Word Of the Week #582: Emulate
September 30, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #582: Emulate
Emulate – to strive to equal or excel, especially through imitation.
Who is the person that you strive to equal? Is there a famous person you would most like to emulate? What steps have you taken to achieve that?
We follow up with Lou Carlozo’s article “THINGS WEALTHY PEOPLE DO EVERY DAY.” This week includes the last three things plus some interesting habit comparisons between the wealthy and the poor.
- They network. Like poor Cubs fans, rich people tend to hang out with each other. They also dedicate time to widening their circles of acquaintance and influence, whether through business organizations, LinkedIn or groups that attract ambitious, entrepreneurial minds.
- They keep learning. Audio books. Avid reading. TED Talks videos. Whatever the forum, wealthy folks are absorbing more knowledge. Corley’s research showed that 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work versus 5% of poor people.
- They rise early. The early bird gets more than the worm, it seems. “Take 100 millionaires from across the world, and I’ll bet you not one of them sleeps in,” wrote Murray Newlands, a startup adviser, investor, and entrepreneur. “The majority of these individuals are up at 6 or 7 a.m. slaving away while the rest of us are still eating pancakes.”
Corley managed to segment out what he calls “rich habits” and “poverty habits,” meaning the tendencies of those who fit in each group. “But, everyone has some rich habits and some poverty habits. The key is to get more than 50% to be rich habits,” he says. Rich people always keep their goals in sight.
I found these additional “habit” FUN-facts at Business Insider.
- “I focus on my goals every day.” Rich people who agree: 62% Poor people who agree: 6% Not only do wealthy people set annual and monthly goals, but 67% of them put those goals in writing. “It blew me away,” says Corley. “I thought a goal was a broad objective, but the wealthy said a wish is not a goal.” A goal is only a goal, he says, if it has two things: It’s achievable, and there’s a physical action you can take to pursue it. Rich people always keep their goals in sight.
- They read … but not for fun. “The rich are voracious readers on how to improve themselves,” says Corley. In fact, 88% of them read for self-improvement for 30 minutes each day, compared to 2% of poor people.
- They make a point of going above and beyond at the office and do more that the job requires. Rich people who agree: 81% Poor people who agree: 17%
- They aren’t hoping to win the jackpot by playing the lottery. Rich people who agree: 6% Poor people who agree: 77%
- They watch their waistline by counting calories every day. Rich people who agree: 57% Poor people who agree: 5%
- And they take care of their smiles by flossing every day. Rich people who agree: 62% Poor people who agree: 16%
This week focus on who you would most like to emulate. How much time do you spend networking? What educational books or videos have you devoted time to? Are you writing down goals that are achievable with an action plan? What percentage of “rich habits” do you already possess?
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FUN-travel: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Bend To Grants Pass, Oregon To Home!
September 29, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Bend To Grants Pass, Oregon To Home!
Mike’s Back Yard
- After a decent breakfast at the Hampton Inn we hit the road. Our route to Grant’s Pass took
Me & My Granddog Max
us over the mountain past Crater Lake. It would have been great to have a chance to see it without snow but the thick smoked sky from the wild fires had rendered it with extremely poor visibility.
- We spent the next two days with our son Mike (and granddog Max) at his secluded hilltop home surrounded by lush forests. It was delightful!
- We headed for home with planned stops to pick up our “wine club” selections. (You can’t drink those darn shipping charges.) Lodi was our first stop at Oak Ridge. We were really lucky as the wine maker was having a tasting and let us join in!
- It was our first time staying at the Bella Vino B & B. They offer four rooms, all suites, in this lovely home right downtown. We had the whole place to ourselves which was divine. The back yard is lush and inviting just like the B & B is. When we arrived the owner offered us a bottle of red or white wine with cheese and crackers. Full breakfast in the morning included fresh fruit, yogurt, eggs, meat and a variety of breads. Bonus – good hot strong coffee!
Smoke Filled Mountain View
FUN-food – Pietro’s Italian Restaurant was recommended by the people at Oak Ridge Winery and it was lovely. The outside patio is expansive with beautiful raised-bed gardens that grow their fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs. The portions are really large and the wine list pretty good.
- From Lodi we headed to Paso Robles with a stop at Clavo and then on to Talley in Arroyo Grande to pick up more wine club selections.
Bella Vino Backyard
FUN-food – Embers in Arroyo Grande is the hip, hop, happening place. It’s not just a restaurant, it’s an event! You need to get there early or there’s a long wait and for good reason. We arrived just before 6 pm and got the last table in the bar by the hostess desk. Great spot for “entertainment” as you get to see everything going on from the kitchen to the bar. Food was excellent (we had a pizza and salad) and our server Jill wonderful. The menu changes every month. We’ll definitely be back the next time we’re in town.
Our Room
Trip FUN-fact – We drove a total of 3105 miles and spent $502 for gas. And it was great not having to deal with airports!
FUN-travel: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Stanley, Idaho to Bend, Oregon
September 25, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: 2nd 2015 Road Trip – Stanley, Idaho to Bend, Oregon
- We headed out of Stanley after fueling up with a big hot cup of java from Peaks & Perks. While I don’t like long drives the only place to stop would have been Burns. And after getting there I was sure glad we kept going to Bend! The best place in Burns – the Safeway! We stocked up and made it to Bend by 4:00.
Old Mill District
- This Hampton Inn was the best so far and Joe at the front desk was extremely helpful. He suggested we have dinner Anthony’s and even gave us a coupon for a free appetizer! It was just a short walk across the river to the Old Mill District. We sat on the outside patio taking in the setting sun and the full moon rising on the river’s edge.
FUN-food – We took Joe’s recommendation on the Crab Cakes (free and most expensive) and had the Bleu Cheese salad accompanied with the fresh Salmon entrée. And of course, a nice bottle of wine!
Anthony’s Patio
- The following morning we met up with our friends Mary and Tom from Portland and spent the day exploring Bend. The downtown is really cute and after checking out where to eat opted for sitting in the bar/lounge of Pine Tavern. Our bonus – on weekends Happy Hour starts at noon!
- After a nice stroll and some window shopping we headed back to the Old Mill District to Deschutes Brewery. We had hoped to get a reservation for a tour but they were all full. Not all bad, as they give you four sample tastings at no charge.
Mary & Me
- Dinner was at the highly acclaimed Greg’s Grill. They offer a pretty diverse American menu and the food and service were good.
FUN-fact – We got a nice big “blue moon” when this July had two full ones.
Our Blue Moon
Word Of the Week #581: Wealthy
September 23, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #581: Wealthy
Wealthy – having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value.
Do you have all the money and possessions of value you want? Have you ever wondered how wealthy people achieve all they have? How much of your attention is focused on attaining the level of wealth you want?
I felt this San Diego UT article “THINGS WEALTHY PEOPLE DO EVERY DAY” by Lou Carlozo was a great follow up to last weeks’ WOW on Attention. This week features the first four things.
“So, what do the well-to-do do daily? That is, besides ask the butler to clear the tablecloth with one of those chrome crumb-scraper things?
It’s true that money can’t buy many things – but some things can buy money, and wealthy people practice them daily.
- They have a to-do list. Tom Corley, the president of Cerefice & Company accounting firm in Rahway, N.J., conducted a self-styled, five-year study on wealthy people (defined as having an annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million or more) and poor people (defined as having an annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less). His results appear in the book, “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.” When Corley asked about to-do lists, 81% of rich people said they kept them, compared to 19% of those in poverty. Two-thirds of wealthy listers complete 70% or more of their daily tasks.
- They keep their cool. To write his 1937 book “Think and Grow Rich,” author Napoleon Hill studied the habits of more than 500 wealthy people. He learned that those who overreact make a poor impression. As Hill wrote in another essay, “Remember that silence may be much more effective than your angry words.”
- They don’t watch TV. The wealthy make productive use of time, as Corley relates on his “Rich Habits” website. Only 23% of the rich watch more than an hour of TV a day, compared with 77% of the poor.
- They read Financial Times. Go ahead, make fun of those salmon-colored newsprint pages; the Financial Times crowd is laughing all the way to the bank. In February, Harvard’s Nieman Foundation ran an article on the Financial Times’ supposed struggles. Its website ranks only 44th in the U.S. business news category, the article stated, but it appears some folks are counting the wrong numbers. The piece also cites FT’s own stats, which estimate average subscriber income at $250,000 while 13% of readers are millionaires.”
This week’s focus is on how wealthy you want to be. How good are you at keeping your cool? How much time do you spend watching TV? Do you have a daily to-do list? What percentage of it gets accomplished?
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Word Of the Week #580: Attention
September 16, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #580: Attention
Attention – the act of mentally concentrating on a single object, thought, or event.
How often do you concentrate on a single object, thought, or event? Do you tend to multi task and not concentrate on any “one” thing? Have you ever spent time doing something but didn’t give it your full attention?
This New York Times article really hit home for me and a great follow up to last week. “What Is Our Attention Worth as an Asset?” written by Carl Richards reads, “Pay attention! We hear this command a lot. People want to remind us to focus on what we’re doing. But I’ve been thinking about a more literal meaning: paying with our attention.
Attention is a currency. We choose how to spend it, just like we spend our time and money. Unlike money, however, there’s no way to store attention for later use. It’s a bit like time; we use it or lose it.
But attention is more complex than just the time it requires. You can spend time on something and still not pay attention to it. I’ve become painfully aware of that point while spending time with my daughter but paying attention to my Twitter stream.
Our attention might be the most in-demand asset we have to offer. We could spend 100% of our attention online, and the internet would still serve up more clickbait begging for our attention.
So given the value of our attention, shouldn’t we pay more attention to how we spend it?
Pretend you woke up tomorrow and someone took all the things you now pay for with attention and switched it to money. To spend time on Facebook, you would have to enter your credit card number. To check out what your friends are doing on Instagram, you would need to pull out that card again. How much time would you spend on Twitter then?
Social media is an easy target, but it provides a great example of how we don’t associate our attention with a cost. We think of certain things as being free, but if it requires our attention, we’re paying a price of sorts. What item on our to-do list didn’t we complete because we spent an hour on Facebook? Did we miss an opportunity to spend time, in person, with a friend? Did we pass up the chance to take a continuing education course that we needed to stay current at work? Did we miss an important appointment?
This concept sounds simple, but in practice, we don’t always realize we’re making a trade. For a week, I challenge you to ask one question before you do anything that seems free: If I had to pay $20 to do this, would I still do it? The price is high enough to make you think, but low enough that if you really want to do something, you’ll feel comfortable saying ‘yes.’
Then, see what happens. What items make you hesitate? What activities feel even more valuable?
The goal is to pause for a moment and ask what our attention is really worth.”
This week’s focus is on your attention. What is your attention worth to you? Is there anything you pay attention to that if you had to pay for it would stop? What are you paying attention to?
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