Sunday, February 1, 2015

ARE You Ready for An Increase?

So  many folks whine and complain and moan and groan that they have been waiting so long for their proverbial "ship" to come in. They have visions of vacations in hot countries and luxurious designer clothes and a fancy new car.

But I wonder sometimes, if many of the folks who feel this way, would really be able to handle it if  and when their situation suddenly changed...
What would you do? If your blog views suddenly explode and your ads started earning hundreds or thousands of dollars every month? Are you ready for such an increase? Do you have a bookkeeper and/or tax advisor to help guide you through times of increase?

Maybe you are an artist and have a profile with Patreon, hoping that someone will have a soft spot in their heart and want to sponsor your artistic creations. But my question today is this....is your heart and mind and emotions ready for your increase?

Do you have a plan for the extra money when it comes in ? Do you know exactly what you are going to do with it? If you say that you are going to invest it....do you know exactly where and how you will invest?
If you say that you are going to get out of debt, do you know which debts you will pay off first?

Sometimes it bears repeating that we shouldn't just be prepared for the "bad times"...but also for the good times.

Write down a plan as to what you will do when you start getting more money into your life. Know where you will shop, what you will buy, and precisely what investments you will purchase. Know also where you will save your money, as to what account you will put the money in, and whether you will spread the money over several accounts. There will be research you will need to do to determine what your tax situation will be also when your "ship" comes in. Be prepared. Expect good things.

Peace.



Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Sometimes the EASY route IS the BETTER route.

Are you a glutton for punishment? Someone who is really hard on yourself?

Well, although it is super awesome to be a disciplined person, it is also important to know when to
take it down a notch, enjoy yourself and appreciate doing something at the EASY level instead of at the
"extra challenging" level.

Those who are striving to excel, and achieve extreme success, are accustomed to various levels of discomfort. They know that it takes moments of discomfort in order to condition your body, mind, and spirit
to a higher level. Therefore, sometimes unconsciously they come to expect life to always be difficult and strenuous. Then when something EASY and pleasant comes along, they may not really feel "permission" to participate in something "just for fun" that is simple and uncomplicated.

So today, although folks know me as being unusually intense, I just wanna say, that as much as I want you all to learn how to succeed and achieve incredible heights in life......I also really want to hear and see that you can laugh out loud and give yourself a break once in a while. I want to see you have fun and enjoy those moments of ease. Don't feel guilty when something good happens to you.

Enjoy it, treasure it and move on towards your goals.

Peaceful productivity.
Carla


Monday, January 26, 2015

"Scripting the First 60 Minutes"

It's Tim Ferriss who first mentioned this idea of scripting the first 60 minutes of your day.
The idea is to eliminate any decision making from those first early morning hours, in order to preserve your mental energy for those projects and plans that are more important and inspiring.

The concept of limiting the number of decisions you make in a day was introduced to me by a Christian teacher by the name of Mike Murdock. His extravagant salesmanship of his products as well as his aggressive fundraising has turned some folks off of his teachings, but so many of his "wisdom" teachings have profound and very helpful efficiency in helping ambitious people focus on what is most important.
If you can ignore the hype in his websites and books, you are bound to discover a few great treasures.

Anyway, back to my point. As a woman, I have never heard anyone encourage me to consciously limit the number of decisions I make in a day. No one had ever attached any great mental significance to "making decisions" about regular stuff like......where to get your hair done, what to wear or what to eat.

Therefore, it appears to be picking up steam, to simply eliminate the decision making processes from all of those type of routines. The intent is to save up your mental and emotional steam for those projects that have greater significance to your life goals.

The guy, Rob Rhinehart who invented the liquid meal replacement called "Soylent" is operating under the same intention. If you can add some valuable concentration power to your day by simply eliminating the need to worry about and/or prepare meals, you will have X number of hours in the day to focus on accomplishing your major objectives. I would tend to agree, that in my culture there is WAY too much time and attention spent on deciding what where and when to cook or have someone else prepare your meals. Yes, I believe in enjoying a great meal out with family or associates, in a pleasant restaurant upon occasion. But I'm talking about just your daily food fuel that you simply need to function fully throughout your day.

There's a rather irreverent  blog called Deliberatism.com from which I gleaned the idea of developing the "personal uniform". I must admit that I have not yet applied this concept, although it has enforced my realization that if I can set out the clothes I am going to wear for the next 3-5 days, it just provides a huge mental relief, as it is simply one less thing I have to think about in the morning.


How about where you get your hair done/ cut/ trimmed? As a gal, it's really tempting to be flighty in this area....as I am not sure why, but it seems to be a girly thing to simply hop from one hairstylist to another in search of the perfect do. How about you? Could you see yourself going to the same hairdresser for 6 months straight? Or even a full year? Or would that be simply too much commitment ??? Well, I'm sure you get the idea now.... about reducing the decisions about the "small stuff" as much as possible so that you can save your focus and energy and motivation for the Big Stuff.

Sending you productive peace today.

Carla