Archives for 2013

The World Is Full of Mondays – Good!

August 28, 2013

Photo courtesy of Ian Muttoo.

Do you feel like Mondays are a bad day for you? Do you really dread going to work or starting a new week so much that you dread Monday and celebrate Friday? If so, it is time to look at Mondays a little different; a day of renewal.

“The world is full of Mondays.” Charlie Brown

If the world is full of Mondays like Charlie Brown says then it is time to make Monday your day to start off fresh. Leave the bad things that happened the previous seven days behind and take the good things with you into the next week. Go do good work and celebrate the greatness you have put into the world. Start a Monday Morning Routine and think about what you are going to do great that day and kick off your week with a bang.

It doesn’t matter whether your work week starts on a Monday or a Saturday the same thing applies. Go do good and serve others and Mondays can become like a day off.

What is something you do at the start of your week to get motivated?

Filed Under: Life Coaching Tagged With: charlie brown, fresh, monday, renewal, restart, snoopy, start over, woodstock

Back For Another Year!

August 21, 2013

I know it is odd to be talking about Christmas and the holidays in August (or maybe it isn’t if you check your stores). However, the earlier you start and the better you plan the less stressful and budget busting the season can be.

Last year I wrote a review for “100 Days to Christmas 2012” by Jennifer Tankersley which you can find here. Well, the 2013 edition is being released today which you can find here.

The last couple years I have talked about the importance of setting up the Christmas budget and planning ahead. This book allows you to do that a little each day from September 16 until December 25. It takes a lot of the stress and guesswork out of holiday planning and provides you plenty of time to enjoy the season with family without worrying about the odds and ends of what you need to get done

The book is an instant download and along with the book you get 28 interactive lists (3 additional over last year) and 60 days free on ListPlanIt – Jennifer’s main site with all kinds of organizational goodies.

How much do I believe this book can help you? Well, I am giving it away! All you need to do is follow the instructions below and you’ll be entered. You have until Sunday to enter and winners will be contacted by e-mail.

Form removed. Giveaway has ended. Congratulations to Michael D. and Emily C. for receiving a free copy of the book!

Filed Under: Giveaways and Promotions, Holidays, Life Coaching, Money Saving Tagged With: christmas, holidays, organization, planning, prepare, prepared, reduce stress, stress, stress reduction

Sum of the Parts

August 14, 2013

Photo Courtesy of Horia Varlan.

“We are the sum of all people we have ever met; you change the tribe and the tribe changes you.” Dirk Wittenborn, Fierce People

We are all the sum of who we meet, interact with, and let into our lives.

If the two people you hang out with this most are negative and always talking about bad things happening to them guess what your other friends probably hear you talk about the most?

There is also an economic theory that states if you take the five people your are closest to and average their income the result will be close to what you earn. Not only can those around you influence your state of mind but they may also be influencing your income.

If you want positivity and good things happening around you then you have full control to set yourself up for that. Stay away from the negative people. Surround yourself with the cheerleaders who are rooting for you and those that want to see you succeed.

I know this can be hard because the process means you leave people behind or remove them from your life altogether. But the quicker you realize you can’t change other people but you can change yourself the quicker you can move into the life you want.

If you must leave someone behind you can always help them back into your life when they are ready to make a change. Think of it like taking a break rather than leaving them out of your life. Be ready to help those that need your help.

“You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences.” Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist

Question: Are there people in your life that are always negative that you need to take a break from?

Filed Under: Life Coaching Tagged With: environment, family, friends, influence, people, surroudings, total

My Dear Watson…

August 7, 2013

Photo Courtesy of Kate Ter Haar

The first step to fixing any problem is to identify exactly what the problem is. Have you ever had someone ask you to do something and your first response is “I’m busy!” yet they haven’t even told you what it is they were wanting? It became a problem for you and you don’t even have the full request.

‘Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.’

Sherlock Holmes

-The Sign of Four

Anytime you feel like something is a problem take a breath before responding. Figure out exactly what the core issue is. As above, the core issue is you don’t have any free time. If take a minute and respond calmly to find out what they want and you decide you need to provide assistance then your problem is not that they asked something of you but you need to find where you can put it in your day. Now you can work on the problem.

As Sherlock Holmes said, eliminate all other factors to get to your real problem and then you can begin to work on it. Until then you are playing a game with a perception. Go search for truth detective.

Filed Under: Life Coaching Tagged With: doctor watson, dr, find, identify, problems, search, seek, sherlock holmes, sleuth

Teach Your Kids The Tech Way

July 31, 2013

I am going to deviate a little from my normal blog and write about a service I ran across a couple of weeks ago. It is call My Job Chart and is a great tool for teaching your kids to spend, save, and give in a technical but easy way. Did I mention it is also free?

My Job Chart was developed to allow the parent to assign various chores and along with that a point value. In their system one point equals one cent towards a reward such as something from the Amazon store (you can set whatever items you want to allow them to save points for), a trip to the movies, eating out, game time and a lot more. You can also choose custom rewards and how many points it takes to receive that reward.

The system also allows the child to select how much money they want to save and can click a button to have you add that amount to their savings account once they earned it.

