Happy May 15. International Family Day. Day of Creation Unique Innovative Unit within the Society

Every new family is the new innovative unit. Keep that in mind and create it in your unique way. Get your specific family school knowledge and upgrade it to new universal highs.

Lucid dreaming

Controlling your dreams - this may come true, as scientists said they have found the way to modify sleep so that an individual has "lucid dreams," a particularly powerful form of dreaming considered by many psychologists to be an intermediate stage between two forms of consciousness. According to a study it can be done by applying mild electrical currents to the scalps.
Lucid dreaming is the process in which a sleeper recognizes they are dreaming i.e. they may even be able to control their dream's plot and manipulate their behavior.
The discovery provides insights into the mechanism of dreaming - an area that has fascinated thinkers for millennium, The Voice of America reports.
Lucid dreams lie between so-called rapid eye movement (REM) dreams - which are concerned with the immediate present and have no access to past memories or anticipated events in the future - and being awake, which brings into play abstract thought and other cognitive functions. In lucid dreaming, a state believed to be unique to humans, elements of secondary consciousness combine with REM dreams.
Researchers led by Ursula Voss at the J.W. Goethe University Frankfurt, used a technique called trans-cranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to explore the causes of lucid dreaming.
The gadget comprises two small boxes with electrodes that are placed next to the skull and send a very weak, low-frequency electrical signal across the brain.
The team recruited 15 women and 12 men aged 18 to 26, who spent up to four nights in a sleep laboratory. After the volunteers had experienced between two and three minutes of REM sleep, the scientists applied tACS for around 30 seconds. The current was below the sensory threshold, so that the subjects did not wake up. They then woke up the volunteers and asked them what they had been dreaming.
"The dream reports were similar, in that most subjects reported to 'see myself from the outside' and the dream was watched from the outside, as if it was displayed on a screen.". "Also, they often reported to know that they were dreaming."
The volunteers were tested at frequencies of two herz (Hz), six Hz, 12 Hz, 25 Hz, 60 Hz and 100 Hz. The effect... was only observed for 25 and 40 Hz, both frequencies in the lower gamma frequency band. It induced further gamma frequency activity in the frontal and temporal lobes. These types of brain waves have only been known to occur when a person is experiencing a higher level of thinking.
"I did not have much hope that this experiment would actually work," said Voss. "For us, it was surprising that you can actually force the brain to take on a new brain rhythm - that the brain really adapts and the neurons begin to fire at the new frequency with just this mild stimulation."
"This band has linked with conscious awareness, but a causal relationship had so far not been established. Now it is," she added. When the volunteers were stimulated with 25 HZ, "we had increased ratings for control of the dream plot, meaning they were able to change the action at will," Voss said. The study, reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, gave several anecdotes from the recruits about what they had dreamt. An example described in the article suggested they could choose their outfit before leaving the house. The volunteers also often reported feeling like they were watching themselves instead of being in the first person.
"I am driving in my car, for a long time," said one. "Then I arrive at this place where I haven't been before. And there are a lot of people there. I think maybe I know some of them but they are all in a bad mood, so I go to a separate room, all by myself."
The study suggests that frontotemporal tACS might help to restore dysfunctional brain networks which are fingered in schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Applied during REM sleep, it could also one day help victims of post-traumatic stress disorder to overcome recurrent nightmares by placing them in charge of the dream plot, the paper theorizes.
The tACS gadget itself is a recognized medical invention designed to be used only for research purposes.
Voss said, though, that it seemed inevitable that a similar device would one day be invented for consumers, enabling sleepers to latch onto lucid dreaming, for better or worse.
"Although this is not something I am personally interested in, I am certain that it won't take long until such devices come out. However, brain stimulation should always be carefully monitored by a physician," she cautioned.
Olga Yazhgunovich

May 9, SHOUSHI. The Victory was Set.

"Enemy" is a great source of resources, not an opponent to be destroyed. Understanding this point of view demands a reorientation.
We might advance our position by avoiding our destructive flight or fight reflex. We might reprogram our thinking to create a powerful mindset for understanding our competitive position and advancing that position. We think there are two powerful ideas: 1) strategic positions are created from a natural balance of forces and 2) we can leverage those forces to win, and win without conflict. And this can be applied to all types of competitive situations. Sometimes it is necessary to convert military language to a more universal vocabulary.
In all competition where we want to win (in terms of strategic positions) success is defined in terms of advancing positions and making those advances pay. No matter what the specific nature of a competitive challenge, our goal is to improve our position. We improve our position by making the right decisions about pursuing opportunities, minimizing our mistakes and maximizing our gains.
Good decisions are based on pattern recognition. Mostly we have only a vague idea of how conditions affect the position. But we might see common patterns in situations that allow us to know what to do.
All decisions have costs. Not all decisions produce rewards. Better to minimize our losses while maximizing our gains.
There are a number of hidden opportunities, seen or not. People struggle like us to minimize the costs of the mistakes they make. "Winning without much loosing" is not an altruistic goal but the logical necessity. People like us struggle to decrease the conflict in their lives. 

