Bucket lists are very popular today. There are countless websites dedicated to bucket lists, and thousands of people have uploaded their own bucket lists for the world to see.

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But is a bucket list actually worth having? Many people want to fill their lives with hedonistic, life-changing experiences before they die, from skydiving to swimming with dolphins to meeting their favourite celebrity, but other people question if a bucket list can actually add value to your life.

Is a bucket list a good idea?

There are lots of benefits to creating a bucket list, and one of the main ones is that it can help people to define their goals. Many people dream of travelling when they retire, but if they don’t actually sit down and decide where they want to go it is unlikely that their dream will ever become a reality. A bucket list makes it much easier for people to set concrete goals that they are likely to achieve, so it is possible that creating a bucket list will help you to live a more enjoyable life. It also means that people can plan for how they are going to finance these trips such as long term savings or whether they are going to contact a Gloucestershire Equity Release company like www.palmermortgages.co.uk/financial-services/equity-release-gloucestershire/ to release some of the equity in their property. The possibilities are endless once you plan your bucket list.

However, other people argue that a bucket list is just an easy attempt to find joy, as many people create a list and then don’t make an effort to actually tick things off the list. This is a fair point, but it doesn’t mean that bucket lists are bad – just that they are not as useful for some people as they are for other people. It is also possible that simply creating the list will help people to achieve their goals. According to Positive Psychology Program, a bucket list can give you focus, help you to take action and even improve your self-confidence. These are all excellent benefits that can enhance anyone’s life!

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What would you put on your bucket list?

There are lots of awesome things that you could consider putting on your bucket list, from travelling the world to riding a tank! You can even put smaller things on the list like learning to bake or taking a yoga class.

There are lots of different things that you can consider putting on your bucket list, so take the time to sit down and think about what you really want to achieve.

There is a lot of discussion on what it takes to reach the top in Formula 1, with raw talent, grit, and a great car all suggested as contributors. Drivers have been described as fearless (Jim Clark), phenomenally talented (Jackie Stewart) and ruthless (Niki Lauda). It is highly likely that these drivers had some traits in common.

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Commitment

To succeed in Formula 1, as in any sport, a driver has to be hungry for success. He must be prepared to work to turn that hunger into commitment. Competition is tough, and the highly motivated will triumph. Niki Lauda suffered severe burns after an accident at the infamous Nurburgring but was back in action six weeks later. There is no room for the half-hearted.

Fitness

Fitness covers nutrition, cardiovascular fitness and stamina. Physically, a potential champion needs to be at the top of his game. The temperature in the cockpits can be searing, and the strength needed to control their cars at speeds of over 200mph is considerable. A driver who wants to become a champion looks after his health, watches his diet, and does a mixture of endurance and strength training. He also makes sure he picks the right people when he starts learning to drive as building a strong foundation is very important.  Somewhere you could possibly look to try is a Driving Instructor Market Harborough company found at links including demarcodriving.uk.

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Adaptability

A successful Formula 1 driver is adaptable. He is flexible enough to cope with the predictable stress of travel, along with the stress of problems in the sport, such as crashes, burst tyres and damaged equipment. Fitness can help with this.

Focus

Anyone who watches Formula 1 knows what great focus an F1 champion has. A visit to any Formula 1 event will demonstrate this. Nothing distracts him. All his concentration is on the job at hand.

Professionalism

Professionalism is a major requirement nowadays. Raw talent is not quite enough. A driver who wants to be at the top of his game will be able to talk to everyone in his team, from the engineers to the corporate sponsors. He must be as much at home talking to members as he is talking to the technical support staff.

Recovery

Like any sport, Formula 1 is a high-energy occupation. Even in the absence of injury, downtime is necessary. A driver who wants to compete at the top level must know how to switch off and recover from any physical damage or mental stress.

While hairiness is still an acceptable and often desirable trait of manhood, there is no excuse for letting your body fuzz get out of control. If you are planning to get the lads together for your special Stag do outing and you want to make yourself look a little more civilised, manscaping is the best way to regain control of your follicular aesthetics. Maybe tell your best man to book a Stag Party Bus Cheltenham company at options including cocktail-tours.co.uk/ to provide you with the transport and let everyone know the theme is moustaches and beards. Continue reading Essential Methods for Manscaping →

A company’s branding is key to its recognition and reputation and in this article we take a look at the benefits effective branding can bring to your business.

