It's been a while and no mistake...

Well I'm back online with a brand new PC due to my last one having a nervous breakdown toward the end of the year. I simply couldn't afford to replace it in the run up to Christmas and even afterwards it took a considerable amount of time to get the money together.

But, as if to add credence to the old adage...


"You can't keep a good man down"

Here I am, although the good man part is still being debated even as I type.


How have you started 2012, with regard to taking steps to improve your;

• Health.
• Wealth.
• Happiness

Are things going the way you'd hoped?


I do hope so. The one thing we all have in common regardless of, ethnicity, background, education, financial resources etc is the ability to take hold of our own life and re-mould it into something else, ideally something that we are proud of.


Don't believe me?


Look around, in your very own neighbourhood, there are countless people who have left the rat-race to start their own businesses or work from home. There are yet more who decided to return to education in order to learn new skills or gain a degree and right at the other end of the spectrum there are people who have turned to drink, drugs and anti-depressants to change their emotional state

There has been a groundswell of local community groups that have sprung up in recent years with the intention to create improvements in their own neighbourhood, now that's personal power, people power at it's finest refusing to sit back and watch their living environment go to hell in a handbag, (I wonder who first coined that phrase and what were they drinking at the time).


So make a pledge here and now, away from all of that January 1st nonsense (which is intrinsically set up to fail anyway) to take a hold of your life and make some changes for the better.


To your impending success.    ; )

Google Adsense, have you heard of it yet?...Should you be using it? (Also see the 2 videos below this post)

Hi there, welcome back to the madhouse, come in take a seat, grab a coffee.

Today is an information based posting related to one of the simplest ways of making some money online. Notice I didn't say lots of money! Some people DO make lots and lots of money from the subject that I will be covering (GOOGLE ADSENSE), but they have (usually) been using it for quite a while and refined their system and carefully honed the way in which they use it. These people also have many, many visitors, followers or subscribers to their page, site or blog every day.

Google AdSense.

I am sure that you have heard of it but you may not actually know what it is. I first heard about Google AdSense a couple of years back. The story, (from a friend of a friend's cousin's boss's cat's dermatologist or some similarly convoluted secondary related nonsensical relaying...Whoa that was a mouthful ) was that the newspapers were saying some guy had lost the shirt off his back and wound up owing Google tens of thousands of pounds and they repossessed his car, his dog, his wife and scooby doo sticker collection and the whole kit and caboodle...wonder what a caboodle is, maybe its a half cat half poodle hybrid...just a thought...

I didn't much like the sound of this ultra risky venture so I moved on and didn't look back. I fairly recently realised that the horror stories relating to bankruptcy and ruined careers were mistakenly attributed to Google AdSense when they were actually related to Google pay per click advertising, which is indeed highly risky if you don't know what you are doing.

Google AdSense is a far more passive way of earning a teeny weeny infinitesimal share of Google's advertising revenue every time a visitor to your site is exposed to such ads, they do this (obviously), in exchange for sharing said ads on your site for exactly the reason I just outlined to get your subscribers or visitors exposed to their ads. You can see an example of google ads in the top left hand corner of my blog page. I am sure that you are entirely familiar with them being plastered all over every page of the Internet, sometimes quite subtly, sometimes everywhere that you look on the page...AKA overkill.

The premise is simple enough to understand, you join the google AdSense programme, totally free of charge, with no further obligation on the part of either party, except to say that your site must be "appropriate" and adhere to their rather obvious guidelines. The advertisements are placed on your site or blog, with the intention of them being relevant to the content found there and relevant to the viewers who "end up there" for one reason or another.

Then for every so many hundred or thousand visitors who visit your page you receive a tiny cut of that advertising revenue payed to Google. this may literally be a fraction of penny but if your site is interesting and entertaining enough to your visitors or subscribers or followers then enough of them will "drop by" and be exposed to them. It isn't essential that your visitors click on them or buy anything from them, just the fact that the ads were placed in front of a multitude of extra people is enough for google to assign value to the service that you the web manager or blogger add to their potential ad viewing numbers.

There is a second element to the revenue that you are paid by Google AdSense.

When people DO click on the links in the ads to find out more about the product or service that is of interesting to them, you receive a larger cut of the advertising revenue from that particular advertiser, we are still talking about pennies usually, occasionally it is a little more than that depending on many varying factors.

I have never had a blog or website before and have never used AdSense previously to a week or so ago, this REALLY IS the beginning of my journey as the title and premise of my blog states. I was not particularly interested in using Google AdSense, but I thought, "what the heck" it's free and I can let you dear reader know what I think of it soon enough. If you do already have a site, I am reliably informed that it would be foolish to not use AdSense on your page.

