Three Steps to Get Your Money Headed the Right Direction

Trying to get your financial life pulled together can be overwhelming and confusing.  You may know that you need help but don’t know where to start or if it is even possible to get things turned around.

So you decide to ignore it and hope for the best.

If your doctor told you to lose weight or you would be unable to walk in a year, but you knew nothing about weight loss or if it was even possible, would you ignore your doctor and hope for the best? 

Losing Weight is more than one issue

Losing weight is many issues that show up in one outcome.  Not only is weight affected by your eating habits but also by your exercise level and type, your stress levels, the amount of sleep you get, mental blocks, health issues and many more!   To lose weight you must figure out exactly what is causing your problem, and this is typically more than one issue in play!

Money is the same.  The status of our money is affected by many things, including debt, insurance, overspending, savings, emotions and many more.  To begin to fix your money problems you first need to figure out what is causing them.

Losing Weight is easier when you get help

Trying to go it alone in a subject that you are not familiar with can be overwhelming.  If you have never lifted weights before you would have a friend show you the ropes, attend a class or hire a trainer.  After all you don’t want to hurt yourself the first day out!

Money is the same.  While money gets easier and easier to understand as you learn more, it still helps to asking a knowledgeable friend, attending a class or hiring an expert can make things faster and easier.  This reduces your times of making mistakes!

Losing Weight happens one day at a time

Most of us don’t go to bed thinking I want to lose ten pounds and wake up in the morning and it is gone.  Instead we have to adjust our lifestyle to include fewer calories, more exercise and a healthier relationship to ourselves and our bodies.

Yet again, money is no different.  You don’t go to bed thinking I am going to pay off all my loans and in the morning they are gone (unless of course you have the money and you just write the check).  Instead you have to adjust your lifestyle to increase income, decrease debt, increase savings and build a healthier relationship with money.

Getting Your Money Body Turned Around

So how do you apply the ideas we talked about above to start your money transformation?

1.  Solving your money problems is probably going to be more than one issue.  So start making a list of everything that you can think of that affects your money.  Then start reviewing those to determine if they are part of the problem.  Then start working on those that needs adjusting.
2. When you are confused and need help, do not be afraid to ask for help.  Help will you learn more and make bigger steps in the right direction.
3. Breathe each day and know that as you make positive changes they will eventually have an impact on your financial health.  It takes every day making little steps of progress but you will get there.

Just like your doctor ordered you to lose weight or you would not be able to walk, I encourage you to get your money turned around or you won’t be able to walk through your ideal life.  The confusion and what to do will slip away with the following of these three steps.  Why don’t you start today and start planning for the best.

Need more help?  Coming in January is our MoneyFit Workshop, we will create your list of money items to be worked on, how to tackle those, and answer any questions you have.  Right now for a limited time we are doing a pre-sale, get in for half price!

Limited to 30 people!

http://www.smartstepomaha.com/moneypresale

 

Live Life with Priorities

It has been a while since I have blogged!  Over the past month we moved into a new house, after moving into an apartment for three weeks.  I was amazed at the amount of work that it takes for one move let alone two!  During this transition period we managed our daily lives, or at least tried to.   What I learned about life management during this time confirmed what I have always believed – prioritization is the key to success and sanity.  But I also learned that you must prioritize what makes sense in your life at that minute.  For example, I was not as regular with my workout because I never stopped moving during the day and did not think I could have had energy for both!  But I did make it a point to schedule specific times to manage the family and business finances, or they would have easily been forgotten or even lost.  Taking the time to stop and analyze what is most important right now given today’s circumstances will pay off in many ways!  It will keep you on track; it will keep you sane and make sure that nothing gets passed over.  Do you have your priorities in line?  Do you actively work on what is important and not what just comes up?  Don’t let your life pass you buy – watch what matters today!

Five Steps to get Your Motivation Going

We all have days that we are not motivated to work, or to do anything for that matter.  Whether you are passionate about what you do or are struggling to find your direction in life you will still have these days!  So what do you do to change your motivation level and get headed in a better direction?  I have a variety of things that work for me, try these out:

1. Workout – always gets me going and refocused on healthy energy.  Sometimes this requires walking with strong coffee to get me going, but it always helps.
2. Build a list of good mood activities- take the time to build a list of things that make you happy that you can do easily.  For me this is includes coffee and a magazine at a local coffee shop.  Having a list ready means that when you need a lift you are ready to go!
3. Watch a motivational video or read something inspirational – I personally use the 212 movie; it is a great motivator (and short)!  
4. Change things up – start the day with something different than what you normally do.  If you typically answer emails and return phone calls first thing in the morning, but you are not in the mood to interact with people do some filing or other activity to get started.  Many times this is all it takes to get you on your way.
5. Give yourself 10 minutes – tell yourself that you are going to work on your activity for 10 minutes and then if your mood does not change you can do something else.  It is amazing how 10 minutes can turn into an hour!

Now you should be on your way to a motivation filled day!  If not, remember it is one day.  Tomorrow will be different especially when you love your direction in life!

