Growing day by day

I am sure that all of us want to be the best that we can be. If you're a student, you want to be the best student, if you're a runner, you want to be the fastest runner, if you're a chef, you want to cook the best food that everyone likes. In life, there's always progress that we all want to achieve. Becoming a better person is one of the goal that we want to achieve. There's nothing wrong when you fail on something as long as you are able to get up and do better. Here's an article about how to grow to become a better person day by day. Little by little you will be a better person. You can if you want to.

Growing Day by Day
Becoming a Better Person

At some point in our lives, many of us find ourselves overcome with the desire to become better people. While we are all uniquely capable of navigating this world, we may nonetheless feel driven to grow, expand, and change. This innate need for personal expansion can lead us down many paths as we develop within the context of our individual lives. Yet the initial steps that can put us on the road to evolution are not always clear. We understand that we want to be better but have no clear definition of “better.” To ease this often frustrating uncertainty, we can take small steps, keeping our own concept of growth in mind rather than allowing others to direct the course of our journey. And we should accept that change won’t happen overnight—we may not recognize the transformations taking place within us at first.

Becoming a better person in your own eyes is a whole-life project, and thus you should focus your step-by-step efforts on multiple areas of your existence. Since you likely know innately which qualities you consider good, growing as an individual is simply a matter of making an effort to do good whenever possible. Respect should be a key element of your efforts. When you acknowledge that all people are deserving of compassion, consideration, and dignity, you are naturally more apt to treat them in the manner you yourself wish to be treated. You will intuitively become a more active listener, universally helpful, and truthful. Going the extra mile in all you do can also facilitate evolution. Approaching your everyday duties with an upbeat attitude and positive expectations can help you make the world a brighter, more cheerful place. Finally, coming to terms with your values and then abiding by them will enable you to introduce a new degree of integrity and dignity into your life.

As you endeavor to develop yourself further, you can take pride not only in your successes, but also in the fact that you are cultivating consciousness within yourself through your choices, actions, and behaviors. While you may never feel you have reached the pinnacles of awareness you hope to achieve, you can make the most of this creative process of transformation. Becoming a better person is your choice and is a natural progression in your journey of self-awareness.

(source from dailyom - images via weheartit.com)

Being confident..

Do you consider yourself as a confident person? Have you ever felt shy in certain situation? If I am being asked this question, I will say that I am a confident person. I am really sure about that. Why? Actually I don't know the reason of it, but I know that when I walk into a room I've never been before, or when I'm about to meet new crowd/group of friends, I always feel confident. I believe that making yourself be a confident person, even if you're actually not really that confident, will make you feel confident in the end. Because it's the thought of confident that will make you feel that you can walk with your chin up. Here are some tips about how to look and feel confident. I like the idea on Graciousness & Awareness

Five Tips to Look (and Feel) Confident (By Vanessa Bader)

You walk into the dinner party and all eyes are on you. You’re standing tall, have a smile on your face and everyone is intently listening to what you have to say ... and then you wake up. The ability to make heads turn is something most of us have fanaticized about, but in reality, how many of us can actually command a room? Check out these tips to look confident and get noticed in every room you want.

1. Awareness - Awareness of the way you present yourself is the first and the most important secret to taking the steps towards making great first impressions and being sure you linger in their minds long after you left. An acute awareness of your posture and your body language is what is going to make all the difference.
2. Good Posture - Your posture is often influenced by your emotions, which means if you are feeling intimidated or shy, you might drop your chin, hunch your shoulders forward and avoid eye contact. This is a dead giveaway that you are not feeling comfortable and chances are that others will feel just as uncomfortable in your presence. The posture of a self-confident, poised person is upright and proud, chin lifted, chest open and quite often a smile. Even when you are feeling slightly intimidated, if you can master the self-assured stature, you will immediately start feeling more confident. In other words … you can affect your mood or emotions by simply changing your posture. Spend a few minutes in front of the mirror and make yourself aware of what your confident stature looks and feels like.
3. Graciousness - One of the greatest secrets to being remembered in a positive light is to be gracious. We often get into the habit of asking, “How are you?” but how often do we pay attention to the answer? By being sincerely interested in the other person, and greeting in a genuinely friendly way, you can be sure to get noticed and remembered.
4. Eye contact - How many times have you gone on a date or sat in a meeting where you felt like you were not included in the conversation, or the other person is simply distracted or disinterested? By maintaining eye contact with the person you are conversing with, you give them the feeling that you are totally engaged and interested. If you are talking to a group, make sure to make eye contact with every single person there if possible, because you will make them feel included and significant. This establishes that you are confident and in control of the conversation.
5. Sincerity - Now remember, you can do all this—have the self-awareness, the great posture, be gracious and maintain eye contact, but if there is no real sincerity behind your actions, people will look right through you. Believe what you say and others will too.

(source by Vanessa Bader from here - images via vi.sualize.us)

Pop Up Muffin

Muffins are easy to make and muffins surely are very yummy. Agree? I think you do=) Here's another simple and the easiest muffin recipe. This one is called Pop Up Muffins. Want to give it a shot and make it for yourself? I know I will..What could be better than making the easiest but the most delicious comfort food..

Pop-Up Muffins (German Pancakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• dash salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange zest (optional)
• assorted condiments for serving
  

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
   
2. Blend first seven ingredients (milk thru orange zest) in a blender. Be careful to see that any flour clumps get well-blended.
   
3. Grease muffin tins well and distribute batter evenly between 24 tins. (sightly less than half-full.)
4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffy and golden on top.
5. Served with your favorite toppings. (this one here included sliced strawberries, maple syrup, and a light dusting of powdered sugar.)

(source from here)

Love knows no limits

Oh My God. Is it just me or the video is so sweet that can make you cry? At first I thought this was just one of those common videos about man and animal friendship, but it is more than that! The video is called "Love knows no limits and true Friendship last a Lifetime". Here's the story about the video:

Christian was a lion originally purchased by Australians John Rendall and Anthony "Ace" Bourke from Harrods department store of London in 1969 and ultimately reintroduced to the African wild by conservationist George Adamson. One year after George Adamson released Christian to the wild, his former owners decided to go looking for him to see whether Christian would remember them. Surprisingly, he did, and with him were two lionesses who accepted the men as well.

Stores..

I don't know why but I always love to see the picture of a store, especially an old store. Just like the pictures below. What do you think? I think there is some special story behind each of the store.
(all images from weheartit.com)

Let's have a coffee

For those of you who ever wondered why some people prefer cappuccino, some prefer latte and macchiato, here is why..each has its own coffee strength. For the mild one, try to have latte instead of macchiato. For the stronger one, try macchiato instead of latte. Actually, all of those are basically an espresso but in a different measurement. Want to know what are the different types of espresso? You can read it below. Therefore, next time you go to Starbucks, Coffee Bean or other coffee shop, you will know right away what you want to order=) My favorite is Hazelnut Latte...

Types of Espresso

• Café Latte: equal parts espresso and steamed milk. The steamed milk is poured over the espresso. Remember, the order of building the drink is important.
• Cappuccino: equal parts espresso, steamed milk and milk foam (topped with cocoa powder or non-traditional cinnamon).
• Macchiato: equal parts espresso and milk foam.
• Latte Macchiato: essentially an inverted cafè latte, with the espresso poured on top of the milk and topped with foam.
• Caramel Latte Macchiato: The milk is vanilla flavored and caramel is drizzled over the top. This is the form of macchiato popularized by the U.S. specialty and boutique coffee shops.
• Mochaccino: equal parts cappuccino and chocolate syrup.
  

  (image from here,here and here - source from coffee.suite101)
  

Café Latte: equal parts espresso and steamed milk. The steamed milk is poured over the espresso. Remember, the order of building the drink is important.

Cappuccino: equal parts espresso, steamed milk and milk foam (topped with cocoa powder or non-traditional cinnamon).

Macchiatto: equal parts espresso and milk foam.

Latte Macchiato: essentially an inverted cafè latte, with the espresso poured on top of the milk and topped with foam.

Caramel Latte Macchiato: The milk is vanilla flavored and caramel is drizzled over the top. This is the form of macchiato popularized by the U.S. specialty and boutique

Read more: http://coffee.suite101.com/article.cfm/espresso#ixzz0TyDGAfR8

Café Latte: equal parts espresso and steamed milk. The steamed milk is poured over the espresso. Remember, the order of building the drink is important.

Cappuccino: equal parts espresso, steamed milk and milk foam (topped with cocoa powder or non-traditional cinnamon).

Macchiatto: equal parts espresso and milk foam.

Latte Macchiato: essentially an inverted cafè latte, with the espresso poured on top of the milk and topped with foam.

Caramel Latte Macchiato: The milk is vanilla flavored and caramel is drizzled over the top. This is the form of macchiato popularized by the U.S. specialty and boutique

Read more: http://coffee.suite101.com/article.cfm/espresso#ixzz0TyDGAfR8

Café Latte: equal parts espresso and steamed milk. The steamed milk is poured over the espresso. Remember, the order of building the drink is important.

Cappuccino: equal parts espresso, steamed milk and milk foam (topped with cocoa powder or non-traditional cinnamon).

Macchiatto: equal parts espresso and milk foam.

Latte Macchiato: essentially an inverted cafè latte, with the espresso poured on top of the milk and topped with foam.

Caramel Latte Macchiato: The milk is vanilla flavored and caramel is drizzled over the top. This is the form of macchiato popularized by the U.S. specialty and boutique

Read more: http://coffee.suite101.com/article.cfm/espresso#ixzz0TyDGAfR8

Café Latte: equal parts espresso and steamed milk. The steamed milk is poured over the espresso. Remember, the order of building the drink is important.

Cappuccino: equal parts espresso, steamed milk and milk foam (topped with cocoa powder or non-traditional cinnamon).

Macchiatto: equal parts espresso and milk foam.

Latte Macchiato: essentially an inverted cafè latte, with the espresso poured on top of the milk and topped with foam.

Caramel Latte Macchiato: The milk is vanilla flavored and caramel is drizzled over the top. This is the form of macchiato popularized by the U.S. specialty and boutique

Read more: http://coffee.suite101.com/article.cfm/espresso#ixzz0TyDGAfR8