If you are experimenting with Google AdSense already or have a blog or website and are wondering how to go about including Google AdSense on it, feel free to ask me ANYTHING about it, I will always take the time to help. If enough of you would like further, more detailed information, I will happily include a more advanced post on the topic.

One word of cation with regard to AdSense on your site. I believe that including a few ads on your page is not going to inconvenience or "turn off" your readers and/or visitors, but I often see sites plastered with them as well as having banners on every square inch of the page. I do not like this because when I visit these sites I feel like a visiting "cash cow" ready to be milked by the proprietor who is only interested in providing me with great info and entertaining content as an afterthought.

There are other companies that offer similar services to Google AdSense I will cover these companies later as well as outlining their strengths and weaknesses.

I will be including some videos following this post with a little more info on Google AdSense, the first will be from a lady named Lisa whose videos I ravenously digest on YouTube. The reason I subscribe to Lisa personally is that she doesn't give you half a story for free and then say that you can download the second half for just £5 or $10. She gives great free information and content to those wishing to learn. If you find that you like her simple style (jargon free) then watch some of her other videos on online marketing, website building and so on you will find links to several FREE manuals and E-books they are all simple, packed with information and helpful tutorials that a lot of other folks are charging for. She is very passionate about helping others, because that is what any business is REALLY about, You've heard the old phrase before I'm sure, Its included in every self help or self improvement book out there.

"You can have anything you want in this life if you will just help enough other people to get what they want"

And aside from from that it just makes great business sense to do this, because if you keep your subscribers, readers happy, you will build up an amazing relationship with them based on mutual respect and trust. If you take fast cash from people, deliver junk products or services and move on, you will be forever looking for brand new first time customers whilst building up a reputation as a shyster whom is not to be trusted at any cost.

Something I believe I should mention about my gushing praise for Lisa.

I have never met, do not know and have never had any conversation or contact with Lisa WHATSOEVER, and as far as I am aware she has nothing to sell that I have ever seen, so you are not being pitched to here by me or indeed her.

I mentioned when I started this blog that I would be looking for "free stuff" for you (and me) to help us in our joint pursuit of health, wealth and happiness and trying out various ventures that may help us to move on or grow in any of these pursuits. I believe that introducing you to her work, sites, videos I am handing you something of value free of charge. Oh I should mention that just like me, she is normal! not some "Guru", who you or I could never emulate because we don't have Mummy and Daddies money stuffed under our golden goose feather mattress back at the mansion or 250 staff at our swish new york offices.

I will be featuring videos and help manuals from others but I believe she stands head and shoulders above the rest, purely and simply because she never holds anything back and offers this help free on her YouTube videos, blog and websites. Also I love the fact she has been marketing online for over a decade now and has seen the fads come and go and she's learnt by rolling up her sleeves, getting stuck in and getting involved with the dirty work. Learning from successes and failures is the way to go, don't beat yourself up too badly when it goes wrong and don't build yourself up too tall when it goes right.

By the way...I keep reiterating that she offers what others are charging handsomely for free of charge. How do you think that affects her numbers of site visitors, and how in turn do you think that affects her AdSense revenue?

Seems like a strategy where everybody wins doesn't it? There really aren't enough genuine win/win situations in life!

I hope you watch the videos that I have posted, particularly if you think that Google AdSense may be of interest to you.

Until next time, keep splicing the mainbrace and avoiding the scurvy dogs...(Dear God, I have no idea why I just said that...Oh well never mind).
                                                     Steven  ; ) 
                       

Another video on Google AdSense from Lisa provided for your delectation and perusal Dear reader ; )

Google AdSense video by Youtube's Lisa, as promised above.

Sick of doing somebody else's chores? Maybe it's time to run your own show.

Could you really run your own show?

I'm speaking of self employment of course. Have you ever considered it?

I think we all have at one time or another, it's always struck me as one of those situations where the benefits are endless, you could list them all day, but the potential downside is just as enormous. I don't think it's a decision that could be decided with a pros and cons list.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it could prove incredibly stressful, fraught with problems and at times a series of seemingly endless obstacles.

So why then is it the perceived pinnacle of achievement in the dreams and aspirations of so many apparently sane people? Is it that they are masochistic martyrs who like nothing more than a little self flagellation with a heavily needled spruce branch?

No I don't think so!

I believe it's that on the flip side the numerous positives can far outweigh the negatives. The plethora of benefits include being at the helm of your own ship with a feeling of controlling your own destiny for once in your life, knowing that if things go well you could retire many years sometimes even decades earlier than in a "traditional" job often with a relative fortune in the bank.

