Find a confidant to counter stress

Unbelievable! I was smoking shisha and drinking Turkish coffee on saturday afternoon on busy Taksim Square in Istanbul when a hearse pulled up next to me and a few men carried a coffin from down a nearby alley and loaded it into the hearse. Then the hearse pulled away and it was gone.

A new child in a family can cause as much stress as a death in the family. "Falling in love" can be as stressful as "falling out of love." However, whether its source be pleasant or painful, stress can easily make us very unhappy. Overwork, the loss of a job, can cause stress. But small things like a time deadline, a simple quarrel or a gadget that doesn't work can throw us off balance.

I find a confidant with whom I can be totally open and feel totally safe. I talk out all my significant and emotion-filled experiences. But I ensure I let my confidant have equal time. Nobody wants to be a human garbage dump for emotional refuse.

Stress reduction

"Today all the shops are closed. It is Sunday," Martha informed me upon my check in to Le Meridien La Ramblas, Barcelona. "Tomorrow they are open by 10am and it will get busy in siesta time."

All too often, the coffee break/lunch break is abused rather than maximised. A lunch break should be used as a time to relax so that we are more effective when we return to work.

We should get our mind off the job and preferably into the wild blue yonder. We'll feel much more refreshed when we land again.

Reverse English

"I will be in some ads next year," Irem said while sipping her Martini El Turko

We sell by talking about things people want. We can also sell by talking about things people don't want.

What don't people want? The exact opposite of the things they do want.

Listerine is good at this: the girls who read the cosmetic ads usually get a hint of what wonders can be in store if they do use the stuff, but Listerine tells them frankly what will happen if they don't!

I say: reverse English can make our sales pitch stronger.

Room to negotiate in a negotiation

"There should be room to negotiate in a negotiation," That was a memorable quote in the movie Founding of a Republic.

Over the years, I have learned that when negotiating we should give the other negotiator many ways out. The fundamental rule in negotiating is that we must seem to allow him at least 1 way out - a way to save his face - while getting him to do what we want him to do. If we don't allow him a way out - or a way that seems to be an out - it will be very difficult to get him to act, even unknowingly, in our interests.

Have a grateful perspective

It was Jack Cranfield who said on stage in Singapore, "Whatever you focus upon, increases."

The concept works like this: when we focus on things we need, we'll find those needs increasing. If we set our minds on loss, we are likely to lose.

But a grateful perspective brings happiness into a person's life.

Are we truly happy with abundance?

I arrived in Casablanca, Morocco last night on AT0961 ETA1910.

We look forward to the joys of travel, but we have to admit that the 2 happiest days are the day we leave home and the day we get back home.

Perhaps we thought it was marriage that would bring us perfect happiness. Even though it did bring a measure of happiness, we have to admit that we now take our partner's love for granted...

Perhaps it was wealth we wanted. We got it, and now we are afraid of losing it.

Maybe it was a desire to be well-known that we craved. We did become well-known and well-liked only to find that reputation is like a ball: as soon as it starts rolling, people begin to kick it around.

Here's what I conclude: our happiness truly does not consist in the abundance of the things we process.

Concise is a virtue

Coca-cola is launching its 1st global Christmas ad campaign in 15 years....reported Bloomberg Business Week.

"No frills" advertising copy is brief, direct & delivers a knockout punch every time. When we're about to say something in 10 words, we should try to see if we can say it in 8 or 6 or 4. Because when it comes to copy, being concise is a virtue.

Short, powerful words create an urgency and rhythm that drives home sales message so it has the best chance of getting noticed.