Clarity about money attracts wealth. One of the central skills essential to having an abundant life is financial literacy. There are many practical reasons for this: investing, budgeting and managing a household or business rely on understanding how to allocate money for different costs. However, wealth is at once beyond and related to everyday expenses. I include this post because it’s common for many creators (artists, writers, consultants or other expertise-based types) to under-represent their skills and to ask too…..
I wonder how many people reading this watched the original television series MacGyver when it originally aired? Aside from being Selma and Patty Bouvier’s celluloid object of desire and the inspiration for SNL’s Will Forte creation MacGruber, this TV character is that rare proper noun that has been “verbed.” To MacGyver something is to bootstrap and/or apply a life hack that transforms something from nothing to save the day. If you are starting anything from scratch, be it a business,…..
Do you believe in luck? According to Joyce Carol Oates, “The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.” Lots of folks who haven’t achieved the success they say they hope to achieve blame their situation on luck. They ascribe their circumstances to “bad luck” and dismiss the success of others as “good luck.” This attitude keeps them from reaching their full potential. As long as you are in any way guilty of blaming someone else for a situation in your own…..
Even if you are not particularly religious or attend a church, you are probably familiar with the scripture, ‘seek and ye shall find.’ What if you don’t know what you seek? Would you recognize the answer? From early childhood, I have been driven by the need to know the mysteries of the universe. Dogmatic conversations of a definitive truth aside, my specific religious teachings from childhood left me with the assumption that upon death, one would be privy to the…..
Pictured above is the V-Tech “laptop” that my oldest daughter used to bring with her when she’d join me at the newspaper while I was working on deadline. Trips to newspaper offices were part of her entire life, almost from the moment she was born. I pursued a journalism degree at a community college, beginning when she was four months old. My first role at the college newspaper was as a features writer. Two semesters later, I would serve as…..
Today, while walking around my neighborhood, I overheard a child’s voice call out, “Excuse me!” My mom instinct kicking in, I paused and looked over my shoulder, looking for the source of the voice. It was a little girl, about seven years old. She wasn’t trying to get my attention. Instead, I saw her untangle herself from her bicycle and step toward a young woman who was standing next to her dog — a full-grown Golden Labrador Retriever. “Excuse me!”…..
“People who speak ‘victim’ can’t understand the language of accountability.” This thought filtered to the top of my awareness one day while I took a walk around the neighborhood. It can get pretty dicey when using the word victim. It tends to activate the defensiveness-factor of others (usually among those who are still healing from physical or mental wounds). When I talk about victim mentality, I sometimes get accused of victim blaming. I can see where some may interpret it…..
So many of us have been taught that it’s immodest to “toot our own horn” or that talking about our own accomplishments is bad. When promoting yourself on social media, it’s common to see the phrase “humble brag” associated with anything remotely connected to publicizing achievement or rolling out an offering (e.g. a new book, webinar, speaking engagement or job promotion). October is National Self-Promotion Month, so today we’re going to focus on a few ways that you can begin…..
Early on, when I first established a nonprofit to provide cars to women in transition, I had an opportunity to explain a central tenet of the organization. One of our first recipients was a single mother of seven children. She was 29 years old. The only reason I mention these statistics (especially as it relates to the quantity of her children) is because these facts about her circumstances were used by some as a cudgel against her and given as…..
Hi everyone, I wanted to share this with you as a general backgrounder, since you may have only “met” me through social media. This member spotlight of me in the Ellevate Network gives a bit of history of who I am, what I think and how it relates to this blog, and why I am so committed to helping others. For the greatest accuracy, I cut and pasted the profile, including the actual link below: 1. Introduce yourself to our…..