Monday Musings For The Mind

'A sacrifice is something you give up, usually for the sake of a better cause,' reads one of the definitions given by a free online dictionary. During secondary school some of us studied Kemahiran Hidup or 'life skills' so to speak, and one of the topics that came up was 'Kos Lepas.' This is loosely defined as something you lose when another option is chosen.

Put a magnifying glass on our lives for a moment. Let's see what are the things we sacrifice on a daily basis and the impact it potentially has, whether we're aware of it or not.

You used to love exercise. Every day you either go jogging around the park nearby your house, or play a game of badminton with your colleagues in the evening. Lately there's been a new series airing on cable TV which you're in love with. You now finish your work as quickly and efficiently as possible, so you can rush home to the television. Be careful, you're potentially sacrificing your health for entertainment.

Once upon a time you only clocked out late from the office, when there was an urgent task to attend to. Usually when you got home, there was always time to embrace your wife and kids before having a simple dinner together. Nowadays you're determined to keep working for as long and late as possible, because you're obsessed with clinching that promotion. You won't stop until you get it. Beware, you might be sacrificing your family's happiness for a higher work position.

During your college / university days, being 'economical' with your spending was the norm. Saving was a widespread habit and your expenses were meticulously planned, to ensure you could concentrate on studies without the threat of starvation. But since entering the workforce, you've somehow awakened the 'shopping spirit' within you. Your wallet / handbag itches whenever you lay your eyes upon that latest gadget, clothing accessory or automobile. Watch yourself. You may be sacrificing long term financial stability, for temporary material gain.

As the call for Subuh prayer was gently spreading through your neighbourhood, normally your eyelids responded automatically by uncovering your eyes and within one minute you were off to the bathroom to take your wudhu'. These days (and especially during the weekends) the bed has become your best friend and you're starting to grow accustomed to this new routine of non-stop snooze. Warning. You're essentially sacrificing your relationship with God, all for the sake of uninterrupted sleep.

So what have you been sacrificing all this while? Have the choices you made been worth it? Do all of them culminate in you achieving what you want in this life and the next? If the answer is yes, then good for you. However if your answer is to the contrary then it's time to reconsider your priorities. It's never too late to change as long as we're still breathing. But don't wait too long as we never know when the better alternatives have been completely sacrificed, beyond recourse.

      

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Napoleon Hill

Monday Musings For The Mind

Last week there was a new series being aired on National Geographic, which focused on the various schemes concocted by small and big time criminals around the world. The episode featured the city of Buenos Aires in Argentina and it brought to light a counterfeit money scam headed by a man dubbed 'The Artist.'

As the host managed to arrange a meeting with 'The Artist,' he was taken aback by the appearance of a man in his 60's, soft-spoken and looking rather laidback. The fascinating part was his love for what he did, and his abject refusal to change his ways. It was later revealed that after he did time in jail, his wife made him choose between his life of crime or their family. Bizarrely, he decided he could not let go of what he thought was an integral part of his life so his family left him. 'The Artist' held firm to his twisted principles and never looked back.

A couple of months ago I personally spoke to a certified practitioner of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), who shared his experience treating a patient who was struggling with a deep-rooted phobia. The patient developed a serious phobia of frogs, and blamed his brother as the main cause after he threw a live frog at him when they were little. After years of refusing to speak to his own kin, the NLP trainer felt he was gradually making progress which centered around convincing the patient to forgive his brother for the incident. Unfortunately as they were moving forward, the patient himself suddenly decided to stop treatment, claiming he wasn't ready to forgive his own flesh and blood.

This reveals a lot about how far we can go to try and change a person. It takes blood, sweat and tears to persuade that loved one to take a step in the right direction. You can move mountains, pave the way, and open the door to a new beginning. But when push comes to shove,  he or she must be the one to move their own feet, and ignite their own intention of wanting to walk through that door.

What National Geographic didn't reveal was how many times 'The Artist's' wife begged him to turn over a new leaf, while The NLP practitioner admitted he backed off after the patient felt he's had enough. It makes you wonder how far are we willing to go, to change a person we care deeply about. How much are we willing to sweat? How badly are we willing to bleed? Because sometimes it just seems we've done everything within our powers and we can absolve ourselves of any blame.