It certainly sounds better than 50 years hard labour working for a boss that you don't like, for less than you are worth, cowing every time you are called into his office, penalised like a naughty schoolchild for being 5 minutes late and always wondering if your job will still exist 12 months down the line (or even next week).

Sounds like bliss doesn't it?

Working for yourself doesn't mean that you need to re-invent the wheel, you could just sell products or services the same as all the others on the market, hopefully with a little more creativity, customer service, choice or in a slighter better or more original way. That is the only "magic formula" that is required, it's not rocket science!

So why then will most people never in their entire lifetime take any steps towards starting their own business? This despite the fact that most will despise their job and feel undervalued, underpaid with no sense of personal freedom feeling unfulfilled for most of their natural lives...

FEAR!

Most people are paralysed with fear and consumed with nagging doubts and anxiety causing pins and needles across their entire body whilst imaging all of the terrible consequences and possibilities that are sure to befall them the second they turn over the open sign on day 1. They ask themselves, (all too often), what if it all goes wrong.

This is a legitimate concern of course and rushing into any endeavour without first setting out your stall in a way that is conducive to minimising mistakes and oversights is not the path to tread.

But if you Can approach a venture with good planning and have a "masterplan" this doesn't need to be perfect ideally it should be a fluidic adaptable framework that lets you know when you are heading off course. This plan should incorporate several numeric elements, the numbers may be profit, loss, waste, running costs, sales targets, actual sales results because when the numbers are not stacking up it is easy to spot which part of the operation is veering off from your plan. If this can be done whilst personally, (in the early days), keeping a tight rein on factors such as budget, marketing and maximization of sales instead of handing it over too early to outsourced, highly paid  "professionals", whilst wandering dazed and blinkered around your own business repeating the mantra "everything is fine" over and over in your mind you can vastly increase your chances for success. If you are willing to read books written by those who went before you, and take courses or classes to develop the necessary skills required you will be incredibly well placed to succeed.

But conversely if you are seriously contemplating branching out on your own and trying to make those dreams into reality, do not overstate the perceived risks just to get yourself "off the hook". 

I would like to illustrate the point with a story about a good friend of mine, (I saw that!...Don't you roll your eyes at the prospect of one of my stories)

My friends name is d...actually we'll call him Joe for the purposes of the story just in case he gives me a left hook when he recognises himself in print. He is likeable, enthusiastic and reasonably hard working. He delivers takeaways and he does a little work in the restaurant when orders are slow. The thing is Joe has an awesome knowledge of a specific type of action figure and knows an amazing way of quickly customising them, thus making them effectively highly collectible "one offs" some of his friends have asked him to make them for their kids and they absolutely love them and pay him well.

The problem is that for at least 8 or 9 years now every time I see him he relates this tale of the business he's going to start one day "real soon". It sounds amazingly well thought out, he has foreseen many of the problems that will creep up on him in the early days and resolved them before even starting. He knows who his customers will be and how and where to make contact with them. He also knows how to start with minimal finance.

So recently when I dropped in to visit him, I made a decision to ask as tactfully as I could, what was holding him back from pursuing his dream. Initially he was a little defensive but after we had talked for a while he admitted that he was terrified of "losing everything", if his venture went "belly up". I was quite surprised at this because his situation is fairly similar to my own in that hie doesn't actually have a great deal to lose. What I mean by that is, his car isn't worth anything and his house is rented so neither can be repossessed to pay off any business debts incurred and his existing debts are so massive in relation to his wage that he is sinking further and further into poverty with every passing day. I explained this to him and he agreed that the risks that he was perceiving didn't really exist.

But the potential to transform his life if things went well was MASSIVE!

He confided that focusing on what he could gain rather than (the imagined) scenario of what he could lose helped him get some perspective on his life and he is now actively pursuing his dream. It also helped me to re-asses what has been holding me back because as i mentioned our situations are not dissimilar.

Does this describe your own situation? Are you terrified of the fall if you reach too high?

I have spent many a long night planning many business only to "bottle it" when contemplating the massive risks involved only to realise at this point in my life that I'M ALREADY STARTING OUT AT ROCK BOTTOM. If I had only worked this out before, I DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO FALL TO, worst case scenario is that I will end up almost exactly where I am starting from. In a sense that is incredibly liberating, because the business I am about to embark on now appears to be virtually risk free. But more importantly than this, another question has occupied the space front and centre in my mind...

What if I don't try?... What do I stand to lose?

And I can tell you quite categorically that the implications and possibilities of this are infinitely more terrifying than any I had previously understood.

