What you believe about money, income, debt, abundance, your potential,….. is RIGHT.

What you believe about money, income, debt, abundance, your potential,….. is RIGHT.

There’s an old adage that says, “Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re right.” We convince ourselves of our futures before we take the actions that make them real. This is not news to the golfer who visualizes the ball dropping into the cup before the swing, or the artist who sees the completed painting before lifting a brush.

This is also the underlying feature of everything from Positive Psychology to “The Secret,” and the Law of Attraction, and it works on us every day. When we convince ourselves that everything is happening to us, and we’re nothing but a thistle-seed on the breeze of life, that becomes our experience. Our experience and our belief becomes reinforced as we prepare ourselves for that future, expect that future, and yes, take precisely the action steps that will lead to that future.

If everyone says “we’re in a recession,” we will make it so. If we constantly say the economy is bad, we will make it so. I’m not saying that we should ignore reality by any means, but that we look beyond the hand that we’re dealt, to the game we’re in. Playing a lousy hand well will take you further than playing a great hand badly. If we decide to make reality work, we can make reality work.

It is very difficult to observe the world around us, interpret from a defeatist position, and then promote a successful, winning perspective. The change has to start at the very beginning of this process. If we want to improve our situations, we need to do this from a position where we have power and control. To say “I can’t do xyz because the economy is bad,” is a total surrender to powerlessness. Turning this around starts with language shifts completely within our power.


First, the economy isn’t “bad.” The economy is going through corrections, adjustments, upheaval, or any of the other thousand descriptions that don’t include a value judgment definition. Einstein said it is necessary to apply different thinking to solve the problems than the thinking that created the situation. Now you think, “how am I going to get past this?” We move from victim to problem solver just by shifting our internal dialogue. First we catch ourselves, then we interrupt the pattern, then we replace the victim language with the problem solver language. Difficult at first, but easier and easier with practice until you no longer even have to think about it. Success, now, is going to be about better problem solving, more creativity, more innovation.

Twitter, Tweet, Tweeps, Personal Finance, Credit, Debt, Money Mastery and you

Twitter, Tweet, Tweeps, Personal Finance, Credit, Debt, Money Mastery , and YOU

I have joined the twitterverse.

For the uninitiated, this means I have a twitter account- it’s a mini-version of this blog.  Everyday new people “follow” me on twitter- this means they’re reading what I write there (that’s “tweeting”).  These folks are my tweeps.  I bet you’re catching on to this twitter lingo.  So now, in addition to everything I was already doing, I manage my tweets and my tweeple.  I have to keep track of who is following me and see if they tweet about anything that interests me or is useful for you.

Today, I read a tweet from one of my tweeps (OK, I’ll stop this twitter-speak) from one of his followers who has compiled this rather neat go-to list for tweets.  The length of her post was much longer than my typical posts, so I’m including just portions of it here.  You can read the rest here: http://freefrombroke.com/2009/04/50-personal-finance-investing-and-money-tweeps-worth-following.html

Credit/Debt Tweeps
Credit and debt issues are getting a lot of play right now, and there are plenty of tweeps who have helpful hints, tips and tricks for dealing with debt — and for improving your credit score.
@NCN writes tweets that focus on debt reduction and staying out of debt. Blog: No Credit Needed.
@debtkid is honest about his massive amounts of debt. Tweets — and his Debt Kid blog — keep followers updated on the progress being made, and provide encouragement for those trying to pay down their own debt.
@paidtwice shares thoughts on getting out of credit card debt, and offers tips for dealing with credit card companies. Blog: www.paidtwice.com.
@nodebtplan provides meaningful help on creating a plan to get out of debt and achieve financial freedom. Blogs at No Debt Plan.
@masteryourcard is the Twitter account for the Master Your Card blog. All about responsible use of your credit card — and using it as a personal finance tool.
@takingcharge shares the thoughts of the editor of CreditCards.com. It’s all about credit card issuer news, and tips for using credit wisely.
@EADFL tweets about making a plan to get out of debt, and then stay there. Includes money making and saving ideas. Blog: Engineer a debt free life.
@debtblackhole is for the geek in me. A “financial mind meld” of sci-fi and escaping debt. Which is like a black hole. Blog: www.debtblackhole.com.
Money Saving/Frugal Living Tweeps
In this recession, you need all the money saving tips you can get. The economic turmoil has led to a renaissance in frugal living, and there are plenty of tweeple that can help you learn to live a good life on less.
@CouponTweet Two words: Coupons! Deals!
@CouponCravings More coupons! Retweets/replies to a lot of other thrifty types, providing even more useful people to follow. Blog: Coupon Cravings.
@Lynnae blogs at Being Frugal. She is all about living a frugal lifestyle. And she’s one of Walmart’s Eleven Moms.
@5DollarDinners offers rather helpful tips and recipes for keeping your food bill down. Blog: 5 Dollar Dinners.
@mbhunter ofers insights and information on great bargains from around the Web. Blog: Mighty Bargain Hunter.
@crystalpaine offers tips on cutting the weekly shopping bill and using coupons more effectively. Her blog is www.moneysavingmom.com.
@frugalbabe is all about being frugal while living a mostly sustainable lifestyle. Intersperses frugality with helpful information on going organic. Blog at www.frugalbabe.com.
Tax Tweeps
Because it’s tax season, and I’m sure may of you filed an extension, I offer you some tweeps that can keep you up to date on things like tax credits and deductions. With all the new stuff coming out, it’s nice to have someone who can help you keep up with these things.
@taxfoundation monitors and shares fiscal policy as it relates to taxes. The Twitter account for the Tax Foundation.
@taxgirl is sassy and smart, offering the tax insight of an actual lawyer. Blog: www.taxgirl.com.
@taxtweet authors the Don’t Mess With Taxes blog and offers updates on the economy and tax policy.
@jkharris is the CEO (and founder) of a tax representation company, JK Harris and Company. Has his finger on the pulse of tax trends.
@taxbrain offers links to helpful tax information, education, calculators and more. Web site: www.taxbrain.com.
@althetaxman is a financial and tax planner. Offers helpful tax prep tips and links to informative seminars.
@ifileonline specializes in online filing information and tax software tips and recommendations.
There you have it! Follow my tweeps and learn more about the financial world around you!

