Posts Tagged ‘self help’
There’s no denying what a perfect combination audio book technology and the introduction of MP3 portable players have become.
You now have options of listening to your audio book, not just on cassette tape players, CD players, and your computer, but also on your MP3 player.
So, if you are one that would rather listen to your audio book on MP3 player, rather than your PC, you can.
Below are the exact steps you need to take to make this possible.
NOTE- The following guide has instructions for Windows Media Player Version 10. If you are using an older version, you can download the latest version from Microsoft's website.
Here's the exact link - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download
First, you need to put the audio book into the computer from where you want to copy it to your MP3 player. If it is originally in a CD, you need to copy it from the CD into your computer.
Second, you need to plug in the USB cable to both the computer from which you want to copy the audio book and the MP3 player (all MP3 players come with this USB cable).
When you connect your MP3 player to your PC, your PC will show a message to say that it has found new hardware. If you are not indicated about this then there may be something wrong. Simply unplug it and try again.
Third, you need to open Windows Media Player and then the audio book you wish to transfer. This will open the audio book in the main display area of Windows Media Player.
Forth, with the sync list open on your Windows Media Player, add your audio book file.
Fifth, now you should click on the Sync tab on the Windows Media Player. You will now see a pull-down arrow on the box to the left hand side of the Sync tab. Make sure you select the labeled "Removable Disk (E)" as the source where the audio book will be copied to.
Sixth, you will see a display with an option to "start sync". Go ahead and click on this option. When you have done this, the Windows Media Player will indicate to you that it's sending the audio book into your MP3 player as "Removable Disk (E)".
Seventh, Once the sync process is completed you will need to verify that it is now actually on your MP3 player.
Lastly, ensure you click on your PC's hardware icon (located in your system tray) to "safely remove hardware". Be sure that you do not disconnect before you get the "it is now safe to remove the hardware" message. NOTE--not doing this before removing the USB cable can damage your computer and/or your MP3 player.
When all of this is done, you can then try to playback the audio book from your MP3 player. After you have gone through the above steps your audio books should appear on you MP3 player.
If however you are using an older version of Windows Media Player, you can still follow the exact steps above. The main difference will be that where it said 'Sync' it will will say 'copy'. You can select this and go through the same steps as above transfer your audio book onto your MP3 player.
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is
Spoken Network. You can locate them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0017
You wouldn't believe how important it is, to know what it is that you put into your mind.
You see, the mind is the single most important factor in determining who you are and what you do as an individual.
You could achieve all of your dreams just by having a positive mind set.
Most of the highly successful people you see in the news today took a great deal of time to work on improving their minds.
But if on the other hand your mind is negative and inactive, it's very likely you won't amount to anything in life, analyzing the lives of some of the notorious people in the world would reveal that they always fed their minds with negative thoughts.
The question that obviously comes to play here is, are we born with positive or negative minds?
Of course, this is incorrect!
Our minds grow with us, as we put different types of information in to it. If we are always putting in negative information into our minds, this results to negative thoughts and ultimately negative actions.
So, if you want the opposite and creative thoughts, it is pertinent to always get the right kind of information into your mind.
Many people would suggest reading the right kind of books.
Sadly, because of the great demand on our time, only few people still read lots of books, especially after college.
We mostly only have time to read the newspapers and magazines, and guess what? The news today is so full of awful stories and events from around the world that it just makes things worse, adding to a negative state of mind.
If you want to really get positive and helpful information, you need to read books that contain such information.
Thankfully with the advent and popularity of audio books, anyone can get the right information into his or her mind without having to “read”.
You can enjoy the benefits of audio books while exercising, commuting to and fro your work, etc.
If you are reading this and have no idea what books to look for, I have compiled a a list of what I think is the top ten best audio books to improve your mind.
1. Build Your Self Esteem Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing
2. Awaken the Giant Within Author: Anthony Robbins Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
3. Develop a Powerful Memory Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Author: Stephen R. Covey Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
5. How to Win Friends & Influence People Author: Dale Carnegie Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
6. Awaken the Giant Within Author: Anthony Robbins Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
7. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway Author: Susan Jeffers Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
8. The Power is within You Author: Louise L. Hay Publisher: Hodder Headline Audio books
9. Creating Inner Peace and Calm Author: Glenn Harrold Publisher: Diviniti Publishing
10. Get Up and Do It! Publisher: BBC Books
Any or all of these audio books can be bought from some of the leading audio book stores on the Internet.
An amazing place that I have come across for audio books downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0022
When it comes to burning (or copying/writing) a downloadable audio book into CD, you must be sure that it isn’t for commercial purpose, but strictly for personal use. This is very serious, breaking this law can get you into a whole load of trouble as you would be performing copyright infringement.
Yes, the downloadable audio books are still under copyright, even after paying to download them.
