Life sometimes gets out of balance because of what we think of as "obligations". Women, especially, who often serve as caretakers for their family and friends, feel obligated to this care. What is an obligation? According to the dictionary, an obligation is: "something one is bound to do, a duty or a responsibility." That sounds simple, right?

So what are some obligations? What things in your life do you think of as your responsibility or your duty?

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Do you know what LBYM means? It is an acronym for Living Below Your Means. The number one secret to being financially stable is to live below your means. Not very sexy, but really easy to understand. So what does this mean in practical terms?

If you make (earnings or income) x dollars a month, and y dollars is your taxes, then you have z dollars (net) left to spend. That is x - y = z. Instead of spending z, to live below your means, you spend z - 10% or z - 20%. The extra 10 to 20% goes to savings or to investments. Your means is z and you spend less than z. Living below your means will lead to:

We all play the what-if game and some of us play it often. Worrying often takes the form of what if: "What if he leaves me?", "What if I get fired?", "What if my home doesn't sell?", "What if the doctor gives me bad news?". We can what if ourselves into a frenzy, adding anxiety after anxiety until we can only see bad news on the horizon.

I was recently conversing with a group of intelligent, talented, courageous women. One of them is contemplating a divorce. The conversation went something like this: "I just don't know what I'm going to do. I'm so unhappy. I know I don't love him anymore. But what if I am poor for the rest of my life? What if the girls (daughters) are scarred for life? What if I can't support us?" and so on. I countered with "what if you are incredibly happy after you leave, what if this is the best thing you could do for yourself and your children, what if you found you had plenty of money and could make it yourself, what if you were in a relationship where you were valued and appreciated, loved and respected?" She blinked a couple of times and slowly said, "Well, I guess that could happen." And then she smiled.

I was lucky enough to see the hit Monty Python musical, "Spamalot", this weekend. It was incredibly funny and entertaining. We had such a great time. If you get the chance to see it, go!

One of the songs in the play was "Find Your Grail", meaning find who you were meant to be, or find what you are meant to be doing in this life. The song expressed the true joy of being you and only you. So many of us plod down a path that was laid out for us by our parents or our upbringing and circumstances at birth. We fall into our careers based on whim or chance or what will gain us the most money.

"What I am actually saying is that we each need to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly." - Shakti Gawain

"And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to think?" - Tillie Olsen

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." - William James

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." - Tom Stoppard

"Love is exactly as strong as life." - Joseph Campbell

"Life was meant to be lived and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his (sic) back on life." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Read more articles and get more fr*ee resources in both my blogs:

Mid-Life Unfolds Blog

Solo Biz Buzz Blog .

And my newest blog for those of you in the Houston area or who just love nature,

Houston Nature Walks Blog

As always, I would love to hear from you. Send me a note at maf@lifeunfolds to tell me what you think about the newsletter, my services, my website, my blogs or just to say hello.