Sobriety, Recovery, Money Mastery, Self-Mastery, and Time Management

Sobriety, Recovery, Money Mastery, Self-Mastery, and Time Management

 

These topics are often on my mind.  For the past few years I’ve felt it was time for me to get a grip on Time Management; yet it hasn’t been simple or easy…..rather elusive in fact!  What I’ve determined is confirmed by the esteemed Stephen Covey in my dogeared copy of his book, Daily Reflections for Highly Effective People.  He says “Time management is really a misnomer- the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”  THAT explains why it’s been challenging!  Managing ourselves actually requires quite a lot: maturity, discipline, Will, EQ, …….

Covey goes on to say “If you are an effective manager of your self, your discipline comes from within; it’s a function of your independent will.  You are a disciple, a follower of your own deep values and their source.  And you have the will, the integrity, to subordinate your feelings <this is the really hard part for most of us!>, your impulses, and your moods to those values.  THIS is very challenging!  It requires putting your values and your goals ahead of  how you feel and what you may want in the moment (each time there arises such a moment of conflict) for the sake of what you value and what you want in the long run.  This requires Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and maturity!

Several years ago during the end of my architecture career, I had a conversation with a much older architect.  We were talking about diet and health.  He practices Dean Ornish’s eating plan and program to reverse heart disease AND he’s French.  I asked if this was a conflict for him, if he struggled with making healthy food choices rather than eating beautiful french food.  His reply has remained with me and continues to influence me.  He said : ” If I want to go to San Francisco, I don’t get on the BART train that’s going the other direction.  I don’t spend any time thinking about that other train because it won’t take me where I want to go.”  It’s that simple.  It’s just not that easy for most of us. I remember this when I struggle with my own stuff.  I have achieved something that I’ve wanted to achieve for the past 20 years: I gave up black tea, coffee and caffeinated drinks.  It’s soon going to be a year since this became effective.   I really appreciate the difference that no caffeine has made in my life!   At times, I think about that other train, but I’m able to put the value I hold in my chosen destination above the momentary experience of any of these drinks.  I guess this what people in recovery do. A certain emotional sobriety is involved.  I’m truly amazed that I’ve been able to do this every time for a year now.   This gives me great faith that I can do the same with a few other struggles.  Baby steps lead to a sudden leap.

This recession is a great opportunity for transformation, pursuing your life purpose, and shifting your relationship with money

This recession is a great opportunity for transformation, pursuing your life purpose, and shifting your relationship with money

Many people are highly stressed by current circumstances. Others are rolling with the circumstances and using the inherent opportunity to re-craft their life to their specifications and values, to make their life and their work congruent with their values, to move toward having more fulfillment, more freedom, more satisfaction, and perhaps more income as well. They see this as an opportunity to launch their dreams. They may feel they have little to lose at this point so why not go for it.

I’m reminded of a news story I read in the mid-1990s when a lot of middle-level managers were losing their jobs. The article interviewed a number of these out-of-work people. Some of them were very stressed, worrying about making ends meet. Some of them, however, were very happy and seemed to exhibit no stress at all.
People in this latter group experienced being fired or laid off as an opportunity to do something they had always wanted to do and had never done because they were “stuck” in their jobs. They either created one-person consulting firms, opened some type of retail store, or went back to school and changed professions entirely.
If losing your job means you will never find another way to make money, you will be very stressed. If losing your job means you can now do something even more nurturing, self-expressive and satisfying, you will be excited about the same event.  If you see it as an opportunity to pursue your life purpose and shift your relationship with money, you may be thrilled (even while being a bit nervous).
You see, events don’t have any inherent meaning. Circumstances don’t mean anything until you give them a meaning … and one meaning can be stressful while another might be enlivening. Stress is caused by the meaning we give to events-which in turn comes from our negative beliefs and feelings about ourselves, our relationship with money, people, and the world we live in.

