Money stifles Creativity

One of the problems with money is that is can really stifle creativity.

After all, if you have the money to go out and buy a new computer game for the family console you don’t have a lot of incentive to create a new card game or other family game. Which is a real shame.

Not that the latest edition of Tomb Raider can’t be fun, but it is a shame when that becomes the only source of entertainment and behind the scenes your creative muscles are probably atrophying.

Also what happens when the money becomes a little more scarce and the more commercial, easier forms of entertainment have to be curtailed?

This is the unfortunate reality for many families this Christmas. The good news is that there are lots of things to do that cost very little or indeed nothing.

Your challenge then, is to flex those disused, creative muscles and invent some new family entertainment.

It is possible that you are staring at the screen with the same bemused look that I had when someone presented the 100 push ups challenge to me. And that’s okay. We can both survive our respective challenges!

I’d start by  taking stock of the toys or games that you already own. Lots of people have a Scrabble or Monopoly set tucked away. Just because you have owned a game for a while doesn’t mean you can’t play it again.

Alternatively how about a deck or cards or some dice? Again a lot of people will have these hidden away.

If you find that you don’t have any of the above then most supermarkets sell boardgames, cards and dice. To save money avoid anything with a popular brand i.e. Power Rangers, etc.

So if a state of the art game is out of the question an older board game might save you and you don’t have to flex your creative muscles beyond learning some new or old rules.

Taking it to the next level what do you imagine you can do with a deck of cards and a couple of dice? Well the beauty here is the sheer magnitude of possibilities.

Here are a handful of ideas to start you off:

Race game

Required:

One die (singular for dice)
Two small coins
One counter, i.e. something to measure with – even a square coaster or mobile phone will do
Table (or floor) to play on

• Start both coins at one end of the table.
• Person 1 rolls the dice and moves their piece that many times the length of the counter
• Person 2 rolls the dice and does exactly the same
• The first person to get to the other end of the table wins…or if it is a very short table then to the end and back again.

On a bigger scale this can be played across a room with a bigger device to measure – shoe lengths tend to work well.

And for those of you who think this sounds ridiculous I’ve seen everyone from three year-olds to seventy year-olds getting very  excited as their piece races to catch up. And I have it on good authority that wooden horse racing on certain Royal Navy ships has brought grown men to tears. . .

To make it more complex add in things like your deck of cards – before rolling the dice the person gets to turn a card over – if a face card they can move double and if an ace they move their opponent back. . .and so on.

This is the sort of mixing and matching that you can do with a deck of cards and some dice. The permutations are endless.

From  experience may I recommend that you agree the rules before you start and keep things simple at the beginning.

Another example of something to do is:

Conversation Game

Requirements:

1 deck of cards
Shuffle the cards and place them face down.

How to play:

The first person takes turns over the top card. Depending on what card it is they do the following. Suits are ignored:

• 2-10 Tell the audience that many things about themselves – they have to be true
• Jack, Queen, King – when a person first turns these over they keep hold of these cards and play passes to the next person. These cards act like mirrors so when the holder of a J, Q, or K next turns a number card over they may bounce that number of questions to anyone else in the room (except the person who has just gone) HOWEVER if a person to whom the questions are bounced has a J, Q or K then they may in turn bounce it to someone else – even back to the person who bounced the questions originally.
• Ace – an Ace also is kept and can be used to bounce questions around the room but the ace cannot be reflected by any other card so whomsoever receives the bounced questions must take their turn in giving the information
• Jokers – if you have Jokers in your pack then when one is turned everyone else must give up one piece of information about themselves

Variations? Come up with your own – for example it might be worth removing all the number cards above 5 before playing as otherwise people have to give up a lot of facts about themselves!

Or to put a twist on it, the suits could determine the types of information that has to be given up – diamonds  could  be shopping, harts = romance, clubs = sports and spades = hobbies. . .the possibilities are endless

And think; all of the above is with an inexpensive deck of cards and some dice that you probably already have.

The end of your spare finances does not signal the end of entertainment; it signals the start of your creativity.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

An Economical Christmas

Let me take you to December 1992. It was cold, frosty and everywhere was decorated for Christmas.

It was also a hard time; there was a recession on and money was tight. So you could say that things were a lot like today.

I remember wondering whether to save my last bit of spare money or go out and spend it on Christmas decorations and a tree.

I decided on the decorations and went shopping finally lending up with £2.50 left in my bank account. I remember being very happy with my 20 of purchases which included a cheap artificial tree and lots of tinsel.

