Healthy...Wealthy...PART II

I think I've come clearly on my stance that having "money" isn't a bad thing, in fact it is a necessary thing. The fact that people have insufficient money to meet their needs is really a culprit to the societal distaste with money. However, there are two more issues that I find important on a strive to be wealthy.

One: We need to know what to do with Money.

Two: We need to act in accordance with someone who is appreciative of money.

The first part might seem obvious, but it is the reason why so many people, whether they earn a large income or a small income find it difficult to make ends meet. Ever wonder how someone who wins the lottery, or athletes and movie stars who earn millions of dollars a year don't know how to stay afloat, let alone prosper, with the money in their lives? How is it that people like this can end up bankrupt or in poverty when their paychecks have 6 and 7 figures in them? How many of us think that when we earn an extra $10,000 or $20,000 or more annually that all our money problems will be gone?

It is because the root of our thinking about money is not in proper perspective. If you took a child to the ice cream shop and she ordered a single scoop on a cone, came walking out of the store...the BAM...dropped the ice cream, would you take her back in to get another scoop? Probably...then, all of a sudden, as you're waiting in line for the second time, she sees a picture of their daily special: A triple extra large scooper! "Wow!" She exclaims..."Can I have that one?" As a caring adult who does not want that child to be set up to fail, would you say YES? Of course you wouldn't! She couldn't handle one scoop, why would you have her take a triple scooper??

That is how it is with money in our lives. If you don't know what to do with money, you will in no ways have more. If by some chance you do fall into a lot of money or a windfall, you will likely loose it very quickly unless you understand how to play the money game.

A lot of people I deal with say this to me, "I don't know anything about money." My response is to slap them from the back of the head - but I refrain myself from doing just that - instead I say, "Isn't it about time you learn?"

Taking the time to educate ourselves on how money works is imperative to gaining wealth and abudance in our lives. Only by doing so we will be able to show the universe we can handle the triple scooper of money and therefore we will get more. But this time, when we get more, because we know what to do with it, the money will stay with us, rather than vanish like we are usually used to.

Great, so now you understand that and you will do everything in your power to understand how money works...mortgages, loans, credit cards, investments, insurance, savings, etc. You will learn it all...but until you begin to bless that which you want, you will also get none. You cannot attract to you that which you despise. It cannot come into harmony with your being.

What do I mean by this exactly? Well, when you see something you really like, but do not yet own (a BMW, a PRADA purse, a HUGE SAVINGS ACCOUNT, etc.) do you say, good for you, bless you for having what you have, or do you disgruntedly say to yourself, 'greedy bastard', 'you think you're all that, don't you?', etc.?

I had a friend by me one day and as we were flipping through a magazine we saw a full page ad for Louis Vuitton. I commented that the purse in the picture was probably a couple of thousand of dollars and my friend said, "That's just foolish. That's when people just get too good for the money." I about lost my breath and said, "What do you mean?" she basically explained, that people with that kind of money just act like they're better than everyone else and that it is wrong to buy things like that.

My first thought there was, 'You poor thing!' Literally and figuratively. Why would people be "TOO GOOD" for money? Do you realize wealthy people really don't talk about money? It's broke and middle class people that discuss money. They talk about how they cannot afford things, or how expensive things are, etc. Rich people talk about what they want to do with their lives and how great things are. Big difference, right?

If you are on a quest to wealthy, as you should be, bless that which you want. Next time you see nice things send out blessings to that person, tell yourself you can afford things like that, don't you dare reject it, curse it, or say it is out of your reach. Until that changes, nothing else will change financially for you.

P.S. Don't you think the name "Wealthy" would sound so pretty? I heard it once and I think it's fabulous. Imagine your child in trouble and you yell out "WEALLLLTTTTHHHTYYY!" Ha! It cannot get any better than that, huh?

ON TO WEALTH

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Healthy...Wealthy...

So, after my post on being healthy, I actually received a few comments from friends and fellow bloggers. It is great to hear when something you feel so strongly about gets received well, but even if it doesn't, at the end of the day you have to know that you cannot please everyone all the time. So, let's see how my post about being wealthy will be received.

The topic of money is very important to me. In fact, I feel it is one of the most neglected topics in the average American family today. Almost like it is taboo or something. We feel much more comfortable talking about any other topic, but when the word "money" comes in to the picture, most people squirm. The reason why, is because most people don't have any.

