Entries Tagged 'Motivation' ↓

The book Body for Life talks about why you must stay exactly on course.

Take a sheet of printer paper and draw the biggest circle you can. It represents your dreams and goals.

Mark a dot right in the middle. It represents you.

Mark another dot where 12 o’clock would be. Let that represent where you want to go with your financial plans (right at the top naturally!) This is baby step 7 where you get to spend, save, and give money. This is where, as Dave Ramsey likes to say, you finally get to live like no one else.

Now take a pencil and rest it on the center dot. Instead of going straight up to the second dot you placed, let’s veer off a tiny bit to the right. Even though you’re off the tiniest bit near the center of the circle, as you extend the line, you’ll find you won’t hit the dot placed at 12 o’clock. You’ll completely miss it.

The bigger the circle (your dreams and goals) the bigger your miss. If you’re aiming for Mars, you’ll miss it by miles and miles.

We may think it’s a little thing to overspend once in a while or to change the order of the steps. But look how getting off course kept us from hitting the goal. It’s important to stay on course and hit the mark.

Use CheckMate to let you know how much you can spend on the categories you designate. See all the features of this computer app here!

(Disclosure: This post has an affiliate link.)

Peyton Manning (via Achievement)

George and I met at the University of Tennessee in the early eighties. Tennessee football has been a big part of our family tradition and if you ever stay as a guest in our home, you are going to have to put up with several huge pictures of the 1998 team and Smokey (the closet thing I’ll probably ever have to a real dog) in the guest room.

We got emotional listening to him speak tonight. The speech he gave on the video I linked is a true class act.

George saw the following Peyton quote that Trey Wingo (wingoz) posted on Twitter:

Last thing today on Peyton: his rookie contract was 48 million. When asked what he was going to do with it, his answer? “Earn it.”

George was able to source that quote here on Achievement.

My sister taught in Knoxville when Petyon was playing for the Vols. She said he often came in and volunteered at her school. He was beloved in Knoxville and everyone at her school agreed that he was the real deal. I heard flags were flying at half mast in Indianapolis and I understand why.

On the Dave Ramsey boards, often someone starts to “get it”. They get on a budget, start paying off their smaller debts, and start finding extra money often just by being careful with what they already have.

When those people start posting enthusiastically, someone will respond and say “We can always tell who’s going to make it to baby step 7 and you’re one of them.

Brian Tracy wrote a great book on goals. He says the simple act of writing your goal each day will help you achieve it. Your subconscious mind starts to work helping you think and do thing to bring your goal to pass. He also talks about being able to visualize it.

I see people on the Dave Ramsey boards doing that day after day. The ones who talk about wanting to be debt-free so badly they can taste it are the ones who cross that finish line. Many have reached debt-free status this month partly due to tax refunds and it’s been exciting to watch!

Someone on the Dave Ramsey boards shared a link to Future Me.

You write yourself an email and add the date (in the future) that you would like to receive it. I wrote one to be received 5 years in the future and another one with short term goals that I wanted to receive in a month.

Then I forgot about it.

A few days ago, the email arrived. It was a complete surprise as I couldn’t even remember what is was until I opened it. I had met every short term goal (a savings goal and a weight loss goal). You can use it for anything you’d like and there didn’t seem to be a limit on how many you could write. It’s a free service but they won’t turn down a donation.

I think you have to try it to see how cool it really is.

A member on the Dave Ramsey boards started what he’s calling a “Big Dog Challenge” – a challenge to save up $10,000 in 8 weeks.

For some crazy reason (remember I’m ironing shirts just to come up with an extra $20 each week!) I signed up.

This is where it goes nuts. As I thought about accepting the challenge, I remembered some things I learned from Brian Tracy’s audio book “Goals”. Just the practice of writing the goal down gets your brain figuring out ways to make it happen. “What could it hurt?” I thought. “Maybe I’ll actually figure out how to make that much money and we could really use it.”

As soon as I responded to his post, the wheels were turning in my head. I sold something small and made $25. I gathered two small checks together and checked the change jar – it’s full and I’m going to the bank in the morning. I also got the ball rolling to sell our third car. We’ve needed to do this for a while and I’ve realized I could help DH by getting it serviced and cleaned up for sale. This challenge just may be do able!

I can’t wait to see what our mechanic says about its condition so we can price it fairly.

How about you? Could you set a “Big Dog Goal” and just go for it? What would happen if you tried to come up with a serious chunk of money in 8 weeks?

(photo by George Cavanaugh)

Don’t you love New Year’s Eve? I love the thought of a fresh beginning and look forward to updating goals each year.

Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible

I have this book (the audio version though) and have listened to it dozens of times. The tips Brian Tracy shares really work; this is one of the most important books I own. The biggest thing I learned was to write out my most important goals every day. This book is packed with tips on how to bring your goals into reality.

