Made Moon Blog

Arthritis, which is a condition that affects one in three adult Americans, is one that affects the bone joints in the body. Because there is no cure, many sufferers are forced to cope with it’s painful effects. Arthritis in the knee is one of the common ailments and can make it difficult to walk, bend the leg or even sleep at night.

Many people who develop arthritis in the knee may do so because of an injury or prolonged stress on the legs. Some examples may be playing sports, being involved in an auto accident, falling, etc. If the knee or leg is injured or strained, it will become more susceptible to developing arthritis in the knee. In some cases, arthritis in the knee may also be inherited and occurs naturally through genetics.

Some of the most common symptoms of arthritis in the knee are achy leg muscles and joints, swelling and tenderness around the knee area, a crackling sound when leg is bent or moved, stiffness and difficulty in movement. These symptoms may become increasingly worse during cold weather or when rain is predicted. Weather patterns greatly affect arthritis in the knee, as well as arthritis in other parts of the body.

As the weather changes, arthritis in the knee often worsens due to the fact that affected joints are believed to develop additional nerve endings in an effort to protect the joint from more damage. In addition, sufferers who cope with arthritis in the knee are thought to be more vulnerable in the morning and/or when any movement is initiated.

If arthritis in the knee is suspected, the best way to confirm a diagnosis is through the type of testing that only a physician can provide. During a typical office visit, doctors are likely to inquire about any additional symptoms or ailments that seem to be present with arthritis in the knee. This is important in the diagnosis of whether or not the patient actually suffers from arthritis in the knee or whether another problem is present.

Although there is no cure for arthritis in the knee, there are various treatment options available for sufferers. Among them, over the counter medications, prescription-based treatments, physical therapy, pain management and even surgery in extreme cases. In addition, numerous herbal therapies have been developed to help ease pain that is caused by arthritis in the knee.

The information in this article is to be used for informational purposes only. It should not be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice. Anyone with questions regarding arthritis in the knee must consult their physician for further information.

Think about the people in your life who you would consider spontaneous. They seem so alive, don’t they? They are so positive and confident. With a little work, you can develop your natural spontaneity.

Spontaneity means acting in accordance with a natural feeling, impulse or tendency without any constant, effort or premeditation. For example, it’s coming to a fork in the road and quickly making an intelligent decision. Or it’s making an impromptu speech to a group of coworkers, explaining a problem or issue and quickly providing a viable solution that will save time or money. It’s even walking through the front door of you home with flowers for your spouse.

While all these scenarios sound desirable to most of us, spontaneity has long been a neglected asset. Many people look skeptically at spontaneity, as if it is a sign of flightiness rather than a valuable asset. But high-achieving men and women know the advantages of being spontaneous, and making it part of their daily lives.

Spontaneity is a trait that many people incorrectly believe is of better use in your personal life than in your business life. Most people would agree on the value of spontaneity in relationships, where it’s a quality that can keep the excitement going. It breaks up the humdrum of the daily routine, and it allows for some creativity and fun. In a relationship, things can get stale, and spontaneity keeps things fresh.

But, spontaneity in the workplace is equally valuable. People often get bogged down by the fear of negative reaction or the fear of being criticized. Instead you need to allow yourself to take some risks. Some of your ideas will work out, and some won’t: these are the facts of life. Spontaneity can be risky, but that’s part of the fun of it.

Spontaneity can help reduce stress or even better, it can trigger a kind of positive stress, the kind that produces creativity and energizes you. For example, when unexpected problems come up, if you tackle them spontaneously, while keeping your mind open to all the possible solutions, you will feel less burdened and anxious than you would if you’d let the problem sit there.

No one wants a leader who bounces back and forth in the corporate wind, lurching from whim to whim with no basis for the decision. That’s not spontaneity, it’s impulsiveness.
If you have qualities such as integrity, honesty, and the ability to see the big picture, then you’re a person who is willing take intelligent risks, and see your decision through. When you have these qualities you will be more successful when you are faced with situations in which you have to implement an idea or course of action spontaneously.

These basic qualities are important because, they will enable you to earn the trust of your colleagues. Your coworkers will be less resistant to what they might see as a seat-of-the-pants kind of decision. Your colleagues or subordinates will follow your game plan because they will trust you.