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Face it

A brand is the face of a business and this includes a company’s name, logo and the colours it uses. Whether you are using a branding agency Gloucestershire or Lincolnshire, bear in mind that good advice about what branding actually is will also incorporate non-visual elements too such as a company’s personality and tone of voice. It’s a big job!

It’s not just about image

How customers perceive a company is vital – its brand image. Making sure a brand is perceived as a reflection of what a company does is the best outcome. However, if the reflection isn’t what customers actually receive, there is work to be done!

Reach out

Of course, people interpret brands very differently and in order to mean something to a wide audience, experienced designers will research the customer base and associations. This article in Forbes discusses what successful brands have in common for you to consider. It’s a useful exercise to test a brand design – companies such as reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/brand-development/ employ such an approach as it helps to understand how it is being perceived and whether it is doing what a company wants it to do. Too much scope for interpretation is not a good thing when it comes to brand identity.

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In the eye of the beholder

How people see a brand is based on a number of elements including images, colours and fonts as well as the tone behind the text. People have associations with all of the above and come to a conclusion based on their own experience. So, for example, a dark, linear and strong logo might make some people think of a financial institution; a colourful cartoon style one may have associations with a children’s charity or pre-school.

Keep your champions on your side

Employees are the backbone of any organisation and can, as such, champion your organisation to the outside world and, importantly, your brand. It, therefore, goes without saying that an organisation’s culture and how it treats its staff is all part of the process.

Get it right and your brand will help your company grow and develop into a successful one.

It’s amazing to think that one person can capture the scene a night so vividly as Vincent Van Gough does. His work is not that of the realistic view he is more of the impressionist view. It is not an easy thing to convey in such reach colours especially as the night is black. This is a Paris before the days of light pollution. The Stars speak and shout their joyous movement across the sky proclaiming to all the window that they bring. If Van Gogh could have painted this scene indoors but was influenced by the world around him. If you are inspired to paint the night sky because you can see it through the damage in your roof then it really is time to contact a Roofer Gloucester company such as http://gloucester-roofer.co.uk/. You are much better off taking a wander of a summer evening to capture the feeling of the night sky than staring through a whole in your roof.

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Van Gogh was an impressionist broke away from the realistic painting that was the norm of the time. It was seen as more important to capture the likeness of a scene rather than the impression. The patrons were mainly upper class, upper middle and aristocratic patrons that wanted the family portrait or the betrothed to be captured for posterity and kept on a wall. They also wanted paints of their assets and land so that their wealth could be admired and commented on. Paints and portraits were symbols of power and wealth to remind those that come after what great achievements they patron had done.

This is one of the reasons why Van Gogh remained penniless and struggling. It is also thought to be a contributing factor to his frequent bouts of depression and there is some evidence that he was bi-polar as well. The point is that when he painted he painted from the heart and with his eye. He wanted the impression of the scene. It was his mission, and other impressionists after to draw out the colour of the scene and interpret it in such a way as to illustrate what the scene looks like to the artist.

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This view and style met with little rich takers, the fact that he concerned himself with subjects that they found uninteresting or irrelevant did not help. He painted Belgian coal miners as he believed that he saw life, decency and integrity in their daily battles with poverty, disasters and the elements.  He wandered the French Countryside feeling the world and feeling the colours and showing us how they worked in the world. It is only now that we are starting to appreciate the world that he saw through his paintings. If only he were alive to hear us today.

The popularity of laminate flooring knows no bounds, and many modern homes sport stylish and practical laminate floors throughout. With such a vast range of realistic wood and stone finishes available at a fraction of the price of real wood or stone, this convenient floor choice is a popular option for kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces. But does it work in the bedroom?

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Are Laminate Floors Suitable in the Bedroom?

The easy answer is yes. Laminate floors are made up of planks or tiles. They make an ideal bedroom flooring option, as the versatility of tiles or planks allow you to choose your own pattern, finish and colours, quickly transforming your bedroom.

Benefits of Laminate

Laminate in a bedroom is easy to clean, low-maintenance and long-lasting, so you are less likely to need to replace it as frequently as some other flooring types. It is a ‘floating floor’, which means it is not stuck down with adhesive but rather has a locking system that connects each tile or plank to each other, providing one continuous floor that easily contracts and expands along with the ambient room temperature. The individual components mean that it is quick, easy and inexpensive to remove and replace a damaged area of floor, as you only need to remove one plank or tile to fix a problem rather than the entire floor.

