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Living Wild and Precious

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Living Wild and Precious

Monthly Archives: January 2013

A Gregorian New Year’s post – complete with manatees!

14 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by Carla in being present, savoring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

breathe, connect, laugh, new year, resolutions, start again, word of the year

Yes! You’re in luck!  The new year just started according to the Gregorian calendar, so today was Orthodox New Year’s Day!  So if you were ready to give up and start again next year, don’t despair!  You can start now!  Or re-start now!

I don’t know about you but I sometimes feel a little panicky right about mid-month in January.  What have I accomplished?  Am I on track to make 2013 the best year yet?  All of that ridiculous pressure-y stuff.

Then I remember my words for the year.  And I feel soo much better!  A lot of people, especially my coaching colleagues, pick a word or phrase for each year.  They distill their vision for the year down super small, small enough to fit on a Post-it, or to be embroidered on a tea towel, or carved in a pretty block of wood to be used as a door stop.  (I’m actually not sure anyone embroiders or carves their word or phrase of the year, but you get what I’m saying.)  So, while I was away with the dolphins and pelicans and bald eagles at the barrier island over New Year’s (the first New Year’s) I came up with my three words.

Every time I think of them I relax.  And I smile, and everything feels fabulous.  My three words are breathe, laugh and connect.  That’s what I’m doing in 2013.  No building, no striving, no pushing.  I may build something, I may push a little – heck, I may even strive.  But that’s not the main idea for 2013.  It’s to breathe.  Because breathing brings me into the present moment and that’s a fantastic place to be.  It’s to laugh.  Because, really, without laughter, what exactly is the point?  It’s to connect.  Because living is even richer when it includes sharing, fellowship and camaraderie with others. And with our most true selves.

Once I had my words of the year I decided to find out my animal totem of the year.  I used the amazing Sarah Seidelman’s What the Walrus Knows app – one of my favorite ways to gain a little insight.  I let the application do the divining, and guess what my Beastie, as Sarah calls them, is?  It’s perfect!  It’s the manatee!  I bet it’s in the manatee code to spend time breathing, laughing (however manatees do that – they certainly appear to be smiling!) and connecting.

And speaking of manatees, have you seen the calming manatee website? Click for a manatee and a calming message.  Everyone can use a calming manatee sometimes…

So please don’t despair, midway through January!  There’s plenty of time!  And feel free to take my words and use them yourself this year.  I wonder what the world would be like if all of us prioritized breathing, laughing, and connecting along with all of our other pressing to-dos…

Buster has the breathing part down…

buster 1

Or if you have a word or phrase for yourself I’d love to hear it!  How is your new year going?  Email me or post your thoughts in the comments!

Five ways I stopped letting money get in the way

03 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Carla in making change, managing money, managing worry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

financial freedom, fun money management, money, money class, money managment, no budget, stop worrying about money

I run into this situation with clients somewhat regularly.  Something having to do with money is the obstacle keeping them from truly living the wild and precious lives they want. There’s not enough money, they have a giant mortgage, moving to the place of their dreams (often near water) or going back to school would cost too much, etc., etc.

Of course, there are plenty of facts to support their concerns.  Some clients have some kind of major debt on top of everything else.  And while I wish I did, I don’t have a magic wand to wave around to make debt disappear, replaced by giant cartoon bags of money with dollar signs on the outside!  (That would be cool, wouldn’t it?)

What I can offer are some tools to turn the whole money puzzle around. About ten years ago, I figured out what to do over a series of years and months. A “perfect storm” of books and resources all seemingly magically showed up at about the same time, and I was ready to dive into their wisdom.

Years later, here are the five biggest takeaways that I’ve figured out that made a difference for us.  They might do the same for you!

1. Pay attention.  Most spending that we’re sorry about later happens when we purposefully stop paying attention.  We really don’t want to know.  Have you ever taken a receipt for a meal or an outfit or a cart of groceries and not even looked at it? Either tossed it away or shoved it back into your wallet?  Have you said aloud or to yourself, “I don’t even want to know how much that cost.”  Well, there you have it.  Like a scientist doing an experiment, you have to start paying attention to the data and collecting some information, or you’ll have no idea what’s happening and you can’t make a conclusion or analyze your results, or make changes that will work better for you in the future.

2. Stop trying to impress people.  I know, I know. You think you don’t do this.  You’re a well-rounded person who makes choices based upon what you want.  You don’t care a bit what other people think. Well, perhaps your evolved self doesn’t care, but I can almost guarantee there’s at least  some very tiny part of your brain that’s keeping a pretty interesting tally of where you fit in a never-ending comparison game with others.  With their cars, or their homes, or their vacations.  Or the quality and value of their holiday gifts.  Once you really figure out what you want and get off the status hamster wheel to nowhere, you might be really surprised at the number of cartoon money bags accumulating around your feet!

3. Avoid “budgeting”. Setting up budgets and deprivational systems that don’t take into account the surprise root canal or cat vet emergency or hole in the roof or sink that won’t drain or stolen bicycle or car that died completely – these systems are almost always doomed to fail.  (By the way, all the examples above happened to us in the past eight months!  They will really put a wrench into any budget, let me tell  you!)  There are other great options (see #1 above) that will work just as well as budgeting and won’t make you feel like you’ve failed when the unexpected expenses for the month add up to more than you’d budgeted for all of your food and incidentals combined.

4. Make it a game.  Solving your money issues is so much more effective when you can have fun while doing it!  Contests with yourself or family members, charts, challenges, stickers – you’d be surprised how well these types of methods will work. How much fun can you have with just $5?  Try that one today!

5. Figure out what’s enough for you.  You have to master #2 to really pull this one off.  This is my favorite and most important step and it will completely turn around your money situation.  Figuring out what’s enough seems so simple, but you have to realize that there are outside forces all around you sending messages of lack and need, creating wants you didn’t even know you had.  It’s called advertising, and no matter how smart you are, it works.  On you.

These are just a few of the things we’ve learned (you can see they’re common sense and don’t involve anything creepy or complicated like a pyramid scheme or buying foreclosed properties.)  And we have no debt whatsoever.  Even our house is paid for.  We have enough liquid to live on for a year or more if we really needed to.  We have retirement funds.  We have a really happy life with plenty of trips and vacations (This year, a conference in Arizona, hiking on the AT for a week, three different beach trips, a mastermind coach weekend, a road trip to the mountains of Colorado, a trip to see family in Baltimore, a fall camping trip, and a New Orleans staycation getaway!) Our fridge is full of delicious and indulgent food.  You get the picture.

And we did this with a very moderate amount coming in – at first two teachers’ salaries and now just one teacher salary and one entrepreneur income.  You don’t need to be making six figures or even half that to transform your relationship with money.

indulgent path to money management!If this sounds intriguing to you, I’d love for you to join my five session telecourse, The Indulgent Path to Money Management,  that starts at the end of January.  All the details are here, and it’s a true bargain because I want anyone to be able to attend!  I’m also offering a free Q&A call on January 15. The call will be recorded so you can hear it even if you can’t attend. Go check out the details and sign up at the bottom of the page for the free call and for scholarship information!

Wordless Wednesdays: A peaceful start to 2013

02 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Carla in being present, nature, walks, wordlessness

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

beach, quiet new year, wordlessness

Horn IslandI spent the transition from 2012 to 2013 at a beautiful barrier island on the Gulf Coast.  There’s nothing happening there.  Unless you count dolphins leaping, bald eagles nesting, sanderlings traipsing along the water’s edge, and pelicans skimming over the waves.

Plenty of opportunity for wordlessness here.  And rest.  And stillness. A lovely way to begin the new year.

How about you?  How did you transition into 2013?  With fireworks and dancing?  Cozy fires and cuddly pets?  However you crossed the threshold into the new year, I hope it was just right.

 

Hi! I'm Carla and I'm so glad you've stopped by! Relax here a while and find out how to bring more wild and precious into your life. Pop over to the Blog tab to read what I've been up to lately, or check out the Happenings to see what's coming up on the calendar!
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