Perspective can kill fear in one fell swoop, if you can be objective enough to FULLY investigate both sides of the coin.

If self employment or starting your own business is something that you are dreaming about, spend some serious time this week investigating if you are setup for success or are you pouring cold water onto the hot coals of your desire by worrying about all sorts of eventualities that probably won't even materialise

Thanks for sticking with me through another mammoth post, your company and friendship are greatly appreciated on this epic journey. Nobody likes travelling alone.

                                                                                                 Steven  ; )

The person who fails to make mistakes, is only trying with half his heart. (I must be really going for it then)

I have just checked through my first seven posts, and was appalled at how many mis-hits I had made on the keyboard. Although my spelling is impeccable, (usually, unlike my grammar and punctuation), I am sure that I may have appeared to be a mis-spelling moron. All of this came about through a series of tiny errors and the fact that I don't bother to use a spell checker because clearly I believed myself to be infallible and above such condescending tools...appalled at the intimation that a piece of software would dare to correct my beautiful prose and insightful writings.

Well I was quite clearly wrong...wasn't I?


There is no shame whatsoever in being wrong, as long as you are willing to take it on the chin and learn from it. Learning from it has an added caveat, you must take the "learned from" events into consideration in future and not repeat them ad nauseum, otherwise you have actually learned "diddly squat", whoa! did i just use the expression "diddly squat", you see right there is a perfect example...I have learned from and will never EVER use that ridiculous expression again!

So what is my point this time?, I swear these posts are getting more and more cryptic as time goes on. My point is that sometimes by accepting a little help to check over the processes in our life, we may streamline and refine our techniques and practices thus hopefully minimising the time it takes to correct unchecked mistakes and errors somewhere down the line...

If you get the chance apply the metaphorical spellchecker to your life, you may be surprised at how many small things have flown under the radar and now need to be corrected. The time it takes to put things right is time that you could be assigning to improving or streamlining other areas of your life, business or health and fitness. Where possible do not take your eyes "off the ball" because invariably it will fall but if it does pick it up and try again, (unless the ball was made from Waterford crystal and worth several thousand pounds, in which case head for the nearest exits...AND RUN).  The only people who truly lose are the ones that take themselves out of the game for fear of failing in the future, they live a timid nervy existence at a fraction of their potential forever wondering "what could have been" 

Sometimes, despite all good intentions and pre-supposition and planning the only way to learn is through mistakes or "trial and error", if this is the unenviable position in which you find some aspect of your life, DO NOT beat yourself up, file it away in that small corner of the brain marked "for future reference". Sometimes these experiences are the most amazing learning curves, that teach us far more from one imperfect experience than dozens of times fluking it, winging it and scraping by.

I know what you're thinking! One day even I may hone MY craft and get one of these posts right, to which I can only reply...

Don't hold your breath!

Take care till next time my friends and remember to approach all that you turn your hand to, with enthusiasm, conviction and the knowledge that (unless you're a brain surgeon), mistakes are all part and parcel of the bigger game we call life.
                                     Steven  ; )
                                    

A magical place where all the sacred hidden knowledge you could ever want is held...

I am sure that the title of this post sounded a little like something out of the Da Vinci code, Nah its not nearly so convoluted and you don't even have to work out any complex hieroglyphics left from the ancients to gain access, or find any hidden access points beneath masonic landmarks...

I assume that if you are here then you do already have an interest in health, wealth and happiness, and if that's so, then there is a place where you can find all the answers that you could ever want on any specific aspect of any of those topics

I'm sure that some of you already know the great wisdom that I am about to impart...

It's called a library and I have a specific way of using mine, Yeah like most people, I pick up a couple of fiction titles, I love horror novels and have recently gotten into some crime fiction lately usually featuring serial killers, (this is not research for a future career path you understand...No honestly).

I do enjoy these novels, they provide a bit of entertainment, escapism and develop a better vocabulary and a more creative brain than watching some trashy movie whilst gorging on chocolate and popcorn while only a half step above comatose, but that is not the point that this post is getting round to...

You see dear reader, recently I have taken to choosing a non fiction book on a topic that I am even vaguely interested, It may be a "how to" guide, a diary following alongside real life achievements for example "how I made 50 billion pounds selling hamster nappies" or they may be on technology and explain in great detail about using the interfaces on sites like blogger.com, (I did actually read that book recently). I even borrowed a book on how to use youtube, with regard to uploading and suchlike.

These books have given me an insight into what it takes to become skilled in certain areas of interest to me, but interestingly they have started to get me thinking more creatively too and I must say that my brain feels a bit sharper of late, (those that know me would probably argue that wouldn't have taken a lot, but I think they are just being a little harsh!)

I in no way intend to sound patronising, and I am sure that you already had a fair inkling of the general purpose of the library, but you may not have wandered any further afield than the fiction section or your favourite authors. There are so many amazing manuals on a diverse range of topics that Maybe it's time to pick up some different reading material on your next visit to the library.

The last thing I wanted to mention is my favourite type of reading material, and it should come as no surprise if you've caught my posts thus far...

Self help/self improvement books, I LOVE THEM!

A lot of people find them a little condescending, and cringe at the books that feature practical exercises, but I find a lot of value in them and although a lot of the tips and tricks to be used for your personal betterment are often amazingly simple yet amazingly effective, but it's a fact that to achieve success in any of the areas of your life that we have discussed doesn't take gargantuan superhero type effort, but just small changes of direction and a focused eye keenly trained in on that evil word so full of accusation and recrimination...you know the one, it makes grown men shudder at the slightest mention...DISCIPLINE.

When you have found some reading material that inspires you and gets you focused on those goals that are most important to you, then and only them do you head to the bookstore to part with your hard earned cash for the very best titles by those authors that leave you feeling empowered and positive, think of the library as an information "try before you buy" store

As a matter of coincidental happenstance, I am off to the library tomorrow, I hope to see you there you miserable sinner, picking up some titles that get you heading in a new direction.

I will shortly (over the next few days) post a list of recommended reading for those of you whom are interested in being proactive in improving your lives to ensure that you are fighting fit for some harsh times ahead. I don't care what bloomberg and their overpaid financial analysts say, things are gonna get worse before they get better, I have studied this in great detail and all previous data from previous times of turmoil throughout our history say that it's not over yet.

Take care of yourselves you wonderful people and I expect to see you back here soon ready for the fight.
                                                                                                                                                      Steven ; )

Happy birthday to me...Happy birthday to me, I wonder if I'm having a midlife crisis?

Well the title wasn't exactly vague now was it?

Yes I am another year wiser, not older... just wiser...Ahem!

This has prompted me to wonder, Is this subconsciously the reason for my new blog ?

I'm coming up to the age when I am consumed with ensuring that my health, wealth and happiness are at the forefront of my mind and constantly held within it's focus. In truth we should all be consumed with this these goals at any age, after all what is there that could be more important in this short adventure we call life?

We all have the tendency (even if it's just inwardly), to take an inventory of where our life is at on these annual milestone dates, birthdays, anniversaries, (and January 1st of course.) And I'm sure that's a good thing but perhaps we should do this a little more often, monthly or weekly even.

If we could cultivate the required discipline (yes, I know nobody likes that word, myself included),  maybe these are the things we should assess and measure at the end of each day, after all if you have a car, how often do you check that you have enough petrol or diesel in it?, can you imagine the effect of waiting until pre-determined date off in the dim and distant future to take stock of how much fuel was in your tank?

We all have the tendency to leave things unchecked and let things slip a little, because the stresses of modern life place seemingly endless obstacles in our path to take our focus away from doing all that we can do and being all that we can be.

Do you even know what it is that you want from life, and would you know if and when you had achieved it?

I sometimes think that upon birth we should be given a "map for life", the only downside to this is that it would be too generic, after all who wants to live the exact same life that countless billions that went before lived, doing nothing of real note, and not deviating one iota from the set formula for a "happy fulfilled life"

But at least we would know where we were at in relation to this epic journey.

So maybe the answer is to create our own "road map", setting out our eventual destination outlining the many "checkpoints" along the way, then we could assign a timescale to reach of these points so that we would know if we were making good time or spending a sizeable proportion of our journey stuck on the hard shoulder.

Health and wealth are reasonably easy to work towards because we have either numbers or physical capabilities to check against, but happiness, aah well that's an altogether different prospect isn't it?

How do you become happier, I am sure that we would all aspire to be happier if we believed that it was something that we had the control to create.

BUT WE DO!

Most people believe that happiness is determined by a random series of events that "just happen" to us at apparently random intervals, well maybe there is a modicum of truth in this because only the most unyielding "control freak" would believe that they had the ability to steer every single tiny event and happenstance in their lives and not bend to the fates, life and cause and effect.

But happiness is not and certainly should not be "random", because to admit that would be to climb bleary eyed from our bed each morning constantly wondering if maybe a little joy may track us down this day. No thank you...Not for me, I prefer a slightly more pro-active philosophy than that.

Might I suggest an easy and fum exercise...No REALLY it is easy and fun!

Keep a happiness diary, this would take seconds to do at the end of each day, simply note down the things that made you smile or laugh or gave a warm fuzzy feeling inside throughout the day, If you leave this till the end of the week or even the end of the month, (you habitual procrastinator you), then you will likely forget the small incidences that made you feel joyful last Thursday morning. 

After only a few days of doing this, you will note that the small things are the ones that count with regard to your happiness, occasionally you will offer a wide beaming smile to a random stranger who holds open a door for you, or maybe somebody smiles at you in such a warm genuine way that the memory elicits much the same joy when revisited.

The things that struck a cord with me when I tried this are the small pleasures felt from such apparently trivial things as a painting drawn by one of your children, a compliment you were not expecting or a loving look from your partner. I'm telling you these things are gold, and we DO appreciate the minutia of life as it's happening, but forget so soon afterwards so recalling these blissful moments again at the end of each day is incredibly rewarding.

Even if you doubt this, please, please give it a go, C'mon, what have you got to lose ?...a few seconds at the end of each day for one lousy week of your life, and I truly believe that you will keep it up, because when life is at its most miserable, when we are suffering or feeling a bit "down" or even in a full blown depression, your happiness diary can give you an alternative perspective that can drag you through it and remind you of just what you have in your life.

You are probably not the sort of person who would USUALLY try this stuff, Its a bit errm... California for many people, but hey

So what!

If it works and I can categorically tell you that it does, then isn't it worth trying? Who wouldn't want a tap that you could turn on at will and fill your glass with happiness, (No that wasn't a metaphor for whiskey and gin, I'm still talking about the diary), So trust me and more importantly, trust YOU, and give yourself this gift.

An unexpected added benefit (I find), is that you begin seeing your loved ones, and people in general in a more positive, less critical light. This can do wonders for your relationships.

Next and you may think this sounds "happy clappy" and I can't help that, I can only tell ya this stuff as it is, I would be doing you a disservice by doing anything else and I wouldn't be true to myself either!

Give Thanks...

Now, I am a "stuffy Englishman" (O.K we will try and avoid the stereotypes), but am obviously very aware of the American holiday "thanksgiving".

Observed in the correct spirit this holiday can be incredibly liberating as it frees up that tendency that we have for listing all the absolutely terrible things that happen to us, reveling in ghoulish glee and listing in glorious technicolour detail just mow much bad luck we have and being amazingly self deprecating about our skills and talents and obstreperous with regards to our personal woes so that everybody for miles around knows that "we've got it so bad"...

Acknowledging what is good in our life and the world at large can defragment our "negative energy circuit", if it's not repelling bad energy the way it once did, when we were younger and more optimistic. Does this negativity taint our relationships?...

Well you know what they say, (whoever the hell they are!)

"Misery loves company"

So don't hang with a negative crowd, and if you do don't be surprised when you wind up embittered and miserable.

The very last thing I want to mention in regards to making happiness "happen" on demand, is your own personal physiology and body language.

• How do you stand or carry yourself when you feel depressed or sad?
• How does somebody who is grief stricken appear? 
• What about somebody who is happy, excited, vibrant?
• how does a proud person hold their head and confidently stride, compared to the hunched shouldered sagged body look of a person with no self esteem

But the big question is this, does that physiology make you feel any better or just perpetuate the way you feel already sending you into a spiral of unhappiness or self pity?

I am here to tell you this...and it is MASSIVE,

When you feel down or miserable get yourself over to the mirror and do something that you may usually find mad or at the very least eccentric...

GIVE YOURSELF AN ENORMOUS WARM SMILE AND SAY

"I bloody love you"

This probably works best when you are alone as you don't really want your family thinking that you've "lost the plot", then again if they see it, you may set a very wonderful precedent, but I wouldn't want you to feel uncomfortable so early on.

Next, lift your shoulders and stride away from that mirror like the happiest guy or girl in the world.

THIS IS SO SIMPLE, BUT IT PAYS IMMEDIATE, MASSIVE, "TWICE YOUR MONEY BACK" RESULTS.

Are you really gonna be so stubborn as to not try this stuff because it sounds "a bit silly", if so, that is absolute craziness. You can teach yourself to be happy at will That is amazingly powerful!

I probably reacted to this in much the same way that many of you are right now believing that

"It won't work", "I'm too busy", "I haven't got time to play games"

EXCUSES, excuses, excuses...excuses for what?, to stay miserable just to prove a point?

Anyway time to get down from my soapbox, (AGAIN), and let you get on with your day. I hope that this day brings you many incidents of happiness and joy, and not necessarily of the "Receive a brand new Ferrari variety"

If you try any of these ideas that I suggest, then let me know the results, because I absolutely positively KNOW they can't feel to cultivate happiness in your life and would love to hear about it because you can bet that will make me feel happier.

