Quitting Gambling

Why do you gamble? Most people do it to get ahead financially. I am here to remind you that it will not work for you. Key Point #1 If you slip back into gambling keep precise written records of time spent, wins and losses. The fact is (95-99% of people lose) and the tiny percentage of people who win usually average under minimum wage over the course of the year. But of course you are going to hit the jackpot.But, almost no one really understands their odds of hitting the jackpot. Yeah you are only one in 44 million to win but wouldn’t it be great if you did? To understand what those odds mean is, imagine you are in a high school football stadium with 1000 people. They are going to drop a Nerf ball and whoever catches it gets 30 million dollars. How many football stadiums do they need to fly over to make the odds 1 in 44 million? The answer is 44,000 stadiums all jammed with people.That’s also the odds (one in 44 million) of an ugly guy like me meeting their favorite movie star out of the blue and finding out that they are so excited about meeting me that they drop everything and want to start a relationship. Okay I apologize; I really didn’t mean to crush two of your favorite fantasies in one sitting. She really is going to like you when you meet her.The second reason many gamble is for fun. Most of us like to take a moderate amount of money we can afford to lose and have a fun night at the casino. The question is, once we go over the line of moderation can we increase our pleasure. The answer is you never can increase your pleasure with out of control gambling because even if you win, all you are doing is what I call “selling our pleasure back words”. When you win you get extreme pleasure because you beat the system. However when you lose it all a week later, plus some money you needed to buy necessities, you crash and have extreme pain with the situation you are now in.What happened is you gambled with money you could not afford to lose and won on Friday. This brought you increased pleasure. But when you lose it all the next Friday you have destruction and pain. A person who does not gamble has less pleasure then you on Friday #1. But then they have much more pleasure than you on Friday #2 because you got wiped out. They also do not get the destruction and pain you get on Friday #2 when you go broke. Please see my article Pleasure + Addiction = Pain for more information on how addiction never brings us more pleasure over the course of the month, year, and usually not even over the course of two weeks.If quitting gambling is hard for you it may help to get a photo of the person/persons you love most in life, on the back write how you feel when you have lost all your money and how your gambling would affect them and your relationship with them. Put it by your computer, or in your wallet when out, when you feel the urge coming have a good look and read what you have written.Ex gamblers say that they enjoy life more after quitting gambling. But when you tell yourself that you will be happier after quitting gambling be very specific. You will be happier for the month when you are clean but some days will be tough. I think that avoiding a couple of trips to the casino per month is worth it because I can be happy every day now. My new activities and passions give me less pain and more happiness and more money over the course of the whole month than gambling did. After after quitting gambling we are no longer a slave to being driven always by the addiction (which brings the stress with it). We understand that abstinence is healthier in all ways; financially, spiritually, emotionally and relationally.Gambling ruins your spirituality. Either permanently, or temporarily when you have a big loss. Out of control gambling is sometimes worship. You would have to tell me if you are worshipping greed, excitement, pleasure or something else. But what we do know is that when we are out of control we are not then worshipping God. I recommend you learn new habits about how to worship God who will bring you real joy. Not a manufactured, short term thrill which ends in destruction. You can read about how you can learn to worship God in my article called “addictions real issue.”One of the biggest keys to quitting gambling is to know (and have organized) what mental exercises you need to do to overcome the addiction. The following are examples of some types of exercises you may want to learn.1: Form a habit to say to yourself 5 times a day that “my gambling causes me financial destruction. It has in the past and it will in the future.”2: Have a list of the benefits of quitting gambling. Write down all the benefits then memorize the top 3 and top 6 benefits. This will allow you to say the benefits multiple times each day until you get on more solid footing in your recovery.3: Pray often each day “Lord keep me from temptation” (This is part of the Lord’s Prayer from the Bible). Pray about why you gamble. Is it for greed? Then pray a lot about that because the Bible says that the greedy will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Is it for excitement? Then pray about what alternatives you can do to find excitement.4: Start a journal so that you can include all of the quitting gambling idea’s you find in one place so that you can review them often.I have over 25 articles about quitting addictions at my website.

