Work On Your Goals One By One

Photo Credit: Jon Sullivan

Have you been working on your goals list? I have. Sometimes, I think I have too many goals. Then I read the motivational books and they say, "list a lot of goals." So I do. I have so many things I am working on that at times it can be overwhelming. But then again, it is better than sitting on a couch watching television! Do you ever put goals down and never look at them again? Maybe come across them months or years later, then think to yourself, "now if I had done that look where I'd be today."? Many times! More times than I like to remember!

One of my goals lately has been to reorganize my upstairs area. It is a place where I store my books on bookshelves, my good clothing, photo albums and our inventory of guitar strings that I sell online. I also had boxes of paper......yes, boxes! Some of that paper is needed and has to be filed. Other, or rather, most of it is junk mail and stuff saved for no real purpose. So in the wood stove that will go! You can not hold onto stuff because you think you one day might need or use it. Out it goes.

I have held onto many books. Books I have read. Books I might one day read. If I haven't read it by now, out it goes. I am reading some books and when I finish them will list them in my Bonanza booth and hope they sell. If they don't sell after a certain period of time, I will take them to my thrift store. My goal is to empty this area out by spring.

So working on this one goal isn't really that hard. I am committing myself to spending at least 30 minutes to one hour upstairs every morning working on emptying out something. Maybe one box of paper. Maybe arranging my photos in an album. Maybe going through my clothing. Maybe finding more books to list in Bonanza. But something. At least do something toward that goal every single day till it is finished. I will always be further along since the day before.

What about you? What goals have you been working on? Have you been doing something daily toward achieving your goal?

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Helping Each Other

Photo Credit: Jon Sullivan

Right now things look bad in our country due to our economic situation. One thing I have noticed is that this seems to make people pull together more. When they are giving each other advice and trying to figure out ways to cut costs and share their knowledge, that means that they are not hard hearted. They are helping each other. As we all know that if we stand together we can overcome.

In a way, this is what social networking is all about. Sharing. Helping each other. Offering assistance and your knowledge to others, often to people you have never met in person. Offering to help someone with no expectation of receiving money or anything from it, is the best thing you can do in this life. Just because you do not expect to receive anything back does not mean you won't. Many times, it could be years and years later that it will come back to you. And if you have done this many times through out your life, then you could have numerous things coming back to you at various times through out your life. That is what it means. To receive you must give. If not money, time, if not time, then knowledge or something else. Sharing. That is the ultimate  To share with others with no thought of receiving a thing.

It is funny, but there are many wealthy people who offer all kinds of programs and help to people.........but always for a price. They say they can't help everyone. Or they don't know if you are serious if you don't pay them some money. I say rubbish to that! You can help whoever you want. But many of those wealthy people (not saying all, just many) have gotten wealthy off those people who can't afford it. If you want to help people that is fine. Write a book. They can always get the book through their local library. But getting them to believe that if they pay a huge amount of money for your help will make them rich.............well, I just have to say again, rubbish! I see it over and over again. People who can't afford it will use their credit card to pay for someone's information. And the sad thing is, they really believe it will make them lots of money. But does it? Never. Or hardly ever.

So I believe you should help each other. That way we can build up everyone around us. Now I don't necessarily mean I can give money to you or buy your products. But when my situation improves I will buy from you first, before I choose a store or another website. I am trying to do this now on Bonanza where I sell books, guitar strings and some other things. If I need something I will look there first to see if another seller has it.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Look Beyond The Clouds!

Photo Credit: Jon Sullivan

I am the type of person who always tries to remain in a good mood and always look ahead. Sometimes that is not the easiest thing to do when things in your life are not going good for you. I am trying to remain optimistic but I have to face it, times are tough! I am working on more than a few plans for various parts of my life. I am one of those people who love to make lists and plans. Not that I always follow them, but I try. If I can concentrate on it, usually I can achieve what I am working for. 

So my first part of the plan is to make a list for our wall. I plan on getting or making a bulletin board. But for now, I will just use the plain old wall. Then it is within sight and I cannot miss it or forget about it. That is what is wrong with my calendar, it is in the kitchen. So I tend to forget about it. Have to have that done before I can go any further.

When life looks bleak, I read motivational books and they really help. I am presently reading Zig Ziglar's book, See You At The Top. It is really good and helps me stay on track and not get depressed. I live with a very depressed person and it can be hard not to let it effect me. I try to tune out all those depressed things said around me all day long. If you have the same problem, remember you must tune it out. It is their problem not your's! Do not let it soak into your mind and brain. Those types of messages from other people are really bad for your well-being.

You can look beyond the clouds! Look at the blue sky behind those clouds. When you get rain or bad weather, it doesn't stay forever. Maybe it seems that way when it is happening, but it will eventually clear up and blue skies will prevail. Life is the same way. Look beyond the clouds, and you will see your way out of the depression you are in. Or at least the depressing things going on in your life. 

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Wordless Wednesday At Little Steps

Photo Credit: Jon Sullivan

Photo Credit: Jon Sullivan

Photo Credit: Paolo Neo

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

You Can Have A Good Attitude With A Little Effort!