The only instance where they are no longer under copyright is when the authors or translators have died over 70 years ago. There are certain publications by government that is not under copyright.
But this rule, "only for personal use" still applies when you are burning any of your downloadable audio book onto CD or any other format.
Even though it is for you own use, there are some publishers that will not allow you to burn your audio book to CD. Such audio book publishers will then choose to disable the ability to transfer the file onto a compact disk.
To be sure if your audio book publishers allow this, check it out before going ahead to buy it.
It will not be beneficial for you to buy it with the primary purpose of burning it to CD to listen with your CD player, only to find that you can't burn it to CD.
Also, when you are transferring audio books onto a compact disk you may need to use multiple CDs. For example, an audio book of about 10 hours can take you as many as 7 CDs to copy into, especially if you want to playback the CD with an MP3 player.
That being said, below are the steps to take to burn (or copy) any downloadable audio book into CD:
NOTE that the below instructions are based on Windows Media Player Version 10. If you are using an older version, you can download the latest version from Microsoft's website. This is the URL - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download
First, the computer you want to use to burn the audio book into CD must be equipped with a recordable CD drive and CD-burning software.
In other words, it is this CD-burning software that can burn the audio book into the CD. And it is your CD drive that can be used for this purpose.
Second, play the audio book on Windows Media Player. Ensure that you choose "Full Mode" when doing this, not "Skin Mode".
3rd. you will now see a 'now playing' message to the right side of Windows Media Player. If this does not show up you can press "Restore the Video and Visualization Pane" button to display it.
4th. Now slect the 'Library' tab. You will notice the “Start Burn” button displayed.
5th. Now it is time to actually put the blank CD into your CD drive.
6th. Now you need to Select 'Start Burn'. You will now see that Windows Media Player will start to burn the CD you placed in your PC.
Lastly, Most audio books will be larger than one CD, if your's is, Windows Media Player will ask you to insert a new CD. You can take out the CD and replace it with a new one.
Once the full 'burn' procedure is completed you will see the message "Complete".
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network.
You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0018
To grow spiritually is to take a closer look within yourself toward your inner soul.
For us as human beings and to grow spiritually in a world defined by power, money, and our outer influence is surely a Herculean task. Modern conveniences such as electronic equipments, ipods, and tools as well as entertainment through dvd players, magazines, and the internet have predisposed us to confine our attention mostly to our physical needs and wants. As a result, our concepts of self-worth and self-meaning are scattered. How can we create a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of our busy lives?
Challenges
Many challenging cross roads will come into our lives as we take this journey through this life. There are some roads that lead to a life of single blessedness, marriage, and spiritual vocation. Some of these roads could ultimately lead to happiness,fame and fortune on one hand, or hopelessness, seperation and distress on the other. Some of these pathways lead to shining happiness as there are roads to ultimate despair, roads towards triumphant victory and jubilation, and paths leading to defeat and dissatisfaction.
Examine
When we look deep within ourselves we should go beyond the recalling of recent events thattook place in a day, week, or month. You need to look closely and reflect on your inner thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and motivations. Periodically try to examining your experiences, the decisions you can make, the relationships you are working on, and the things you take part in provide helpful insights on your life goals, try to focus on the good traits you must keep with you and the negative traits you have to discard.
A healthy mental and spiritual cleansing is absolutely necessary for the soul.Moreover, it gives you clues on how to act, react, and keep your composure in the midst of any situation. Like any ability, introspection can be learned; all it takes is the willingness and courage to seek the truths that lie within you. Here are some pointers when you introspect: be objective, be forgiving of yourself, and focus on your areas for improvement.
Growth
To grow spiritually in within,is to develop your capabilities.
Each and every time that you exert effort to improving the quality of your life and your being, be it to cleaning up your room, extending your hand and helping a friend, to fail on board exams and getting up and trying again, maybe you have offered in the taking care of your Familys sick cat,life has a way of giving you karma points for that.
Religion and science have alternate takes on these unknown matters of the human spirit. Religion views humans as spiritual beings temporarily living on Earth, while science views the spirit as just one aspect of an individual. Mastery of the self is a recurring way if thinking in both Christian (Western) and Islamic (Eastern) teachings.
Beliefs
The needs of the body are recognized but placed under the needs of the spirit. Beliefs, values, morality, rules, experiences, and good works provide the blueprint to ensure the enrichment of the spiritual being. Psychology notes that the realizing of one’s potential is called self-actualization. The psychologist Maslow identified several of these needs as humans: physiological, security, belonging, self-esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence.
Needs
Material,emotional,ans spiritual are three aspects that James earlier categorized. It seems that it is man’s nature that when you have satisfied the basic physiological and emotional needs, spiritual or existential needs come next. Achieving each need brings you to the total development of the individual. Perhaps the biggestdifference between the two religions and psychology is the end of self-development: Islam and Christianity will believe that self-development is a means toward serving God, while modern psychology views that self-development is an end to the means unto itself.
