Warren Buffett’s best investment advice

Warren Buffett’s best investment advice

Warren Buffett, one of the smartest and most successful businessmen of our time, was recently asked what he thought was the best investment anyone could make in these difficult times.

His answer was quick and to the point …

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”

That’s it. The #1 Secret to Happiness, Fulfillment, and Prosperity, even in these tough times..

Invest in yourself. Grow yourself. Expand your awareness of what’s possible for you.

If ever there were a time to take control of your future, it’s now.

Essential Time Management for the life/career/finances you want

Essential Time Management for the life/career/finances you want

There’s something about this time of year: whether it’s that business slows down, looking at the year in review – what went well, what didn’t, what could be improved or different; or that people start thinking about the New Year and making a fresh start, turning over a new leaf, aligning with what’s most important, adjusting one’s habits to create greater satisfaction, fulfillment, and solvency; writing out resolutions; the shorter daylight hours causing a natural inward focus,……

This time of year, I usually spend some time completing minor tasks left unfinished when more pressing matters took precedence, filing and organizing (and un-filing or purging my files as well), and clearing any piles (I’m happy to see that piles are almost a non-issue for me now whereas they used to be a MAJOR issue). Although this is something I like to do at this time of year, it doesn’t work for me to put it on my list of things to do. Yesterday however, I spontaneously began and this morning I spontaneously continued. I purged a whole bunch of files that I no longer need and rearranged my files for ease of use. It just feels great to have this done and I feel excited knowing that from a feng shui perspective, I’ve made space for the new and for more to flow in. I feel this is as valuable as other ways to optimize your business during a slow time. Energetically, it brings your environment current: Current with your vision for your life, your business, your career, current with your energy and your intention.

In the process of clearing and organizing, I came across some notes from a workshop I did many years ago with Janel Ensler of the Ridhwan School on Essential Time Management. The word essential refers to the essence of who we are as well as the essence of time management, and how to take time management out of the realm of the ego and have it emanate from the soul. It becomes much more compelling when this happens. Although still rife with challenges, it’s easier to align with and feel motivated from a deeper truer part of yourself – from your soul rather than your ego. Discipline, then, is an expression of your deepest truth.

Your intentionality is merged with your actions. Applying WILL to your life means getting present, getting on track, bringing your soul into focus, getting clear highly-tuned dynamic movement. How you use your time determines whether your life is an expression and fulfillment of who you really are, what you want, and your purpose. That’s the main reason to practice essential time management. Want more reasons?: to be inspired and intentional and move toward greater satisfaction and fulfillment, to have time for contemplation, fun, being ourselves, being with those we value, and leisure, producing and allowing your heart’s desire!

Part 2 to follow; stay tuned! Until then, I wish you a very lovely holiday time. I will be spending time with my daughter and friends locally. Weather permitting, we’ll be rollerblading on Christmas Day. Yippee!

Tough times during recession call for thrifty measures in one’s New Year’s Resolutions

Tough times during recession call for thrifty measures in one’s New Year’s Resolutions

With the holidays upon us, many people are feeling even more squeezed financially than before. The tradition of writing out New Year’s Resolutions may provide a good opportunity to take a look at where your money is going, look for ways to trim the fat, and align your spending with your values.

Here’s a tip to get you started: billshrink.com is a free service to analyze your telecom bills and find the thriftiest plan for your actual usage patterns. One quick and easy change that I made awhile back has saved me a bundle (about $500/year): I switched one of my phone lines to ACN VoIP. For ~$25/mo. I get everything that I was paying $55+/mo. for. They’ll even sell you a videophone for only $99! I can’t recommend my ACN account exec highly enough; she’ll take excellent care of you and make sure that she’s saving you money. Give her a shout: andreadevaux@acninc.net

Got some great tips to share? Please leave it in Comments. Thanks!

Creating a strong foundation for 2009 and for having the life you really want

Creating a strong foundation for 2009 and for having the life you really want

Much is being said these days about what businesses and entrepreneurs can do to survive this economic downturn. One can apply this same basic thinking to one’s life. Ask yourself what’s working in your life, what’s giving you a sense of satisfaction, and what is not? What can you extrapolate from what’s working and apply it to what’s not working so well? Creating positive rituals is one way to create lasting change.

Positive rituals are powerful on three levels: they help us to insure that we effectively manage energy in service of our mission, they reduce the need to rely on our limited conscious will and disclipline to take action, and they’re a powerful means to put our priorities into action and embody what’s most important to us. Every time we participate in a ritual, we’re expressing our beliefs.

Rituals provide a level of comfort, continuity, and security that frees us to improvise and to take risks. Rituals provide a stable framework in which creative breakthroughs often occur. They can also open up time for recovery and renewal, when relationships can be deepened and spiritual reflection becomes possible. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them. A well-defined ritual pulls us rather than requiring us to push ourselves forward.

So, as we wrap up 2008 and look toward 2009, what do you want to take with you, what do you want to leave behind, what do you want to set in motion so that you’ll wind up with a life you love and one that embodies your values? What are three small changes you can make that will have a great effect on your life, your performance, and your satisfaction? Put one in place, do it regularly, as you define it, for a month. Keep doing that one as you add the next one and do it regularly for the next month. Continue the process till you’ve got the life you want. Need some support? Get an accountability partner or a coach. Good luck!

