3 Tips When Considering a Face Tattoo

Hip Hop Star Gucci Mane's
head-scratching face tattoo

I'm no stylist to the stars or savvy metro-sexual maven, but here's my top recommendation regarding your appearance to ensure your best chance at getting a job.

Do NOT get a tattoo on your face!!

Call me old fashioned, but nothing says "unhirable" quite like permanent ink above the shoulders. [see photo insert of hip hopster Gucci Mane's triple scoop ice cream cone with lightening bolt accents.]

This little rant of mine was sparked by my commute home this past Friday afternoon, when I was waiting in traffic near a bus stop. At that stop, was a 20-something young man waiting for the next metro bus. When he turned his head I could see a tattoo trail of red drops from the outside corner of his eye that "dripped" down his cheek into a red heart that had to be an inch square on his jaw.

That design might have looked cool when he drew it on the cover of a TrapperKeeper in art class, but it looked absolutely ridiculous on his face. My first thought was, "I would never hire that kid if he came to me looking for a job."

I thought about my snap judgment for the remainder of my commute and I still stick by it. While the young man did not say a word, the ink etching on his face spoke volumes about his decision making ability - or inability.

I'm not against tattoos, in fact many members of my extended family have them, but please don't flaunt your ignorance when you get one by creating an indelible logo to your own stupidity on your face.

But if you insist on living a marginalized life on the fringe of economic survival, here are three tips to consider when getting a face tattoo:

1. Subject Matter - if you want gainful employment, the only acceptable face tattoo would be a mole. I'm not talking about a drawing of a subterranean rodent but of a non-obtrusive circular birthmark - preferably located above your upper lip ala Cindy Crawford.

2. Size - you can get anything drawn on your face, just so long as it is no larger than 1/8" of an inch in diameter. Potential bosses are accepting of naturally occurring blemishes (consider Mikhail Gorbachev), but not 8" inch ice cream cones across the cheekbone. Ben and Jerry's would give Mr. Mane the cold shoulder if he applied for a dipper job.

3. Career in Clownology - if you disregard my suggestions regarding the size and subject matter of your face tattoo, then resign yourself to a career as a clown or a mime. That way your portrait to bad judgment that's dripping red from your eye into a creepy heart on your jawline will be covered while on the employer's clock.

If you can't stop yourself from getting a tattoo on your head, at the very least get a neck tattoo that you can cover with a turtleneck or cascading locks of hair, so you can still get a job. The bottom line - work, life and family are tough enough without the added self-inflicted damage from an absurd face tattoo.

Question: What's the worst tattoo you've ever seen?

5 Ways Leaders Can Instantly Shift Momentum: Guest Post

Michael Hyatt: Chairman, Speaker, Author

Today I have the honor of being the featured article on the weblog of Michael Hyatt , the chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishing which is the largest Christian book publisher in the world and the seventh largest here in the United States.

Michael's site tends to focus on three areas: leadership, productivity and social media.  Here's an excerpt from 5 Ways Leaders Can Instantly Shift Momentum:

=============================================

Every successful leader wants to be a “game-changer.” If you’ve ever watched a televised sports event, you’ve no doubt heard commentators banter back-and-forth about key points in the game where “momentum shifted” in favor of the winner. 

Regardless of what caused an unplanned momentum shift, it’s safe to say it usually occurs among the competitors themselves who are directly engaged on the “field of play.”

However, a team’s coach has the ability to sway a game with planned “momentum shifters.”

Even though a coach—as the team’s de facto leader—might not be the one physically running, catching or participating, a coach has several options at his/her disposal to intentionally redirect momentum.

Here are five strategies a coach can use to instantly shift momentum, which are applicable to other leaders as well:

1. Call a time-out. Experienced coaches use this tactic in virtually every type of competition to give their own players a break, assess the game situation, disrupt the positive inertia of the opposing team, and select the best option for the next moment to position their team to win.
To read the rest of the article, please visit Michael's site at www.michaelhyatt.com.

Success Principle #9 - Chapter Review

I'm reading the latest book from best-selling author Jack Canfield, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

My goal is to write a summary review for each chapter, until I'm finished with the book. You can access the most recent past summary here: The Success Principle #8 - Chunk It Down.

