Change

I have a brand new computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer. I'm back online. So, now I get to learn all the new stuff. It is a big relief to be able to Google something and have it come up instantly since my old computer was so slow I almost had to go to the grocery store while waiting for it to come up! I'm just about finished with getting all the broken stuff fixed in the house, although some of it turns out not to be fixable. Technology is great, but I hate feeling so helpless and incompetent when it doesn't work.

Procrastination

Oh dear! The enemy of all personal progress - PROCRASTINATION! The only way to overcome procrastination is will power - right? No, no, no! Absolutely not. The answer is to embrace it. You need procrastination for the soothing of your soul and the energy it provides for creativity. Wasting time is not really wasting time. The trick is to schedule it so that you have free time to look forward to. Mark off a bit of time in your calendar every day and use half of it for working on creating the life of your dreams and the other half for whatever (mindless t.v., romance novels, watching squirrels). Be disciplined about goofing off. If you aren't, you're just asking for procrastination to de-rail your progress.

Finances

We aren't born knowing how to handle money. Many of us didn't learn when we were children. Unless we made it our business to learn the principles and skills of personal finance, we probably are still going by what we picked up from the popular culture. If that's so, we are most likely operating on the principle that the object of personal finance is to have as much money and high-priced stuff as possible - whether any of it has anything to do with the life of our dreams or not.

Having learned about personal finance late in my life, I'm a great proponent of tracking income and outgo down to the penny every single day. I know - that sounds really anal. On the other hand, if I were working for any business, that would be required of me because it's very good business practice. If it's good business practice for someone else, why would I want to shortchange myself? The point of all that tracking is to make sure my money goes where I choose and not where my subconscious chooses (which is probably based on what I saw on t.v. or what I saw someone else had).

Once the habit of taking care of my money like I am a business (which I am) is well established, it only takes a minute at the end of the day to check and see whether the money in my pocket is the same as it shows on my records for the day. If I wrote any checks, they should be recorded in my checkbook register. If I charged anything, I should have the receipt. If I spent cash, I wrote that down on an index card.

Day by day, by keeping daily track of my money, I am aware and totally conscious of where my money goes. Often I notice that I spent little dabs on money unconsciously and when those little dabs are added up at the end of the month, I would have had a big start on a big vacation! The more I'm aware, the more I spend money according to my actual wishes!

Overwhelm

Another one of the barriers to creating the life of your dreams is to look at your goals and simply freak out. I think that most people in this time have WAY too much to do anyway and overwhelm is epidemic. Difficult as it may seem, there's a simple answer to this problem: make a list, prioritize the list, break down each task into smaller parts, prioritize those parts and begin at the top of the list. Keep going. It works.

Problem - Lack of Money

One of the most famous excuses is that you can't do what you want to do because you don't have enough money. By now, if you've asked people to help you with brainstorming, you have at least a small circle of friends you can ask for help. You don't need to ask them for money. All you need to do is take your list of what you need and ask them for ideas. There's a good chance you will find what you need for free or at least very cheaply. I know someone, for example, who lived in a huge furnished house for a couple of years, rent and utilities free, because the owners had moved out of town and needed someone to stay in the house until it sold. He needed a place to live inexpensively until he paid off his debts. Both people got what they needed. By the time the house sold, he had paid off his debts. Everyone was happy. Don't be afraid to ask for help instead of being stuck in your excuse of lacking money.

Mental Clutter

What kinds of things are on your mental to-do list that you haven't taken care of? Do you think about them from time to time and your heart sinks? Do you feel just a little bit guilty or anxious when you think about them? If so, those thoughts are stealing your energy and your ability to move forward with creating the life of your dreams. Here are some of the things that are on a lot of people's to-do lists, that they know they should have done a long time ago but just haven't gotten around to it:

. Making a will.
. Saving enough for an emergency fund.
. Getting a Power of Attorney so that someone can take care of your business if you are
incapacitated.
. Getting an Advance Directive so that your family will know your wishes in case you are dying and can't say what you want.
. Paying off your debts.

You aren't alone. No one really WANTS to do this stuff. But we know we should. And we feel bad about it. But we don't do it. So, make this the year that you get this stuff out of your head and accomplished. You will feel like a truly grown up, responsible person. You will love that feeling. And you will love the sudden burst of energy you will get when you check that stuff off your list!

Spring

All the commercials are revving us up for spring. But instead of going out and buying everything they're selling, let's clean out clutter instead. If you have closet, garage, drawer and kitchen clutter, spring is always a good time for getting rid of it. It's warm enough to be outside when taking trash to the trash. However, the solid trash is probably not as important as getting rid of the mental and emotional clutter. I don't know about you, but the things on my to-do list that have been there for a long time, take up space in my mind and heart, not leaving enough room for creating the life of my dreams. When I get stuck and am not moving forward, sometimes clutter is the reason. It's worth taking time in the spring to make sure clutter is gone, which leaves room for creativity.