We all procrastinate. But till what point this is harmful. Our life is about decisions, whether it’s approaching or dodging something, which is totally fine. The issue comes when you intend to take action. However, you do nothing or you keep neglecting your duties until the deadline is about to expire. Everybody understands the concept of procrastination. At the moment this word is mentioned, the first thing that springs to mind is laziness. The reluctance to act is not about idleness. Being lazy is not the determining factor behind delaying tasks. It is a cocktail of causes. Have you considered that postponing your tasks is simply because they are not what you really want to do or that the environment is playing against yourself? In recent years, studies have shown that task aversion is based on the stage of the project. For example, in the early stages, aversion is generally due to a lack of personal meaning. In the action phase, procrastination is often an absence of structure.

https://todaysfocusofattention.com/how-to-outwit-procrastination%EF%BF%BC/

Rani is an up-and-coming Mexican singer who has joined us to share her music and experiences through her journey while describing how social media helped her take off. 

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Last Thursday, a new report from the World Health Organisation emerged – how the coronavirus pandemic began? A team of 27 international scientists, convened by the WHO and tasked with understanding how Covid spread worldwide, released this report stating that all hypotheses remain on the table, including that of a laboratory leak. All available data suggest the virus jumped from animals to humans. Nevertheless, some gaps in the figures make difficult to understand the real roots of the pandemic. The team called Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) was formed last year with the purpose of finding new ways of study to learn the pandemic’s origins and, at the same time, the emergence of future infections.

Imagine what you would do if you were not afraid. How many times have you disappointed yourself by surrendering to your fears rather than taking actions? Many people face this, and it might create some sort of depression or regret. What you need is courage, and the good news is you can cultivate it. How do people cope with distressing emotions? Essentially, in two ways: through reasoning or through suppression. Such methods treat emotions as states that must be overcome, but the truth is that none of them neither develop courage nor freeing from the grip of the maladaptive ones. If neither reasoning nor suppressing work whatsoever, what is the alternative? Emotional labelling.  By labelling your emotions, you recognise their existence. When you’re touched by a strong emotion, label it forthwith. Accept its presence and then move forward, regardless of how uncomfortable you might feel. The more you do it, the less frequent those feelings will arise. Mark Twain said: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” Fear is a reaction; courage is a decision. 

https://todaysfocusofattention.com/develop-your-courage-by-knowing-your-emotions%EF%BF%BC/

Although some materials can be effectively recycled, plastic cannot. And here’s why. The problem with recycling plastic lies not with the concept or process, but with the material itself. There are thousands of different plastics; each of them with its own composition and characteristics. Apart from that, it includes numerous chemical additives and colourants that cannot be recycled together, therefore, making impossible the selection of trillions of pieces into separate types for processing. Buying just one fast-food meal involves many types of single-use plastic, including PET#1, HDPE#2, LDPE#4, PP#5, and PS#6 cups, lids, clamshells, trays, bags, and cutlery – none of them should be blended simultaneously. 

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Huawei and ZTE, two of China’s biggest telecoms equipment makers will be out from working on Canada’s 5G phone networks. The move was announced by the country’s industry minister last Thursday. The minister said that this action is aimed at protecting the safety and security of Canadians while improving the country’s mobile internet services. “This is the right decision,” he told reporters. This action means that Canadian firms will no longer be allowed to use equipment made by Huawei and ZTE and those which have already installed them, now must remove them.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the giant pharmaceutical Pfizer announced the “Accord for a Healthier World”, which is basically to offer vaccines and patent-protected medicines on a not-for-profit basis to low-income countries. The New York-based company also stated that other pharma firms want to take similar steps. In theory, 45 poor countries will benefit from this announcement, meaning that over 1.2 billion people in places such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Ghana will have access to these drugs produced by the firm.

A conscious human life is not meant to be based simply on reactions or responding to whims, just like plants or animals which react to temporary external stimulus. If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. To get that, deliberately dare yourself. Through challenge, you propel yourself forward, and by intentionally taking risks, you ensure your personal growth. Nothing is worthwhile unless you take risks. No passion is found by having a life that is significantly less than the one you can live. To some extent, what is hindering you from accepting risks and achieving your goals is the fear of failure, along with the fear of judgement. Doing what scares you the most leads to success. God places the best things of life out of your comfort zone. If you fall, rise again and again. Nevertheless, every time you stand up, you have an advantage: fresh knowledge coupled with experience. Turn it into your favour. Take the risk.  

https://todaysfocusofattention.com/life-is-about-taking-risks-not-playing-safe/

Who is winning this war? Not Russia, of course not Ukraine. The military industrial complex. It is the defence companies and military contractors who are winning this war, the players who don’t want wars to cease. A handful of big players controls the international arms marketplace. From 2016 to 2020, the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany, exported 80% of the world’s weapons. Except for China, every country on this list is directly involved in the Ukraine conflict. Russia is the aggressor, the US, the UK, France, and Germany, are all arming Ukraine. Out of these six countries, five are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Which is ironic, given that this organ of the UN has the responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Peace sells, but who’s buying?

Even though an attack against the sovereignty of a state should be censured by all the nations worldwide, several major countries chose not to criticise Russia. Amongst them are China, India, Pakistan, and South Africa. India and Pakistan receive a good number of their weapons from Moscow. Other countries, for instance, in the Middle East, have accused NATO of hypocrisy. As it happened in 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq. The US and the UK bypassed the United Nations, attacked and occupied Iraq, leading to years of violence and instability in the region. Syria, for obvious reasons, supports Vladimir Putin. Russia helped President Bashar al-Assad stop the advance of ISIS combatants back in 2015. United Arab Emirates’s ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, enjoys an excellent relationship with Putin. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a good rapport with the Kremlin as well, which as opposed to NATO and the United States, did not accuse the Saudi crown of ordering the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.