PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES 2 (HOLIDAYS)
AT WEALTHNUGGETS4U.COM

Personal development activities: Do not underestimate how much your personal development will be enhanced by the constructive use of your leisure time. Without exception, every great person that has ever walked this planet has always made time for leisure and contemplation. To be successful, it is vital that we all learn to pace ourselves and take regular breaks to assess our personal progress.

One of our favourite personal development activities is to go away on holiday. So let me tell you about our trip to Cairo and Giza, it was simply breathtaking. On our first visit to Egypt, we decided that we must go and see the pyramids. They are of course the oldest man-made structure left standing on earth and are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

We flew from our base in Sharm El Sheik up to Cairo, the flight took about thirty minutes and in no time at all we were transported onto the bustling streets of Egypt's capital.

Personal development activities: About 70% of Egypt's citizens reside in Cairo and believe me, it felt like it. The pace was frenetic and not for the faint hearted, having said that it has a tremendous buzz about it. It's a sensory overload and a leisure time extravaganza, there are people milling about everywhere, conversations of every conceivable type fill the air, and there is always the underlying smell of rich spices accentuated by the baking heat.

After visiting a tapestry factory, and experiencing the cool haven of Cairo's largest mosque we arrived at the city's museum, a powerful personal development experience. It's centrepiece is the Tutankhamun exhibition and thankfully when we visited it was not abroad on tour. The famous gold mask and headpiece are just something else. When you get up close to it, it has a strange mesmeric quality, It's hard to tear yourself away from it. I'll never forget being so close to something so exquisite and beautiful and yet so ancient. With the exception of a few missing fragments from the back of the head dress it could have been crafted just yesterday. I know their was a curse surrounding its discovery but the archaeological team that made this find must have been totally awestruck.

Wealthnugget4u:- Personal development activities: Book all your holidays and leisure trips online. By cutting out the middleman, you will automatically save money.

Wealthnugget4u:- Personal development activities: Always use a credit NOT debit card to pay for your holidays because if your tour operator or airline goes bust you are guaranteed a full cash refund.

Personal development activities: From Cairo we continued on our journey to Giza, the home of the pyramids. As we travelled through the city the abject poverty of the place became increasingly apparent and my wife and I found it both depressing and upsetting. At times we truly do take what we've got for granted. As our tour guide droned on, good naturedly, I found myself feeling grateful and somewhat guilty for all the things I had that these people could only dream of owning. I know money and possessions are not everything, but it's a lot easier to live with them than without them. Humility is a crucial part of personal development, and I was certainly made to feel humble that day.

I was stirred from my thoughts by an excited murmur that rippled through our coachparty. Out of nowhere a towering pyramid had just appeared, then another, then another. It was all totally unexpected, the pyramids are literally located just off a main street. They are, in fact, right on the edge of Giza, on one side of the pyramids there is the city and on the other the desert.

Personal development activities: After our coach driver had parked up, close enough to the edge of a sandstone precipice to give us all vertigo, we clambered excitedly off the coach. You've got to go and see these things, I mean, wether you like spending your leisure time this way or not, they are just awe-inspiring. Huge, just doesn't cut it.

You can actually climb about a tenth of the way up The Great (Khufu's) Pyramid which is the oldest and largest of the three. It is 480 feet tall, and it's base spans 750 feet in each direction. It's built from 2.5 million blocks of sandstone each weighing an average of 2.5 tonnes. It took 100,000 men twenty years to build and was completed in 2560 BC. I bet that king Khufu was a real popular guy.

Personal development activities quote: "Take a rest, a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop." Ovid. (43BC-17AD).

The first thing I felt implied to do was touch the Great pyramid and try to feel it's energy. Meanwhile, my wife had started climbing up the side of it, I followed her, but when I got about thirty feet up thought better of it. She beckoned me to climb higher, but I chickened out, go girl power!

We did the touristy bit, riding a camel and having our picture taken. It's weird, all the travel programmes and leisure brochures depict the ancient site with the same two images. The Great Sphinx with Khafre's pyramid in the background and a guy on a camel sat atop a plateau, with all three pyramids as a backdrop. It's not as remote as you imagine. You actually remember standing in these exact vantage points which I must admit it does detract a little from the place's mystique.

Wealthnugget4u:- Personal development activities: Monitor the price of your chosen holiday or leisure trip online for about two weeks. When it comes to within 5-10% of your target price, book it. By adopting this approach, my wife and I have saved well over £1000 on our last two holidays.

If it had not been for a dippy family getting lost (we had our suspicions when they boarded the coach that took us to the airport earlier in the day, they were also ten minutes late for that and just looked...well, let's leave it there shall we.) we would've had more time to visit the site of The Great Sphinx, which is a giant sculpture of a lion's body with a human's head.

It is carved out of a single block of sandstone, and it's function is to protect the ancient site in general but specifically the pyramid of Khafre. It was the first colossal, royal sculpture and arguably the most beautiful. That damn stupid family! ... calm down, deep breaths, count to ten .......... I'm feeling calmer.

wealthnugget4u:- Personal development activities: Before you embark on a holiday or a leisure trip always buy a book on the place you are going to visit, that way you will not miss out on any of the sites or attractions the place has to offer.

After a fabulous day, we all made it back to the coach only to be told that our flight back to Sharm had been delayed by six hours. You could actually feel the disappointment within our party, we had all been up since 4am and by this time were beginning to wilt in the heat.

One girl took it upon herself to ring the tour organisers and complain about our situation. After about five minutes of heated conversation, she announced to the person on the other end of the line that she was going to hand the phone over to a guy that would tell them exactly what he thought about our situation.

Personal development activities: She turned to hand her phone to a man stood near us, who had the look of a born leader, tall, stocky, with a bit of an air about him. For the first time, that day, he looked flustered. After a moments hesitation, he instructed her to give it to me instead. I thought no, why me, I'm just here to have a good time and chill but what would you have done with fifty odd pairs of eyes all gazing expectantly in your direction ... ?

Exactly, I took the phone and had a chat with the tour company's representative. I did a terrific deal for us all, a free, three course meal and drinks, at a restaurant, overlooking the Nile. However, the rep instructed me that only one of the drinks would be alcoholic, for health and safety reasons of course, lovely money saving excuse that one, but hey, I wasn't complaining.

Personal development activities: Due to my negotiating prowess also probably because I happen to have an extremely good-looking wife, we were elevated to top table status. Leaderguy, his partner and their friends couldn't do enough for us. It was a great evening, the beer and wine flowed we all told stories and cracked jokes.

I must admit, it all got a bit raucous by the end, but the humour was strictly good natured. However, if I'm honest I think the restaurant owners were glad to see the back of us, even if they were extremely polite about it. We got back to our hotel at about 2am and slept like babies!

Good leisure time is vital for re-charging your batteries and furthering your personal-development. We are going back to Egypt this September (2009) for a third visit, this time to Hurghada. We plan to do the two day Luxor trip which includes a hot air balloon flight over the valley of the kings at dawn, I look forward to telling you about it.

I will write more about my personal development activities soon.

Regards Andy.

Personal development quote: "I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters." Oprah Winfrey.

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