Less Stress More Calm

How Money Continues To Dominate Your Lifestyle, Stress Level, Freedom, Control And Hope For The Future.

Financial freedom is as much a deep emotional experience as a physical one. Financial freedom will release you from years of worry and struggle. Either you choose to change or keep struggling financially until  death separates you from the worry and stress.   

Our relationship with money is complex, ongoing and exists on different levels.

Saving money isn’t as easy as placing it in your savings account. When money is accessible plenty of people spend it. With the levels of debt rising, predatory credit card and mortgage practises, people are very quickly becoming financially ruined.   

But before all this you have to ask yourself these emotionally charged questions.

Can I live within my means and be happy?

What kind of lifestyle do I want?

Do I have an addictive personality? 

Is my insurance coverage adequate?

After answering no or maybe to these questions, the best advice I have used and can pass on is:

• #1 Golden Rule. Live within your means. This goes hand in hand with the question - What kind of lifestyle do I want?
• Millionaire minds live within their means. 
• Get a good financial planner that will educate you on money, savings, compound interest and the emotional pitfalls of money. 
• Use a simple tool to track your spending. www.spendingdiary.com is cool. Understanding your money habits is a profound and at times shocking psychological experience.   
• Buy what you need, not what you want.
• Save your money in an IRA account or any account that has automatic deposits. Make it difficult to access. This is an extremely important tip from all the experts. 

Either you change or money continues to negatively dominate your lifestyle, stress level, freedom, control and hope for the future.

Choose financial freedom. Choose it right now.

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20 Year Olds at work - Attitude That Looks Like Laziness And Impatience

How you are perceived at work is always very important. The younger generation is being perceived as a bunch of spoiled brats. Read about it the overconfident 20-year-olds. 

It’s so true. Sometimes there is so much show but little substance.

 

Why Personal Integrity Is So Important To Me

Wikipedia - everything he does and believes is based on the same core set of values. While those values may change, it is their consistency with each other and with the person's actions that determine his integrity.

The best friends, bosses, family members all have heaps of personal integrity. Personal integrity for me also means people keep their promises. Not keeping your promises to either yourself or your friends is living a life full of deceit and false pretenses.

Tonight I had dinner with a friend I had not seen for quite some time due to circumstances. Recently we made plans to meet and we kept to those plans and had a great time.

With other people I make plans and they back out at the last second. Sure, emergencies happen but after a few times of lame excuses, it’s time to pull the plug and end the friendship.

All my close friends keep their promises. It isn’t that hard to phone, meet for coffee or have dinner once in a blue moon.

My best and true friends visit me when I’m in the hospital.

Personal integrity is a foundation for all relationships. Kids always remember if their parents don’t keep their promises, no matter how big or small. Lack of integrity will continuously tarnish or destroy your close friendships with friends and family members.

Integrity is something plenty of people overlook because it isn’t high on their list. They may be more concerned with what is on TV. Lack of integrity is like a slow poison, seeping into life day after day. It even poisons global leaders.   

Are your friends, family or co-workers showing you personal integrity? Are they always making promises they can’t keep? Are they there in your time of need? Can you count on them?

Sometimes all you need is someone that will listen. 

Maybe it’s time to make new friends.

How To Create A Balanced Life

I wrote that there is no such thing as a balanced life. D’oh!  With that said here is how to get as close to balanced as possible.

There are 24 hours in a day. Picture this as a pie chart divided into three segments.  Mmmmmmm...pie. Eight hours for sleeping, work and you time. Say you spend two hours traveling to and from work. If this is a major source of irritation then you may want to change the pie chart.

10 hours work and travel $%^???^&$%^!!! 

7 hours me time

7 hours sleep

Or you may consider the 2 hours travel time as fabulous, since you get to listen to audio books, Ipod and practise your yodeling.

Here is the key...get ready!

It is up to you as to what boundaries you create for yourself. Boundaries are especially important at work.  If you have no time boundaries at work, than your other pie chart segments suffer.  That probably means less you time even less sleep time. 

You have 24 hours in a day. Once that day is gone, it’s gone forever. You will never see that day again.

Use it well.   

Why Do We Change Jobs and Transform Careers?

The first question you have to ask yourself is if you have a career or a job?

Wikipidia has one definition of a job as an – “Occupation”.

Wikipidai has one definition of Career as – “an individual's course or progress through life”.

What I deduce from this is that you may have multiple jobs throughout life, which make up your career. But our career may drastically evolve. That is entirely up to you.

As for myself:

1. I worked at a large aerospace firm in various supply chain departments, then worked on a huge IT (SAP) project for 1 ½ years.

2. I then joined a larger aerospace firms IT projects for a few years.

3. Worked for a small Pharmaceutical company, again involved in supply chain / IT (SAP) projects.

4. On the side I started www.mylifechanges.com because I’m a self-improvement nut.

5. Presently I am an IT consultant and entrepreneur.

So my career has been a blend of supply chain expertise, IT and now I have served myself a side dish of entrepreneurship in the self-improvement field. 

From what I have seen, here is why people change jobs (and possibly re-invent their careers).

