midlifejourney.com

Star Trek Returns!!!

- (the prequel) is now in a theatre near you! Read the full synopsis and watch the trailers here.

Back in 1966 when today’s midlife crowd: the baby boomer generation, were still in grammar school, Star Trek, the TV show took off across America’s TV screens. With Captain Kirk (William Shatner) at the helm and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) as his trusted officer, the star ship Enterprise began its five year mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before!” My sister was addicted. She thought Spock was cool and I’m sure she secretly lusted after those pointy ears. Unfortunately the original series only lasted three years, cancelled due to poor ratings. But the science-fiction crowd loved the show and the fans continued to be loyal followers of the re-runs when they could get them.

An animated version ran for two seasons in 1973 and 1974 and a full length motion picture was produced by Paramount in 1978: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, receiving mixed reviews. Finally TV execs realized that the fan base was never going to go away. In the intervening years three Star Trek movies: The Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home, in addition to the original TV show reruns and innumerable conventions of “Trekkies,” had kept the fans coming back for more. In 1987 Patrick Steward took command as Jean-Luc Picard of the new star ship Enterprise-D in Star-Trek: The Next Generation. The show was a great success and three spin-offs (Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise) were developed to fill the airwaves with the ongoing adventures of Starfleet officers and crew. In the meantime seven additional full length feature films were produced for a total of ten movies.

This month the latest new full length motion picture Star Trek hits the theatres. And its going gang-busters. A prequel to the original TV series, it traces the early days of James T. Kirk long before he became a Starfleet Officer. Read the full synopsis and watch the trailers here.

Receiving 9 out of 10 stars, it’s getting full thumbs up from viewers and critics alike. Boomers Rejoice! The past is present. Spock lives! The star ship of our youth still flies in the face of disaster, danger and doom.

Get yourself to your local theatre. It’s one great film you don’t want to miss.

Bethenny Frankel, star of The Real Housewives of New York City, celebrity natural food chef, and best-selling author of Naturally Thin, focuses on making healthy food taste great.

How many in midlife have struggled with diets that just don’t work? I still have a suit I bought when I was in my mid twenties. It hangs in my closet as a testimony to the size I once was, and the size I someday hope to be. But no matter the diet I have tried, nothing gets me any closer to my goal. I love all the wrong kinds of foods, and I enjoy a drink in the evening. Impossible obstacles to losing weight.

Bethenny Frankel has an alternative plan. There is a way to eat healthy without having to get deep into the calorie count, the weighing, the points, the cardboard meals that some food plans sell you at inflated prices. Our culture is so overwhelmed with bad food choices it’s hard to see the healthy alternatives without guidance. That’s what this book is all about. It teaches you how to make the right healthy choices and alternatives to unhealthy processed foods.

Recipes include  wonderfully tasteful vegetable dishes, grilled beef tenderloin, classic bolognese lasagna and the infamous Skinnygirl Margarita! <- watch Bethenny’s video!

The book is number 3 on the New York Times Bestseller List! She must be doing something right. Check it out!

Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

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There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I’ll be frank; you want to be the expert.

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc? experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.

Most Bloggers Are Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it requires something – experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Continue Reading »

This article is by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

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In every bloggers life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers.

These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling. Continue Reading »

Message to all you midlifers: Trying to do everything yourself? Sometimes it is smarter to call for help. Here are the two key elements in making that determination.

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I just paid $140.00 to a local small engine repair company to repair my broken lawnmower. It had serious problems that I could not even begin to fathom. Mechanical things like engines, radios, clocks, vacuum cleaners, thermostats: how they work and how to repair them is beyond me. And I don’t care.

If I tried to repair the lawnmower it would have meant hours reading the manual, multiple trips to the local hardware store, broken fingernails, bruised knuckles and a lawnmower that still didn’t cut grass. I know my limits and recognize that although $140. sounds like a lot, it is small change when it comes to the time and frustration I would spend trying to fix the machine myself.

Knowing your limitations and how valuable is your time, are the two key elements in determining when it is time to call in an expert. It doesn’t matter if the issue is fixing a broken vacuum cleaner, managing your household, feeding your family, or developing a new website for your business.

You may think you can’t afford the assistance but the cost of not asking for help could be more than just money. Trying to fix and manage everything takes time: time you could be spending doing something else that you are really good at – that will increase your income. Continue Reading »