Eating & Sleeping Your Way to Success

Eating & Sleeping Your Way to Success

American Express
Open Forum

by Carla Turchetti
with quote from Nicole Wright

March 10, 2014

If you begin each day bleary-eyed and reaching for a 20-ounce caffeine fix, it may be time to rethink what you eat and how you sleep and how those habits affect your business. By caffeine-loading after getting just a few hours of shuteye, you're not doing your body—or your business—any good.

"Coffee is a negative return on investment," says Nicole Wright, an author, speaker and serial entrepreneur who founded two companies that focus on health and wellness. "It boosts people up before they crash and creates dehydration, which is a further negative."

Instead of that morning cup of joe, Wright recommends a warm, caffeine-free beverage or a dose of L-Tyrosine, a supplement that's been reported to promote mental alertness and relieve stress. "It's the amino acid that plugs into the brain's caffeine receptor so what you get is all up and no crash," Wright says.

You Are What You Eat

It's not just coffee or other caffeinated beverages that should be on your list of "don't touch" foods. Wright believes the best entrepreneurs are very aware of how their daily diet affects how they feel and how they work. She refers to being conscious of what you consume and choosing wisely as "nourishing the brain."

"Deficiencies in vitamins, minerals and amino acids produce an array of issues that range from cravings to severe neurological disorders," Wright says. "I recommend an assessment to determine shortages, followed by high-dose vitamin therapy. Once the brain is full and happy, dietary changes to sustain nourishment are easy."

No matter how busy you are, don't forget to eat. "Eat nutrient-dense food frequently, no less than once every four hours to keep glucose, which is your brain's fuel, stable," Wright says. "When the brain feels foggy, it's glucose-deprived. It's ill-advised to let your body get to that point."

Wright also advises entrepreneurs who want to be their most productive every day to drink plenty of water. As she explains, "Feeling tired and hungry are also symptoms of dehydration."

Getting Your 40 Winks

But it takes more than consuming the right foods and beverages for an entrepreneur to successfully power through each day, Wright believes. "Sleep is critical for processing and restoration," she says. "The body physically heals while we sleep. Sleep also helps to regulate metabolism and produces dreams, which are required for healthy cognition."

But Wright says a solid eight hours a night may not be the ideal sleep schedule for everyone.

"Mastering sleep is a useful skill and one that leaders utilize," Wright says. "Polyphasic sleep refers to sleepng multiple times throughout the day. Think 15- to 30-minute naps every four hours. DaVinci, Jefferson, Edison and many other great minds were reported to be polyphasic sleepers."

When it comes to her own work and sleep patterns, Wright says she usually varies her rest cycle to feel her best. "When I'm on a project, it's fun to cater to a sleep rhythm," Wright says. "Sometimes it's two two-hour naps per day."

How do you determine what sleep pattern fuels a strong workday for you? Wright says it begins by allowing your body to find a natural waking and sleeping pattern. "Get rid of your alarm clock," Wright suggests. "Learn your circadian rhythm, and and set cycles that work for your inherent biology. Sleep cycles must be empowering and invigorating."

Paying attention to your body—-the food and drink that goes into it and the sleep that rejuvenates it—-could mean the difference between running a business and running a business really well. Hydrating with non-caffeinated beverages, eating healthy food every day and letting your body dictate the amount and frequency of sleep it needs will help you meet the world head on every day with a clear mind and energy that can't be stopped.

Read more articles on productivity.

Photo: iStockphoto

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https://authory.com/walliserglobal/Eating-and-Sleeping-Your-Way-to-Success-a09925ef5386f4850ba484cd15bec0fb0

The Ojibwe People from MNHS

 https://www.mnhs.org/fortsnelling/learn/native-americans/ojibwe-people

The Ojibwe People

The ancestors of the Ojibwe lived throughout the northeastern part of North America and along the Atlantic Coast. Due to a combination of prophecies and tribal warfare, around 1,500 years ago the Ojibwe people left their homes along the ocean and began a slow migration westward that lasted for many centuries.

Ojibwe oral history and archaeological records provide evidence that the Ojibwe moved slowly in small groups following the Great Lakes westward. By the time the French arrived in the Great Lakes area in the early 1600s, the Ojibwe were well established at Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area. An Ojibwe prophecy that urged them to move west to "the land where food grows on water" was a clear reference to wild rice and served as a major incentive to migrate westward. Eventually some bands made their homes in the northern area of present-day Minnesota.

The most populous tribe in North America, the Ojibwe live in both the United States and Canada and occupy land around the entire Great Lakes, including in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario. The seven Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota are Bois Forte (Nett Lake), Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, White Earth, and Red Lake. The name "Ojibwe" may be drawn from either the puckered seam of the Ojibwe moccasin or the Ojibwe custom of writing on birch bark.

The Ojibwe have always hunted and fished, made maple sugar and syrup, and harvested wild rice. Prior to the 20th century, the Ojibwe lived in wigwams and travelled the waterways of the region in birch bark canoes. Ojibwe communities were historically based on clans, or "doodem," which determined a person's place in Ojibwe society. Different clans represented different aspects of Ojibwe society; for example, political leaders came from the loon or crane clans, while warriors were traditionally from the bear, martin, lynx, and wolf clans. Ojibwe theology centers on a belief in a single creating force but also incorporates a wide pantheon of spirits that play specific roles in the universe.

Among the Ojibwe, honor and prestige came with generosity. Ojibwe culture and society were structured around reciprocity, with gift-giving playing an important social role. During a ceremony reinforced with an exchange of gifts, parties fulfilled the social expectations of kinship and agreed to maintain a reciprocal relationship of mutual assistance and obligation. Many fur traders, and later European and American government officials, used gift-giving to help establish economic and diplomatic ties with various Ojibwe communities.

Throughout the fur trade era, the Ojibwe valued their relationship with the Dakota above those they maintained with European Americans. While historians have frequently cited ongoing conflict between the Ojibwe and Dakota, the two peoples were more often at peace than at war. In 1679 the Ojibwe and the Dakota formed an alliance through peaceful diplomacy at Fond du Lac in present-day Minnesota. The Ojibwe agreed to provide the Dakota with fur trade goods, and in return the Dakota permitted the Ojibwe to move west toward the Mississippi River. During this period of peace that lasted for 57 years, the Ojibwe and Dakota often hunted together, created families together, shared their religious experiences, and prospered. From 1736–1760, intense territorial conflict between the Ojibwe and Dakota brought them into deadly conflict. By the middle of the 1800s, intertribal conflict was abandoned as both tribes were overwhelmed by challenges posed by the surge of European American settler-colonists.

For the Ojibwe, the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers was a place of diplomacy and trade. They met with Dakota people at Mni Sni (Coldwater Spring) and after European Americans arrived, they frequented the area to trade, treat with the US Indian Agent, and sign treaties. Ojibwe delegations gathered at Fort Snelling in 1820 to meet with local Dakota leaders and in 1825 before traveling to Prairie du Chien for treaty negotiations. In 1837 more than 1,000 Ojibwe met Dakota and US representatives at the confluence to negotiate another treaty. The Ojibwe forced a rare provision into the Treaty of St. Peters, retaining the right to hunt, fish, gather wild rice, and otherwise use the land as they always had.

The collapse of the fur trade economy, land dispossession through treaties, and the creation of reservations dramatically altered Ojibwe lives and left them with a small portion of their original homelands at the end of the 1800s.

