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:: Who you are being creates your current experience and plants the seeds that will become your future. It doesn’t matter what you have or what you are doing, its how how you are being that determines your experiences. Two people can be at the same place at the same time and have two very different experiences? Why?

Because wherever you go, there you are. Where one person found something pleasing another found something painful. Where one saw opportunity another saw restriction. One felt good, the other back. They had two different perspectives.

Your perspective is the combination of your thoughts and beliefs. If you don’t like what you have experienced or your the circumstance you’re in you have to change your perspective. You have to change your inner beliefs and inner operating system – the parts that don’t work for you.

Some people think that if they moved to a new house or city, got a new job or career, found a new relationship, wore different clothes, got a new face, and on and on… they would magically transform their lives. So they move, get a new career and so on only to feel just as unfulfilled or dissatisfied as before. Why?

Wherever you go there you are.

A fulfilling meaningful live, rich in delicious experiences, depends upon how you create and show up to the moments of your life. It relies upon your perspective, the meanings you attach to the things that happen in your life. What is your perspective – what is the lens through which you view your experience?

Are you living in your head regurgitating a sad story or a repeated pattern of times that didn’t work out for you? Or are you fully present, detached from what didn’t work ready and available for all that is possible?

If you don’t like what you’re experiencing change your perspective. You can’t significantly change your inner life – how you feel – by changing your external environment. If you want a better relationship, for example, change who you are being in your current relationship instead of ditching or bitching at your spouse.

Where have you not communicated your truth and needs in a way that can be heard and understood? Where have you traded in what you value for what you think will make you feel safe and secure or validated. Nothing outside of you can give you what you ultimately want or need. Meaningful wealth and a fulfilled life experience is an inside job.

To thrive one needs to feel rich in relationship capital, beginning with the relationship we have with ourselves.

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Valery-Satterwhite-5104/inner-wealth-190075.php

Where ever you go, there you are…don't get …

In an ideal world, we’d love to drive these cars on a public road, but running machines such as these at their limit on the highway pre­sents practical problems—things like other drivers, speed limits, and roadside hazards.

Our simple solution nearly five years ago was to look for the track in North America that best approximates a challenging road, with a variety of corners, long straightaways, and plenty of elevation changes. A track meeting this description would allow us to assess all-around perform­ance, expressed in lap times, in a controlled and relatively safe environment. The track we chose is the Grand West Course at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), near Danville, a serpentine 4.1-mile circuit that is the nearest the U.S. has to the ultimate racetrack, the Nrburgring Nordschleife in Germany. Automakers from around the world converge on the ‘Ring for the development of their vehicles, particularly high-performance models; domestic manufacturers also incorporate VIR in their vehicles’ testing programs.

Unlike our ” ” test [October 2010], where we used the Waterford Hills road course in Michigan as an element of the selection process, we rank finishers in Lightning Lap strictly on lap times, based on the best run achieved by each car during our two-day event (without any subjective criteria). Handling prowess is important for extracting a good lap time at VIR, but brakes and power are even more significant here, which isn’t the case on the tight Waterford Hills track.

The 20 new or revised performance cars we gathered for our fifth edition of Lightning Lap are sorted by base price (which includes performance-enhancing options) into five classes.

We didn’t bring any non-street-legal cars to the party this time, so there is no LLU (Unclassified) segment.

As ever, there were some real surprises among the vehicles gathered, although nothing beat the outright record of 2:45.9 set by the

, or the

‘s 2:48.6, both of which occurred during our third Lightning Lap in 2008. These two cars are, however, hardly built for the street.

The pace has certainly picked up since our in 2006, wherein no vehicle beat the magical three-minute mark. In 2007, two cars scraped below three minutes. In 2008, five cars blitzed that mark. In both 2010 and 2011, six machines beat the figure, which is what happens when you’re in the middle of the fiercest horsepower war the auto industry has ever fought.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q4/lightning_lap_2011-feature

I know that two words were conjoined to fashion the term “blog,” a sorrowful appellation that, to my ear, still sounds like one of the steps necessary to pump a septic tank.

Jimbo: “Hey, is that blog clogged?”

Todd: “Hell, that blog’s, like,

busted .”

I nonetheless recently began “responding to comments on C/D ‘s "—a pretentious and impossibly awkward description of what I thought was blogging but wasn’t—at the behest of a woman in our office, who assured me I would not be injured. Unfortunately, she misjudged the thickness of my skin, which was immediately and repeatedly chafed by mysteriously enraged readers who apparently believe that an accusatory opinion fashioned over a deliberative period spanning five seconds in fact trumps critical thinking, research, and, well, facts. And in today’s America, that apparently is so.

