Modern Medicine: Your personality - can it change your disease pattern?

Heart to Heart with Hillary

Personal Directions: To measure intention, look at the results

by Christina Dodd
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.

I had the experience yesterday of being asked why I did not respond to a particular e-mail that was sent to me. In view of the fact that I check my e-mails about five times a day, I asked the person the simple question of, "when was it sent?" The reply, which was rather long-winded was, "about a month ago". I stopped to gain my composure and to think before reacting and to enquire a little further into this. As it turned out, the basis of this meeting we were having revolved around the information contained in the elusive e-mail! The immediate thought that came to my mind was, "if this meeting was so important and the information was so crucial to the meeting, why didn’t anyone follow-up on the e-mail? Why didn’t the sender ask for a receipt? Why didn’t anyone call me?"

This type of situation is not rare or isolated. It happens with avid frequency and not only with e-mailing and every other form of communication, but with the way we go about doing almost every kind of task. It makes me think of two important things (apart from the obvious) and they are:

1. To measure someone’s intention, look at the results of their actions, and

2. People are more reactive than proactive.

In most conversations I have with managers and businessmen and women these days, these subjects always come up. They struggle with such matters in the workplace and of staff not initiating tasks, not thinking ahead, not planning ahead, but sitting back and waiting for results to magically appear - to suddenly happen. They wonder why a lot of projects don’t have the expected results and this concerns small, medium and large-scale projects.

The first statement is as clear as a bell. If you want to know how intent someone is on doing something, just have a look at the results. The results speak for themselves. In my episode with the "one-month-ago e-mail", the sender gave zero importance to this - he had no real intention of doing anything about it and it was obvious because of the end result. If he had really intended for me to get the e-mail, he would have followed up the same day, if the matter was so important. It is that simple.

This way of measuring intention can be used for everything that we undertake to do in life. When people say they’ll call back for instance, or get in touch with you later, you can gauge their level of intention by when or if the call comes. How you interpret their level of intention is entirely up to you. Perhaps there are factors out of their control that influence their efforts and their intentions.

Measuring your own level of intention is an interesting exercise. Just go back to some task you have set yourself to do, maybe you have been meaning to write to a friend who is overseas or you have been meaning to call a family member back home, and you just haven’t got around to doing it. What does it tell you about yourself and your intention to do these things? Is it that you are too busy or is it that you haven’t placed enough importance on them? If you really wanted to do these things, you would have done them, right? If you really intended to write the letter or make the call, you would have done it, right? Take a quick look at results, and you will instantly realize the level of your intention. Your level of intention will determine the kind of results you produce. Half-hearted intention produces half-hearted results. Whole-hearted intention produces whole-hearted results. The arithmetic is fairly easy to follow.

This statement becomes very interesting when you take a look at the workplace and at the people you work with. It can tell you a great deal about them in a moment. And it will help to confirm the fact that most people are reactive as opposed to proactive. It’s much easier, after all, to be that way and you don’t have to think or do very much.

Such is human nature, but in the world of getting ahead and performing well in a job, it pays to be on the proactive side of the table. When companies call for new recruits in virtually any position, this characteristic or attribute is high on the list of selection criteria. It identifies those most likely to get ahead and to be more successful in their working careers. They are a rare find indeed and employers will search high and low to source them and when they do find them, it’s like striking gold.

But in the real world, we are who we are and there are a many great ways that we can learn to improve ourselves and the way we do things. In order to do this, it doesn’t mean that we have to change who we are, but it means that we have to able to change some of our thinking and our attitudes towards things. Learning how to be more proactive is not an impossible task and like any task we all undertake, if we place a high level of importance to our intention, then the results will come out accordingly and they will speak for themselves.

The amount of intention we put into something is a major factor in the final outcome. It is a driving force in the way we approach our everyday private lives and our professional lives. It can dictate whether something is going to be a success or a f ailure. It can determine whether you are going to be a success or a failure. It is so much a part of who we are that it is critical to be able to understand its ultimate power.