For example, let’s say the CEO of your company is out of the office and your company’s largest client calls to report a problem that needs immediate executive input. You quickly assemble your executive team, discover how the problem happened and respond to the client with a solution. Even though your solution was devised quickly, and was perhaps a little unorthodox, the staff followed your directives because they trust you. However, if the executive down the hall had been in charge, employees would have balked, because he or she doesn’t have the trust of his or her colleagues.

So how can you develop your spontaneity, without making others feel uncomfortable? Here are few suggestions:

* Understand that issues or problems will crop up that need attention immediately. They cannot wait, because if they do, they will become worse.

* Understand that many of those around you are uncomfortable with snap decisions. They don’t trust quick reactions because they don’t think that much time or effort has gone into their development. Some won’t see the need for a quick course of action.

* Understand that some of those around you may not be able to communicate the need for immediate attention to a particular issue or event. Be able to judge the severity of the problem and the timetable in which it needs to be solved.

* When you determine a course of action, always explain to others the rationale behind it.

* Let others know that your plan my be a short-term solution or stopgap measure and that other remedies may be needed for the future. Know that being spontaneous means changing course quickly and sometimes often. Never follow a course out of stubbornness. Rather, be able to see the need to switch gears based on principles of logic.

* Spontaneous people make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to admit you’ve made a mistake, and then get on with your life. As the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

There are many other ways to be spontaneous in conventional and accepted ways. Brainstorming sessions are a form of spontaneity. And there is always someone in a company or organization who is regarded as the “creative one.” For example, the “creative one” is the person that everyone can always count on to give a seminar on how to problem-solve creatively to promote the idea of spontaneity in the workplace.

Unfortunately people don’t allow themselves enough spontaneity. We have been conditioned that to get ahead, you often need to hold back. We tend to go for the group consensus, which also has its benefits. But when you don’t have the freedom to make spontaneous comments or create ideas spontaneously, you’re missing out on one of the best ways to work and live.

People who are spontaneous are confident, natural, and mentally healthy. They follow a process in which they open up their mind to explore all possible solutions to a problem, and then they let go of their agenda, ego, beliefs, and attitudes, and allow their creative flow to explore the different possibilities. When you are able to put yourself through this process you will enable yourself to achieve the highest levels of success.

Copyright©2005 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many of America’s largest corporations, on the subjects of leadership, self-esteem, goals, achievement, and success psychology.

Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com

Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com

If you have a website and you are not involved in any of the
thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, you
are loosing great opportunities to make some extra income. As in
the case of some top affiliate marketers this extra income might
even transform into thousands of dollars.

Affiliate program is one of the most effective methods of
producing sales second only to direct mail. According to
Forrester Research, a marketing research company, in this year
21% of all online sales will be generated from affiliate sites
promoting affiliate products.

If you do your homework right, you too can earn handsomely from
the correct use of affiliate programs.

What is an affiliate program?

The concept of affiliate program is based on the age-old
business practice of referral service. This is quite common
in many industries. An attorney, for example, gets a certain
percent of commission if he refers a client to another lawyer.

Back in 1996 Amazon.com started the first widespread use of
referral service on the Internet. If a client comes to Amazon.com
and buy a product using a link provided by Amazon, from a website
which signed affiliate partnership agreement, that site receives
10 to 15% commission from the sale. The Amazon Affiliate Program
became so successful that it prompted others to follow the suit.
Today, affiliate programs became ubiquitous on the Internet making
them one of the primary methods of online marketing of products
and services.

Affiliate Program can be defined as Internet marketing system
where a company allows and helps third party websites, called
affiliates to post link and refer clients in return for a
predetermined flat-fee or percentage-based commission.

Benefits of affiliate programs
Affiliate Programs became so popular because as a partnership
it’s a win-win situation for both the program owner and the
affiliates.

Benefits for program owners include:

Increase Sales
The primary reason for most of the companies to adopt an
affiliate program is the possibility of boosting sales. In fact,
proper implementation of a quality affiliate program is capable
of increasing sales dramatically.

Free promotion
A successful affiliate program can easily become the largest
traffic generator for the company website. Many websites receive
major portion of their visitors from their affiliate links.
To find suitable websites with required content in order to run
a banner or link campaign is time consuming and require large
resources; affiliate programs in comparison can resolve this
issue often with a far smaller investment.

Increase search engine ranking
Search engines, Google in particular, calculate link popularity
as one of the main factors in their ranking algorithm. Backward
links from affiliate sites certainly help improving this.