Rules leverage general areas of pattern recognition called the Nine Formulas. Nine categories of strategic skills define cycle that advances our positions: 1. understanding positions, 2. developing perspective, 3. identifying opportunities, 4. leveraging probability, 5. minimizing mistakes, 6. responding to situations, 7. creating momentum, 8. winning rewards, and 9. defending vulnerabilities. These categories flow logically from through the Progress Cycle of listen-aim-move-claim. "Understanding positions" is the primary skill. Competitive skills assessment system uses these skill numbers to break down our analysis of people's strengths and weaknesses in competitive understanding.All success systems that have ever been created are based upon one or more of these formulas.

As two parties try to damage each other, the positions of both decline.In real life, the smart one is more likely to fire rivals who work on damaging each other. Just because some games such as chess can be designed as wars of attrition doesn't mean that the lessons from such games can be applied more generally to competitive struggle in the real world.

The impulse to fight, like the impulse to run away, is instinctual and reflexive. Anger, hate, and demonizing our enemies are all strategic traps. These mindsets weaken positions rather than strengthening them.

The Nature of Enmity 

Understood correctly, the heart of any competition is always dueling philosophies. Positioning is a battle to win supporters and discourage opponents. When we demonize opponents, we are trying to tear down their position, but in doing so, we undermine our chances of success by attracting supporters who are looking for someone to hate rather than a goal to support. The character of these supporters will lead us inevitably in costly conflict. Positions built on philosophies of enmity are inherently weak. Positions built on mutual rewards are inherently strong. Groups bound together by mutual enemies are, to quote Shakespeare, "full of sound and fury signifying nothing" and have been shown throughout history to fall apart once the enemy is defeated.

We Won. The Victory was Set.

Happiest Time

Happiest time for Europeans 6.08 pm on Friday - said British scientists.
The second happiest time for an average European is Saturday morning.
British sociologists have determined the happiest time in the life of an average European. The scientists established that 6.08 pm on Friday is the happiest time, London-based newspaper Daily Telegraph reported.
The newspaper noted that the peak of joy and happy anticipation comes to a person when he or she leaves his/her workplace and thinks about the weekend. The feeling is very acute at 6.08 pm, the scientists established.
"We called such attitude 'Friday anticipation'," said researcher Julian Guy. The second happiest time for Europeans is Saturday morning.
Guy noted that the worst time for Europeans is 01.42 pm on Monday. "People don't like Mondays in general because most of work stress is concentrated in this part of the week," Guy stressed.
London, May 05.

4 Things Innovators Do

All of the really successful innovators do four things that help them discover new markets and product offerings: they keep score differently, they frame product creation as a study, they innovate on product, market, and method, and they manage athree-maxima portfolio. Some of these patterns are at the core of this investigation into Intrapreneurship, so We’ll get into a bit more detail on each of them.

Different ways of keeping score

One of the biggest challenges Intrapreneurs face is that of competing metrics. Large businesses have annual budgets, and tie compensation and bonuses to the attainment of known goals rather than to the discovery of new ones.

Companies that manage to innovate recognize that tomorrow’s businesses look bad when seen through today’s lenses. Consider Blockbuster and Netflix. Blockbuster made much of its revenue from late fees; Netflix had none, so it looked less attractive to the incumbent.

To deal with this, companies create new metrics (such as the number of assumptions confirmed or repudiated) and different time frames (such as weekly or monthly budgeting.) Data on innovation projects is reported in aggregate on an annual basis to the host company, but the individual projects are shielded from the tyranny of long budget cycles.

It’s not innovation, it’s research

To tackle the stigma of failure, some of the companies I’ve talked with treat innovation as a form 

Signal

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has come forth with an initiative to hold the next summit meeting of presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in Baku. He said this at a joint briefing after his meeting with his counterparts from Georgia and Turkey, Georgy Mergvelashvili and Abdullah Gul, in Tbilisi.
Aliyev said that the three presidents had decided to hold such summit meetings on a regular basis.