To grow spiritually is to seek for a deeper meaning
Religions that believe in the existence of God such as Christianism, Judaism, and Islam suppose that the purpose of theirhuman life is to serve the Creator of all life. There are several theories in psychology that propose we passionately give purpose to our lives. Whether or not we believe that life’s meaning is self-directed or pre-determined, to grow in spirit is to realize that we do not merely exist. We do not know the meaning of our lives at birth; but we gain this wisdom and knowledge from our interactions with people and from our actions and reactions to the situations we are in. As we discover this meaning, there are certain beliefs and values that we turn down and affirm. Our lives have meaning. Thissense of belonging puts all our physical, emotional, and intellectual potentials into use; keeps us going during trying times; and gives us something to look forward to—a goal to achieve, a destination to reach. A person without purpose or meaning is like a floundering ship at sea.
To grow spiritually is to recognize interconnections.
Religions stress the concept of our relatedness to all creation, live and inanimate. Thus do we call other people “brothers and sisters” even if there are no direct blood relations. Moreover, deity-centered religions such as Islam and Christianity talk of a relationship between human beings and a higher spirit. On the other hand, science expounds on our link to other living things through the evolution theory.
Connection
This relatedness is clearly seen in the concept of ecology, the interaction between living and non-living things. In psychology, connectedness is a characteristic of self-transcendence, the upper most human need according to Maslow. Recognizing your connection to all things makes you more humble and respectful of people, animals, plants, and things in the world. It makes you appreciate everything around you. It moves you to reach out to other people and go beyond your comfort zone, and become care-takers of all the things around you.
Growth
Growth is a process, thus to grow in spirit is a day-to-day occurance. The important thing is that we never stop learning, and from this knowledge, further spiritual growth is made possible.
If your learning stops then you are dead.Never stop the yearning of your inner soul. Growth is life.It is the bread and butter of our life and our earthly existence.
The beauty with audio books is that you have more than one option for listening to them.
There are many options when it comes to listening to to audio books, you are not forced into one option.
If you are someone who likes listening while seated on your favorite couch or seated on your desk, listening to your audio book on your cassette tape player (if the audio book is in audiocassette tape, of course) is the option for you.
But if you have a desktop or laptop computer, you might prefer listening to your audio book from it.
Pretty much all Personal computers have software built in for playing back audio books. If your PC doesn't have any (very unlikely), you can still download them completely free on the Internet. The best two free digital audio players that you can download are:
- RealOne Player: This can be downloaded free of charger here; http://www.Real.com
- Windows Media Player: It can also be downloaded completely free from their website - http://www.Microsoft.com
But if you would rather listen to your audio book while doing your household chores, dancing, exercising, jogging, commuting to and fro work, etc, then you would need portable audio playback devices that you can carry around and listen to, preferably with an earphone.
The advantages of portable audio players have made their market grow as more and more people are starting to use them.
The most common form of these portable audio playback devices are the normal audio CD players or CD-ROM devices. These can be carried easily when you go around the shops, go for a run or when you are on the way to work for example.
The more advanced form of these portable audio playback devices for playing audio books, especially those for listening to downloadable audio books, include:
— Audio-ready PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Some of these PDAs include the Casio CASSIOPEIA and Compaq iPAQ. These can both be very expensive, they can cost up to $499 for the Compaq and around $399 for the Casio.
— Compatible Portable Audio Players. Some of these include the Creative’s NOMAD Jukebox 3 and the SONICblue’s Rio 900. These are cheaper than PDAs. For example, you can get the SONICblue's Rio 900 for about $250 from sites such as Sonicblue.com
Finally, like I said in the start of this article, whatever tool you decide to use in listening to your audio books will depend largely on “how” you prefer listening to your audio books.
For example, the 'young and restless' teenagers can't be without the PDAs. You wouldn't either, if you were their age, right? The 'good old' cassette tape could not be a better format for the "aged and rusty", who would rather just be sat on their favorite sofa!
A really good place that I have come across to download audio books is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0017
Despite how great CDs are, many people still prefer audiocassettes to them, especially when it comes to listening to audio books.
Here is a list of reasons to explain;
1. Audio books in CD format can only contain a maximum of seventy five minutes of audio whereas audio tapes can hold an extra 15 minutes, sometimes even more, of audio content.
I agree you can have the entire audio book spread out in several CDs, but not many people like to carry around too many CDs.
This means you would need maybe one or two tapes for a specific audio book when you would need much more for the same audio book on CD.
2. The extra cost in buying CD format audio books, the same product can be much less expensive as tape.
For example, while purchasing the unabridged version of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on twelve tapes has been found for only $31.96 on Barnes & Noble website, the CD format from the same Barnes & Noble costs almost double that amount – exactly $55.96 for 17 sets of CDs!
