Working with that 'one thing' and a free 2009 financial book

Hi Everyone!

How are those resolutions coming along? If you're trying my 'one thing' concept, then you are working on making small changes on one goal right now.

The idea of doing one goal a month for last year was not a planned event. I just wanted to get my house to be neater and began to work on it. I noticed that by the end of the month, the house was staying much more organized than it ever had and all I had done was to put things back every time I used something and resisted putting something down 'just for now.' The good old 28 days makes a habit rule had kicked in.

As I went along during the month, I used a phrase over and over again until it was as stuck in my head as "It's a Small World" does at Disney (sorry if I just stuck that song in again!). I just said "pick it up, pick it up, pick it up...or put it back, put it back, put it back." I said it often in a kind of sing-song way...and it worked. It's still tucked away in my brain when I go to put something down that i should put away.

Sound too simple?? It is...most strategies that work are very simple. And that's a good thing. Who needs one more complicated, worrisome thing on our plate? It's the same repetition strategy that advertisers use to get their product stuck in our heads.

Give this a try...it's relatively easy and it works. Find a simple phrase to say to yourself as you begin to change that one thing you want to change this January...it could be as simple as "breathe" or "eat slowly" or "stretch" or "smile"....and start to reap the benefits of getting your life to reflect who you really want to be.

PS...Here is a great financial tool for this troubled year. Financial guru Suze Orman has written a book to help us navigate tough times and she is offering it for free on Oprah.com. Click here to download it.

Do you make New Year's resolutions?

Happy New Year!!

I hope the holidays were wonderful for you - even the tricky parts dealing with relatives and maybe not having as much money to spend as in previous times. Mine was crazy and hectic and fun especially the time when all the generations in my family play board games after Christmas.

So here it is January again and if you're like most people, you're resolving to make 2009 better than '08. Seems especially tough to do despite our best intentions. So many things pull us away from our goals - well intentioned friends and family members, busy schedules, overwhelming negative news (shut it off please or at least limit it!!) and worst of all, our own brains that don't really want us to change at all.

So what to do? Here's what I did last year. I didn't make any resolutions per se. I decided to change one thing per month. Just one. By doing that, I changed 8 big areas of my life (Ok, I know there are 12 months but I'm really OK with 8 big changes!)

By focusing on only one thing at a time, I wasn't overwhelmed with the huge list of changes. I could deal with one issue slowly and master it. As many of you know, it takes 28 repetitions or days to build a habit. With a month being 30 days, it was perfect. After a month, the new behaviors was a part of me..and they still are.

Here's what changed for me in 2008:
* I now have a much neater house
* I have a much better handle on my finances
* I increased my business income 100%
* I got my singing voice back and went back to theatre
* I dropped my cholesterol 50 points
* I either renewed or began several new friendships/relationships

If I can do this, without a doubt, so can you. If you'd like to try this technique,this week, pick one thing you want to change and start slowly to work on just that.

Check next week's newsletter for tips on working with that one thing (and don't beat yourself up if you're not perfect at changing...I certainly wasn't!!)

Here's to a fabulous 2009!

Happy Holidays!

Now that I've gotten my email squared away again on AOL, I can go back to sending newsletters. I've missed writing but have gathered a few thoughts to share with you this holiday season!

1. Keep your spirits high. Stay as far away from all the negative news as you can and revel in the joys that this time of year provides - get togethers with friends and family, beautiful decorations to see (remember you don't have to own them to enjoy them), foods made for celebrating, time off.

2. Help those around you if you can afford the time and money. Frequent the little shops and restaurants who need your business to survive (one of my favorite little health food stores closed recently and the newspaper reported that if each customer had spent only $15 more dollars there a week, they would have survived!), donate to the local food bank if you can. help a neighbor shovel out their driveway (a big
thank you to my former student Chris who plowed me out of over a foot of snow this past Saturday even though he had been up all night and was swamped with work! Great to see you again!!)

3. Shop and help kickstart our economy. If you have the money - and not everyone does to be sure - spend some and help keep people's jobs. I heard this on CBS Sunday morning. Don't let the news make you think that things are worse than they are. Part of the downfall of the economy is the rumor factor. If you can afford to spend (not run up credit card charges), do so and do your part to get things going.

4. Send a greeting card to someone who isn't expecting one. My former sister-in-law who is in the military gave this address to send to a soldier recuperating. Find an organization in your country that might benefit from something as simple as a greeting card. Here's the address she gave:
A recovering American soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

5. Decide to make 2009 your best year ever despite the news, despite resolutions that tend to fail, despite anything that has happened in your past. We human are capable of so much more than we often realize. Often all it takes to create the lives we want for ourselves is to just decide. I've made that decision for 2009 and have made the commitment to share what I've been lucky enough to learn these past months and years with others so that they to can create happy, healthy, and prosperous lives for themselves and those they care about.

Happy Holdays!