Because we did our best...

Or have we?       

When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.

Erma Bombeck 

Digital Solutions To Be Awesome.......:-)

Thinking about shedding some weight and getting fit before the New Year Thanks to your smartphone and the wide world of the Internet, it’s never been easier to adopt, track and maintain a healthy lifestyle. From digital diaries to more sophisticated constructs like Gympact, digital tools are at your disposal, motivating you to lose that gut and up your fitness level.

New ways to be healthy........

But any good health expert will tell you that physical activities are only half of the equation. In order to prime your body for weight loss, muscle gain and higher energy levels, you must also watch your nutrition levels and maintain a healthy diet. And while there’s no panacea for getting rid of the excess poundage you’ve accumulated, there are a melange of diets to suit your specific needs. The best part, of course, is that there’s no nutritionist, meal delivery or book required — these dieting platforms will help you lose weight and keep it off at roughly the price of a large coffee.

Here’s a roundup of some standout diet apps, based on some popular dieting methods. What’s your go-to diet application or software?

1. MyFitnessPal

Source : www.MyFitnessPal.com

Perhaps the most popular system to keep track of calories, MyFitnessPal is essentially a comprehensive food dictionary and diary that assists in the raw numbers of calories-in, calories-out dieting. Simply type in your height and weight, your average exercise level and your goal weight, and MyFitnessPal will set a recommended daily amount of calories to safely lose those pounds.

While it doesn’t offer recipes, MyFitnessPal stores the nutritional information of an amazing number of food items, both store-bought and at popular chain restaurants. For example, a simple type of “Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast” will yield multiple user-produced entries for the popular breakfast meal, including optional additions such as hash browns and pancakes. MyFitnessPal tries to take the headache out of calorie counting by providing as many of these items as possible, and for the most part, it succeeds. The app does require an active commitment, though, so don’t expect it to work miracles if you’re less than inclined to record your intake (or fudge it).

MyFitnessPal is totally free, and operates in a comprehensive browser app and via every major smartphone carrier. The only investment you need to make is your own effort.

2. VegWeb

Source :www.vegweb.com

A meatless diet is relatively ubiquitous these days as both a healthy and ethical option, and more people are turning to vegetarianism and veganism than ever before. But one of the most difficult things about going meatless (and eschewing dairy and other animal byproducts) is getting enough variety. While it can be incredibly boring to reheat the same frozen burger every evening, lacking variety can also lead to malnutrition. Because vegetarians and vegans don’t get the comprehensive protein construct that animals provide, having a diverse amount of food is key to preventing poor health.

Enter VegWeb, a free online community where vegetarians and vegans can upload their favorite meatless meals. In addition to providing recipes from popular vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, VegWeb works as a sort of AllRecipes platform, enabling users to share and review each other’s favorite home-cooking staples.

The free website also includes access to a message board community, which covers diet and exercise as well as lifestyle queries and product sharing.

3. HappyCow

When forgoing animals in your diet, it’s only half the battle to construct a meal plan that meets your nutritional needs. It can be a serious bummer when you meet friends at a local hotspot, where the closest thing to a vegetarian option is a bacon-flecked potato skin. Luckily, many restaurants are offering vegetarian and vegan options, and some are going whole-hog (so to speak) and abolishing meat from the menu en masse.

Source:www.happycow.com

HappyCow does an amazing job at documenting veg-friendly restaurants. The Yelp-like web resource offers listings and reviews of restaurants and health food stores across the world. Users are able to search restaurants by location and narrow down results by vegetarian, vegan and veg-friendly. Also, in addition to user ratings, the astute members of the HappyCow community do well to give comprehensive nutritional information and tidbits beyond “try the quinoa.”

While the online version of HappyCow is free, the mobile outlet of the website — which includes integrated maps and a list of the most popular restaurants — costs between two and three bucks, depending on your platform. Still, HappyCow is an invaluable resource for vegetarians and vegans looking to eat out without packing their own meals.