1. They don’t feel appreciated at their jobs.
2. They want to make more money. The book “Fire Your Boss” has a compelling chapter on this.
3. They want to re-invent yourself and career. Scott Adams has written another brilliant entry. *insert ego stroke here*
4. Bad bosses
5. Work closer or at home.

Right now we all have jobs. Our careers are ever evolving.

Or not.

Best Productivity Tools For Work

After attempting countless technological tools at work here are the two that work best.

1. 8 1/2 by 11 pad
2. Pen

At the end of each workday list what has to be done the next day.

Place stars besides the most important tasks.

Once the task is done put a check mark beside it.

Redo the list at the end of the day, taking off the checked items. 

A list like this is simple, portable, visible (leave it on your desk) and for ten minutes each day, thought provoking.

It might look like this:

* Review shortage report and complete.

Follow up on E-mail on from Jan about discrepancy

Approve new product design

Meet with boss on career plan

* Confirm meeting with client tomorrow

      Send Company x follow up reminder

* Place orders and E-mail today

     5-7 tonight for Joe’s birthday 

Simple and straightforward always wins.

How To Easily Figure Out What You Want

With todays work stress mounting and the consumer treadmill always beckoning , it's easy to fall into bad habits. We find ourselves escaping life through TV, food, drugs or becoming a slave to the consumer culture.

Deciding what you really want in life is as easy as writing down your core values. Your core values  represent who you are. They represent what you stand for. They are your moral compasses.  Your list may look like this:

Good Health, Financial Freedom, Compassion, Love, Less Stress, Contentment, Gratitude, Hope, Control...etc.

Pick the top three to five core values, highlight them and put them in priority. Perhaps good health will be first, followed by financial freedom and finally gratitude.   

Good health may mean a healthy lifestyle including regular exercise with friends, cooking healthy meals and meditation.

To you financial freedom might mean not having to worry about money. The bills are always paid, and your savings are growing.

Gratitude might mean always being thankful for everything that is good in your life.

Perhaps you need to set some smaller goals to help you live according to your core values. 

Living  according to your core values also involves personal integrity, keeping promises and discipline.

But the pay off is living the life you dreamed of.

What is important to you? Are you spending time on it?

Write that list of core values.               

How Bloggers Are Getting Rich

Ok. Bloggers can make lots of money. I’ll have to start putting some ads up!

Read about it here.

Terry

Are You Creating A Life Filled With Freedom, Hope, Happiness, Joy, Compassion and Love?

My website mylifechanges.com helps people create,link and track their Life Mission Statement, Core Values and Goals. It isn’t easy for people to be introspective. It’s like avoiding the dreaded doctor’s check-up and lighting up another smoke.

Lots of people are in this permanent state of denial, depending on TV, credit cards, potato chips, celebrity blogs, and kicking the dog to get them through the day. Usually it takes a dramatic life change or disaster to wake them up and appreciate life for what it is.

Life is a continuous journey of valleys, hills and peaks. The trick is to get out and enjoy the ride and challenges along the way. Continuing on a consumer treadmill is a temporary external joy and has nothing to do with rejoicing in the wonder of being human.

I bought a new car recently and the initial euphoria of its leather seats, Bose stereo, and sunroof, has worn off for the most part. Sure it’s comfy but I haven’t really grown as a person because of it.

What is really important to me is the hope I am creating in my life, as well as freedom, happiness, joy, compassion and love. Wealth creation can equate to freedom in life. 

We can’t always be happy, being angry and frustrated is part of who we are. A major break through is when we accept our human warts and not fight them all the time. It's called being friends with yourself. Self-acceptance isn’t easy. Being human isn’t easy.

It's also much easier to work on your strengths than to keep picking at your weaknesses. Try it.

I believe in what I am trying to do.  If I can shift just a few people and help them understand more about themselves and life, my job is done.   

My own journey continues. 

Until next time. 

Do You Have A Negative Attitude Towards Life, Work, Love Or All?

I try to write about personal experiences and blend them with the best books I have read. I have read hundreds of self development; philosophy and business books over the years and constantly incorporate their philosophies and teachings into my life. I especially enjoy books that have plenty of research or are scientifically based.

Lately I have been going through a few rough spots involving relatives in an accident (everyone is better now), challenges from my website business, a brand new laptop that just died, dreadful self made stress….you get the picture.

I read another book yesterday that has given me plenty of food for thought.  It is another positive psychology book called, “How full Is Your Bucket" However it is based on analysis of 10,000 business units and more than 30 industries. Here are a few statistics.

• The number 1 reason people leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated.
• Bad bosses increase the risk of stroke by 33%.
• Negative employees can scare off customers – for good
• 9 of 10 people say they are more productive when they are around positive people.

Pretty straightforward stats but good reminders of the world around us.

After giving this book some thought, I’m no longer crabby, I slept great last night and once again I have a positive and hopeful outlook on life. Sometimes I need a nudge to get me in the right direction again.

I am much more positive. I am going to share it with everybody. I will strengthen my relationships with friends at work. I will give out of the blue. I will really try to understand how different people like to be appreciated.

Positive psychology is an extremely important future trend. It does have to be based on reality though and mistakes still have to be corrected. We are not living in la-la land.

But in the future, being positive and appreciative will have the greatest impact on our lives.

I’ve read this before in other books, I’m thankful I read it again.