dsrlsktj

I can't believe how much of the year has gone by, but all the same, it's unbelievable how much I've grown through the year and most of it, from demolishing my need to perform.

I grew up playing a lot of hockey, being captain of both my schools when I was in Nigeria and London. The highlight of my career came when I was 10 on a wonderful warm day when we were playing an outdoor hockey game. Apparently I did some really cool skill with the stick and the ball. Everyone was like wow and clapping. I didnt really understand what I did, but nevertheless it was great and I learnt something. The entire sports department were talking about it for weeks. By the way, at that point, I went on to just shoot and watch the ball roll into the goal.

That is and will remain to be an unforgettable moment for me as everyone was congratulating me for the goal and my skillful moment. However, my attention was taken in another direction. In the stands, I saw my mum. I ran up to her, and she said, That goalie never had a chance. Hearing those words, and sensing that appreciation was a real awesome feeling, and from that grew my need to be appreciated.

Needs generally come from our experiences from childhood and perhaps they are something we really wanted, and never got. All our parents certainly did the best they could and for that we are really grateful. About 95% of the human population is driven by needs, but the extent to which your particular need drives you may be the deciding factor in how successful you are.

If we relate this to the music world, from a young age, you may have never really got the opportunities you may have liked to perform and so from that grew your need to perform. When our needs are unchecked, they act as engines, driving us to behave in ways that we believe will lead to the experience of having our needs fulfilled.

When a need exists, it is either conscious or unconscious. As humans, we are the only species in this universe that are conscious that we are conscious. We are the only species that are aware that we are aware. And as humans, we are constantly striving to meet our needs. This consumes a lot of our energy. What we need to do is really understand where our needs come from and eliminating these dynamics will transform your entire life.

My need of appreciation only made me strive to be appreciated so that I can be told that Im good and feel good. But that doesnt seem to last long as after a few seconds I need to feel good again. This wasnt really making me happier, just draining a lot of energy out of me. Its important to understand the energy we create when we have a need present in our lives. Think about when somebody gives you a call only when they need you. How does that make you feel?

When you are coming from a place of need, this is the kind energy you are giving off and thus this is the type of energy you attract back to you. Sometimes when you think that your need has gone and youre very clear about what you want to attract into your life but you still feel stuck, it is probable that if you dig deep, there is still a need that has a grip on you. Without addressing the need, we will continue to create the same problem (in different forms) until we eliminate the need.

Common needs that Ive seen are the need to be liked, the need to be heard, the need to sing, the need for security, the need to have money, etc. What are your needs? What is it that you want to do, and if you dont you get upset? What do you strive to do, but although you get the result, it takes a lot of energy out of you? These are your needs. It is good to know them. Most people go through life like this, really having a need and not able to live their true, free selves. You know better. Needs are easy to see and feel, yet we are usually blind to their influence on us. If you look closer, you can find that hold. A good way to identify a particular need is to consider these questions..

1. What are the patterns of problems in your life?

2. Where do you feel most stuck?

3. What causes you to get upset most?

4. Ask someone to say what they see at work within you.

By recognising and eliminating the need of appreciation, Ive been able to create my life on purpose and in harmony with my desires instead of feeding a childhood wound.

Joseph Pilates, creator of the Pilates group of Exercises was sickly as a child. He suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. At age 14, he remedied his health status by engaging in exercise and body building, and in doing so, became the model for anatomical drawings.

With determination and dedication to his exercise, Pilates became skilled in sports like skiing, diving and gymnastics. In 1912 he worked as a self defense instructor for Scotland Yard, in England. When World War I came, Pilates, a German national, was named an enemy alien like most other German nationals at the time. During his capture, he started perfecting the methods of the Pilates exercise, and started teaching it to the other interns. He would make use of springs attached to hospital beds to enable bedridden patients to do exercise, with resistance. Pilates was first designed as a reconstructive form of exercise, mostly for those injured and unable to move freely, or else confined in a bed or a chair. The crude exercise machines was the basis for his later designs.

In 1918, an Influenza epidemic struck England, but none of his trainees were among the thousands killed, this strengthened his claim for the exercises efficiency.

After being cleared of accusations, and his release, Pilates returned to Germany to perfect his method. The dance community, through Rudolf Van Laban, highly regarded Pilates techniques and adapted his exercises. In 1926, Pilates immigrated to the United States, after being asked to teach his techniques in the German Army. This is where he met his wife Clara, and with her, he opened a studio in New York, with the New York City Ballet.

In the 1960s most of Pilets students are New York Dancers. One of which, George Ballanchine, also had Pilates teach the ballerinas at the New York City Ballet. As time passed, his method became popular, not only in New York, but also everywhere in the United States.

Two of Pilates Students, Carola Trier, and Bob Seed, on the other hand, opened their own studio, demonstrating the methods and techniques, taught them by Pilates himself. Carola Trier, found solace in fleeing to the united Sattes, whe she escaped a Nazi Holding Camp, and found Pilates in 1940. Having pertinent dance background and the techniques under her belt, she became a contortionist, only stopping when getting injured in 1940. Due to this, Pilates helped TRier to open her own studio in 1950.

Bob Seed, aformer Hockey player, and an avid student of Pilates opened a studio across form Josephs and tried to make a competition out of it by opening early in the morning. Some people say that Pilates threatened Seed one day, and told him to leave town, and indeed he left.

When Pilates died, he left no instruction as to how to continue the line of Pilates work, nevertheless, his wife Clara, continued with the Studio, already known as the Pilates studio. Romana Kryzanowska, a student who studied with Joe and Clara aroung the 1940s continued their work and became director of the studio in 1970.

Also in 1970, A man named Ron Fletcher, a Martha Graham dancer, opened his own studio in Los angeles. He attracted many Hollywood stars, and this so impressed Clara, that she gave him permission to cary on the pilates name. Fletcher however, brought on improvements to the regiment

In 1967, two other students, Kathy Grant and Lolita San Miguel were awarded degrees by the State university of New York, to teach Pilates, they were the only practitioners ever to certified by Pialtes officially. Grant tooko over the Bendels Studio in 1972, whilst San Miguel went to Puerto Rico to teach Pilates at the Ballet Concerto de Puerto Rica.

Joe Nogood owns a small but thriving gift store. He is middle-aged and he dabbles in the stock market and has survived some major crashes in his time. He is an expert on gifts, having learned the skills over the years. There is only one word to describe him, ordinary.

Joe has been studying the internet for months, surveying the battlefield, as he calls it. One day, he declared to Stan, his longtime buddy. "The dotcom bubble has bottomed out, I see that we are at the beginning of a new uptrend. Lets build an online store".

Setting up a website is like setting up a business in a foreign land. Joe had to learn the foreign language (HTML, XML, PHP, Perl, CGI, Java, CSS, RSS).

The first stage was easy enough. They quickly decided on JoeNoGood.com, it has a counterculture aura around it and a matching slogan as well - Were Good at JoeNoGood.com.

Registering JoeNoGood.com (domain name), finding a web-hosting company to host his site and finding a credit card processor to handle the credit card transactions were simple tasks. There are also some excellent open-source software that, with some basic knowledge, Joe and Stan built their website within two weeks.

The second stage is by far the toughest and will need stamina website marketing and promotion. Having a website is like having a billboard pasted with your messages on an island. Now Joe needs visitors (hits) and bridges (links) to his little island.

When a consumer wants to find a product, 80% of the time, this person will use a search engine. Joes website has to search-engine friendly - when a search is made for a product or service at JoeNoGood.com, Joe want his websites page to be in the top 20 rankings (top 10 would be ideal). This is Joes first-year marketing plan.

Sending 48 Free-Reprint Articles a year

Joes marketing plan needs him to write 48 articles a year. He understood that his articles have to be original, informative, entertaining and in plain language. With his buddy during an all-night brainstorming session they agreed on a few ideas.

A Brief History of Gift-Giving would be a good start. Gifts for Positive Response might be another not corruption, you blockhead, think about a prelude to a marriage proposal or motivating a teenage student to excel in his studies. Romantics may like to read Gifts for Your Love; the list goes on and on.

Perhaps, a possible topic may be Gift-Receiving Habits of Bushmen Americans, the ones concentrated in the D.C. area. Bushmen use strange language like "I wish to caveat my response" which is hardly understandable by the public. A follow-up article like Bushmen Gifts the Impact on Iraqs Economy may provide the scholarly reputation for Joe, a must-read for think tanks around the world.

Publishing 4 Free E-books a year

Since Joe wrote an article a week, within three months, he will have enough material for an e-book. Knowing the hassles, he decides on a commercial website that can convert his articles into an EXE and PDF format and submit this free-for-download e-book to the various depositories on his behalf.

Naturally, since this e-book is free, Joe inserted some messages on his products and services in a non-intrusive manner. Joe thought an e-book-cum-catalog, what a clever idea. He wants to persuade without using the ways used by in-your-face marketers. Joe wants his readers to know and believe he is true to his chosen slogan.

On publishing his first e-book and seeing a growing readership, Joe called his printers and ordered a fresh set of new name cards Joe Nogood, Owner-Internet Writer-Author. Stan sensed a distinct glow about Joes demeanor since that moment.

Releasing 4 Free Software a year using Rebrand Software

Neither Joe nor Stan can write software of professional quality. It is true Stan attended a few night classes in programming but writing software that will be used as market promotion tools is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Giving away free software like corporate gifts (golf caps, diaries) will need quality and robust software. When users download and use Joes software, they will see JoeNoGood.com logo and a link directly to Joes site. Apart from the onetime costs, there are no extra costs - when Joe gives out this corporate gift to 1000 or 1 million, his outlay is the same. Joes eyes glistened on hearing this.

Joe found a rebrand software site that will sell him resale rights with adjustments. That is important, because JoeNoGood.com do not want to be associated with cloned software that everybody may have, like many marketing self-help books. He wants some unique feature that will distinguish his corporate gift from the others. Finally, he decided on an RSS news feed reader, stock charting program, a time planner with crypto functions and a computer security tool.

Sending 6 Press Releases a year

Joe understands that sending messages is tricky. From his knowledge of Chaos Theory, which he learned from analyzing stocks, information seeps through the internet at different speeds.

A press release by Google can travel round the world many times in a few hours. On the other hand, a message by Joe may take months just to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Hence, he chose RushPRnews.com headed by a veteran with 15+ years experience to give him an edge over the thousands of press releases filed each day.

A happy ending

At the end of the first year, Joe found he gained about 1000 links for his articles, assuming 20 links for each article. For the 8 free e-books and software titles, he got about 2000 links, assuming 250 links for each title. For the press releases, he found another 250-500 links. 3000-plus inbound links for one year of hard work is indeed gratifying for Joe.

Years down the road, Joes hard work and determination had paid off. His store is the recognized leader with over 36% of the global share in gift sales. From the meticulous data he has collected over the years, he converted these to marketing data that any advertiser or gift manufacturer would die to get their hands on. Joe wisely published for-subscription-only e-books with the grand title of Collective Consciousness of Gift Buyers by Country, Month and Year and priced them in eGold (equivalent to thousands of Yanks dollars). Joe Nogood struck dotcom gold. The powers in Mountain View are not amused.

JoeNoGood.com and Joe Nogood are fictional. Hopefully readers can see a bit of themselves in Joe as he grapples with the complex issues on the Internet. Stay tuned, folks.

The term Bushmen Americans is hereby released into the public domain. A small attribution (first coined by Stan Seecrets) is appreciated. The usefulness of this term may have a limited shelf life (around Jan. 2009) unless someone named Jeb becomes President then.

The name Joe Nogood is the exclusive copyright of Stan Seecrets. Fair use is permitted.

Anybody who wants to trade his full-featured, hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered, ocean-going yacht for exclusive movie/television rights to Joe Nogoods story can contact this author 24/7.

Stan Seecrets Postulate: Were Good at JoeNoGood.com (figure this one out yourself).

[This article may be freely reprinted provided it is published with the authors bio and activating the link to the URL below. It can be edited, summarized, expanded, and translated into any human language provided the literary integrity is maintained. In the case of print media, the same conditions apply except that the URL must be printed in bold letters.]