Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials is free software that gives you antivirus, anti-spyware engines, rootkit protection, and real-time protection.  Some Internet sites can infect your computer without you clicking on anything. Since it is real-time MSE protects you from these malicious websites.

You can schedule regular scans (highly recommended) and automated updates. Overall Microsoft Security Essentials is a great  package that will keep your computer safe from most malicious software. Updates are also free. Download Microsoft Security Essentials.

Internet Browser

Your new computer probably came with an Internet browser, but there are other browsers out there that may appeal to you. Everyone has preferences so look at several to see which one you like.

• Internet Explorer – The latest version of Internet Explorer is a vast improvement over older versions. It has all the bells and whistles you would expect in a browser and more including tabs and add-on tools. Download Internet Explorer.
• Firefox – Firefox is the browser of choice for many users due to the many add-on tools. It offers all the features you need and more. Firefox is fast and highly customizable. Download Firefox.
• Chrome – Google Chrome is the latest kid on the browser block. Chrome is fast and offers a simplified clutter-free environment. It has an ever-growing number of great add-on tools that enhances your browsing experience. With Google behind it Chrome will be a serious browser contender, if not the leader for years to come. Download Google Chrome.

There are many other browsers out there to try. Safari is used by many in the Mac crowd. Try several and see which one works best for you.

Google Toolbar

If you use Internet Explorer or Firefox then the Google toolbar is an essential free software add-on. Google toolbar adds a row to your browser menu that includes instant access to Google search with popular suggestions. Other options include translating a web page, one button access to Gmail, Google Apps and other Google products.

Another good feature is built-in sharing capability so you can share what you find with others on Twitter, Facebook, by email as well as other social websites. You can customize the toolbar so only the buttons you want show. Download Google toolbar.

Google Pack

Google has put together a wonderful package of free software essentials. They do lean towards the Google options, but all are good, free software alternatives and many are essentials you will need. You can pick what you want to include in your Google pack so you get only what you want.

Some of the software that you can include in your Google pack includes:

• Google Chrome Web Browser – excellent web browser alternative
• Google Apps – Gmail (web-based email essential!), Google Calendar and Google Docs office suite.
• Adobe Reader – Essential software for viewing highly used .PDF formatted documents. A MUST have.
• Google Earth – Oh so cool fun to view the world from space down to street level. It also helps you find places, gives you directions and so much more. Slimmer is Google Maps, but Google Earth is worth checking out.
• Google Picasa – Lets you find photos on your computer, edit them and even share them.
• Skype – Allows you to make free voice and video calls to anyone else who uses Skype anywhere in the world.

There are many other free software options. Visit the Google Pack website to see all and download your pack.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a free software alternative to Microsoft Office. If you use office software a lot you should consider buying Microsoft Office since it is the standard and king of office software. If you only use office software once in a while then OpenOffice is an excellent alternative.

OpenOffice is a suite of free software that lets you do word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. If is easy to use and has good support. Download OpenOffice.

VLC Media Player

Most computer come with a built-in media player and if you have an Apple device like an iPad, iPod or iPhone you can use iTunes. However if you are looking for a great “play anything” media player nothing beats VLC.  If you can’t get it to play with other media software VLC can probably play it.

VLC is free software available for Windows and Mac OS X as well as the iPhone. Download VLC.

Evernote

Evernote is free software that allows you to keep lots of things in one place and well organized. You can create to-do lists, take snapshots of web pages, add photos, voice, really anything that you can copy, paste or insert. It has so many uses it is impossible to list them all.

Another great feature is how many ways you have access to your information. On your computer, on the Internet and on your mobile phone. Evernote helps you organize and find everything that is noteworthy in your life. Download Evernote.

Share Your Favorite Free Software!

There is a lot of great free software out there. If you have a favorite share it with us in a comment.

Photo credit: Peter Baker

Social Websites

• Facebook – is THE social network. Connect with friends, family, co-workers and others. Let everyone know what’s going on in your life, post photos, play games and more.
• Twitter – is a micro-blogging service. In 140 characters or less share your thoughts with the world and find millions of others to follow and see what they share.
• LinkedIn – is a business networking and profile site. Make connections to build your network, search for jobs and post your own profile online.
• Mylife – is a people search engine. “Find who is searching for you” is their tag line. Find classmates, relatives, lost loves, co-workers and more.