Chapter 9: Success Leaves Clues
Canfield begins this chapter by noting that we're fortunate to be living in this current day and age where anything that you might want to try or achieve has already been accomplished. Regardless of whether it's beating breast cancer, becoming financially independent, starting a business or running a marathon - it has been done and those trailblazers have "left clues" to how they achieved their various objectives in the form of audio/video programs, books, online seminars or workshops.

The author notes that when you take advantage of this information, you'll discover that life is "...simply a connect-the-dots game, and all the dots have already been identified and organized by someone else."  However, it's up to the reader to work the program, use the system or implement the blueprint that's been left behind.

Canfield lists the following five reasons why most people fail to seek out this information and follow the clues:

1. Connecting the dots means hard work, which is difficult;
2. Connecting dots in new ways means change, which can be uncomfortable;
3. Asking for advice or information forces us to face the possibility of rejection;
4. Researching information can be inconvenient and time consuming;
5. It never occurs to us since we've never seen that kind of behavior modeled.

However, just because we've never done it before doesn't mean we can't do it now. Canfield offers the following steps to follow the clues toward your dream:

• Ask someone if you can shadow them for a day and watch them work. Or offer to be a volunteer, assistant, or intern for someone you might learn something from.
• Ask someone who has already achieved what you'd like to do, if you can interview them for a half hour on how you should best proceed.
• Seek out a teacher, mentor, resource, manual or program to help you achieve a major goal.

Ultimately, to accomplish something you've never achieved you'll have to do things you've never done. Learning from your own mistakes is extremely difficult, it's better to learn from the success of others.

Question: What clues have you been following in the wake of  another's success?

How We Treat Money and Kids the Same....

We have all heard stories about the down-and-out individual who has never caught a break in their life but wins the lottery out of the blue.  Then 12 months later the same person is broke and in a worse condition than if they had never won the cash. That same scenario plays out with inheritances or trust fund recipients who ultimately come of age.

Switching gears, we’ve also heard horrific stories of child abuse where a toddler soils their diaper and is put outside on a porch in the dead of winter to “learn a lesson” – but ultimately dies from exposure. Or the numerous reports of a crying child who gets fatally shaken in a misguided attempt by some adult to stop the cries.

The reason for these examples is that children and money have a similar attribute.

I believe that both are external amplifiers of our internal character. Let me explain.

While there might be exceptions, the vast majority of kind, loving and considerate people tend to make great parents who produce great children who echo the traits of those parents. Also, even when loving and considerate individuals have very little disposable income they tend to be very generous in their personal giving and donations.

And that generosity is magnified when they happen to come into new found wealth.

As suggested at the beginning of this article, the same holds true in the negative regarding children and money. If someone is a broken person, when they become a parent they will almost certainly break their children into a shattering mess that can last several lifetimes as the cycle of abuse gets passed on generationally.

And if someone can’t responsibly manage a few dollars they get doing a part-time job, they won’t be able to handle real wealth when it comes their way. Specifically if that person blows every dollar they get feeding an addiction when they have very little, that won’t change behaviors in a cash flow windfall. The addiction will consume everything.

This insight should come as no surprise to any of us since it’s ancient wisdom that dates back nearly two thousand years as is writtne in Luke chapter 16, verse 10:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

The use of the word trust in that passage speaks directly to internal character. And for good or bad, both money and children amplify that internal trait. It’s equally important not to confuse the two – money and children. Too many people would rather hug their money and spend their kids.

Question: Do you think there's a common link between how we treat money and kids?

The Success Principles: #8- chapter review

I'm reading the latest book from best-selling author Jack Canfield, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

My goal is to write a summary review for each chapter, until I'm finished with the book. You can access the most recent past summary here: The Success Principle #7 -Unleash the Power of Goal Setting

Chapter 8: Chunk It Down

The advice that Canfield delivers in this chapter is by far the most practical in the entire book thus far. The concept of "chunking down" that he introduces, is simply the idea of breaking large projects down into component parts and then tackling the smaller "chunks" one at a time until the entire project is complete.