The Three Biggest Lead Generation Mistakes Small Businesses Make And How To Overcome Them

If you’ve been looking for simple, proven and tested, step-by-step methods for generating more leads for your small business, then this article may just have the answer. Firstly, I want you to stop for a moment and think about all the advertising you’ve seen over the past week.How many of those actual ads can you name? Researchers estimate that over the past seven days, you have been exposed to as many as 117,000 ads based on national averages. So out of 117,000 ads, how many can you name?If you’re fairly attentive, you may be able to come up with 3 or 4 specific ads… but I’ll bet that’s because you probably see those ads over and over… week in and week out. Let’s face the facts… repetition works. When you see any advertisement multiple times every day you’re bound to eventually begin to recall the ad. But now answer this question.What few ads you do remember, how many of their products or services have you bought? Because I have a passion for marketing I tend to go online and research for well accepted ads. Take for example a series of ads from online trading company E*Trade which uses babies to promote their products. These have a massive audience on both TV and YouTube. They even had one during the Superbowl. I think they’re a scream. But… I don’t have an E*Trade account. Never have, never will. Why should I?What benefits do they offer me as a potential buyer of online trading services that any of the hundreds of other stock trading services offer? See my point? Does a smart-aleck, wise-cracking baby have any relevance to online stock trading whatsoever? Of course not. So why does E*Trade continue to make these commercials? Believe it or not, there is a reason… and by the end of this short presentation, you’ll fully understand what that reason is.Businesses today are led to believe that all they have to do to build a successful business is create some type of attention-grabbing form of marketing and they will generate leads at will. Nothing could be further from the truth. And that’s just in the area of marketing. What about generating fast cash flow? EVERY small business needs to generate fast cash flow. So how do you do that as a small business owner? What about generating profits? Generating more cash flow is great… but not if you don’t get to put any of it in your pocket at the end of the day. How would you like the answers to all of these problems?In this article I am going to reveal to you the three biggest lead generation mistakes small business owners make… and outline how you can overcome them.Here are the three mistakes. Mistake #1… they fail to get professional help. Mistake #2… they don’t know the fundamentals required to successfully market their business and attract as many new clients as their business can handle. And mistake #3… they have no idea how to use their marketing to generate immediate cash flow. Let’s explore these three in depth, and show you how you can easily and systematically overcome each one of them.Mistake #1… small business owners fail to get professional help. Can you name me just one professional athlete who does NOT have a coach? There aren’t any. Tiger Woods actually has a total of 9 coaches guiding him in everything from his golf game to his financial investments. But do small business owners really need professional help? Remember the TV ads we previously discussed? Those ads are created by “professionals.” Unfortunately, those professionals have no clue what they’re doing. Everything they’re doing in marketing and advertising today is wrong! But let me prove that to you right now.If you currently use any form of marketing such as a print ad, brochure, postcard, flyer… or for that matter… your company website, take it out and look at it carefully. And if you don’t have any form of marketing right now, take out a sheet of paper and sketch out what you think would make for an effective ad for your business. It doesn’t have to be anything formal or fancy… just create a basic outline of the ad and where you would locate the various elements on the page.Now that you have your ad… or a mock up of your ad sitting in front of you, let me provide you with the little known secrets that produce more leads than your business can handle. 99% of all marketing professionals DON’T know the lead generation secrets I’m about to reveal to you. This information is so powerful and compelling, it will position you in the top 1% of all lead generation professionals today. This example will show you why every small business owner should acquire our step-by-step roadmap as they start to generate leads for their business.Here’s what a true marketing professional will know… and help you implement into your marketing. It’s known as the “marketing equation.” This marketing equation will let you quit competing on price… and let you start selling your product or service for what it’s really worth. You will drive in more leads and increase your advertising response by 10 to more than 100 times. You will convert a higher percentage of those leads and dramatically increase your number of sales. You will get a bigger bang for your marketing buck. The bottom line is this you will literally create a profit faucet that you will have TOTAL control over.First, you MUST understand what marketing is supposed to do. Its purpose is actually three fold. Its first job is to capture the attention of your target market. Second, it must give them the hope that reading or listening to your marketing will give them enough information to help them make the best decision possible when buying whatever you sell. In other words, train and teach them how to recognize the true value of your product or service… and conclude that you… and you alone… offer the best value versus your competition. Marketing’s third job is to lower the risk of taking the next step in the buying process… and if necessary… continue to educate the prospect regarding the value you offer.Marketing that accomplishes these three objectives will result in your prospects and customers coming to one single conclusion, that they would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you, regardless of price. It’s estimated that as many as 96% of all small businesses fail within their first 5 years. The main reason for this tremendously high failure rate has to do with the lack of expertise when it comes to generating leads and making the phone ring.Most small businesses don’t know anything about those three things that marketing is supposed to do. But there’s also an additional problem to consider. Most small business owners use a tactical marketing approach instead of a strategic approach. Let me explain.Running an ad in the local newspaper… sending out an email or direct mail letter… airing a radio or TV ad on a local media station are all examples of tactical marketing. Now don’t get me wrong… the newspaper, radio or direct mail can be successful marketing channels… If your marketing message is powerful and compelling. But that’s the problem… the message is the strategic side of marketing… and yet, it’s the most neglected.This distinction between strategic and tactical marketing is huge and one you need to be acutely aware of anytime you start talking about generating more leads. Many companies mistakenly assume that when you talk about lead generation, you’re automatically talking about tactical lead generation… placing ads, sending out mailers, joining a networking group, attending tradeshows, implementing a prospect follow up system and so on.They fail to realize that the strategic side of the coin, what you say