Intelligence Test

What is the answer?

We Slightly Shift of Our Target. Now on "S&P Cuts Russia's Rating "

Standard and Poor's has cut Russia's credit rating from BBB to BBB-, lowering it for the first time in five years.
The agency has kept its negative outlook on the Russian economy, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
After the step by S&P, Russia's rating is now just a step above "speculative" or "non-investment" grade.

Innovation and Surfing

How innovation is like surfing. Here is the 2014 version: 

Waves form a thousand miles out at sea.
It occurred back then that trying to harness the disruptive forces happening in the Valley from the other side of the country was a fool’s errand. Like trying to catch a wave forming miles off the coast. We had to go to where the wave was - become a member of the community, recruit a valley-based team who could bring their own networks and know-how to the table and help us sort out the most relevant trends and technologies. Now in 2014 we are confident that being here, engaged and involved is the only way to do this effectively. Getting the opportunity to see the future form and the chance to ride the wave is invaluable.
It looks easy but it’s not.
Watching surfers gracefully yet boldly ride monster waves is breathtaking. You see firsthand how seemingly at ease they are before and after the ride. Onshore there are plenty of high fives but there's also a cool nonchalance about them. It almost makes you think, “I could do that”. Until 

Successful Innovation and Creativity

Everyone loves new gadgets. Innovative products are part of our daily conversations, and the most inventive ones often become aspirational. However, many of the companies who create these innovations fail to consider the sometimes not-so-obvious reasons why their customers and audiences love them, and how to use those insights to design experiences that turn customers into communities of brand advocates.
Incredibly successful products that are redefining categories do this very well. Consider GoPro, the maker of small, wearable or mountable high-definition video cameras, which in 10 years has grown into a $2 billion business. For a consumer electronics company, their camera technology and functionality has only changed incrementally in comparison to the software, apps, and wide variety of accessories the company has developed that supports the creation of user-generated content. Content that has been viewed on GoPro’s YouTube channel over 200,000,000 times and now boasts nearly 2 million subscribers.
In contrast, some of the biggest product launch failures likely overlooked key consumer behavior insights when creating their product. Instead, they often shape new functionality that is complimentary to the core product, instead of developing functions that provide users with ways 

#ArmenianGenocide

#ArmenianGenocide it happened! For all those who are in denial...
We remember. We will never forget!

The Nuclear Reaction - Investing in the Future of #Thorium

The dangers of #nuclearenergy have been on the minds of top officials the world over since the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011.
Few will soon forget that meltdown – or the ongoing issues it is causing, as contaminated water piles up in storage tanks.
It's happened before, and it could happen again...
What if another Superstorm Sandy arrives, this time headed for a nuclear site?
That's what makes thorium more attractive now than ever.
The element that takes its name from the god of thunder is #powerful.
Its melting point is so high, in fact, that it could be virtually meltdown-proof.
Imagine a world in which we can produce clean #nuclearenergy without the fear of a nuclear disaster.
Thorium offers that future.
But the element still isn't in widespread use. Only a limited range of reactors can handle #thoriumreactions, and research is still being conducted to maximize the potential of these reactors.
That's why, once these reactors reach their full potential, the few companies involved in thorium exploration will come out on top.
A new report from Energy and Capital explains this in detail, including why thorium will become more important to the nuclear sector, who is involved in the research, and how you can begin to add thorium to your portfolio.

Thorium

Thorium (chemical symbol Th) is a naturally-occurring radioactive metal found at very low levels in soil, rocks, and water. It has several different isotopes, both natural and man-made, all of which are radioactive. The most common form of thorium is thorium-232, found naturally.

#Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius. After determining that it was a new element, Berzelius named his discovery after the Norse god of thunder and weather, Thor. Thorium was discovered to be radioactive independently in 1898 by Gerhard Carl Schmidt and by Marie Curie.

Almost all thorium is natural, but, thorium isotopes can be artificially produced. Thorium occurs at very low levels in virtually all rock, soil, and water, and therefore is found in plants and animals as well. Minerals such as #monazite, #thorite and #thorianite are rich in thorium and may be mined for the #metal. Generally, artificial isotopes come from decay of other man-made radionuclides, or absorption in #nuclearreactions.

Thorium is a soft, silvery white metal. Pure thorium will remain shiny for months in air, but if it contains impurities it tarnishes to black when exposed to air. When heated, thorium oxide glows bright white, a property that makes it useful in lantern mantles. It dissolves slowly in water. Thorium-232 has a half-life of 14 billion (14x109) years, and decays by alpha emission, with accompanying gamma radiation. Thorium-232 is the top of a long decay series that contains key radionuclides such as radium-228, its direct decay product, and radon-220. Two other isotopes of thorium, which can be significant in the environment, are thorium-230 and thorium-228. Both belong to other decay series. They also decay by alpha emission, with accompanying gamma radiation, and have half-lives of 75,400 years and 1.9 years, respectively.

Thorium has coloring properties that has made it useful in ceramic glazes. But, it has been most widely used in lantern mantles for the brightness it imparts (though alternatives are replacing it), and in welding rods, which burn better with small amounts of added thorium. Thorium improves the properties of ophthalmic lenses, and is an alloying agent in certain metals used in the aerospace industry. More than 30 years ago, thorium oxides were used in hospitals to make certain kinds of diagnostic X-ray photographs. But, this practice has been discontinued.

Natural thorium is present in very small quantities in virtually all rock, soil, water, plants and animals. Where high concentrations occur in rock, thorium may be mined and refined, producing waste products such as mill tailings. If not properly controlled, wind and water can introduce the tailings into the wider environment. Commercial and federal facilities that have processed thorium may also have released thorium to the air, water, or soil. Man-made thorium isotopes are rare, and almost never enter the #environment.

As thorium-232 undergoes radioactive decay, it emits an alpha particle, with accompanying gamma radiation, and forms radium-228. This process of releasing radiation and forming a new radionuclide continues until stable lead-208 is formed. The half-life of thorium-232 is about 14 billion years. Two other isotopes of thorium, which can be significant in the environment, are thorium-230 and thorium-228. Both decay by alpha emission, with accompanying gamma radiation, in 75,400 years and 1.9 years, respectively.

Since thorium is naturally present in the environment, people are exposed to tiny amounts in air, food and water. The amounts are usually very small and pose little health hazard. Thorium is also present in many consumer products such as ceramic glazes, lantern mantles, and welding rods.

People who live near a facility that mines or mills thorium, or manufactures products with thorium, may receive higher exposures. Also, people who work with thorium in various industries may receive higher exposures.

People may inhale contaminated dust, or swallow thorium with food or water. Living near a thorium contaminated site, or working in an industry where thorium is used, increases your chance of exposure to thorium.

If inhaled as dust, some thorium may remain in the lungs for long periods of time, depending on the chemical form. If ingested, thorium typically leaves the body through feces and urine within several days. The small amount of thorium left in the body will enter the bloodstream and be deposited in the bones where it may remain for many years. There is some evidence that the body may absorb thorium through the skin, but that would not likely be the primary means of entry.

#HealthEffectsofThorium

The principal concern from low to moderate level exposure to ionizing radiation is increased risk of cancer. Studies have shown that inhaling thorium dust causes an increased risk of developing lung cancer, and cancer of the pancreas. Bone cancer risk is also increased because thorium may be stored in bone.

There are special tests that measure the level of thorium in the urine, feces, and also via exhaled air that can determine if a person has been exposed to thorium. These tests are useful only if taken within a week after exposure. You need special equipment to detect thorium not available in doctors offices or most hospitals. Some federal facilities and specialized laboratories have this capability.

Most people are not exposed to dangerous levels of thorium. However, people who live near thorium mining areas, or near certain government or industrial facilities may have increased exposure to thorium, especially if their water is from a private well. Analytical laboratories can test water for thorium content. Occasionally, household items may be found with thorium in them, such as some older ceramic wares in which uranium was used in the glaze, or gas lantern mantles. These generally do not pose serious #healthrisks, but may nevertheless be retired from use as a prudent avoidance measure. A radiation counter is required to confirm if ceramics contain thorium.

EPA protects people and the #environmentfromthorium by establishing standards for the clean-up of contaminated sites, and by setting limits on the amount of thorium (and other radionuclides) that may be released to the air from specific sources, or found in public drinking water.

The standards for the clean-up of existing contaminated sites generally fall under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly called Superfund. Clean ups must meet all requirements that are relevant or applicable, such as state regulations and regulations issued in connection with other environmental laws. When these types of regulations are not applicable, or not protective enough, EPA sets site-specific cleanup levels that limit the chance of developing cancer due to exposure to a site-related carcinogen (such as thorium) to between one in 10,000 and one in 1,000,000.