Reach your Goals with small steps, small times and consistency

Many times we find ourselves overwhelmed with the prospect of reaching our goals.  We become focused on the achievement of the goal and try to accomplish it by going for it all at once.   We focus on the loose 20 pounds by December instead of loose two pounds this week.  This makes us feel like we are constantly working on that goal and yet not getting anywhere.  This leads to feeling defeated and wanting to stop since we don’t seem to be reaching our goals even though we are working on them!  So how do we change that?  Three easy steps: focus on the basics, take life in small segments and be consistent! 

When looking at the basics of a goal you take the smallest task that will get you to your goal and then do that.  By breaking our goals down to small basic steps we can make our goals to become a reality.  So instead of loose 20 pounds we focus on walk 40 minutes a day and not eating junk food.

Take life in small segments; break your day down to 15 minute sections.  You can get that 40 minutes of exercise in if you focus on just getting a few minutes done at a time.  It is much easier to say I am going to avoid junk food for fifteen minutes than it is to say the whole day.  Plus, once you start something you tend to stick with it after about 10 minutes. 

The third ingredient is to do the small things consistently.  You need to walk at least five days a week and eat healthy multiple days to see any affect.  You cannot try and achieve your goals for one or two days and wonder why it did not work.  It is the repetition of the activity over time that will get us to our goals.

You can achieve your goals, it just takes the time to plan the small steps, the will to focus on the here and now and the discipline to do it every day!  In no time you will be on your way!

Staying motivated, Positive and Happy

It can be very hard to stay motivated, positive and happy.  Especially with continually negative news (even when not warranted) and the day to day responsibilities that most of us have.  I myself find I can struggle to keep going even though I love what I do.  Some days I just want to throw my hands in the air and call it quits, but I don’t.  I do keep going.  How?  Usually I take a bit of recovery time for myself and try to refocus my energy to the positive. 

Yesterday was one of those days, so I pulled out some affirmations I use, committed myself to a media sabbatical (only positive things going in), put exercise first and reminded myself of my priorities.  Amazingly after only half a day I feel more revived than sometimes a long weekend can revive me!

 I challenge you, instead of being cranky or negative refocus yourself and get back to working on what you love.

Why you should invest

Why should you invest? Investing creates freedom!

I already have Freedom, I am American? Freedom – Do you have the means to live and do exactly what you want when you want! Without saving money and investing you are tied to your job, parents, kids, the government, whoever is providing you money! Investing provides the money to help live your life your way! Just a small sampling below to show you why you should save!

Investing provides money to:

• Take care of yourself and family in retirement – no relying on a pension or the government.

• The ability to retire when you want to, not when you are able to get social security or retirement benefits from your company – if they even provide have them.

• Seize opportunities when they come along – business deals, new houses, you name it if it comes along and you don’t have money you cannot seize anything!

• Increase your sense of self worth, this comes from knowing that you don’t have to depend on anyone. This is more empowering than you will ever know until you are in the position where you have this freedom! It empowers you to write your own story, not one dictated by your provider. Don’t you want to write your own story?

• Investing gives you a sense of security that when bad does occur you are better able to manage it. You can worry about your emotions not how you will pay for everything.

This is just a small sampling of what investing can provide. Isn’t having one less dinner out worth the freedom that investing provides? That is all it takes, $25 a month, one dinner out. I even dare you to imagine missing 4 dinners out a month – $100 a month saved could rock your world! Don’t delay save now!

Money Frustration

Yesterday while working on narrowing down my list of mutual funds for my invest 25 project I became a bit agitated toward the end of the process.  Why?  I kept running into road blocks on selecting the right fund to invest in. When I thought I had the perfect fund, I would get to the last step and one thing would throw it off.  Then it dawned on me.  If I spent as much time as I did on the research for this (at least 8 hours), and knew what I was looking for and understood the terminology and it still managed to frustrate me I could not even begin to imagine the frustration new investors feel.  Which confirmed for me even more how much help we need in the area of money education for our society? 

So what does this mean for you?  I want you to know that I understand your frustration; it’s like learning a new language late in life or worse yet me trying to learn physics!  I am here for you when you need guidance, just drop me a line.  I encourage you to commit to learning more over time.  Ultimately know that by taking small step to learning over time you will get to a place where you are comfortable with money.  Please don’t give up.  Only you can manage your money with the passion and heart that is your own.  So take the time and learn and eventually the frustration will go away, and be reassured to know that even those of us who are knowledgeable are sometimes frustrated also.

Do You Dream Big Enough?

Do you dream big enough?

This question came to me after a morning of reflection.  I was day dreaming about what I wanted my life to look like and something within me told me to dream bigger than I was,  I had not gone far enough yet with my visions.  So I pressed myself to expand my horizons and soon enough I was imaging more than I ever thought possible for me.  Then the big breakthrough came – a great idea for a new business.  As I continued to dreams about it and jot down the ideas I encouraged myself to dream even further about how this could get accomplished without me putting it on my idea list and having it sit there for six years.  I was shocked and amazed at how quickly this one idea began to transform my life vision.  All this because I allowed myself to go further into the process of dreaming than I ever had before.  This led me to asking “Do you dream big enough” and quickly followed by “Why not”?  What I came up with was fear and lack of imagination were the reasons our dreams do not grow as far as they should.    

