Greetings and Salutations--
So I have been thinking-- There are a few times of the year that get you in a pensive mood.. I would imagine that it is different for each of us.. For me the holiday season is one of those times.. It is a time of year that is an easy measure of a new beginning-- coming with the new year and the air is crisp with cold wind.. I love the decorations and all the beautiful lights.. I love any opportunity to sit around a fire and think of my future and where it is headed..
How many times in your life have you experienced moments of time--maybe lasting for hours or days where things felt surreal? Clinically-- I imagine it must be the moments when you are having a natural endorphin release.. I want to explore how to define it better than that but not sure how.. I know only this-- these are the moments I live for.. I like to think of these times as if pixie dust is all around me.. It could involve the company of a friend, spouse, lover, or just yourself.. Maybe it is a beautiful day where the weather is perfect, there is a awesome cool breeze, and the windows are up in your home.. You have a great book, a nice glass of wine, and candles burning while listening to your favorite relaxing music.. You look around and are overwhelmed with the feeling of peace and warmth yet you can't explain it in tangible terms.. How is one moment different from another?.. How do you describe in objective terms a subjective feeling when the room is quite and you watch the sun come into the window while the curtains blow gently in the breeze?? Where you have that feeling of wanting what ever it is that you are experiencing to last forever.. How do we make these experiences last longer? Can you learn to make them come around more often?
For me I am especially attached to music.. On "pixie days" it can bring tears to my eyes even though I have heard a particular piece a million times.. It is as if I can feel the music coursing through my veins.. I can often times listen to a piece of music and remember a specific day and recall what I was feeling/experiencing with vivid detail..
I want to have as many of these days and moments as possible.. Here is another time it can happen-- when Hollywood gets it right and a movie you watch touches you.. I have recently been "bitten" by the Twilight Saga.. I watched the first one when it came out and wasn't impressed.. I am not much for vampire stuff.. However I had seen the trailers for the last movie in the series and actually noticed that it appealed to me on some level that I couldn't describe.. Some how I knew I would love it.. Soon after I had an opportunity to go with some old work friends.. I LOVED IT!! I couldn't follow everything that was going on but it didn't matter.. It struck me as one of the most (for a love story) intelligent movies I have seen in quite some time.. The characters were all lovable, had great depth, and personality.. I appreciated that it wasn't the typical "rules" for vampires..I loved the powers that independently were great but collectively worked to unify them all perfectly..
Most of all I really identified with the love story between Edward and Bella.. I want that.. Does that make me a hopeless romantic? unrealistic? silly? Look-- I know I have tons of things left to experience in life but I have also lived enough to know that bills, late nights, lack of sleep, stress, and overall reality creeps in every relationship.. I know that Hollywood can make the impossible look as easy as Sunday morning..Hollywood can scue reality to the point of not knowing it is unreal.. Maybe it is because I am not married with kids/teenagers and to someone that more days than not I am tired of.. That constantly pisses me off.. Maybe being single, by default makes me either a cynic or a hopeless romantic-- but here is what I believe exists-- that feeling of a love for someone that you know from the depths of your heart you were meant to be together in an instant.. That truly for better or worse you are willing to go to the depths of hell for that person more days in a month than not.. I believe in soul mates and I believe that most people never meet theirs.. I hope I am fortunate enough to meet mine.. He'll be the one with pixie dust in his hands.. what about you? What do you believe in?
Tootles :)
Heather
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
What Does Faith Have To Do With Self Evolvement?
Greetings and Salutations--
Hello all--Hope you are getting geared up for the coming holiday season and I wish the best for you and your families!! Tonight I hope everyone will stay with me long enough to hear out my thoughts.. I would imagine a few got the vapors from the title alone.. Stay with me now-- I promise it will not be a sermon :)
For the longest time I have had a personal self limiting belief that "true" faith is something that for the most part comes from a church.. Not that it doesn't or can't but I am not talking about that kind of faith.. Tonight I looked up old school style two words, the first of which is faith: (1) confidence or trust in a person or thing (2) belief that is not based on proof (4) belief in anything, as a code of ethics, or the occurrence of a future event (The Random House College Dictionary).. I believe this to be critical ingredient to any lasting, real life changes a person can make.. Faith that today, as you begin your journey or tomorrow when you take that first step, real change will happen.. That you can turn your life into what ever you want or need it to be.. That all things are possible and you don't have to have the outcomes drawn out on a map before you start your journey.. Some times you really shouldn't skip to to the last chapter and cheat.. Have faith that things will work out.. That you will handle what ever it is that life can throw at you with skill and grace..
I have a 12x12 inch cork board in my bathroom--my quote or thought board of sorts.. It is that priming thing I have talked about before.. I read them all every day..Here are two-- "If you are not willing to learn-- no one can help you.. If you are determined to learn--no one can stop you" and "If 75% of what you worry about doesn't happen--why worry about it 100% of the time?"-- these really speak to faith in what you can't see or touch yet you move forward anyway. Having faith that one day in the near or far future it will all come together and make sense.. That you will achieve what you are working so hard for..
I think of it like this--if you have kids you teach them and invest all you have to give them a foundation to build on for the rest of their lives.. You don't know how your kids will turn out..You don't know if they will be the next Bill Gates or the next loser.. You have faith that you are investing in someone who will do nothing but succeed in life.. So why not put that kind of faith in yourself? Whether you have kids or not is a mute point.. Have faith that you can improve yourself.. That you can move mountains when it comes to getting what you want out of your life.. It is all about quality.. It starts somewhere small and grows--which takes me to the second definition I looked up tonight..
Evolve: (1)to develop gradually (3) to come forth gradually into being;develop;undergo evolution (same as above)--This is one of the best ingredients of all in life-- I feel this with all my soul and being.. With faith in evolution it gives you purpose in life when purpose is lacking or absent.. Every day is a new beginning and an opportunity to get it right again.. Change what didn't work yesterday.. Never give up or let go of what you are striving for.. patience, love, capacity to forgive and move on, energy, ridding yourself of habits that hold you back from life, poor choices, wasting your time, or just plain squandering your life away.. My lord I could go on and on.. With the determination of getting started- faith will tide you over until results start pouring in.. Expect great things and it will happen.. Expect something positive and let it happen.. Do something to help it along.. Don't just sit on your hiney and expect a great life to knock on the door.. Seek it out.. Make it happen..
What do you want out of life? What do you lay awake at night or drink the evening away wishing you had? When will you realize that it is time to stop being a victim and take charge of who you are and where you are in life? You are the only one that can change it.. Stop being a victim of yourself-- that's the worst thief of all--
Tootles :)
Heather
Hello all--Hope you are getting geared up for the coming holiday season and I wish the best for you and your families!! Tonight I hope everyone will stay with me long enough to hear out my thoughts.. I would imagine a few got the vapors from the title alone.. Stay with me now-- I promise it will not be a sermon :)
For the longest time I have had a personal self limiting belief that "true" faith is something that for the most part comes from a church.. Not that it doesn't or can't but I am not talking about that kind of faith.. Tonight I looked up old school style two words, the first of which is faith: (1) confidence or trust in a person or thing (2) belief that is not based on proof (4) belief in anything, as a code of ethics, or the occurrence of a future event (The Random House College Dictionary).. I believe this to be critical ingredient to any lasting, real life changes a person can make.. Faith that today, as you begin your journey or tomorrow when you take that first step, real change will happen.. That you can turn your life into what ever you want or need it to be.. That all things are possible and you don't have to have the outcomes drawn out on a map before you start your journey.. Some times you really shouldn't skip to to the last chapter and cheat.. Have faith that things will work out.. That you will handle what ever it is that life can throw at you with skill and grace..
I have a 12x12 inch cork board in my bathroom--my quote or thought board of sorts.. It is that priming thing I have talked about before.. I read them all every day..Here are two-- "If you are not willing to learn-- no one can help you.. If you are determined to learn--no one can stop you" and "If 75% of what you worry about doesn't happen--why worry about it 100% of the time?"-- these really speak to faith in what you can't see or touch yet you move forward anyway. Having faith that one day in the near or far future it will all come together and make sense.. That you will achieve what you are working so hard for..
I think of it like this--if you have kids you teach them and invest all you have to give them a foundation to build on for the rest of their lives.. You don't know how your kids will turn out..You don't know if they will be the next Bill Gates or the next loser.. You have faith that you are investing in someone who will do nothing but succeed in life.. So why not put that kind of faith in yourself? Whether you have kids or not is a mute point.. Have faith that you can improve yourself.. That you can move mountains when it comes to getting what you want out of your life.. It is all about quality.. It starts somewhere small and grows--which takes me to the second definition I looked up tonight..