For more information on these subjects and other training matters, please contact me by e-mail at [email protected] and visit our website at www. asiatrainingassociates.com

Have a great week!

Woman's World: Fountain of Youth

by Lesley Warner

In England I used to live a very different life from the one I live in Pattaya. My home was in amongst the rolling hills and winding lanes of North Devon, and as I drove to work every day I used to pass the livery yard. They also supplied bulk animal feed so I often called in for the horse and dog food. Outside on a large black board the owner had once written ‘Aloe Vera’. In my ignorance I used think, "I wonder who Vera is," as the owner quite often used to replace the words with other cryptic topics.

As I have already mentioned we can’t take everything, so must choose what we think is going to give us the most benefit for a healthy lifestyle. Always top of the list of course is eating the correct diet and getting the most exercise you can fit in the day. Although the climate as it is in Pattaya at the moment hardly gives me the energy to put my foot out of the bed!

Aloe Vera is a cactus-like plant but is actually part of the lily family. There are over 300 varieties of the Aloe plant, but it is the Aloe Barbadensis variety that exhibits the best medicinal properties. Most botanists agree, and historical evidence suggests, that the Aloe Vera plant originated in the warm, dry climates of Africa. However, because the plant is readily adaptable, and because man has been so eager to carry it with him from place to place, it can now be found in many warm lands.

The history of Aloe Vera goes way back to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks who recognized it as a safe, effective medicine and skin care aid. It can even be found mentioned in the bible - the healing properties were used for a wide range of ailments.

Both Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus took the plant with them on their travels to distant lands, to spread the seeds and the word of this magical plant around the world. There are a few unusual descriptions of the Aloe Vera plant such as ‘Voodoo Juice’, ‘Fountain of Youth’, ‘First Aid Plant’, and ‘Wand of Heaven’.

Aloe Vera was used during the terrible time of World War I & II to heal radiation burns. After World War II it was used to help victims of the fallout in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Reports stated that those victims who were treated with Aloe Vera showed signs of increased tissue growth and reduced pain, where other medicines had failed.

Aloe Vera has been proven to have various beneficial effects on the body.

Blood circulation – a number of constituents have beneficial effects on blood pressure and coagulation.

Bone and joint disorders – due to its high mineral and amino acid content.

Detoxification – amino acids assist the liver and kidneys.

Digestion – as well as being widely shown to benefit irritable bowel syndrome, it is also useful with other digestive problems, including peptic ulcers.

Laxative – it has a gentle laxative effect on the bowels.

Immune system – Aloe contains at least 23 polypeptides (immune stimulators), so we can understand why Aloe juice helps control a broad spectrum of immune system diseases and disorders, including HIV and AIDS. The polypeptides, plus the anti-tumor agents Aloe emodin and Aloe lectins, explains its ability to control cancer.

Skin care – moisturising and conditioning effects even when taken internally.

Burns and Sunburn – The soothing and healing qualities of Aloe Vera are well known for any type of burn and is especially popular for sunburn.

The precise method by which Aloe Vera works is not yet fully understood, but it is a great stimulator of the body’s own system, which counteracts disease and disorder.

Aloe Vera contains an assortment of materials, including the following:

Acids – antimicrobial, anti-helminitic (anti-parasitic worms), wound healing for skin tissue and ulcers.

Amino Acids – required for repair and growth. Aloe Vera contains twenty of the twenty-two essential amino acids.

Enzymes – catalysts enabling chemical reactions to take place.

Lectin – anti-tumour effects.

Lipids – principle structural components of living cells.

Minerals – calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are all present in significant quantities.

Lactates and Salicylates – analgesic properties.

Phenolics – mild antiseptics and antimicrobials.

Polysaccharides – long chain sugars broken down to smaller ones via enzymes.

Urea-Nitrogen – pain killing effect.

Vitamins – contains 8 of the 13 recognised vitamins.

Although Aloe Vera is still not fully recognized in the medical world, that may soon change, as there is some serious research going on now to find out exactly how the plant helps with HIV, AIDS and cancer, the worst killers on the planet.