Of course, its not that they want to rip you off because it costs much more to produce CDs than it does to produce audiocassettes.
Three, when you put off your CD player while listening to an audio book, you won't be able to resume from the particular spot you left off.
But when you have a tape, you can simply press play and you'll be where you left off.
With CDs it can be frustrating when driving because each time you put off your car, it would mean restarting the audio book or trying to locate where you stopped.
Of course there are modern and more advanced CD players that now save your location on a disk when you turn off your car, thereby allowing you to resume at the exact same spot you left off.
this doesn't happen if you stop the car and remove the CD. But it will work with an audiocassette!
Four, because audio books are mainly just narration, many users don’t see why they should spend the extra money to buy CDs because of issues of recording quality when they can get the exact quality with audiocassettes.
They would argue that the quality of the content is greater on CD, when actually the quality is the same for audio books.
In more succinct terms - "the voice of humans (without drums and other musical paraphernalia) has very little to gain from the depth and clarity that comes with digital recordings in CD format!
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0014
Old habits die hard, they say. How right they are.
I am a novel freak and have been since the 4th grade when I read an amazing novel that started me down the road of reading.
The thrill of reading stayed with me all the way through my education, going to college and even when I started my career. Nothing stopped this craze, not even when I got married and had my first child.
As you can imagine, my life is changing - my kids are growing up, my career is taking off, so I'm have much less time to do the things I really enjoy, like reading novels.
Being a die-hard at anything I do, I continued to read novels, albeit, sadly, I took 3 months
to get through only one book, not the three hours I used to spend reading when I had more free time.
I would read a chapter today, put the novel aside. Then read the next chapter later, in the next couple of weeks when I could get a break. Read another chapter in another 2 or 3 weeks. And so on, until I would finish just one novel.
I didn't like this and I wanted a way of still getting the value of a full novel in three hours like it used to take me, not the three months it now takes me to complete just one novel.
I started asking for a way out.
Thankfully, there was a way out…
In audio books!
I simply buy the novel I want to buy, not in hardcover or paperback, but in audio book format --containing the exact same content of the novel in spoken-word!
Now I don't have the limitations I used to have with "reading" my favorite novels.
I listen to my novel in audio book format when getting ready in the morning, getting dressed and working out. When I'm travelling to my office, I pick up from where I last stopped.I listen to it while on my lunch hour at work too. And before driving back home from work, I complete the remaining part of the novel.
I would take around three hours to read a whole book.
Phew… how I love how much time audio books save me through each day and I am still getting all the same value!
If you haven't seen for yourself how awesome the advanatges of audio books are yet, don't hesitate.
Apart from novels you can get almost any kind of book in audio book format. You can now find business audio books, professional audio books, motivational audio books, etc.
Go on the internet and find the book you've never had the time to read but always wanted to do so. It's easy… using audio books!
Simply use any of the major search engines like Google to search for phrases such as "the title of the book + audio book".You are given the result of web sites where you are able to purchase the title of your choice in audio book format.
Yes, it's now far easier to find the audio book format of that favorite book of yours than you imagined!
I found an amazing place that has all my favorite books as audio book download, Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0012
You may have read another article I wrote recently, about how hectic my life was before I found audio books. Well I wanted to tell you more about how much my life has changed since then.
I have added so many more hours to my life because of audio books – it’s amazing that I’ve managed to gain back at least the 2 extra hours that were taken when I was promoted.
How?
First, I now get a 2 hour value of books every morning before I get to work.
During the 1 hour it usually takes me to prepare for work, I listen to an audio book.
I usually spend an hour commuting to and from the office, and I now listen to an audio book during my travels.
During the 1 hour or so I spend to have lunch and break times, I listen to an audio book.
I have managed to gain back an incredible three hours a day from listening to audiobooks in the morning, afternoon and evening.
I can still work hard in my job, while continuing to enjoy listening to books.
Second of all, I now play an audio book for my children before bed, instead of them having to listen to tired old Dad struggling for an hour. It was a bit of a shock to learn that they prefer listening to an audio book than to Dad.
I think I heard my daughter mumbling about how the voice from the audio book is “more awake than dad’s”. It just goes to show how tired I can get on some nights while trying to read a bedtime story to my children.
Now… aren’t audio books wonderful?
If you have had similar problems to me, you can gain back your time by taking advantage of the amazing value of audio books – especially audio book downloads – these are fantastic value.
Many, many best-sellers are now available as an audio book, and they really do make it far more interesting.
I’d suggest that you go online and do a search for the audio book version of a book you have been wanting to read but have never found the time for. A great site that I found is Spoken Network, http://www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0006
Even books that your kids or spouse love to read could be available in audio book format. If they are, they will be a great time saver for you.