Pay attention to the comings and goings of your money. The big amounts and the little amounts. Keep a budget. Loose or exact but have one.
Understand your cashflows. Know when and what amounts are coming in and out for the days, weeks and months ahead.
The more money you have, the better your plans had better be. The better your plans are, the more money you are likely to have.
How often do we actually do this? Often we are racing around from one thing to the next, and we do not take any time to stop and think.
We react to so much in life. We would do ourselves a favour by taking time out for five minutes or five days, to stop and consider things more.
Decide where you want to be in 10 or 20 years, not 10 minutes or 10 months. You will then make better decisions. Be clear. Be determined. Focus. And soldier on.
Some people exaggerate to be heard. A Few scream about the broken system, broken this and broken that.
I’m not sure that many things are actually broken. Rather, they are playing out as you’d expect.
Rental markets are behaving as you might anticipate given the government policies during the last four years, from lockdowns, printing money and distributing that money to people everywhere.
Those actions combined with the natural ebb and flow of the market has exacerbated the situation.
Like weight gain, prolonged periods of eating more and poorly, and moving less and less, will eventually lead to disappointing results. The same can be said for lack of studying or lack of attention to your finances or relationships. It happens almost imperceptibly over time until a significant moment of realisation and you throw your hands up and say, “What happened here!?”
You can turn these things around at any time you want. But it will take a certain amount of pure desire and stoic discipline to get things going consistently in the right direction. Years of not paying attention, poor habits, good ideas poorly or unevenly executed is hard to turn around.
You can do it though. You really can! Though it will take a little planning and some serious resolution, determination and discipline. Let me know if you want some help with it. Otherwise, best wishes!!
No matter what it is, leave it better.
It could be a national park, local park, a friend’s car, a restaurant or a friend. Aim to leave the thing, the person or situation better because you’d been there and done something positive.
Hate is not usually your vibe, but you have let your discontent simmer so long it has now boiled over. In addition, your friends have helped fan the flames of your discontent providing examples to remind you why you should feel fine with these tormented feelings.
Sometimes we can’t stop ourselves from reaching the edge of the abyss. We might then glimpse a different perspective. We might want to adjust our position a little. But will we?
Often we feel we’ve gone too far to turn back. We’re now travelling with what were like minded people. To adjust our course we may have to go our separate way. And that can be lonely. And, possibly worse, we could take a lot of heat from our former travelling tribe.
Yet, if you don’t adjust or turn now, you’ll be so far off your own moral compass and value system that you might even start to agitate against yourself.
Best to put a stop to the charade now. Begin to live with the right path and not the wrong people. Before it’s too late.
Hearing good advice is one thing and doing it is a whole other level. I tidied out a drawer that tends to get filled with things. Felt good to do it. One clear and tidy space. How did you get on?
Look around. Is this how you want to live your life? Are things untidy? Perhaps they are even out of kilter.
Spend two hours today tidying an area up completely. Make it happen in a drawer or on a counter, in a bathroom or the spare room.
Don’t leave it to slowly, almost imperceptibly, get worse. Take a small area and make it ideal. Then find another area and do the same. Keep doing small but noticeable beautifying projects.
Not a generally fun topic. However, it is one we all will encounter in our lives. It will be either the death of other people or our own.
Preparing for it 20 years ahead may take the sting out of the discussion. It may also allow you some time to get things in order properly.
It’s not an hysterically fun topic but it can be approached light-heartedly. It does need to be done to improve the lives of your heirs and allow you to rest your mind.
Start today. Progress towards completing your will, any trusts, funeral arrangements and Power of Attorney, and getting the rest of your documents in order.
Yes it might mean postponing a few favourite tv shows now and then but having this completed makes you the super star of your family. Dead and still ahead one day. Sort it now!
Good people can get caught up in bad situations. Try not to be one of them. Stear clear of tense or difficult people and situations.
Sometimes good people find themselves in a bad situation, where they are almost certain to do something bad to get out of it. This is quite unfortunate. They may not be a bad person through and through, they just made a bad decision in a difficult situation.
Then they get branded bad forever for that one negative thing they did. It may not be fair but now that you know, stay away from such situations so you never have to deal with the consequences.
People can make sweeping judgements based off of one interaction. Try to catch yourself before this happens in your life.
If you let yourself go with the flow of feeling, it can be easy to make broad statements about people that are unlikely to be even vaguely accurate.
It’s too easy to have one bad interaction with a foreign national and then say all of them are like that. Our mind tries to protect us from all of the similar bad plants, animals, people, etc. The nuance that this is one bad person, or even one bad situation involving that person, is hard to sift out.
If one politician says something you don’t like, you might say something charged about all politicians, without proof, experience or knowledge.
Remember too, this works both ways. When you are arguing for or against something, you are representing a host of people that look, sound, are titled, or are in a club just like you. Those others will get smeared by the same brush used to tarnish you. Try not to give people the opportunity to associate you with negative things.
