My Attitude on Money - The hiding monster under the rug.

 

My Attitude on Money

This week as assignments we read Attitude on Money by Stephen W. Gibson. I as the author Stephen W. Gibson share the  similar scope or lenses toward money;  I don’t believe money is evil but does,  when acquired, it emphasizes what the individual already is within; my husband for the contrary his opinion on money is completely seen in a different aspect and this is why some days in our home, money turns into the hiding monster under the rug.

• What is your attitude toward money?

MY attitude toward money is  it is an instrument to accomplish certain goals, plans, dreams. I had always seen “money” as an exchanging and moving it around. It doesn’t belong to me; as I am only the instrument to reach for it and place  where it needs to be placed for needs or assistance of some sort. 

  What I like most of the money aspect is the freedom of thinking and material worrisome  that liberates you when in the right stage of mind. I had seen productivity flow and great projects had come to fruition when the economical aspect of everyday living is not the first thing in my mind. I know this is sometimes hard to explain to people that live in a day-to-day  basis without  knowing what they will bring to the table next day. One of the programs closed to my heart from the Church is the Self Reliance; this has been some of my favorites since early age and now that I see this same principles expanding to lessons online and apps is such a blessing to the world because is accessible and everyone can benefit of such teachings; such  a blessing to families in so much need to see beyond a scope that is been set from generations past.

 I had seen miracles taking from these lessons and teachings, I had witnessed the power of the Spirit and blessings of heavenly Father when these simple principles are followed with humbleness, faith and discipline.

• How can your view of money affect the way you live?

I am conscious that we as  family only need so much to live a comfortable life; everything else is on savings or investment; if done properly this can generate enough sustainable income to help you serve and do other things around without worry about everyday first necessities for family or home.

We have a setup budget and when that budget is surpasses, we had learned to talk about its whiteout getting upset or frustrated. This approach  had to be learned as is very difficult in couples at times. The curse of Personal finances from the church helped my husband and I to progress on this aspect as his scope of money is completely different from mine …and that has been the challenge. 

I am teaching my son the basis of managing finances with prudence, managing money does require certain discipline as I had learned throughout my years and  not because income comes in, we must spend it right away. I had created a challenge for my son  to hold on his spending money the longest he can before making a purchase; most of the time that purchase that he expressed wanted so much, that impulsive action vanishes as time passes by while he keeps his money longer; he has the joy to be saving for college and seeing his “teen checking account” get bigger little by little throughout the year as he knows and has the understanding that he can make use of those funds any time. But once spend, they are gone and better be smart on or material  “wants”, “needs” and must to haves in life.  

• What rules are recommended for prospering?

The article in this week talks about six rules for prospering and when  they are followed, we will feel and see blessings in our life:

Rule 1. Seek the Lord and have hope in him.

Rule2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings. 

Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.

 Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity. 

Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated. 

Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.

Childhood dreams. Is your inner child still dreaming about what life might be?

 

    I believe Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams because he never stopped believing on them. A childhood dream is born from the heart with the sincerity and innocence of our true soul and identity. Life is harsh and full of unpredictables and if we are not careful  the connection with our childhood dreams gets broken or displaced with every passing day setting us a part from our true desires of our heart and heavenly nature. I  am one of those strange people who hasn’t burry her inner child; I talk to my inner child in a daily basis, I let it play and be silly and let her be the natural jokester she is.  I let my inner child  express her fears and urge her in overcoming her insecurities. Some might call her as part of my split personality, I call her my” inner child”. I believe in dreams and they do come true; I had more than a hand full of experiences to share but I only have 300 words  or so to use for my business class assignment

     When I was 7 years old, my mom would take me to visit my deceased dad’s mom ( My Gramma #1) as I called her, Grandma #1  had in her big Spanish court-yard a very large rounded cage with a scarlet macaw inside. During my visit  she will mark a safety parameter around the cage where I could safely enjoy this magnificent parrot and heard him sign and talk silly words. I wanted to hold him so anxiously but I was never allowed, I was comforted by sitting at the edge of the chalk rim my grandma #1 drew for me and spend long hours just admiring this magnificent bird. I want it one; as a child that young  wanted to have a parrot as beautiful as that one was. Life when on, soon teen and then a young adult I left home to another city … out of state. I found a job and a mentor that will train me in administration and accounting back then where the excel sheets where done by hand. This corporation had three divisions, float fishing, hotel and restaurant.  I was advance to human resources and I was in charge of payroll and taxes of the employees. From time to time I will go down the restaurant area and visit; they had exotic birds; yes; beautiful scarlet macaws and blue and gold and an assortment of amazon parrots. My inner child loved to visit any time we had after our office hours. The owner  noticed my affinity to the parrots and brought one of his macaws to keep me company at my office for the following two years, that beautiful parrot  was my assistant beside my desk. I left my job and city behind  when I got married and moved to USA as my husband is from California; we rented an apartment and for our weekend we will go to the movies but  we would stop by the pet store before entering the movies as it was really closed in the same shopping center. They had the most beautiful blue and gold macaw for sale. The price was exorbitant and we were just happy the owner let us mingle there until one day she was gone. The bird had a new home and I was happy for the parrot but  heart-broken.