EPA issued special regulations for cleaning up uranium and thorium mill tailing sites under the "Uranium Mill #Tailings Radiation Control Act" (federal regulations are found in 40CFR192, "Health and Environmental Protection Standards for Uranium and Thorium Mill Tailings"). These mills are found mostly in the western states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

Conscious Evolution and Design Thinking

Systems thinking is a holistic form of understanding, analysis, and problem solving. It's also a way to bring balanced, more impactful solutions to our businesses and social challenges. But what about design thinking?

Design thinking involves using design methodologies to address all of our important inquiries. There is an emerging notion of human-centered design brought into our consciouness by IDEO, the design firm in Palo Alto, California. In this form of design, we involve the recepients in the design process focused primarily on their needs. It sounds simple but most conventional design methodologies consider the needs of humans as an input, but not as the purpose of the design and much less involve them in the process.

Can we use design thinking to guide our evolution? Can design thinking help us build our global and sustainable future as a species. Is this type of thinking broad and deep enough that can tackle the biggest challenges that we have as civilization?

Bela Banathy and other systems scientists consider design to be the process by which one can consciously create a new state of a system. Systems can evolve by themselves, but the direction they take may be unwanted. For instance, we can let traffic manage itself or we can install coordinated traffic lights to manage it. The ideal is always to design the system to handle as many of the conditions and problems as they are understood at the time.

Design thinking is not a new concept, although reading current literature one would think that Tim Brown from IDEO created it. Brown and IDEO have done a great service to humanity by popularizing design thinking and making their human-centered design methodology available to all, including versions targeted to education and other fields. The human-centered design methodology from IDEO is comprised of three main phases: inspiration, ideation and implementation. Each phase is recursive onto itself and feeds the next, or feedforward.Feedback is provided to the previous phase which could remain active refining its outputs.

At the heart of the design thinking methodology from IDEO is thinking systematically and leveraging all stakeholders in the design. In his book Design Thinking, Brown wrote that the stakeholders know what they need and should be included in the design process. He shared the story of Edison working on the light bulb and an electrical system along a team of scientists, business people, and manufacturers. Kaiser Permanente made a number of nurse-centric improvements to make patient care more efficient, effective, and rewarding. These improvements at Kaiser were made in collaboration between nurses, doctors, technicians and hospital administrators. Shimano, the manufacturer of high-end bicycle components, worked with retailers, bicycle manufacturers, and their own engineers to design a new type of bicycle, the “coaster,” which was conceived to bring fun back into bicycling for 90 percent of the population that does not actively bicycle but did so as children.

The idea of leveraging stakeholders in the design process is not new. In 1992, Marvin Weisbord presented the idea that the world is moving from experts designing our systems to regular people performing this activity. He identified seven assumptions for the process of designing together:

1. The world is knowable to ordinary people;
2. People can create their own future;
3. People want the opportunity to engage;
4. The nature of the participants is egalitarian (all are equal);
5. Given a change, people are more willing to cooperate than fight;
6. The engagement process empowers people; and
7. Diversity in opinions is appreciated and valued.

He also defined a minimum specification on what it takes to design together. This specification includes:

1. Getting the whole system in the room,
2. Have this community look at the global context, and
3. Have people “self-manage” their work.

The first two specifications from Weisbord are embedded in the IDEO human-center design methodology.

John Warfield, a systems scientist, laid out a set of principles for design thinking. These include:

1. Variety—identify the variety and diversity in the design context.
2. Alternatives—consider a large number of alternatives.
3. Interdependence and integration—how the design works in the system.
4. Iteration—the design should be iterative in producing solutions from the alternatives.
5. Ordering choices—sequence in which design choices should be made.
6. Display findings—state of the design should be made visible to all.
7. Design environment—should support the design inquiry process.
8. Processes and roles—defined roles associated with the content, context and process.
9. Criteria—self-reflective, self-assessing, and self-governing criteria to guide participation.

In 1981, Russell Ackoff stated that design is “the creation of a desirable future and the invention of ways to bring it about.” According to Bela Banathy, Ackoff’s design thinking is predicated on three interconnected principles. The first is the participative principle and it involves learning from the experience that Ackoff thought was the most important. This principle let him to conclude that design should be done by the owners of the system and no one else.

The principle of continuity is the second one. This principle addresses the need for continuous design validation and adjustment as the environment conditions change.

The third principle is the holistic principle. It states that no part of the system can be designed in isolation from the ones operating at the same level and that all parts should be designed in an integrated manner.