Branding
Thanks to its affiliate program Amazon.com banner links can be
seen on numerous websites. Popularity of Amazon.com among the
newcomers to Internet proves that Amazon.com was successful in
creating its online brand name. No doubt, omnipresent visibility
of their logo on the affiliate sites definitely had a huge impact
on the brand recognition of the Amazon. Offline companies had to
spend billions of dollars of advertisement money to get similar
results!

How about the affiliates? What are the benefits they get from
an affiliate relationship?

No product or service to carry
Online business with your own product or service might be
rewarding, but it requires substantial investment from your
part. With carefully chosen affiliate programs you can have your
online business without the requirement of having your own
products.

The investment is low as all you need is a website.

No need to have a merchant account

Since you don’t carry your own products or services you do not
have to go through the hassle of having a merchant account to
cater your clients. Your affiliate program owner will do everything.
All you have to do is supply clients through your designated link.

Possibility of residual income
Many programs pay you a commission from the sales made to the
customers generated from affiliates, who have signed up as an
affiliate following your link. This kind of affiliate system is
called 2-tier system.

Visitor tracking system allows affiliate programs to pay you a
commission when same visitor from your website makes repeat
purchase.

Some affiliate programs that promote monthly or yearly
subscription services pay a commission each month as long as
customer referred by you stays subscribed.

Complement you website with added products and services
If your site is dedicated to certain products or services,
there must be other stuffs that go well together with your
own products. It’s a good idea to seek out viable affiliate
products of these items and promote through your site. Your
visitors will love this and this will help building loyalty
among your visitors.

Have new contents for your site
many affiliate programs supply you with valuable marketing
materials. Some of these materials can be nice addition to
your site content bringing further value to your website.

Various Affiliate programs

There are two ways of running an affiliate program:
The company owns and handles the program itself, using
certain software.

The company uses third party administered affiliate programs.
The reasons why many companies prefer to hand over management
of their affiliate programs include technical aspects, cost
factor and human factors.

- Companies do not have to spend money on developing, running and updating the software.

- Proven technology allows companies to concentrate on their job of selling their products and services.

- Many prospective affiliates prefer third party managed programs, because they rightfully ponder, in this case the program owners have less chance to cheat their affiliates.

Find below a list of some leading third party affiliate program
administrators:

http://www.befree.com
http://www.linkshare.com
http://www.cj.com
http://www.clickbank.com

However, this does not mean that you should avoid company run
affiliate programs. On the contrary, some of the most successful
and best affiliate programs are run by the owners.

If you find an affiliate program that suits your requirement
and you feel that the company is a reputable one, by any means
you should give it a try!

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he
has wide experience in Business Consulting, International
Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace
with solutions to start and run online business.
You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com,
http://ezine.rusbiz.com , http://www.rusbiz.com ,
http://ezine.rusbiz.com/newsletters/newsletter21.htm

If you’re living out on your own for the first time, you may have already discovered how many things can get in the way of your life, making it stressful and chaotic. You probably never realized all the ’stuff’ going on behind the scenes when you lived at home with Mom and Dad…the bill paying, the home maintenance, the car maintenance, the food shopping, the clothes shopping, the ‘other stuff’ shopping, the trips to the drycleaner, the checkbook balancing, the cooking, the cleaning, the mending, the yard work, the run to the post office, the hour spent on hold trying to straighten out a problem with a credit card, the researching to find the best deal…the list goes on and on. How’s a person supposed to keep up with all that and stay sane these days?

A great place to start is with a planning book. You see businesspeople carrying them everywherethey’re guarded like treasure. “My whole life is in that book!” they’ll say. They’re right…and they’re smart. There is way too much going on in most people’s lives to be able to keep everything in their head. Finding a planning book that works for you and your style can make a huge improvement to your confidence in dealing with all those things that ‘get in the way of life’ and even free up more time to do the things you want.

Even if your business life isn’t full enough to require a planning book, guaranteed that your personal life is. There’s the information you need to have readily available, like contact information for your landlord, your bank, the lender on your car loan, your doctors and dentist, emergency road service…plus sensitive information like your credit card numbers, even numbers for grocery stores, libraries, organizations you’re a member of, and clubs…you’ll want to keep the phone and cell numbers of your friends and business associates handy…a place for keeping the business cards you collect as you meet people through work will come in real handy, too.

