L I F E U N F O L D S N E W S
L E T T E R
January 2005
May this communication find you happily evolving.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The New Year has started for me with high optimism and
much anticipation. Coaching and leading workshops
are two of my highest passions. Life Unfolds,
my coaching and workshop business, was born in 2004.
My blessings are many and include all of you who read
this newsletter, who pass it on to friends and
colleagues, who have attended my workshops and who
have partnered with me in a coaching relationship.
Many of my colleagues have supported me in this
endeavor through coaching, being a sounding board
and aiding in marketing my services. My appreciation
is boundless for each and every one of you. I can't
wait to see what magical things unfold for all of us
in our lives. Are you dreaming big, thinking big,
planning big? I hope so, because what you dream,
think about and plan for is what you will get!
Thank you for a spectacular 2004 and here's wishing
us all an even better 2005!
WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?
I have talked with many of you personally through
coaching sessions, workshops, meetings and
informational interviews. I would love to hear from
more of you. Please email or call me anytime with
questions, comments, suggestions or just to say
hello. My intention is for this newsletter to be of
service, to inspire, to inform and to reveal. Here is
your open invitation to influence what the newsletter,
workshops, and my website cover. I look forward to
hearing from you soon! maf@lifeunfolds.com
MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS
I, like all of you, have been deeply affected by the
tsunami catastrophe. Below is a quote by Masaru Emoto
asking us to pray (or meditate) for the victims, and
especially to prevent more damage and harm. Our prayers
and deeply felt wishes for the well-being of the region is at
least as important, if not more so, than any money we can
give. Dr. Emoto is the vibration (Hada) researcher who studied
the effects of vibrations on water in the movie, What the Bleep
Do We Know?
"Prayers can limit the secondary disaster.
To everyone in the world,
let us offer a prayer of love to the Indian Ocean rim
countries!!"
Masaru Emoto
President of the Project of Love and Thanks to Water
To see the full letter from Dr. Emoto, go to:
CUTTING YOUR EXPENSES
Last month's newsletter talked about how money can
seem like a black hole. One of the suggestions was
that you know your money flow by tracking every
cent that comes into your life or goes out. How are
you doing with that? If this is difficult or you've
lapsed, just go right back to it...no shame, no blame.
It will take practice and commitment to make it a
habit. What truths are you learning about your
spending?
So why cut your expenses? Many of us would like to
save more...for retirement, for emergencies, a long
vacation, a better car, or a sabbatical. Some of us
are deeply in debt or moving in that direction. If you
want to save more or are spending more than you
can afford, you may want to start economizing or
cutting your expenses. Here are my own favorite top
ten ideas:
1. My number one pick for saving on your expenses is
to stop shopping! Don't go to the mall, don't look at the
dozens of catalogs that arrive in the mail, don't surf the
internet for stuff! Window shopping can be dangerous
to your wallet. If you find yourself overcome with desire,
wait at least three days. If you still must have it, then
buy it. Most of the time, the desire will pass.
2. Each month pick one utility or service bill and
reduce or eliminate it. For example, on your phone
bill, eliminate all those "extras" such as call waiting,
call forwarding, caller ID, etc. I use a 3 cent a
minute phone card for all long distance and so
cancelled my long distance carrier which charged me
$7/month for nothing. And, of course, I don't pay
the ridiculous high prices for long distance they would
have charged me! For electricity, shop around. Your
service provider may not be the cheapest. You could
save as much as 20%. Do you really need a
monitored alarm system? Could you be comfortable
with only an audible alarm? What about cell phones?
The plans change frequently...and I do mean
frequently! Call your cell phone company and request
a lower rate or a better plan. Well, you get the
idea. Don't just assume that there is nothing you
can change.
3. Look at any service fees you may be paying. Service
fees are the fastest growing category of spending for
consumers. For example, internet service providers,
investor reports and services on the internet, weather
bulletins, subscription fees, user fees, download fees,
etc. These can add up to hundreds of dollars a month if
not carefully watched. There are several really
inexpensive internet service providers that work quite
well. Don't stick with AOL or Earthlink just because
you always have. It's easy to investigate others and
many give free 30-day trials. For example, try
academicplanet.com, netzero.com, ev1.net, hal-
pc.org or pcpeople.com.
4. Everyone seems to assume that they must have
cable or satellite television and that the $50 or $70
or $99 per month charge is "just the way it is". I
double-dare you to take charge of your family's
television viewing. With no cable or satellite, you still
get 3 to 6 stations in Houston. If you need more,
buy the absolute minimum you can live with. For
example, if you get HBO only to watch the Sopranos,
can you watch it with friends? Ask them to tape it
for you? Or at least have HBO connected only during
the season! Don't even get me started on how bad
TV is for children and how much time adults waste
watching it!
5. Shop around for big ticket items. If you have not
shopped on the internet, you will be amazed at the
differences among prices for the same item. Prices
can vary hugely. You can always go to a brick and
mortar store to see and touch the item, make a
selection, but then shop online for best prices and
warranties. You can use shopping comparison sites
such as nextag and pricewatch.
