Veronica Bettencourt

Archive for August, 2009

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change.

Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income. Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.

With the countless negativities the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? How do you keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z…and feel free to post a comment of your own tips at the end of this post.

Here it goes…
A – Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

B – Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.

D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.

E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.

F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

G – Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.

H – Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.

I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.

J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

K – keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.
L – Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?

M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.

N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

O – Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.

P – Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.

Q – Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.

S – Stop procrastinating.

T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement.

U – Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.

V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.

W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.

X – X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.

Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.

Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!

There are several reasons why people might fall in love with their furniture and one of them might be because of the way it looks.  But, with something like furniture, knowing how to clean upholstery and giving it the proper care in order to keep it looking as good as it did when you bought it does not require much but is often forgotten.

Caring for your upholstery should be included in your regular household cleaning routine.  When you are vacuuming the floors, take the time to vacuum the upholstery as well.  This can be done on a weekly basis.  Vacuuming the furniture removes surface soil preventing the dirt from becoming embedded in the fibers.  You can also use a soft brush to whisk dirt away instead.  Plus, periodically turning over the loose cushions can extend your furniture’s life.  It allows an even distribution of wear and tear plus your cushions won’t develop indentations right away.  Also, fluffing the cushions helps to keep them in shape.  You can also change the cushions around from one part to the other.  Some seats get used more then other ones so, changing the cushions distribute an even amount of use.

Try to keep your furniture out of direct sunlight.  Too much sunlight can cause your furniture to fade or fry.  Silks are even more delicate.  Plus, airborne pollutants such as smoke or fumes from cooking can harm your fabric.  It’s not always easy to avoid fumes from cooking but, proper ventilation can help.

Sometimes prevention is the best way to keep something clean.  If you want to avoid stains and dirt on your furniture, set up rules to avoid this from happening.  Do not allow anyone to eat on the couch, loveseats or chairs.  Choose dining room chairs that come with a removable and machine washable covers for chairs with a fabric seat cushion.  Do not allow shoes on the couch.  To make sure that no one forgets this rule, make sure couch dwellers take their shoes off before they even sit on it.  Also, do not allow dogs on the furniture or even in the same room as the upholstery you are trying to protect.

Do not underestimate the power of a fabric protector.  Sometimes removing a stain is easy as blotting it up when your furniture is already protected.  But, if you do not have a fabric protector on your furniture, act quickly when it comes to stains.  Blot up as much of the liquid as you can with a clean towel.  Never rub the fabric because this can cause more damage.  Use a spot cleaner specifically meant for upholstery.  Make sure that you read all of the manufactures instructions first and test the product in an inconspicuous area first to make sure that it does not damage your fabric.  Use a soft brush to gently work the cleaner into the fibers in a circular motion.  Then, vacuum when it’s dry.

Every couple of years or so, you may want to have a professional come into your home to clean your upholstery.  Once a piece of furniture has become overwhelmed with dirt, it is harder to restore it to look as good as it did when you first bought it.

The other day I was cleaning out some of my drawers in my bedroom, getting rid of some items and rearranged some of the furniture in my living room. I was tired of the same look and was feeling a little claustrophobic and needed a sense of feeling just a little bit lighter.
As I was doing what I was doing, a friend of mine called and I told her what I was doing. Well, turns out she was so proud of me and went on with her ‘Feng Shui’ rant. In fact, any time I tell her I’m decluttering, she goes on with her Feng Shui rant and how much happier she feels when she does her monthly feng shui routine.
So, I thought I’d share a little bit on the topic since some of you may not know what it is really all about, or maybe you just don’t why it’s important.
So first, what is it?
Alright this one isn’t any easy one to answer. Feng Shui is an ancient art and science that was developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that focuses on how you can balance the energies of any space to ensure the health and good fortune for the people that inhabit that space. Feng Shui is about creating sheng Ch’i (positive energies) to balance man and nature and to eliminate shar Ch’i (negative energies). In exact terms, “Feng” means “wind” and “shui” means “water” (pronounced fung-shway).
One of the reasons why Feng Shui is so popular is because once you know how to implement feng shui in your home and life, it is easy to do because in 95 percent of the cases, there is no need to do a reconstruction of space or demolition of any kind. The principles of Feng Shui can be learned and beautifully incorporated with small changes that can have major changing effects.
Feng Shui offers a variety of feng shui ideas to improve your life. From the feng shui use of aquariums to attract prosperity or the use of crystals and fountains, the right use of colors, the feng shui use of clocks, and many other ways you can improve the energy in your home by applying feng shui.
Many believe that Feng Shui, as a science can affect the physical, mental, emotional and the spiritual levels of an individual. If at the physical level, it relates to the changing in the placement of objects, it can help you achieve mental stability and progress emotionally. And once the emotional balance is created, one can evolve spiritually to a higher self. Experts highlighting the importance of Feng Shui also state that –Feng Shui as an art can help you progress, but it can’t change your destiny, unless you work hard to achieve it. Feng Shui is not just about rearranging articles in the house- it is also connected to your well-being as a whole.
You don’t have to be a firm believer in all the principles of Feng Shui. If you just make a few changes in the areas you chose, it can be very rewarding. I never was a big feng shui advocate, however after making some changes at home, and hearing the constant feng shui rant, I can see how even small changes can equal big transformations and allow you to feel renewed and energized. I’m living proof

For more info on Feng Shui go to http://veronicabettencourt.com/fengshui where you can get a Free Feng Shui Report.