Take the right path to good attitude leading you to success!

Do you know what attitude does? It can make or break you. If your attitude is one of very little self-confidence it can cause you to think you can't do anything. You may think you are not capable of great things because you always fail. You know what that does to you? It makes you fail. It is not that you can't do it. It is that you have set yourself up for failure by believing you would fail right from the start! We all know those people who act cocky like they are the best and they seem to have a lot of success. We look at them and say they are lucky. Everything goes their way. Does it? Or is it that they believe in themselves? They believe they won't fail and will be successful. So they are!

How do you develop that attitude in the first place? Some people are lucky enough to have had parents who instilled that attitude in their children right from the start. You know those parents who always told their kids they could do anything? Then there were the kind of parents who held their children back. They would tell them "Oh you can't do that," for whatever reason. Sometimes it was a teacher who developed that positive attitude in a student. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said he had a teacher light a fire under him, and he went from having absolutely no self-confidence, to being known for positive thinking world wide!

If you don't have that attitude you can develop it no matter how old you are. You can teach yourself to think positive. You can read positive thinking books. I highly recommend the books written by Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Donald Trump, Anthony Robbins and The Bible. You can go to seminars, listen to audio books in your car and view dvds about becoming a success. But, remember all the books and seminars can't make you really believe in yourself...............you have to do that yourself!

Today, make a little list of five, only five good things about yourself. You don't have to share it with anyone. Just yourself. And they have to be GOOD things. Read it in the morning when you first get up. Then every night look at it again, and add another attribute about yourself. I am sure you will discover many good things about yourself as you work on this little exercise. It is just the beginning, but I am sure you will start to understand what I am talking about.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Others Creating Your Content

Photo Credit: Public Domain Photos

One of the ways that money is generated on the computer is by websites that have others who create their own content. When an author writes a book all their content is in their own book. But now things have changed. The content is all over the internet on many different websites. Like eBay did when they started out with sellers creating their own listings. Then other sites, such as Amazon and others followed suit. They just operate the site and the sellers create the listings, add their own photos and the site collects the fees from the sellers and the sellers interact with the buyers. That is nice way to do business.

Look at the way the blogging software sites do the same thing. Bloggers write the text and promote their own blogs and the people who read the blogs keep the bloggers fired up to write more. The blogging software sites such as Google and WordPress make money off the ads on the sites. What a great way to do business. No writing, just have a site that can operate fairly easy and let the people who use it generate all the content for it. I like that concept pretty much.

On the internet there are new rules and new ways of doing business, writing, selling or just interacting with friends. Everything is about content. Writing text. Writing ads. Writing copy for the products you sell. You need to know how to write for whatever audience or market you are trying to reach. But if you have a platform that means others are doing that for you....wow, then you are onto something!

Whatever you decide to do to create your many streams of income, one of them should be an online presence for sure. The internet is creating many multi-millionaires every day. Maybe you don't want to be a millionaire, but just be comfortable and not stressed over bills. I can understand that. That is what I want too. I hope I have given you some ideas of where to start or things to at least think about. The potential is within all of us. We just have to find it and develop it.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Too Many Bills Can Be Stressful

Photo Credit: Public Domain Photos

Have you been guilty of juggling bills, credit cards and your paychecks? This is one of the most stressful things that people do. I know, as I am guilty of it also. Trying to make enough to cover all your bills and buy food too, is the one of the hardest things we have to do in our modern way of living. I think it was probably hard in the old days too, but we have too  many added expenses that did not exist then.

These days even the Social Security Administration tries to fool us into thinking the cost of living hasn't gone up in two years! That is so they can get away with not giving the cost of living raise to Social Security recipients. Who do they think they are fooling? We all know there has been a HUGE increase in the cost of living! Just tell the truth and say, "We cannot afford to give you a raise for the second year in a row."

There are ways to save money and shave some cents off your bills. It takes some thorough planning though. You have to make a list and work from that. Bills to pay. Food to buy. Gas to buy. It goes on and on. The only way around that, is to find out how much more money you need each month. Then find a way to add that much income to your present income. It is not easy, and don't let anyone tell you it is.

How many times do you feel overwhelmed by those feelings over your bills? Not enough income to go around? Having a home based business sounds like a great idea in the beginning, but it is also another expense. Especially in the beginning of getting it started. It could take months or years to get any money coming in to your business. And even then, it may not be enough to let you have a paycheck from it.

Here are some ideas of things I have done in the past:

• 1. Sold lots of used items I had here at home on eBay.
• 2. Sold some new items on eBay and on my own website that were drop shipped from a distributor.
• 3. Did some home care for some elderly ladies nearby.
• 4. Sold an ebook that I wrote and created and sold on my website.
• 5. Sold some used books on Amazon.
• 6. Sold some items on Bonanza and am still doing that today.
• 7. List some items on craigslist, though I don't have much success with them, my friend does.

If you have some ideas you would like to share leave them in the comments section. Little things add up. Even if you think it doesn't matter, a dollar here and a dollar there do make a difference. It doesn't sound like it does until you look at the big picture over time.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole