Covet Chicago

Warm Soft Money: Let’s Talk Goal-Setting

^{Image by Stephanie} 

If you’re just tuning in, this https://exness-vn.net/mt5 post is the second in a series on creating budgets with purpose. Every Thursday through December 16 (with the exception of Thanksgiving), I’m sharing a unique process for managing your personal finances that will help you save for your big goals and eliminate guilt in spending. We started by defining values.

 

Last week’s post was a lot of work, right? It gets easier from here – I promise. Now that we have a strong foundation, the rest flows pretty naturally.

So this week, we’re on to the fun stuff: dreaming big!

Step 2: Make Your Dreams Real by Writing Them Down

Since we started with Stephen Covey, I’d like to continue with another passage from Habit 2:

You may find that your mission statement will be much more balanced, much easier to work with, if you break it down into the specific role areas of your life and the goals you want to accomplish in each area…Writing your mission in terms of the important roles in your life gives you balance and harmony.  It keeps each role clearly before you. You can review www.exness-vn.net/mt5 your roles frequently to make sure that you don't get totally absorbed by one role to the exclusion of others that are equally or even more important in your life.

Roles and goals give structure and organized direction to your personal mission…The important application at this point is to identify roles and long-term goals as they relate to your personal mission statement.

 

It's Easiest to Start in the Short-Term

When I start my budgeting process, I pull out my personal mission statement and get to work. While Covey is pretty vague about time periods, I find that goal-setting for the next calendar year is a good place to start. Some of my goals for this year were:

• Take a trip to Peru to visit family. (I am open to people and opportunities)
• Increase charitable contributions. (I give before I receive)
• Renovate the downstairs bathroom. (I create a welcoming home)
• Throw a blow-out birthday party for my husband. (I tend my marriage + I give before I receive)
• Invest in this blog and a little something else I’m not ready to talk about yet. (I act on my passions)

And so on…

Since I’m married, and my husband and I share finances, he goes through the same process. For instance, he is committed to http://exness-vn.net/mt5 being a lifelong athlete, so he sets goals for miles and races run.

 

But Don't Stop There...Think GRAND!

But, it’s not enough to stop at your one-year goals. If you do, how will you ever achieve your pie-in-the-sky aspirations?  Next it’s time to think big. No, think grand!

Let’s start with another exercise to get you warmed up. This one is from The Fire Starter Sessions.

How do you want to feel?

…when you walk through the door of your studio or your office? When you unlock your store, ship your product, and pick up the phone? When you cash the check, accept the award, finish your masterpiece, or make the sale…

How do you want to feel?

That question is the answer to your strategic mapping, your to-do list, your business plans, your objectives, your prioritizing.

Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have. Acting on generating those feelings is the most creative thing you can do with your life…

Culturally speaking, I think we have the whole ambition, life-planning thing backwards. We come up with our goals and visions, and we intend that actualizing them will make us feel successful, worthy, satisfied. And of course that‘s predominantly the case—we set a goal, we reach it, we feel great. Unless of course, we feel empty, or flustered, or anxious that what we‘re doing isn‘t working to fill the hole—that we‘re still missing something.

How can you distinguish between the goals of the soul and trying to live someone else‘s dream?

How do you know that you‘re reaching for a goal that will be truly satisfying when you achieve it? You can‘t. It‘s impossible to predict. But it is possible to stack the odds of fulfilment in your favour.

First, you get clear on how you want to feel.

Then, you do stuff that makes you feel that way.

Powerful stuff, right? So powerful, in fact, that my list is still a draft in progress. But it looks something like this:

• Courageous
• Loved
• Fiercely Intelligent
• Generous

Your turn.  

This week’s action is to write out a list of your one-year and long-term goals.  

No holding back! The process of envisioning your goals and writing them down makes you infinitely more committed to them. And, if you want a budget that makes you feel supported – i.e. one that you can stick to – it’s critical to know what goodies you’re holding out for.

If you’re feeling particularly courageous, I’d love it if you shared your goals, either in the comments or a post of your own.

