Resolutions…do you accomplish them?

 

As the holiday season is getting closer, we are all getting into the mood. Stop and think for a couple of minutes about the resolutions you have made in the past. How many of those have you accomplished?  

Studies show that 40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year. The following shows how many of these resolutions are maintained as time goes on:

- past the first week: 75%
- past 2 weeks: 71%
- after one month: 64%
- after 6 months: 46% 

If we want to get at least past 6 months, I think we have to try to do things a little bit differently. Once I read that setting up goals is a good start. The importance of setting up goals that are challenging, tangible, specific and realistic can make the difference.

One way or another, trying is always good. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.

With all that said… what are your goals/resolutions for 2010? YOU CAN DO IT!

This is a list of the most common resolutions for Americans

Top New Years Resolutions:

1. Lose weight
2. Manage debt/save money
3. Get a better job
4. Spend more time with family
5. Quit smoking
6. Eat right/Get fit
7. Get a better education
8. Reduce stress
9. Going greener
10. Volunteer to help others

Worse drivers: Males or Females?

Last week while I was on my way to work I was hit by a car.  As I turned my back to see what had happened, from the rear view mirror I could see that it was a woman who bumped into my car. My first thought was “It had to be a woman” I’m sorry girls but I used to think girls weren’t that good behind the wheel. Well, that’s what I thought before I read this article.  So, for all the people out there thinking girls have a lack of driving skills; that is completely FALSE. Take a look at government and auto insurance statistics.

Numerous studies show that males are more likely than females to throw caution to the wind when on the road.

Scofflaws
Sorry, boys, but statistics show that you break traffic laws more often than females.

Quality Planning, a company that validates policyholder information for auto insurers, conducted a study that concluded males are at least 50% more likely to be cited for reckless driving, seat belt violations, speeding, failure to yield and stop sign/signal violations.

The study also found that female drivers were about 27% less likely to be found at fault when involved in an accident.

Cruising and boozing
Males also drive drunk more often than females.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, males outnumbered females 4-to-1 when it came to driving under the influence.

Crash dummies
When it comes to car crashes, males have garnered much higher numbers than females.

According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, males were involved in roughly 6.1 million crashes in 2007, of which more than 40,000 were fatal. By comparison, females were involved in about 4.4 million crashes and logged about 14,000 fatal car accidents.

The disadvantage of youth
This reckless streak is more prevalent in young men, and both men and women generally become better drivers as they age. Even insurance companies recognize that maturity pays off. Young drivers, generally between 16 and 25, are the riskiest drivers, and they pay for it in premiums.

Source: MSN

Watch out with what you post on Facebook

Facebook message frees NYC robbery suspect

A 19-year-old New York City man arrested on robbery charges has been exonerated thanks to his Facebook page — and a request for pancakes. Rodney Bradford was held for 12 days on suspicion of robbing two people on Oct. 17 in the Brooklyn public housing complex where he lives.

Bradford and witnesses insisted he was innocent. They said he was at his father’s Harlem apartment when the crime occurred.
And, a playful message was posted on Bradford’s Facebook page one minute before the robbery. In it, he asked his girlfriend where his pancakes were.On Oct. 17 at 11:49 a.m., Bradford left the Facebook message, an inside joke to his girlfriend that read: “WHERE MY IHOP?”

The seemingly innocuous post became a major legal tool, as his defense attorneys were able to prove that the Facebook message was left from the IP address at Bradford’s father’s Harlem home, just as he had said. More than 13 miles away at the time of the crime in Brooklyn, lawyers said it was impossible that Bradford committed the mugging.

The vernacular — the slangy reference to pancakes —also helped.

“It is just a very strong alibi,” Bradford’s lawyer, Robert Reuland, told The New York Post. “It reflects the pervasiveness that Web sites and social networking has on our lives.”

Bradford’s stepmother, Ernestine Bradford, told the Post that “Facebook saved my son … Normally, we yell at our kids, ‘Oh, you’re on the computer!’ It’s completely different. If it wasn’t for Facebook, my son wouldn’t be here.”

“This is the first case that I’m aware of in which a Facebook update has been used as alibi evidence,” said John G. Browning, a lawyer in Dallas who studies social networking and the law. “We are going to see more of that because of how prevalent social networking has become,” he told The New York Times.

Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, told the Times that the case is sealed and he could not discuss details. But he did acknowledge that Facebook was key to the dropped charges, The Times said..

“The prosecution contacted Facebook,” Bruno told The Times. “We were told of this alibi and we contacted people, researched and discovered that it was accurate.”

“They had me on Rikers Island for 12 days. It was really miserable,” Bradford told the New York Post.

“If it wasn’t for Facebook I’d still be on Rikers Island,” he said.

 

Source: MSNBC