Arvind here with possibly the single most useful exercise to help you with setting your goals for 2009 and get the life you love in the future.

Just ask yourself, assuming you had no limitations, what would your ideal day look like?

Choose a day in the future which could be in a year’s time, 3 years or 5 years. Then map out your day from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep. What do you have for breakfast? Who do you spend your day with? Where are you living? What do you do for work? Leisure? And so on.

Write out your ideal day in as much detail as possible - just write whatever comes to you and see what you come up with. Don’t be limited in anyway.

Once you know your ideal day, plan out how you will get there and what you need to achieve this year. You will then have a clear idea about your goals (New Year resolutions) for 2009. Good luck!

What does YOUR ideal day look like? Do share…

I read a story on BBC over Christmas and was dismayed to see what we are feeding ourselves - ‘Resolutions bad for your health’

Its amazing what is put out there to make people feel better about not sticking at something. However on the other hand if you only wait until the new year to decide something then you probably didn’t want it badly enough and as such are no doubt going to fail anyway. I’m sure there are a few out there who will defend this because it has ‘mental health’ in the article, sure this may apply to a small percentage, but what about the people who hide behind articles and stories like this?

Are we in danger of giving everyone license to fail, waste or just generally promote its OK to simply not bother? If we don’t give ourselves tasks and targets then how do we go forward and measure achievement?

What works for you guys out there? Do share.

ger here of giving

Whew!  I don’t know about you but time has just been flying for me!  This past year went by so fast I think I blinked and missed most of it.  Sometimes we just need to take the time to stop and appreciate the changes that every year brings with it, like Eirik Solheim did with his video entitled, One Year in Forty Seconds.

We all have different ways of trying to record the past.  Maybe its just to help us remember the important things.  Or it’s so we can actually force ourselves to appreciate changes life has wrought.

I have a trail of papers and detris in the form of articles and web content to remind me of the past year.  What do you have to help you remember 2008?

Anyone here take their eyesight for granted?

Laughed at that Stevie Wonder joke?

Or the term ‘blind drunk?’

Close your eyes for a minute - imagine that forever?

Every January 4th is World Braille Day. However, this year is a very special because it marks the bicentennial of the birth of Louis Braille.

Louis was the inspiring genius who created a way for people who are blind to communicate and become literate opening huge doors for them. The World Blind Union is the international voice of more than 165 million people who are blind, deafblind and visually impaired.

Additionally, in 1952, the accomplishments of Louis Braille were fully recognized by the French government. His body was exhumed and reburied in the Pantheon in Paris to lie with the rest of France’s national heroes.

And there is more… (more…)

Anyone else feeling a tad nervous about 2009 - Fear & loathing perhaps? Not as Hunter S Thompson would have wanted, surely?

Fear not, loathe less as GO! Smell the flowers will become more fun and easier on the eye in 2009 as we figured the world needs more of this.

Watch this cliche - more fun is required whilst making you think as you GO! Smell the flowers.

Deep is busying himself lining us up for a Buddypress software launch on February 1st when personal profile pages and viral techniques will be applied with lashings of babyoil.

Comments welcomed - what fun and features would you like to see more of here at GO! Smell the flowers? Do tell and enjoy the trip! Cheer.

GO! Smell the Flowers must have a post on an event all about flowers and other organic materials!!!  For those, who live in other countries you may have had Boxing Day on your news! However, in Southern California the day after Christmas is about shopping and the Pasadena Rose Parade. (Pasadena is about 30 miles NE of LAX). By the day after Christmas, all the grandstands and most of the barriers are in place. And, lots of tourists fill the shops, entertainment venues and restaurants. The last week is crazy, long days, no sleep, tedious work, cold evenings and days, tons of organic material and thousands of workers and volunteers!!!  And, everyone praying it doesn’t rain.  Planning for the next year begins on January 2nd, so no rest for the weary.

Having lived in Southern California all my life, I have had wonderful opportunities to be apart of many aspects of the parade. Three evenings a week I had the privilege of watching a float being built from frame to flowers and it was an animated float. The best part was seeing it work on television.  I’ve had the honor of being involved in the Rose Parade in other ways…

(more…)

Ready to pop your 2009 corks yet?

How about opening a bottle of champagne with a sword to see the year in with a bang:

However you choose to open your drink of choice tongight do proceed with caution and have a great time!

Do tell us what you’re up to. CHEERS!

Hello flower people from Southern California!!  I hope you are enjoying your holiday season.  I wanted to share with you one of those just in case gifts that I got to keep.  It is a “PEACE” blanket that is fairly large to wrap up in unless you are our State Governor: Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It is 50″ x 60,” so I am quite comfortable.  I love the idea of snuggling in a blanket of peace…doesn’t it make you want to take a nap?

I love what the blanket states because it has to do with personal responsibility for making peace with yourself and then with others in practical ways.  For me, the phrase, “Peace begins with me” stood out the most.  I believe that you need to have peace within which includes obtaining it by giving to others.  But, it has to start by me taking action, so “peace begins with me.” 

First, GO! Read the blanket.

So, flower people what phrase stands out for you and why?

Peace to All,  CC

American media claims the CIA has found a novel way to gain information from fickle Afghan warlords - supplying sex-enhancing drug Viagra, a US media report says.

The Washington Post said it was one of a number of enticements being used.

In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taliban movements in return for more.

“Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people,” the Post quoted one agent as saying.

“Whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra.”

‘Silver bullet’

The newspaper said the use of Viagra had to be handled sensitively as the drug was not always known about in rural areas.

It quoted one retired agent as saying: “You didn’t hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones.”

In the case of the 60-year-old warlord - the head of a clan in southern Afghanistan who had not co-operated - operatives saw he had four younger wives.

The pills were explained and offered. Four days later the agents returned.

“He came up to us beaming,” the Post quoted an agent as saying. “He said, ‘You are a great man.’

“And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area.”

The pills put chieftains “back in an authoritative position”, another official said.

The paper said the CIA had a long line of inducements for the notoriously fickle warlords, including dental work, visas, toys and medicine. It quoted one private security official as saying that simply handing over large sums of money would raise suspicions about newfound wealth.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7800549.stm

The above diagram is a very small percentage of a PDF file entitled “Xmas for Engineers,” that my husband brought home for me. I thought it was hilarious and it was written as an actual diagram proposal. I floated through his company extremely fast.

To me it shows the differences about how everyone, not just men and women, approach problems, emotions, life etc. differently. For my husband, it needs to make objective, logical sense and be detailed.

Fortunately, he also has another side that can deal with emotions and social interactions well; however, he is an introvert. As am I, which means that social contact is draining for us versus extroverts for whom social contact is energizing.

I love my husband and learning how he thinks. From there, I go to how to we approach this problem taking into account both of our problem solving styles. I don’t try to change him. I love just simply getting to know him better. I’m glad that he has a sense of humour about his own profession as do I. Oh, what I could share…

In the meantime, celebrate each other’s differences. Don’t try to change them. Appreciate that they think differently because it makes us a better person. Work with the differences instead of trying to make them think like you do.

“Okay, dear…you go ahead with the Christmas decorations. I’ve planned to go shopping for a few days is that enough time?” Sorry, if I offended any engineers!! We couldn’t live without you!!

How do you handle the differences in people’s attitudes, thinking, problem-solving, perceptions, and etc…?