 

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Warm Soft Money: Featuring Readers' Mission Statements

^{Image by Bethan}

 

Later on this afternoon, I'm going to let loose Step 2 of Warm Soft Money. But before we go on, I want to highlight the very brave souls who left their personal mission statements in the comments.

The first personal mission statement was left by someone who was new to my blog and had never commented before. That warms my cold, hard heart. (ok, you know I'm a softie, but don't tell anyone!)

Djanira Cortesao had this to say:

Hi Brigitte

I found you via Creating Fame. I really loved this post.

Here's my personal mission statement.

I am the enthusiastic and earnest explorer who continuously tries to improve herself and make the world a better place. If I spot a problem I want to fix it, if I see an opportunity to create something positive then I want to get involved. I'm always looking to learn new things and share my knowledge with the intention of helping others improve their lives or expand their horizons.

My mission is to live healthily and harmoniously in mind, body and soul. I want to learn all I can about all aspects of our incredible world: nature, different cultures and societies and our internal/spiritual selves ... and share this knowledge with others.

I love the usage of explorer in this statement. I think the beauty of a well-crafted mission statement is that it gives you a touchpoint as you navigate through life.

 

The next mission statement comes from Elizabeth of Betty Hatchett Design:

Okay, since there is now officially a fire under my butt (thanks for that, btw!), here is my first draft:

I receive the present moment with gratitude and honesty

I approach the world with curiosity and wonder

I embrace my vulnerability and failures as opportunities for greater insight and deeper expressions of love and contribution.

I hope for and work toward the redemption of discarded, forgotten stuff, dreams, and people

I practice dedicated rhythms of art making and cultivate artistic community

I create compelling art and design for intangible things (ideas, callings, businesses, stories, philosophies, observations, feelings) that are good (honest, generous, excellent, just)

I cherish my partner and my loved ones and allow them to care for me too

I make and enjoy food as way to care for myself, my loved ones, and the earth

"I approach the world with curiosity and wonder." Love this! Thinking I might steal it and add it to my own.

I'll be back in a few hours with the second installment of Warm Soft Money.

 

And...Thanks to everyone who has commented or linked to the series, with our without a mission statement!

 

 

Hearth to Hearth: Zen Peacekeeper

Today, we're off to New Zealand to visit with Marianne Elliott. I am NEVER at a loss for words, but I have written and re-written this introduction a zillion times, and I am still struggling to communicate my love and respect for Marianne. You're about to find out why...

Let’s start with first impressions. What is the personality of your hometown?

Paekakariki is a small-town girl at heart. She keeps chickens, grows her own vegetables, makes jam and shares the bounty with her neighbours, with whom she likes to share a cup of tea and a chat. She's a poet, who finds inspiration in the shapes the wind makes on her long, sandy beach. She is an introvert who, nonetheless, loves her community. All the same, she likes to keep her finger on the artistic and political pulse of our capital city, so she's happy to be connected by train to downtown Wellington.

 

What is your favorite spot to take out-of-town visitors?

I take everyone for a long walk along the beach and into Queen Elizabeth II Park, to my favorite park bench with a view over Kapiti Island. When we are good and hungry we head back into the village for wood-fired pizza from the Beach St Deli.

How did you choose the location you live in?

I moved to Wellington because that's where all the policy in New Zealand gets made, and I wanted to influence policy. As much as I love the city, I missed my rural/small town roots so I was thrilled when I worked out a way to split my life between the city and Paekakariki. I chose Paekakariki because I could get there on the train from downtown Wellington, because of the community of writers and because of the beautiful beach.

When guests arrive at your home, what is the first thing they notice?

They notice the calm, the sounds of birds and the waves on the shore and the beautiful light. Our home is a place of retreat, renewal and refuge. Guests also notice the vegetable garden, which is bountiful and gets lots of appreciative compliments!

Imagine you’re giving a first-time guest a tour of your home. How will it match the feel of town you live in, and how will it differ?

