Lauren Zander, cofounder and chairman, The Handel Group, www.thehandelgroup.com

Bottom Line’s Daily Health News is a registered trademark of Boardroom, Inc. Copyright (c) 2010 by Boardroom Inc.

Reading, Writing, and Resisting Debt

by Robert Kiyosaki

When I was young, people lived from paycheck to paycheck. Today, it seems like they live from credit card payment to credit card payment.

Most of us know that millions of Americans are deeply mired in credit card debt. Many financial experts have said repeatedly, “Get out your scissors and cut up your credit cards.” While this may sound like good advice, to me it seems like a painful, short-sighted answer to a more complex problem.

That problem is a lack of financial education. Why don’t we teach kids about money in school? Rich or poor, smart or not-so-smart, we all use money. Yet, while there are a few schools beginning to offer some financial education, it seems that most educators believe money isn’t a subject worthy of the hallowed halls of our learning institutions.

A History of Credit

When I was a kid, there were no credit cards. Instead, retailers offered layaway plans. My mom would go to a store, such as a furniture outlet, choose the sofa she wanted, and put it on layaway. That meant she put a little money down to hold the sofa, and every payday she’d pay a little toward the purchase. When the sofa was paid for in full, she would bring it home.

At that time, stores also offered “buy now, pay later” plans. This meant my mom could buy the sofa, sign a payment agreement, and take the sofa home that day.

Today, while a few stores still offer such plans or even variations of them, most people simply put their purchases on a credit card. But credit has been a part of American life even before there were credit cards.

A Growth Industry

There are many reasons why credit cards have grown in popularity, including these:

• Wall Street has turned debt into an asset.

Today, your friendly banker issues you a credit card. He then sells your debt to a Wall Street firm, which collects your monthly payments at high interest rates — which is why it’s an asset to them.

The minute a Wall Street firm purchases your debt, your bank no longer has it on its financial statement, which then allows the bank to look for more credit card customers. That’s one reason why you get so many credit card offers.

• The purchasing power of the dollar has dropped.

If you’ve followed these columns, you know that in 1971, President Nixon converted the U.S. dollar from money to a currency. That means the U.S. and other governments can print money faster than you can earn it — or save it.

In terms of purchasing power, if you earned $50,000 in 1996, you would have to earn $100,000 in 2006 just to stay even. Many people aren’t earning more even though prices are rising, so they make up the difference by using their credit cards for everyday purchases.

• When wages go up, so do taxes.

Because the purchasing power of the dollar has dropped, many people work harder, ask for raises, or take on extra work (or a second job) to earn more money. And when they earn more money, they move into higher tax brackets.

Today, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) — first levied in 1970 as a tax against the rich — is penalizing the middle class. In many ways, the AMT is a form of double taxation. Many working people are now making more money but taking home less because they pay a higher percentage of taxes.

• The cost of retirement has gone up.

When I was young, many people worked for a company with a pension plan that covered them for as long as they lived. If they didn’t have a pension plan, they could count on Social Security and Medicare.

That’s all changed. Today, millions of workers need to be able to afford their day-to-day living as well as put enough money aside for when they can no longer work.

I Love Credit Cards

Clearly, cutting up credit cards won’t address these economic changes or solve America’s debt problem.

In the real world, credit cards are essential. It would be extremely difficult to rent a car or make hotel and airline reservations without a credit card. It would also be tough to pick up the tab at a business lunch or shop online without a credit card.

Personally, I love my credit cards because of the financial freedom they allow me, and my life would come to a grinding halt without them.

Robert and Kim Kiyosaki have been in debt before – a LOT of debt. Here’s the story of how they got themselves out of $1 million in bad debt without bankruptcy.

Fight Debt with Debt

Whenever anyone asks me how to solve the credit card problem, I tell them to fight fire with fire — and debt with debt. The way I solve my increasing needs for cash is to go deeper into debt — good debt, not bad debt.

For example, I use debt — which is essentially tax-free money — to invest in real estate, which in turn increases my cash flow. Not only do I not pay taxes on my debt, I could also pay no taxes (or very little in taxes) on the income from the debt. Hence I earn more but pay less in taxes.

Obviously, in order to do this you need to know how to use debt wisely and responsibly, and must be able to find great investments that increase cash flow.