Anyway folks I'm off to blow out 39 candles, (remember when I talked about upcoming milestones), before they create a scene akin to a forest fire.

Have an amazing day.
                                  Steven ; )

What is Paltry, what is princely - YOU decide...

Well I've stated or at the very least intimated several times already in my (thus far), few short posts, that one of my over-riding goals is to become financially independent.

Well there is a problem for you there already dear reader, because how can you possibly relate to such an erroneous statement, you see from the second that I selected that particular phrase, our paths with regard to the rest of this conversation may have started to meander gently off in different directions.

OR THEY COULD HAVE VIOLENTLY SWERVED OFF IN SUCH OPPOSING DIRECTIONS THAT A DIAGRAM ON PAPER WOULD LOOK LIKE 2 JUVENILE DELINQUENTS BOTH DOING HANDBRAKE TURNS IN A McDONALDS CAR PARK, ONE HEADING NORTH AND ONE SOUTH!

You see the reason for this is that phrases like "financially independent", mean such radically different things to different people!

You may want a castle made from solid gold with diamond encrusted ramparts 200 trained meerkat butlers and a liquid cash accumulation of £1.68 trillion pounds, just in case the one castle becomes a little cramped one day, or the meerkats run away to pursue careers in acting and go on to have incredibly successful careers selling car insurance, (If you are from outside of the UK, this may not make a lot of sense but google comparethemeerkat.com TV advertisements, and it will probably make more sense than the rest of my blog)

Conversely, you may want a couple of thousand pounds in a building society account for emergencies and a comfortable "paid for" bungalow with a spare room to display your collection of wonder woman action figures.

Neither of these scenarios is the right or indeed the wrong one. There is no amount of money that is grand enough or not grand enough, this information is not to be voted upon or judged by the masses...Its your own guide stick for how good or bad you are doing on your own pre determined road to financial freedom or independence. I guess what I am trying to convey here, (with far more words than are necessary as per usual), is that this is a very personal thing to assess and only you can decide just what it is that you want from life and when you will have enough for you to feel successful and "financially independent"

Coming up with this "magic figure" may seem far too difficult a task, but I would like to share a strategy that I stumbled across in a "happy clappy" self help book that I read a few short years ago, I've read so many that to recall exactly which one it was would be incredibly difficult, but I did find it a great way of answering the extremely difficult question of how much you "need."

It went something along the lines of...Find the amount that you must have per week to cover all of your expenses, such as

• rent or mortgage
• utilities, gas, electric, water, phone, Internet
• any credit agreements
• loans and the "dreaded plastic"
• food, clothing
• rates, council tax
• vets fees
• medical expenses
• cost of keeping your car on the road
• school expenses

Add up all the values that you have placed next to each expense, multiply  it by 52 (weeks in a year), to find the figure that you would need this is your annual "magic number"

What you may ask is so magical about this number...?

GOOD QUESTION.

Well it is the exact amount that would free you from needing to go to work in the next 12 months, doesn't that sound good?

I should pause to say that of course you may love your job, and that is awesome, and if you are one of the select few who can make this happy statement, then I am genuinely happy for you, but I should point out that a few years ago I had a position as a warehouse manager and despite the fact that I never received more than £7 per hour, I LOVED the job, which was all well and good, but when a period of economic turmoil hit it turned out that I loved the job more than it loved me and I was downsized out of the company!

My point?, well its just this...When you work for someone else you never truly have your destiny in your own hands and I don't see that situation getting much better for at least the next few years, Do you?

And even if you do love your job, it would still be nice to have the money in your life to go to work purely and simply because you wanted to wouldn't it?

Back to the calculations now, once you have ascertained your magic number multiply it by 12,

So for example, lets assume that your figure is £12,000
£12,000 x 12 = 144,000

What is the relevance of this number you ask? , quite rightly...And I think you ask a bloody good question I have to say

Well if you had this amount in the bank, it would pay you in interest each year almost exactly the amount that you decided you needed to take care of all the essentials in life (your magic number), so that you would never NEED to work again.

The reason I have spent so much time on this is that when I did this exercise, I was shocked at how low the amount was in relation to what I had always believed it was, I used to ponder what amount would free me from the need to ever have to work a job again, and I'd come up with figures ranging from £1 million to £2.5 million, but it was sooo much lower.



Any credit agreements, mortgages etc, will be diminishing and eventually disappear from you life over the time of saving or making this amount.