Our house in Paekakariki is an old-fashioned, slightly run-down cottage filled with comfy furniture and beautiful objects brought home from our many travels. On your first tour you'll be taken immediately out to the garden to see the vegetables, the fruit trees, the grapevine and the honey bee hives. You might stop to sit on the bench with a view over Kapiti Island, and be suddenly struck with the words you need to finish your latest poem. You'll be introduced to the neighbour, who chats over the fence as he digs in his garden. But when you are ready to retreat, the fire will be lit, the curtains will be drawn and you may wish that you could stay in the warm cocoon forever. Like Paekakariki itself, our home is a place to retreat to a simpler way of life, and a space for creative nourishment.

When your guests leave, what is the lasting impression you’d like them to walk away with?

Our home in Paekakariki is a place of deep rest and healing, and of great creative inspiration. When people leave I'd like them to feel renewed, restored and ready for whatever comes next on their journey.

 

Marianne Elliott is a writer, a human rights advocate and my yoga teacher. Part of her purpose in life is to support and motivate others to find and own their own authentic place in the world and their own unique way to serve the world. Visit her website to learn so much more.

 

{Psst...there's more. I've been blogging for a year and a haf now (longer if you count my now-dead other blog). I don't do this. I never do this.

But, Marianne is something special. There's really no better way to put it.

I've taken her 30 Days of Yoga program three times now. I don't think she'll kill me if I tell you that one was for free. And the other was to support her in the Global Seva Challenge.

Marianne is on a mission to raise $20,000, all of which goes to projects suppprting people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

For the cynics in the crowd, yes. There is something in it for Marianne. If she raises the money, she gets to join Off the Mat, Into the World founders Seane Corn and Suzanne Sterling on the the Bare Witness Humanitarian Tour in South Africa.

Guys...Marianne worked on human rights with the United Nations. So...this humanitarian tour thing. Right up her alley.

Ok, so here's the deal. Marianne is about $2,000 short of meeting her goal. If I had $2,000 in my bank account right now, I would give it to her. No joke.

I also want you to know that this appeal is coming from me; I gave Marianne a little heads up that it was coming, but I think she's going to be surprised when she sees this post.

Here's what I'm asking you to do.

Look into Marianne.

See why she is supporting this cause.

And, just consider helping. Because, for real, I don't have 2 grand. Here's the link...

Thanks for listening.}

 

Vitamin B Mondays

by bluebicicletta

 

In light of my manifesto (have you signed on yet?), I'm starting a new column: Vitamin B Mondays*. I mean, standing for depth, and all that it entails is no small order. So rather than skulking through Monday, let’s kick start the week with a 15 minute exercise. Every Monday, I’m going to present a question or small task to help all of us look at the world around us a little bit differently.

I want to start with something in the news. Contentious. Heated.

The recent U.S. election.

So here it is:

Spend 15 minutes looking into the other candidate. So if your side won, look at the losing candidate – and vice versa.

See if you can find one thing on that candidate’s platform that has the potential to better your life.

Just one.

And, if you didn’t vote, or you don’t live in the U.S., simply take those 15 minutes to look into a politician whose job affects your life…and do the same thing. Find one thing that the politician stands for that you deem good and worthy.

That’s it.

Since this is a personal issue, I won’t ask you to discuss your findings this week. If you participate in the exercise and if you’re on Facebook, I’d love it if you used the little button below to “like” this post.

I also started a Facebook group to give you one more way to interact. For now, it’s closed, which means that once you join, the outside world can see that you’re a member but not the discussions within. I’m not promising to keep it that way forever, but I thought it was a good start.

So please join in!

 

*Why Vitamin B? It got me through college.

Wherein I Stand For Something

Hey gang. I finally read Tribes. And Chris Guillebeau wrote a post on starting over. What can I say...forces aligned.

(Hey, Chris! I can spell your last name w/o looking it up now!)

So I started writing my manifesto. It's a new page.

I hope you'll read A Showdown with Whatever. There's a little opportunity for you to get involved, if you choose to.

Much love,