The Importance of Having Conversations about Key Topics

Hello again!
Another week has gone by, and I was reminded this week about the importance of having conversations about important topics, with family, friends, loved ones.

This was brought to my attention by Gottman and Abrams in their book called "Eight Dates".(2019). The premise of the book was about making time to have important conversations in 8 key areas, in order to create a great relationship and a lifetime of love. 

When I considered this, I realised that it is not just about deepening personal relationships but the wider aspect of exploring yourself, your personal beliefs, your values, your dreams and aspirations, and living your life to the full. It is about your whole life and knowing what you want to achieve and then making plans how to get there.

The essential conversations that were discussed were:

1 Trust and Commitment2 Conflict3 Sex and Intimacy4 Work and Money5 Family and Children6 Play and Adventure7 Growth and Spirituality8 Dreams (aspirations, goals)

I think you will agree that these are all extremely important areas of life and whole industries have grown up around them.

Wealthy people understand the importance of maximising all these areas of their life. For example, when setting goals, they start out with their end goal and aspiration and then work backwards - how are they going to get there. They typically set goals to encompass all these areas of their life, because they understand the importance of not wasting time, and that to have a truly fulfilling life, they need to pay attention to all areas of life. 

Whilst many people have dreams - they remain just that - a dream.

In order to realise a dream, it is important to make a plan to make it happen.

Many people then get stuck thinking that they cannot afford to realize their dream, without understanding that money is always available for the things we most want. However, they need to cultivate the mindset of the wealthy, and learn how to make money work for them, and not the other way round. 

If people stopped and started to educate themselves about money - how the wealthy create and manage money, and give themselves time and freedom - they could emulate this themselves, and begin to change their lives.  

This would lead to growth, time for family, time for fun and adventure, time for more intimacy and a reduction in conflict in their lives. 

Their are many ways to begin this journey and if you would like to start to consider it for yourself (whatever your age), contact me to discuss.

It may be learning about how to create assets, like Ann Wilson the Wealth Chef, 

It may be about learning about money in a fun way for children and teens like the FUNancial Freedom program.

It may be about rewiring your brain to overcome mental barriers such as John Assaraf`s Neurogym program. 

To Your Success!

Kate

How to be a High Achiever Part 2

How to be a High Achiever Part 2

In part 1 , I outlined the 6 steps to being a high achiever, as defined by Zig Ziglar.

The first two steps were:
1 Evaluate your self-image
2 The second step on your journey to success is improving your relationships.

Step 3 was:
3 Setting goals

 I showed a You Tube video of Zig Ziglar discussing how to set goals in my last Blog.

SMART goals
 I am sure that everyone has heard of SMART goals.
 SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Therefore, a SMART goal incorporates all of these criteria to help focus your efforts and increase the chances of achieving your goal.
 One of the reasons for setting goals in this way, is that it helps your brain to focus on what you really want. It is not enough to simply say that you want to earn more money. For your brain to truly understand and motivate you to achieve this goal, you need need to be clearer.

 For example you could say "I want to achieve double my current income, within the next 2 years. I will be earning £4,00 a month by 1st July 2013. I will achieve this by setting up an online business in E commerce."

   You may want to set goals in different areas of your life.
 Paul O Mahony recommends setting goals in 8 different areas:
 1 Finance
 2 Social
3 Health
4 Spirituality
5 Mental health
6 Vocational
7 Familial
8 Fun

 This ensures you set goals in all areas of your life and do not neglect certain areas. It is not helpful to spend all your time focussing on earning double your income and then neglecting your family or your physical health in the process.

 Try and have fun with it - some goals can be small and quickly achieved, such as planning to special day out. Other goals can be bigger and longer term.

 Whatever you do, do it for you and do it to help you to achieve success in your life!

 To Your Success!

Zig Ziglar Setting goals 1 of 3

Top 10 Rules For Success

How to be a High Achiever Part 1

How to be a High Achiever

Hello!

I was reading an interesting book this week by Zig Ziglar. It is called "How to be a High Achiever", which he wrote in 1975. 

In this book, he wrote about the 6 steps to becoming a high achiever and therefore becoming successful. 

The 6 steps are:

1 Evaluate your self-image2 Improving your relationships.3 Setting goals4 Adopt positive attitude5  Understand that success takes hard work6 A burning desire to excel

So let`s look at the first two steps bit more closely

1 Evaluate your self-image 

Your self image is about how you view yourself. It is a crucial building block for success because it determines how you perform. If you have a poor self image, you are likely to perform very differently than if you have a good self image. Other people will pick up on this, and it will affect how they view you too. 
It is important to remember that your self-image starts and ends with you. Other people can't make you feel bad about yourself unless you allow them to.What other people think about you is none of your business - yet so many people lives their lives, according to what they think other people will think. They are not authentic or true to themselves. 
Improving your self-image isn’t only about taking better care of yourself – it’s also about how you care for others. Spending time helping people who need it creates an immediate sense of satisfaction and can serve as a reminder to feel gratitude. This, in turn, improves the way you see yourself. A good tip is to spend a few minutes each day identifying at least 3 things that you are grateful for - it could be something that has happened that day, it could be something someone said to you, it could be simply being grateful for hearing the birds sing!

2 Improving your relationships.

This is a huge area all by itself! Think about your relationships, that you have right now. Think about your partner, children, other family members, work colleagues, friends etc. Are they all as good as they can be? What can you do to improve them?  

For example, it is so easy to develop a critical mind, and get irritated by the things that a person does or doesn`t do. If it is a partner, try stepping back and focus instead on what attracted you to your partner  in the first place. What are their good points? Make a list and don`t stop until you have at least 10 points.  Think about the early days of a relationship and what you both did together. What did you enjoy? What did you share? What did you laugh about? Perhaps you spent more time together? Perhaps you gave each other quality time together? How can you recreate that? Plan some time together, plan a surprise, get a babysitter in, if necessary. Start talking, start focussing on the other person, start listening to them. 

What about people you spend a lot of time arguing with? It may be work colleagues that you are forced to spend time with, and you feel you do not see eye to eye. American game theorist Anatol Rapoport tried to answer. He came up with a checklist for voicing disagreements, called Rapoport’s Rules. These four rules were systematized by Daniel C. Dennett, a philosopher who regarded them as the “best antidote” to the tendency to caricature other people’s arguments.

 Rule One states that you must attempt to rephrase your partner/colleague’s position in your own words. Do it as clearly and fairly as you can.

You want them to say, “Wow, I wish I’d put it like that.” 

Rule Two says that you must list every point of agreement between you and your conversation partner. 

Rule Three suggests you should tell your partner/colleague what you’ve learned from their argument. 

Rule Four states that you may voice disagreements only after you’ve gone through the previous three rules.

The authors of How to have Impossible Conversations, Peter Boghossian and James A Lindsay (2019) also suggest using so-called minimal encouragers. These are small signals that discreetly inform the speaker you’re listening – things like “Yeah,” “I see,” and “OK.

In addition, mirroring: when your partner says something, simply repeat the last two or three words – but phrase them as a question. So, if they exclaim, “I’m just so sick and tired of people pushing everyone around!” you’d reply, “Pushing everyone around?” The idea is to keep the person talking so they offer more and more information.
The key messages are that: “Impossible” conversations can be productive when they become collaborative., if you want to change someone’s mind, you have to listen to them, and people are much more likely to accept “self-generated” ideas than messages delivered by others

To Your Success !

Financial Education needs to start early!

Did You know that the number one fear of adults is running out of money?

Did you know that 1 in 3 workers have less than $1,000 in savings?

The education system continues to focus on academic qualifications  and does not provide our children with the financial education that they need.
If we can`t rely on schools to provide the financial education, then it is up to us to make it happen.

So where do children get a good financial education?
If 95% of adults are living in debt or scarcity, then it follows that they are not the best models.

It is good to know that there is a new online financial programme has recently been launched by Paul O Mahony and Chris Farrell.

They have called it FUNancial Freedom and it is aimed at 7 - 17 year olds.

They have a FREE webinar where you can find out all about it:

https://katemulvey--funancial.thrivecart.com/funancial-freedom-membership-internal/

If you prefer reading, then you can download a FREE digital book called Rethink Money for Children and Teens at
https://katemulvey--funancial.thrivecart.com/funancial-freedom-membership-internal/5edfe52b73ed6/

To Your Children`s Financial Success!

Kate

Opportunity - Motivational Video

Opportunities are out there!

Opportunities are Out There!

It is all a matter of perspective!

I was reminded recently about opportunities being all around us, if only we open our eyes to them.

For example, imagine being in a desert, and at first seeing nothing around except the sand and rocks. You may be feeling hot and thirsty and that there is nothing out there for you. How do you survive?

One person may soon give up and let the inevitable happen,or they might turn and retrace their steps back to a small town that they passed previously.

Yet another person may look more closely and start to see things around them which might help get through the desert.

A cactus, for example - which holds water, and when cut open, will provide much needed water to quench the thirst. Some rocks which might provide much needed shade.

Once you see one thing, very often your eyes become opened to more.

Have you ever experienced that?

For example, you may be looking to buy a new car. When you decide on a car you like, you suddenly see other cars of the same model, on the road, whenever you are driving.

Or have you ever walked along a path and see nothing but weeds and nettles. Then when you stop and take a closer look, you start to see all sorts of things that you had not previously noticed ?

It happened to me yesterday, when I was taking a walk with my daughter. As we walked along the path, all we could see were trees , nettles, and brambles. I suddenly saw a flash of red and  when I looked more closely, I noticed beautiful tiny Ladybirds in the leaves of the nettles, where I had seen nothing previously.

We are surrounded by negative news and events and it is all too easy to get caught up into feelings of anxiety and fear. Yet, if we stop a moment, and start to change our perspective, and open our eyes, we can start to see new opportunities awaiting to be explored!

To new opportunities and Your Success!



Images by Pexels.com

Educating Your Children about Finance

Are you happy about your children`s financial education?

What do you mean? I hear you say.

As parents, we all want to give our kids every advantage in life – especially when it comes to their education. According to Robert Kiyosaki, our school system is failing to teach our children about one of the most fundamental parts of life: money. Schools try to give kids the tools they’ll need to go out and get a good job. They teach how to be an employee, not how to be an entrepreneur.

Robert Kiyosaki is the author of many books - one of his most popular is Rich Dad , Poor Dad.
He has just written a new book which I have been reading,called
Why A students work for C students and B students work for the Government.

In this book, he discusses how the education system does not set children up with a good financial education, instead they are led primarily down the path of learning the skills to enable them to go out into the world and get a job. 

Having a job is only one way to earn money, as an adult - and as recent times has shown - being fully dependent on a job for an income, where you are reliant on someone else to pay you enough money to pay your bills each month, is not a very secure way to live your life. 
Instead, if you had the education, to enable you to make choices about earning money in other ways, you (and children growing up) would be in more control of their lives. 

When is a good time to start educating children about finance?
According to Robert Kiyosaki, there’s no hard-and-fast rule but a good rule of thumb is when a child is able to tell the difference between a one dollar bill and a five dollar bill.(or equivalent currency) When they can do this, they’re ready to begin their financial education. 

In the next few Blogs, I am going to talk about the work of Paul O`Mahony, who is helping to teach children about education using a fantastic programme, called FUNancial Freedom. 

To Your and Your Children`s Financial success!

Kate 😃

Email Marketing

Have You Ever Considered Email Marketing?

I have started to use Aweber and highly recommend it.

Here is a video which explains how Aweber works.

Once you have watched it, if you are interested in having a free trial, follow this link:

https://www.aweber.com/easy-email.htm?id=514891

By the way, if you are thinking that maybe I am getting something out of it - you are right.

I get a small commission, but only when customers sign up to pay for Aweber, not the free trial, and it makes absolutely no difference to you.

I am already using it, and this is why I want to promote it.

My philosophy is only to promote things that I believe in.

So, have a look - if you like it, follow this link, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

To Your Success! 

https://www.aweber.com/easy-email.htm?id=514891

Try AWeber free for 30 days! - AWeber Communications

Master Your Success Logo

Hi everybody! It is Sunday once again, when I plan my posts for the week. I just want to share with you firstly, my new Logo for Master Your Success. I created this yesterday and uploaded it to my new Facebook Page (Mastery of your Success). I will be starting to ust it on other media going forwards. It is very simple, which I like. I also like the colour, although I may choose another colour moving forwards (Yellow) for my planned "Master Your Children`s Success" in the future. The tortoise symbolises resilience, tenacity, and determination, to me. I have 2 tortoises, Henry and Tui (short for Atuin - the great turtle in the sky from Terry Pratchet Disc World series). Henry is in his late teens and Tui is about 3 years old so very small. I have looked after Henry since he was 8 years old. I also had tortoises as pets when I was a child. Tortoises are amazing animals, as they don`t seem to let anything get in their way and stop them. They can be very focussed, move quickly when they want to, climb obstacles or dig underneath. If they fall, they persevere in righting themselves, then will carry on again. If they find an obstacle, they just keep persevering. The photos below show Henry walking over various obstacles in the house - normally he is outside or indoor Tortoise table, keeping warm but occasionally, he is desparate to have a walkabout!

Please let me know your thoughts. To your success this week! Kate

Decision-Making Strategies

GCFLearnFree.com

The Paradox of Choice

I was reading an interesting book this week, called The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz.
He tells us why More is Less.
We are often confronted with a huge array of choice. Every day, we are faced with choices from the clothes we wear, the food we eat, how to spend our time, how to spend our money. We are bombarded with adverts daily, each tugging us and inviting us to make another choice to buy buy buy.
Barry explains why this is actually causing us pain. He argues that being confronted with an abundance of choice can be so demanding that it causes psychological distress, making it hard for us to choose.
For example, the opportunity cost of making a decision to choose one thing over another - did I make the best decision? Should I have gone for the other choice?

Then, when we’re presented with seemingly unlimited options but the choices we actually make turn out disappointing, we tend to blame ourselves – which produces genuine suffering
So what does he suggest?
He suggests striving to become a Satisficer.
What is a Satisficer?Satisficing is a fairly simple decision strategy – it means searching until you find the option that meets your standards, and stopping at that point.Barry explains that Satisficers do not strive for perfection, and because they don’t compare among endless alternatives when choosing, they don’t experience the decrease in satisfaction that comes from contemplating what the other options might have afforded them.
So next time that you you are faced with an array of choices, be clear and specific about what you are looking for, and as soon as you find what meets your requirement, stop searching any longer.
It seems that Less is indeed More!

It Always Seems Impossible Until It`s Done!

Hi Everybody!
We are nearly at the start of a new week.

I was reminded recently about a quote from Nelson Mandela that
"It Always Seems Impossible Until It Is Done".

Have you ever felt like that?
Can you relate to this quote?

There are times in my life, when it has been such a struggle, that it feels it will never end!
There also times when I am trying out new ways of working, which hit a block of some sort, and then I really struggle to solve the problem, and move forwards.

Yet, when I look backwards in my life, I can see how much I have achieved!

What Nelson Mandela set out to do, must have seemed an impossible task to some.
The lives and oppression of his friends, family and community may have felt never ending at the time.
Yet, the struggle for change continued, and eventually came to pass.

So don`t give up, if life is hard.
Keep moving forward one small step at a time.

To Your Success 😤🙏

Kate

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