The Root of the Problem

Most financial experts will scoff at my “fight debt with debt” approach. They’ll say my advice is based on flawed logic, and it may well be — for most people. But I ask you to step back and take a look at the world of finance. As I stated earlier, Wall Street is able to take your debt and turn it into their asset. That’s what financially smart people do, and it’s one example of why rich people get richer.

Unfortunately, most people take bad debt and turn it into horrible debt. This is especially true of poor people and people with bad credit, who have access to only the worst forms of debt and pay the highest interest rates on it.

But their problem isn’t credit cards — it’s a lack of financial know-how. And at the root of that lack of knowledge is our school system and its archaic curriculum, which is out of touch with the way people really live.

Clearly, advising people to cut up their credit cards won’t solve the problem of excessive credit card debt. A pair of scissors won’t make anyone financially smarter, but some financial education just might.

Robert Kiyosaki is an investor, businessman, author, financial expert and motivational speaker.

Copyright 2009 Beliefnet, Inc. All rights reserved.

Don’t Let Heartburn Turn Deadly

Anil Minocha, MD

University of Mississippi

Nearly everyone suffers from heartburn from time to time, but frequent episodes (two or more times weekly) can signal a condition that must be taken seriously. Chronic heartburn, also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), can lead to internal bleeding and scarring — even a deadly form of cancer. More than 20 million Americans have GERD.

Alarming new finding: The number of people hospitalized for conditions related to GERD doubled between 1998 and 2005, according to the US government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

What Goes Wrong

When you eat or drink, food and liquid move from your mouth to the esophagus, where a valve, called the lower esophageal sphincter, relaxes to allow the food and liquid to pass into your stomach. The lower esophageal sphincter then squeezes shut to keep stomach contents from backing up (a process known as reflux) into the esophagus.

Some degree of reflux occurs normally — including after meals. But when reflux becomes excessive, causes complications or affects quality of life, it is called GERD.

Symptoms that may be misdiagnosed: GERD, with or without heartburn, also can be characterized by chronic hoarseness or cough, sore throat or asthma — conditions that occur when gastric contents come in contact with the upper respiratory tract.

A Life-threatening Danger

No one knows exactly why some people suffer from frequent reflux. But regardless of the cause, chronic reflux can lead to injury and bleeding in the esophagus, which sometimes affects swallowing. With time (sometimes just a few years), cells lining the esophagus can become precancerous as a result of chronic inflammation. This condition, known as Barrett’s esophagus, can lead to esophageal cancer, which is often fatal and is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the US.

Important: Because GERD can lead to serious, even life-threatening complications, see a doctor if you have heartburn two or more times weekly — or if you have symptoms, such as difficulty swallowing or unexplained chronic cough or hoarseness, that don’t respond to standard treatment, such as medication and lifestyle changes.

Getting the Right Diagnosis

A primary care doctor or gastroenterologist usually diagnoses GERD on the basis of the symptoms described earlier. In some cases, the doctor will perform endoscopy, in which a thin, flexible, fiber-optic tube is passed down the throat to examine the esophagus and upper part of the stomach.

Ask your doctor about: An esophageal acidity test. With this procedure, a tiny device is placed in the esophagus to monitor levels of acidity for 24 hours (very high levels usually indicate GERD). This test typically is used when a patient has not responded to treatment or has atypical symptoms (such as chronic cough or hoarseness).

Best Medication Choices

Over-the-counter (OTC) antacids, such as TUMS, Rolaids and Maalox, neutralize stomach acid and may help relieve heartburn, but they do not heal the injury to the esophagus caused by reflux. People who have frequent heartburn usually get better results from acid-reducing prescription medication, such as H2 blockers, including ranitidine (Zantac) and famotidine (Pepcid), or proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), including omeprazole (Prilosec) and esomeprazole (Nexium). Some of these medications are available OTC.

Ask your doctor about: Potential side effects of long-term use of PPIs, which include reduced absorption of vitamin B-12, calcium and magnesium, higher risk for bone fractures and increased risk for respiratory infections.

Small Changes That Help

If followed conscientiously, lifestyle changes can eliminate the need for medication in up to 20% of GERD sufferers. My advice…

Check your medications. Calcium channel blockers and beta-blockers taken for high blood pressure or heart disease, as well as some antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication, can reduce lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure and may worsen GERD. If you have heartburn symptoms, ask the doctor who prescribed your medication about alternatives.