in your marketing and how you say it is almost always more important than the marketing medium where you say it. If you fail to make this distinction, then you risk becoming jaded towards certain forms of marketing and advertising that should be a part of your tactical plan, but you eliminate them from consideration because they haven’t worked for you in the past.When lead generation results are less than optimal, small business owners tend to almost always blame the marketing medium… like the newspaper the ad ran in or the postcards they sent out. They blame the tactical part of the plan… without any regard for how good or how bad the strategic messaging in that marketing piece was. People often say things like, “we tried radio and it doesn’t work for our kind of business,” or “we sent out 50,000 pieces of direct mail and only generated 3 orders. It just doesn’t work.”Just because it didn’t work, don’t assume that it won’t work. Most people don’t have the evaluation skills or the know-how to judge whether poor marketing results from poor strategy or poor tactical execution. This is where our step-by-step roadmap can generate more leads than your business can handle.For example, most small business owners rely heavily on platitudes in their marketing. They say things like – we have the lowest prices… the best service… we’re family owned and operated… we offer convenient hours… the best value… not to mention that we’ve been in business since 1431 B.C. Look at your own marketing that I asked you to acquire or create earlier. How many platitudes did you use in your own marketing?By the way, this is NOT your fault. Small business owners have been conditioned to think this is the proper way to market their businesses… since most advertising follows this same pathetic marketing formula… including the Fortune 500 types.As human beings, we’re all after just one thing when we buy something… the best deal! Unfortunately, when you use platitudes in your marketing, there’s absolutely no way to tell who is actually offering the best deal. Everyone says they have the lowest prices, the highest quality and the best rates. So who do you believe? There’s only one way to know… and that’s to research every single business that offers what you want to buy. How many of us have the time or patience to do that?So most of us just automatically assume that everyone is pretty much the same, and therefore we default to calling on the business that offers us the lowest price. When you can’t communicate the true value your business offers, you’re doomed to forever compete on price. Our marketing equation will change all of that for you forever. It’s going to be the backbone of your strategic marketing plan. It’s the foundation on which everything else we build for you is based. Let me give you a quick overview and then spend some time going through it with you in detail.A proper marketing equation has four main components. First, it must interrupt your prospects. It must get your qualified prospect to pay attention to your lead generation marketing. Simple enough to say, but a lot more difficult to pull off in real life unless you understand what you’re about to learn here. The interrupt is done through your headline if your marketing is in print… or it’s the first thing you say if your marketing through radio or TV. The second component is engage. Once your prospect is interrupted, it’s critical you give your reader the promise that information is forthcoming that will help the prospect make the best buying decision possible. In other words, it must help facilitate their decision to pick you over anyone else. This is the job of our subheadline.The interrupt is our headline that highlights a specific problem that your prospects are looking for a solution to… and the engage is our subheadline that promises them that you offer a solution to the problem we mentioned in our headline.The third component you need to include is ‘educate’. Once you have interrupted and engaged your prospect, you have to give information that allows them to logically understand how and why you solve the problem they’re facing. This is accomplished by giving detailed, quantifiable, specific and revealing information. This is typically done in the body copy of your ad. When you educate, you need to reveal to your prospects the important and relevant information they need to know when making a good decision, and that your business… and yours alone… provides it to them. The interrupt and engage hit the prospects emotional hot buttons. Educate is the logic they need to justify picking up the phone and calling you.The fourth and final component of the marketing equation is your offer. Now that you have interrupted your prospect based on problems that are important to them… engaged by a promise of the solution… and they’ve examined the educational information that makes your solution real and believable… the last step you need to take is to give them a low risk way to take the next step in your sales process. You do this by offering a free marketing tool, such as a report, brochure, seminar, audio, video or something that will continue to educate them. Your offer will allow your prospect to feel in control of their final decision to call and buy from you.So your marketing equation is interrupt, engage, educate and offer and together they equal market domination. Now here’s the problem. Most marketing today only contains two of these components. They interrupt by throwing something at you that’s either familiar like Tiger Woods… or unusual like a monkey or talking pets. Sometimes they like to use both, as in the case of the E*Trade baby. Then once they grab your attention, they make you some type of offer such as “call now for whatever.” They have left out the engage and the educate, and marketing seldom succeeds when that happens.In fact, the only time this type of marketing does succeed is when you can afford to run the ad over and over nonstop for an extended period of time. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz… melts in your mouth, not in your hand… and the burgers are better at… have literally been rammed down our throats by Fortune 500 types. After hearing these slogans thousands of times, of course we’re going to remember them. But how can a small business owner like you that doesn’t have a billion dollar marketing budget successfully market your business. The answer… you can’t… UNLESS you follow the entire marketing equation.And finally the third biggest mistake small business owners make is that they have no idea how to use their marketing to generate immediate cash flow. When you follow this marketing equation in every form of marketing you do… from your business cards to your company website, the financial results are instantaneous and immediate.So in conclusion, the three biggest lead generation mistakes small businesses make are #1… they fail to get professional help. #2… they don’t know the fundamentals required to successfully market their business and attract as many new clients as their business can handle. And #3… they have no idea how to use their marketing to generate immediate cash flow.The above marketing equation contains the fundamental components for instantly making your phone ring and positioning your business as the dominant force in your market. It provides the marketing foundation that will enable you to generate immediate cash flow. And small businesses can use this information as a minimum standard when seeking out professional help for their business.When you can overcome these three biggest lead generation mistakes, you will generate all the leads your business can handle.

5 Empowering Tracks From Female Icons To Make You Feel Inspired

Sometimes we all need a little lift. Whether you’ve had a recent knock to your confidence, have been going through stress in your personal or professional life, or have always struggled with your self-esteem, music is an essential tool for lifting your spirits and making you feel better about yourself.

According to a study by Heriot-Watt University, the type of music you listen to not only influences your mood, but also your personality, with indie and rock/heavy metal fans reporting the lowest levels of self-esteem, while fans of jazz, blues, opera, classical, pop, rap and soul all reported high levels of self-confidence.

So if you’re having a ‘down day’, why not boost your spirits by listening to some powerful, uplifting tracks? Here are five perfect confidence boosters.

Britney Spears – Toxic

Britney’s own struggles with her mental health and conservatorship have made her an inspiration for many people across the world.

This classic song is timelessly sensual, and the heavy beats throughout make it impossible not to dance to. A welcome blast of nostalgia, this tune has filled dance floors across the globe with fans old and new.

The video features Britney as a female spy playing the sexy flight attendant, seducing her passenger before she makes her escape on a motorbike and breaks into a high-security facility guarded by a laser security system.

This track and video is a guaranteed way to feel invincible, and deserves a place on your playlist no matter your mood.

Kelis – Milkshake

A cheesy classic that is guaranteed to make you feel all warm and gooey inside, Kelis pumps up the heat in this 00’s RnB track. Underpinned by intricate drum beats and electric elements, Kelis’ self-confidence is infectious, and it’s hard not to find yourself smiling at the lyrics.

This track is a great way to get into a flirtatious mindset, making it a great choice before going on a date or heading out for the evening.

And if you’re staying in? It’s a great mood lift. But beware! You may find yourself craving a sweet treat.

Eve (ft. Gwen Stefani) – Let Me Blow Your Mind

This RnB classic will capture your attention with its assertive rhythm and powerful vocals from 00’s icons Eve and Gwen Stefani. Featuring a laid-back – yet self-assured – beat, and catchy guitar riff, this is a great track for driving, and its empowering feel is sure to help you feel motivated.

Got a job interview lined up, or thinking of asking for a raise? This anthemic number is a quick way to feel positive and more assertive.