I had a good Christmas that year and I don’t tell the story for sympathy. Rather I tell it because I know that a lot of people this year, in this recession, will be faced with the same choice.

Whether through redundancy or simply a drop in income due to the current economic climate, I know many people are having the realisation that the fairy tale Christmas presented in television programmes and adverts is far removed from their current reality.

Back in 1992 I didn’t have children so it was easier; I only had to consider my own disappointments.  For those of you who find yourself in the above situation with children I’d like to offer some thoughts.

The first is to speak to your children about it and explain the situation simply and clearly.

Explain that you are unable to buy presents or the type of presents that you would like to purchase for them.

You don’t have to discuss specific sums rather describe certain items as ‘expensive’ or ‘luxury’ and currently ‘out of reach’ or ‘not sensible’.

If it follows from a redundancy then speak to them about that. Explain very simply that it means that the money that was coming in to pay for things is not coming in at the moment.

Be positive and explain that the money will come back and things will get easier but right now you all have to be sensible and save money.

Children are very flexible, once they have an explanation they can understand.

When you tell them that you are having a different type of Christmas – which I think is a positive way of putting it – point out the benefits:

“This year we are all going to do activities together as a family. It will be really fun.”

“How would you like to help make some Christmas decorations?”

“How nice will it be to spend time together as a family?”

“We can play x (a game you already own); we haven’t played that in ages.”

Now let us be realistic, no matter how you present it, I would expect your children to be a little upset and disappointed, just as you are.

Let them express themselves. Let them be sad or angry. It is important and respectful to allow children to have space to express their feelings.

Children tend to have quite materialistic expectations these days so this is going to be a culture shock for them.

Another way of making things easier is to  have a good plan of what you will and can do before you break the news to the children.

And  remember this: you don’t buy your children. You love your children. And their love for you does not spring from their possessions but their hearts.

Maybe the difficulties you are facing will enable you to reconnect in ways you might have missed otherwise.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture by kind permission of Max Mikulecky

Friday Challenge – People or Projects

A friend asked me to lunch the other day and I hesitated. I had some blogs to edit, some email to attend to and a couple of speeches that I wanted to develop. So I hesitated – then I said yes and I went to lunch.

And the reason I did is very simple; people are more important than projects.

Yes I’m developing an online presence via this blog, yes I have emails to send, yes the speeches are coming up but you know what – none of those activities had to happen that lunchtime and someone had been kind enough to want to spend time with me.

So I went to lunch, I had a great time, and the other matters got done later on.

We can get so wrapped up in our projects and our work that we forget that it’s the people in our lives that are important.

And we don’t have to wait for someone to ask us; we can do the asking.

Consider who you could take time out for, who you could take to lunch. Frankly it will probably mean more to them than your latest project and I guarantee you will get more from it.

This entry was going to finish with the above paragraph but as I edit it I think what a great Friday challenge – make time for someone; specifically take some one to lunch. Go on, see how much fun you can have!

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Desire is Infinite

“Desire is infinite; income is finite.”

I’m sorry to say dear reader that the above is more than a quote it’s a universal law.

There are more things in the world for sale than anyone can purchase. And the trouble with that statement is that it is a cold, hard logical statement and it gets trumped by the emotional rush triggered by the latest desired item!

Control of your finances, that state of nirvana where you control how much money you have and how much you keep (i.e. save), can be gained in a number of ways but perhaps the quickest and most direct is by controlling your desires.

It isn’t easy. Not only do you have to fight against human nature which drives us to explore and seek new experiences but also there is an army of highly educated and talented people employed directly to inflame your desire – marketing people!

Now this isn’t going to be a rant against marketing people. Indeed there is nothing wrong with marketing people at all. However you need to be aware of the purpose of their job, and it’s two fold – first it is to directly stimulate your desire and interest in their products and secondly it is to make you dissatisfied with what you currently own.

Consider this – have you ever bought something you already owned? If you’re shaking your head and muttering ‘of course not’ then let me ask you another question – have you ever purchased a mobile phone or a piece of jewellery? And the follow up question is. . .did you purchase either one of those items at a time when you already had either a phone or a piece of jewellery? (yes I’m trying to cover all readers here!)

Now I suspect the answer will be ‘yes’ from all of you over the age of fifteen.

Let me offer you a personal example here. I recently purchased a new pair of cuff links for $10 from ebay. Not a lot of money but it is now $10 that I don’t have. Instead what I have is a new pair of cuff links, which coincidently I am wearing as I type this.