 

    Life in the USA went as fast as we know it can get, getting busy and learning new things. My inner child  kept those parrot memories to herself and didn’t mentioned them for a decade. I had the opportunity to work in an Animal Hospital as a front and back assistant. Years into my new career a woman brought a two days old chick who had been injured and  wanted to put it to sleep. One of the older chicks had mutilated his  toe and he had some skin injuries. Eyes closed this ugly featherless chick demanded food.  We prepared a warm parrot formula and fed him while the doctor talked to the owner. The owner agreed to release the chick to the hospital and we would do our best for the chick to survive.

After the owner left the doctor called me to his office and asked me if I  wanted to take the bird home. He/she needed to be fed every 2 hours and kept warm with latex gloves filled with warm water as the little chick was too tiny for a heating pad  and uneven temperatures could kill her. He told me I could use the facility equipment to keep her int he incubator while I work without any charge. He also mentioned the very low rate for survival he / she had.

Without hesitation I accepted to adopt “ little ugly chicken” that became my precious harlequin macaw.

When my macaw got older and stronger, we  ran a DNA test and turned out  being a female now 27 years old,  she sings, is silly and a brat at times. Loves to get inside the pantry and create a big mess there is she is not caught soon enough.

    I today a total of four rescued parrots now an umbrella cockatoo, African gray, harlequin macaw and a sun conure and they will probably outlive me, I play with them every day by singing and dancing  every day. They bring such joy to my spirit and I am grateful for the opportunity given to finally hold my own large colorful parrot on my arm thanks to the living dream my inner child kept in her heart while I was busy going thru life becoming an adult.

 

 

Dare to dream Big Dreams

 The topic of this week’s class was Dream big Dreams.

Most of us are very familiar with this saying, however do we really believe we are allowed and entitle to really dream big dreams? Many times, we do ourselves and unfavorable self-sabotage, due to lack of confidence or fear. Fear of the unknown or undesirable position that perhaps we already earned and lack the confidence to recognized to ourselves.

The video “ Don’t overestimate yourself’ by Taylor Boats, made me to recapitulate many situations in my past where I found myself doubting of my own talents or accomplishments. I lacked the maturity and confidence to recognize the deserving place I had earned for my dedication and intense labor. Jealousy, envy and criticism made me to withdraw in many of my young dreams as self-doubt got planted during that tender youth era.

I personally remember with awe and disbelief as the video mentions an occasion where I attended an International martial arts championship; the tournament was representing the three countries Canada, USA and Mexico. The participants of the martial art school where the best combat sportsman on the region at that time.

During my youth I belonged to the martial arts academy whom the Instructor was the National President of Martial arts in Mexico and conduct, respect and discipline was expected from all of us, his students. We had to be an example in every single event. In This particular event I was going to participate in the “Katas” which is the forms, I was one of the first one nationally who incorporated music to such martial movements. I was happy with my martial art form collaboration and fighting was not an option as I was really afraid of being hit really hard or even worse be unconscious as I had witness in many tournaments. The problem began when the two women who were going to participate in the combats for this big tournament representing our school did not show. My instructor approached me to let me know I will be participating and representing the school as the only woman in combat.

I wanted to run away but that was not one of my options; I was obedient teenager and raised to obey my teachers and instructors, so I did. I remember going to the restroom to composed myself to my eminent dead as I thought will be, as I return to the dojos, I saw all the contestants and fear in me was palpable. The fights begun and eliminations took place; with the adrenaline going as the fights moved on, is hard to recall in detail but something that stayed in my mind was my instructor telling me that I could win as I had the skills and training, now it was time for me to show the techniques. Needless to say, I moved to finals, by the end of the day of the tournament my uniform was completely shredded by the time of the award I ended holding the second place with only pieces of my uniform; more the 100 fighters participated on a National Level and more that 30 Martial Arts Academies. The experience was surreal as it seems I was observing all this as the spectator. This experience did change me; not only as a sportswoman but as an individual. I never dreamed that big before; my limited perception of ever coming in a place to hold a national trophy on combat was not perceivable until someone leading me believe in me and in my behalf. My instructor knew me from early age, knew my fears and weaknesses, but he concentrated in my potential. My Sensei is no longer in this world, but I had carried his teaching and his philosophy through my entire life and will remain embedded in my heart forever.

I love the scripture 3 nephew 27:27 :” Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am”. This is a promise of love and an assertion from Heavenly Father that Jesus Christ that we have the potential, capacity and gift to become as he is, we just have to work within to be able to reach that promise.