Evolve: (1)to develop gradually (3) to come forth gradually into being;develop;undergo evolution (same as above)--This is one of the best ingredients of all in life-- I feel this with all my soul and being.. With faith in evolution it gives you purpose in life when purpose is lacking or absent.. Every day is a new beginning and an opportunity to get it right again.. Change what didn't work yesterday.. Never give up or let go of what you are striving for.. patience, love, capacity to forgive and move on, energy, ridding yourself of habits that hold you back from life, poor choices, wasting your time, or just plain squandering your life away.. My lord I could go on and on.. With the determination of getting started- faith will tide you over until results start pouring in.. Expect great things and it will happen.. Expect something positive and let it happen.. Do something to help it along.. Don't just sit on your hiney and expect a great life to knock on the door.. Seek it out.. Make it happen..
What do you want out of life? What do you lay awake at night or drink the evening away wishing you had? When will you realize that it is time to stop being a victim and take charge of who you are and where you are in life? You are the only one that can change it.. Stop being a victim of yourself-- that's the worst thief of all--
Tootles :)
Heather
Monday, November 12, 2012
Even Santa Needs To Know How to Budget
Greetings and Salutation--
Hey!!...Hope you are all well this Monday evening..Guess for the Month of December I need to change my opener to Seasons Greetings :)
I was thinking and waiting for inspiration to hit me about what I wanted to blog about tonight. I was deciding on my musical selection--I chose Sally Harmon's Let It Snow (piano) and it hit me maybe I should speak about St Nick and what the Christmas Season means to me- and my wallet now that I am budget minded.. For those of you that have put aside money along and along...congrats! For those of you that wavered...fret not..there is always next year and I mean that with true sincerity. Start this month and I don't care how much it is. $5 is better than $0. It is my personal challenge to you to start saving a few dollars with regularity (automate it ) and let me know next year how much you managed.. This year I get to shop for my friends and family with ease as I have saved money for my shopping.. Guess the one thing I didn't plan for was saving up money to give to Santa for me :)
Speaking of Santa-- don't let that old fart rob you blind this year.. I am always amazed at how much money people are willing to go into debit for the sake of their kids or loved ones when they have not saved appropriately.. I mean don't get me wrong-- I love gifts like anyone else.. Where I see the problem is when people jump off into the deep end of the debt pool and spend the first 3-6 months of the following year digging out what they spent for Christmas.. Why? So the kids will be happy? How about teaching them humility and understanding of the real way the world works.. In the real, grounded, responsible world you don't get what you haven't planned ahead for.. That this isn't the time of the year to get thousands of dollars worth of toys and gadgets..that is it a great time of the year to remember just how big the world is..That there are people that have nothing and something simple would mean more to them that any complicated gift you could give someone that "has it all".. Does going overboard in gifts prove I love you more? Does this prove your level of importance in my life? I just don't get it.. I am not advocating being scrooge himself.. I am, However, advocating simple common sense..Buy what you can afford.. Plan ahead and stay within your means..
As you get out in the in suing crazy traffic and shop til you drop try and think what Christmas really means to you.. It is religious? It is commercial? It is spiritual? Is it all Bullshit? Is it what someone else has made you feel? When you make your decision I encourage you to really think about why you feel the way you do about the holiday season.. Reevaluate your emotions assigned to this, for most, stressful time of the year..
Most often I hear that people who express hate the holiday season do so because they don't stop and take the time to see all of the good things that the season can offer.. Maybe they tie up the holiday season with past wrongs or heartbreak..Maybe they see it all as a Hallmark moment and for as commercial as it has become. I would encourage that person to see past all the commercial and emotional wrongs and find ways to make the holidays mean something new.. Help out a local family.. Do some volunteering for a local homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Visit kids or adults in the hospital who have no family.. Help those who have less or no opportunity to have a holiday season of their choosing . Visit a retirement home and visit with the residents that have no family.. Who better to be on the receiving end of a random act of kindness then a gift from someone that could use a reason to believe in the goodness of human kind.. Giving is the best way to connect with that.. I think we should do this kind of thing year round but hey-- this is a stressful season for most and you have to start somewhere right?
The season for me means a fresh start is just around the corner and God has granted me with another year to get it right and enjoy all that is before me..It is the best time to refill my hope bank.. Maybe you are not religious or spiritual.. So take that one word out of my previous sentence and make it yours.. I look forward to sending out Christmas cards and as I do I send love and thoughts to each person I send it to.. The season is about reflection and where am I versus where do I want to go.. Spending time with people means so much more to me than a fancy gift.. Time spent together and a simple, well spoken gift mean more than any fancy-smancy gift anyone could ever give me..