Lastly, it allows your child to give. You can setup whatever charities you want your child to be able to save their money to be donated to and they choose how much goes the charity. Once they have earned enough points they click a button and you receive an e-mail asking you to donate the amount on behalf of the child.

We use this with our daughter and it is great. She is excited to see her points go up everyday after she does her jobs rather than waiting for the once a week payday that we were doing. She is able to be in control of her points (*cough* money) and learn how to save for a goal, give to those less fortunate, and save for a rainy day.

There is a lot more as far as customization and options you can do. It is 100% free so give it a try. After you do swing by here and let me know what you think!

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Money Saving, People Tagged With: allowance, chore, commissions, jobs, kids, to-do, todo, work pay

Serve Them Well

July 24, 2013

Photo Credit: Found Animals Foundation

Serve others. If you have read self development materials for any length of time you have heard this and for good reason – it is the root to many good things in life.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar

When you serve other people you are able to release stress and get out of a depressed state. You can do many things to serve: be in the military, donate time to a non-profit, or even creating a product that fills a need and makes you rich is still an example of serving others because you have filled a need and brought it to the marketplace.

Recently our car was totaled in an accident when a vehicle hit ours from behind (nobody was seriously injured). Of course, it is can be a nerve racking experience. Questions are up in the air and you are lost if you have never been through one before on what to do about getting your vehicle repaired, rental cars, etc. However, it was made a lot easier thanks to my agent who took the time to explain things to me and the other person’s insurance adjuster who was there to serve us. They should both feel good about what they do and the help they provide in moments like they deal with.

The more people you serve the better your life and those around you can be. A service animal serves the need of their owner but the owner, in turn, provides for the needs of the animal. Along with that service comes a bonding friendship between the two. This can be achieved with people as well as animals.

Figure out a way to serve many and go do that. Impact millions and make life better for everyone around.

“Service to many leads to greatness-great respect, great satisfaction.” Jim Rohn

Filed Under: Business, Careers, Customer Service, Leadership, Life Coaching, People Tagged With: customers, humans, mankind, robbins, rohn, serve, serve others, service, ziglar

100 Things

July 17, 2013

Jennifer feeding Moe the Sloth at Cincinnati Zoo.

In episode four of “This Is Your Life” Michael Hyatt talks about giving out legal pads and having his family right down 100 things they would like to do in their life. He called it a goal list or dream list (as he says, this was before he knew of the term bucket list – I like dream list better).

I think everyone needs to make one of these and push yourself to 100 as he suggests. Why? You will be amazed at the results you can have just by putting pen to paper. Share them with your family and strive to accomplish everything on it.

One of the big list items for my wife was meeting a sloth. Thanks to Allison Gibbs and Kate Olukalns at the Cincinnati Zoo she was able to mark this off last month. We were also able to walk in New York City which was something both of us had wanted to do for some time.

Moe with pal Kate Olukalns.

Nothing is to wild and crazy for the list and don’t leave anything off. From eating at a specific restaurant to traveling the world, anything you want to do should be on the list. You never know when you can make it happen or someone makes it happen for you.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Life Coaching Tagged With: accomplishments, bucket list, dream list, goal list, goals

1,972 Debt Free Miles

July 10, 2013

Magic Kingdom from the bridge.

Some people wonder what the point of becoming debt free is. They figure they have owed someone money their entire life so why not keep going? I’ll tell you that one reason that is important to me is travel.

I greatly enjoy going places with my family. By getting out of debt we have been able to experience so much in the last few years. In fact, exactly one year ago today we started our 1,972 mile driving journey!

If there are things you want to do but don’t think you have the money for it then there are a couple things you can do to find the money:

*Do a written budget each month.
*Work on getting out of debt.
*Eliminate eating out until you are debt free.
*Visit sites like Money Saving Mom and Save The Coupons for a list of deals for your shopping trips.

All of this comes down to one thing – FOCUS! Focus your attention on paying for that trip of a lifetime and take steps to make it happen. Focus on eliminating your debt. Focus on your written budget so you know where your money is going so you can get out of debt.

Ready to get started? You can download this free Guide To Budgeting to help you.

Filed Under: Life Coaching, Personal Finance Tagged With: beach, debt free, oak island, travel, walt disney world, wdw

ENDED: Giveaway: 1 Starter and 1 Deluxe Envelope System to Manage Your Finances

July 7, 2013

Congratulations to Emily C. for winning the Deluxe Envelope System and and Leah K. for winning the Starter Envelope System!

************************************************************

We are giving away two envelope systems this week! These are both from DaveRamsey.com and feature the FPU logo embossed on the front.

All you need to do to enter is follow the directions below. Winners will be contacted no later than Monday, July 15, 2013 and will be announced on this page and our Facebook page.

****Sign up form removed. Giveaway has ended.****

Deluxe Envelope System

Starter Envelope System

Filed Under: Giveaways and Promotions Tagged With: Dave Ramsey, envelope system, Financial Peace University, FPU, giveaway

Happy 4th!

July 4, 2013

To everyone in the US have a happy and safe Independence Day!

Filed Under: Holidays Tagged With: 4th of July, holiday, Independence Day, US

Quote of the Moment