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Build a business you are proud of!

Owning a house or owning a business – it’s the American Dream. Did you know more than 30% of the American work force is in business on their own? More than half of the 18 – 34 year old age group either plan on starting a business, or have already done so.

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Not sure what business to start?

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms

1 Peter 4:10

Insight like this helps us understand that all our business should be to serve others.

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See How Easily You Can Learn To Have More Energy

There is a shortage of energy in our lives…..personal energy.

“I’m so busy! Stressed! Tired! ”  – does that sound like some of your friends?

Maybe even you?!

For many people, work is stressful, time is limited and there’s always an endless list of things we think we should be doing. Countless emails, interruptions, distractions and decisions; it’s hard to get our work done. Often the first thing to be dropped is you! The things you do to keep healthy can suffer. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

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In the Bible, Paul us teaches that all growth is – spiritual growth. Growing to become more like Jesus Christ!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  

Galatians 5:22-23

As it relates to our health, self-control is the hardest part of personal growth.

The Power Of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz says that managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal. This resource, helps you learn how to mange your own energy to have better health. Avoid a personal energy crisis.

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Can You Really Be Younger Next Year?

Life is a battle on many fronts, but most of the time knowledge and preparation can help you conquer! So it goes with your health. There are times when I find it difficult to make the right decisions about proper nutrition, health and fitness. It’s always easier to eat the donut, rather than the apple; to use a slight cough or stuffy nose as an excuse not to start or maintain my health and fitness routine.

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There are so many resources on health and fitness and of course, we all know we should maintain and care for the body God gave us! We know, our body is the vehicle through which we live out our life. The state of our physical bodies and our emotional health impacts all areas of our life. Yet 1/3 of people are overweight and 1/3 are obese.

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How To Be RICH? – Start GIVING!

Headlines surround me with the enticing message of how to get rich. Those same headlines say, to be happy I need the newest and best “stuff”. I am tempted to focus my admiration on people who are richer than me. Most people think of someone as rich if they make double what they do. It’s called the Doubling Up Wealth Theory. If we make $30,000 we think someone who makes $60,000 is rich.

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But who is really rich?

We spend so many years trying to get rich but we rarely realize how rich we already are. On a worldwide scale, we ARE rich.

The statistics are staggering. More than half the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day.Go to Global Rich List and insert your family income. If you earn more than $30,000, you’re in the top 2% of all individuals in the world. If you earn more than $40,000, you’re in the top 1%. To poor people in the rest of the world, anyone from the west is “rich.” Bill Gates or you.

Once we realize we’re rich, where do we learn how to be rich?

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How To Make A Big Difference?

Leaders lead by example. Remember the old saying, “more is caught than taught?” Well now is your time to shine and lead by example!

Often I find myself wondering how to respond to pictures of the poor on magazine covers. When I’m at the gym, watching one of five TV screens, I often see videos of the poor and I feel guilty. Why was I blessed to be born in such a wealthy country? What could I do to help? Then I’ll grab a bottle of fresh water, rehydrate myself and forget my good intentions.

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Most of us take clean drinking water for granted, yet over 1 billion people in the world still lack access to clean, safe water. Children are weak and sick. There is a constant struggle to find the most basic of human needs. The lack of safe water worldwide is a crisis. It steals the lives of 5,500 people each day. More than war, natural disasters, AIDS or hunger. Much to our shame, this rarely makes headlines. It is today’s silent killer.

Stop right there! That’s the place where together we can make a big difference. There is a simple guilt-free solution!

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Who Else Wants To Be A Millionaire?

As a luxury homebuilder, I observed something very odd. People buying million dollar homes often didn’t have much wealth – they just had large incomes.

They pulled into the sales office in a luxury automobile and coveted the appearance of wealth. But wealth is much different than income. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend. (Remember my Italian mentor from my first job….. )

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Have you dreamed of owning a nicer home? We all love things of beauty. I made my living in the housing industry by identifying a profitable niche. I loved building big, great quality, beautiful homes and neighborhoods. They were my art. However, there is a balance in being able to afford things in the short term and being able to accumulate wealth in the long term.

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Who Else Wants To Go To Heaven?

Do you believe ‘all roads lead to heaven’? How about ‘good people go to heaven’?

A recent poll suggests that on a worldwide basis, 80% of people believe in a god. They say it doesn’t matter which god you worship, as long as you believe in a god. Most people are afraid of death and believe that everybody spends forever somewhere. Many of them believe that where you spend eternity is based on our good deeds on earth. This of course raises the question of – how good is good enough?iStock_000003104895Small

Have you found yourself wondering the same thing? Good people go to heaven, right?  At first, this seems logical. However, many people, even Christians haven’t thought it through. They aren’t sure! Some Christians I know, when asked if they are assured of their salvation (going to heaven) say things like “I sure hope so”, or “I don’t really know.” Many people wonder “what is salvation”? Or they wonder about assurance of their salvation.

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How To Find Direction In Life

Most of us have used a GPS – so we know about the importance of the destination input.  If you want to get where you want – you need to know where you want to go and follow the path! I’ve met many people who work at a job that offers security, opportunity for advancement, or lots of money. Many of them drag themselves to work each day and it ends up being something they dread. They had a burning passion to do something they loved, but for whatever reason, did not follow that dream. My good friend, Mike, works in ‘high tech’. He often asked if he could work with me. From an early age, all he wanted to do was build houses. For a variety of reasons, he has not ended up where he expected, nor intended. He lost direction in life.

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Why is it that good intentioned, smart people, with admirable life goals, often are not where they intended, they’re not reaching their goals? Why is it that many people with a clear idea direction in life end up far from their intended destination? Has this happened to you in one area of your life?

First in the series, Destinations then in his book The Principle of the Path, author Andy Stanley talks about how to get from where you are, to where you want to be. We have all lost direction in life in one area for a period of time.

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How To Be Done With Debt

Flash back to 1985 when I received the best piece of personal finance advice! Picture me, working my summer job as a laborer for a bricklaying company trying to pay for university. What was the best advice and who gave it to me? It came from an Italian bricklayer in his tattered and torn work clothes. You’ll need to read this aloud in an Italian accent while waving your arms enthusiastically to get the full effect.
“Stevie it’s not-a how much-a you make, it’s-a how much-a you save.” The significance of his statement stuck with me! Many of my university professors talked about personal finance but had not been in the marketplace.iStock_000008650446Small

These educated professionals were not practicing personal finance as well as this man who earned probably half of what they did. Arriving in Canada from Italy, penniless, this man owned 3 houses in downtown Toronto worth a substantial amount of money. He had learned one of the dirtiest words in personal finance: discipline. As my parents often had, we will have arguments, fights, worries, pain and disappointments until we practice what this wise bricklayer taught me. I believe it is based on the following Biblical personal finance truth.

In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

Proverbs 21:20

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Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success

What if you could make seven decisions that could alter your success in life? What if someone had studied the biographies of over 300 successful people and filtered them into a list of seven key decisions? What if you could read a gripping fictional tale to understand these decisions and, like millions of others, change your thinking? Discover a story that can help you uncover life changing attitudes!

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The Travelers Gift by Andy Andrews is that book. This is exactly what the author did to change his life. At age 19 Andy’s mother died of breast cancer and then 6 months later his father died in a car crash. What would you do? Andy’s life crashed. He spiraled downwards until he finally became homeless. Living under a bridge he worked odd jobs. Eventually he started going to the library and reading about successful people. After Andy had read over 300 biographies of successful people, he boiled it all down and wrote “The Travelers Gift.” At that moment his life was changed. Yours can be changed as well.