Take this time to appreciate your family and all that you work for.. Not the spending of money you don't have.. Do things together as a family.. Any and all of the volunteering opportunities I mentioned above can include the whole family.. What a first hand, wonderful life learning experience you could have with yourself or your family.. Odds are the dolly you kid can't live without (which will get tossed into the pile of 20 less than a month after Christmas) would be gladly handed over to a more needy child or lonely senior citizen given that opportunity..See what you and your kids are made of this holiday season.. Try giving a gift this year that doesn't come with a bow but comes from the heart and changes someone's soul.. Just keep it in perspective and stop to enjoy the smell in the air and the energy in all that surrounds you
Tootles :)
Heather
Hey!!...Hope you are all well this Monday evening..Guess for the Month of December I need to change my opener to Seasons Greetings :)
I was thinking and waiting for inspiration to hit me about what I wanted to blog about tonight. I was deciding on my musical selection--I chose Sally Harmon's Let It Snow (piano) and it hit me maybe I should speak about St Nick and what the Christmas Season means to me- and my wallet now that I am budget minded.. For those of you that have put aside money along and along...congrats! For those of you that wavered...fret not..there is always next year and I mean that with true sincerity. Start this month and I don't care how much it is. $5 is better than $0. It is my personal challenge to you to start saving a few dollars with regularity (automate it ) and let me know next year how much you managed.. This year I get to shop for my friends and family with ease as I have saved money for my shopping.. Guess the one thing I didn't plan for was saving up money to give to Santa for me :)
Speaking of Santa-- don't let that old fart rob you blind this year.. I am always amazed at how much money people are willing to go into debit for the sake of their kids or loved ones when they have not saved appropriately.. I mean don't get me wrong-- I love gifts like anyone else.. Where I see the problem is when people jump off into the deep end of the debt pool and spend the first 3-6 months of the following year digging out what they spent for Christmas.. Why? So the kids will be happy? How about teaching them humility and understanding of the real way the world works.. In the real, grounded, responsible world you don't get what you haven't planned ahead for.. That this isn't the time of the year to get thousands of dollars worth of toys and gadgets..that is it a great time of the year to remember just how big the world is..That there are people that have nothing and something simple would mean more to them that any complicated gift you could give someone that "has it all".. Does going overboard in gifts prove I love you more? Does this prove your level of importance in my life? I just don't get it.. I am not advocating being scrooge himself.. I am, However, advocating simple common sense..Buy what you can afford.. Plan ahead and stay within your means..
As you get out in the in suing crazy traffic and shop til you drop try and think what Christmas really means to you.. It is religious? It is commercial? It is spiritual? Is it all Bullshit? Is it what someone else has made you feel? When you make your decision I encourage you to really think about why you feel the way you do about the holiday season.. Reevaluate your emotions assigned to this, for most, stressful time of the year..
Most often I hear that people who express hate the holiday season do so because they don't stop and take the time to see all of the good things that the season can offer.. Maybe they tie up the holiday season with past wrongs or heartbreak..Maybe they see it all as a Hallmark moment and for as commercial as it has become. I would encourage that person to see past all the commercial and emotional wrongs and find ways to make the holidays mean something new.. Help out a local family.. Do some volunteering for a local homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Visit kids or adults in the hospital who have no family.. Help those who have less or no opportunity to have a holiday season of their choosing . Visit a retirement home and visit with the residents that have no family.. Who better to be on the receiving end of a random act of kindness then a gift from someone that could use a reason to believe in the goodness of human kind.. Giving is the best way to connect with that.. I think we should do this kind of thing year round but hey-- this is a stressful season for most and you have to start somewhere right?
The season for me means a fresh start is just around the corner and God has granted me with another year to get it right and enjoy all that is before me..It is the best time to refill my hope bank.. Maybe you are not religious or spiritual.. So take that one word out of my previous sentence and make it yours.. I look forward to sending out Christmas cards and as I do I send love and thoughts to each person I send it to.. The season is about reflection and where am I versus where do I want to go.. Spending time with people means so much more to me than a fancy gift.. Time spent together and a simple, well spoken gift mean more than any fancy-smancy gift anyone could ever give me..
Take this time to appreciate your family and all that you work for.. Not the spending of money you don't have.. Do things together as a family.. Any and all of the volunteering opportunities I mentioned above can include the whole family.. What a first hand, wonderful life learning experience you could have with yourself or your family.. Odds are the dolly you kid can't live without (which will get tossed into the pile of 20 less than a month after Christmas) would be gladly handed over to a more needy child or lonely senior citizen given that opportunity..See what you and your kids are made of this holiday season.. Try giving a gift this year that doesn't come with a bow but comes from the heart and changes someone's soul.. Just keep it in perspective and stop to enjoy the smell in the air and the energy in all that surrounds you
Tootles :)
Heather
Monday, November 5, 2012
Automation Makes It Happen
Greetings and Salutations-
So tonight I thought I would bring it back to some financial stuff.. Automation came to mind.. I most certainly believe that this is one of the most important keys to financial success.. When you start to automate your saving, spending, saving to spend, and paying yourself-- it closes the gap of unaccounted spending.. I have talked about this before but thought this time I would spend a little more time on this subject because it is really something that you can start small and increase it over time.. Its a great bang for your buck!!
