuana. One of its senior advisers,

David Nutt — the lead author on the Lancet study — was fired after he criticized the British decision.

"What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science," said van den Brink. He said considerations about revenue and taxation, like those garnered from the alcohol and tobacco industries, may influence decisions about which substances to regulate or outlaw.

"Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit," he said.

(artical from msn.msnbc.com)

Jack Canfield: The Success Principles

When Jack Canfield talks about perseverance, he speaks from experience. His best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series was rejected by over 144 publishers before going on to sell over 100 million copies. He's been a teacher, facilitator, and psychotherapist. His seminars and trainings have touched millions of individuals from welfare recipients to corporate leaders.
How what you think makes you weak or strong
Seven key areas in creating a personal vision
Two simple questions that accelerate the achievement of your goals
How to change the outcome of any event, simply by changing your response to it
The Rule of Five for achieving your "breakthrough goal"
Jack canfield is uniquely qualified to coach you on success. He's devoted more than 30 years to uncovering universal principles for achieving extraordinary outcomes. In this fast-paced, entertaining and powerful program, Jack will share his latest breakthrough principles and detail how you, too, can use them to rapidly achieve your goals in your career, your finances and your personal life.

Success Is a Choice

Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life (ISBN 0-7679-0132-0) is a motivational self-help book and audio recording by Rick Pitino, the basketball coach. It was published in 1998 by Broadway Books. His tips include strategies to overachieving and deserving success.

In the book, a ten-step plan is given intended to help the reader:

1. Build your self-esteem
2. Set demanding goals
3. Always be positive
4. Establish good habits
5. Master the art of communication
6. Learn from good role models
7. Thrive on pressure
8. Be ferociously persistent
9. Learn from adversity
10. Survive your own success

(artical from wikipedia)

7 Habits of Business Success

The elusive dream of business success captures the imagination of aspiring and existing business owners everywhere. A vision of flowing profits, industry respect, thrilled customers, and a balanced life. This vision is only possible by developing habits that drive business success. Take the time to learn the 7 habits of business success.


The 7 Habits of Business Success


Habit 1. Cultivate Inner Networks: Entrepreneurs practicing the art of business success know the power of networks. They take the time to identify and build relationships with key peers, mentors, and advisors. This inner network provides support, direction, and an increased number of people to assist. Having an inner network of five people who have a network of five more, grows the network exponentially.


Habit 2. Customer Centric: Business success requires an unwavering commitment to the customer. This commitment encompasses a mindset of understanding the customers' world. Understanding the customers wants and needs provides the business with a greater opportunity to earn a loyal customer base. Focus away from business and profits, and toward what you can do to improve the life of your customers.

Habit 3. Humble Honesty: Business success requires the ability to know your strengths and weaknesses. Being open and honest about yourself and your business creates growth as an individual and as a company. Don't spend time developing weaknesses. Find help for weak areas, enabling you to focus on strengths. In the book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths", Gallup Organization reveals that building our strengths instead of fixing our weakness is the path to mastery and success. Take the time to know yourself and business.


Habit 4. Adaptability: Business success requires the ability to adapt to changing situations. Nothing ever goes as planned. The world of business is full of surprises and unforeseen events. Using the habit of adaptability allows business owners to respond to circumstances with the ability to change course and act
without complete information. Being flexible allows us to respond to changes without being paralyzed with fear and uncertainty.


Habit 5. Opportunity Focused: Problems are a regular part of business life. Staff issues, customer misunderstandings, cash crunches- the list is endless. To achieve business success, look at both sides of the coin. Every problem has an opportunity. Being opportunity focused makes the game of business fun and energizing.


Habit 6. Finding A Better Way: Productivity is the cornerstone of business success. Formulate the habit of finding a better way to make your business more productive. This will create more time to focus on the
critical issues that drive sales and profit. Productivity can be enhanced by technology, automation, outsourcing, and improving business processes.


Habit 7. Balanced Lifestyle Management: A business can consume an owner's time and energy. It's easy to allow the business to take control of your life. Business success requires the habit of balancing all aspects of your life. Separating time for daily business tasks, profit driven tasks, and free time is a habit that will make your business and life more enjoyable. Take the time to plan each week.


Learning and instilling new habits in your daily business life can have a dramatic effect on your level of success. Review each of the 7 habits. Choose one habit to focus on for a month or until you achieve mastery. Gradually incorporate each of the 7 habits of business success into your life and attain your business dreams.

(artical from about.com written by Darrell Zahorsky)

Carmen Ulrich on Building Wealth

The day I took control of my income was the day I quit my job. Of course, my timing was perfect, as my husband had just gotten laid off the week before. Two missing incomes, one mortgage and a lot of bills. But it pushed us to talk seriously about our potential to make it on our own, to build our own business and open the doors to even more success.
 
We both knew it was a huge risk and put plans B, C and D into place, but we also both knew that our happiness with our careers would determine much of the happiness of our lives. I realized that I needed to take a big risk to find the success I was looking for.
 
