Recreation and Sports Enhance Competitiveness

Competition has substantially increased in almost all fields of human endeavor. Despite the diversification of opportunities, disciplines, industries, and professions, there are still plenty of hard working professionals who consider their workmates as competitors. This enhances the competitiveness of every worker in all fields. Such desire to be on the top is often regarded as the highest priority in doing work. Thus, most workers, professionals or not, tend to spend most if not all of their time accomplishing tasks, doing overtime to improve their sales output, and spending the rest of the sleepless evenings making reports. These practices seem to significantly contribute to the success of one's career. However, these have serious ramifications that lurk within which could cause long term damage not only to the person's profession, but also especially to his health and relationship. Thus, in doing or performing work, one should bear in mind that although the accomplishment of the assigned tasks are among the priorities, there is nothing more important than to have a good health, strong family and personal relationships, and sound psychological state of being.

In ensuring that the person has a balanced life in dealing with work, career, profession, relationship, and personal needs, it is important that he or she does not confine oneself to the stressful walls of the workplace or any other locations that just reminds or call for serious work. Recreation and sports activity centers located almost everywhere in downtown areas are best outlets to ease the tension and relieve the pains that might have been incurred due to too much stress from work. Activities involving recreation and sports do not only improve the physical health of the person. They also enhance one's competitiveness because the person acquires a serene and clear mind and thoughts, sufficient supply of energy to perform ordinary and extraordinary tasks, and a positive outlook in life derived from healthy and strong relationships with the family and loved ones. Indeed, these activities are not mutually exclusive from competitiveness. In fact, they are the essential elements to achieve utmost competitive level and be on the top since these activities provide the balance of the serious and fun, and industry and leisure. So if you feel that you are not anymore enjoying what you are doing, try to find some time off for fun and entertainment. After all, life is short and it is not just about work and competitiveness. Having fun, satisfaction, and healthy life are the things that matter most.

In every quest for excellence through high levels of competitiveness, everyone must consider the holistic aspect of their lives. Work or profession is just a part of it. Focusing too much on this aspect would not only be contradictory and self-defeating to the objectives of excellence, but it also poses serious threats to other more important parts of the person such as his or her relationships with loved ones, and one's physical and psychological health. Recreation and sports activities effectively strike a balance between these essential parts of the person - demands from work and personal needs.

Recreation and Sports For Family Time

Families today lead extremely busy lives. Often, lives are led separately, sometimes (if we are lucky) meeting up at the dinner table. Even weekends are booked with classes, scouts, games and competitions. Teenagers are gone even more with jobs or on dates.

A good way to have some family time is with recreation and sports. Recreation can be as simple as holding theme nights such as board game night, movie night or book club night. Everyone can pull out their favorite board games, or buy a new one to try, and play for a couple of hours. Make dinner finger foods that night and people can munch as they play. You can also have a taco bar or a baked potato bar; self service being the point so that the games can be played nonstop. Bring out the popcorn or ice cream sundaes for movie night and enjoy a family favorite. Or lay out the munchies, bring your favorite books and hold a family book club night. Variations on these activities will keep everyone looking forward to these events.

Sports are another great way to have family time. Whether you have enough family members for your own basketball team or your family is smaller and likes to bicycle together, sports are a good way to enjoy each other and stay fit as well. Consider roller skating or ice skating rinks for your family time. These are safe places where you can rent equipment and have fun together to the sound of music. Hiking is fun and gets you out in nature. Hike in nearby woods, try the trails at your local park or walk the neighborhood. Parks are also great for throwing a Frisbee around, playing chase or seeing who can swing the highest. Or try a new sport like tennis. Many parks have tennis courts and all you really need is a racket and some balls to have some fun competition.

Recreation and sports are not only fun, but can bring a scattered family together again. Take turns choosing and you will all look forward to these nights together.

How to Write Family and Local History

Writing your family memoirs or recording the history of a town or village can be immensely rewarding.

However, when tackling your chosen subject it's essential not to attempt to cover too much ground in one narrative. Instead, try to focus on an individual event or episode in time. In some cases, writers have told the story of a special house or building, or chosen to chronicle a specific era, when something significant occurred.

If you are writing about a long period of time, it's important not to confuse the reader by jumping back and forth too much; following chronological order is usually the safest option. If you do have a large volume of detailed information to impart, list your references and research at the end of your work so interested readers know where to find further facts.

To give your story a wider appeal, you should research the broader social scene of the time. Describe the transport, food, fashion, art and sport of that age. This places your personal story firmly in the context of the time in which it's set.

When you recount your family history, add character to the piece by sharing funny anecdotes or unusual sayings used by family members. Even quaint household tips or favourite recipes can provide the reader with a unique insight in to an earlier time.

Add additional flavour and atmosphere by describing the noises and smells that would have been around at that time - the harsh clanking of steam engines, the billowing smoke and fumes from burning coal.

If you don't know where to start, a simple but effective way to begin your tale is to set the first scene in the present day. Show the family or village as it is today, before drawing back and contrasting it to a scene from earlier times.

An excellent, but trickier, way to spice up a historical account is to turn it in to fiction. A lively imagination is required to pull this off successfully, but it can work really well. Fictional histories are especially popular with children as it helps them to engage with an otherwise difficult subject. They are a terrific way of communicating history to a younger generation.

The simplest means of conveying historical events this way is to show them through the viewpoint of a single fictional character, such as the history of a house seen through the eyes of the chamber maid or the butler.

Another technique is it to recreate a historical account with a few fictional characters. However, it's best not to bring in too many personalities unless you want to turn your personal account into a full-blown historical saga.

Putting yourself in the shoes of your fictional creations will help you to conjure up images from times gone by - and it's also great fun to write!

Michelle Salter - Freelance Writer and Copywriter.

Michelle Salter is an accomplished freelance writer, with numerous articles published in national magazines. As a regular contributor to My Weekly magazine, she has written extensively on the subject of gardening, nature and wildlife.

She is also an experienced copywriter, providing web copy, blog posts, press releases and promotional literature for B2B and B2C markets.