4. FastPaleo

Source : www.fastpaleo.com

One of the fastest-rising food and lifestyle programs is the Paleolithic diet — called “Paleo,” for short. Followers of Paleo adhere to a simple rule: If our great-great ancestors, the hunter-gatherers, couldn’t eat it, then we shouldn’t either. For the uninitiated, this means that Paleo adopters don’t eat grains, legumes (including peanuts), dairy products, refined sugars or oils. 

It’s a challenging diet, but the key is variety and resources like FastPaleo. With a bank of roughly 1,200 recipes, FastPaleo includes many balanced and comprehensive meals that would make any Paleo follower a happy camper. And if you’re not keen on following a strict Paleo diet or are easing into the process, there are plenty of dairy recipes to help with the full transition. With comprehensive reviews, shopping list capabilities and a smart cheat sheet, there’s plenty of food strategies to keep out of a rut.

Users can sign in to the website for free, but should be prepared to cough up a dollar for smartphone access. Regardless, FastPaleo is a great way to find recipes all in one place, rather than combing blogs and books for your diet needs.

5. Do Eat Raw

Celebrities like Demi Moore and Alicia Silverstone swear by the raw food diet, which — if you can’t guess — involves only eating food that heated to 118 degrees or less. Completely nixing animals and their by products, as well as wheats and grains like rice and raw foodists rely on fruits and vegetables to make up about 75% of their diets.

source : www.doeatraw.com

With such a restrictive diet program, it can be incredibly difficult to not only find food variety to keep adequate nutrition, but also to prevent burnout. One website, Do Eat Raw, provides a rich recipe-sharing platform for all raw foodists. Including recipes such as raw beet ravioli and banana chocolate ice cream, Do Eat Raw features a good mix of different cuisines to spice up the raw diet. Naturally, there is also a rich juicing and smoothie section fit for everyone, so even those who are skittish of the raw food lifestyle can find good information.

While Do Eat Raw provides free recipes for all, the website also contains a $10 e-book that covers everything from dressings to dessert. There is also an app for the iPhone, which includes shopping lists. If you’re ready to take the plunge, Do Eat Raw will help you eat the diet of the stars.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, webphotographeer

Fashion Industry ; Virtual Technologies Increase ROI

Online Shopping ; Digital Tools

The fashion industry has deep roots in traditional business practices and has been late to adopt new technology. Nearly every aspect of the industry relies on people rather than machines — everything from hand-sketched designs to the buying process, where an individual buyer’s personal tastes can dictate an entire department store’s orders.

In the past few years, we’ve been seeing all aspects of the industry suddenly affected by new technology, increasing efficiency and providing much needed data analysis and tracking components. Instead of relying on people to analyze, project and improve, fashion brands now have the digital technologies to meet these needs in a much faster way.

1. Buying Process: Crowdsourcing Styles, Better Projections

Source : Style Hop.com

Until recently, fashion retailers relied on the expertise of merchants and buyers to use their best judgment to identify which designs have the most commercial potential. Historical sales data never resulted in consistently better merchandising decisions, because it doesn’t add much value in making forecasts for trend-driven product categories. In fashion, what merchants and buyers require is information or data about what’s going to happen, not what already happened.

These days, companies like StyleHop are allowing fashion merchants and buyers to leverage crowdsourcing to get forward-looking, fast-turnaround, predictive analytics that dramatically improve their style picking capabilities. One collective intelligence company in the fashion space has conducted pilot research that shows, when done correctly, crowdsourcing can improve product selection by more than seven times. Leveraging collective intelligence helps retailers pick more productive inventory, leading to lower markdowns, higher profits and a better selection for fashion-hungry consumers.

FashionStake is solving the same issue with a different approach. It allows customers to invest in a designer or a brand by pre-ordering the items. That way, the company allows the designers to produce to order, instead of pushing quantities that may not sell later. This minimizes the risk and allows informed planning of the produced quantities.

2. Online Shopping: Smarter Tools Mean Fewer Returns

Source: MyShape.com

One of the major challenges that most online retailers face is the high percentage of returns; things don’t fit right, the quality of the material is off, or the customer just doesn’t like it. But there are a few companies in the space who are trying to solve the issue by providing more accurate measurement tools and personalized user profiles.