So much of success and wealth is about not only risktaking, but also planning and putting one very important person in charge: you. If you’re not taking classes, stretching your mind and possibilities, keeping up with social networking and blogs in your industry, making yourself better and worth more to not only your

employer, but to your own future, you’re missing out on what could be your income and what could be your wealth.
 
Granted, if you’ve been laid off in a dying industry (as my husband and I had been), you may feel very little control. But these are the times to shake things up and decide if you’re going to remain within that industry and possibly accept a much smaller way of life and paycheck, or if you’re going to take time to shift, adapt and open up possibilities that lead you toward the success you crave.
 
When and if you go out on your own:

• Make sure to protect yourself and manage your money well by incorporating and keeping your personal and business finances separate. That means putting some pros on your team: a great lawyer, a tax specialist, and, when the big bucks roll in, a trusted and well-screened certified financial planner or advisor.

• Spend a little on building an attractive and interactive Web site, a vital ingredient in success these days. To start, pool together Web sites that have the look and user-friendliness you’d want on your own. Ask around for referrals for a Web pro, or click through your favorite sites and contact those designers.

• Don’t be afraid of self-promotion. Look up old contacts and let them know what your plans are, and network not only with the people you know, but also through everything from your local parenting message boards to Facebook to flyers at community hot spots.

If you’re on the fast track at the office or looking to jump on, always think like a freelancer. Never get comfortable or assume that you’re completely aware of what’s going on in the corner office. Keep those classes going and diversify your skills. Become a member of an affinity group to build up your roster of contacts and meet others who share the same goals. Search out mentors; after all, it’s rare for a mentor to choose you. It can be as easy as a frank discussion of your goals and a simple question: Will you mentor me?

And make sure to have lunch or coffee with someone new nearly every day. Part of my success going out on my own was the relationships that I had formed in a corporate environment. Sustain them, and they will help sustain you.
 
In the end, no matter how much money is coming in, true wealth comes along only when you make the right decisions with your money. One schoolteacher who called into my show and made $65,000 a year had four times as much money in the bank as a banker of the same age who made four times as much money in one year. Getting the income you want is one thing; transforming that income into wealth is another. Take control of your money; take control of your life.


Carmen Wong Ulrich is a broadcast journalist and personal finance expert at CNBC, where she hosts On the Money. She is the author of the best-selling Generation Debt: Take Control of Your Money—A How-To Guide.

(artical from successmagazine.com written by Carmen Wong Ulrich )

Dave Ramsey on Marriage and Money

Marriage counselors and statistics tell us that if we can agree on four things before we marry someone, we have a much higher probability of a successful marriage. The big four are religion, in-laws, parenting and money.

Men and women are different. When it comes to money, men tend to take more risks and don’t save for emergencies. Men use money as a scorecard and can struggle with self-esteem when there are financial problems. Women tend to see money more as a security issue, so they will gravitate toward savings. Because of their need for security, women can have a level of fear—my wife, Sharon, calls it terror—when there are financial problems.

Despite the differences in how you and your spouse view money, it is crucial for couples dealing with their finances to have unity. Unity is one of the character qualities of people who win at wealth building. However, you have to understand each other before there is unity.

Usually one spouse is more creative and spontaneous. That mate is a little, or even a lot, less organized and tends to see budgeting as a form of torture, a method for the other mate to control them. That describes Sharon.

The other mate has more administrative skills and more of a bent toward numbers. There lives deep inside of this mate a nerd. That describes me. The nerd can be the spender or the saver. Normally, if one of you has all of the budgeting responsibility it is the spouse with the administrative bent. The nerds get the budget because they are the only one who cares, and they can’t trust anyone else anyway, since they are so smart. An unauthorized flow of money upsets the nerd, and further controls are implemented. At this point the free spirit will dig her heels in and the budget wars are on. I have just described how most couples “manage” money.

There is a better way! First the nerds should prepare the budget, because we love to; it is our life. Instead of making the budget kingly law, we should submit it to the budget committee. The budget committee is the two of you. Nerds, when you submit your masterpiece budget to the committee, you must remember to shut up and listen. Listen and accept the fact that your mate has valid input, and then agree to most of the requested changes. You are doing this to bribe them into the process of managing money, and believe me, your concessions are a small price to pay for unity.

Free spirits, you must show up for the budget committee meeting. This activity is important to your marriage and your children’s future, and the only way you can defend your position is to come to the meeting. You must be a grown-up and realize you cannot spend more than you make and have financial security or build wealth.

Although men and women are different, and opposites attract, common sense and a success mentality tell us we have to work together. Two horses pulling a wagon can haul a huge load up a hill if they work together. Pulling apart will simply turn the wagon into firewood. Working together is the only way to survive bad times and prosper in good ones. This means, when it comes to marriage, you are no longer two individuals, but one couple.


Dave Ramsey is a syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author and the creator of EntreLeadership Master Series and EntreLeadership One Day.

(artical from successmagazine.com written by Dave Ramsey )

When Daniel Craig stepped out of the surf on a Bahamas beach, he melted women around the
world and spiked browser searches from guys looking for that incredible James Bond physique.

What dose he do?

Let's take a look how to shape the physique.



Wanna try an easier way?