The video features Eve and Gwen Stefani crashing an exclusive event on quad bikes, causing a stir among the privileged attendants, and shoving the performer off stage to perform their own music, before finally being arrested and taken to the station in a police van.

This ‘baddie’ track helps you to tap into the hidden ‘bold’ side of your personality, and lifts your mood while keeping you feeling calm and cool.

Fergie – MILF$

If you have kids, it can be difficult to feel sexy. When you’re running around cleaning the house, changing nappies, or up to your elbows in dishwater, you can easily forget your sensual side – leaving you feeling frumpy and lacking in confidence and motivation.

Thankfully, Fergie’s comeback track is a quick remedy to your low mood and lethargy.

Featuring attractive mothers dressed in curve-hugging latex and silky lingerie going about their daily life in a dreamy, colourful suburbia, this track is a quick way to transform your self-esteem and transport you to a world where you are not just a mother, but a goddess too.

Why not shake off the day and tap into your feminine energy with Fergie, your sexiest PJs, and a bottle of your favourite wine?

Marina And The Diamonds – How To Be A Heartbreaker

Low confidence after a breakup? You’re not alone. Having your heart broken can leave you feeling depressed, undesirable, and unmotivated. So flip the tables on your ex and become a heartbreaker with Marina’s catchy club classic.

This empowering dance track will make you want to move your body and get in touch with your bad girl side, with its heavy beat and pounding rhythms.

Plus, if your libido has suffered as a result of your low mood, take a sneaky peek at the video – it will get your blood pumping with its steamy shower shots and smoking hot male models.

The Pandemic Effects on Hospitality Industries and How They Overcome It

The COVID-19 pandemic affects many aspects and many sectors of life. As a result, economic sectors are fully affected, and the hospitality industry is no exception. The hospitality industry is known to be the source of job opportunities and supports many livelihoods of millions of workers and their families. Because Indonesia is primarily reliant on the service sector, the tourist industry plays an important part in the country’s growth. The increase of the COVID-19 cases has brought about a huge increase in the number of workers getting expelled or having their work ended. How did the hospitality industry survive in this era? The pandemic has provided several opportunities for numerous hospitality industries to use specific mechanisms in order to overcome pandemic difficulties.

Tourism and hospitality industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including hotels, restaurants, resorts, travel agencies, travel and transportation, and real estate, show a significant losing number of tourists. According to the president of the Indonesia Tour Guide Association (HPI, 2020), 45,000 visitors have cancelled their plans to visit main tourist spots in the country between January and May. Furthermore, According to UNWTO (2020), 100-120 million direct and indirect activities were in jeopardy, and foreign tourist numbers decreased 56% year on year from January–May 2020. These noteworthy diminishing numbers primarily influenced the Indonesian financial state. For example, hotel profits have dropped by up to 40%, having an effect on hotel operations and risking business continuity. The drop in international visitors has an effect on the salary of restaurants whose clients are more prevailing than foreign visitors (Block, 2017). Following the dropping, many hospitality industries are taking awareness of tourists’ health risks and protocols taking an advance.

The recovery of hospitality industries is indistinguishable from the progressively sophisticated information innovation utilized to pull in potential visitors to choose to travel. The regaining of tourist attractions after a pandemic is required to utilize other promoting techniques to advertise their items inventively. First, social media marketing reaches many internet users who are looking for tourist information hospitality industry. This strategy is helpful in advertising and attracts many tourists to find more information related to a tourist attraction in the designated region. Second, Tourism industry players and visitors, as well as government action, are required to arbitrate between the two groups. Government policies must be in the form of the finest judgments to characterize the middle ground between commercial actors and visitors (Anggarini, 2021). This means that provided policy in the hospitality sector during-post pandemics maintains the best solution for both tourists and hospitality owners. Last, all tourism-related activities must adapt to current conditions, in which humans must live alongside Covid-19 (Anggarini, 2021). By all means, many factors, including health issues, hygiene, and safety for tourists, are priorities.

In conclusion, even though the pandemic is really affecting the hospitality industry as a whole, it gives many advancements of movement done by the hospitality industry to survive. Many resources are being used as the development of technology to provide data destinations insight. In addition, the sophistication of information technology can also facilitate the government in supervising the implementation of safe travel in accordance with government recommendations. All these initiations are good examples of overcoming pandemic situations while running hospitality industries.