Time to get more positive and less stressed!

We are certainly living in negative times between the elections, medical fears and all the other things in the news.  For this edition, I'm going to share my solution - a 30 day program I created to help people step away from the effects of the negativity while getting stress under control for the holidays. 

Best way to share!  A fun video...check it out if you know anyone who could benefit from a huge dose of positivity, strategies that work for the whole family and a stress-free holiday season!  It all starts on November 1...spread the word!  And thanks!

The world needs your light...

I keep hearing people say the world is so dark lately. It is if you focus on the dark, if you watch every news broadcast, read every sad detail, talk about everything wrong with your life. 

But we can let in the light - we can in fact BE the light by focusing on what's good, what great things we want for our future and those we care about. I never knew this until a student one day called me "The Light" and told me I could never be out of class because how else would they shine? I told her we all have the light inside of us...ready to shine! All we need to do is flip the switch! 

So go out there and light your life! Shine, my friends, shine!! The world needs your light.

What to you believe?

I just finished teaching my fifth summer with students at Rhode Island College.  One of the many topics we covered was about beliefs.  What we believe about an issue determines how we respond to it. We are born fresh with no specific beliefs about anything.  We are like magnets picking up beliefs from our parents, teachers, friends, the media and the world around us.  Some make us stronger.  Others do not.

There’s a wonderful song written years ago for the play ‘South Pacific’ that talks about how “We Have to Be Carefully Taught” to hate all the people our relatives hate.  We’re not born hating each other or even disliking one group over another.  We have to be taught.  This is true for us personally and also globally.  Those who once were our enemies are now friends.  Will someday this be true of those we believe are our enemies now? Most likely.

But the bottom line with beliefs is that they are neither true nor false.  They’re just thoughts that we carried long enough that they feel like truth.  I think one of the most important things we can do is to question our beliefs, at least those that create a negative feeling when we think about them.  Perhaps we’re garnering that feeling because the truth is different from what we believe.

One example I use in the financial literacy part of my summer program is about rich people.  When I ask students to fill in the blank “Rich people are __________”, most of the answers are negative.  I see words like ‘greedy, selfish, rude, corrupt’.  Where is that coming from?  Movies and television programs showcase the poorer acting examples of the rich – the Housewives of Somewhere, the Kardashians with all their drama.  But without the rich, who would support most of the charities in the world?  It’s certainly not those without money.

Why does what we believe about the rich matter?  As Harv Eker talks about in his Millionaire Mind Seminar, it you want to have financial abundance, you’d better not hate rich people because you’ll never want to be like those you hate.  You’ll find a way to push the money away because you hate rich people.  Probably why big lottery winners go bankrupt so quickly.  Makes sense?

If you have a negative belief about the rich, check out this week’s “60 Minute” interview about the “The Giving Pledge” started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.  To join, you must be at least a billionaire and you must be willing to give at least half of it away.  The Gates’ are giving away 95% of their wealth, Warren Buffett 99%.  Not much to hate here.  They have at least 100 members already including Sara Blakely (founder of Spanx), Steve Case (founder of AOL), Jeff Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook), Ted Turner (CNN), Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines).  If you had a negative belief about rich people, I hope this got you thinking that maybe you had it wrong.  Are there some  rude, greedy rich people?  Sure…and some not so rich.  

So what do you believe?

Marianne

PS…if you have some negative money beliefs, join me this weekend in Boston for 3 days that will change those beliefs forever.  I’m on the crew of the Millionaire Mind Intensive weekend.  I was just offered the chance to invite anyone I wanted to not only go for free but to go as a Premium Member so you get preferred seating and gifts.  If you want to go, it’s not too late.  Use this link:   https://mmi.isrefer.com/go/20/mmi20054/ 

and this code for the special seating/gifts: PSSPECIAL

Finding the joy!

For most of you who have followed me for the past few years, you know that I'm always on the lookout for simple effective strategies to improve the quality of life for myself, my friends and family, for students/teachers and those I teach both in my seminars and online. The  good news is there always seems to be more to learn and share.  Here's the latest...personally tested as always, simple and effective as promised.

