Coaching Businesses and Life, a view from Long Beach

The Importance Of Tapping The Source

The more I looked around, the more I was convinced that we need to tap the source of anything we do in order to make the best informed decision and not get caught up in the irrelevant. 

Why?  Without getting political or worldly cause, one perfect example is the futile debate on climate change.  Whether the climate change is man-made or an act of nature, one thing has been demonstrated, the climate is... changing.  The latest research have shown this beyond doubt, regardless of its cause.  Yet, it seems many debates disregard the obvious and get bogged down in sterile political rhetoric. 

When something is not right, regardless of its cause, we act on it.  In other words, when we tap to the source of the climate change ordeal, it makes little sense whether it is a holy act or a man-made one, we make sure we do not make the situation worse and start curbing down our footprint, lower our pollution emissions, as well as doing the little things we can do now.

The more I have thought about it, the more I am still convinced that tapping the source, or getting to the gist is still the best way to see the relevant picture and making the best overall decision.

Taking Environmental Action

A new group called 350 has launched a campaign to make today, the 24th of October this year.

The idea is to raise awareness, a much needed thing to happen worldwide and something coaching works with very closely.  What the 350 group looks for are for individuals to take action in their communities and call, write, etc. on world leaders to sign a climate agreement.

To find out what is happening worldwide, click here to go to their site.  Already New Zealand has gathered an impressive following.

Swine Flu

When I first received this email pictures as a joke, I didn't laugh.  I thought it was bad taste. 

Then it dawned on me that why would you let your child lick a pig's face knowing all the problems we have had with animals, tamed or not?

So in all good humor, be careful.  Apply common sense, wash your hands and don't kiss animals like that.

What Does Being "Green" Mean Anyway?

It's funny how we sometimes jump on the latest fad and go head to toe in. 

We've all noticed lately everything is green, even petroleum companies are re-branding themselves as green, as perfect a marketing oxymoron can get.  Yet, I think being green is a state of mind, not what and how you say it.

I read in the Business Week that green products found no slumping economy last year and so far this year.  In fact, it was going up in trends.  Buying green products is overall a good thing if we consider why and if these particular products are really green.

Organics A La FDA.  Ever consider how organics some of those products are?  According to the FDA, organic products are any products with over 50% organics elements in it.  Get the loophole here?  A product that is even 99% "organic" really isn't.  Read the label, of course.

Natural Flavors.  This was also a shocking one for me but natural flavors mean the flavor tastes natural but is not.  In fact, it's chemical.  Another loophole.

So buying green, bio-degradable bags, soaps, etc, is a good thing but it's not because it says green that it automatically is.  Read the labels, always.  Being green is a state of mind.  Buy what you need, think things through, and don't waste.  You could do more this way than just buying green.

Treating Colds The Natural Ways

I've had a cold for a few days a little while back and I decided again to not take any chemical medicines.

So what did I do?  I ate a raw clove of garlic, mixed with olive oil and lemon juice.  OK, it doesn't sound tasty and it sure fired up my mouth, and throat and even liver but the results were very good.  It's an old recipe from my native South of France where some people are said to do that every morning and have a vibrant health.

If you think about it garlic is a powerful anti-bacterial and anti-viral product.  I did also take some homeopathic remedies towards the end to work the symptoms out.

Curing yourself from common colds with what nature offers us is possible.

Baking Soda And White Vinegar

LOL, not your coaching post at all.

Virginia and I were laughing cleaning the apartment.  Yeah, we're weird like that.  Not that cleaning is fun.  I've never cared for it but it was in the stuff we were using to clean.

For years we've used green products, bio-degradable stuff and whatnot.  A while back Virginia read that white vinegar and baking soda work well.  We tried it and I can say we won't need anymore chemicals or "green" products.  This stuff rocks!

I have never used anything that can clean as well, make things as white and squeaking clean as those two natural ingredients.  And on top of it all, it smells good and doesn't attack your hands and nostrils as other chemicals do.

It just made us laugh that in this day and age of hype about "green" products we forgot our Grandmother's recipes are usually the best.

That's my fun stuff for today!

Oh, and check out this beautiful flower one of our succulent made.  It only blooms once a years at night.  It is supposed to attract a moth and pollinate this way.

Plastic Bags, Costly To The Environment

I found some interesting data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that shows  somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year, according to National Geographic News September 2, 2003.

As far as recycling, short of the obvious problems that it  produces a lot of pollution shipping these materials via boats, train and trucks to recycling plants, less than 1% of bags are actually recycled.  It cost more to recycle a bag than to produce a new one, according to the Christian Science Monitor News Paper.

It costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32, according to a Jared Blumenfeld, (Director of San Francisco's Department of the Environment).