Shopping Websites

• Amazon – is an online retailer for books, music, games, clothes, well everything. Their selection is great and prices are very competitive.
• eBay – eBay is an online auction site where you can get some great bargains and sell your own stuff.
• Craigslist – is where you will find online classified ads. There are lists for cities around the world, including one for your city.
• Groupon – find deals with 50 to 90 percent off from businesses in your area. Visit Groupon and see what the deal of the day is in your area!
• ShopLocal – find all the weekly ads local to your area in one place. Find top deals, coupons and bargains in a wide assortment of categories.

Media Websites

• YouTube – is the best place to find videos of all kinds. You can watch videos and upload and share your videos.
• Netflix – is where you can watch streaming movies and TV shows from your computer, smart phone or if you are setup your TV. You can also have DVD’s delivered right to your door all for a low monthly fee.
• Hulu – is an online video service that offers full episodes of many popular TV shows that can be stream right to your computer, or if setup for it to your TV.
• Pandora – is an online Internet radio service that you can stream music to your computer, smart phone or equipped TV. They have a large selection of genres to suite any music taste.
• IMDB – is the one of the largest sites all about movies and TV. Find movies, plots, actors and everything you could want to know about a move or TV show.

Food Websites

• Allrecipes – is the top site to find recipes and cooking tips. They have a massive collection you can browse, select your favorites and save them to your own recipe box.
• Food Network – find all the shows, chefs and recipes from the Food Network TV channel. Online videos, advice, cooking techniques and more.

Find People, Places, Things

• Yellow Pages – is the online version of the yellow pages phone book. Find business listings, phone numbers, addresses, maps, driving directions and more. Smart phone versions are also available.
• White Pages – is the online version of the white pages phone book. Find people, businesses, do a reverse phone number or address look up. Smart phone versions are also available.
• Google Maps – helps you find businesses and any other destination you have. View maps, get directions and more.
• Yelp – find users submitted reviews of restaurants, nightlife, shopping, entertainment and more specific to your area. Find the best in your area!

Other Essential Websites

• Gmail – is a  free web-based email service you can use from your Internet browser or smart phone. An email account is essential and Gmail is the leader with the most features.
• Lifehacker – is one of the most useful sites on the Internet. Filled daily with tips, tricks and more. Life hacking is about making your life easier and Lifehacker is the #1 site for it.
• eHow – need to know how to do something? Check out eHow where you can find videos and instructions on how to do most anything.
• CNET – If you want the latest news, reviews, free software downloads and more head over to CNET.
• Weather Channel – the online version of the Weather Channel provides you with up-to-date weather conditions for your area and around the world. Radar, forecasts, hurricane forecasts and other weather related topics.
• PayPal – is a safe way for you to pay for things online. You can send money to others, make online payments and make purchases off the Internet without revealing your credit card to others. It is safe and secure.
• Flickr – is a photo sharing site where you can upload your own photos to share as well as see photos shared by others. You will find some of the most amazing photos you have every seen from around the world.
• Expedia – is an online travel service. You can plan a trip, find cheap airfares and buy airline tickets. Find cheap hotel and motel room and book them. Find vacation packages, rent cars or book a cruise.
• WebMD – is one of the leading sources for medical and health information on the Internet. Find answers to questions about drugs, health problems and a very helpful support community.
• Career Builder – is an online job hunting and resume posting site. New listings are posted daily. Find a job or a new career with their career and job hunting advice.

Share Your Favorites!

There are tons of great Internet websites. I have only shared a few of the essential Internet websites you should start with. Please share some of your favorite sites in the comments.

Photo credit: Larry Vincent

To become the person you need to be you must awaken the sleeper inside of you.

Each day we wake up and go through the motions of our life. Over time the motions become repetitive habits, perhaps with small interruptions to our routine. Human beings are not made to live like this. Deep inside we desire new experiences and a change to our day-to-day routine.

One of my favorite quotes from the book Dune by Frank Herbert is when Duke Leto Atreides speaks to his son Paul. They are preparing to leave their water filled home planet of Calderon for the dry sands of the planet Dune.

I’ll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.

The Duke knows that change is coming to their life and many challenges await them. By saying “the sleeper must awaken” he is telling his son that change is needed for him to become the person he needs to be.

Travel to Dune does indeed bring change for Paul. The betrayal and the death of his father. Exile from all that he has known into a strange new world. Paul does not shrink away fearful of his future and the change that has come. He accepts it and embraces the challenges that eventually lead to the fulfillment of who he needed to become.

Later in the book Paul remembers the prophetic words his father told him that night and proclaims to his now dead father “Father, the sleeper has awakened”.

We Need New Experiences

“Without change it is impossible to grow. To grow one must improve. To improve one must change.”

This comes from an article I wrote “Leadership Skills – Leaders Drive Change” to explain why change is important. In business change is vital to growth and expansion. Change is the spark that drives innovation. It improves your business, your employees and yourself.

In your personal life change is vital to improving yourself and leading a more fulfilling life. New experiences bring change to our life that helps us grow and fills our natural human desire for change. In your professional life change is equally important to gain new experiences and advance your career.

Change in your personal like can include:

• Join the gym or start exercising
• Take a trip to a place you have never been
• Starting a new hobby

Change in your professional life can include:

• Taking a class to gain or improve a skill
• Reading a book on a new skill or in an area you need to improve
• Asking for or accepting new challenges at work

Awaken The Sleeper Inside of You

If your are stuck in the habit of daily life open yourself up to new experiences. Open yourself up to change. Do you ever feel like just packing up, moving somewhere and starting all over? That is the natural human instinct inside of you yearning for change, adventure, and new experiences.

You don’t have to got to the extreme of packing up and moving away to awaken the sleeper inside of you.

To awaken the sleeper inside of you understand that not only is it a natural human trait to seek new experiences it is an essential part of life. The more new experiences you add to your life the more fulfilling your life will become both personally and professionally.

Photo credit: David Reece

Kaizen is a Japanese word that simply means “improvement”. It is a daily activity commonly used to improve the workplace. Kaizen can also be used daily to improve your life with remarkable results. By using the Kaizen method you can accomplish any goal, any task or improvement you want to make. The key is to use small steps to reach your final goal.

Small Steps

Using the Kaizen method you take small steps towards improvement. Weight loss, home improvements, personal goals, regardless of the goal or task the Kaizen method can help you achieve them. The Kaizen method addresses all the issues that have blocked you in the past. Whether it is time, money or a mental block you will be able to overcome them all and reach your goal.

Let’s use improving your health as an example. People usually take an all out approach to these changes and end up failing to stick with them. The reason is the mind by nature resistant to change. By using the Kaizen method of small, but continuous change you will achieve the results you desire and be able to stick with it.

Perhaps you need to get more exercise so you decide you want to start walking one mile per day. Using the Kaizen method you would break it down into small steps. One mile is equal to 1760 yards. For the first week walk 440 yards or one-quarter of your goal. Each week add 440 yards and in four weeks you will be walking one mile per day. This approach allows you to gradually work your body and your mind up to your goal.

This approach can be used in any area of your life. Maybe you have a room you want to clear out and paint. Since this can be a large project that has many steps break it down into small tasks that can easily be completed.

1. Clear the room
2. Purchase the paint and supplies
3. Paint the room
4. Place everything back in the room

That is a very basic list that can be broken down into even smaller steps. For instance you may not have time to paint the entire room at one time. Break it down into sections as time permits. The key is to take a large goal and break it down into manageable steps.

Why Kaizen Works

Human beings are by nature creatures of habit and resistant to change. We become comfortable with our way of life and making big changes seem too difficult. We are also busy people who do not have a lot of free time to take on some of the changes or goals we want to accomplish.

Time

Lack of time is often our greatest challenge. But by breaking down tasks into smaller steps that fit the amount of time we can devote to them we can reach out final goal. If you only have 30 minutes per day to devote to a task then shape your plan to this. Even if it takes you a month to accomplish your final goal you will do it instead of giving up because you can not find the time.

Accomplishment

By breaking down a large tasks into smaller more achievable tasks we overcome the mental blocks of a task too large. As we complete each small step we have accomplished a goal. This sense of accomplishment boost our confidence that we really can reach our final goal.

Habit

Since we are creatures of habit and resistant to change by breaking up tasks and goals into smaller steps we are less resistant to them. To truly be successful at any change in life it must become a habit. Only when it becomes a habit and part of your daily life will you be successful at it.

Wrap up

Even if you have tried something in the past and failed at it, try it again using the Kaizen method. Break down the task or goal into small steps that you can achieve. If you have time restraints break it down into steps of 15 minutes or 30 minutes. Kaizen is about small, but continuous improvement.

While writing this article I had many other tasks to complete so I could not sit down and devote my full-time and attention to it. Instead I broke it down into 10 minute sessions. I would write for 10 minutes, go do my other tasks and come back to it when I could for another 10 minutes. Eventually the article was written, edited, proofread and published. My goal was accomplished in small steps.

You can apply the Kaizen method to anything. No task or goal will be too large for you to accomplish. By applying this method to tasks and goals in your life you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

I am sure we can all agree that we want to be happy with our job and our life. But job satisfaction and happiness does not always come easily. For those people I can tell you that your attitude and the passion you bring to bear on everything that you do can change your outlook about your job and your life.

Six months before he was assassinated,Dr. Martin Luther King Jr spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. Part of his “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” speech is the tale of the street sweeper. It is inspiration that regardless of what we do we should always aspire to be the best we can at what we do.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

A Tale of Two Workers

First is the person who has a job they do not like. They roll out of bed each day and don’t want to go to work because they hate your lousy job. They watch the clock waiting for the time to flee their misery. They then go home and complain about how bad work was. They are unhappy at their job and probably in their life.

Now look at Dr. King’s street sweeper. I am sure he had aspirations of a better job, but he understood at this point in his life his job was to be a street sweeper. So each day he shows up for work on time and gives his best. He does not just do a good job, he is so passionate about his work that he wants to be the best street sweeper that ever lived.

When the street sweeper goes home from work he leaves with a sense of satisfaction that not only did he do a good days work, but on this day he was the best there has ever been at his job. This person is happy with their job and happy in life. Even though he is a street sweeper, this person is successful at work and in life.

A Tale of Two Attitudes

This tale of two workers is a tale of two attitudes. The first is the negative. I hate my job, my life sucks, why is life so unfair attitude. The second is the positive attitude. I may not like my job, but I give it my all and nobody does it better than me. For now I am content with my life because I know my hard work will lead to better things.

The negative attitude will likely keep that worker in the job they hate for many years to come. The positive attitude will likely lead the street sweeper to better things. A supervisor or manager will notice his passion for his work. His hard work pays off and he was promoted to a lead position. He maintains his passion in his new job and later was promoted to a supervisor or manager.

Even if the street sweeper never becomes more than the best street sweeper that ever lived, this person is successful and happy throughout their life because of their positive attitude and their passion for whatever they do.

The Power of Positive and Passion

You can apply this principle to everything. In your job, in your family, in your community and in your life. Many times in my life I have seen how a positive attitude and a passion for what you do leads to successful outcomes. Just look at Dr. King for a good example.

His positive “we shall overcome” attitude and his passion for the civil rights movement helped lead to a successful outcome. The struggle was hard and he could have easily given up saying the task can not be done. Yet despite the setbacks and difficulties he maintained his positive attitude and his passion.

So then let me ask you. Do you want to keep walking around complaining about your lousy job or how bad life has treated you and continue to wallow in your misery? If so you are not going to change much. You are not going to win the lottery and someone is not going to walk through the door and hand you your dream job.

Let me offer you an alternative that can lead to a different outcome and a better life. Accept who you are and where you are in life. If you have aspirations for a better job or a better life adopt a positive attitude for change. Develop a passion for everything that you do and regardless of the struggles or adversities, never give up.

Whatever station in life you are at, be the best at whatever you do.