Based on the definitions and principles presented here by the design-thinking luminaries, we can conclude that design thinking is a fundamental component of conscious evolution. Design thinking provides guidance on the design space, who should be involved in the design and how to go about it. The IDEO method is adaptable to any environment. It has been used in the design of products and services but it also has been used to improve life conditions in education, industry, healthcare, and in designing communities. This method is founded on the principles and concepts that our social and systems scientists have theorized and practiced for the last three decades.

5 Not So Obvious Things to Help You Reach Your Potential

Reach your highest potential! Your altitude is the highest potential that you want to reach although is easier said than done it can be done. It can be a daunting task and these tips will help you.

It is assumed (with caution) that you know some of the basics for reaching your altitude and being successful – proper nutrition, have breakfast, get a good night’s sleep, remove distractions, have a plan and exercise regularly. These are all important but it takes more than these common tips to truly reach your potential.

1. Envision Your Future Self

Picturing yourself in the future can be challenging – look in the mirror and really ask yourself what is my altitude, what is my highest potential and do I want to achieve that? Some people are able to do this quite comfortably and others find asking trusted friend or engaging a coach to be helpful.

If your altitude or highest potential relates to your career and it is to become a Vice President – envision yourself in this position. What will your office look like, how will you treat your team and peers, what will you wear to work, what will create a great day, what will create a bad day? Really spend some time envisioning yourself in your new role.

2. Become Comfortable with Failure

This is a tough one. The concept of failing is hard to accept and even harder to become comfortable with. Many people are raised to succeed, to ‘win’ and be competitive. There are high expectations to meet, failing is often not an option. One of my best lessons learned in recent years is that one cannot truly succeed and enjoy success until you have taken a risk, tried and failed.

The feeling of defeat can be overwhelming and filled with regret – we tend to ask ourselves “why did I do that, why did I say that, I should have done, I wish I did…, etc.” It is these questions that encourage us to reflect on our decision making process and to learn.

Failure is a very powerful change agent – failing allows us to move forward and improve. We do not want to fail because we do not want to disappoint our colleagues or loved ones and we do not want be vulnerable.

J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) presents the benefits of failure during her 2008 TED talk on "The Fringe Benefits of Failure". There are many benefits of failure and sharing these and the relevant learning is important for success.

The amazing thing is that when you fail and you are comfortable with it, others are rarely disappointed – they admire your vulnerability, how well you bounced back and how resilient you are. Not only will you appear stronger, you will be stronger. Being vulnerable is a great strength that will make you stronger and push you closer to your altitude.

3. Have Self-Awareness

To reach your altitude you need to have a great sense of self-awareness – ask yourself these questions (and answer them)

• What impact do I have on others?
• How do others perceive me? Is this the same as I perceive myself?
• What are my strengths? What would others say my strengths are?
• What are my weaknesses? What would others say my weaknesses are?

There is often a disconnect between how we see ourselves and how others see us – these are often called blind spots.

Speak with a friend or engage a coach to work with you to improve your self-awareness and work to work on your blind spots. Once you have a great sense of self-awareness including your strengths and weaknesses you will be well on your way to reaching your altitude.

4. Ask for Help

Once you answer the questions about self-awareness it is time to ask for help. Being comfortable with asking for help is another strength – it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It is a sign of being smart, being able to understand yourself and knowing who you have in your network who may be able to help you.

No one has ever reached their true potential and become successful all on their own, with no help.

Most people have a wide network of contacts – some you know well and others not so well (think about your LinkedIn network!). Become comfortable asking for help from others, take a chance and call them or e-mail them. Most people are willing to help and if they are not that is OK, thank them and move on.

Reach out and ask for support or advice if you need help going around, over or through any challenges – having support to improve is a critical to reaching your altitude.

5. Be Humble and Show Gratitude

Humility and showing gratitude are two of the most important character traits that are an absolute must for reaching your potential. Very few great leaders or successful people have reached their potential without being humble or thanking people along the way.

One can be confident and humble. Finding the right balance of these is challenging but important – it can be part of self-awareness building.

Humility shows through as one becomes more comfortable with failure, being vulnerable and asking for help. And of course when one asks for help or anyone provides support directly or indirectly this is a great opportunity to say Thank You! Be gracious and let them know their support is appreciated and how the help has contributed to you reaching your potential!