The Power of Full Engagement and Knowing Your Purpose

The Power of Full Engagement and Knowing Your Purpose

I recently heard Bill Baren interview Jim Loehr who wrote The Power of Full Engagement. I was so moved that I ran out and got the book (you may recall this from a previous post here) and I’ve been reading it. It’s a very accessible book and I recommend it highly. I even have a shortcut to get the gist of the book without reading the whole thing; just leave me a comment and I’ll let you in on it.

By full engagement we mean physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned. Full engagement requires each of these four sources of energy. All of them are necessary, none is sufficient by itself and each influences the others. Loehr makes the connection between knowing one’s purpose and having full engagement. He says Purpose is a unique source of energy and power. Purpose fuels focus, direction, passion and perseverance. It’s using one’s life as a vehicle through which one expresses one’s deepest values. He says we focus on what’s meaningful and what moves us. In such circumstances, life and work become so much easier and more pleasant and, at times, downright exciting!

I’ve noticed in my own life, since I changed professions to better fulfill my purpose, that it’s much easier for me to engage more fully and to be willing to make certain specific efforts (that Loehr discusses in the book) that engender and support full engagement. I’ve got a chicken/egg dilemma around this; I’m not sure which came first: finding a way to fulfill my purpose more completely versus noticing deep internal shifts that have brought about a new level of maturity in me. This is a toughie. Perhaps it doesn’t really matter which came first. Perhaps they arose together. All I know is that I’m awfully glad that this has happened. It means that certain things that have been a struggle or an issue for me decades are becoming non-issues with no struggle involved because doing, or not doing, certain things serves the fruition of my purpose which I am totally committed to fulfilling no matter what it takes.

more on this to follow…….stay tuned.

Make More Money in 2009? Purpose, Values, and New Year’s Resolutions

Make More Money in 2009? Purpose, Values, and New Year’s Resolutions

Soon people will be writing out their New Year’s Resolutions for 2009 or at least thinking about the New Year. People will be thinking of what they want, what they want to be different and better, and what they think they could do differently to better bring about the life or circumstances they desire- a life, perhaps, that better embodies their values, perhaps even a life that fulfills their purpose.

Deeply held values, those that have intrinsic worth and thus are about things that cannot be lost, fuel the energy on which purpose is built. They define an enduring code of conduct- the rules of engagement in the journey to bring our vision for ourselves to life. Some universal values are: generosity, integrity, courage, humility, compassion, loyalty, steadfastness, and love. To begin to explore more deeply the values most compelling to you, set aside uninterrupted time to contemplate:
• Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the 3 most important lessons you’ve learned and why are they so critical?
• Think of 3 people that you deeply respect. Describe 3 qualities in each person that you most admire.
• Who are you at your best?
• What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life?

Some questions we may ask:
• How can work be a forum in which to express and embody our deepest values and purpose?
• What is my greatest purpose in life and how can work be an avenue for or an expression of this?
• What are some steps that would move in the direction of discovering my purpose and creating work that is an embodiment of that purpose?

Clarifying purpose takes time, quiet uninterrupted time- which is challenging to arrange. It may help to think of this time as an investment with the potential to deliver a high return over time- increased energy, fuller engagement, higher productivity, and greater satisfaction.
Ask yourself:” Is the life I’m living worth what I’m giving up to have it?”.

If these questions have stirred something within you that you’d like to explore in greater depth, you may want to work with a coach, such as myself, who can guide you through the discovery and clarifying process.

WORK LESS; MAKE MORE MONEY

WORK LESS; MAKE MORE MONEY

HUH? HOW CAN THAT BE?, you say. I know it sounds a bit counterintuitive. However, Leonardo DaVinci said “The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less. It is a very good idea to go away now and then and have a little relaxation…..when you come back to the work, your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose the power of judgment.” Is this what gave rise to cafes? I don’t know about cafes, but I do know that what he recommends fits with my own experience.

People interviewed on this topic all said that they have gotten their ideas and inspirations when they weren’t “working”. The most common answer was while they were taking a shower/bath. It’s not the water though. It’s oscillating between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The highest form of creativity depends upon a rhythmic movement between engagement and disengagement, between engaging one side of the brain and then the other: one side engages while the other side disengages. Both are necessary and neither is sufficient on it’s own. The right brain is less linear and time-focused and thus is more inclined to solve problems or come up with something new by intuitive leap and sudden insight…..and this often occurs when the left brain is exhausted. The work occurs on the unconscious level.

I have long been fascinated by the brain and how it interacts with creativity, inspiration, the spirit in all its forms and movement, psychodynamics, etc… If you’ve been reading my blog, or if you’ve read About Me, you know that I work with both the conscious and the unconscious mind, psychodynamics, and spirit. So I was tickled to hear DaVinci said that creative work occurs on the unconscious level. Why is this not widely recognized and supported in the working world? Why do companies not foster this in their employees? Why are people with a proven track record of accomplishment and brilliance not trusted and supported to have space and time for this within their work schedule? This is one of the many percs of the self-employed; one that I have always treasured and benefited from greatly. As a matter of fact, the inspiration that lead to me changing professions and doing this work occurred in a rare moment of t.v. watching (it was a finance-related show on Oprah, but I was not in work mode).

So, all that said, I encourage all of you to do what you need to do to have that R/L brain oscillation experience on a regular basis. Who knows what could come out of it! It’s an important component of Money Mastery.

GENEROSITY EVEN IN A RECESSION?

GENEROSITY EVEN IN A RECESSION?

“There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are always attained by giving them to someone else.”
- Peyton Conway March

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill

the human spirit

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – e. e. Cummings