Choice of Laminates

With laminate’s great range of colours and effects, your bedroom can quickly be redesigned with a stunning and unique floor pattern. Laminate Wood Flooring produces a more classic look in the bedroom, giving a cosy warmth that is comfy underfoot. Check out the comprehensive range of laminate flooring on offer via a specialist online such as https://irwintiles.ie/index.php/wooden-flooring.html. These alternatives to real hardwood cost much less and don’t require the upkeep that natural wood requires.

Bedroom Design

To incorporate a laminate floor seamlessly into your bedroom, consider the colours and furnishings in the room and the type of furniture to find a suitably stylish floor. If you have an oak bed, perhaps choose an oak-effect laminate to set it off to perfection. A metal bedframe may be more suited to a lighter beech grain or a white-washed wood-effect laminate. Or choose grey and black laminates for a sleek monochrome look. There really are so many different types to choose from its incredible.

According to the pros, the return on investment in content marketing may not be immediate or predictable, but it is almost guaranteed if you follow a few simple rules. Giving up the temptation to play it safe, those who succeed in using content to drive business results are consistent, meet their customers where they are and prove their expertise with content that informs, educates and entertains. A Cheltenham PR Agency knows all about how important content is when it comes to communicating with clients or customers so perhaps pop onto a site such as www.targetgroup.co.uk/ to see how their trained staff they can help with this or other forms of contact you may be using. Im sure they will agree with what we have written below.

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The Importance of Consistency

Anything you publish is content. This includes video, audio and blog content as well as your company’s tagline, product descriptions and brochures.

Consistency when it comes to ‘look and feel’ and brand messaging will establish your brand in the minds of your potential customers.

Being consistent is about letting your customers know that they can rely on you, as well as on your product or service.

Having a schedule for publishing content online is also part of this, and when your audience knows you can be trusted to deliver over and over again, they are more likely to become customers.

The Reach of Your Content

Your potential customers use multiple platforms to meet their needs, which might be video, blogs, podcasts or question-and-answer websites like Quora. The experts say that content marketing success includes producing content that can be re-purposed across channels.

Your website’s FAQ page, for instance, can be posted to Slideshare as a slideshow. Speaking at an industry event? Consider recording both video and audio to create content for your YouTube channel and downloadable audio giveaways. Your speech can become a series of blog posts to extend the marketing potential of your speaking engagement.

Using Content to Establish Authority, Quality and Value

Content marketing gives your company the opportunity to establish itself as an expert in its field. Providing in-depth content that is valuable and educational and answers pertinent questions about your product or service goes a long way in retaining and attracting new customers.

Podcasts and videos are great ways to connect personally with your audience and build a relationship fostered on openness and trust.

People like to be entertained, say the pros, and leveraging your brand’s entertainment value to make people laugh and encourage them to share is one way of ensuring an ROI on your content marketing efforts.

Whether you own a home or rent your property, a plumbing emergency can be disastrous. Some plumbing problems can be fixed as a DIY job while others need specialists to deal with the issue. Read on for advice on when emergency plumbers are necessary.

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Preventative measures

The most important thing in preventing plumbing problems is to keep on top of home maintenance. You should routinely inspect the plumbing areas to ensure they are running smoothly. Keep an eye on taps and pipes and deal with any small issues as they arise. Often, if you leave a problem it will only get bigger and eventually an emergency plumber will be necessary.

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Plumbing problems

Some plumbing problems include leaking pipes or burst pipes. These can mean that water accumulates on the floor of your home and causes a hazard. It creates a sanitation problem as well as causing water damage. Once a pipe has burst, this is an emergency situation requiring an emergency plumber.

A less problematic situation is low water pressure. This could be due to the accumulation of debris in the shower head. If you are able to take apart the shower head you could fix this yourself but you might be better to hire a professional so you will be sure of a perfect result.

Emergency plumbers

You can find emergency plumbers in most cities and towns. For example, if you are looking for a Cheltenham Plumber, such as https://actdirect.co.uk/services/emergency-plumber-cheltenham/, you will be able to find someone to come to your property quickly and deal with the plumbing issue. Similarly, in other cities, there are experts waiting to be of assistance.

You can search the internet or contact an agency, but it is always best to contact your local authority who will have a list of trusted plumbers. For help in finding a decent plumber you can also contact the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC) online for guidance.

Ideally, when hiring a plumber you will get references and make sure they are qualified. However, in an emergency situation, the most important thing is that the plumber is located close to your home and can perform the task quickly. This is why it’s a good idea to research local plumbers so you have an idea of who to call in case of an emergency.a