THE TRICK HERE IS TO KEEP WELL, WELL, WELL AWAY FROM OBTAINING FURTHER CREDIT OR LOANS AS YOUR EXPENSES SHRINK.

I hope that you don't see this amount as beyond your wildest dreams or far too insurmountable a money mountain, the likes of which you will never behold with your very own eyes, because that would be incredibly sad. I hope the power of the dreams of the future you are even slightly visible to you now because that will inspire you to move forward into achieving that which you want to make manifest.

A couple of points to help shove you forward in your thinking

• In the United states, there are over 5.2 million millionaire households
• In the United Kingdom there are over 300,000 millionaire households

Does that sound like a feat akin to climbing Everest armed with only a snickers and a surfboard ?, a crazy impossible dream to you?, I hope not, If it does then it's time to dream bigger and better dreams than you ever have before. Keep checking back regularly to see what strategies of becoming financially free I am using, trying or investigating.



                                                                                Steven  ; )

Don't ever try to plan an early night..

Good morning. As part of this whole trying to transform my life endeavour, one of my strategies is to start trying to get some early nights, the reason for this is that when you "hit the hay" at a decent time rather than keeping to the sleep times of some delinquent rock band, you are far more likely to feel refreshed come the dreaded cacophony of the alarm.

This obviously has all of those benefits that your parents used to list in order to con you into climbing up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire (what...Seriously!).

• Your body has enough time for much needed regeneration.
• Your brain power, focus and concentration are enhanced.
• Your mood and general mental health receive a boost, In my case, a much needed boost!
• You are generally more "well rounded" and emotionally balanced, and have more capacity for optimism.

With all of these factors to take into account it's a "no brainer" that an early night should be something that you schedule for yourself as often as possible. Also with a much earlier morning routine following my daughters recent move to secondary school, It seemed the sensible thing to do. (If only I'd payed more attention to those words in my life).

So upon waking yesterday I decreed with all the confidence I could muster,

"I am having an early night".

My partner concurred that it was probably a great idea and said that she would be following suit, (I'm such a trend setter).

So with these plans set in proverbial stone, beyond the slings and arrows of any mortal man and regally placed upon a pedestal far above interference by all but the Gods themselves, at around 10.15 pm I decided to let our dog Holly have her last run round the garden before setting off on my laser focused, unbending, trajectory up the stairs and directly to my bed.

At this point my partner Terry, (She doesn't like her name being spelled the male way, so don't mention it as She's quite sensitive about it), noticed our neighbour Joyce on her doorstep taking in a little night air on closer inspection she seemed to be a little short of breath and as she is an octogenarian, (Yeah I've got the words...don't look so surprised), and she suffers from asthma and C.O.P.D, okay I'll tell you if you really wanna know, it stands for

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease- Symptoms include, severe shortness of breath, low oxygen movement in the body and narrowing of the airways

We thought we should check her over properly and ask her how serious the attack felt for our  own "peace of mind" before we went to bed. I should mention that Joyce is far more than just a neighbour to us, she is a "bloody good friend", and far more like family. We have lived next door to her for almost 20 years now and couldn't be happier with the arrangement. She has always been so independent and has a great outlook on life, never moans and is always there for us too.

Well the next 5 hours consisted of, phone calls, ambulances, nebulisers, doctors, blood tests and me walking to the hospital, (my partner Terry had travelled in the ambulance with Joyce), with Joyce's nightwear, slippers, wash bag and all of the other pre-requisites that a night or 2 in hospital requires, I walked there  because If you have read my previous posts, you will know that our car is having a new gearbox fitted (grrr!), and this hasn't left a lot of spare cash sitting around to pay for taxi cabs!

The point of this whole convoluted, drawn out digression of a story is...

As we walked home from the hospital post 3am after seeing Joyce to the ward where she would spend the night, my partner Terry looked at me and said...

"DON'T YOU DARE, EVER PLAN AN EARLY NIGHT AGAIN"

And I had to agree that in life things seldom go too awry, when we just plod along from day to day, but it seems like the second you pro-actively start making plans to do set things to a set timescale, the fates look down and say...

"Oh no, we can't allow life be too easy, where would the fun be in that?"

I don't think they do it in a malicious way, I think they are subjecting us to a kind of initiation into the world of the productive. It's a little like saying if you can deal with the obstacles, take a few knocks and still come back resolute and with a desire to make the world bend to your will..."YOU'RE IN"

We still want to have a better sleep routine and we going to try and apply this little improvement to our lives, we are just not quite so vocal about shouting our plans from the rooftops or in earshot of the fates.

Joyce is home today, almost back to herself, reminding us that "golden friendships" are worth a few sleepless nights.
          Steven ; )