One of the strongest points that gets brought up by middle income and below people is that "Money changes people." Really? Some green pieces of paper are really going to change a person at their core? No. Do you want to know what changes people? When I tell you, I don't think you're going to be able to handle it. The truth is, the thing that REALLY changes someone is the LACK of money. Have you ever met someone who is broke really fired up about life? If you answer yes to that question, then you haven't seen them at home when it is just them and their self they have to face.

There is a family that we are acquainted with who are lovely people. They have kids and seem to live a happy go lucky life. Not too long ago, I know they began running into financial difficulty and it seemed like night vs. day in their personalities. These people who seemed normally congenial would snap at the slightest provocation. They were upset at EVERYTHING, and that is not an exaggeration. Any new idea presented to them was wrong, or not good enough. Suffice it to say, that being around them began to feel draining. Their apparent discontent with life was all too evident, and when they confessed their money challenges, it all became very clear.

See when there is not enough money in a household to allow the continuation of life's circle to rotate, then one thing creeps in slowly and seems to make itself an unwelcome lengthy visitor. Of course, I'm talking about "Stress". Where stress lives, harmony cannot live also. In fact, the more time that passes when someone has financial challenges, the less and less one keeps of himself. All the burden and the anger and the frustration gradually wears down on you as a person, until one day you are a shell and cannot recognize the person in the mirror.

So, take a long hard look at yourself when you say money changes people, because you need to rephrase that statement into the "lack" of money changes people.

Think of yourself abundantly. If you had millions of dollars drop into your lap right now, what kind of great things could you do? You know you would do amazing things with it. Of course you would give yourself a great lifestyle, and so you should. However, if $$ flowed to you abundantly (as it is designed to do) then you would easily see opportunities for it to do wonders for those you cared about.

Not too long ago a lady who works in our office part time had a family experience where someone needed some cash to get them on a plane home. She said she felt completely hollow because she couldn't offer the few hundred dollars to help. This lady is an excellent person, in fact one of the biggest hearts I know. But that all doesn't matter when the cash is what is needed. That situation gave her a strong resolve to become the go to person in her family's life and do what it takes to improve her quality of life.

There is much more that needs to be said about this topic. Rather than ranting on for ever on this post I will save my second part of this topic for my next posting. Between now and then it is my hope that you think about this topic, and think about the way you feel about it. Let money be a source of contentment for you, not a topic of stress and frustration. Begin to feel it's importance in your life and begin to feel that you are worthy of and expected to be wealthy. It really is your duty to do so!

"I say that you ought to get rich, and it is our duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me, “Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?” “Yes, of course I do.” They say, “Isn’t that awful! Why don’t you preach the gospel instead of preaching about man’s making money?”

“Because to make money honestly is to preach the gospel.” That is the reason. The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. “Oh,” but says some young man here to-night, “ I have been told all my life that if a person has money he is very dishonest and dishonorable and mean and contemptible.”

"My friend, that is the reason why you have none, because you have that idea of people. The foundation of your faith is altogether false. Let me say here clearly, ..., ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest. That is why they are rich. That is why they carry on great enterprises and find plenty of people to work with them. It is because they are honest men."

~~RUSSELL CONWELL...from ACRES OF DIAMONDS

TO YOUR WEALTH!

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Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise

On this beautiful day of OCTOBER (can you believe it?), the saying: "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, & wise" came to my mind. I have NO idea why, but alas, it did. So I pondered the thought. Those are really three things we all want to have an abundance of in our lives, yet many of us lack even the fundamentals for such a basis. Why? What can we do to change?

I'll put my thoughts on here, and you can decide what you think.

Since I could post a novel about all three subjects, I'll post about each one separately on different days, but I will absolutely begin today with the discussion on being "Healthy" (especially in America).

We've all heard the stats on the percentages of Americans who are overweight. Mostly everyone you know chows down on junk food like potato chips, pizza, or burgers. We consume red meat as if it were a primary staple and soda is the "new" H20 in our culture. Then, the flip side comes in when we all complain about the weight we want to loose and how we're often tired.

Over $30 Billion is spent PER YEAR on weight loss products alone in the U.S. Anything from diet pills, books on weight loss, and gym memberships. That is a HUGE industry (no pun intended). Think of the economic boost we get because people are fat. The irony comes in when we spend all that time researching, then all that money on purchasing products to help us loose weight so we can feel better about ourselves, yet we eat a triple portion lunch, slug down a 32 or 44 oz coke, and splurge for desert. To make matters worse, after a long, grueling day of work (aka playing on the Internet all day) we come home, plop in front of the big black box and watch shows for the rest of the night.

"Oh but you don't understand! I have a thyroid problem!"

"You're just insensitive."

"Easy for you to say, everything I eat goes to my hips!"

ETC. ETC. ETC....

The excuses begin to pile on. I can speak this directly, because I am speaking from personal experience. Growing up I was always thin. I did eat whatever I wanted in any quantity I wanted and I looked great. It was a gift...or was it? Then I got married. Since I didn't gain the freshman 15 in college, I made up for it during my first few years of marital bliss. I gained about 45 pounds. Sure, I noticed the weight creeping on. Occasionally I acted like I cared and went to the gym now and again for a 20 minute walk on the treadmill and 30 minutes of weight training, just in time to come home to spaghetti and meatballs and brownies and ice cream. The weight was slow to come on, but boy did it STAY on!

One day as I was changing my husband pointed out a new addition to my body. A new STRETCH MARK! Oh, no no no no...this will not do! Absolutely unacceptable! So that was the starting point to losing the weight, right? Wrong! It would be another 18 months before I really committed to doing something about it. When I finally had ENOUGH, I made a change.

The biggest change was to take away any and all excuse. I got rid of them all! EVERYTHING was my responsibility and I was going to make sure that I would lose all that I attached.

First thing I did was monitor my self talk. I stopped saying things that were contrary to my goals. I.E. : "I'm always hungry," "Everything I eat sticks to me," "I wish I could be skinny again," etc. I replaced those thoughts with, "No matter what I eat, not a pound sticks to me," "I really LOVE exercising, " or "I feel so good about myself."

Second thing I did was really feel good about who I am, and loved myself from where I stood. I am me, no matter what the scale says, I will always be me and if I don't feel good about who I am, no one else ever could. I knew that the way I looked at the time was the sole result of the way I internally felt, so I began to reshape my view of who I was from the inside and began to love myself all over again, just the way I was.

Third: Here comes the fun part. I exercised! I went to the gym EVERY DAY! I ran or did the elliptical until I burned 300-400 calories and then I would focus on one area of muscle to train on for the day (like abs, legs, arms, etc.) My time at the gym ranged from 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. The more I went, the more I loved going. When the weather warmed up, I started jogging outside and going for random walks around my office building here and there. Those random bursts of exercise really add up.

Finally: I ate less! OH THE HORROR! How dare I say I eliminated the one activity that brings most people their only life-ly pleasure. Yes! I counted my calories and I was obsessed with it! I knew that the only reason we gain weight and become unhealthy is because we consume more calories than we burn! So, if I burn about 2000 gross calories per day, and I only ate about 1300, then I would be burning about 700 net calories per day. About 4900 calories per week. If I loose 3500 calories, I lose a pound...so ta daaaa...I now had a formula.

It was tough. It was mentally draining. However, at the end of the day I knew what I wanted. I wanted "ME" back again. I was at 165 pounds and my goal was to reach 130. I made all the way down to 138 and now it's just a dog fight. Now I'm still working on my conditioning and telling myself the things that would be suitable for my mind to take in so that it can AID me in my goal rather than HINDER me.

I feel much better, I look much better, and I love myself again. That's why the results show what they do. The nasty stretch mark visitor went away also, thank goodness! So if you have a goal to be healthy, just make it happen. How much longer do we need to wait or how many other reasons do we need to hear about why we need to start? Let's do it for ourselves!

My strongest resource was: http://www.caloriecount.about.com/ it is a great site, I set up an account and managed my calorie intake. The trick is to be faithful to your calorie intake. Monitor it every day. If you say you are too busy you are lying and simply avoiding. Do it! The more you monitor how many calories you take in daily, the more you'll see how much "extra" you stuff into your body. It will motivate you.

ON TO YOUR JOURNEY OF HEALTH!

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