Much of the splatter attached itself to a comparo I authored [“ ,” August 2010], in which an Audi A6 defeated an Infiniti M37 and a BMW 535i. “Phillips must’ve been under the influence to give victory to an A6,” commented one.

Sadly, Phillips cannot determine the winner of anything. He has but one vote, same as every driver. At the end of a comparo, ballots are collected, then tallied in isolation, long after we surrender the keys. No lobbying, no tampering. How did I rig this for Audi? More important, why would I?

Well, that was answered by another fully gorge-risen conspiracy theorist, who opined, “Everyone knows it’s the advertisers who determine the winner.” Really? If so, the winner would have been Infiniti, because neither Audi nor BMW advertised in that issue. And I can’t tell you when they last advertised, either, because I’ve never looked. Nor have I ever visited our ad salesmen’s office—don’t know where it is, even—nor have they ever contacted me.

“The Audi won because it sells newsstand copies,” railed a third bellicose reader. I know few things in life with dead certainty, but here’s one:

No one knows what sells magazines.

No one .

Now, let us speak of free press trips. I rarely take trips abroad anymore because I’d rather undergo hemorrhoid surgery on a picnic table during a family reunion than board an airplane. But I used to, and sometimes I stayed in four-star resorts and sometimes I stayed in a seedy, dour, linoleum-floored motel behind a gas station, as happened last May on a

trip to Vallelunga. Asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton replied, “Because that’s where the money is,” and the dirty little secret about press trips is that you go, like it or not,

because that’s where the cars are . Not only the cars, but also the executives and engineers who build the cars, it being cheaper to fly us to them than vice versa. For every instance I’ve stayed at a place like the Hotel Gritti Palace, I’ve stayed 10 times in a Japanese businessman’s hotel in an industrial cul-de-sac in Nagoya, where the entire bathroom is a single plastic extrusion so minuscule that you’re warned not to urinate standing up lest you soil your two-ounce pillow.

Gifts? Three editors ago, William Jeanes informed, “As far as gifts from manufacturers are concerned, a $25 windbreaker is the intergalactic limit.” If we were proffered something dearer and actually desired it, William vowed he’d cough up the cash difference. I tested his assertion during a ’97 trip to Ford’s cold-weather facility in a portion of Manitoba where God lost his shoes and journalists discovered on their hotel beds a spectacular Eddie Bauer parka, no blue ovals attached. I asked the PR guy the coat’s value. “About $300,” he said. I called William, who replied, “Tell them the check is in the mail.” And it was.

Actually, if anyone

were to take the time to investigate—an undertaking I suspect conveniently eliminates the entire universe of social-media Puff Daddy whatever-they-call-themselves today—one would discover that I once took money from a manufacturer. It was following a 1996 Porsche trip to Le Mans. On the flight over, Northwest Airlines lost my luggage and food-poisoned Porsche’s PR man, the late Bob Carlson, who, on the drive from Paris to the track, barfed on my lone pair of khakis. There then ensued several-zillion-francs’ worth of long-distance calls, a shopping trip to a pharmacy (for Bob) and to a clothier (for me), plus a four-digit bar tab racked up by the journalists we left unchaperoned in our absence. “Can you lend me some cash?” Bob probed.

Two weeks later, a check arrived from Porsche Cars of North America, repaying me in full. I should have requested a personal check from Bob but didn’t think of it until too late. So, I admit, that one’s gonna look bad when it’s outed by the

Times in the midst of my bid to become County Sewage Commissioner. (My campaign slogan: “If it floats, John’s got his eye on it.”)

So, let us recap: I’ve never taken money from a manufacturer. I’ve never rigged a comparo. I’ve never taken money from an advertiser. According to a famous U.S. court, however, it turns out I’m free to accept any amount of corporate campaign cash. Arms outstretched, I await.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11q1/john_phillips_yes_a_car_manufacturer_once_sent_me_money-column

Let’s get one thing straight, right here at the top: The “R” in the model designation does not stand for race.

The new Outback, generation four dating to 1994, is not a ride that’s likely to stimulate your inner racer. This is family transportation, and 15 minutes behind the wheel will be enough to convince you that whatever sport you might associate with the vehicle is the equipment you loaded on the roof rack or into the rubber-floored cargo well at the back.

But neither does “R” stand for retardo — Spanish for “slow as hell,” or something like that. Not with the optional 3.6-liter flat-six providing propulsion. The 3.0-liter H-6 option in the previous Outback 3.0R made forward progress an exercise in patience. It’s a different story here.

