Tuesday, March 13, 2007

MARCH 13, 2007

MAD? GET GLAD!
The average person gets irritated 30 times a day. Here's how to cool down when someone ticks you off!

*Talk about it right away! Annoyed that your friend canceled for lunch at the last minute? Express your anger as soon as possible so it doesn't fester. If you and your friend don't ahve the kind of relationship where you can be honest about that kind of thing, vent to someone else who will keep your confidence.

*Take a deep breath... and count to four, not 10! Four calming seconds is all you need to flood your brain and body with oxygen, which will relax your muscles and lower your blood pressure.

*Make up a funny story... Put a humorous spin on things to change your mood.

*Don't take things personally. Many things that annoy you about others-- rudeness, slowness-- have nothing to do with you.

*Do a good deed. The next time you're stuck behind a woman at the grocery store who's taking waaaay too long to unload her cart, help her out instead of getting irritated at her. Doing an act of kindness gives you a natural emotional boost. No wonder Ty Pennington is always smiling.

SAVE THE DATE
Did you know that brides everywhere are on a mission to get married on 7/7/07? More than 31,000 couples have already signed up with theknot.com, a wedding-planning Web site, saying they plan to marry on that day. That is roughly triple the number for any other Saturday that month -- and nearly 20,000 more than the number of couples who got married on the corresponding weekend a year earlier.

And it's not only prospective spouses that are taking advantage of the lucky day 7-7-7. The travel site Vegas.com said its hotel reservations for the weekend starting on Friday, July 6, are about six times more than those for the previous weekend.

75% OF WOMEN WOULD RATHER WORK FOR A MAN THAN A WOMAN:
"Elle" magazine and MSNBC just released the results of a poll about gender and leadership and women made it clear: They REALLY don't like seeing other women in power.

A solid 75% of women say they'd rather work for a man than for another woman. The most common word women used to describe other females at work??? CATTY.

The survey also asked which gender is more likely to lead effectively. . . and both men and women preferred male leaders at more than a two-to-one margin.

Claire Babrowski, the former CEO of RadioShack, says this all has to do with the old-school images of what a leader is. Quote, "We picture men in leadership roles. As a woman, you already have this hurdle to overcome."

The good news: As the next generation is hitting the workforce. . . it seems their gender role stereotypes aren't as strong. Workers ages 18 to 29 who took the survey were much more accepting of female bosses than people ages 30 and up.