He says this is a necessary strategy to avoid the feeling of overwhelm and inertia that tends to keep people in a state of inaction. It's simply easier NOT to do something when the task at hand seems so large. After you've decided what you really want and have set measurable goals with specific deadlines, the individual action steps need to be identified.

"The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." ~ Mark Twain, Author

Canfield offers an effective technique for getting started, the technique is called mind mapping. A mind map is simply a graphical representation in a single image of all the components of a project with connected dependencies. Here are two examples of a mind map.

 

The one above is very complex and colorful, here's a much more simple example yet just as effective.

There are a variety of formats - but the basic idea is that the goal is at the center; spokes radiate off from it; components, sub-components and tasks are the terminating point of each spoke. Additional lines can be drawn to connect events or tasks that are dependent on each other to create a web. The purpose is to visually capture all the necessary pieces of the project.

There are several mind map software programs out there, Canfield recommends www.mindjet.com. Again, I found this to be the most practical chapter thus far. The mind map concept is one that I have personally adopted on several large projects. This chapter alone was worth the price of the book.

The Success Principles: #7- chapter review

I'm reading the latest book from best-selling author Jack Canfield, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

My goal is to write a summary review for each chapter, until I'm finished with the book. You can access the most recent past summary here: The Success Principle #6 - Become an Inverse Paranoid

Chapter 7: Unleash the Power of Goal-Setting

Thus far in the book, the author has helped the reader articulate a life purpose, a clear vision as well as true needs and desires. The next criterion for success requires the development of specific, actionable goals and objectives. Canfield goes on to cite research that suggests the brain is a "goal-seeking organism" that leverages the untapped sub-conscious aspects of thought - night and day - to work toward the achievement of its goals.

To be useful, goals must meet two criteria in that they must have a measurable "quantity" aspect as well as a definitive time line or deadline for completion. The author offers an example of a bad goal as, "I want to lose weight" while a good specific goal would be "I will weight 185 pounds by 5pm January 1, 2006."

He goes on to say that not only is it important to write down goals to help clarify them, it's critically important to write down big goals that help stretch you as a person. Canfield writes,

"It pays to have goals that will require you to grow to achieve them. It's a good thing to have some goals that make you a little uncomfortable...Because the ultimate goal, in addition to your material goals, is to become a master at life."

Canfield states that one of the critical factors of goal completion is engagement of all creative centers of the brain. One of the best ways to do this is to create a "Goal Book" using a standard three-ring binder with a page dedicated to each objective.

The specific, actionable, measurable goal is then written across the top of the page and the goal is illustrated with photos, images or words on the rest of the page. He says that it's important to review the goal book three times every day to embed these images and ideals within your subconscious level of thought.

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes."

~ Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist and richest man in American in early 1900s

Canfield closes the chapter by encouraging the reader to start setting goals now. He uses the illustration of a map, that once you know where you want to end up - even if you only take five steps toward it every day, you'll eventually get there.

Question: What goal do you need to set for yourself? What is holding you back?

The Success Principles: #6 - chapter review

I'm reading the latest book from best-selling author Jack Canfield, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

My goal is to write a summary review for each chapter, until I'm finished with the book. You can access the most recent past summary here: The Success Principle #5 - Believe in Yourself

Chapter 6: Become an Inverse Paranoid

This chapter has to deal with issues surrounding our perceptions of the people and circumstances around us. Canfield cites his mentor, W. Clement Stone, as introducing to him the concept of becoming an "inverse paranoid." Stone told Canfield that instead of believing that the world was plotting to do him harm, Stone chose to believe that the world was actually plotting to do him good.

Rather than viewing every difficult situation as a negative circumstance, Stone consciously decided to see it for what it could be - something that might potentially empower him, advance his cause or enrich him. 

While the idea might seem far fetched at first - especially to someone in the midst of a difficulty - the reader is asked to think about a time in life when something that happened was initially viewed as "terrible" but ultimately became a blessing in disguise.

This is a common experience for most people and is embodied in the following quote by famous author, Napoleon Hill:

"Every negative event contains within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

Canfield punctuates this point with the homespun wisdom that the more you look for the good in life, the greater the likelihood that you'll find it. According to the author, this is the exact trait that is common amongst all super-successful individuals that he has ever interacted with.

