Debt Free..Is it possible?

I had mentioned that my first goal is financial freedom and to be debt free. Is this possible? That is a tough question. I feel it is and my wife and I have been shrinking our debt for the past few years. So I know for a fact that it can be brought under control and eventually eliminated. There is a lot of work involved--more than work but thought processes that need to be changed in order to even start the process of being debt free which is the first phase of getting your financial freedom.

There are a few things to understand about debt before you can start figuring out how to shrink and eliminate it.

1. You Did not get into debt over night- That is right, the situation you are in NOW took quite some time to get into. Do not set the expectation that you can fix it quickly. It takes discipline and habit change in order to start getting rid of your debt
2. Want vs. Need-This is a big one, when you go to pull out your credit/debit card or hand over some of your hard earned cash- think is what you are buying something you need or something you want? If it is a WANT out it back, do not spend the money. If it is a need make sure you really need it before the purchase.
3. Where does all the money go? You need a solid understanding of where every penny that comes into your household goes. Once you understand it--you can examine the leakage and start plugging holes in your financial world.
4. Come up with a plan- Once you understand where it all goes, you can start to CONTROL your spending and find the extra $$ to start paying down your debt.
5. And Finally--move to a cash only system. If you do not have the cash-do not buy until you do.

Wow, that seems like a lot to take in. But if you look at it in small steps, you can start the process, change your habits and move forward on understanding your financial world, controlling your spending habits, and eventually get into a debt free situation.

In the next post we will examine Want VS Need and some ways to control your spending....

Where thought goes...Energy follows...

Ok, I promise not to get all mystical on you. But there is one concept that needs to get put into the mix before we can continue to examine goals and setting goals for a Happy Lifestyle and designing that life. The concept is Where thought goes-Energy follows. My wife says this all the time and at first I thought she was a nut. But this makes a bunch of sense. Do you ever have one of those great days--everything goes right--you are in a good mood--and it seems to be infectious--almost catching. There are never any BAD thoughts during those days. And, even better, when people with the negative thoughts enter into the picture it is easy to brush those thoughts aside and continue with your happy day. The basis about this is that those HAPPY and GOOD thoughts are spreading through your mind and allowing POSITIVE energy or thought to dominate your life. On the flip side, on a very negative day, NEGATIVE energy or thought is what dominates your mind, causing those BAD days.

What does this have to do with a happy life and designing a Happy Lifestyle. I would say everything. In order to design your life and have it work, you have to focus your thoughts- belief that your life can be what you want, positive thought that anything is possible, happy thoughts, a true knowing that what you are doing is best--all these thoughts have to dominate your mind. This will allow your thought/energy to stay in the positive allowing your plan to dominate your thinking.

Think Positive and good things will happen. Where thought goes, energy follows. Your Focus Determines your reality.

Keep it positive. Think of all the Happy things you will accomplish by planning a life that you want. Focusing on this, getting your family and friends to believe in it, keeping everything in the positive and great happy things will happen in your life.

Have a Great and Happy day. :)

What are my Happy Lifestyle Goals?

From my previous posts, I was trying to illustrate a point. By looking at your life, and all things that effect it--such as media-- you can really start to see that outside influences alter how you think and feel. If you think about it some more a lot of these influences are also trying to take control of your life from you and that is a sad thought for sure.

I compare a lot of my life to being a leaf or dust in the wind-being blown around from situation to situation but not having a solid plan on what I really wanted my life to be and how I saw it going over the short and long term. But, I have been working to change that to make my life what I want it to be-not what society says it should be or the media if portraying how I should think or feel. Doesn't a life that you have thought through and designed sound much more happy than one where societal winds have blown you around.

To start this, GOALS have to be set. We set goals all the time at work, have deadlines to hit, projects to complete, why not have good solid life goals--leading to a lifestyle of your own design. But it is not only the setting of the goals that are important but also being realistic in a time frame for achieving them.

All this begs the question: What are my goals. So my goals for achieving a Happy Life (with a Happy Lifestyle being the ultimate goal):

1. Financial Freedom or Debt Free
   
2. A on-line/digital career allowing me to work from anywhere
3. Freedom to Travel
4. Time for family and friends first
5. A life of learning and experiences
6. If its not fun..I am not doing it

Of course a lot of these goals are complex...but achievable. The other thing to remember about goals..they are not written in stone and evolve over time. So think about your life, think about what you feel can make you happy over the next month, 6 months, 1 year 5 years. Really think how you what your life to be. Start setting the goals. Over the next few posts, I will discuss taking these goals and fitting them into your life's design.

But the next post will be one on a concept that will help you achieve your goals..Where Thought Goes, Energy Follows.....

Ending Media Overload

A year or so back, my wife and I tried and experiment. We stopped watching the news. I had just read the book 4 Hour Work Week in which one of the suggestions was to stop seeing the news. My first reaction was-crazy thought. But I decided to think about it some more. In watching news you are bombarded with horrific images, terrible tragedy, death, and as Chicken Little would say "the sky is falling!". Think about it-what does this do to IMPROVE your life? Does knowing this help you in any way be HAPPY or lead the life you want to lead? The kicker in this was that after 10-12 minutes of this you go to a commercial-trying to get you to feel better (and empty your wallet) by showing you something you must have. In getting this must have item-use your credit card-putting you more in debt.

This is a Media Overload spiral. In order to stop the spiral, you must first stop watching the news. Now I will try and catch the weather, then shut the news off. Any headlines that might be of importance I can see on any mainstream website or newspaper. But the caution here is to not get sucked into the media spiral at all-take a break from reading news at all for a week. See how you feel when you mind starts to get freed from the news media.

My wife and I tried this experiment--What was discovered was quite surprising. We started to feel better. Our minds became less cluttered with the media overload, putting us in better overall moods. In this one experiment, what was discovered that by gaining control over one little part of life-what news is watched-you can start to lead a better life and move on to designing your life the way you want it-not one controlled by thoughts that are shaped by Media outlets.

So my challenge to everyone is this. Stop watching the news, just browse the headlines for a week--see how you feel. I have been doing this one simple step for over a year. I do not miss the media bombardment at all. Let me know how you do.

I got downsized and it got me thinking...

With the doom and gloom that the media has portrayed of late, I was not thinking that I would become a member of the unemployed statistics. I knew that the company I worked for was going to be downsizing in the near future and was helping in the planning of this in my department, not realizing that I was going to be part of that process. So it happened and it did get me thinking. A lot.

Over the past few years I had been reading up on a variety of subjects that relate to personal freedom, finance and lifestyle design. Until now most of that reading has been for learning, and I had not applied it to really make my own life better. Being in career transition has given me time to look back at all that learning and I have come to a few realizations.

First, Our society seems to be built around people believing that they have NO control over their lives. Watch the news, any news, it is built around bombarding you with: CRISIS, DEATH, DESTRUCTION, and whatever mayhem that is deemed "newsworthy". All this is followed by advertising for something that seems way cool--but is probably not a necessity to leading a happy life.

Second, Our society also seems to be built around being in debt-probably for life and that is OK. As we have seen from events over the past few months, that is not a good thing. This debt has the ability to take more control away from you and the your life--you have to work hard to pay the bills.

Third, All of this leads to less of a designed life and more of a life where you are being pulled around by the chains that society has put on you.

All these thoughts have lead me to the question: How do I move from a life that seems to be "out of my control" to a life "in my control" or more importantly a "Happy Lifestyle". So the purpose of this blog, is to explore designing a happy life.

Stay tuned for "Ending Media Overload" next time.....