Modify your eating habits. Small, frequent meals leave the stomach quickly, thus providing less opportunity for reflux. Avoid foods that may worsen GERD: Onions, chocolate and fatty foods reduce LES pressure, allowing reflux to occur.

Sleep right. If you’re troubled by reflux when you sleep, place a foam wedge under the mattress or wooden blocks under the bedposts to elevate the head of your bed by four to six inches. Important: Extra pillows under your head will not do the job. They will raise your head, but won’t change the angle between your stomach contents and your LES.

Alternative Approaches

Stress causes the LES to relax more often, increasing reflux episodes. Practicing a regular stress-reduction technique, such as deep-breathing exercises, has been shown to reduce the amount of acid in the esophagus. Also helpful…

Acupuncture. This ancient Chinese practice is most likely to help people diagnosed with “slow stomach” — that is, their GERD is worsened by food taking longer to leave the stomach. Acupuncture can improve the movement and emptying of stomach contents.

Probiotics, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, are “friendly” bacteria that reduce the harmful effects of acid in the esophagus. My advice: Eat yogurt or kefir containing “live, active” cultures twice daily.

The Surgical Option

Surgery usually is an option if drug treatment and alternative approaches have failed.

In the standard procedure, called fundoplication, part of the upper stomach is wrapped around the LES to strengthen it. This operation can be performed with tiny incisions (laparoscopically), rather than by opening the chest.

In one study of 100 individuals, 90% expressed overall satisfaction with the surgery. Although 80% continued to take anti-reflux medications, most took lower doses than before the surgery. Some new procedures, which involve injections or sutures to tighten the LES, are promising but unproven.

Bottom Line/Health interviewed Anil Minocha, MD, professor of medicine and director of the division of digestive diseases, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi. He is the author of How to Stop Heartburn (Wiley).

Bottom Line Secrets is a registered trademark of Boardroom Inc. Copyright (c) 2010 by Boardroom Inc.

Get Fit in Just a Few Minutes

By Joan Price

Lack of time is a primary reason people give for failing to get the recommended 30 to 60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise most days of the week. Admittedly, it can be tough to find such a big chunk of time in your busy schedule.

What helps: Instead of feeling compelled to cram an entire day’s worth of exercise into a single block of time, commit to fitting in little bursts of physical activity — two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes — throughout the day. The more these “fitness minutes” add up, the more you reap the benefits of exercise, including improved health, better weight control, increased energy and a sense of well-being.

In the Morning...

When your alarm clock rings — instead of pressing the snooze button, get up and use those extra minutes to do some gentle yoga poses.

While brushing your teeth — do calf raises. Standing, slowly rise onto the balls of your feet… hold for several seconds… return to the starting position. Repeat, continuing for two minutes.

In the shower — give your upper back muscles a workout. Squeeze your shoulder blades together… hold for five to 10 seconds… rest for a moment. Repeat 10 to 15 times.

While you style your hair — squeeze your buttocks muscles as hard as you can for 10 seconds… rest for several seconds… repeat five to 10 times.

When going down stairs — turn around at the bottom of the stairs and go back up, making one or more extra up-and-down trips.

As the coffee is brewing — hop on your right foot 10 times… then hop on the left foot. Repeat twice.

When letting the dog out — go with him for a short walk.

Out and About…

At the gas station — walk inside to pay rather than swiping a credit card at the pump. Instead of sitting in your car as the gas flows, clean all your windows, alternating the hand that holds the squeegee.

At every red light — do shoulder shrugs and roll your shoulders… repeatedly tighten and release your thigh muscles… rotate one wrist, then the other wrist.

When parking — instead of finding a spot close to your destination, get one a few blocks away.

Upon entering a store — if all the items you need will fit in a shopping basket, choose a basket instead of a cart.

As you shop – if you need a cart, do 10 bicep curls with weightier items — soup cans, juice jugs — before placing them in your cart. (If you feel silly doing this in public, do your bicep curls at home as you put the items in the pantry.)

While waiting in line — work your abdominal muscles. Suck in your belly and tighten your abs… hold for 10 seconds… relax. Repeat five to 10 times.

On a long car trip — stop every 50 miles or so, and take a walk around a rest stop or scenic area.

When traveling by bus, plane or train — walk up and down the aisle for at least five minutes every hour.