Fear stopped me because what if I dreamed something and it did not come true?  What if someone made fun of my dreams for being too over the top?  What if my family was not on board with my vision?  The what if’s seemed to be endless.  Often when dreaming we become victims of the fear of failure and the fear of leaving our comfort zone, so we stop right before we truly reach our ideal vision. 

I had dreamed just to the point I knew I could achieve everything, it might be tough to get there but at least I knew I could do it.  I did not have to worry that I might not get there and thus be a failure.  But is failure really all that bad?  Failure teaches us what does not work, and provides valuable lessons to move forward with what can work.  Failure can be the universes way of pointing us in the right direction, leading us to our true path which can only be achieved by living through failures.  Would I be a coaching today if I had not taken my various career paths that seemed to continually end with no direction? Maybe, but the fact that they all seemed to be the wrong career for me enabled me to reach my dream job by expanding my horizons and helping me narrow down what worked and what did not!  How is that a failure when it leads to the best career for me?

I also dreamed just to the point where I did not have to leave my comfort zone or the comfort zone of my family.  If I stayed in the comfort zone then I did not have to fear the judgments of others so I was safe.  But was I really?  What good is living by the judgment of others?  Does it allow you to live your dreams?  If you are going to dream then why stop at the point others will be happy?  The point of dreaming is that YOU are happy beyond your wildest dreams.  To get to this point you must dream beyond your comfort zone, when others see how happy you are they will follow.   

How does lack of imagination stop you from dreaming about the best life possible for you?  Imagination is forming an idea or vision of something that does not exist for you.  So if you have never experienced your life vision then how can you imagine it?  It is almost a catch 22 scenario, how do you know what to dream if you can’t perceive it?  In steps imagination, this allows you to go beyond what you know to create new dreams. 

So how do you move beyond fear and lack of imagination? 

First you must leave your fear zone.  How do you do this?  You take your goal or vision and continue to push it one step further and feel the emotions as you continue to envision that goal.  Begin by taking on goals that you already have established and take it one step further from where you have it.  So if your goal is to be able to run 3 miles by the end of the year, imagine what running four miles by the end of the year would feel like.  As you step further into your dream feel the fear and embrace it, only then can you look it head on and move forward.  Go on it is just a dream you cannot get hurt in a dream; you may be amazed at how quickly the fear moves away!  Continue to practice doing this until it becomes second nature!

Second, begin to work on your imagination by letting your mind wander while gently prodding yourself to go further.  Begin by building your dream and then ask yourself “what next”, follow that with “then what” and keep asking yourself “then what” until your vision grows bigger than you ever thought possible. Eventually your mind will run wild and create more than you expected.  Remember to give it time and don’t let it stop, just keep asking “then what”.   Allow yourself the time and space to really get into your dream.  You will know when it is the right stopping point as it will feel right, I know that sounds odd, but when you hit it you will know it, just like you know home!

Soon you will be able to say YES I dream big enough and be able to move forward to achieving them!

Out of the Box Motivation

What do you do when you need a boost of confidence, or energy, or just enough motivation to keep going?  What happens when the normal does not work?

This weekend was a bit of a downer for me.  I was really struggling with the positive energy to keep working on my business.  It is especially hard when you work alone as an entrepreneur, my self motivation was gone!  Even though it was the weekend, I just could not shake my lack of excitement and motivation for my business.  It affected me all weekend and would not go away! 

So how did I move on and get energized and ready for work today?

Well it was tough, at first I tried to exercise (which usually is the golden ticket), then I tried entertaining friends at our place and then went to a friends house.  Normally all these things will get me motivated and ready for another day, but they just were not working!  Luckily my husband started making suggestions on Sunday.  He said read a book – “and I mean one for fun not to learn more about a project”.  I just started at him, because I really don’t own many of those books!  (Self help is my world).  Then he said or go watch a movie (Max was napping so I had time)!  For me that was the winner, I never take time to watch movies!  Amazingly I felt so refreshed after the movie (Sex in the City).  I was amazed.  What I began to realize is that sometimes it takes stepping out of our box, in all areas of our lives to create balance.  So even though I am very adamant about keeping my life balanced, I rarely change what items I am balancing.  I learned that by not always relying on my workout to give me ideas will make my rejuvenation even better.  Making my Monday even better!

So I challenge you, expand your life balance.  Do something out of the ordinary!  You never know where it might lead you!

Learn something new

Our world is in turmoil.  The news may even leave you to believe the sky is falling.  Is your job at risk?  Realized that you have been spending too much money?  Not sure what to do next?  I have on piece of advice for you. 

Go learn something new.  Use this as a time to grow.  Does it really matter what you learn?  No!  Just get out there are learn something new.  This is truly the only way to grow and thrive,  be continually learning.  Do you want to be in the same place in ten years are that you are today?  No – go learn something!  Your future self thanks you.