We as parents have the job to nurture, teach and help of children to build their self-confidence, to trust on their potential and to trust on the wonders of self-discovery. Our limited perspective and reality will not let us dream beyond our dreams… we have to trust the process and that possibility of those dream to come reality  exists. We don’t have to know the answers in how we will accomplish those big dreams, Heavenly Father will take care of it, we just have to let ourselves be guided with a pure heart just as children do.

 

Alpaca colorful rainbow dreadlocks hairdo greeting card

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Alpaca colorful rainbow dreadlocks hairdo card; this inspiration for this greeting card was based on a little alpaca picture taken in one of my trip to La Cresta in the Temecula Area California.

In a painterly artistic style I embellished her hairdo in a digital art form.

Alpaca colorful hairdo greeting card  by  Ines Miller Art design. This whimsical alpaca is a fun and colorful  can be personalized with text of your choice.

Digging deeper thru the vault of incessantly business ideas to select the best one ever yet.

 

 We are in week 8 in our business class and this week the video of Acton Hero David Carrington was very inspiring and eye-opener by the fact of mentioning the importance to indagate, investigate and to do more search about the best ideas for business the can come up or find out before narrowing down our description of launching a business or proceed with a next business endeavor. As he mentions in this video most ideas are still up there, hidden as it takes time to bring them to the spotlight, and taking control of impulsive business forming decisions will lead to narrow down to our best selection with the most profitable outcome. Keeping our morality intact and always present should be crucial when involving in our business description, as some opportunistic advantageous choices may be tempted we need to think ahead, recap about our moral rails and get back to our thru nature and calling for our service on this earth without hurting or taking advantage of people or situations that could arise in our entrepreneur career.

I love the concept of the Five Why’s  by Eric Ries to approach one challenge or problem at a time, if we indicate with more detail, we find out those technical problems most likely will be linked to a personnel problem. 

Many situations exist in how to manage and run a business but if we contribute to follow our true calling and the connection with our Heavenly Father is always in tune and open on our behalf the mission and purpose of our goals can prevent us and alert us when any Business endeavor is running our life instead of being us, the ones running our business; by keeping our priorities present at all times we can avoid being dragged thru this strong current of parallel circumstances. Avoiding the perils due to circumstances by not having any other option but to take clients or customers that we don’t feel comfortable with or we don’t like only because we need the income for the business to survive and dim our light and spirit in the long run. Careful research, analysis, digging deeper, and praying can lead us to the correct answer even though at times that answer received from heaven does not run parallel to our expectations or earthly desires, to count with an openness of spirit, humility to accept what is being sent by Heavenly Father will lead us to the road design for us, our family and our spiritual progress as We just need to trust in the process.

Many situations exist in how to manage and run a business but if we contribute to follow our true calling and the connection with our Heavenly Father is always in tune and open on our behalf the mission and purpose of our goals can prevent us and alert us when any Business endeavor is running our life instead of being us, the ones running our business; by keeping our priorities present at all times we can avoid being dragged thru this strong current of parallel circumstances. Avoiding the perils due to circumstances by not having any other option but to take clients or customers that we don’t feel comfortable with or we don’t like only because we need the income for the business to survive and dim our light and spirit in the long run. Careful research, analysis, digging deeper, and praying can lead us to the correct answer even though at times that answer received from heaven does not run parallel to our expectations or earthly desires, to count with an openness of spirit, humility to accept what is being sent by Heavenly Father will learn us to the road design for us, our family and our spiritual progress as We just need to trust in the process.

Poinsettia Spanish Greeting Cards Christmas cards. Feliz Navidad tarjeta de Pascua Nochebuena Holiday Card

 

Red poinsettia ornate holiday greeting card - Ines Miller art designs. 

This design is available in my Zazzle online store, you can personalize with your own message or share the one inside the greeting card.

The verse is available in English and Spanish.

“ Esta es la temporada en que nuestros pensamientos se llenan

Con aquellos mas cercanos a nuestro corazón y les hacemos

Saber lo tan importante que son para nosotros.

 Que el espíritu de la temporada prevalezca con usted y

Su familia a traves de todo el ano”.

“ This is the season we fill our thoughts. With

Those close to our heart and let them know

How much we care. 

May the spirit of the season prevail with

You through the year”.

Spanish Greeting Cards Christmas cards. 

Feliz Navidad tarjeta de Pascua Nochebuena Holiday Card

https://www.zazzle.com/z/a7skw9sn?rf=238867479502584754

Angel feather from high above inspirations courrage greeting card. Ines Miller greeting card desings.

 

Greeting card angel feather from God above inspirational card.

Angel's Feather from God above Inspirational Uplifting Blank Paper Card may be personalized with logo or phrase of choice -please contact Artist Ines Miller directly for more information.

Inside Verse:

An Angel’s feather from high above

A sweet reminder of God’s love.

Trials come to our lives and

Today you may not see the light,

But up in heaven angels are watching over you and lending a loving hand.

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