Being Thankful

Thanksgiving is only a couple days away (where did this year go…)! In an effort to bring the year to a close on a positive note, I’d like to outline the things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving:

• My health.
• My loving family and supportive friends.
• Being gainfully employed with great benefits.
• Slowly building my savings and retirement funds.
• Being weeks from completing my Master’s degree (whoop!).
• Living in a part of the city that I love in an awesome apartment.
• Being relatively young and having fun milestones to look forward to personally and professionally.
• Having been able to afford to travel for pleasure this year.
• I could go on, but I'll stop here.
  

I don’t often take the time to think about how many things I really have to be thankful for, so I plan to do this more often in the future. In general, I think it’s so easy to get caught up with focusing on what we don’t have and goals that haven't met instead of focusing on the considerable abundance many of us have in our lives. Life isn't perfect and things don't always work out as planned, but that's what makes it interesting!

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Has the art of letter writing died?

A recent coversation prompted me to remember writing letters during my childhood. During elementary school when one of my childhood friends moved away, the primary way we kept in touch for several years was through letter writing. I remember the excitement I'd feel when my parents would take me to this children's store called Zany Brainy (anybody else from the Philly area remember that store?), where I'd pick out stationary and stickers to decorate my letters before writing and mailing them. I'm sure those letters are still somewhere in my mother's house, maybe I'll look for them next time I'm home for a trip down memory lane. I even had international pen pals for brief period after a trip I took to Italy and Africa right before I started high school.

I'm sure children and adolescents no longer write letters, as social media, instant messaging and emailing are the accepted forms of communication for younger generations now, and though I love keeping in touch with friends and relatives through Facebook, Twitter, email, texting and staying in touch with professional acquaintences through Linked In; I miss simpler times, when I'd pull out my nicest stationary and compose my thoughts into a letter.

Though letter writing has more cost involved (stationary, pens, postage), it's a more personal way of communicating, and you know that a person took the time, to write you AND locate a Post Office or Mail Box to send you the letter. For this reason, though it's sporadic some years, I still try to remember to send my close friends birthday cards and have even sent Christmas cards, when most people I know have stopped doing this.

So, before you shoot off that thank you email or 'just checking in' Facebook message to a friend, write them a brief note instead and pretend you don't live in a world where social media and technology aren't such dominant forces in the way we communicate with each other.

Life Balance, Maintaining Relationships and My Finances

I admit, it is a budget stretch when I do certain things like take an occasional trip out-of-town, or travel to my hometown on a regular basis to attend to family commitments and keep up with my friends that still live there. But though I’m not perfect, I do save money monthly, I do save for retirement, and though I have a fairly large amount of debt (largely student loans and some credit card debt), I have very good credit.

So I will be taking a few weekend trips between now and December. If a friend asks me to go to dinner or a happy hour while the weather is warm, if I’m free, I will go. I will be attending at least one family reunion this summer. I will be visiting my father in Florida in the near future (maybe in May?). I’ve learned that it sometimes costs money to maintain relationships with people. I don’t want to look back on my twenties and say, “I saved a bunch of money and got out of debt, but I didn’t make time/spend some money to maintain relationships with my family and friends.” I don’t want to miss family reunions, baby showers, weddings, cookouts, traveling with my aging grandparents and traveling with friends while I’m young. I'll do what I believe I can afford without incurring more debt. I will get my finances in shape, but I will do in on my own terms in a way that suits my life.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my actual birthday, not my blog's "birthday." I am now 25, a quarter of a century year's old. 25 seemed really old when I was younger, but honestly, I still feel like a kid (and often get mistaken for one). I feel old enough to not make immature decisions, but young enough to still reach a lot of my personal, career and financial goals. Even in this tough economy, I still feel very hopeful and positive for the future. Happy Birthday to all of the other Pisces out there!

Is Life Coaching Really Effective?

I am a big reader overall of everything from Toni Morrison and Charles Dickens to Twilight and the Power of Positive Thinking. For quite some time, I've had an interest in books that focus on self-improvement and goal-reaching. In reading books from those genres, I came across Jack Canfield (co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series) who mentions in some of his books, the concept of obtaining a life coach to actualize goals. Since Jack Canfield does offer life coaching through his company, he does have a personal interest in pushing the concept, but he’s not the only one that encourages the idea of having assistance to actualize goals. I guess in theory, life coaching is a good idea. But I can’t help thinking, shouldn’t I be able to coach myself to reach goals? Since my goals for the immediate future lie in paying off debt, increasing my income and becoming a social entrepreneur among other things, life coaching doesn’t exactly fit in my budget. But honestly, if I had the extra money, I’d seriously consider getting a life coach, here are a few reasons why:

1. A life coach can help you sort out the things that matter to you. I know certain things matter to me in abstract ways like equal opportunity in education for all children regardless of socieo-economic background and lessening my negative impact on the environment, but it would be nice to have an objective person help me sort out things that really matter to me, so I can do something about these things at least in some small way. This could also help me evaluate how much time I am spending on things that don't matter to me very much at all.
2. A life coach can help you come up with or refine a plan to achieve personal and professional goals. I could fill several pages or make 10 vision board of different goals and aspirations I have for the present and the future, but narrowing these down and making a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) plan to achieve these goals is another story. A coach would enable me to do this in a more strategic manner.
3. A life coach can hold you accountable for progress made on reaching goals at specific intervals. I am a daydreamer, and without a deadline for things, I could let my mind wander on tasks and goals indefinitely, so being held accountable through regular check-in’s with a life coach would be good for me. I go in between being highly productive and a huge procrastinator, I’m sure I’m not the only one like this.
4. A life coach may be able to align you with other like-minded people out of their network to reach a specific goal. Most people don’t reach goals in a vacuum, and in most cases, reaching certain goals is about who you know, or who someone you know, knows. Read books like Never Eat Alone and The Tipping Point to see the value in your network of personal relationships. I think a life coach who I assume would be a natural “connector” would be able to align me with others that could help my progress on professional goals like starting a non profit, or getting a book published.
5. If nothing else, fear of wasting money (and time) will motivate you. I hate to waste money, and I also hate to waste the time of others. Not doing either of these things would keep me on task if I was working with a life coach.
   

