Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Lawn Care and Attitude

I've been reading allot lately about attitude and how that affects not just ourselves, but also those around us.  I find it amazing that a person's attitude, basically how they feel or think about something, can affect how our day goes as well.  If you are feeling down and you get around someone who is happy and looks at life with a positive attitude, it can actually help to improve your own mood.  By the same token, the reverse is also true.  We've all met "Negative Nellie".

What does this have to do with lawn care?  Well thanks for asking.  Each year at this time I begin the annual ritual of cleaning up the debris on the lawn from the fall and winter -- leaves, sticks, dirt from along the side of the road, that kind of stuff.  When the job is complete, the lawn looks nice and clean and when it gets warm enough, the grass starts to get green.

For the first few weeks there is a nice green carpet surrounding my house.  If I do nothing else it looks good for a while.  But then my old nemesis returns.  The Dandelion (cue ominous music).  The dandelion, if left to grow, eventually turns into that cute puff ball that kids like to blow everywhere.  Each of those little pieces of fluff carries with it a seed which if left in fertile soil (and sometimes not so fertile soil too), will grow into another dandelion.  If I'm not careful, the whole lawn will be full of them after a while.  But if I work at pulling the stalks before they become flowers, the lawn remains tidy and clear of them.

Now... think of the dandelion as negative thoughts.  We all have them.  The important thing is to remember to deal with these negative thoughts early -- just like the dandelions on the lawn.  If we let our negative thoughts grow they will eventually spread to our whole way of thinking about, and dealing with, the world around us. 

On the other hand, if we can get into the practice of pulling our negative thoughts early and just rethink our position, we can do wondrous things.  Our focus on positive thoughts will affect our attitude and our mood.  Eventually, with enough practice, we will be able to recognize our negative attitude immediately and pull the 'dandelions' so we can have a better attitude.  I'm not saying that by doing this we will never have a bad day.  But if we recognize our attitude towards our life for what it is, a choice, wouldn't you rather choose to be a positive influence on those around you?

The Mental Fitness Challenge

Have you taken the Mental Fitness Challenge?  The MFC is a 90 day program designed to help you improve your life.  Want to be a better partner to your spouse?  Better parent? Need help goal setting?  What about improving your productivity at work? 

It's like a physical, get in shape and loose weight bootcamp -- but for your mind.

It starts with a self assessment in which you answer questions about yourself to gain a picture of areas in your life you may want to work to improve in.  You can then ask friends to take the assessment on your behalf and gain an understanding on how others see you.  You can also ask your friends to take the challenge with you and in doing so, create a community of people who will help each other become better people. This is an exciting opportunity to change your life for the better.  Take the challenge.


If you think you would like to take the challenge, you can head over to my website by clicking here.  From there just hit the Contact Us link and I can help get you started. 

Start Living the Life You've Always Wanted.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Emotion Affects Your Money

Human beings are emotional.  It’s why we cry at movies, cheer for the underdog and fall in love.  Emotion can be a terrible hindrance or a powerful motivator.  Unfortunately when you mix emotion with money you rarely get something good.

Often our daily spur of the moment purchases are made through emotion.  We are in a store and see that shiny new item that catches our fancy.  Because we have been trained through years of commercial advertising  on television and through glossy ads which promote our desire for new things, we often purchase that new item—whether we really need it or not.   If you have the cash in hand the impact on your finances is limited.  At least you’ve paid for it outright.  If however, you put that purchase on a credit card and don’t pay it off within the month you have taken a step back from financial security.  Think about that.  The spur of the moment purchase you made has moved you a step further into debt.  A step further from paying for your child’s education.  Moved you a step further from being financially secure. 

Some of you are thinking, “That’s a little harsh.  It’s only one purchase.”  That may be true.  But is it really?  Chances are, if you have made one spur of the moment purchase on a credit card, then you have made others.  How about we look at a hypothetical situation.  Let’s say for example that you see a good deal on a new television.  Spur of the moment you decide to put the purchase on your credit card.  The total price of the television is $1200.  If you put that on your credit card and made monthly payments of $20 (everyone can afford that without too much trouble right?) and we assume an interest rate of 18%, it would take you 268 months to pay off the balance.  Over the course of the 22 years of the payment plan your television will cost a total of $2531.11.  The interest ($1331.11) alone will be more than the original cost of the item.  Will you even have that television in 22 years?  Did it really provide you with anything?  Not such a deal now is it?  What’s more… that’s only one purchase.

Whenever emotion enters into a purchase we end up on the losing end of the deal.  If you are truly interested in improving your financial situation you need to practice delaying your gratification.  We all know how good it feels to buy that item we really want.  That good feeling we get when we satisfy our desire is why we get into trouble.  By setting up some personal financial rules to live by we can eliminate a lot of spending that is unnecessary and harmful to our future.  Some examples of basic financial guidelines for your spending could be:

-- If you don’t have the cash (not debit card) in your pocket, don’t buy it.  (Debit cards allow for blind spending.  Cash makes you stop and think before you buy.)

-- For larger items, if you don’t have, at minimum, twice the amount of the purchase in your account, don’t buy it.

-- If the item is over $200 dollars, wait 4 days before purchasing it.

-- Set a limit of $200 dollars for purchases on your debit cards.

-- Have only 1 credit card.

-- If you can’t pay off a purchase on your credit card completely within 25 days don’t buy it.

-- Ask yourself “Do I really need this?” and wait a day before you purchase.

-- Don’t buy your fuel at the same place you buy fuel for your car.

These eight rules will go a long way to helping get your finances under control.  Will it be easy?  Nope.  Will it be worth it?  You bet.

Feed the Elephant

I recently read a book entitled The Ant and the Elephant by Vince Poscente.  This book is written in parable form and tells the story of an ant named Adir and an elephant named Elgo.  Basically Adir is riding on Elgo's back and is trying to reach a goal.  Adir cannot reach the goal on his own.  He needs the elephant to get him there.  As the days and weeks go on, Adir learns how to best deal with his elephant and eventually reaches his desire.

As a parable this story is obviously a metaphor for what we do in our own lives.  Adir the ant represents our conscious mind.  Our thoughts and our desires are formed there.  Elgo the elephant represents our sub-conscious mind.  It is in this part of our brain where whether or not we can complete a task or reach a goal is determined.

Our sub-conscious mind is a powerful thing as illustrated by the images of the ant and the elephant.  We all know that an ant is industrious and hardworking and strong.  But when we compare the ant to the raw power of an elephant we see which is truly more powerful. 

What does all this mean?  Basically we have to be aware of what kind of diet we are providing for our elephant.  A good diet which provides positive thoughts and clear indications of what we wish to accomplish will help to train our sub-conscious mind to move in positive directions.  If we are providing our elephant with a negative diet it doesn't matter what our ant says -- we will never reach our goal.  If we can get our ant and our elephant (our conscious and sub-conscious) working together and moving in the same direction at the same time, our potential for success increases dramatically.

It's not always an easy thing to think positively about reaching your goals.  Life often throws up obstacles to bar the way.  What we must learn to do is to see these obstacles as potential for growth and as steps towards something better.

What are you feeding your elephant?

LIFE -- Something Right