Although the latest Outback is bigger in every dimension but length, the development team has done an excellent job of keeping weight in check. Our test subject, a top-of-the-line Limited model, scaled in at 3651 pounds. As with all Subies, that curb weight includes standard all-wheel drive. For contrast, consider the mass of two five-passenger competitors with similar dimensions: An all-wheel-drive Mazda CX-7 weighs in at about 3900 pounds, with a Chevrolet Equinox coming in at more than 3700 with only front-wheel drive.

More Muscle to Move the Modest Mass Introduced with the Tribeca, Subaru’s three-row crossover SUV, the 3.6-liter flat-six doesn’t make much more horsepower than the 3.0—256 versus 245—but it’s much more of a torque generator: 247 lb-ft compared with 215. Better yet, the torque curve has a profile similar to the airport butte in St. George, Utah—long and flat. Subaru claims 225 lb-ft are on tap from 2000 to 6000 rpm, and we believe it.

With a five-speed automatic sending power to the all-wheel-drive system—the torque split is 45 percent front, 55 rear in normal operation—the 3.6R hit 60 mph in 7.4 seconds and covered the quarter-mile in 15.7 at 90 mph.

There’s obviously no danger of nosebleeds or acceleration g-load brownouts with numbers like that, but this is a much livelier pace than the 3.0R was capable of producing. And passing performance, something that required careful planning with the previous flat-six, is much more carefree and spontaneous. The transmission kicks down readily, and the Outback surges forward with a will.

Transmission Omission?

Ah, yes, the transmission. Subaru actually offers three transmissions for the Outback. Buyers who settle on the 2.5i model can choose between a six-speed manual (standard) or an optional new chain-driven continuously variable transmission, a first for an all-wheel-drive application.

Outbacks equipped with the new H-6 are limited to the five-speed automatic. It’s a smoothie in ordinary operation, but the manual function using the wheel-mounted paddle shifters isn’t particularly satisfying. Shifts are a little soggy, and the transmission upshifts on its own a couple hundred rpm before the 6500-rpm redline. Considering this vehicle’s family-oriented mission and the uninspiring performance of the paddle-shift system, Subaru could well have saved some money by omitting such frivolities from the inventory. And we’d gladly swap the paddles for a sixth gear, something the CX-7 and the Equinox include in their auto-only drivetrains.

Dynamic Certainty As we said, no one is likely to consider this Subaru to be racy, but it’s unlikely to provoke dismay with any handling quirks. There’s a fair amount of body roll—the trade-off for supple ride quality on all but the gnarliest surfaces—and the variable-assist rack-and-pinion steering is a little slow at 3.2 turns lock-to-lock.

Even so, the Outback recovers well in quick transitions and is absolutely devoid of surprises. Inevitably, there’s progressive understeer, and it’s not difficult to provoke squeals of protest from the 60-series tires (225/60-17), a taller profile selected for ride-quality benefits.

But there is never an instant of uncertainty in this vehicle’s responses, and anyone who plants an Outback among the roadside greenery—overcoming an effective (and not completely defeatable) stability control—has done so by a Darwin Award level of incompetence.

Capacious, Quiet Cabin

Whereas the 3.6R delivers a respectable level of performance—and decent fuel economy (an EPA-rated 18 city/25 highway mpg) burning regular fuel (the 3.0 required premium)—the Outback’s greatest strengths are quiet operation and the expanded space in its handsomely appointed cabin.

Although we noted a nasty chassis buzz on washboard stretches of graded road, as well as an occasional shudder through the unibody on some of the bigger bumps, the Outback’s basic pavement deportment is almost beyond reproach.

The civilized dynamics are augmented by the voluminous interior. The Outback’s overall length is actually slightly diminished, but the wheelbase, the width, and the height have all increased, yielding rear leg- and headroom capable of a strong comfort rating from all but the tallest of the current NBA tribe, as well as a good-size cargo hold.

Our test subject was a top-of-the-line Limited model that rang in at $34,685 with navigation and a power sunroof. Its base price is $31,690. You can get into a new Outback for considerably less—the base 3.6R starts at $28,690, and a 2.5i is $23,690—but it’s worth noting that the base price for the 3.6R Limited is actually a little less than for the outgoing 3.0R Limited, and it’s also less than the top version of the Mazda and only about $1000 more than the highest-spec Equinox.

It may not be a thrill-a-minute ride, but the vehicle Subaru characterizes as the progenitor of the crossover phenomenon remains one of the key players in that rapidly expanding game.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/09q3/2010_subaru_outback_3.6r-short_take_road_test