Each planning book is a little different in the types of pages available for recording this kind of information, and they usually have several different scheduling pages to choose fromwhether you need to see only one day at a time and have lots of room for notes, or want to see a week or even a full month on a two-page spread. Think carefully about what you do at work, the kinds of activities you’re involved in outside of work, how many appointments or events you usually have to keep track of, and how much room you want for adding notes as you go along.

Once you’ve found a book you think will fit your lifestyle, start using it! Collect all the contact information you’d like to have at your fingertips and get it recorded in there. Do you already have meetings, appointments, events, or special dates that you know of? Get those written down on the proper dates along with any notes to help jog your memory about what the appointment is for, directions on how to get there, or maybe what you need to take to the meeting.

The more you write down, the less you need to remember. Doctors say that the best way to improve your memory is to memorize things, but in this hectic world, I’ve found that the less I need to ‘think’ about things, the better. I write it down and purge it from the gray matter. When the time comes, all the information I need is right there in the book. As your life gets crowded, too, you’ll realize what a lifesaver a book like this can be.

Remember those goals you took the time to think about and write down last month? (You did do it, didn’t you? If not, take a look at the Career article in our Dose of Reality e-newsletter, or search ezinearticles.com for Expert Author, Kathryn Marion, for some major motivation.) Make a photocopy of your goals lists (shrink them down on a copy machine, if you have to) and keep them in your planning book. That way you have them right there to help you figure out what to do with some unexpected spare time (hint: make some progress toward one of your goals; don’t waste it reading a comic book!) or to remind you that you’re saving money for something special so this ‘great deal’ that just plopped in your lap will only derail that goal.

Do you see why so many people say “my whole life is in that book”? Don’t wait until you miss an important meeting for work, or get charged for missing a doctor’s appointmenttake charge of your time and your life with a planning book now…and guard it with your life!

# # #

Kathryn Marion is President of Education for Reality. in Erie, Colorado. Her book Success in the ‘Real World:’ The Graduate’s Complete Guide to Making the Most of Your Career (and Your Life!) was released in April ‘05 in e-book format for its tenth anniversary–it was distributed through schools, colleges, and universities to nearly two million new graduates. Jam-packed with savvy insights and helpful advicem it covers everything from careers to money management to handling personal and even legal matters. Visit http://www.EducationForReality.com and sign up for the free monthly newsletter, Dose of RealityTM–it will give you a ‘dose’ of advice on your career, your money, and your life each month as well as point you to additional online resources which will help you in these areas–so you don’t have to surf the Net (we do it for you!).

Some believe leaders are born. Others believe that leaders are developed. I believe that people are born with certain leadership characteristics. The characteristics that they are not born with can be developed. Some of these characteristics we can get from the Eagle. By observing and studying this matchless bird you can pick up on leadership characteristics to help develop you and your network marketing team.

The eagle shows four major leadership characteristics:

1) Vision - Just like the eagle, all leaders must have vision. The eagle’s eyes can see great distances. They can also directly into the sun without being blinded. You, being the leader of your network marketing team, must have vision. You must have a vision that guides and leads your team towards the organization’s goals. The vision must be big and focused. A big, focused vision will produce big results.

2) Eagles Never Eat Dead Meat - You will never see an eagle eating meat that it did not kill. An eagle is not a scavenger. It hunts for and kills its own food. It hunts for the prey while it’s warm and alive. You as a leader must go where the action is. You must go where hunt down and find lively people to grow you business.

3) Looks For & Flies Into Storms - As storms approach, lesser birds head for cover, but the might eagle spreads its wings and with a great cry mounts upon the powerful updrafts, soaring to heights of glory. Eagles use the storm to lift him to these great heights. Leaders use storms (challenges); we don’t run from them. To leaders, storms are tools used for their development.

4) Very Gentle & Attentive To Their Young - The eagle is known for its ferocity, yet no member of the bird family is more gently and attentive to its young. At just the right time, the mother eagle begins to teach her eaglets how to fly. She gathers an eaglet onto her back, and spreading her wings, flies high. Suddenly she swoops out from under the eaglet and as it falls, it gradually learns what its wings are for until the mother catches it once again on her wings. The process is repeated. If the young is slow to learn or cowardly, she returns him to the nest, and begins to tear it apart, until there is nothing left for the eaglet to cling to. Then she nudges him off the cliff. In summary, TEACH AND TRAIN your organization! Network marketing is about duplication!