6. For smaller, regularly used items, shop around,
both on the internet and locally. For example, I buy
my printer ink cartridges at half the office supply
store price at a local store called Cartridge World.
The first time I went in, I saved $122. For gift wrap
items such as paper and ribbons, try Arne's on
Montrose or any Dollar Store. When I bought my
daytimer updates for 2005, the price at one office
supply store was 1/2 the price at the other a few
blocks over for the identical item, a savings of $22!
7. One of my biggest weaknesses is books. I read
voraciously. The Houston Public Library has an online
service that is incredibly useful and efficient. You
can look in their catalog, find the book you want,
have it sent to your local library branch and they
notify you when it arrives and is ready for pick-up. If
the Houston Library system does not have the book,
they will search other libraries in the state including
university libraries, have it sent to your local library
and notify you. You can even renew the book
online. If you really must buy a book, try Half-Price
Books and 1/4 Price Books as well as consignment
and thrift stores locally. But none of these has
catalogs so you have to go and look around for what
you want. Online, try the book shopping comparison
services: fetchbook.info and addall.com. Also try for
used books on half.com and ebay.com. Again, you can
often get books for pennies on the dollar. I promise!
8. Reduce or eliminate a daily habit. For me it is
canned sodas. I drink several a day. Eliminating
these would save me $2/day or more than $700/year.
I have cut back, but haven't eliminated them...yet.
I'm not suggesting you do without all pleasures, but
many are just habits, nothing more. Lattes? Bottled
water? That morning donut or candy from the vending
machine? One more purple stuffed bear for your
collection? Another pair of shoes? Be a conscious
shopper.
9. Insurance of all kinds: life, house, health, and
auto. Each year, at renewal time, take the time to
shop around for each of these that you have.
Company prices vary tremendously. Use every
discount you can get, especially for house and auto
insurance. Ask your agent about these because they
don't always tell you. For example, most insurance
companies will give you a discount if you have your
house and auto at the same company. There are
discounts for alarm systems in house and auto, for
renewers, for smoke alarms, etc. For life insurance,
the first question is, do you really need it. Many
people have it who don't and many of those that do
need it, don't have it. If you really do need it, shop
around. Try quotesmith.com for comparative rates.
10. If you are carrying balances on your credit
cards, call your credit card company TODAY! Ask
them for a lower rate. The credit card companies are
in stiff competition. They know you can always leave
them for a low or zero interest rate on another card.
Be insistent If you have high credit card debt, check
out the payment calculator at MotleyFool.com. You put
in your debt amount, interest rate and payment amount,
it tells you how many years (or decades!) it will take
to pay it off. Sobering and motivational.
THREE LEVELS OF PROSPERITY CONSCIOUSNESS
If you are wishing for more prosperity or desiring
wealth, it requires attention and knowledge on multiple
levels. In the "real" external world, we attend to
financial models. We educate ourselves about income and
expenses, investing, taxes, and the importance of savings.
Here is where we develop skills, acquire tools, and use our
experience to make sound decisions. At this level, it
is our lack of knowledge most likely to trip us up.
We also must understand our feelings, thoughts, beliefs
and values around money, prosperity, wealth, poverty,
and all that entails. Your unconscious beliefs or values
can negatively or positively affect your ability to choose
wisely. Making these beliefs conscious and determining
whether they are still useful to you may enable you to make
better choices and have what you desire.
The last way we affect prosperity is through our
spiritual practices and understanding. It
helps to learn about the spiritual laws governing
prosperity and abundance in our lives. These include laws
of attraction, being in touch with your inner spirit or
self (sometimes called higher self). And most importantly,
having intense gratitude for all we already have.
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE WORKSHOP
We have an awesome money workshop starting in January. It
is based on the Your Money Or Your Life program by Joe
Dominguez and Vicki Robin. You won't want to miss this
workshop if you are interested in money! For more details,
http://lifeunfolds.com/ymoylclass2004.htm
You are also invited to attend the Your Money Or Your Life Meetup
held each month, the first Monday of the month. It is
FREE! The next
meeting will be February 7th, at La Madeleine on Kirby at Amherst in
Houston, at 7 pm.
A POEM
The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare
to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own
sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have
become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I
want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to
be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of
being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to
yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not
betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore
trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty,
every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can lie with failure, yours and mine, and
still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of
the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money
you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of
grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs
to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else
falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly
like the company you keep in the empty moments.
QUOTES ON FEAR
Gangaji said,
"If you are willing to meet fear, it does not exist. It cannot
survive conscious meeting. If you run from it, it shows up everywhere."
Norman Vincent Peale said,
"Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. you
will
find that they haven't half the strength you think they have."
Please pass this newsletter on to your friends, colleagues and
family
who may benefit from it.
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Wishing you all the blessings of life,
Joy, peace, and gratitude,
Mary Anne Fields
All content copyrighted by Mary Anne Fields.
Mary Anne Fields
Life Coach, Trainer & Speaker
(713) 528-5971
What keeps you from being
and doing more, from embracing your authentic self, your dreams,
your passion, your life? What wonders could unfold for you
today? Curious?
Call today for your free, no obligation, introductory
session!