What is it?  Be on the lookout for joy.  What?  Joy? Yes...things that make you happy.  As you drive to work, look for things along the road you like.  For me now, the green of the trees after a long winter, the flowers everywhere, a car I like, maybe a beautiful building. Or it's a song that comes on the radio or my CD or for me another strategy on a motivational CD that helps me see life in a totally new and inspiring way. Those are mine.  What can you collect starting now?

Basically you're like the opposite of Santa.  Instead of giving great gifts, you're collecting them. You're collecting things you like in your mind and as you collect them, you feel better because your brain is focused on appreciation.  So instead of all the things that annoy you about your significant other, all the things you don't like at your job, all the things you don't like about yourself, you're thinking and enjoying and collecting what you do like. Since, your brain can't think of opposite things at the same time, it's perfect!  Make sense?

Try it.  Try it starting first thing in the morning if you can.  This is positive thinking at its best because you're training your brain to look for the what's good, to send out spirit lifting hormones that make you feel even better. You start a chain reaction just like when you start the day on the wrong foot and say something like, "It's going to be a bad day." And then it is. Same idea, bad momentum. We've all done it.

I woke up early today but happy and inspired after a week of putting this into practice.  I couldn't wait to share it with you. 

Sending and wishing you lots of joy!

Glad it's spring...not yet summer

Brr...it's spring!  So happy it's finally here even though we've had some very chilly mornings in New England.  I'm just happy it's not winter!  It's also not summer yet and I'm happ about that too because once summer hits, it seems tofly by and before you know it, we're approaching winter again.  Let's not rush that!


Glad we have spring to gear up our anticipation for summer, get the things done that summer days pull us from and that winter days didnt' allow.  Glad there is green everywhere, that beautiful soft green that's only around in the spring.


Love all the new growth as the clutter of the winter storms is swept away by the new shoots sprouting out of the ground...and of course, a lot of dedicated yard work!


Declutter, grow...I'm paralleling that process as well.  Are you?  It's the perfect time for that before it's too hot.  For me, I spent the winter learning and creating so that my new ideas could blossom in the spring.  Luckily the timing worked out perfectly. My very first online course just got published this week!  Yay!


I based it on my most requested seminar topic - Financial Literacy - from my Strategies for Success program.  It's not a program for new couples - engaged, married or living together.  It's all about the financial math you probably never learned in high school or college, math never learned until years later.  Simple financial math we should all know - and teach our kids early and often. 


I'm so thrilled it's finished, I'm going to give the course away for free for the first 50 people who sign up this first weekk.  Feel free to check it out or share it while they last.  Although it's directed towards new couples (45% of divorces are because of lack of money), there's plenty of information there that's perfect for you too.  Click here for the link.


Keep enjoying every delicious moment of spring - every bud, every ray of sunshine, every warm breeze!


Til next time!


ps...I heard recently that if you start the day thinking something positive, it will set off the whole day in the right direction.  How?  When you don't even ant to get up?  Say, "I love my life!" when your foot first hits the floor.  Or do what I do.  Set your ring tone to "Happy" from Pharrell Williams.  Perfect!

Can’t we all just be a little kinder?

With social media giving everyone and their brother a chance to post their every thought, we’re getting bombarded with unkind remarks for the littlest offenses and for things people say that couldn’t possibly hurt us in any way.  What brought this to the forefront for me was the recent Oscars telecast which I really liked this year.  I like Ellen DeGeneres and thought she did a good job hosting because she took the formality away from an often stuffy event in a mostly kind manner (her Liza Minelli joke was not her usual type of humor). 

When she started the selfie with Meryl Streep, it grew into a Tweet heard round the world.  I liked the way it happened because she made it fun and truly wanted to include a bunch of big name celebrities who she has met and connected with on her daytime show.  I thought it was fun, I thought it was genuine, I thought it was sweet.  Those celebrities became like the rest of us in that brief moment, clowning around and having fun despite the billion or so people watching.  It turned into a $3 million donation to Ellen’s two favorite charities which I really love.

Now the more cynical people reading this could come up with a bunch of alternative meanings for what I just said – she was pandering to celebrities, she was getting a kickback from Samsung.  I can’t even think of any more because my brain doesn’t work that way.  I look for the best in a situation rather than the worst which affords me a happier mindset and from the recent research I’ve read on the how negativity affects the cells in the body, a happier and healthier body.

The incident I really felt bad for was the moment when John Travolta mispronounced Idina Menzel’s name before she sang.  I noticed of course but felt bad for him.  Something obviously happened – he got nervous, he wasn’t feeling well, he froze, the teleprompter was off – something.  But he has been vilified like he murdered someone.  Now you can have your name Travoltarized.  Why? Is it because he’s not young anymore?  Jennifer Lawrence fell twice and we think it’s cute.   Is it because he’s not in any current movie or TV show?  We tend to only celebrate those on top.  I’ve heard nothing but great things about John Travolta from the people who personally know him.  What did he do that was so bad to deserve the crushing comments he’s receiving on Facebook, Twitter , the entertainment shows? 

Is this who we want to be as a society?  We’re like the observers in the Hunger Games where we select a few chosen people to adore – for a short time – and then we celebrate their failures.  We don’t like when someone takes a shot at us but we sit behind our electronic devices and hurl shots at the person who had the latest misstep.  It’s part of the reason so many good people won’t run for office, or won’t step up to help when needed.  They don’t want to be noticed in this world that tears people who dare to try.

As a passionate child advocate after years of working with teens, I worry about how this affects our kids.  They are always watching the adults around them to see what they do and say.  How about giving them a new lesson?  I’m part of a national organization called “Thank a Shining Star” where you have a chance to recognize people who do good deeds, who give good service when you shop, who just make the world a better place.  I invite you to join and get out there and spread a little love.  It’s easy, it’s free, and you’ll love the way it makes you feel to give out those cards.  All you have to do is go to www.ThankaShiningStar.com and order a batch of 20 cards.  It’s totally free including postage because the people who started this program really want to see a positive shift in our world.  Go out and make someone’s day…and your own.

Down with snarkiness!

I liked the ice dancing at the Olympics.  There are plenty who didn’t, who think it’s not a sport.  I’m ok with that.  I’m a big Jay Leno fan and sad he’s no longer on the Tonight Show.  Lots of people don’t like him, think he’s too old, think he should make way for others.  They are entitled to their opinion although those who think he should leave because of his age wouldn’t be too happy if someone did the same to them.  I’m ok with others favoring other talk show hosts more than Jay.  I like Downton Abbey, the story, the cast, the music.  I have family members who think it’s dumb.  They prefer football.  I’m ok with that too.  Why?  Because in a free country, we’re all entitled to have our own tastes.

What I’m not happy with is the way we’re choosing to express those tastes.  We have more choices than ever for entertainment, sports, careers, clothing, favorite media devices, vacation places – everything.  Yet we’re getting more divisive in our judgments of everything imaginable.  I saw it this a few weeks ago as Jay Leno wrapped up his 22 years of being number one in late night.  There was so much hate thrown his way in social media.  Why?  What has he done to deserve that kind of vitriol?  Loved his job?  Worked hard? Treated his staff like family?  Fought to keep his job?  What’s to hate about that?  So he’s not your favorite.  Did he hurt you personally in some way?  So you feel he snatched the Tonight Show from Conan?  I think NBC had that title.  He just agreed to come back with jobs for his staff and himself because he loved it.  I believe given the choice, most people would have done the same.

Is it jealousy that drives the negative comments?  Is it the tall poppy syndrome – knock someone down so you feel bigger?  Is it the fact that people in our culture think they’re the most important person in the world so if they don’t like something it shouldn’t exist?  Who can say? 

Whatever it is, I don’t believe it’s healthy for our culture.  We are cutting ourselves off from each other enough with our personal media devices.  We don’t need to separate ourselves more with our ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’.  The more we separate, the more it’s ‘me’ against ‘you’ or ‘us against ‘them’, the more conflict we’re embracing.  We say we don’t want war but we’re creating boundaries with our every breath.  

So good luck to Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees – and yes the classy, kind, hard-working Jay Leno - and anyone else out there trying to be and do their best.  You may or not be my favorite but I wish you well.  You already are a success because of the hard work that got you noticed.  As for the snarkies… well believe it or not, I wish you well too and hope that you can find something that makes you happy - besides being snarky and rude, that is!

Treating people well... despite their age

Sad to see the fabulous Jay Leno ending the Tonight Show next week...just because of his age (which is the same as mine). When you think of it, it makes no sense. He's number 1 and has been for years, he's kind to so many people, he looks out for his staff (one of the reasons he fought so hard to keep the show and why he took a huge pay cut to keep them on), he's helped so many others get started.

Imagine that you're the best at your job and make a lot of money for your company. What intelligent boss would fire you? It would be counterproductive. Jay already has a huge following including the 18 to 49 group AND the baby boomers, the biggest group of all.

The network execs want a younger person. They already had Jimmy Fallon under contract. Will they get more viewers? Probably not. Younger people can watch Jimmy Fallon now already. What sense did it make to get rid of Jay? Plus they tend to stay up later which matches Jimmy Fallon's time slot. For those who want someone younger - the two Jimmy's are already there.

I'm a Jay Leno fan obviously - for many reasons including the fact that he's one of the nicest people I've ever met. I'm also a fan of doing the right thing, of treating people well whatever their age or financial status (for those who say he should leave because he's made enough money). We're taught to work hard, look out for others... he's done that and more. So kick him out? Don't like him? That's fine - don't watch. Think he's too old? Watch something else- Hulu, Netflix, YouTube.

I will miss you Jay. I'm sure Jimmy Fallon will do fine. He's very talented as is Seth Myers. I'm not sure I'll watch either...but I wish them both well. Although they'd better not do too well. That can get you fired!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-berg/jay-leno-tonight-show_b_4698596.html

Distracted driving - a story

Have you noticed lately how consumed everyone is with their own personal technology? I'm sitting at Panera typing this (my own technology - I know!) and noticed how many people have their heads down staring at their favorite device.  We hardly know what anyone looks like anymore! More and more of us are in our own world and that is getting to be dangerous on several levels.

What I wanted to share today was from the standpoint of people wandering around parking lots. I can point to at least 2 times over the holidays that I almost hit someone while driving in a shopping area.  One person was not looking at the cars at all because his head was focused on his phone. The other situation was someone dressed completely in black at night.

As drivers, we have a huge responsibility.  It is our job to make sure no one is behind us when we back out of a space or nagivate the unregulated 'roads' in big shopping areas.  Same is true even backing our of our own driveways.  I live between two houses that have little boys who play together.  They are usually with one of the parents but I'm especially careful just in case they're not.  In fact, I've made the conscious choice to turn off my radio/CD/conversation while backing up wherever I am just to be sure I can hear if someone yells out

I admit to being a little more cautious than most because I had the terrible experience of actually hitting someone when I was 20 years old.  An elderly man was standing in the middle of the road at night and although I was not speeding and in the correct lane, I hit him.  He died 30 minutes later. Something like that stays with you a long time.  Legally I was not at fault, but that didn't change the effect that tragedy had on me....and of course, on that man's family.

We're 13 days into the new year and perhaps some resolutions have gone by the wayside but I hope you might consider these two recommendations for 2014 and beyond: silence everything (and everyone) in the car when you back up (even if you have the back up camera) and stay off your technology when you are walking through parking lots.  Both take little effort but are so worth the time it takes to do them.  Be safe out there!

"Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core, that you can't get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, your not setting big enough goals."

Bob Proctor

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Hope this year isall you want it to be.  I've heard of two great ideas to start the year off right that I wanted to share with all  of you on this first day of 2014.

1) Pick a word that will guide you for the year.  Think about what you most want this year to be...and let your imagination help you come up with the word that's perfect. Then put that word
everywhere - on your phone, computer, bathroom mirror.  I haven't completely decided on mine yet but I'm leaning towards "unstoppable". 

Here's some suggestions to help you get started:

- confidence
- commitment
- sparkle
- believe
- smile
- shine
- trust
- harmony
- fearless
- hope
- patience
- joy

What will your word be?

2) Do the 365 Gratitude challenge. Use your cell phone to take a picture a day of one think you're grateful for.  The act of looking and noticing gratitude will shift the way you live your life. I've got lots more of these that I will be sharing this Saturday as part of my Positively Saturday Winter Series in Warren, RI.  This week is all about how to make the resolutions you make today last past the typical January 17 or Valentine's Day. A year from now you'll be proud of yourself for making the changes you always wanted.

Looks like the weather will be good too...grateful for that...I think I'll take a picture of the plowed road for my 365! :)

More info at http://PositivelySaturday.com



Happy 2014!  Keep shining!