At Your Desk...

While on the phone — march in place or pace around your office.

As you read e-mail — lift your right foot several inches off the floor… rotate your ankle clockwise several times, then counterclockwise… lower the foot. Repeat on the left side.

If you need to talk with a coworker — walk over to her office instead of phoning. When you get back to your own desk, before sitting down, hold your arms out to the side and circle them forward 15 times, then backward.

Each time you finish a task – do “chair dips.” With feet flat on the floor, place your hands on the armrests and push your body up (so your rear end hovers above the seat)… hold for several seconds… lower yourself back into the chair. Repeat 10 times. (Skip this if your chair has wheels.)

During your lunch break — take a walk through the office complex.

In the restroom — stand and reach for the sky for 30 seconds… then do 10 jumping jacks.

If you drop a pencil (or at least once a day) — do a variation on toe touches. Stand up, bend down, pick up the pencil, straighten up… drop the pencil again. Repeat 10 times.

In the Evening…

Before starting dinner — take a quick ride around the neighborhood on your bicycle.

At the dinner table — do leg lifts. Sit with feet flat on the floor. Straighten your right leg to hold your right foot out in front of you… lift your right thigh a few inches off the chair and hold for several seconds… lower the foot. Repeat 10 times, then switch to the left leg.

Doing laundry — when you grab a basket of clothes, tighten abdominal muscles and, with your back straight, lift the basket from hip height to chest height five times.

Listening to the radio or a CD — dance around the room for one entire song. Repeat several times.

While watching TV — pop an exercise video or DVD in your player. Every time the TV show cuts to a commercial break, turn on the player and follow along with the workout for several minutes.

Climbing the stairs — take the steps two at a time. (Do not do this if you have balance problems.)

After washing your face — tilt your head slowly from side to side, feeling a good stretch along your neck… try to touch your chin to your chest to stretch the back of your neck.

Before climbing into bed – raise your arms overhead… tilt gently to the right, feeling the stretch along the left side of your torso… then tilt to the left. Repeat five times.

When you lie down – do knee hugs. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the mattress. Raise one leg, place your hands behind the thigh and draw the leg toward your chest. Hold for 30 seconds… return to starting position. Repeat with the other leg.

Closing your eyes — breathe in and out deeply 10 times, feeling grateful for all that your body was capable of doing during the day.

Bottom Line/Women’s Health interviewed Joan Price, a certified fitness instructor and motivational speaker based in Sebastopol, California, and author of six books, including The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book (iUniverse). She credits her commitment to exercise for her success in twice regaining the ability to walk and dance after two head-on car crashes. www.joanprice.com

Bottom Line Secrets is a registered trademark of Boardroom Inc. Copyright (c) 2010 by Boardroom Inc.

Mad at Work? Don’t Have a Heart Attack

By Carole Jackson

Bottom Line’s Daily Health News

There’s a motto that many folks swear by at work — “Go along to get along” — and it suddenly looks like very bad advice. That’s because new research has found a link between suppressing workplace anger and increased risk for heart attack. In other words, holding anger inside at the office could literally kill you.

Though this research began more than a decade ago, it has become particularly relevant in our difficult economic times. Workers may feel uneasy about the consequences of disagreement or having a misunderstanding with a boss or colleague. People may experience more job-related pressures but also feel less appreciated. We’ve heard many disturbing accounts of disgruntled workers reacting violently when things aren’t going the way they want them to… yet as this study makes clear, it’s not healthy to hold in your feelings all the time either.

Mad Men at Work

Working with a group of 2,832 Swedish men, the researchers designed a questionnaire to quantify each participant’s typical style for handling angry feelings toward superiors or colleagues at work. A series of questions measured the likelihood that each participant would react “covertly” by suppressing his anger (walking away and taking some time to calm himself, but not taking up the issue again)… holding feelings inside and later developing physical symptoms such as a headache or stomachache… or venting his anger elsewhere. What they found is what makes gulping down your angry thoughts and words at work look very unwise. The more covert a participant’s style of handling workplace anger, the more likely he was to have had a heart attack in the period between 1992 (when the study began) and 2003 (when it ended).

What does this mean for heart health? The researchers found that those who tended to handle conflict with a superior or coworker by suppressing their anger without saying anything (just “letting it pass”) had double the risk for heart attack or cardiac death compared with those who never or seldom behaved this way… and for those who held their anger inside and suffered physical distress later, the risk was triple.