So first lets look at a habit that you quit, change, or decrease.. I would think that most all people at this point bank online--drafting money into your savings/spending account doesn't cost anything so start it small and start it frequently.. As I have said before-- I started with $8 for coffee that I was spending at work everyday and decided to cut that out. The trick is instead of just changing that habit you have to keep "spending" it as you would before..but instead of making Starbucks richer (and don't get me wrong I love Starbucks) you have to get it to a place that you will benefit from it-- your spending/savings account. Every Friday I drafted $8 and quickly started looking around on how I could add to the kitty. I quit smoking and that added $20.. What would you add to yours? It can start with any amount that you have.. Figure out how to add to it.. Maybe it is how much you usually spend out with your friends. Try every other time taking even $20 off the top of what you would spend..
Life s all about choices and I feel that more are up to us than we like to admit to.. When you automate things and account for more and more of each dollar and know where it is going then that is when you get going.. It is where you start to see progress and progress begets progress and before you know it.. you are accounting for all of your money and what you spend and save!! We all know that the more you have the more you spend.. So why not the more you account for the more you actually have when you need it?
Figure out what works for you.. Try every and all combinations that you can until you find your sweet spot of success.. There is nothing in the world like having the money available to you when you need it because you have planned ahead and done without until you were actually financially ready to purchase it.. Draft it.. Make it weekly.. Make it challenge you.. Start off with a buck or two and watch it grow.. Find ways to add to it.. Minimal planning today can make tomorrow a day of pleasure when you are prepared and accountable to yourself and/or your family.. Financial skills are learned either through passing it down in a family or active participation and teaching yourself.. It is a skill that has more immediate payoff than you think.. You just have to get started and that is why I think automating as much money as possible makes a real difference..Once you get it all going for the most part you just watch your money go in the categories and accounts that it belongs and you spend and save with intelligence and purpose.. It can change your life..
Tootles :)
Heather
So tonight I thought I would bring it back to some financial stuff.. Automation came to mind.. I most certainly believe that this is one of the most important keys to financial success.. When you start to automate your saving, spending, saving to spend, and paying yourself-- it closes the gap of unaccounted spending.. I have talked about this before but thought this time I would spend a little more time on this subject because it is really something that you can start small and increase it over time.. Its a great bang for your buck!!
So first lets look at a habit that you quit, change, or decrease.. I would think that most all people at this point bank online--drafting money into your savings/spending account doesn't cost anything so start it small and start it frequently.. As I have said before-- I started with $8 for coffee that I was spending at work everyday and decided to cut that out. The trick is instead of just changing that habit you have to keep "spending" it as you would before..but instead of making Starbucks richer (and don't get me wrong I love Starbucks) you have to get it to a place that you will benefit from it-- your spending/savings account. Every Friday I drafted $8 and quickly started looking around on how I could add to the kitty. I quit smoking and that added $20.. What would you add to yours? It can start with any amount that you have.. Figure out how to add to it.. Maybe it is how much you usually spend out with your friends. Try every other time taking even $20 off the top of what you would spend..
Life s all about choices and I feel that more are up to us than we like to admit to.. When you automate things and account for more and more of each dollar and know where it is going then that is when you get going.. It is where you start to see progress and progress begets progress and before you know it.. you are accounting for all of your money and what you spend and save!! We all know that the more you have the more you spend.. So why not the more you account for the more you actually have when you need it?
Figure out what works for you.. Try every and all combinations that you can until you find your sweet spot of success.. There is nothing in the world like having the money available to you when you need it because you have planned ahead and done without until you were actually financially ready to purchase it.. Draft it.. Make it weekly.. Make it challenge you.. Start off with a buck or two and watch it grow.. Find ways to add to it.. Minimal planning today can make tomorrow a day of pleasure when you are prepared and accountable to yourself and/or your family.. Financial skills are learned either through passing it down in a family or active participation and teaching yourself.. It is a skill that has more immediate payoff than you think.. You just have to get started and that is why I think automating as much money as possible makes a real difference..Once you get it all going for the most part you just watch your money go in the categories and accounts that it belongs and you spend and save with intelligence and purpose.. It can change your life..
Tootles :)
Heather
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