Upcoming Events In Europe - April 17 Negotiations

The upcoming events in Europe directly concern present a particular interest for Armenia. Special attention is paid to international organizations and the scheduled meetings and events in the framework of their activities.
On 14 April session of the EU Foreign Affairs Council takes place in Luxembourg chaired by High Representative Catherine Ashton. Latest developments in Ukraine are in the agenda. The Council will take stock of the situation in Syria and its regional context, as well as the humanitarian aspects of the crisis and progress on the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.
The question of Ukraine will also be discussed in the session of EU Defence Council on April 15 in Luxembourg. During lunch, ministers will discuss the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on the common security and defense policy, in the presence of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
On April 16 the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan FÜLE will meet Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
On April 17 quadrilateral negotiations between the EU, US, Russia and Ukraine are expected to held in Geneva directed to the overcoming of Ukrainian crisis. 

Beginning - Progress -Success

Harold S. Geneen - Success

Forming a New Habit

Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon in the 1950s when he began noticing a strange pattern among his patients.
When Dr. Maltz would perform an operation - like a nose job, for example - he found that it would take the patient about 21 days to get used to seeing their new face. Similarly, when a patient had an arm or a leg amputated, Maltz noticed that the patient would sense a phantom limb for about 21 days before adjusting to the new situation.
These experiences prompted Maltz to think about his own adjustment period to changes and new behaviors, and he noticed that it also took himself about 21 days to form a new habit. Maltz wrote about these experiences and said, "These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell."
In 1960, Maltz published that quote and his other thoughts on behavior change in a book called Psycho-Cybernetics. The book went on to become an blockbuster hit, selling more than 30 million copies.
And that's when the problem started.
You see, in the decades that followed, Maltz's work influenced nearly every major "self-help" professional from Zig Ziglar to Brian Tracy to Tony Robbins. And as more people recited Maltz's story - like a very long game of "Telephone" - people began to forget that he said "a minimum of about 21 days" and shortened it to: "It takes 21 days to form a new habit."
And that's how society started spreading the common myth that it takes 21 days to form a new habit (or 30 days or some other magic number). It's remarkable how often these timelines are quoted as statistical facts. Dangerous lesson: If enough people say something enough times, then everyone else starts to believe it.
It makes sense why the "21 Days" myth would spread. It's easy to understand. The time frame is short enough to be inspiring, but long enough to be believable. And who wouldn't like the idea of changing your life in just three weeks?
But the problem is that Maltz was simply observing what was going on around him and wasn't making a statement of fact. Furthermore, he made sure to say that this was the minimum amount of time needed to adapt to a new change.
So what's the real answer? How long does it actually take to form a new habit? Is there any science to back this up? And what does all of this mean for you and me?

How Long it Really Takes to Build a New Habit
Phillippa Lally is a health psychology researcher at University College London. In a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Lally and her research team decided to figure out just how long it actually takes to form a habit.
The study examined the habits of 96 people over a 12-week period. Each person chose one new habit for the 12 weeks and reported each day on whether or not they did the behavior and how automatic the behavior felt.
Some people chose simple habits like "drinking a bottle of water with lunch." Others chose more difficult tasks like "running for 15 minutes before dinner." At the end of the 12 weeks, the researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it.

On average, it takes more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic - 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally's study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.
In other words, if you want to set your expectations appropriately, the truth is that it will probably take you anywhere from two months to eight months to build a new behavior into your life - not 21 days.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that "missing one opportunity to perform the behavior did not materially affect the habit formation process." In other words, it doesn't matter if you mess up every now and then. Building better habits is not an all-or-nothing process.

Why is this research actually inspiring?
First, there is no reason to get down on yourself if you try something for a few weeks and it doesn't become a habit. It's supposed to take longer than that! There is no need to judge yourself if you can't master a behavior in 21 short days. Learn to love your "10 Years of Silence." Embrace the long, slow walk to greatness and focus on putting in your reps.
Second, you don't have to be perfect. Making a mistake once or twice has no measurable impact on your long-term habits. This is why you should treat failure like a scientist, give yourself permission to make mistakes, and develop strategies for getting back on track quickly.
And third, embracing longer timelines can help us realize that habits are a process and not an event. All of the "21 Days" hype can make it really easy to think, "Oh, I'll just do this and it'll be done." But habits never work that way. You have to embrace the process. You have to commit to the system.
Understanding this from the beginning makes it easier to manage your expectations and commit to making small, incremental improvements - rather than pressuring yourself into thinking that you have to do it all at once.

At the end of the day, how long it takes to form a particular habit doesn't really matter that much. Whether it takes 50 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way.
The only way to get to Day 500 is to start with Day 1. So forget about the number and focus on doing the work.
The researchers were able to use the data to estimate the longer timelines (like 254 days) to form habits. Again, the exact time depends on a variety of factors and isn't nearly as important as the overall message: Habits can take a long time to form.