Resources

• Child, Brenda. Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society, 2013.
• Kohl, Johann Georg. Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway. Reprint. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985.
• "Ojibwe Family History Research: Overview," Minnesota Historical Society, https://libguides.mnhs.org/ojibwefh.
• Peacock, Thomas D. "The Ojibwe: Our Historical Role in Influencing Contemporary Minnesota." MNopedia, November 15, 2013.
• Treuer, Anton. Living Our Language: Ojibwe Tales and Oral Histories. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.
• Treuer, Anton. Ojibwe in Minnesota. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010.
• Treuer, Anton. Assassination of Hole In The Day. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010.
• Treuer, David. Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life. New York, NY: Grove, 2012.
• Warren, William W. History of the Ojibway People. Reprint. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984.
• Witgen, Michael. An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World Shaped Early North America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

EPN Eric Dye Interviews Nicole Wright

 

Season’s gratings, Dose with D and gratitude by Elizabeth Bromstein of NOW Toronto | December 13, 2012

Season’s gratings
Dose with D and gratitude

by ELIZABETH BROMSTEIN
DECEMBER 13TH, 2012

Deck the halls; light the menorah; get time off work. It’s time for togetherness and warm fuzzies, food, drink and charity, hugs and singalongs. Feel the love.

It’s not always like that, of course. We’re stressed about money and the right gifts, or obliged to see family we might not adore. Or maybe we’re alone. And everyone else seems so freakin’ happy.

How to get through it?

My big insight is that we tend to have less patience with our loved ones than we do with complete strangers. I know sometimes there are real reasons for this, but the offending behaviour is often so minor: Mom gives a look or makes one of her comments about your weight/wife/cooking and, next thing you know, blind rage.

We could all learn to be more indulgent of those we’re close to. Just saying.

What the experts say

“Make this season a very present, moment-to-moment occasion. Live at the level of the soul and bring meaning to each situation and beauty to each interaction. See people for who they are, honour their gifts and acknowledge the love you have for others. If you’re not in touch with your earth birth family, use the season to find your true soul pod, those you naturally connect with. Family is about people we connect with from the heart. If you’re alone, create your own day of ritual to honour the year and all of its lessons: the ups, the downs and the growth. In what moments was your heart open, and when did you feel truly alive? Create an altar with pictures of people who have meaning for you. Realize how you treat yourself, and find your path to happiness. With all the holiday noise, the silence you can have by yourself is golden.” JOHN GERMAINE LETO and EDEN CLARK, life coaches, Laguna Beach, California

“Think about why you’re going home for the holidays. Do you feel it’s your duty? If so, why do you feel dutiful? Maybe because your parents brought you up and fed you for 18 years. If that’s the case, show thankfulness. That makes you not sweat the small stuff: you’re going home for a purpose. At work we deal with people we don’t like and somehow get the job done. If the brother you hate is coming, send a note in advance and say, ‘I know we’ve had tense moments; I hope we’re going to enjoy the meal together.’ Incorporate pleasant memories from the past into the present. This is a time to change our attitudes.” RUTH NEMZOFF, author, Don’t Roll Your Eyes: Making In-Laws Into Family, Brandeis Women’s Studies, Waltham, Massachusetts

“We tend to spend more time indoors, so vitamin D supplements can improve mood. L-Tryptophan, the amino acid that produces serotonin, can be helpful with sleep and mood; it’s in a lot of protein-rich foods, like turkey. Hypnosis may help alleviate holiday depression by integrating the subconscious and conscious mind. Tonglen is very powerful – a beautiful Buddhist meditation that opens the heart. You breathe in Red, Dark, Hot and breathe out White, Light, Cool. You’re breathing in all the badness, but while these things normally create emotional arousal or discomfort, instead you’re at peace, with gentle compassion. You breathe it in without pain, knowing that you are a powerful and loving creature. The act of breathing itself purifies the energy, and when you exhale you send goodness, love and compassion to the world.” NICOLE WRIGHT, CHt, San Francisco

“If we view the holidays as [primarily] a break, we’re less likely to be disappointed. Take a look at the triggers that have made you feel unhappy. Is it family conflict, being overscheduled, feeling ashamed of your eating or drinking habits? Scale back your expectations and commitments. If people approach this as a break and say, ‘I’m going to replenish myself and do a few obligation things and also do a really nice thing for myself,’ they’ll be far happier over the holidays. A lot of the problem is really about the disruption of routine. Keep as regular a schedule as you can.” COLLEEN CARNEY, professor, department of psychology, Ryerson U, Toronto

Revenues vs. Margins, Bank of America Perspectives

Revenues vs. Margins
Bank of America Perpestives

By Michael McDermott
with quote from Nicole Wright (thank you Michael!)

June 2013



It’s a dilemma most business owners will face at some point in their company’s development: Do you focus on revenue growth as the best path to value creation, or do you put more energy into boosting margins, thus making the business more profitable but potentially forgoing additional revenue and market share?

The short answer? “It depends,” says Mitchell D. Weiss, an experienced entrepreneur and adjunct professor of finance at the University of Hartford.

“Reaching for additional volume at the expense of profitability is a strategic ploy to gain additional market share, and that’s fine,” Weiss says. “But don’t overlook opportunities to leverage this additional business into a commensurate reduction in cost of goods sold.” Business owners need to think through the longer-term risks associated with price cutting to drive volume and boost market share. “What happens if you need to raise prices in the future? What if your competition matches your new price? Where do you go from there?” he asks.

Andreas Scherer, managing partner at Salto Partners, a management consulting firm that focuses on driving top-line growth, says marrying revenue growth and high margins is not only possible but should also be the preferred strategy for most companies. “Targeting profitable growth is actually how most companies should implement their go-to market strategies,” he says. Revenue-driven growth creates greater risk, but profitable growth validates a company’s value proposition and provides a buffer for the inevitable bumps in the road that come with a slow quarter or two.

But Scherer allows that there are circumstances where revenue growth trumps margins, at least temporarily, especially in the case of early stage companies with high growth potential. “In cases where there is a breakthrough product or service and a definitive time-to-market advantage, it might make sense to focus on growing revenues at the expense of margins. But even in those cases, CEOs need to be careful not to get carried away by their own hype,” he warns.

And favoring revenue growth over profitability can lead to the problem of cash inertia—the tendency of available money always to get spent. This can be a significant challenge for fast-growing companies. Access to a substantial pool of available cash can stunt the development of a corporate culture in which business decisions are consistently vetted in terms of risk and profitability. “If this kind of thinking is not embedded in a company early on, it is very difficult to right the ship after years of unprofitable growth,” Scherer says. “This is probably the single biggest risk associated with an aggressive growth strategy that neglects profitability.”

Nicole Wright, a financial and tax consultant at Wright Financials, proposes that it is possible for businesses to scale while remaining fiscally disciplined—and profitable—as long as clear goals, outlines, projections and budgets are in place. “Don’t make emotional or spur-of-the-moment decisions,” she says. “Strategically plan where revenues will be coming in and how they will be spent. Keep expenses consistently less than income to generate savings for growth-cycle spending.”

Some spending to drive revenue growth is clearly reasonable, even necessary, such as for infrastructure or defensive expansion into international markets. Other choices, such as deciding whether to invest heavily in sales and marketing to drive faster revenue growth, are more difficult. Salto Partners advises its clients to invest aggressively in sales and marketing only when three criteria are met:

The company offering is ready for prime time.

There is significant upside in target markets.

The company has established a successful business model with first-mover clients in those markets.

“At this point, it’s about scaling up the business,” Scherer says. “The investment in sales and marketing becomes a calculated bet to leverage your already established footprint in the target market by getting the message out and creating repeatable sales processes.”




AUTHORY: https://authory.com/walliserglobal/Revenues-vs-Margins-a8ed382afdb95598c09360a682f7a7f08

ORIGINAL: http://perspectives.baml.com/c.do?cid=749802&oid=604346&xsl=124/newsletter.xsl