Links of the Week

"Still need to come up with a good New Year's Resolution? ... just look up ..." NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is often impressive, but they outdid themselves this week. Thank you.

Still need to come up with a good New Year's Resolution? Quitting smoking is shown to decrease your chance of a heart attack as well as cancer. Why not stay around to see your children grow up?

"It is amazing what can be accomplished if you don't take care who takes the credit." Funny to quote Ronald Reagan for a link about Obama, but as a basketball fan - I see a lot to like here.

Next, Brother Paul tells it like it is. Let 'em have it Paul! Now, how to do those things? Come back here, often, and find out!

Finally, a message of Thich Nhat Hanh. This man is incredible, not matter what your religious views... I recently finished his Essential Writings and highly recommend it!




Happy New Year's, one and all!

New Year's Rituals?

Tonight, as a part of our New Year's festivities, we'll be having a bowl-burning ceremony. The idea is to add meaning to this rotation of the sun, which ends this rotation of the earth around the sun. Really, it's just another moment in time. But since we have decided to end the year at the end of this day, it seems like a good time to add more meaning.

Adding Mythic Meaning
So we'll add mythic significance to today with ritual. We'll prepare a bowl with sand, write down any part of the last year that we don't want to carry with us into the next year, and burn it. Let it go up in smoke, and let the feeling go from our minds and bodies. Let go of these things we don't want to carry into the new year...

Then we will write a letter to ourselves / to God, asking and giving intention to what we would like in the upcoming year. We will strengthen in our minds what we want, and give ourselves a written reminder - that will be delivered in six months. Thus we have put it into our mind now, and added a level of accountability or a reminder for ourselves halfway through the year. I might also go into the steps I outlined in my New Year's Resolution post - breaking my plans into quarterly and monthly goals to check in on.

What will others do?
Anybody else out there in Blogland? What are your plans for today? What will you do to make the passing of the year more mythical and significant? If you have a similar idea, how will you enact it? If you have something completely different, what will you do?

Please post a response, and let us know how you will 'bring in the new year'!

New Year’s Resolution – To Be Debt-Free in a Year

New Years is always a time of introspection and resolutions. I’m currently snowed in with my family, thinking about the last 12 months, and the next 12. It’s been quite a year, but I want to focus forward. It’s been said that the best way to predict the future is to create it! How do we do that? By following our goals and resolutions. It’s a good idea to make personal, social, health, and financial resolutions, but I’m going to focus on the financial.

With a new child, my main intention is to create a great environment for him to grow up in. At first, I thought I meant enough toys and friends, room to play, and a clean, safe place to live. The more I think about it though, the more it comes to mean getting my finances together so I have lots of stress-free time to spend with him.

I resolve to create financial freedom for my family.

Hmmm. This resolution fails on several levels. First and foremost, a resolution must be inspiring, achievable, and measurable. This is certainly inspiring, and makes me want to get out of debt, but what is financial freedom, and how do I measure it? On what time scale is it achievable? So, looking at that, and the mention of debt makes it more clear what I’m aiming for.

I resolve to be free of credit card debt by the end of the year.

Now, let’s put it to the test. It is inspiring, because the feeling of not having to deal with debts, credit card bills, and phone calls when I’m late is a really great feeling. I can really latch onto that feeling to help keep me going when I start to lose focus. Is it achievable? It can be, if I follow through and stick to the program. And that’s why it has to be inspiring – to keep me on the program through the ups and downs.

Now, is it measurable? Certainly. Let’s say I have $10,000 of debt – that’s very measurable. I have to pay off $10,000 this year. But to keep on the program, we have to have a program. So we’ll break it down to $5,000 in six months, or $850 a month. Now we take those monthly goals, and put them on the calendar.

Debt, January 31^st: $9,150

Debt, February 1^st: $8,300 all the way to

Debt, December 31^st: $0

The Way to Accountability

Now I know how to check on myself. Every month, before I turn the calendar, I can look at my goal and see how I’m doing. I will have monthly reminders, and my inspiration of a debt-free life to keep me going. The calendar creates accountability, and by putting it up, and telling my family about it, I create more accountability.

This is the last step – accountability. What happens if I fall off a little? Will someone call me on it, or do I just ignore it? Do that, and it will be easier to forget next time, and soon I’ll be right where I started next December.

But by following my five parts of a good goal, I can make it. Of course, this isn’t a replacement for hard work, it’s a way to direct my hard work. I just need to keep in mind:

1. Inspiring
2. Achievable
3. Measurable
4. Steps on my Calendar
5. Accountability

What’s Your Why? The Importance of Finding Meaning in Your Life

This is my first post, and first put up at http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/12/28/whats-your-why-the-importance-of-finding-meaning-in-your-life/

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You’ve heard the phrase, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” I’ve often wondered about that — should we really settle for half the return just to have a sure thing right now? It could be argued, and convincingly, that our love of immediate gratification is why so many people have so much debt now.

Of course, what are those “two birds”, so elusive off in the bush compared to something concrete in your hand now? How do you know you’ll get them? In other words, as you’re looking at that new LCD HDTV, what is competing for your money in your head? Without a solid goal, a vision of the future, there is no reason not to buy that latest toy with your credit card. What else are you going to use the money for?

The power of Why
This is why each of us needs a convincing ‘Why’. We need to have a vision of the future so compelling that we can see it even more clearly than the new toys in front of us.

My Why is passive income that can support travel. My mantra is: “Financial Freedom is the ability to travel for a year and come back in a better financial situation than when I left.” That means I could travel another year and implies repeatability. It conjures visions of African safaris, Thai beaches, SCUBA diving, and hiking around the UK hand-in-hand with my family.

This knowledge helps to guide my financial choices. I assume that I could earn 12% on invested money. This means that every $100 I invest could bring $12 a year, or $1 a month. When I look at a $700 TV set, I think, “That could be $7 a month for the rest of my life.” I repeat my mantra — remember my Why — and I don’t buy.

Developing a Why
What’s your Why? What compels you to get up and go to work each day, to do things you don’t want to, and to put up with your boss? Everyone needs some motivation to keep on track, and it has to be a strong image. What is yours?

If you can’t close your eyes and see your Why in detail, now is a good time to get clarity. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Where have you been happiest?
• What were you doing?
• When you close your eyes and picture yourself incredibly happy, what do you see?
• What makes you forget yourself for hours on end?
• When do you feel best about yourself and your surroundings?
• What do you talk about excitedly?

Desires can be subtle. Maybe you have fond memories of staying somewhere. But it might actually be the time with friends that made the place special. What aspect really touches you?

Find some quiet time to get clear on what moves you, and then visualize it until you can see this compelling future as clearly as your car. You’ll know this is working when you look at something you thought you needed and instead see your Why.

The next step
This is a demanding, complicated world. It takes a lot of work to get good at something, or to get something you really want. Dave Ramsey says, “Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else!” Why work hard when you could just watch TV? Why save for some undetermined future when you could watch it on a bigger TV?

Most successful people have spent thousands of hours perfecting what they do. They have a vision of the future and their place in it. Otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered with all the work it took to get there. Yet most successful people would tell you that they loved the process — the challenge, the passion, the fun! They’ve found a vision of the future that compels and excites them, and that’s the difference. That’s why they are where they are.

In fact, that’s why we all are where we are — our previous beliefs and vision of the future. Do what you’ve always done, and you’ll have what you’ve always had. Create a vision that moves you to do things you’ve never done before, and you’ll find yourself in new, wonderful places. Once you have a Why, no matter how unlikely, the How becomes a lot easier and more enjoyable.

What’s your Why? What do you visualize in the morning to get yourself going? What motivates you to do everything you do?

Photo by René Ehrhardt, who has many amazing images on Flickr.