A study in 1975, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The real reason that the world's landfills weren't overflowing with plastic was because most of it ended up in an ocean-fill, according to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Falkland Islands, according to a British Antarctic Survey.

Plastic bags account for over 10 percent of the debris washed up on the U.S. coastline, according to the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program.

Plastic bags photo-degrade: "Over time they break down into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers..."  According to a CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007.

Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die due to plastic bags, according to a World Wildlife Fund Report 2005.

If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week.
That's 24 bags a month.
That's 288 bags a year.
That's 22,176 bags.
in an average life time.
If just 1 out of 5 people in our country did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over our life time!

Bangladesh has banned plastic bags, according to an MSNBC.com March 8, 2007.
China has banned free plastic bags, according to a CNN.com/asia January 9, 2008.
Ireland started taxing plastic bags in 2002 and have now reduced plastic bag consumption by 90%, according to a BBC News August 20, 2002.
In 2005 Rwanda banned plastic bags , according to an Associated Press release.
Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and Singapore have also banned or are moving toward banning the plastic bag, according to a PlanetSave.com February 16, 2008.
On March 27th 2007, San Francisco becomes first U.S. city to ban plastic bags, according to an NPR.org (National Public Radio).

Plastic shopping bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic made from oil, according to a CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007. 

Reducing plastic bags will decrease foreign oil dependency.

I'm happy to say we have been using fabric bags to do groceries for over a decade.  That's already a smaller footprint left behind.

More Government Shananigans With The Environment

I haven't confirmed this yet, but we've seen this happen time after time in a political debate where lobbying is a hot topic.

GOVERNMENT SLASHES PESTICIDE REPORTING LAWS
Bowing to pressure from Monsanto and the agro-toxics industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced May 21 that it plans to eliminate pesticide reporting at National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The program has tracked national pesticide use and provided critical information for consumer groups, scientists, farmers and environmental groups monitoring pesticide use and hazards. NASS elimination of the Agricultural Chemical Use Database is a direct attack on consumers and farmworkers' Right to Know about pesticide residues and food safety. Pesticide reporting has become particularly important in the last ten years with Genetically Engineered crops requiring more and more pesticides.

On the flip side, California is actively looking out for us.

CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL FILES PROP 65 SUIT AGAINST WHOLE FOODS, AVALON & OTHERS
T he Attorney General of California has filed a major lawsuit against body care household-cleaning product companies whose products recently tested highest for the carcinogenic contaminant 1,4-Dioxane.  Under California's "Proposition 65" consumer products that contain toxic levels of 1,4 Dioxane must have warning labels stating they may cause cancer.

The Virtue Of Silence

Silence is a powerful ally and a great strength, so how come few of us know how to deal with it?

I remembered a while back I read a book about silence and it intrigued me. But silence is all so hard to achieve. We live cramped one on top of another, our neighbors directly looking in our rooms. We get out and are surrounded by people, cars honking angrily and people talking. Suburban California is not an easy place to find the sanctuary of silence. We fidget if we have nothing to do more than a few seconds. The TV needs to be on, music has to be playing, we have to do something for fear of finding ourselves alone with ourselves.

I was lucky last Christmas to get my Bose sound canceling headsets. It has made a world of difference. They don't completely turn off all sounds, much to my sadness. I wish there was something out there that would let you chose from complete silence to drowning out white noise. I think Sony has something like that.

I wear the headsets pretty much all the time. I meditate with them, I read wearing them and even play Sudoku with the pleasure of no trucking loud sounds disturbing my peace. I found it makes me enjoy silence and even enjoy doing nothing. Just looking around our fantastic Casa Grande apartment in quiet silence is peaceful. It re-centers me. I don't rush anymore. I feel I step outside of life's infernal imposed pace and can tolerate doing nothing again, being by myself. And this is the point where you find yourself at ease with yourself again with nothing to do. Just be with yourself in quietness. And when the time is right again, you pick up a book.

Silence is so great I enjoy every drop of it until I have to go out again. And guess what? I actually enjoy jumping back into the infernal noise polluted society outside. Go figure!

Emailess Days

After being curious what a few days of not checking email would look like, I decided to try it out.

It was interesting, exhilarating and strange. I spent a few days here and there not checking my emails. I let go of my technology shackles and it was fun. Let's face, more than half of our emails are spam, another quarter is not that interesting and finally, all you get that is really worth while is but a fraction of what comes in. So I am starting to do what others have done, only check it once in while and hopefully cut it down once in the morning and once at night. The exception will be if I am waiting for something important. Exhilarating? Yes, I felt I was playing hooky or doing something wrong. How much fun!

It was a freeing experience and definitely a great way to curb down on spam if everyone joins. I saved on a lot of time and used it to catch up on work.