Thanks to this book, I have that fresh shiny feeling of a new year much more often!!

(Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. That means I earn a small commission of its sale at no extra cost to you.)

As you try to stick to a new spending plan and your inner two year old is throwing a tantrum breathe deeply and tell yourself

“Just for today.”

You can do this today. You KNOW you can do it today.

Yesterday I shared that it’s game on! My coach just designed a new play that is going to take the opposition by storm. He had me doing practice runs all day; I’ve got it down and I know it works. They won’t be expecting me as I rush into the end zone carrying the ball!

Ever since we completed Dave Ramsey’s baby step 3, we started saving our former car payment. We aimed for an 12% return on our money and won big time. The prize was a new to us Land Cruiser, purchased in March, and it’s a sweet ride. We feel like we won a national championship. Now I’m going to show you a way to do the same thing without risking your money (unless you think a savings account is risky). Impossible you say? Just stick with me.

We’ve continued to save our car payments but I wasn’t getting the returns I saw last year. I was telling my husband coach, that I only needed a 1% gain each month.

Because he always has the best ideas ever, I asked him how he would get that 1% gain on a few thousand dollars. We really didn’t have enough to trade in the stock market (which has been a lot more volatile this year anyway). I also wanted to find something I could easily teach others. No surprise; George had an instant answer for me.

He said, “That’s easy, you are still paying someone $20 a week to iron our shirts.”

I heard it echo in my head … I was paying someone $20 a week to iron our shirts.

When the reality of this hit me, I knew I’d be good at least until the account gets to about $8,000. This is the play my coach is having me run. I am going to blog it, keep stats, and watch the money grow. (I’ve also been ironing all day!) I invite you to watch and I invite you to participate. We all know the road to riches is regularly investing a sum of money at a high rate of return.

Tomorrow’s post will have the first report.

Start by asking yourself what is your winning play? What goods and services are you buying that you could either forgo or easily provide for yourself? Please share your ideas and we’ll all profit.

(photo by George Cavanaugh)

I’m on the Dave Ramsey boards and people over there are having a blast! Many of the members are working on being debt-free. They kick Sallie (Mae) to the curb. They throw snowballs. They KILL debt and treat every $5 paid off with more enthusiasm than scoring a winning touchdown in the last minute of the game. Everyone (and I mean everyone) over there cheers each other on. The day a bill is due isn’t good enough. The minute extra money is made on a yard sale – whap! there goes another snowball right smack on BillPay!

They are in the game and they’re winning. They know they’re winning because they’re keeping score. Everyone has a big fat signature line detailing every bill, every balance, every kill date and how much is left down to the last penny!!

The anticipated day comes! The last snowball is thrown (it’s usually over a thousand dollars) and the happy dance posts start flowing. The threads pile on for at least several pages congratulating the conquering victors and high fives abound.

Then comes the dreaded baby step 3 where they save, and save, and save some more. The score keeping stops. People are feebly encouraged to read a sticky thread about the dangers of this step. The fun is over and it’s just work, work, work.

I don’t understand it!! This is the part where we get to keep our money!! I guess the reticence is partly out of sensitivity to new people who are struggling to keep the lights on and partly due to the fact that we aren’t supposed to talk about money.

Baloney! I was a dirt-poor single mom at one time and believe me, being around stable couples who could afford food, clothes and nice homes for their kids gave me hope! Several took me under their wings and taught me how to be a good employee, to budget and to shop wisely.

It’s time for people who are past baby step 2 to realize that it’s a new season and there’s a new contender. They are still in the game and they’re national champions.

At least that’s what we’ve realized. Let’s discuss our plays and game plans. Has anyone won a big game recently?

Game on!!!!

I read recently (and am racking my brain to try to find the link!) that people like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman preach that the way to wealth is through investing in mutual funds and real estate but that they actually made their money by selling books, making speeches and producing radio and television shows.

I haven’t had the privilege of auditing their accounts but I suspect there’s some truth to that statement. Since we’re trying to learn a few lessons from the big guys, lets think of how we could follow their lead.

Professionals often want or need to earn extra money on the side but it can be a little embarrassing to deliver a pizza only to find out your customer is the guy down the hall from accounting!

You can use your professional expertise to branch out. You could

• write resumes
• coach people to improve their job interviewing skills
• teach a class in personal finance at a community college
• write an ebook to sell on a personal blog
• tutor older people one on one to use a computer
• teach classes for your favorite hobby
• tutor students
• write, speak or consult in your field
• teach online classes
• write for HubPages, eHow, or Squidoo in areas of your expertise

These activities take you out of your comfort zone but I can see that they would help you improve salesmanship and in many cases, public speaking skills as well as your bottom line. You may end up with side hustles that pay a lot more than delivering pizza!