Now when I’m not wearing them the cufflinks live in a box with my other cufflinks. Yes, my other cufflinks. I have about ten pairs of cufflinks so did I need another pair?

This is my first pair of red cuff links, they colour co-ordinate with my red ties, one of which I am wearing as I type this, so I can justify the purchase for that reason but let’s be honest…I bought them because I liked them.

And did I really need them? No. It was a desire, a small one to be sure, but still an unnecessary expense.

I have the option currently to purchase $10 cufflinks and it was a concious choice to purchase. And that’s really the key. I’m not saying don’t have desires and don’t buy things. I’m saying recognise your desires for what they are and make a concious descision based on both emotion and logic!

Doing this can fast track you to financial control which ultimately will lead you to financial freedom.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture by Darius with thanks - and check out his comment on his picture…great minds think alike!

Stemming the Flow

Following on from last weeks article on financial management ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ here are some thoughts about managing the flow of money.

You see the real problem with financial management is typically not the money that is coming in but the money that is going out. That’s why last weeks blog, my first specifically about money management, focused on creating a record of what was being spent. I truly believe that is the first step towards financial freedom.

A useful step after that is to look at the out goings and ask some hard questions about each and every item on the list.

There are a couple of catagories or levels of expenditure into which we can all put our spendings.

The first is ’survival’ spending. These are the essentials for living – housing, food, water, power, fuel (if used to get to work) and housing taxes.

Now if times are very hard, for example if you have been made redundant then consider where you can minimise these survival costs however ideally you want leave these costs alone.

Also typically it is not these expenses that push peoples incomes into the red. More often it is the next catagory up – ‘non-survival’ expenses or ‘optional’ expenses.

I’ve chosen the word ’survival’ very specifically as I would like to stay away from the ‘essential vs non essential’ argument. Also I think that ’survival’ more accurately portrays what those first expenses are all about – you can live a life, it might not be comfortable but you will have the basics for living with those covered. Everything there after is non-survival or ‘optional’.

So your next step should be to revel each item that is left on your list and seriously consider can it be reduced or cut out. Cutting out an optional expense can be hard and if you doubt this then let me give you the simple example of cutting out your mobile (cell) phone.

Many people will state clearly that their mobile is an absolutely necessary – well sorry but it is rarely a survival expense but as an optional extra I concede it might be useful, maybe for job hunting or other justifiable reason. So how about reducing the usage or changing the tarrif? Cutting back might seem hard but cutting out is even harder!

To refer again to the person I mentioned in last week’s blog we looked at her list she had £160 ($300) listed for cigarettes for four weeks. Now I’m going to sidestep the whole smoking vs not smoking topic right now however looking at it from a purely financial viewpoint this contrasted with this person’s food budget of £200 ($380) for the same period.

Now the food is a survival essential, smoking is less so – even for a long term smoker. She herself, on learning how much she was spending on cigarettes was shocked and said she would cut that back. And here’s the really key part – we were looking to bridge a £85 ($150) dollar gap between earnings and outgoings.

By reducing her budgets for non-survival, or optional items, we were able to do that. It won’t be easy but she should be able to hold out until her pay rise in a couple of months.

Doing this exercise has meant that rather than wrack up debt she lives a little more frugally for now and can enjoy the rewards of her efforts when her pay increase comes in.

Whatever your situation may I offer the thought that taking the time out to work out how to stem your outgoings is always a worthwhile investment.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Friday Challenge Four – Give me one hundred

Now I can’t take the credit for this Friday Challenge it was something that I came across whilst doing some online research.

In a nutshell the challenge is this – over the course of six weeks train up to be able to do one hundred push ups! (Or press ups as we would say in the UK)

Now it might seem insane but the progression is steady and even someone who can only do one push up now can successfully do the program…or so they say!

Personally I’m two weeks into it and I’ve gone from under twenty to fifty three last night. I feel better, my self esteem is stronger and I’m serious about finishing the program. When I do I know I will feel great and I’m really looking forward to that!

One of the best things about this challenge is that it is completely free – requiring only an investment of effort and determination!

The full details are outlined here

(Naturally this is an exercise program so be sensible and consult a doctor before you start if you feel you should do.)

One final thought I’ve found it great to be doing this with someone and the fact that a friend and colleague of mine has been doing it with me has really helped keep me on track!

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture by kind permission of justpeachygirl

Friday Challenge Three – Book Time

This Friday how about an educational challenge that might take you a little longer than a week to do!

The challenge this week is Book Time – and the specifics are that I offer the challenge of picking one of the books listed on my new Recommended Reading page of this blog and reading it! (The link is at the top of the page.)

