| MY WIFE THINKS I'M CRAZY BUT IT WORKS
Did you know that during the Middle Ages, it was believed that all illnesses, from plague and smallpox to epilepsy and gout, stemmed from an overabundance of blood? The typical treatment was bloodletting, or the nicking of veins or arteries to cause blood flow.
Strangely, we still practice something similar to bloodletting today – blood donations.
“Lettuce Turnip the Beet®” – Elektra
We all want our kids to eat more vegetables, but most kids consume far less than they should. It can be a constant struggle – “Finish your veggies then you can have dessert.” Ever say this? Bad idea. Research shows that children learn to prefer the reward food over the “have to eat” food. This is why it’s so important to offer tasty vegetables often and model healthy eating.
There are ways to get your kids to eat their greens…and enjoy them. Our kids will down a salad before you have a chance to put dressing on it (homemade dressing, of course). In fact, check out this video of Brixton eating some collard greens fresh from the garden.
“Knowing is not enough, we must APPLY. Willing is not enough, we must DO.” – Bruce Lee
My cousin, Josh Kaufman appeared on The Voice last week. If The Voice is foreign to you, it’s a reality show on NBC where contestants sing to four judges who have their chairs turned away so they can’t actually see who is singing. If they like what they hear, they turn their chair around.
All four judges turned around for Josh, the only four-chair turn of the night. One of the judges, Adam Levine from Maroon 5, turned his chair around in less than 5 seconds after hearing Josh sing. He stood up and started pumping his fist in excitement and said “That was goose bumps man…that was unbelievable!”
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
I’ve always been fascinated with Thomas Edison. When I was a kid, my family and I would visit the Edison & Ford Winter Estates, where we would explore all his inventions, a huge 13 acre garden and my favorite part, his lab. An interesting story that I recall from one of the visits is that Edison’s lab had burnt down in 1914, destroying years’ worth of his work. Most people could have easily described this as the worst thing to happen to Edison, but he chose to see it as an energizing opportunity that forced him to re-examine much of his work. Edison reportedly said at the time “Thank goodness all our mistakes were burnt up. Now we can start again fresh.”
“Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time.” – John Wooden
I’ve talked about Kaizen in a previous post, but I thought it would be beneficial to you if I explain how it can be used to continuously improve your life.
Kaizen [改善] is Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the best”. It’s about making small, incremental changes over a period of time. When these small changes are compounded, the results can lead to a more efficient, healthier lifestyle. .
Small efforts go a long way when practiced regularly. Incorporating these ideas into a sustainable lifestyle will make it easy over time because you won’t be overwhelmed about making drastic changes immediately.