What do you choose? What is your dream? What do you have to lose? Are you willing to risk it? If so, what’s the first step? Take that first step. The rest will follow.

Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy

April is National Financial Literacy Month.

In Marin, there are three noteworthy events. I really believe this is an important issue and hope that you or someone you know can utilize some of these valuable resources.
Not in Marin? Google “Financial Literacy Month + your town/city” and see what events are planned for your locale.

The Marin Women’s Commission is holding its first “Women and Money
Conference 2009 – Investing in Yourself” at Dominican University
Campus/Guzman Hall on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. – 1:00
p.m.
Event features a Special Guest Speaker (to be announced) and 3
workshops geared toward helping women of all ages during these tough
economic times. Topics are:
a) Teaching your Children Financial Literacy
b) Family Budgeting 101
c) Avoiding Identity Theft
d) Financial Preparedness – Create your Financial Footprint
e) Saving for your Retirement
f) How to Cope with Family Job Loss

Cost of Event: $10.00. Send check to reserve your seat today. Please
make check payable to: “Marin Women’s Commission/CAM”, 3501 Civic Ctr
Dr. Ste. 205, San Rafael, CA 94903

For more information call the Marin Women’s Commission at 415-499-6195

Scholarships and Child Care Stipends available upon request.

Free Workshop for Youth on Financial Literacy and Lifeskills: “Master Your Money”
April 25th, 10am-3pm, at the MYC, 1115 3rd Street, San Rafael
* Job Search 101 – how to best position yourself
* Budgeting 101 – how to save for your own place and your own car
* Credit 101 – how to use credit wisely and stay out of trouble
* College Financing 101 – how to finance your college education
Food, music, and raffle prizes. Great for high school kids! And its FREE!
Call 415-459-6884 x 104

“Cooking Up a Healthier Financial Future” class will be offered again on April 29th, 6:30-8:30pm. It is a unique course drawing on years of professional cooking experience at Chez Panisse to teach investing in an exciting and delicious new way. To register go to www.marinlearn.com. Select Courses, Financial Planning and “Cooking Up..” $25

Internal Spring Cleaning to transform your beliefs and habits

Internal Spring Cleaning to transform your beliefs and habits

Oh, how I love spring! I love the freshness, the growth in nature, the renewal after a long winter, a fresh slate, a new start,….. This weekend I worked a lot on my landscape: first pulling weeds that had grown between the cobblestones and then re-setting cobblestones and filling the cracks so weeds will not be able to grow there again. For me, this is actually much much more than just landscaping, it’s the result of internal changes that involved eliminating and replacing certain long held beliefs about myself and my life. This, in turn, resulted in taking action that supports my desire to have a certain degree of order and aesthetics in my environment because that feeds my soul and that order and beauty feels like a needed support for me to go out in the world and help others.

In the book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says “In developing our own self-awareness many of us discover ineffective scripts, deeply embedded habits that are totally unworthy of us, totally incongruent with the things we really value in life. We are response-able to use our imagination and creativity to write new ones that are more effective, more congruent with our deepest values and with the correct principles that gives our values meaning.”

So, take a slow deep breath, maybe a few of them, and contemplate for a moment what you really value and how your actions may be incongruent with or not in support of these values. What are 3 simple changes you can begin right now to address this? Happy Weeding. When your life is weed-free, it makes space for anything to happen, including what you desire, including what you’re here to do. Start now. Pull some weeds and plant some seeds. Let me know what sprouts. Need some help identifying those old beliefs or replacing them? Contact me, I’d love to help you.

Keeping it Real

Post #1

Jared Paul (San Francisco, CA) wrote on August 3, 2008 at 3:16pm

Permission To Be Real

Most of us are familiar with the idea of keeping it real and have an intuitive sense about what that means. People who keep it real don’t hide behind a mask to keep themselves safe from their fear of how they might be perceived. They don’t present a false self in order to appear more perfect, more powerful, or more independent. People who keep it real present themselves as they truly are, the good parts and the parts most of us would rather hide, sharing their full selves with the people who are lucky enough to know them.

Being real in this way is not an easy thing to do as we live in a culture that often shows us images of physical and material perfection. As a result, we all want to look younger, thinner, wealthier, and more successful. We are rewarded externally when we succeed at this masquerade, but people who are real remind us that, internally, we suffer. Whenever we feel that who we are is not enough and that we need to be bigger, better, or more exciting, we send a message to ourselves that we are not enough. Meanwhile, people who are not trying to be something more than they are walk into a room and bring a feeling of ease, humor, and warmth with them. They acknowledge their wrinkles and laugh at their personal eccentricities without putting themselves down.

People like this inspire us to let go of our own defenses and relax for a moment in the truth of who we really are. In their presence, we feel safe enough to take off our masks and experience the freedom of not hiding behind a barrier. Those of us who were lucky enough to have a parent who was able to keep it real may find it easier to be that way ourselves. The rest of us may have to work a little harder to let go of our pretenses and share the beauty and humor of our real selves. Our reward for taking such a risk is that as we do, we will attract and inspire others, giving them the permission to be real too.

Awaken

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

- Carl Jung