Tag Archives: Bible

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Seven Secrets To Becoming Rich

Read on! You know this headline is a catchy way to grab your attention on an important subject.

Remember, I have shared with you about what it truly means to BE RICH. But if you are thinking about becoming financially rich; reflect on your life. Has your income increased in proportion to the number of years you’ve been working? Has your lifestyle done the same?

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Culture baits us into having it all. Turn on the T.V. or surf the Internet and it is all “buy now, pay later”. It’s a problem we all face. How do we learn delayed gratification? How do we manage wanting to have it all now?

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How To Be Smarter……Part 1

Education – getting “smarter” is a major part of the development of our society and a key component of development worldwide.  But what about YOU, have you figured out how to be smarter?

As an old Chinese proverb says, “many receive advice, but only the wise profit by it”. The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon said it best. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he”. Proverbs 23:7

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What are you thinking? Where are you getting advice for making the important decisions in your life?

It is said that 5 years from now you will only be as smart as the books you read and the people you meet. Let’s start with books. Watch for my next post on people!

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Retirement: Wild, Happy and Free!

Retirement is a relatively new concept. Our great grandparents didn’t outlive their usefulness in order to indulge themselves in the thought of retiring. I used to think that if I had enough financial resources I could retire. But I have decided to RE-wire!  I’ve changed my focus from building homes to building people.

Society baits us into thinking it’s all about the nest egg. We don’t want to think about work when we retire. Certainly scripture is clear about the need and reward of work. I do not believe in retirement, as I do not think it’s Biblical.

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The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Genesis 2:15

How can you “Re-wire” and change your work focus?  Do it in balance and with different rewards.

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How To Find Your Mission In Life

At 36 I woke up.  Until then, my focus was on the drive to achieve success as a builder and investor. Then one question changed my focus. What do I want to be remembered for?

Maybe you haven’t really thought about this yet.

Look around and then look inside. The frantic pace of life and business leave many unexamined lives. Instead we need to learn to find our mission in life.  Once that mission in life is discovered a whole new focus will emerge. Do you know your personal mission in life? We all want our life to count.

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In planning, the best place to begin is at the end. Imagine your funeral. What are people saying about you? You still have time to shape that conversation. If you don’t think about this question, it will cost you – for eternity. Picture your life like a dollar bill, how do you want to spend it?

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Achieve Your Goals

How can I encourage and motivate others to achieve what they set out to do? These are questions I’ve been asking myself.

How can I be engaging, inspiring and helpful in motivating others to achieve their success?

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I’ve made a habit of writing out my life goals .. checking and updating them regularly. Looking back it is amazing to see, by God’s grace, how many have been achieved. Apparently, only 3% of people have written goals. If you don’t write your plan down … you are less likely to achieve it.

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Balance Work and Life

There is a lot written about gaining balance in your life. Everyone has their story and I’m happy to share mine.

In the early years of starting our home building business, 60 hour weeks were the norm! When we hired staff 10 years later, long workweeks were STILL the norm. There was never enough time to get everything done at work. Work was cheating my family time. It was nearly impossible to achieve the elusive work life balance.

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Picture the work life balance like a scale…one side wins and the other side loses. We need to learn to “cheat” at work and stop cheating at home. We often cheat our family by spending too much time at work, or on fitness, or a hobby. Cut back on being so “busy” and be balanced!

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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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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 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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Want a Courageous Life with No Regrets?

Do you have time to do the things you really want? Are you living the life you feel you were called to? Who really is? A recent survey of the top 5 regrets people have on their deathbeds reports that their number one regret is that they hadn’t had the courage to live a life true to themselves. They lived the life others expected of them. What a tragedy!

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Dr. Richard Swenson, in his book Margin reveals insight into the space that exists between our limits and our self. Imagine it as the space around the edge of the pages of a book. It’s the little bit extra. Margin is a great book for anyone who is looking for: good health, financial stability, fulfilling relationships and God’s purpose.