By studying the eagle, you can be born with and also develop leadership characteristics. Developing and using them your network marketing business will grow and become very profitable.

Motivated, Very Energetic, Entrepreneur from TX. Everything is big in Texas - INCLUDING DREAMS!

Leadership is mostly about being yourself and maintaining your personal authenticity rather than about learning some formula from a text book. Aspiring leaders need to be always true to themselves; not slavishly following other’s ideas. That is not to say that role models can not be powerful exemplars.

Real leaders are not only prepared to reveal their weaknesses, because they know they are not super-human, but to use them to their advantage. Obviously this doesn’t mean revealing technical weaknesses or functional failings as this would fatally flaw their performance. Instead, what is meant is that leaders can and perhaps should, reveal their personality quirks - maybe they are bad tempered in the morning, are somewhat shy with new people or even a little disorganized. Such admissions show they are human and this resonates with others confirming that the leader is a person - not merely a role-holder.

Revealing their true selves, leaders can allow others to know and help them and this makes for better teamwork; followers can also feel better if they’ve got something to complain about. Thus by sharing at least some of their weaknesses, leaders can prevent others from inventing damaging problems.

True leadership is therefore much more than a demonstration of strengths. Real leaders acknowledge their shortcomings and may even be able to make them work for them.

Good leaders always rely on their ability to read situations. They develop a ‘feel’ for an environment, and interpret soft data without having to be told. They know when team morale is patchy or when complacency needs shaking up. There are three levels of situational sensitivity, each of which has its own specific skills.

Effective leaders are continually learning about the motives, attributes and skills of their important subordinates. They get to know their people through formal and, often better, informal contact such as when travelling together.

Effective leaders read their teams. They analyze the compound balance between team members, the tension between the tasks and processes, and how the team builds its competencies.

Finally, they are concerned with defining the cultural characteristics of their organizations and keep their finger on the pulse of the organisation’s climate.

It sounds tongue-in-cheek to say that leaders care for their people. Ever noticed the cynicism in the workforce upon seeing a manager return from a people-skills training course with new concern for others. Effective leaders don’t need a training programme to convince their employees that they really care. They clearly empathize with their people care intensely about their work.

Genuine concern is difficult because it always involves some personal risk - showing some part of yourself and your most strongly held values can seem quite scary. It may also take some detachment - the ability to stand back, see the whole picture and sometimes take tough decisions. Leadership never was a popularity contest.

Effective leaders use their differences and move on to distinguish themselves through personal qualities such as sincerity, loyalty, creativity, or sheer expertise.

Using these differences is a critical leadership skill. But, as always, there is a danger - too much distance makes it impossible to sense situations properly or to communicate effectively.

Peter Fisher is Managing Director of Career Consulting Limited. He is an Expert Author and Management Consultant as well as being one of the UK’s most experienced Career Coaches. For more information and his definition of leadership visit Definition of Leadership or Career Consulting Limited

Nearly every November and December family magazine seems to have
something to say about “holiday stress.”

Pile holiday stress on top of cancer stress, and the burden can
become staggering.

Perhaps we wonder if this will be our last holiday season with those we
love. Maybe we got our diagnosis during the holidays and wonder if,
from now on, the season will bring back nightmarish memories.

Some will ride through the holidays on the emotional roller-coaster of
surgery, radiation, or chemo. We may yearn for the holiday seasons of
the past, before cancer entered the picture.

How to cope? There’s no one right answer.

Perhaps the best we can do is to seek the spiritual equivalent of a
candle to light the way.

The fragile, yet oh-so-precious light of candles has deep spiritual
significance at this time of year.

Jewish families light a menorah in memory of an ancient light that
burned miraculously, against all odds. Christians light candles to
celebrate, not the end of darkness, but faith that “the light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

The act of lighting a candle contains within it an honest recognition of
the dark. So, there’s room for both celebration and lament.

And if all we can see is the dark?

Some of us will reach out to others who can surround us with their faith,
love, courage and hope. Others will reach inward, into their own spirit, or
upward toward a higher power.

Whatever our path, with faith in the light we can move forward.

