The Road Less Traveled to the Right House

We live in a good housing market here in NC, where you can get nice affordable suburban homes for great prices. A few years ago when we first started looking to buy, our eyes where on a couple of sweet party shacks. Three floor townhomes with lower floor party rooms, mid floor social areas, and upper floor private bedrooms. The ones we looked at were from $220-$360K. Not bad at all.

Still, we started to notice lots of curious signs for “interest only” loans in the communities we looked at. Builders were aligned with mortgage companies to offer mortgages that would immediately put buyers at a disadvantage, having them pay no principle and only interest. These loans allowed buyers to get into larger and more expensive homes than they normally would be able to afford, but when the interest only portion of their loans expired trouble might ensue. Like adjustable rate mortgages, there was a time clock ticking on these loans. Buyers weren’t thinking that they wouldn’t be able to afford the adjusted loan payments down the road. Many thought they would enjoy their party shacks and sell them before the party ended — never anticipating what happened with our economy. When people started pointing fingers at the mortgage industry, minorities and the poor were seen as the catalyst for the housing crash. I sat and remembered all of the middle and upper class suburbanites (like myself) of all races, who were clambering after those party shacks, considering taking those risky loans and potentially defaulting on them. Read more…

Tags: debt, goals

Focus on Goals: Day 4 – Wake Up Calls

Lo and behold, you might actually have a life that complicates the pursuit of your core goals! However, in order to achieve them you must stay focused, connected, and accountable to them. This holds especially true when you aren’t able to actively take steps towards them at any given moment due to your job, activities or responsibilities. Read more…

Tags: goals

Focus on Goals-Day 3: Speak It and It Is

Over the past two days I have discussed tips to visualize goals. Today, we verbalize them. Seeing a picture or actualization in your mind is one powerful directive to manifesting your goals. Saying them out loud, both hearing them and saying them, creates an increasingly powerful dual effect.

In “Speak It and It Is” you will write down your goals as if they are your reality. As if they are already your day to day. You will then return to this note and verbalize this intended reality as a path to manifestation. Read more…

Tags: goals

Focus on Goals- Day 2: Last Thought–First Thought

Focusing on Your Goals

“Rainy Days and Mondays…” or so the song goes. After a particularly brutal Monday, I lay down to close it off. Exhaling I said, “Well, let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.” Then in my mind I replied to myself, “It will be. I’m setting it up right now.” This wasn’t a joke or a split personality moment. What I was doing was thinking about what I wanted to do on Tuesday, and I was committing to visualizing how it would look and feel accomplishing it.

Few of us will have a cheerleader ever present in our lives. No one can support our thoughts better than we can, because only we know what we’re thinking at any given moment. To be conscious of the emotions that play out in our minds on a daily basis is important to developing a good balance in our lives. When striving to achieve goals, it is vital that we create within our mind the visualization of the success that we are striving for. Really, what good would it do to visualize failure? Yet, we often do just this. Read more…

Tags: goals

Focus on Goals – Day 1: Vision Boards

Over the next 4 Days I will be presenting tips and tools for gaining sharper focus on your goals.

Day 1 Vision Boards

When we were younger, a common project was to create a collage of our thoughts, ideas, and dreams represented by words and images. Our teachers would plop us down with glue, blank white board, scissors, and a box of random magazines. We would let our untainted imaginations run wild without fear and flip through the images. We pulled out those we felt connected to and pasted them to the board. What resulted was quite unique and telling about the person who created it.

As adults we rarely connect outer images with inner desires and goals. We “want,” but have no plans to achieve what we desire. In fact, visualizing goals and the road to achieve them are often so blocked by fear that we refuse to even contemplate the path. We think in a straight line instead of broadly and creatively, so when adversity strikes, we are stuck. Read more…

Tags: goals