Know your needs It is often a good idea for most people to shop around for a plan that meets their long-distance calling needs. The same long-distance calling plan is not right for all consumers. While some may benefit from a larger long-distance company, others may see rewards in a smaller company. To choose best long-distance calling plan, consumers must know their personal long-distance needs. To understand your long distance needs, it is important to be familiar with your monthly telephone bills. You should know:

The number of calls you make each month.

How long each call lasts.

What time of day you make most of your long-distance calls.

The destination to which calls are being placed (local, domestic, long-distance or intercontinental).

Once you understand your telephone bill, compare different services offered by long-distance telephone companies.

Evaluate your calling patterns. Contact different companies and request written information about calling packages they offer, or use a rating service.

Match your calling pattern to long-distance company that best fits your needs.

Try dial-around access code (10-10 numbers) If you are not ready to switch to a new long-distance provider, try a dial-around access code. Access codes can be punched into telephone before dialing a telephone number. The access code allows you to have that call carried by provider whose access code is dialed. By doing this you can see various rates different companies charge, then you can decide which price is right for you.

The following are access codes for larger carriers: Sprint: 10-10333, MCI: 10-10222, AT&T: 10-10288, LCI: 10-10432, LDDS WorldCom: 10-10488 and Allnet: 10-10444. Not only can you use access codes to make long distance out-of-state calls, but you can also use access codes to make long distance in-state calls. Long distance in-state calls are most often carried by your local provider and are normally charged at a higher rate than companies you can access by using a code.

If you are considering using dial-around services, TheLowestRates.Com, LLC recommends following: Know dial-around terms. Remember, not all dial-around services use same terminology. What some companies call “prime time” (normally most expensive time to call) may be considered “off-peak” (a less expensive time to call) by another.

Don’t use dial-around for local calls. Some local calls require you to dial area code. If you have doubt about whether a call will be a toll call, contact operator. Using a dial-around code on a local call may cost you more. You will be billed at toll rate, even though you could have dialed for free if you have flat-rate local service.

Be aware when using dial-around directory assistance. This service, such as 10-10-2000, can connect you to a telephone number much like traditional directory assistance. However, there are some issues to consider. For example, you can be charged even if call is not completed or if telephone number given is incorrect. Be careful using dial-around numbers on nights and weekends. When you consider surcharges and minimums, per-minute rate offered by dial-around services may not be much cheaper than your regular long-distance company if you are on a calling plan.

Determine your calling patterns. When do you make long-distance telephone calls? Where do you call? How long do you talk? Answering these questions can help give you a sense of whether dial-around calling will best suit your household’s needs.

It occurred to me I should just jump into what often feels like “muck” of a better relationship with self because that is so often where intense work is being done. It can seem like a crisis or scuffles of getting through day. Instead of focusing on our relationship to self, creator of perceptions we are reacting to as absolute truths, we too often turn glaring spotlight on others in our lives.

This tendency traps one in a victim role where others hold power to dictate what we feel or do. To quote Steve Biko, “The greatest weapon of oppressor is mind oppressed.”

Consider that there are so many chances to look at how you talk to yourself, rather than obsessing about what your partner may have neglected to say to assure you or colleague who didn’t hand you an agenda at meeting when everyone else got one.

Usually, it seems this opportunistic moment is precisely one where we often select to falter, back track and undo work that’s been accomplished instead of seizing opportunity to move even closer to goal, our true destination— ourselves.

There is an intangible quality to choices and experiences. I believe this is why we have visceral reactions to them. For now lets just agree to call this idea of intangible substance energy. This energy is expressed in demeanor, attitude, and deeds put into being, when they are not productive we must find courage to be honest about that reality.

The self is calling you to claim your gifts, which exist to provide you with a temporal road map to success. The mission is to unearth, learn from, and apply it with intention of eventual mastery. This is point where a simple plan becomes an important part of “getting on with it” in a way that is meaningful.

But what is key to doing this? I have shared above with several people and too many didn’t get it. It wasn’t what they wanted to hear, so I wondered, “Had I failed or had they?” And did that matter? After all, its not as if we are in school being graded. But then again, isn’t that exactly what we do to ourselves?

To use phrase coined by Iyanla Vanzant, people get grounded in “Spiritual Special Ed” where they keep creating same drama over and over again. Yet, they react in same way and waste even more time by pouting over it and then in effect starting all over to end up acting out same script again as if they are oblivious to opportunity to choose to react differently.

Each time they are re-victimized, perhaps this is a consequence of a fear-based society, but since not everyone subcomes this can’t ultimately, in my opinion, be used to justify self-defeating responses.

My decision on issue of who failed? Once I clarified what my goal was and what need was that I was attempting to help other person address my focus became how to shift experience into one that was mutually empowering.

After getting permission to share examples from our work together, I decided to share specific examples based my case studies in hope of illuminating critical aspects of recovery from battered self-esteem and its symptoms.