Note: Though this study examined only men, study coauthor Tores Theorell, MD, PhD, professor emeritus and scientific advisor at the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University, said that covert coping is actually even more common among women. The study was reported in the November 2009 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

OK — You’re Mad — What to Do?

The findings suggest that it’s unhealthy to suppress your emotions when you’re treated unfairly, say the researchers. But other research has shown that simply venting — expressing strong anger directly — actually can trigger a heart attack (although rarely), so this is not a healthy option either. I called a workplace-management consultant to ask about the healthiest ways to handle anger at work — both for your well-being and for your career.

“Blowing up or holding in anger can both lead to problems, and people who suppress their anger eventually blow up anyway,” I heard from Emil F. Coccaro, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the clinical neuroscience and psychopharmacology research unit in the department of psychiatry at The University of Chicago. Dr. Coccaro said that the goal is not just to get through a situation but “to be calm inside and out and to not feel as if the world is out to get you.”

Take a Time-Out

The best and simplest strategy for handling anger at work is one any modern parent will recognize — a “time-out.” “Excuse yourself and go for a walk. After you’ve calmed down, you’re more likely to have a discussion that’s rational and produces a good resolution,” Dr. Coccaro said. “If you try to discuss the situation when you’re angry, you’ll say things you’ll regret… and also you won’t get what you want.”

Another cool-down strategy: Do some deep-breathing exercises, or try counting slowly to 10. Then, he suggests, you should mentally review the situation when you’ve calmed down. Consider whether your anger is justified — was what the person said or did really so bad? Could it be that you were just feeling irritable that day? Or perhaps you need to take some responsibility… did your own actions trigger something you hadn’t foreseen? It’s important to try to understand the situation more completely.

Everyone gets angry from time to time and sometimes with good reason. If you’re blowing up a few times a week, you may need to be evaluated for anger-management problems, Dr. Coccaro said. Treatment may involve talking with a therapist and sometimes even medication for a short while to help you learn to reframe your thinking about your interactions with others. Sometimes at least some of the problem lies within.

Tores Theorell, MD, PhD, professor emeritus, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden.

Emil F. Coccaro, MD, E.C. Manning Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral neuroscience, Biological Sciences Division, The University of Chicago.

Bottom Line’s Daily Health News is a registered trademark of Boardroom, Inc. Copyright (c) 2010 by Boardroom Inc.

Potato Chips Can Be Healthy

By Carole Jackson

Bottom Line’s Daily Health News

With all the recent talk about a “sin tax” on sugary sodas, I’m surprised no one is talking about slapping a tariff on deep-fried foods — yes, they are tasty as anything, but they’re also really terrible for your health. I spoke recently with one of our favorite nutritionists, Jane Kirby, RD, author of several cookbooks as well as books on nutrition and weight loss. Our conversation veered in the direction of admittedly delicious foods that you can’t, in good conscience, enjoy very often — and she offered some great advice on how to prepare foods so that they can achieve that seductive deep-fried crunch while still retaining some measure of being “good for you,” too. You will want to try her cooking methods, but first…

Why Not Fried Foods?

Nutritionists caution against eating fried foods for two reasons, says Kirby. For starters, frying adds lots of calories to food (fat has nine calories per gram compared with just four per gram for protein or carbs), but the second reason is more disturbing — it is impossible to fry foods without having at least some oxidation in the oil, which creates those nasty free radicals that contribute to cardiac disease and other health problems.

It’s actually quite fascinating what happens to food when you fry it. When you cook food in hot oil, the heat transforms the food’s internal moisture into steam, which cooks the food inside and pushes steam against the surface. This is supposed to block the oil from seeping in — but it is a difficult feat to pull off, because it requires a very particular oil temperature, just below the oil’s smoking point. Cooler will slow down moisture conversion giving the oil plenty of time to soak in… if hotter, you risk taking the oil to its smoking point, the temperature at which it oxidizes. The first result is bad for you, while the second result is… bad for you.