A good action step he recommends to take toward adopting this habit yourself is to right a small note on a 3" x 5" card or Post-It that reads, "What's the opportunity that this really is??" and then prominently place it by your computer or on your desk as a continual reminder to look for the good.

Question: What challenging situation are you facing that might contain a hidden opportunity?

Are You a Quitter??? Attend the Conference and Become One...

I just received this email below regarding Jon Acuff's upcoming Quitter Conference next Saturday, 7/30. If you're trying to bridge your day job with your dream job - you should consider attending this single day event. 


I'm not an affiliate of his, I'm not being paid to post this - I just really believe in his message that each of us can affect a change in the world, but we need to change first. This conference should be a kick start to your dream job. 


If you've never heard of Jon, you can read my review of his newest book by clicking here: Book Review: Quitter by Jon Acuff


==================================================
Your dream job starts in Nashville.

You have the book—now take the next step to your dream job. Join Jon Acuff, author of the best-selling new book Quitter, in Nashville, July 30, at The Quitter Conference.
 
This inspirational event is packed with practical insights for reaching your dream job. Ben Arment, founder of Dream Year, will also be there!

You'll discover how to:

• Figure out what your dream really is.
• Beat the 3 biggest fears that keep you from pursuing your dream.
• Create, organize and execute 10 times as many ideas in half the time.
• Use social media to build the one thing every dream needs to succeed.
• Recognize the 6 signs it's time for you to jump. 

It's time to close the gap between your day job and your dream job.  It's time to be a Quitter. Join us for The Quitter Conference in Nashville, TN, Saturday, July 30. Tickets are only $99, so register today! Give your dream the one day that can change everything!

The Success Principles: #5 - chapter review

I'm reading the latest book from best-selling author Jack Canfield, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

My goal is to write a summary review for each chapter, every day until I'm finished with the book. You can access the most recent past summary here: The Success Principles #4 - chapter review.

Chapter 5: Believe in Yourself

In this current chapter Canfield expounds on the point that an individual can not exceed the personal vision that they have of themselves - simply stating that to achieve your dreams in life you have to believe that you're capable of making them happen.

The most meaningful insights this chapter provides center around the idea that believing in yourself is a choice, or an attitude that one has to have regardless of past circumstances, lack of education, parents, trauma or upbringing. For instance, the author notes that many people tend to blame their personal failures on a past cycle of abuse or poor child-rearing skills of their parents growing up. 

While Canfield acknowledges that past reality, he states that it is up to each of us to not let that type of negativity cripple our present and future successes. He writes, "If you assume in favor of yourself and act as if it is possible, then you will do the things that are necessary to bring about the result. If you believe it is impossible, you will not...it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."

The chapter features several examples of individuals who were able to work hard and achieve success despite significant setbacks. Canfield notes that 20 percent of America's millionaires - that's one-out-of-five - never attended college. He uses that stat to highlight the fact that belief in yourself is critical to overcome obstacles such as a lack of formal education. The chapter closes with this quote from Olympic gold medalist and tennis champion, Venus Williams:

"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. That's what makes you a winner."

Question: What is keeping you from being able to believe in yourself? 

The Success Principles: #4 - chapter review

I'm reading the latest book from best-selling author Jack Canfield, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

My goal is to write a summary review for each chapter, every day until I'm finished with the book. You can access the most recent summary here: The Success Principles: #3 - chapter review

Chapter 4: Believe It's Possible
This chapter is one of the shortest in the book at four and a-half-pages in length. Canfield starts off with a saying by Napoleon Hill, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." The author then notes that scientists have long believed that the human brain primarily responds to information that flows into it from outside sources.

The Success Principles: #1 - chapter review

I'm currently reading a book by Jack Canfield, co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul series, titled The Success Principles, which comprise 64 different lessons that Canfield has learned during the past three decades as as a highly-successful entrepreneur, instructor, best-selling author and keynote speaker.

At the same time, I'm currently participating in a few different blog writing challenges to improve my writing and traffic to this site. To achieve those goals, I'm going to write a summary review for each of the 64 Success Principles highlighted within each chapter of the book.