You could either pick one deliberately through the catagory section or trust to luck, chance or maybe even fate by asking a friend to pick a random number between one and ninety three!

Once you have that number simply see which book is listed against that number in the Complete List section, obtain a copy and read it!

Well after all the nights have gotten darker and colder so how better to spend your time than developing your life with a good book!

Happy reading!

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Picture from Melissa Banks who’s other work can be found at http://tehlissness.deviantart.com/gallery/ with thanks

Friday Challenge Number Two – Pick one

A nice positive and happy Friday Challenge this week…

We all have things in our life that we hesitate to do; chores not done, calls not made, places not visited. When I mention topic people tend to pick the negatives, the difficult conversations not had or duties ignored but there is another side to procrastination…the positives choices not taken.

You see personal development isn’t all about sacrifice and hard choices!

So this Friday the challenge is to pick one of the positive things that you had thought about doing but not done. It could be that restaurant you were going to try, the DVD you were going to treat yourself to or a trip out that you keep putting off.

Well no longer!

Have the meal, buy the film or take the trip – indulge yourself with something positive that will make you feel good.

You will advance your life, practice overcoming procrastination and enjoy yourself at the same time!

Now that’s a Friday challenge I image you can really get into!

Again, email me or leave a comment to say how you got on and thank you for the number of emails I received after last week. Clearly it was a challenge that helped people move forward in their lives.

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Photograph from http://haisagandim.deviantart.com/gallery/ with thanks

Friday Challenge Number One – Make the call

The Friday Challenge is a new section on Edenchanges born out of the realisation that self development books and blogs are actually worthless unless the information is used!

It’s not that people aren’t willing to apply the knowledge they have gained it’s that they sometimes don’t know where to apply it.

So I would like to offer you a direction to start in and consequently I now offer the first in a regular series of Challenges for you.

They will, you’ve guessed it, come out every Friday which gives you the opportunity of having a whole week to do them once, several times or not at all as you chose!

So without further ado Friday Challenge Number One – Make the Call

The challenge for this week is to call someone you haven’t spoken to in quite a while and reconnect with that person.

Now we all have people in our lives whom we care about but with whom we have lost touch. People we do wish well and yet haven’t kept in touch with. That in itself is okay and it is quite natural.

Sometimes however we know we really should call them, we really should say ‘hi thinking about you’ or ‘hi I know it’s been a while and I wanted to hear you were okay’ or some such. We know that it would be the right thing to do.

Consider your friends and family for a minute…who is there that you know who would feel good if you made that call?

Now I don’t know who they are in your life; but you do. You know who you could make smile by the simple act of picking up the phone.

And consider this…as good as they will feel when you call them, you will feel even better for having made the call.

You might be able to think of lots of reasons (excuses really) not to make the call and possible the only reason to do it is that little voice inside you that says you should…and you know the voice is right…so listen to the voice…

Make the Call!

I’d love to hear how you’ve got on, so post a comment or send me an email. And yes I’ll be joining in to. After all you shouldn’t trust a person who won’t follow his own advice!

Until next time, happy dialing;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

The art work used came from the artist bad kitty who’s other work can be found at http://bad-kitty.deviantart.com/gallery/

Ideas are not enough

Half way into an hour and a half commute to work and the rain was still falling. The roads were slick with water and visibility could have been better. For some reason the traffic had slowed to a crawl and then I saw on the inside lane the reason. A car had broken down and stood forlornly with its hazard lights feebly blinking away. A woman stood, holding her coat hood down against the rain, hand bag in hand next to the car. She was getting wet. And in five minutes she’d be a lot wetter.

Now the next thought that went through my head was that I could pull over and give her the umbrella that was sitting, unused, next to me in my car. I don’t need it and she did. I could have stopped right by her car.

But I didn’t.

Twenty yards further down the road I saw a parking place. Again I thought that I could very easily turn the wheel, slow the car, and pull up. Then I could get out, walk twenty yards and give her the umbrella. A decent, quick idea that would make a difference.

I kept driving.

Now I’ve thought about this up and down and the reason why I didn’t act is not the topic for this thought for the week. The topic is rather that ideas aren’t enough on their own. Action has to follow them.

If you don’t put your ideas into action then the ideas won’t make a blind bit of difference.

If you have an idea to develop yourself, follow it with action. If you have an idea how to increase your sales, improve your health or your wealth then follow those ideas with action. Otherwise nothing will change.

Listen to your ideas, take action and make a difference.

(And I offer my most profound apologies to the woman in the rain…)

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart