PS-101

PS 84: Take a nap.

When was the last time you took a nap? If it was yesterday or this afternoon, good for you! Tremendous benefits result from taking naps. Besides resting your body, a nap will also rest your brain. A nap will provide you more long–term energy than coffee or a candy bar.

You need to be aware of the time you have available for your nap. Is it your day off? To be well rested for your next project, take a long, luxurious nap – instead of say doing that laundry. (Perhaps this depends on whether you have enough clean clothes to wear. If not and you have to do the laundry, you can always take a cap nap during the rinse cycle.)

Sometimes you just need to clear your head and close your eyes and think of nothing for 10 minutes. Whatever your nap needs and opportunities happen to be, you can train your automatic body clock from letting you over-extend your stay in nap land.

Many of the larger corporations in America are beginning to devote comfortable, cushioned resting spaces for their executives, engineers, designers, and even line workers. Short naps are becoming a practice to be encouraged in highly competitive markets. Many articles have been written in recent years on the benefits to both companies and their individual workers.

You’re probably well aware of the concept of siestas practiced in many Latin countries. Companies and cultures there have long recognized the energy that can be acquired from a brief rest in the middle of the day.

Most Americans have been trained to consider tap taking as a sign of laziness. If your are among them, please consider the following: You’re far better off to work rested and thereby smarter and faster as opposed to no nap and drag your way through your duties. Wouldn’t you rather have a shorter, more productive workday instead?

By now you’ve probably noticed all these Life Tactic articles have a common denominator – they’re about self analysis.

The only way life proceeds is via change. Since change is inevitable, you may as well make the best of the situation and make the choices that will benefit you most.

Destiny is not a matter of chance. Destiny is a matter of choice.

Self analysis is the recipe for making choices – thus self analysis makes change user-friendly.

Once in a while, when your behavior affects your life to the point that you can’t stand yourself anymore or others can’t stand to be near you, you must just cool it! You will be amazed, especially if you haven’t tried it, once you decide to bring your off-putting demeanor to a halt, you can.

The human mind is a wonderful tool. You can help yourself stack the deck in your favor with a variety of systems, training, hypnosis, and therapy. Once you really decide to call it quits on something, the odds are you will.

When you discover a recurring and reactive pattern in your conduct that is getting in the way of your success and happiness, cool it!

PS 72: RSVP

How’s your French? Répondez s’il vous plaît. RSVP. You’ve seen this expression on practically all invitations. The phrase means: Respond, if you please. Whoever sent you the invitation put the term there for a particular reason. The real translation is if you don’t call me to let me know you’re coming, don’t expect to get fed. A little built in post script states that otherwise you may not ever be invited again.

Responding to an invitation is not a life-long commitment. The sender just wants to know how much food to prepare and how much wine to buy. Even when you can’t attend, you should always call and say, "Gee, thanks for the invitation. Sorry though I can’t make it." You might like to ask for a rain check or invite them to some event of yours.

Two no-no’s: Don’t ignore the invitation, and don’t phone and say you’ll attend and then not show up. Both qualify you as a persona non grata – and that’s Latin for ungrateful or thankless wretch.

A response is simply a matter of courtesy. Show some manners. RSVP when asked.