MyShape, one of the pioneers in the space, developed a patented technology that matches shoppers with items that correspond to their personal measurements and preferences, solving the age-old problem of finding clothes that fit and flatter for millions of women. 

In 2009, MyShape introduced Sizeless Dressing which allows women to skip the size labels with the assurance that each piece of clothing they purchase will fit and flatter them. With vanity sizing so prevalent in today’s market, it is often near impossible to guess what size you are from brand to brand.

The newly launched Estonia-based Fits.me is getting lots of buzz these days, after launching with the retailer Hawes & Curtis. Fits.me is a Virtual Fitting Room that helps to solve the single biggest problem for apparel e-commerce: that consumers can’t try the clothes on before they buy. The site’s shape-shifting robotic mannequin takes your body measurements and mimics your shape so that you can see exactly how clothing would fit you. The site has been such a success that online German retailer Quelle saw three times the clothing sales and reduced returns by 28%.

3. Online Shopping: Customization Yields Better Sales

When it comes to the actual shopping experience, customization and personalization seem to be the one area where fashion retailers are lagging. But companies like Amadesa are providing a set of solutions targeted at increasing ROI, or simply saving the number of clicks until purchase. From shopping cart optimization to relevant product recommendations and end-to-end testing, Amadesa is helping online retailers convert online window shoppers into actual paying customers. New technologies such as A/B and Multivariate Testing, which didn’t exist in retail stores, let customers’ online actions determine what works best. Now retailers can test images, promotional copy, offers, and a myriad of other elements to improve ROI.

4. In-store Shopping: Collecting Data to Maximize Purchases

Source: ShopKick.com

Just like Amadesa is tracking and analyzing online shoppers, other companies are taking on the challenge at the actual stores, with the help of new mobile technologies. Until now, stores had very little data about shoppers and their experiences, unless a transaction had been made. With the increasing popularity of location-based mobile technologies, retailers are able to track their customers, virtually communicate with them, and of course offer promotions. The two main players in this space offer different approaches.

Novitaz created a complete platform for tracking and managing in-store customer experience by offering a unique device with an active-RFID chip embedded into a credit card or loyalty card, which shows consumer location. It also requires a mobile phone to communicate with the consumer. The platform provides session metrics about consumer preferences, which can then be compiled into a customer profile so later offers can be tailored individually.

Another company competing for the personalized offers offline is ShopKick. Instead of supplying the customer with a special device, it relies on their existing mobile phones. In this case, the main implementation is done on the retailer’s side — ShopKick installs devices in-store, similar to Wi-Fi access points, and the device sends inaudible audio signals, which interact with a phone’s microphone. The offers get sent to the phone, which include the ability to earn points, Facebook currency, song downloads, and instant gift cards that can be redeemed in-store.

5. Media Coverage: Tracking Influence on Sales

Source: FashionGPS.com

All of the solutions above are optimizing the customer ROI, but what about tracking and optimizing media and press? Historically, media coverage has been a major catalyst of retail sales, with magazines dominating the trends for years — making or breaking items simply by featuring them on their glossy pages. Today, the landscape is more complicated, as online press and the proliferation of fashion bloggers are now just as responsible for a major spike in sales. The question is, how do brands keep track of all these media outlets and how do they measure the influence of one versus another?

Fashion GPS is addressing the issue and is truly revolutionizing the space by allowing brands to manage and track all their media connections in one dashboard. Recently, by becoming the official partner of IMG and Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, the company brought the analytics into more than 80 runway shows produced in New York last month.

By integrating bar coded invitations, Fashion GPS was able to track ROI for quality (and track loyalty) of attendees compared to the cost of show production. Brands were able to automatically track media members and the fashion shows they attended, thus keeping a record of their attendance for future reference. In the future, the company plans to add an option to also track media output per media attendee. This will help brands understand which media players are most valuable to their brand image.

This system creates a loop in the fashion show cycle by determining where the dollars should be invested: who should be invited to shows based on their value to the brand (their editorial output or publicity created) and who should receive priority both in terms of invitations and honoring sample requests in the future.