Category Archives: Success

One of the Best Financial Habits You Can Make During the Month of December

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As we are filling up our carts with an abundance of gifts for your loved ones along with some presents for yourself, it is very easy for your December spending to go above and beyond your daily spending. Remember that it is only once a year and it is also good to remind yourself to still find ways to enjoy this festive season of generosity and to not feel stressed over the extra money that is spent. The money you spend will ALWAYS find a way to come back if you develop a good relationship with your money and you continue to develop an abundance mindset. These are habits that you can focus on year round and goals that you should make a conscious effort each and every day.

In the month of December, we are closing out another year and this is a good time to actually REFLECT on your money for the past year. Did you increase your net worth? Are there areas of your life that you overspent? How well did you manage your money in the past year? The ultimate way you can answer these questions is if you go through your credit card statements or if you take it a step further and keep a journal with all your expenses, this would be a good place for you to look at where exactly you spent your money and how much. While this for some might sound tedious and increase your stress levels, try to look at this as a way to set yourself up for a brighter future ahead. With the new year coming, it is good to look back and assess your current money habits so that you can create even better ones for the following year. If you don’t currently have a money reflection at the end of the year, it is never too late to start and let this December kick off this new financial habit before we ring in the new year!

“You Can’t Start the Next Chapter of Your Life If…”

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There’s a good quote that reads, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” This is such a true statement but one that many people seem to ignore. Sometimes it might seem like you are continually going through the same life lessons but that is because you have not successfully closed that particular chapter in life. Life will continue to show you the same outcome if you don’t make the choice to change your actions or mindset along with closing older chapters in life.

In order to continue your journey towards spiritual growth, that requires you to do the inner work and to find ways to challenge yourself rather than staying in your comfort zone which means that you need to open up your mind to new opportunities and challenges. Otherwise you are going to coast through life on the same page where you could be writing the next great chapter of your life. It is important to take the time to actually learn from your past so that you can prepare for a bigger and brighter future. Remember that some of the obstacles, life lessons, and older chapters of life were needed in order to progress and move forward to something even better than you ever thought was possible. Don’t ever let a bad chapter in life hinder you from moving onto something better! Trust me, life has a funny way of surprising you when you least expect it which requires you to be receptive enough to receive what life has to offer you.

Why Younger Generations Are Often Labeled Lazy And Ways to Prevent This

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While today’s youth face many challenges such as a higher cost of living, significantly higher costs for college education, and just an overall harder time getting ahead in life–it is somewhat understandable why it can take longer for young adults to get established and become financially independent. However, despite all of these setbacks, there are definitely ways to overcome this and to set up the younger generations for success. People complain that the younger generations are lazy and don’t want to work hard for anything. They favor instant gratification and doing what is least required of them in order to get by. While I don’t want to generalize everyone to be in this category, I do have to agree that this is the common trend with the youth nowadays. While many do not want to hear this, this issue stems mostly from PARENTING. If you parent your children in a way to allow them to achieve their goals and build them to be independent adults as opposed to dependent and needy adult children, then you are doing the right thing. Unfortunately, I see many parents who are doing the opposite which is ultimately creating a very lazy generation where they simply do not possess the life skills to survive out in the real world outside the comfort of their parents’ homes.

One of the biggest issues is that many parents are failing their children by overindulging their kids and handing everything to them without them working for anything. This is a huge mistake that often backfires in the long run. Parents complain that their adult children do not want to work or go out and get jobs. Well do you blame them? Why would they if they can get everything provided to them for free at home? It is essential that you teach your kids the value of building a strong worth ethic at an early age and understand the importance of developing a career that they love in order to be happy in life while also being able to create financial stability. If you buy your kids everything, then they get used to this way of life where they do not have to try or make any effort because everything is free at their disposal. So whenever they need something, as opposed to going out in the world to earn it, they are just going to expect that their parents will continue to provide everything for them. If this was a pattern that you fell into as a parent, then it is important to step up, establish boundaries, and BREAK THE CYCLE. Otherwise your kids are going to be adult children who mooch off of you forever which will not only eat a way at your retirement savings but also hinder your children from growing up and making something out of themselves.

It is incredibly sad to me to see so many young adults still depending on their family’s resources when they are fully capable of working and paying their own bills. That is why it is up to parents to make their children learn the value of money by making them learn how to earn it themselves and get them to pay for their own expenses when they are old enough to work. This prevents them from expecting free handouts all the time and pushes them to think outside the box and develop passions that will build into wealth over time. That is why it is necessary that parents TEACH the value behind hard work and set high expectations for their children so that they can thrive as adults.

Reality Vs. False Hope – It’s Time to Stop Living in La La Land

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While an abundance of positivity and hope are two wonderful things to possess as we all navigate our lives, there does come a point where too much positivity and hope can actually blind you from reality and hinder you from living your best life. Sometimes people become so hopeful of their future that this causes them to not really take action towards their goals because they believe they can manifest anything in existence without any effort. As I hope many of you realize–this is so FAR from reality and a life in total la la land! The Universe is powerful and has much to offer to everyone but I like to remind people that it is not a genie bottle where you put a wish out there and it just comes into fruition. There is still conscious intent and inner work that needs to take place in order to make things happen.

As hard as it is to face reality at times, no matter what–you should always opt to live in REALITY. When you live with false hope, you usually end up more disappointed, you can stunt your self growth, and it could impact your ego negatively in the long run. When you live in reality, at least you are building more resilience and essentially are embracing the TRUTH. As harsh as reality can be, it is better to live in real life versus a sugar coated version of life. I encourage everyone to be super real with self when it comes to your expectations, goals, and aspirations. From there, you can work towards everything that you want and then you will receive everything you desire (and probably even more). The Universe will reward you with your efforts and you will feel good in knowing that you created your abundant reality all by yourself!

Rejection Is Redirection – Learn to Embrace This New Direction

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Over the summer, I stumbled across a quote, “rejection is redirection.” I could not agree more with this quote! So often you see people react to rejection incredibly negatively. It can stir up emotions such as self doubt, frustration, depression, and basically put someone in a scarcity mindset. One starts to question, “What is wrong with me? Why am I a reject?” This is the wrong way to think! Rejection should never be taken as defeat. There are many ways to actually interpret rejection in a positive way such as: “The best is yet to come and something better is destined to manifest into my life.” “Let me look at this as a time to work on self improvement.”

If anything, rejection should serve as a MOTIVATING FACTOR to work harder at whatever it is that you want to achieve. It is not a time to give up on your goals or desires but to perhaps explore other options that will help you get to your end goal. If you decided to give up any time you failed at something or got rejected, you would never get ahead in life and would stay in a stagnant low place. You are also hindering yourself from self development by not investing the time that is needed to grow spiritually. So the next time you get rejected, accept it with grace and don’t feel bad about yourself. Look at this as an opportunity to improve your life and take the action that is needed to achieve your goals still–even if it takes you longer than you anticipated or means that you have to start over.

Relating back to the quote, sometimes rejection could also be a sign from the Universe that your goals need to shift and redirect in its entirety which might mean that new goals need to be established–and there is nothing wrong with that! Sometimes this is an inevitable reality and allows you to expand on other things you could achieve that you never had thought about previously. Remember that at the end of the day, under no circumstances should you let rejection get the best of you. There are often many silver linings in life and often rejection could lead to something much better in your life path even if you do not see that at the present moment. You have to continue to persevere and carry on with your life with a positive mindset.

Stop Blaming Yourself For Your Failures – Do These Things Instead

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Experiencing failure is an inevitable experience in life and although it is associated with frustration, sadness, and other negative feelings–there are ways to fail and still persevere. It is very natural to want to blame yourself for your failures but that can leave you feeling very upset and prevent you from recovering. First and foremost, you need to walk away from any failure with a positive attitude. You need to detach yourself from any negativity and find ways to move forward with your life. This can be a very good time for self reflection where you do not dwell so much on the failure itself but you find ways to look past it. During this time, you should also think about ways of improving the outcome in the future and to motivate yourself to try again and/or find better solutions. While you might go through moments where you feel defeated, it is essential that you do not let negativity steer you towards giving up or feeling bad about yourself. When you fall, you need to get yourself right back up and keep it moving. The same goes with when you fail–you need to just get back on track with your life and make some positive strides in the right direction.

While many of us strive for perfection, you need to recognize that life is not meant to be perfect at all times. If you never came across failures in life, there would be no room for spiritual growth. It is often during the dark times and the times that you fail that you are actually setting yourself up towards success in your future. You might not see it at the present moment but it all ends up making sense later. That is why you need to trust the Universe, even when you come across some failures along the way. You need to take these failures as life lessons and LEARN from them. That is the positive takeaway from any failure is to look at it as an opportunity to gain wisdom and pick up some valuable spiritual lessons along the way.

If you are still having a tough time mentally with whatever failure that you are going through, take this time not only for yourself but do not be afraid to seek out help and to reach out to those who care about you. It can be extremely helpful to talk to other people who have gone through similar experiences or to just express your feelings to someone. Some people like to bottle everything inside but it can actually be more beneficial to express yourself to others. You would be amazed at the amount of emotional support you would receive simply by speaking up and talking to a professional or to someone you know. For me personally, I cannot thank the supportive people around me enough for listening and empathizing with me when I needed it most. That is why it is important to surround yourself with a positive support system and to embrace seeking their advice during those times where you could use the extra emotional support.

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How to Live Happily Married For a Lifetime

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While there is about a fifty percent chance that a marriage could lead to divorce, there are still many people who want to get married at some point in their lifetime. Are there ways to ensure that a marriage can last forever? Absolutely! Despite marriage statistics not being so good, that should never evoke fear or deter anyone from wanting to get married because there are definitely ways to make sure that you build a marriage that is everlasting and filled with happiness. While there are many factors involved and every marriage is unique–here are a few ways to set yourself up for a marriage that will last forever.

Find Your Best Possible Match – One of the biggest life decisions you will ever make is not only getting married but actually CHOOSING your best possible match. Personally, I had a few opportunities where I could have gotten married but being that I see marriage as a serious decision, I did not want to settle on any partner. It is okay to walk away from a relationship if you do not see it leading to a happy and fulfilling marriage. That is why it is important to really dig deep as to what you want in both a future spouse and a marriage. You need to examine if this person has the qualities that you value along with having life goals and desires that are in close alignment to yours. Do not be afraid of being too selective! You are always better off being selective than just settling on any person who wants to marry you or feel the pressure that is the next step within your relationship. If in your heart, you do not see this person in your future, then you need to break off the relationship and trust that the Universe will be bringing you the right match when you are spiritually ready to attract this into your life.

Make Sure the Feelings are MUTUAL – This is a common mistake that I see in many relationships. You might have one person who is devoted and loves their partner whereas the other person is not as interested. This is a major issue and often an issue that does not change for the better. If one person is not as interested, there is a good chance that this person will ultimately end the relationship at some point because they were settling or never too invested to begin with. It is important to recognize that you cannot love someone into falling more in love with you. Meaning that you can do everything to show your love for this person but if the person is not really in love with you, then that will never change. If you recognize that you are with a partner who has the potential of leaving you due to their lack of commitment or interest, you are always better off breaking it off before it leads to marriage because you deserve to be with someone who loves you as much as you love them in return.

Communication is EVERYTHING – It is essential that you make communication a priority in your marriage. This means being able to express how you feel and being as authentic to one another as possible. People tend to assume that their spouse is a mind reader and should have the ability to read their emotions and know how to treat them. This is often not the case! The only way that your spouse can understand you better is to actually communicate with them. This not only strengthens your bond to one another but allows for two people to really learn about each other on a deeper level.

Learn to Make Sacrifices for the Greater Good of the Marriage – Every successful marriage requires a good balance of give and take. When you have one person who is constantly taking and not making the personal sacrifices needed to make their partner happy, this is where you can see built up resentment and a chance for the relationship to deteriorate all together. It is a reality that you are not always going to get your way which is why it is important to understand when to compromise. If making certain sacrifices means making your spouse happy, then you should know it is worth it! As I mentioned, remember that it goes both ways meaning that your spouse should also make compromises to make you happy as well.

Divorce is Not an Option Mentality – When times get tough within a marriage, it is very easy to want to file for divorce and to end it in its entirety. In certain extreme scenarios where there is abuse, neglect, and/or other major problems arise, I would have to agree getting a divorce is necessary. In most common circumstances though, most problems within a marriage could be fixed or improved given that both parties strive to work things out and have the belief that divorce is never an option. If two people have this mentality, then the thought of divorce would never cross either person’s minds. It is important to think positively and to come to solutions together–no matter what.

Reevaluating the “American Dream” – What Are YOUR Dreams?

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Many people have the desire to fulfill the “American dream” which might include buying a house with a white picket fence and finding a career path that guarantees a lot of money. It could also include being married with a family. We live in a world where we feel the need to conform to societal norms and with social media platforms of people living their best lives at all times. The reality is, life is not designed to be perfect and the societal expectations of how life should be might not be everyone’s destiny–and there is nothing wrong with that! It is important to recognize that we should not feel the need to be doing what everyone else appears to be doing and evaluate our own dreams. Your dreams might not entail going to college or getting married or owning a house. If your dreams are to have these things, also remember that it could take many years for your dreams to manifest into realities. This requires a good amount of patience on your part along with a deep mental focus and a high level of trust that you have a bright future ahead of you. Everything truly does start with your mental state so keep it a positive one!

What are your dreams? – It is essential to really think about what you want from your life and to establish what your desires are. The more defined and concrete that your dreams are, the more likely it is that you will find the path to achieve them. I recommend not only to think about them but to write them on paper or on an index card. While some might think this is a waste of time, this extra step can make a big difference by keeping you accountable, focused, and serious about what you want to accomplish. Even if your dreams seem out of reach at the present moment, you should write them down anyway! As I mentioned previously, your dreams might not even be in alignment with the “American dream” but at the end of the day, you need to live your life authentically and be as true to yourself as possible if you want to be happy and feel fulfilled. You have one life to live and it is up to you to determine what makes it meaningful and manifest your own dreams.

3 Ways to Avoid Living Paycheck to Paycheck

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It is hard escaping news headlines that a higher percentage of people are living paycheck to paycheck, even people who have a high annual salary. There are many contributing factors that are causing this including the rate in which inflation has increased over the past year. Aside from that, when people make more money, they also tend to spend more because they feel they deserve it or that they are comfortable enough to spend more while saving at the same time. No matter how much money you are making, it is essential to make money management a top priority. This will allow for yourself to be in a better financial position in the long run and ensure that you won’t be living paycheck to paycheck. Like most things in life, it is never too late to start and develop the right habits to get you on the right financial track.

Set Up Automatic Payments Into Your Savings Account – Whatever amount you can comfortably afford, determine a set amount that will automatically get deducted once a week and then you do not touch the money. This is a quick way to build savings without really thinking about it. If you are more disciplined, you can manually put the money into your savings every week and change up the amounts as needed depending on how much extra that you have left over. Every dollar counts so any little bit that you can put towards your savings is better than nothing!

Reduce Consumption and Eliminate Non-essentials – I recently wrote about how reducing consumption is a great way to save money. This could really range from anything from using less energy/gas to eating less at a restaurant so you have a second meal to take home at a later time. There are so many ways in which you could reduce what you consume each day. It is also smart to examine your monthly subscriptions and other services/products that you currently have and then eliminate the ones that you do not really need. Do you pay for cable or a gym membership that you never use? Then this might be the time to cancel these services altogether so that you can allocate the money into your savings and/or investments.

Track Every Dollar That You Spend – If you follow my blog, you probably have read me talk about this consistently but it is important to track your expenses everyday. This helps you stay accountable with your financial decisions and can also serve as a tool for analyzing your money habits. Did you notice that you spent more money on non-essentials last month? Then you can strive to reduce your spending the following month. The only way you can truly track this is by actually taking the time to record all your expenses in order to stay focused both on spending less while maximizing your daily savings. If you can do both of these things at the same time then you will find that you will not be living paycheck to paycheck anymore.

Self Confidence Is Based On YOUR Personal Beliefs Above Anything Else

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Self confidence can come from various sources and change throughout the course of your life; however, there is no denying that self confidence will naturally manifest from within if you do things that align with your belief system. For example, if you believe that education equates to success, then you should take the courses needed to help you progress in your career which would ultimately make you a successful person over time. Everyone’s personal values and beliefs are individually selected so it is important to establish what you find most important and then take the action that is needed to possess those qualities. Another example might be prioritizing a fit and healthy physique as something that makes you feel confident. If this is important to you, then you will naturally be inclined to work out and implement a healthy diet in order to get the results needed.

While many have a belief that what others think of you matters, it is important to develop the mindset that you are a high value individual and can generate your own self confidence no matter what other people do or say. When you genuinely possess high self esteem, your belief about yourself will never be impacted or changed. Why? Your confidence levels and self worth are not determined by the people around you and come from within which is ultimately a positive thing. You want to get to a place in your life where you do not care what other people think of you because how you feel about yourself is what matters most. That is why it is important to pursue things that bring you both joy and confidence which are in alignment with your beliefs. If you are unhappy with yourself and your life, it is time to dig deep and make some serious changes. You need to first focus on what you want and from there, actually implement the changes needed while working on developing the characteristics that can allow you to become the person you want to be. Keep in mind that it is important to want to make the changes for yourself and not because someone is pressuring you to be a certain way or to please others. Always let your intuition paired with your belief system be the guiding forces of your life and you will be on a spiritual path to growth and acceptance of self.