(c) Norma Schmidt, LLC

Norma Schmidt, M.A., M.Div., is a former Lutheran minister with
experience as a pastor and cancer center chaplain. Her writing as
appeared in “Coping with Cancer” magazine. She is a former co-host of
the “Inspired Survivor” Internet radio show for people with cancer and
their families. Her free 6-week e-course, “Tapping the Power Within:
Spiritual Tools for Living with Cancer,” is available at http://www.MyCancerSupportCoach.com

“Virtual Real Estate Investing” is a relatively new concept. There are many variations on what this term means, encompassing everything from using the internet to aid in real estate investing efforts to participating in online games such as SecondLife.

To separate fact from fiction, I asked Bryan Ellis of BryanEllis.com for comments. He’s the man many consider to be the father of this new form of investing.

“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the “real estate” is “virtual” or “physical” said Ellis.

One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. “There’s a huge difference between a website and a piece of real estate, but the ways you can profit from them are similar: ‘flipping’, rental/leasing, advertising sales, etc…all of these apply to both markets” he states.

I must admit: Its easy to see the parallels. Consider this: If you own a piece of real estate in a desirable neighborhood, your real estate has value because other people are interested in that location. Similarly, ownership of a desirable domain name is valuable for the same reasons. So it doesn’t matter if you own physical real estate or virtual real estate - you’ll likely use similar strategies to turn them into money in your pocket.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

Stress in the modern work place has grown greatly in recent years and has spurred many studies among agencies of the federal government, namely the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Perhaps now more than ever before, job stress poses a threat to the health of all workers.

Job related stress has many psychological and physiological effects. Stress affects worker health and in many cases, worker safety. The stress brought on by poor working conditions, coworkers, demanding bosses, or stressful job duties causes physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain and muscle
spasms, tension, ulcers and other digestive disorders, loss of appetite,loss of sleep, and fatigue.

Lack of financial security is also another major factor that contributes to job related stress. Regardless of what your income level is, you still may not earn enough money to pay all of the bills, build up a savings account, put money into investments, handle emergencies, and cover basic
needs like housing, food, and clothing.

Many individuals, frustrated with the lack of financial options, are finding alternatives to being unsatisfied in their current occupations by starting their own home businesses. People from all walks of life are finding more satisfaction by selling their own products and services instead of working
for an employer.

Despite the demands that owning a business may place on an entrepreneur,the freedom that comes with being in command of your daily life and daily decisions is often less stressful than being employed for someone else.Your earning potential is as unlimited as the goals that you set for your business.

Starting a business is easier than you may think, and with the right planning,and the right information about how to start your new venture, you will be well on your way to a more fulfilled life.

Learn about more than 100 new home businesses that you can start immediately by visiting
Drewavenue.com, and obtain free information about home business basics.

Published by Drew Avenue Publishing.
Obtain 107 Great Ways to Make Money:Self-Employment and Home Business Ideas through immediate download by visiting us at http://www.drewavenue.com.

Also visit our website for free ebooks and free ezines about money,self-employment, home businesses, and business opportunities.

You may also contact us at drewavenue@att.net.

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

The Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.

Consider this:

• Titanic (1997) grossed over $600,000,000 - uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Star Wars (1977) grossed over $460,000,000 - uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Shrek 2 (2004) grossed over $436,000,000 - uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• ET (1982) grossed over $434,000,000 - uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Spiderman (2002) grossed over $432,000,000 - uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Out of Africa (1985), Terms of Endearment (1983), Dances with Wolves (1990), Gladiator (2000) - All Academy Award Winners Best Film are based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Anti-hero stories (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Heroine’s Journey stories (Million Dollar Baby (2004), Out of Africa (1980) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

Proactive Transformation

One element of the transformation (also known as the Road of Trials) is the hero’s proactive nature. Whilst s/he may be initially reluctant, when the time comes, the hero must be proactive in order to learn or gain that what must be gained or learned. Often there is some form of trigger that pushes the hero from reluctance to engagement.

In Gladiator (2000), Maximus is initially reluctant to train as a gladiator. However, Proximo forces him into the arena, from which point on he forces his way through the learning experience.

In Lord of War (2005), the transformation stage is where Yuri, until then reluctant to pursue Ava, proactively sets out to woo her.

In Million Dollar Baby (2004), the transformation stage is where both Maggie and Frankie proactively set out to ensure that Maggie improves.

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/