Better Ways to Get That Crunch

Happily, there are ways to lessen the problems inherent in frying. Let’s start with sautéing, thought by many to be a healthier way to cook. It is, but only when done the right way. Unfortunately, the usual way people “sauté” is to pour oil in a pan, heat it up and plop in the food, giving it an occasional stir. This is in fact frying and not sautéing, Kirby says. She explains that sauté literally means “jump,” a skill television chefs demonstrate when they continuously shake a pan to tumble the food within. Mastering this skill lets you achieve that crispy crust with less oil — agitating the food brings its entire surface into contact with the hot oil for brief periods but not long enough that it soaks in. If you haven’t honed this skill, try just stirring the food quickly and continuously over fairly high heat (don’t let it reach the smoking point) until it is done.

For dishes that use onions and garlic, Kirby suggests “sweating” them first in a mere shimmer of oil. Here’s how: Place chopped onions and garlic into a pan with a half-teaspoon of oil, cover and cook slowly on a low heat to release the moisture. Once you’ve done that you can add vegetables and protein and, if you want, a bit more oil. Turn up the heat to cook rapidly as you stir. You can add flavor by pouring a small amount of olive oil over the food just before serving.

Least Harmful Ways to Fry

Should you opt to pan- or deep-fry food, here are the ways to protect it from becoming loaded with unhealthy fat and calories…

* Use an oil with a high smoking point. This is one type of cooking for which virgin (not extra virgin) olive oil is preferable, since extra virgin olive oil is more fragile and has a much lower smoking point (320 degrees, compared with 420 degrees). Other good choices: Palm oil has a high smoking point (about 425 degrees), as do corn oil (about 450 degrees), walnut and canola oils (about 400 degrees). All these are healthful choices in small amounts.

* Food must be at room temperature before cooking — chilled food lowers the temperature of the oil too much.

* Don’t overcrowd the pan — this, too, lowers the temperature of the oil.

* Don’t use fat in your batter — batter with fat in it attracts more fat to it, says Kirby. Instead, dip food in egg whites… then flour… then water, fat-free milk or flattened beer rather than whole eggs and whole milk. Seasoned bread crumbs, following a quick egg dip, also make a nice, fat-free batter, good for coating chicken breasts and fish fillets.

* Never reuse oil — once it has been heated it has oxidized and should be tossed.

Crispy-Like-Fried

For almost fat-free foods that are crispy-like-fried, turn to your oven. First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees (on bake) for vegetables. Cut food into small pieces and coat lightly with oil or batter, then spread on a cooking sheet and pop into your oven.

For chicken breasts and fish fillets, preheat to 375 degrees, then dip into seasoned, fine bread crumbs… then milk… and back into the crumbs for another coating. Bake fish about 10 minutes and chicken about 15. The coating combines with the oven’s heat to turn out food that is crispy, browned and delicious.

And here’s a tasty — and healthier — way to enjoy potato chips: Slice potatoes thinly and evenly, then spritz lightly with olive oil (you can buy olive oil spray cans from Amazon.com for about $20)… and place on a flat pan in one layer. Bake the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. (If they’re thickly sliced, they’ll need to be turned midway.) Kirby’s insider tip — refrigerate potatoes overnight before you cook them (usually a huge no-no for potatoes) to convert their starch to sugar. This will make them even crispier when oven-fried. Sweet potatoes are also excellent prepared this way (no need to refrigerate the raw sweet potatoes).

Who needs to fry?

Jane Kirby, RD, CD, CCP, author of several cookbooks and books on nutrition and weight loss… former program director of Vtrim, an on-line weight-loss program at the University of Vermont… and founder of Vermont Grain Mills (organic whole grains), Charlotte, Vermont, www.vermontgrainmills.com

Bottom Line’s Daily Health News is a registered trademark of Boardroom, Inc. Copyright (c) 2010 by Boardroom Inc.

Principled Communication

by Stephen R. Covey

If our motive is to manipulate, our communication and our leadership in general will prove to be ineffective over time.

In recent years, since the publication of my book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I have worked with many wonderful individuals who are seeking to improve the quality of their communications, relationships, products, services, organizations, and lives.

But sadly, I see many people using a variety of ill-advised approaches. In effect, they try to apply short-cut, manipulative practices learned in academic and social systems to natural systems, the “farms” of their lives.

The Problem: Alternate Centers

Let me share with you some examples of the problem. Then I will suggest the principle-centered solution. Some executives justify heavy-handed means in the name of virtuous ends. They say that “business is business” and that “ethics” and “principles” sometimes have to take a back seat to profits. Many see no correlation between the quality of their personal lives at home and the quality of their communications at work. Because of the social and political environment inside their organizations and the fragmented markets outside, they think they can abuse relationships at will and still get results.

The head coach of a professional football team once told me that some players don’t pay the price in the off-season. “They come to camp out of shape,” he said. “Somehow they think they can fool me, make the team, and play great in the games.”

When I ask in my seminars, “How many of you would agree that the vast majority of the work force possess far more capability, creativity, talent, initiative, and resourcefulness than their present jobs allow or require them to use?” the affirmative response is about 99 percent. We all admit that our greatest resources are being wasted.

Our heroes are often people who make a lot of money. And when some hero an actor, entertainer, athlete, or other professional suggests that we can get what we want by practicing hardball negotiation, closing win-lose deals, and playing by our own rules, we believe them, especially if social norms reinforce what they say.

Some parents don’t pay the price with their kids, thinking they can fake it for the public image and then shout and slam the door. They are then shocked to see that their teenage kids experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sex to fill the void in their lives.

When I invited one executive to involve all his people and take six months to write a corporate mission statement, he said, “You don’t understand, Stephen.

We will whip this baby out this weekend.” I see people trying to do it all over a weekend trying to rebuild their marriage on a weekend, trying to change a company culture on a weekend, trying to pump out a major new business proposal. Some things just can’t be done over a weekend.

Many executives take criticism personally because they are emotionally dependent on their employees’ acceptance of them. A state of collusion is established where executives and employees need each other’s weaknesses to validate their perceptions of each other and to justify their own lack of production.

In management, everything goes to measurement. July belongs to the operators, but December belongs to the controllers. And the figures are manipulated at the end of the year to make them look good. The numbers are supposed to be precise and objective, but everyone knows they are based on subjective assumptions.

Most people are turned off by “motivational” speakers who have nothing more to share than entertaining stories mingled with “motherhood and apple pie” platitudes; they want substance; they want process; they want more than aspirin and band-aids for acute pain. They want to solve their chronic problems and achieve long-term results.

I once spoke to a group of executives at a training conference and discovered that they were bitter because the CEO had “forced” them to “come and sit for four days to listen to a bunch of abstract thoughts.” They were part of a paternalistic culture that saw training as an expense, not an investment. Their organization managed people as things.

In school, we ask students to tell us what we told them; we test them on our lectures. They figure out the system, and then they party, procrastinate, and cram to get the grades. They think all of life operates on the same short-cut system.

The Solution: Center on Principles

These are problems that common approaches can’t solve. Quick, easy, free, and fun approaches won’t work on the “farms” of our lives because there we’re subject to natural laws and governing principles. Natural laws, based upon principles, operate regardless of our awareness of them or our obedience to them. Often habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short-term thinking. In school, many of us procrastinate and then successfully cram for tests. But does cramming work on a farm? Can you go two weeks without milking the cow, and then get out there and milk like crazy? Can you “forget” to plant in the spring, goof off all summer, and then hit the ground real hard in the fall to bring in the harvest? We might laugh at such ludicrous approaches in agriculture, but then in academic environments, we might cram to get grades and degrees.

The only thing that endures over time is the law of the farm: I must prepare the ground, put in the seed, cultivate, weed, water, and nurture growth. So also in a business or a marriage there is no quick fix where you can just move in and magically make everything right with a positive mental attitude and a package of success formulas.

Correct principles are like compasses: they are always pointing the way. And if we know how to read them, we won’t get lost, confused, or fooled by conflicting voices and values. Principles such as fairness, equity, justice, integrity, honesty, and trust are not invented by us: they are the laws of the universe that pertain to human relationships and organizations. They are part of the human condition, consciousness, and conscience.

People instinctively trust those whose personalities are founded upon correct principles. We have evidence of this in our long-term relationships. We learn that technique is relatively unimportant compared to trust, which is the result of our trustworthiness over time. When trust is high, we communicate easily, effortlessly, instantaneously. We can make mistakes, and others will still capture our meaning. But when trust is low, communication is exhausting, time-consuming, ineffective, and inordinately difficult.

Most people would rather work on their personality than on their character. The former may involve learning a new skill, style, or image, but the latter involves changing habits, developing virtues, disciplining appetites and passions, keeping promises, and being considerate of the feelings and convictions of others. Character development is the best manifestation of our maturity. To value oneself and, at the same time, subordinate oneself to higher purposes and principles is the paradoxical essence of highest humanity and the foundation of effective leadership.

Principle-centered leaders are men and women of character who work with competence “on farms” with “seed and soil” and who work in harmony with natural, “true north” principles and with the law of the harvest. They build those principles into the center of their lives, into the center of their relationships, into the center of their communications and contracts, into their management processes, and into their mission statements.

© 1996, 1998 Covey Leadership Center and FranklinCovey. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2009 Beliefnet, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sorry You Got That Tattoo?

By Carole Jackson

Bottom Line’s Daily Health News

Summer’s here — and the tattoos are out! Is it just me, or are they getting more and more spectacular?

I’ve seen some big, eye-catching ones on young men and women, which I have to admit always leads me to wonder what will happen when age and gravity take over. I read that about 45 million Americans now sport tattoos — not all happily, as the same report said that 100,000 or so seek to have them taken off each year. I called Mary Ellen Brademas, MD, a dermatologist in private practice and clinical assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City to learn what’s involved in removing a tattoo — and as it turns out, it’s quite a process. If you have a tattoo… might get one… or know someone who may one day wonder what he/she was thinking, this will be good information to have…

Tattoo Regret

Dr. Brademas told me that in her experience, tattoos proclaiming eternal passion for “Belinda” or “Bobby” (or whomever) seem to be the ones people most often regret getting. She estimates that about half the people who get tattoos eventually wish they hadn’t… even more so, I’d guess, when they learn how painful and time-consuming the process of removal can be — physically and fiscally. Health insurance doesn’t cover tattoo removal since it’s cosmetic, and the cost often exceeds $1,000. Dr. Brademas walked me through the options…

* Laser removal. This is the most common method of tattoo removal. Its price tag (several thousand dollars) is about 10 times what it costs to get a typical tattoo, and lasers are not always 100% effective at getting them off either. Plus it hurts — Dr. Brademas described it as feeling like “hot specks of bacon grease on the skin.” Laser removal works by beaming powerfully intense light through multiple layers of skin. This blasts the pigmented inks used in the tattoo into smaller particles that the body gradually expels as waste. The process usually involves several treatments over several months and often leaves a scar that you may then want to work on having removed.

* Intense Pulsed Light Therapy (IPL). This is also a laser, in this case using a very high-intensity, filtered light to obliterate the inks. It is somewhat less painful than conventional laser removal (because it uses diffuse light) — it’s also somewhat more expensive. IPL is good at removing blue and black inks, while more complex ink colors and patterns are often more cost-effectively treated with regular lasers.

* Dermabrasion and excision. Dermabrasion essentially sands your skin to remove the tattoo, while with excision it is cut away. Another option is skin grafting, where skin is taken from another site (an unobtrusive one, like behind the ear) and used to cover the tattoo. Best for small tattoos, these removal methods leave scars.

* Bleaching. Dermatologist-prescribed bleaching creams can help fade tattoos, but with varying effectiveness — they work best on very new tattoos, so this might be a good option for a tattoo you immediately regret getting. Beware of tattoo removal creams sold on the Internet. Dr. Brademas called them ineffective, at best — at worst, dangerous because some are formulated with corrosive substances (such as acid) that may permanently damage your skin. They’re not regulated, so there’s no way to measure safety.

Will It Work?

To increase your odds of success, Dr. Brademas advises that you consult a board-certified dermatologist with experience in tattoo removal — in many cities, you can find dermatologists whose practice is almost entirely removing tattoos. She said that even beyond your physician’s skill, success in tattoo removal depends on several variables…

* Depth and color of the tattoo. Light-colored, superficial tattoos, as well as older tattoos, are easier to remove than deeply placed ones. And, because laser machines must be dialed to the specific light frequency that will break up each color being removed, some colors come off more easily than others — for example, black is easier to eliminate than yellow or green.

* Location. If a tattoo is difficult for a doctor to get to — for instance, where there are folds of skin or near the eyes — it may be hard for the doctor to remove. Also, tattoos in certain areas — in particular the chest, neck, upper arm and shoulder — are more likely to leave noticeable scars no matter how they’re removed.

* Skin color. The darker your skin, the harder it is to remove a tattoo.

Mary Ellen Brademas, MD, a dermatologist in private practice and a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

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