This issue is made up of the following sections:

1. Personal Effectiveness Tips
2. A Day in the Life...
3. Reality Check - Dealt a Bad Hand

1. Personal Effectiveness Tips
1. Stop trying to please everyone. It's a waste of your time. Instead, learn the importance of personal integrity, which I define as being true to your ideals and core beliefs. If you can sleep at night knowing you did the best you could with the cards you were dealt that particular day, I think you ought to claim that day as a success.

2. Take calculated leaps of faith once a week. Go for something out of your reach, take a mental health day off from work, jump in the car and drive to a bed and breakfast with your partner, whatever. We need to remind ourselves that there is more to life than the mundane and predictable. Leap from the routine to the unknown. Your heart might skip a beat.

3. Learn to enjoy the lessons that problems pose in our daily lives. They offer opportunities to grow, to learn, to change our behaviors for the better, to improve the quality of our lives, etc. For example, next time you get stuck in traffic, use that time to return phone calls, or to listen to a book on tape. Stop butting heads with your problems and use them as mechanisms to personal growth.

4. Want extra time in your schedule? Take an fifteen minute lunch instead of an hour lunch, and save yourself almost 4 hrs a week, 28 hrs a month, and 9 full days a year of wasted time. What could you do with an extra 9 days a year? How many books could you read? How many workouts could you do? How many phone calls to friends could you catch up on?

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2. A Day in the Life...

Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week, mostly because I stay home with both of my young sons and do whatever I want.

One day this past month, after both my boys (aged 1 and 4) woke up from their afternoon siestas, which turned out to be around 3:30 EST, I decided to take them to the Columbus Zoo. After getting them together and dressed, we arrived at 4:30. It was a slow, sunny afternoon at the zoo, which made it even better. We watched the Bison do nothing, learned about Lungfish, and spent about 45 minutes in the indoor gorilla area. It was fascinating to watch them interact with my boys. Or perhaps the gorillas were watching me interact with my boys. As I was walking out, carrying both of the boys like broken, misshapen luggage, a park ranger (weird title, but that's what his badge said) sped up to me in his golfcart and yelled at me. "You lost?" he said. "Why no, but why do you ask?" I said, surprised. "Because it's quarter to seven, and we've been closed for almost two hours now!" he bellowed. Oops. But I don't care. I had a hell of a time with my boys. Now I know why we had the zoo all to ourselves, though.

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3. Reality Check - Dealt a Bad Hand

June's Reality Check is focused on whether or not you are prepared those moments when life happens to deal you an unfortunate hand.

Stuff happens. Bad things happen to people that don't deserve it, and sometimes these unfortunate events are entirely ill-timed. However, the problem isn't in the fact that life sometimes brings you to your knees-the problem is that you didn't buy kneepads ahead of time.

If you are going to be successful in any aspect of your life, you have got to learn to plan for obstacles before they occur. Preventative care is entirely more effective (and cost-efficient in every way) in most areas of life than contingent care. Being blind to life's little messes isn't an excuse that is acceptable. Anticipate possible "fires" and install a sprinkler system. But most of all, build your life to "code," so to speak. Make it fireproof as best possible.

How do you do this? By simply investing more time up front. Put the measures in place to prevent yourself from having a fall prior to the time when you will need them. When is best? When things are going well. A little foresight can go a long way toward making your life easier once crises occur. So, whether this has to do with health (preventative checkups and healthy living) finances (saving money regularly, eliminating consumer debt, etc) relationships (building relationships with those you can trust) or any other area of your life, set out to make certain that the next crisis in your life will merely be a temporary annoyance instead of a crippling blow.

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