My intent is to provide content that's interesting and beneficial to you. Please let me know if you find this extra information helpful!

Chapter 1 - Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life


As the chapter title suggests, none of us is entitled to blissful personal relationships, a meaningful career, unlimited happiness or physical well being. Each of those attributes of life are conditional according to our individual efforts to secure or achieve them.

Canfield stresses that anyone with a successful mindset needs to accept their personal responsibility for every aspect of their existence including: income, fitness, debts, feelings, relationships - everything! Unfortunately, many of us are conditioned to blame our situation on a series of externals, which shifts responsibility away from us onto "others" whether it's parents, teachers, the media, the church, employers, the government, spouse or any number of other things.

Canfield rejects the premise of that blame game by introducing an elegant formula:

E + R = O
(Event + Response = Outcomes)

In a direct quote from the book, Canfield describes the underlying basis for this model.

The basic idea is that every outcome you experience in life (whether it is success of failure, wealth or poverty, health or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event or events in your life.

The author encourages the reader to apply the formula to any area of their life to help change the desired outcomes. The bottom line of this chapter is that each person is in charge of their respective feelings, actions and outcomes. If you want to be more successful then it's up to you to act in ways that produce more of what you want.

Question:
Do you agree with Canfield's premise that you ultimately control your ability to succeed and levels of success?  Do you think his formula (E+R=O) is useful?

Will This Mean the End of Facebook?

James Best Jr./The New York Times

In case you missed it on Tuesday, Google launched another attempt to out-friend Facebook. The service it launched is called Google+.

It looks and functions a lot like Facebook, but a key difference is that under the marketing banner of enhanced privacy it allows you to share status updates, photos, videos, links...etc with exclusive groups of friends - not the entire Internet or even your entire list of friends.

Currently if you click the "share" button on a Facebook posting, everybody in your friend list is notified. That's one of the benefits of Facebook from an advertising and marketing standpoint is its viral potential and "word-of-mouth" referral capabilities - but it also raises privacy issues and other unintended consequences.

You can check out the full article here ->  NY Times Story About Google+

Question: Would you consider switching to Google+ or just adding it to your "social media" menu?

Book Review: Quitter - by Jon Acuff

Most books in the business/self-help genre end up being a boring read that needs to be set aside then picked up at a later date.

That was NOT the case with Jon Acuff's latest non-fiction work titled Quitter - I could not put this book down.

At its core it's a book about dreaming - specifically regarding your dream job - yet Acuff's impassioned tone and engaging style takes this book far above the typical self-help-career-guide fare.

Acuff writes from his own personal and professional experiences to craft a text that is imminently relateable to anyone who has been in a sub-par work experience.  One of the key insights he makes is that identifying your dream job is not so much about discovering what you want to do, but rather recovering those things from your past that most enlivened, invigorated and fulfilled you.

According to Acuff, it's those things that will help point you toward your dream job, as will as asking yourself questions such as, "What do I enjoy doing regardless of the opinions of others?" or "What do I do that causes me to lose track of time because I'm so engaged?"

Another telltale identifier of your dream is whether or not it involves risk. Acuff writes, "Every dream has risk associated with it. Some might have more than others, but each dream comes wrapped in some degree of risk. If it doesn't, it's not really a dream."

The author than offers three unique metaphors for filtering perceptions of dream risk involving a magnifying glass, kaleidoscope or telescope - each resulting in a different follow-up and outcome. I’m at a loss to explain how the elegance and obviousness of those metaphorical perception models have not seen print prior to Quitter.

It's also important to note that this book addresses the importance of balance in the pursuit of your dream. Balance of time, commitment, your family, your hustle and your day job.

The aspect that makes this book highly readable and relateable is that Acuff writes about his own real-life experiences, hopes and stories - those are much more compelling than the typical clever action steps or checklists toward success that are common in such books.

Sometimes life is messy, which makes Acuff's message relevant and well worth reading and re-reading. But be advised, that once you start reading Quitter it may be difficult to stop.

Here's the link to his book's trailer. You can also read his entertaining blog at http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/

Meeting a Living Idol.....

Me and Jack Canfield, author of
Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
We're holding a copy of my book.

Last week I had the privilege of attending a marketing workshop that included a full-day with Jack Canfield (see photo) the best-selling author of the "Chicken Soup for The Soul" series and speaker.

It was an incredible experience to have access and interact with Jack for eight hours. Especially when you consider the following:

+ He has sold more than 500,000,000 (that's half a billion) books globally in less than 18 years.

+ His books have been translated into 40 different languages.

+Nearly 90 percent of respondents to a recent Harris Survey knew and understood what the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" brand stood for.

+ More than 200 different target audiences have "Chicken Soup" books (i.e. Golfer's Soul, College Soul, Pet Lover's Soul...etc.)

Those are amazing results. But this connection with Jack Canfield had a deeper and much more personal meaning for me. I've been an avid fan of the "Chicken Soup" series since it was first published in 1993. Specifically, the very first book helped me a lot during a challenging time in my life.

I had graduated from college in 1991 and the nation was in the midst of a recession. Luckily, I had a job as a news anchor/reporter at a small radio station in western New York, but it paid less than $18K a year. Things were tight and thousands in school loans didn't make it easier.

By 1993 I had landed an anchor position at a national radio network (NESE) based just outside of an upstate city. It was a great experience working with outstanding professionals, but as is wont to happen in life - those good times didn't last. The network was sold and the only job I could land was part-time work conducting telephone surveys.

That was the most difficult and thankless job I ever had. I dreaded it and was miserable being chained to a computer that auto-dialed households across the country with two 10 minute breaks each day. I had to bother people at home to try and convince them to answer a barrage of questions that usually took 30-40 minutes. People would be furious by the end of the call.

It was difficult not to internalize the anger and rejection that job generated.

3 Keys to Accomplish the Impossible

All of us face challenges every day and some of those challenges seem like they are impossible to overcome - that failure is the only option. Here's an easy challenge for you. Watch this video below by Frisbee-Throwing Champion Brodie Smith.

Some of the things he does in this video are seemingly impossible, yet he did them. For him to accomplish each of the impossible tricks shown in the video there are 3 keys required:

1.) Vision - anybody who wants to achieve something great or impossible must first be able to believe they can do it. You have to see it occurring in your mind's eye. Athletes and life coaches call it visualization. If you don't have a vision of success to overcome a challenge - you won't.  What is holding you back, clouding your vision and how can it be removed?

2.) Preparation - watch each of the tricks that Smith accomplishes and imagine how many hours of practice enable him to do the amazing things he does. There's no shortcut for that - you have to apply the hustle. In addition to the practice that's required, notice that each of Smith's tricks are set up for the optimal chance of success. Are you willing to log the practice hours necessary to overcome? What other prep is necessary?

3.) Assistance - perhaps my favorite trick you'll see below is at a baseball field where a friend of Smith's is at home plate and spins a garbage can up into the air into which Smith lands a disc. However, that shot and the entire video required the help of others. Smith couldn't do it alone. You'll see or hear one of Smith's friends near the target in almost every scene and running the video. Who can help you overcome your challenge?



I realize that tossing Frisbees around a college campus might not equate to the serious issue or challenge in your life, but can any of the 3 concepts listed above help your situation? What's the one thing you can do today to step toward breakthrough?

Share Your Best Cost-Saving Tip!

What are you doing to save some Benjamins???

If you're burning bushels of dollar bills in your mansion's fireplace while you're also blasting the air conditioning on sub-arctic chill, you probably don't need to read this post.

But if you're like the vast majority of Americans, you want to keep more of your hard earned cash.

Most people are already working as hard as they can to cover their monthly expenses - they simply can't work more hours in a day. So if you can't increase your incoming revenue any further, the only other option to saving more cash is by reducing your outgoing expenses.

You can find dozens of secrets and tips to save money and cut your household costs in the FREE e-book I'm offering 66 Ways to Save Money. Enter your email address in the boxed fields along the right rail of this page to get the e-book delivered to your e-mail box.

What's the best money-saving tip you're already doing?

We Can't Borrow Our Way Out of Debt....

