Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. Ever wondered how exactly someone becomes world class at something? What exactly does it take to go from being ordinary at something to attaining great heights? Is it talent or a huge amount of persistence?

If you get my posts emailed to you through Feedblitz, you might be finding that you've been getting duplicates -- and a lot of spam is not going to make you feel very HAPPY. I thought the problem had miraculously fixed itself, as sometimes does happen, but apparently not, and I'm in touch with Feedblitz to try to figure out what the issue is.

Twenty-first century dish racks 2007 Unclutterer Gift Giving Guide wrap upAll of the 2007 Gift Giving Guides linked in one article. Reader suggestion: Weeding out unused holiday decorationsGet rid of unboxed holiday decorations. Unitasker Wednesday: Electric egg cookerDid you ever boil some eggs in a pot and think to yourself, “There just has to be an easier way!”

If, by some form of magic, you could visit yourself at 10 years old, what would you say? If I was faced with my 10 year old self, I would say to her, listen, I have five regrets, but you have the power to change who I am. Eagerly, but tenderly, I would impress upon her the five things about myself I would change. This is what I’d say: 1: Study Harder

My wife keeps a pretty simple journal. In it, she simply notes the best moment of her day (and occasionally a few other things). Usually, these notes are simple ones. She’ll talk about opening up the first day of the Advent calendar with our kids, or a nice conversation we had while the kids were napping, or a breakthrough moment she had with a student (she’s a teacher).

This is a guest post from Debbie Dubrow from Delicious Baby, a blog with advice about traveling with babies, toddlers and kids. Previously at GRS, Debbie wrote about how to track travel expenses and stick to a vacation budget.

All of us have different measures of success. For me, I knew I was thriving when I wasn’t working 50-hour weeks anymore. Not to say that a long week is extinct for me, but there aren’t as many of them.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” --Carl Jung * I love being part of the Life Remix network -- such a great collection of blogs. I always find several posts I want to read when I visit. *

One topic that seems to come up time and time again in my reader mailbag columns is the concept of reading for personal growth. I hear questions all the time ranging from how to choose books that are worth reading, how to know when a book isn’t really providing answers for you, how to read faster, and how to actually apply learned information to one’s life.

As many of you read this, I’ll be in a classroom taking the first of four law school finals. Law school finals aren’t much fun.  They’re three to four hour ordeals where you pretty much type or write non-stop for the entire time. You leave thinking you did alright, then in the middle of the night you’ll wake up panicked because you think you forgot to discuss an issue.

This installment of the 2008 Unclutterer Gift Giving Guide focuses on gifts under $35 that can help others organize the home or office. If you’re going to buy something tangible, we suggest getting gifts that work with our motto: A place for everything, and everything in its place.

In my favorite section of David Mitchell’s brilliant Cloud Atlas, Sonmi-451 is a clone who works in a fast-food restaurant in near-future Korea, a society ruled by corporcracy (a government of corporations).

Some days are tough, bed head that fights back, spilled milk, rain, pesky family members…we’ve all been there. Really though it’s only bad hair, a small clean up job and people living together, it’s all a matter of changing your point of view. A little less Eyore a little more Jeanette Walls.

This past spring, 23 year old Emily Jubenville entered the 3rd Whale’s “Greenest Person on the Planet” contest, placing second. A graduate in environmental science she is fanatical about recycling, creating her own cleaning products, and is deeply committed to community gardening.