In this difficult economy with so many people facing or living through job loss, reevaluation and reinvention are ideas that can jump start a stale career, or open the door to another one. A life coach may be the first step in doing these things. But I think, if funds don’t allow, we all might have to start serving as our own life coaches.

Any body else have any views on if life coaching really helps you to reach goals?

I am thankful for...

I am thankful for my family, friends, my health and the promise of the future. Today is a day not to obsess over the little things like how much further I have to reach my personal and professional goals, but give thanks for the big things, like spending the holiday with my loved ones. I hope any one who is reading this is able to do the same.

Happy Thanksgiving!

People seeking to make a quick buck off of the Inauguration

Since I live in the District, the whole city has been buzzing about the Inauguration activities that will be taking place in honor of President-elect, Barack Obama. I am excited about the prospect of being so close to all of these activities, but I since I don’t have personal or professional connections (working on it though!) to take advantage of to gain entrance to any events (so far), I am relegating myself to events open to the general public. I would like to attend at least one Inauguration Ball partially because of the opportunity to be apart of a historical event and partly because I love to dress up.

One thing about this whole flurry of Inauguration talk that I hear everywhere from work, to conversations with friends, to overhearing random tidbits of convos on the Metro is: Where will out-of-towners stay because it is virtually impossible to get a hotel room anywhere near DC? Homeowners are taking advantage of this fact by attempting to rent out rooms and even their entire homes to out-of-town guests coming for the Inauguration. Washingtonians plan to rent out their homes for astronomical prices to make some quick money.

I respect your hustle if you plan on going through the headache of finding reliable tenants, clearing your home of personal effects, and being prepared for any damage your short-term tenants could inflict on your personal effects or property. Since I rent and don’t own my place, I am not taking any chances. It’s just not worth it for me…though I live in an ideal part of the city for that sort of thing. I have a good relationship with my landlord and am not trying to mess things up by having subleter’s damage my apartment. But my friends are welcome to come visit me and couch surf to take in some of the events with me if they so desire.

So I’m just curious, would you sublet/rent out your place if you were in the DC area to make some money off of the Inauguration activites?

Get Out and VOTE!!!

I'll leave all of the political commentary to the political bloggers, but I hope that those who haven't voted early get out and vote today. It's not necessary for me to explain who I voted for and why, but I will say that I cast my vote first thing this morning. Your voice should be heard also, every vote counts!

Investing in Meaningful Experiences

Aesthetics matter to me, so having nice surroundings, being able to partake in my interests, and looking my best are kind of important to me. But the older I get, the more I realize, that this does not mean that I should be spending more money than I can comfortably afford to. I am just learning about the dynamics of money, and how you can really pay for money and personal decisions you make when you are young later in life. I definitely want to have more meaningful professional and personal experiences in the future, but I don't want to necessarily spend a lot of money, or incur more debt (than I have already!). To me, meaningful experiences include:

• Spending time with my loved ones (family and friends)
• Adding to my circle of friends and acquaintances
• Learning (hobbies, skills, information, random facts)
• Volunteering my time to causes I believe in
• Traveling
• Daydreaming...which leads to figuring out what I want in life and setting measurable goals to make them happen

Most of these meaningful experiences listed above can either be saved for like travel or cost little to no money, like spending time with the people I deem important in my life. Meaningful experiences don't include shopping or comparing where I am in life professionally, personally or financially to my peers or people I read/learn about. Lately, I have found that I have been looking at my finances (or lack of much discretionary money to spend) as prohibitive to having experiences that I find meaningful, but that is simply not true and not a very positive way to look at life. It's just and opportunity to be more creative. No, I can't just buy that cute dress I saw on my last window shopping excursion, but I can learn how sew and make my own dress (sewing is a long term goal I plan to start tackling in 2009). No I can't take a trip to Europe at the drop of a hat as much as I'd like to. But I can put money aside each month for this goal which will eventually add up to enough money for me to take my European vacation. No I don't have the extra money to spend to go to a hot new club in my city with my friends. But I can invite them over and cook a meal, or we can have another fun, less expensive outing. Your attitude about things really determines weather the glass is half full or half empty, and I choose to be an optimist.

Do you remember where you were on 9/11/2001?

I do, I was in my high school English class my junior year and the whole school started watching the news on television when we heard about the tragedies’ that occurred. Those with friends, relatives in NYC or DC were trying to make sure their loved ones were okay. Take some time to reflect on 9/11 and all of the people who have gone through tragic circumstances such as terrorism, war, political strife, hunger, epidemics, etc. not just in the U.S. but throughout the world. My biggest issues these days are when I will have my student loans and credit card debt paid down so I can purchase a house and achieve other non-essential goals like travel and pursing my graduate degree. I have a lot be thankful for, if you do as well, reflect on that today.