Below is a great article by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey.  His books and programs have helped thousands of families achieve debt freedom. What I really like about this particular piece is that he applies the federal government's spending habits to the annual income of a middle class family - which provides stunning clarity to the woeful money management of our elected officials.  Here's the link if you'd like: www.daveramsey.com/article/federal-budget-vs-household-budget-how-do-they-compare/lifeandmoney_budgeting/?ectid=1105cnlextra_4

Patience is Still a Virtue – Even in an Age of Instant Gratification

Patience Personified
First Lady Martha Washington

Went to weigh-in today as part of my weekly WeightWatcher ritual and held steady with a big ole’ zero pounds lost or gained.

While one week of weight neutrality does not a plateau make – it offers an opportunity to talk about patience. It took time for me to gain my weight in the first place and it’ll take time to lose it.

The same concept applies to all of us who seek to pursue other worthwhile endeavors whether it’s growing a customer base, completing a college degree, reducing debt, getting a certain type of license or building a relationship.  As unfashionable as it sounds, those efforts require patience.

The trusted saying “Patience is a Virtue” seems outmoded and outdated to our current expectations, which have been sharpened by immediate downloads, microwave meals, a 24/7 news cycle, on-demand media, frenetic flash animation and any other example of instant satisfaction you can imagine.

When we don’t get something we want now, we tend to get ticked off.

Where Would You Get Advice???

We’re awash in an ocean of experts. You can’t flick on a cable news or daytime-talk show without seeing some expert chatting about child psychology, reducing personal debt, losing weight, the political climate, global warming…etc.

Whether It's Black Diamond Skiing
or plumbing - sometimes you need an expert

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good expert!  When I used to be a news reporter, building and fostering a strong network of quality experts was an important part of the job.  You needed someone to help place the events of the day within a proper context for the news consumer at home.

If there was a huge intra-day drop in the stock market, it was essential to get perspective from a financial investment expert to discuss how that type of event would impact the 401(K)s of Middle America.  Or if there was a violent attack at a high school somewhere in the country, a bona fide news angle was trying to line up an interview with a local child psychologist who might offer tips to parents which might help the child work through the tragedy.

Again, I love a good expert!

But when you’re seeking advice regarding a potentially life-impacting decision what KIND of expert would you prefer?  While there’s a continuum of skill, ability and knowledge that an expert possesses, the vast majority of experts either tend to rely more on their personal “real-world” experience of having gone through the situation themselves versus experts who may lack first-hand experience but have learned from others through observation or through education.

Which type of expert are you more pre-disposed to seek or doesn’t it matter?

I’m well aware that the only answer to that broad a question is, “It depends on the situation as well as a variety of other factors,” – I get that.  But generally speaking would you prefer an expert that has a lot of head knowledge or hands-on knowledge?

Name My Blog Contest!!!

Help Name My Blog!!!

I’ve been writing this blog fairly regularly for more than a year now, and I’ve shared a host of thoughts, feelings and opinions regarding a range of topical areas.  But now, I need your help….

The title of this blog is EXTREMELY clunky – “Comments and Questions of Faith, Family, Finance and Fitness” (yuck!)

I intentionally made the title so unwielding, after I read an article by blogging guru Chris Brogan who stressed the need to, “…write about what you like and include as much of what you like in your blog’s title…” – his rationale at the time was that an overstuffed blog title would help people find it when they typed words in various Internet search engines.

With all due respect to Mr. Brogan, I think it’s time for a grown-up title to help tighten the focus and purpose of this blog.

So, please reply with your suggested blog title in the comment section here or on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/tor.constantino) for the next seven days.  If yours is selected, I’ll send you a $25 gift card to Amazon and a free copy of my new book due later this fall.

Here are the blog title criteria:

1. The title MUST be G-rated;
2. It should complement the topics I typically write about: Family, Faith, Fitness, and Finance;
3. You can submit as many suggested titles as you’d like.

Once a winner is selected they’ll be ceremoniously honored befitting their accomplishment – meaning I’ll write a quick blurb or somethin’ about ‘em.

Be part of hisTORy and please help me name my blog!!!!