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Following are four common sense tips to sustain your sanity when dealing with overly-critical co-workers, clients, supervisors or any other
Following are four commonsense tips to sustain your sanity when dealing with overly-critical co-workers, clients, supervisors or any other “neigh-sayer” in your life based on my workbook Love Your Work:

1. Take the time and effort to step into his (or her) moccasins and view things from their perspective instead of yours.

2. Remember a time in your life when you experienced similar events/feelings.

3. Keeping all that information in mind, construct strategies to help you understand who they are what they think and feel and why they behave like they do even better.

4. When all else fails, politely remind them (or maybe just yourself if the critical one happens to hold a position authority over you) of the wise words of Frank A. Clark, “Lots of faults we think we see in others are simply the ones we expect to find there because we have them.”

The Love Your Work ebook is available at http://www.dreamjobcoaching.com/ebook.shtml

About the Author

Copyright 2003, Joel Garfinkle, All Rights Reserved
Joel Garfinkle provides a step-by-step Dream Job process that has guided thousands of clients to find the perfect job and reach career fulfillment. For Career Coaching Services: http://www.dreamjobcoaching.com/coaching.shtml

Here are some ways to dress up the “traditional” favorites at your Christmas dinner.

1. Make your usual pie crust, 2-crust version. Line the pie tin, put in the filling, and now it’s time to play. Roll out the second crust and start cutting shapes – using cooky cutters or free form with a knife. At Thanksgiving, for instance, up at my son’s house I was stuck without the “necessary’ equipment so I improvised, just carving out a leaf using one nearby as a model. First one doesn’t work? Pie dough is very forgiving. Roll it up and start again. Your “second chances” are infinite. You could also use something from a child’s coloring book for a pattern.

One idea – cut out 3 rounds for holly berries (use bottle cap or such if you don’t have small round cutter). Then use knife to cut out spiky holly leaves. Or use a Santa Claus cooky cutter. Place these on top of the pie filling and bake away.

2. If you have the time and inclination, when the pie is baked and cooled, then use frosting to decorate your crust decoration. To save time, use those little tubes from the grocery; no one cares how it tastes. The gels are neat.

3. Or decorate with white frosting and candy — licorice for Santa’s belt, gum drops for eyes, various colored sprinkles, cut up tiny marshmallows, candied fruit, non-pareils, cinnamon drops, etc.

4. Using whatever you have for the top crust – shapes, lattice or solid – apply egg yolk and then sprinkle w/ red or green colored sugar.

5. Do the usual only very different, i.e., make a pumpkin chiffon pie. At serving time, crumble candy canes and sprinkle on top.

6. Add a layer of marzipan or almond paste to the pie. Roll it out into a circle, place it on top of the bottom crust, then add filling. Good with mince meat, apple, pumpkin, etc.

7. For Beef Wellington, encase it in pie dough, then cut out shapes and apply them on top.

8. Make an apple pie or something compatible with cheese and then cut out stars from cheese and apply on top. Sprinkle a few cinnamon drops around.

9. Make a meringue topping (would work for most pies) and then when it’s baked and cooled, sprinkle the top with large white fluffy sugar flakes, like snow. Or colored sprinkles.

10. Sprinkle crushed candy cane chips on top of the pie after it’s baked.

11. After it’s baked and cooled, stick miniature candy canes around the rim.

12. Most fruit pies are compatible with cranberries. Dip cranberries in egg white and then coat with sugar and place on top; they look frosted. You can also use candied fruit – put green citron around red candied cherries like holly berries.

13. Sprinkle top with powdered sugar, like snow.

There are lots of ways to dress-up the traditional favorites, and this should give you a good start!

About the Author

(c)Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc .
Coaching for all your needs – career, relationship, personal
and professional development. Check out Susan’s eBooks -
www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.htm and The EQ Foundation
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Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE eZine.

1. Santa Spends More Than He Makes

Santa’s paychecks are nothing to sneeze at, but he stays focused on his next raise. (Yes, of course Santa gets a raise each year!) He has no idea what it costs him to live the Santa life. He doesn’t track his earnings nor his spending. Santa’s got to provide for his reindeer, his horse and his North Pole home – just like the rest of us.

2. Santa Has No Emergency Account

Santa’s transportation tends to break down right in the middle of major blizzards. Only last week, he had to whip out his credit card to pay for sleigh-towing. When Santa finally made it to the repair shop, he again had pay for the sleigh repair with credit. Just last year, he nearly had frost bite after his brand new sleigh had broken down.

3. Santa Lives Paycheck to Paycheck

Santa cashes his paycheck at the North Pole Bank, but most of the money gets spent before it makes its way to his checkbook. If it makes it there, most of the money is already owed to the credit card company. Santa has no other money set aside.

4. Santa Doesn’t Enjoy Balancing His Checkbook

Santa forgets to balance the checkbook. He spends money, but is never sure what he has available to spend. Santa doesn’t know how to build in some fun to help him enjoy working in his checkbook.

5. Santa Spends His Raises and Bonuses

Santa got a nice raise back in January, following his Bonus check in December (bonus based on number of chimneys completed for the year). He thought he’d have plenty of money this year. But Santa likes nice, updated equipment at all times. He bought brand new gear for all his reindeer, even though last year’s would have done the job.

6. Santa Eats Most of His Meals Out

Since Santa’s job requires that he spend a large amount of time traveling, Santa tends to eat out way too much. He also has to feed his reindeer each time he sits down to eat. The tips alone are enough to keep him in the poorhouse.

7. Santa Lives on the Edge

Santa keeps himself so busy that he can’t sit down and plan his life. He hasn’t set up a plan to build extra money into his checkbook, nor has he made a decision to actually save any of his money. Even setting up automatic deposit would be helpful. Another emergency could wipe him out. (No more Santa?)

8. Santa is Not Preparing for the Future

Santa, jolly fellow that he is, has no money set aside to work for him. He may end up working until his hair is much whiter (or gone). It’s pretty much a given that Santa will need to replace that sleigh and maybe even some of the reindeer over the years. Because most of his money now goes to pay off credit cards, Santa just can’t picture tucking away any money.

9. Santa Spends Too Much on R & R

Even Santa needs a little rest and relaxation after all that hard work. If he runs out of cash, he charges it. (No, I promised not to tell what Santa does for R & R. He does know who’s been naughty or nice …)

10. Santa Can’t Stay Motivated

Santa gives himself a good lecture from time to time. He knows he should be doing better, but he just can’t get any traction. Saving his money seems like an overwhelming obstacle. Santa hasn’t discovered there are tricks out there to make saving money a fun thing, something he can look forward to doing.

About the Author

Darlene Arechederra offers simple, unique strategies to help you become a saver. She believes the trick is to discover which ideas work best for you — because your money is not one-size-fits-all. Discover your *own* unique strategy today! Free weekly newsletter. http://www.RatRaceRemedies.com

Over the years I’ve stayed in quite a few London hotels and for the most part it’s been a pleasurable experience. I did have the misfortune to stay in one particular establishment that wasn’t quite up to scratch, but luckily it was only for one night. I’d booked a hotel room so that my husband and I could take our young daughter to watch a show in central London, and the price seemed very reasonable. After the show we checked into the hotel, and after waiting at reception for a very long time the manager eventually showed us to our room. When he opened the door the first thing we noticed about the room was the very cold temperature.

As it turned out there was a reason for the chilly atmosphere – someone had kindly kicked a ball straight through one of the windows, or that was how it appeared anyway after seeing a circular hole in one of the window panes. My husband was understandably worried that our daughter might cut her hand on the glass but it took some persuading before the manager agreed to find us another room. Eventually we were allowed to move to another room, but from that day onwards I vowed I’d never again book a room based on price alone. The room was certainly cheap but I can’t say we received value for money, so take my advice and read a few reviews before you commit to a booking.

The same goes for flights, and if you’re booking airline tickets to Europe it’s a good idea to read some customer feedback before you take out your credit card. If you’re embarking on a long flight it helps to know if they’ve got a reputation for good customer service.