Politicians are Recruiting Friends on Facebook and Twitter: It’s complicated

Every political campaign these days needs a full-blown strategy on how to reach voters through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets.
It’s no accident, for instance, that President Obama has more than 39 million likes on Facebook, and this helped him deliver messages and raise money during the campaign against Mitt Romney. Or that political operatives start Twitter fights and hope their hashtags will go viral.
Journalists have also become heavily reliant on social sharing to promote their work and become part of a vibrant conversation.
But new studies demonstrate the limitations of these powerhouse sites.
Mark Zuckerberg’s creation has the broadest reach, with 64 percent of American adults saying they use Facebook, and nearly half of them — 30 percent — saying they get news from the site.
YouTube reaches 51 percent of adults, but only 10 percent say it’s a source of news.
Twitter is used by 16 percent of adults, and 8 percent say they get news from the tweets.
Much further down are Google Plus (4 percent get news there), LinkedIn (3 percent), Reddit (2 percent), Instagram, MySpace and Tumblr (1 percent).
But even on Facebook, most folks aren’t looking there for news. In fact, 78 percent of those who find news on the site say they just bump into it while on Facebook for other reasons. They could be posting baby pictures or checking on an ex-girlfriend.
When they do get news, 73 percent are finding stories or links about entertainment, 65 percent about their community, 57 percent about sports, and 55 percent about national government and politics.
But sharing is key to spreading the word. Half say they have reposted news, pictures or video, while 14 percent are doing the citizen journalism thing by putting up pictures they took of a news event (and 12 percent posting original video).
This is revealing, because the media sometimes create the sense that everyone on Facebook is avidly consuming and commenting on the news, while many are simply showing up in the same neighborhood and being accidentally exposed.
Twitter is a place where opinions evolve. Last spring, says Pew, support for same-sex marriage rose from 32 to 43 percent on Twitter in the conversations following Supreme Court hearings on the issue.
In January, when Chris Christie held his marathon news conference to deny involvement in Bridgegate, criticism of the New Jersey governor jumped from 36 to 45 percent in the next few hours. Support for Christie — and attacks on his opponents — also rose, from 11 to 17 percent.
So who are these people? Pew says 58 percent of Facebook users are women, while Twitter is split 50-50.
Some 34 percent of Facebook users are 18 to 29, but that rises to 45 percent on Twitter.
By the way, online video is growing in importance — and is a potential rival to television networks (or another outlet for their content). Sixty-three percent of adults say they watch online video, according to Pew, and about half — or 36 percent — say that includes news videos.
This is a crucial market for politicos and media people alike. Many people trust content created or shared by their friends and followers more than officeholders or journalists. But engaging them is harder than it looks.
Here’s another problem, according to the Wall Street Journal: Online traffic is filled with fakery:
“Billions of dollars are flowing into online advertising. But marketers also are confronting an uncomfortable reality: rampant fraud.
“About 36% of all Web traffic is considered fake, the product of computers hijacked by viruses and programmed to visit sites, according to estimates cited recently by the Interactive Advertising Bureau trade group.”
Power of the Post
Newspaper editorial pages don’t have the clout they once did — except in local elections.
The Washington Post has a history of boosting those it endorses into the mayor’s office, from Marion Barry (before his crack-smoking bust) to Sharon Pratt Kelly (who was widely viewed as a disaster).
On March 16, they endorsed low-profile Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, who had drawn little coverage, in a crowded mayoral field for mayor. The scandal-scarred incumbent, Vincent Gray, was recently accused by federal prosecutors of knowing about a secret fundraising scheme to elect him four years ago.
On Sunday, the news pages suddenly portrayed Bowser as a threat to win, based on a local poll: “A week out, all eyes are on D.C. mayoral candidate Muriel Bowser.”
Tuesday, with the Democratic primary approaching, it was “Muriel Bowser surges against wounded incumbent Vincent Gray”:
"A once-fractious primary battle for the district mayoralty has narrowed into a two-person race between incumbent Vincent C. Gray and D.C. council member Murial Bowser, who are in a dead heat for the Democratic nomination, according to a new Washington Post poll.
“Bowser (Ward 4) has surged to gain the support of 30 percent of likely voters, more than doubling her support since the last Post survey in early January. Gray’s support is unchanged at 27 percent.”
That is the influence of a newspaper endorsement, even if it took the news pages awhile to catch up.

Disadvantages of Face to Face Communication

Unsuitable for large audiences

Unsuitable for large organizations

Not accountable

Low legal and reference value

Poor retention by listener