First I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, although a day late. It is tough at times to find the time to do all the things we'd like. So with that in mind I'd like to also wish everyone a Happy New Year as well. As 2011 comes to a quick close, I have been giving the past year a quick review. The start of 2011 was a rough one with great financial strains throughout the world. I had proclaimed that 2011 would be the year to overcome many of my personal challenges. Financially, 2011 was a roller-coaster ride from hell. Many of us fell off the ride, while others barely hung on to what we had. Here again, from personal experience, I too clung on for dear life. Yes, that's right, I did anything and everything to keep what little I had. January to March was a battle of keeping my home, job and car. Congress was playing with the taxes and delayed my return but in the end I still have all three. I had mentioned in my last blog that I learned many things from my Dale Carnegie training. Getting stressed out over things that might happen can kill you or in the least, make you very ill. Everything that I worried about never came to pass.
March to June looked promising and did fare pretty well, but with summer rolling in the financial woes started again. Robbing Peter to pay Paul seemed to become a way of life. I will tell you from this repeating experience, it DOESN'T work long and only make things worse. Lucky for me, things seem to turn out right, one way or another. July and August brought family issues and concerns that made for a very emotional time. The decisions made during this time governed September. We had to send my oldest daughter to stay with some friends over 1000 miles away. October was a settling month, trying to get things back into some kind of order. November is to be a month of thanksgiving. This is where the financial company for our car lowered the boom. When the statement came, my chin hit the floor. The loan hit it's maturity and I owed a balance of $6000.00 by the due date. Normally I would have panicked, but instead, I analyzed the situation and decided to try for a refinance to the balance. Although the vehicle is blue booked for twice what I owed, no one would refinance it. So I stuck to my guns and kept sending the normal payment. They haven't come for the car and the December statement only states the same as the last but with a lower balance. Again, here is an excellent example of why not to worry about things such as this. December is here and Christmas has come at last. Only days remain of 2011 and now I look towards 2012 with great promise.
So what's in store for me in 2012? Well first, the financial outlook is way better this coming year then last. The 2011 tax return will pay off the remaining balance on the car. This will free up all that money that has been going towards it all these years. With that we can follow some of the principals that I have learned through several financial books I have read this past year. I have vowed not to make the same mistakes that I have made in the past. This will mark a new success in my life and your invited to follow along. Discover the true meaning of Success from within.
Recently, sometime in October, I had traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a service call. When returning, I picked up a few gift items at the airport for my family. I did find an item that I had some time ago and thought I should pick it up. It's called a worry stone. I had one years ago, when worry consumed me and was taking a huge toll on my health. It came from an Irish stand at a mall that explained it's use and why you shouldn't worry. Since we moved several times over the years, my worry stone has disappeared. This presented me with opportunity to revisit it's use. Simpy put, I will use part of my Dale Carnegie training with the help of my new found worry stone. I write my worries down on a piece of paper and place it under the worry stone. If I have new worries I right them down and place them under the stone. After some time passes, a few weeks or a month, I check my list of worries. I have come to find that most of my worries are meaningless and come to pass with no real issues. This is a big key to finding success from within. If we burden ourselves with worries, we'll have no time to realize our successes.
Have a Happy and Wonderful Holiday Season!
