Practical tips to cope with year end stress

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Research has shown that the most successful individuals ? the Type A personalities and perfectionists amongst us ? will be more susceptible to stress than others, which probably comes as no surprise. Brian Anderson, managing director of Dale Carnegie Training South Africa, says: ?It is next to impossible to avoid stress entirely. We can eat the right foods; we can get our eight hours sleep a night; we can take our yoga classes, but when stressful situations rear their ugly heads, even the most well-rested, green juice-guzzling, gym bag-toting individual may be at a loss as to how to cope with the problem.?

We all know the harmful toll that stress can take on our health, but in today?s fast-paced world of meetings, deadlines and around-the-clock pressure, how do we effectively manage this stress?

Dale Carnegie, an American writer and lecturer on topics such as self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training and public speaking, swore by a set of stress-management principles in his famous book, ?How to Stop Worrying and Start Living?. These principles assist in the management of stress and are still relevant today; 100 years after Carnegie first began teaching in 1912.

1. Live in day-tight compartments

You have had a terrible day. A critical deal has fallen through. Your internet won?t work. In short, good old Murphy dropped by and everything that can go wrong has. Now go home, and forget about it entirely. Easier said than done? ?Living in day-tight compartments is challenging but it is a habit we can cultivate. If we take life one day at a time and not worry about the next day, week or month?s commitments and concerns, we are a small step away from leading a better life. Worrying never improved any situation,? says Anderson.

2. Decide just how much anxiety a thing is worth and then refuse to give it more

You have just completed putting together your pitch in preparation for a meeting that you have with a potential new client the next day. It was a challenging brief but you put in the hours and you are proud of the finished product. You go to bed, intending to get a good night?s rest so you can be on peak form for your big pitch the following day, and then the inner dialogue starts: What have you forgotten? Should you have included that? Will it be good enough? ?It is normal that you will be worried, but decide on a ?healthy? level of anxiety and an applicable ?stress period?, and then refuse to give it any more thought. Allow yourself 15 minutes to go over everything in your head, and then turn off that mental laptop and go to sleep knowing you have given it your all,? explains Anderson.

3. Coping with a difficult situation

• Ask yourself: What is the worst that can possibly happen?
• Prepare to accept the worst
• Try to improve on the worst

Client X is unhappy with the new software you have installed for him. After throwing around expletives that would make Eminem blush and threatening to fire your company, he slams down the phone. Ask yourself, what is the worst that can happen? Answer: He could fire us. Then accept that as a reality. Lastly, try to improve on the worst: pick up the phone tomorrow when he has cooled down, explain your perspective and offer an alternative. If nothing else, he will appreciate your effort.

4. Cultivate a mental attitude that will bring you peace and happiness

Optimistic, positive people are far better equipped to deal with stress, and the reason for this is that they are more inclined to see opportunity in their losses. So Client X has told you he no longer requires your services? Fine, that gives you capacity to find new business with a client who appreciates the work you do? and who is less inclined towards profanity. Positive people are not luckier than the rest of us, they just understand that they can?t control what life throws at them, but they can control how they react to it.

?These simple tools can be applied to every situation and will enable us to manage stress effectively,? concludes Anderson.

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Source: http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/practical-tips-to-cope-with-year-end-stress/22443/

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Ruling: Homeowners improperly denied insurance discounts ...

TALLAHASSEE -- The forms used by property insurers across the state to calculate insurance discounts for homeowners are seriously flawed and must be completely thrown out, an administrative judge has found in a potentially groundbreaking ruling.

The decision could have far-reaching implications for homeowners who receive wind-mitigation discounts for hurricane-proofing their homes ? and specifically for those who lost discounts during a mass home re-inspection program by Citizens Property Insurance Corp.Because of a flawed study commissioned 10 years ago by the Office of Insurance Regulation, Florida homeowners may have been denied several million dollars in discounts for their garage doors.

?There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who are impacted by this,? said Jack Stumpff, a Plantation small business owner who successfully took on OIR in court and got the mitigation forms thrown out.

While the impact of the ruling could be widespread, no homeowner will see any changes any time soon because the legal battle is still playing out in court. OIR recently appealed the Oct. 19th ruling in circuit court, and is downplaying its potential impact.

?I don?t think that people need to be concerned that they have lost a substantial amount of discounts for this,? said Belinda Miller, the agency?s general counsel.

A spokesperson for Citizens said the insurer of 1.5 million would await the results of OIR?s appeal.

For the past several years, Florida homeowners have received billions of dollars in discounts on their property insurance bills for strengthening their homes against hurricanes.

Window shutters, hurricane-resistant roofs and impact-resistant glass doors are some of the improvements that have helped homeowners save hundreds ? or thousands ? of dollars on their insurance premiums. Insurance companies also benefit because homes with stronger features hold up better during hurricanes, leading to fewer claims.

Property insurers across the state use the same forms to help calculate the proper discounts for homeowners. Last month?s ruling by Administrative Law Judge Robert Meale found that the forms ? written by OIR ? are invalid because they failed to provide separate discounts for homes with wind-resistant garage doors. Those discounts are required by law.

Because discounts are dependent on each other, one flaw in the form can impact the size of every other discount. As a result, the judge nullified the entire mitigation form for all homes built before 2001, when the more comprehensive Florida Building Code was enacted.

?Due to the interdependency of loss relativities and discounts, these omissions and understatement also raise the real possibility of distortion among the other loss relativities and discounts,? wrote Meale, hinting that homeowners across the state may have received incomplete discounts in recent years.

Stumpff, who sells a garage-door strengthening product called ?Secure Door,? said the lack of discounts for retrofitted garage doors has hurt his business. He filed a suit to get the discount forms changed.

?We did what we thought we had to do for our business and for all the homeowners out there who are not getting their discounts,? said Stumpff, whose product is sold at Lowe?s hardware stores for about $150. Installing the Secure Door product on an older garage door offers many of the same benefits as buying a new garage door, which can cost more than $1,000.

Wind mitigation discounts have been in the headlines this year as Citizens has embarked on a controversial campaign of reinspecting more than 250,000 homes across the state. Three out of four homeowners inspected by Citizens have lost discounts that they had previously been receiving, leading to an average premium hike of $800.

Citizens and other insurers recently began reinspecting homes under the premise that homeowners were receiving discounts they didn?t deserve. Meale?s ruling indicates that the reverse may be true.

The inspectors that fanned across the state this year to scrutinize homes were using deficient forms that omitted checkboxes for discounts homeowners deserved, according to the ruling.

Allan Schwartz, a New Port Richey homeowner, said he spent $2,000 on a new, state-of-the-art garage door, but didn?t get an insurance discount for it because his windows weren?t also fortified.

?This thing looks like Fort Knox,? said Schwartz, who is covered by Citizens and recently had a reinspection. ?They say if your garage door goes, your house goes.?

Meale called OIR?s omission of separate discounts for garage doors ?arbitrary? and ?illogical.?

Studies conducted by state and federal agencies after hurricanes Andrew and Charley found that many homes were destroyed when winds overpowered weak garage doors and rushed through homes. The pressure caused by the rush of wind caused roofs to cave in and walls to crumble.

As a result, several studies have found that fortifying old garage doors is one of the best ways to prevent wind damage during a hurricane.

However, homeowners who strengthened their garage doors were not rewarded with insurance discounts.

OIR said that even as it appeals the ruling, it will likely change the forms to account for garage-door discounts.

It?s too early to say how much a homeowner might save by doing a retrofit, though Meale?s ruling indicated the savings could be substantial.

According to OIR, the ruling does not require restitution for those homeowners who have been given incomplete discounts for the past few years.

Any lawsuits filed in attempt to recoup those lost discounts would be ?frivolous,? said Miller.

?A homeowner should mitigate their home, whether or not they?re getting a discount from their insurance company, in order to protect their family and to prevent loss,? she said.

KEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What does this development mean for my insurance premium?

Nothing yet. The legal fight over insurance discounts in still playing out in court as the Office of Insurance Regulation appeals the judge?s ruling to toss out the discount forms. In the future, you may have a new opportunity to reduce your insurance premium by strengthening your garage door.

What if I?ve already strengthened my garage door?

You may be eligible for a new insurance discount, but you will have to wait for OIR to calculate new discounts for garage-door mitigation.

Will I receive backdated discounts for past years when the flawed forms were in use?

The Office of Insurance Regulation has indicated that there will be no retroactive restitution, but you may contact your insurance agent or an attorney for more information.

What is the best way to strengthen my garage door?

There are several options, including replacing the door. Retrofitting products, like the Secure Door, offer a cheaper alternative.

Source: http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2012-11-27/ruling-homeowners-improperly-denied-insurance-discounts

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John Wiggins Digs Backyard Mine as 'Memorial ... - AOL Real Estate

An English homeowner has given new meaning to the phrase "it's all mine!" John Wiggins (pictured above) spent 13 years digging a mine below his backyard garden in the village of Skelton Green in northeastern England. He employed such precision and attention to detail that the replica mine looks like one you might find a mile below ground in the Appalachians -- but his is only 15 feet down.

Wiggins explained to the Darlington and Stockton Times newspaper in Weybridge, England, that his interest in ancient ruins combined with a love for local mining history in the larger English town of Cleveland motivated him in the painstaking project.

"I moved in here 15 years ago," said the 68-year-old painter. "I started to become interested in local history, and this part of the world is notorious for its mining background."

The area was home to 100 iron mines in the 1800s, but by the 1960s most of them were shut down.

"I visited a mine nearby in North Skelton," Wiggins continued, "and it was an experience I'll never forget. But it made me want to preserve Cleveland's identity, so, as you do, I decided to dig up the garden."

He used a backhoe to dig out the 150-foot-long corridor of his model mine. Inside is a railway that he built for a makeshift tram to carry ironstone. Using reclaimed materials from local builders and markets, he built the walls of the mine and two headstocks that serve as the shafts where workers and ironstone would be lifted out of the mine. The whole thing is ventilated to prevent water from flooding the mine and allow fresh air and a little light inside.

The last part of the project that Wiggins has left to complete is a mine office.

"I want it to look authentic, like it's from the 1840s," Wiggins said. "I want it to look abandoned, as if miners just up and left. ... Everything is an exact version of what was in the smaller old mines. I've consulted experts, used my own knowledge of ironstone mines and read a lot of old books to get everything accurate."

According to the British tabloid, The Sun, it cost Wiggins "thousands of pounds" to create the mine.

He called his underground masterpiece a "memorial ... to the ironstone miners of Cleveland" and said that he wasn't aware of anything else like it in the area. He added that he is willing to offer free tours of his mine to those interested in learning more about the town's mining history.

While Wiggins built a model of a historic treasure on his property, a real age-old find was discovered in a home in the nearby English town of Plymouth earlier this year. In August, homeowner Colin Steer discovered a 33-foot-deep well under his living room floor that dates to the 16th century.

See also:
DIY Coolness: A Hot Tub in the Living Room?
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More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
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Find homes for rent in your area.

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/11/28/john-wiggins-builds-backyard-mine-as-memorial-to-englands-min/

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NASA ponders new missions for spare spy telescopes

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., November 27 - NASA is looking for new ideas on what to do with two space telescopes left over from a once-secret U.S. spy satellite program.

The U.S. space agency asked the scientific community on Tuesday for its input into possible missions for a pair of space telescopes donated last year to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the nation's spy satellites.

"NRO offered us their leftover hardware if we want it. They've been totally open in allowing us to study whether this hardware would be of advantage to NASA," said Paul Hertz, who oversees NASA's astrophysics programs.

Topping the list of existing proposals is to use one telescope for a mission to learn more about an anti-gravity force known as "dark energy," which is believed to be responsible for speeding up the universe's rate of expansion.

The phenomenon was discovered in the 1990s by two teams of researchers who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

The National Academy of Sciences has made that mission, known as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, its top choice for an astrophysics space mission for the next decade.

NASA estimates the WFIRST mission would cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion, but it cannot begin a major new astrophysics project until spending winds down on the over-budget and delayed James Webb Space Telescope, which is a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is scheduled for launch in 2018.

The NRO telescopes, which were built to peer down at Earth, each have a primary mirror that is 7.9 feet in diameter, much larger than the 4.3-foot (1.3-meter) observatory originally proposed for the WFIRST mission.

While a larger telescope may allow for more detailed observations, it could be more expensive to outfit with instruments and launch into space.

"There's a whole lot of ways that a larger telescope might benefit you, even if it doesn't save you money," Hertz said.

Another option is to pair the WFIRST mission with a new initiative to view Earth-sized planets beyond the solar system, said Princeton University researcher David Spergel, who organized a workshop for scientists in September to discuss telescope proposals.

The extra-solar planet hunter also could be a stand-alone mission.

Another idea is to use one of the telescopes to study how the sun affects Earth's magnetic field.

Like the Hubble observatory, the NRO telescopes are capable of producing extremely high-resolution images. Although they are declassified, NASA is prohibited from using the donated telescopes to produce visible-light images of Earth.

Looking beyond astrophysics missions may get at least one of the telescopes out of storage sooner.

"Astrophysics is limited in its ability to do anything based on pre-existing project developments in our budget. The rest of the agency has potentially more flexibility," said Michael Moore, NASA's assistant director for innovation and technology.

"Can you use the hardware to address things that are being done in advanced technology development or with humans or with robotics? That expands the universe of potential users," he said.

NASA said responses to its request for mission proposals are due by January 7.

The telescopes are being stored for NASA by ITT Exelis in Rochester, New York, at a cost of less than $100,000 a year, Hertz said.

"We can keep them in storage as long as we want to keep paying the rent," he said.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-ponders-missions-spare-spy-telescopes-184929641--finance.html

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