Posts Tagged ‘self’

Don’t Forget About Weight Training!! Did You Know These 7 Amazing Benefits?!

Posted by mikeschurko on August 11th, 2010

My most recent fitness goal, has been to lean down to 179 lbs.  This is new to my body, as I can remember being 180 lbs since I can remember ever thinking about my weight (besides my heavy “rock-star” days about 5 years ago…wink).  I’m currently hovering right around 185 lbs right now and am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  However, as I was powering through my elliptical session yesterday, watching the burned calories add up, and thinking…”YES, I ROCK!” , but then I looked across our apartment gym, and saw the weights sitting there.  I thought to myself, you know what, I haven’t done any weight training in quite some time.  Yes cardio like running, hiking, biking, swimming etc are great ways to burn those calories and drop weight, but we cannot forget how beneficial and necessary weight training is, even when you’re just trying to lose weight!

Here are 6 amazing benefits of weight training;

Stronger Bones

- If you’re losing weight by cardio alone, you can actually start to reduce the mass and density of your bones.  By weight training you strengthen your bones and reduce your risk of Osteoporosis.

Raise Your Metabolism

– By weight training, you increase your lean body mass which also increases your metabolism.  The faster your metabolism runs, the more calories you burn on a day to day basis, assisting any weight loss goals.

Elevate Your Wellness

- When you weight train, you release endorphins that actually elevate your mood, strengthen your immune system and improve your sleep which can really add to your overall well being!

Improve Muscular Endurance

- When you train your muscles with weights, you increase your overall strength and endurance, which will make day to day activities easier, like carrying groceries, opening doors, moving furniture or lifting a child.

Reduce Injury

- The stronger your muscles are, the less likely you will injury yourself in, sometimes known as, “all too routine” ways, such as sprained ankles, sore knees or even back injuries.  Improved strength by weight training, assists your every motion and increases daily body safety.

Improve Posture / Balance / Coordination

- having improved posture, balance and coordination can improve your day to day ease of life as well.   On top of that however, those 3 improvements can also improve your overall look, feel and self confidence.

Create Sexy Toned Muscles

- weight training will tone those muscles, so that you feel more confident when showing them off!

One funny comment I’ve heard over the years is, “I don’t want to weight train, because I’m afraid I’ll get too huge”.  To that I say, unless you’re consuming 200 calories a day and pounding heavy weights for 2 hours a day, you’ll never have to worry about all of a sudden waking up one day and saying to yourself, ” CRAP…I’m HUGE now!  I Didn’t see that coming!”

The ultimate plan to “leaning down”, as I like to call it (losing weight while maintaining and even building more muscle), is a healthy combination of the 2 exercise types.  Try alternating, one day run, the next day do weights and so on.  Or you can try circuit training…keeping your heart rate up while lifting low weight at high reps.  If you can fit 2 workouts in a day, do your hour of cardio in the morning on an empty stomach, and lift weights in the evening when you have some food energy in you, and you’re more alert.   The point being, make sure you train your muscles with weights, no matter what the health or fitness goal.  You’ll thank yourself the day after when you see more definition than ever before, and you’ll thank yourself years down the road when you feel stronger and more agile than ever before!

Thanks for letting me share my passion with you!  Now…What are you waiting for?!  GO HIT THE GYM !

(safely of course!)

: )

Posted in Fitness, Health, Lifestyle Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Did You Know That A Tiny Change in Your Attitude, Can Drastically improve Your Life…NOW?!

Posted by mikeschurko on August 9th, 2010

Have you ever noticed how one negative event can spiral downward and multiply into a bunch of consecutive negative events?  Bite your tongue while eating breakfast, then you break a string on your shoe, spill coffee on your white shirt, get stuck in traffic, show up late for work and get fired….

…well, it doesn’t have to be that extreme, but you get my point : )

Now some people have asked me over the years, “Hey Mike, how do you stay so positive all the time?”  Well, this is definitely one of my secrets!

If you aren’t already aware…did you know that you can change that “bad” day into a “good” day, in a matter of seconds??!!

If you simply change how you react to that negative situation from; getting mad, upset, yelling, throwing something or letting negative self talk consume your thoughts all day long… to saying to yourself…it’s really not that big of a deal, I can get over this…this feeling will pass and I can still have an amazing day!  When your day seems to turn down hill, it’s absolutely all in your head, and you can change it right now!….I know it can seem unbelievable but it’s true.

Once you’ve tried out this technique a few times, you’ll start to notice that because of your newly decided upon positive reactions, things seem to go right back the way you want them too, it becomes very empowering!  Once you learn how to control your reactions and remain positive, you will then continue to attract more positive situations and things, and more things and situations to be positive about, into your life.

The point I’m trying to make, is that negative reactions cause negative energy, and we all know that when we’re in that negative mood…nothing goes right.  So why remain in that head space any longer?  It literally is a waste of energy…and in fact, you’re not just wasting it, but that bad energy is affecting your body.  I believe that the negative energy causes “dis-ease” within your body, and creates negative health conditions like colds, body aches, head aches or worse.  Also, I do understand that It may seem hard or even impossible to see the positive in some situations, but believe me, It’s a LOT healthier trying to find one, than simply focusing on the negative.

I want you to try something for me this week!…Try to react positively to every negative situation you may enter for 7 full days, and let me know how it goes.  I promise you that this one simple change you can make with hardly any effort, can improve your life exponentially!

Thanks for letting me share this with you!  I wish you all positivity and success in your lives!

Posted in Lifestyle Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

The Power of Clarity

Posted by mikeschurko on August 4th, 2010

Have you ever wondered why you’re not getting exactly what you want into your life?  Ever think to yourself, that you’re not 100% sure what you want?  Do you feel like your spinning your wheels in who-knows-what direction?  What you need, is clarity!

Clarity will allow you to set measurable goals in the direction of your dreams, and see results as to whether or not what you’re doing in your life is working for you or not.  Goal setting is one of the most important steps towards self-improvement, because let’s face it, If you don’t know how you want to grow, how can you grow at all, right?!  To some, this may seem silly, but I want to actually write down all of your goals in every aspect of your life, like; health, wealth, travel, business, etc…and be specific.  Instead of, “I wanna be rich”, write down, I want to earn $100,000 in 2010, or instead of, “I want to be skinny”, write down, I want to weigh 150 pounds by Oct. 30th.  The more specific you are, the more you can specialize what actions you take on a day-to-day basis to get you where you want to be.  You can write this for small as well as big goals, for example; I want to have a net worth of more than $10 Million dollars by Dec. 31st 2012.  You can have fun with this too, because the more awareness you have regarding what you really want, the more what you really want will come your way!

This leads us to the topic of goal setting, which I will post soon.  There are definitely keys to setting proper goals so that you set yourself up for success, but give it a try now, and you’ll see how fast goals can be achieved when you’re clear about what your goals actually are!

Thanks again for letting me share my passion with you!  I will be launching a redesigned blog website within 2 – 3 weeks, so sign up and subscribe to my blog so that you can stay informed on that, and share in future posts!

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Financial Motivation – Why do you even try to earn money?

Posted by mikeschurko on July 28th, 2010

I truly believe that we are all spiritual beings in a material world, and to achieve “success” in this material world, you have to be able to beat the “money game”.  How do you know you’ve beat the money game?  You’ll know it, when money doesn’t affect the choices you make in your life anymore.  I think the most important financial goal you’ll ever set in your life, is the goal to become financially free (unless you don’t believe in the physical confines of this world of course), thereby allowing you to do what you want, when you want, with whoever you want,wherever you want to!  So why DO you work right now?  To pay the bills, to get out of debt, to save up for a retirement (otherwise known as relative financial freedom) in 10, 20, 40 years?  Why can’t we have that now?

Within the last year, I have learned 4 keys to becoming financially free sooner than you could ever think possible.  Each key on its own is so so simple to do, you just have to put it into practice to the best of your abilities…the better you practice these keys, the faster you will reach your financial goals.  Each one of these steps I could write an entire post on…if you’d like to further discuss these following topics in more detail, just let me know!

1. Simplify Your Life

So many people live WAAAAAY beyond there means!  Or like to have toys to play with once or twice and never use again.  Then all these impulse possessions create clutter in your home and a hole in your wallet (or purse lol).  If you can really learn to live within your means (nothing on credit!), declutter your home and simplify your life (buy only what you need, including “Fun” items from time to time which we talked about a few weeks back – click here to read), you can make life so much easier for yourself and much more peaceful.  I love this topic so much that I think we’ll go into it deeper soon!

2. Increase your Working Income

The quickest way to start building towards your financial freedom is to increase your ‘”working income”.  Working income is the income you receive for the time you spend earning it.  If you work a “9-5 ‘er” job, it’s your hourly pay rate.  If you run your own company then it’s the income after taxes that you keep.  There are many ways to increase your working income…ask for a raise, get a part time job (as long as you still have time to pursue your passions too), educate yourself to be worth more to your employer, try to expose yourself to more potential clients everyday!  Working income by itself is powerful, but when combined with our next step, is exponential!!

3. Create Passive Income Streams

This is income that you can earn in your sleep.  Anything from owning vending machines to contracting out work while taking commissions, to setting up your own franchise.  This will help grow your nest egg so much faster than simply relying on working income alone.  So now that you have all of this money with your working and passive income adding up together so fast, what do you do with it?!…

4. Make Your Money Make You More Money

When you start to notice all this money sitting around in your bank accounts, it’s great practice to leverage that money to help you earn even MORE money!  Investment doesn’t have to simply mean the stock market, as we all know it’s rough waters out there these days, you can invest in real estate, low risk GIC’s, or mutual funds, anything that will help multiply these funds!

With these 4 simple steps, you can achieve financial freedom faster than you could ever have imagined.  Even if you think you don’t make enough money to invest, you’re too old to start a passive stream of income or you’re not smart enough to invest…you don’t have to know it all to have it all and you can start from any situation in your life!  There are trained professionals in each field that can educate you and help you get to where you want to be…Oh, and there is one more key that isn’t included in the 4 here but is the absolute crutial to EVERYTHING, and that is, taking action NOW!  I’m not saying to make unwise decisions with your finances…think hard and act quick…start growing your money today so you can start doing what you truly want to later today!

Thanks for letting me share my passions with you!  I’m so excited to see you all become financially free!  Also, I appreciate all of you positive feedback and comments you’ve been sending!   Remember, in life, it doesn’t have to be perfect now, but you can start right now!

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Need More Motivation to Exercise?!

Posted by mikeschurko on July 23rd, 2010

After looking into the “whys” behind all of the actions you take (if you didn’t read that post yet click here) , it is entirely common to still not be able to find the drive, or motivation to take action in this very moment to take steps towards your health and fitness goals.  One thing you need to be aware of is that it’s easy to feel good about planning to take your next step…but what you have to realize is that none of that planning is worth a sniff unless its acted upon.  It’s great to read different diet books, or listen to exercise audiobooks, but the key to your health goal success is putting what you’ve learned into action…NOW!

There are many ways to become and stay motivated, but I’m going to share with you 8 ideas I’ve used in my life that you can put into practice in yours today that I believe will make a difference immediately!

1. Keep Track of Your Progress

- I love stats, especially when they show the pounds dropping, the amount of weight and reps I can push rising, and the time it takes to run a set distance decreasing.  So keep a journal, it doesn’t have to take a lot of time, just write a few entries each day including your current weight (first thing in the morning), a big star or smiley face if you worked out that day, and if there was an improvement or success that you experienced that day like a faster 5km time or the workout felt easier than last time.   Also celebrate your successes by sharing milestones with friends and family.  Pictures and measurements can also work as a great tool to visualize your progress!

2.Remember How Good You Feel After the Workout

- Have you ever had a workout that you’ve felt bad after?  Barring injury or illness (always stretch before and after every activity to decrease chances of injury) it’s nearly impossible to think of a time when you’ve felt worse after a workout…Right??!  Remember those after workout feelings; you always feel tighter, more athletic, more awake and more alive after every work out.  Every time you feel those feelings, remember how amazing it is, and when the next time an option comes up to work out or sit and watch TV…Remember those fabulous feelings you get from exercise versus the brain numbing feelings you get from TV, then get active and move towards your ultimate health goals!

3. Make Exercise Enjoyable

- Not everyone likes to sweat away in a gym on an elliptical trainer or stand still bike machine.  Maybe you like to play tennis or basketball or jog in your favourite park, even snowboarding or roller hockey…if you like the “exercise” you’ll be more likely to want to do it.  If you have a specific sport, game or activity you like to do as exercise, please share it with me in the comment box!

4. Get a Workout Buddy

- It’s easy to let your mind talk you out of a planned workout when you’re all alone and have only yourself to convince, but when you can share in experience with a friend who has the same goals as you…it drastically increases motivation levels.  When you work out with a friend, you can push each other in ways you couldn’t do yourself…also if you like having conversations about the whats what of what when you workout with your friend then you’ll definitely notice that your workout time flies faster.  This way you can have fun, while improving your health and fitness with your friend, (or friends) and reach your goals too!

5. Make Exercise Habit

- Every morning I like to wake up between 5:15 and 6:00 am and get my workout in and start my day with my health goals in mind.  I find that the more consistent I am with my workouts (I like to work out a minimum of 4-5 times a week), the more it becomes habit and the easier it is to do it tomorrow morning.  Try this; if you’re having troubles staying motivated to exercise, plan your next week so that you can wake up by 6 am latest (no snooze bar lol!) everyday for 5 days straight (unless you work nights…I understand).  Keep track in your journal of how it goes day by day, and after the week is up, see how you feel.  If you feel great, keep it up…make it a habit, if you feel like crap because you think “I’m not a morning person”, we can either discuss how you can change that thought : ) or we can tweak the schedule…the point is getting into a routine of exercise consistency, which alone can bring you to your fitness goals faster than anything!

6. Set a Goal

- One AMAZING motivator I’ve found is setting specific goals in a specific time frame.  The biggest fitness motivator goal I’ve ever set, was June of 2009…I got home after work one day and was discussing potentially trying a triathlon in the future…I personally thought I’d never, EVER do one in my life, but again, with having an exercise partner right beside me to motivate me…in the blink of an eye, I found ourselves booked into the 2009 Vancouver Triathlon and started training.  Believe me, I’d never worked out so hard in my life!  So set a goal for yourself, enter a 5km or a 10km running race 2 months in advance and start training today!  Or if you’ve really active already, set a goal bigger than you’d ever think possible…think big like marathon, triathlon or Iron Man!  You’ll feel motivated to workout so you do well in your event and afterwords you’ll be even more motivated to enter your next event!

7. Realize the Importance and Benefits of Exercise

- If nothing else can motivate you to be active and exercise, your quality of life should.  What kind of life do you want to live?  Do you want to be active and enjoy a healthy lifestyle, or do you want to be sick, overweight, and miss opportunities to experience an active life because you can’t do it?  You don’t have to be training for an Iron Man in order to benefit from regular physical activity.  It simply is healthy to fatigue your muscles, test your lungs and raise that heart rate, it can only improve your day to day life, so why not…it’s the only life we have, lets be healthy and enjoy it in every way possible!

8. Get a Personal Trainer

- It’s okay if right now you don’t think you can achieve your health and fitness goals on your own, you’re not alone, you don’t have to get down on yourself because you don’t know where or how to get started.  You can delegate that chore to an educated professional.  Personal trainers can get you started on the right foot, show you how to properly exercise to reach your desired goals and answer those questions you may have about health and fitness.  Or if you’re already really active, a trainer can help you to the next level of your game so that you can do what you’re doing now, but even faster or better.  I know trainers can cost more than you think you can afford but think about this; how much is that coffee in the morning and bottle of juice in the afternoon? Maybe 4 or 5 bucks at least right…think about a months worth of coffee and bottles of juice…that could easily add up to over $100 – $150.  Try for one month to make coffee at home, and buy bulk juice from the grocery store and put that $150 towards as many training sessions you can get and see what happens.  It doesn’t have to be coffee and juice only either…it can be cigarettes, (if you smoke…tisk tisk!), muffins, doughnuts…or how about alcohol.  If you drink alcohol…add up how much you spend in a month and see if that can’t afford you a few personal training sessions : )

Well I hope you enjoyed this post!  I promise you that if you apply even 1 of these ideas into your life right now…you’ll move faster towards ultimate health than ever before!

Check back to my Budget Diet Life blog as I’m going to cover wealth motivation and procrastination!  Thank you so much for letting me share my thoughts with you!  Please feel free to email or leave a comment and I’ll respond asap!

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Need More Motivation?

Posted by mikeschurko on July 19th, 2010

Lots of people have big dreams, and amazing plans to achieve goals, myself included…but I believe that the #1 reason why these dreams and goals get put off and put off and never get accomplished is because of MOTIVATION…or lack there of.  There can be many reasons for lack of motivation, and it all starts in your brain.  Your mind is an extremely powerful tool, whether it’s working for you or against you.  We talked in an earlier blog about being in your discomfort or “growth zone” (click here to see that post), we discussed that being in that “growth zone”, is a very positive thing, but your mind likes to protect your well-being and tries to avoid any discomfort by talking you out of uncomfortable situations.  Your mind will come up with so many amazing and extremely convincing stories that will absolutely without a doubt make you feel like it’s the best choice right now, NOT to take action, there in…a lack of motivation.  So in order to master motivation, you must first master your mind.  Listen to what that little voice in your head is saying to you the next time an opportunity to take action towards a dream or goal comes up, tell it that you’ve heard what it has to say and now you’re going to make a decision based off what is truly best for me, not what will hurt the least or feel the best.  Notice it the next time you’re choosing whether or not to hit the snooze bar again instead of going for a run, or when you think of having another bowl of ice cream for dessert, or when you’re faced with a choice of whether or not to buy that expensive new toy you want but can’t actually afford, you’ll be amazed at how truly creative you are! : ) When you train yourself to act in spite of those protective inner ramblings, you’ll soon find you’re capable of so much more than you ever thought possible.

When you think of motivation what do you think of?  Is it being barked at by a personal trainer to do 5 more sit ups, is it that extra strong coffee that will help you get started at your task on hand, is it the love for a family member or best friend, or love of yourself?  Whatever you think of when it comes to motivation, it all eventually can be boiled down to this one word…WHY?

Think about it!  In any given situation when you choose to take action towards some sort of result, what drives you?  The “why” is what drives you.  Why are you doing what you’re doing in the first place?  Why is this important enough for you to spend your precious time on it?   Is that “why” money, because someone told you so, or because you are ridiculously passionate about what you’re doing?  Look into it, and you can really clarify your motivational issues.

As you start to investigate the”why’s” in your life, you’ll start to find out what things you do that you’re truly passionate about, what things you’re just doing for others and things that just have absolutely no good reason for you to be doing in the first place and that you’re truly not happy doing at all.  Now let’s be more specific…this blog is called Budget Diet Life…and that is money, health and lifestyle…so…Say you want to earn twice as much money as last year, or want to lose 15 lbs, or want to feel more fulfilled in your life.  Before you can achieve real and strong motivation, you have to be clear of the “why” behind your goals and actually feel good about the “why”.  For example; If the “why” behind the fact that you want to lose 15 more pounds is because you’re worried about what other people think, or because you really want to achieve ultimate personal health so you can enjoy a healthier life, then either mind-set will render much different motivational levels.  Once you try this out and learn how to regulate this in one area of your life, try applying it to all aspects of your life, and you will truly begin to live a fulfilling and extremely motivating, dream creating, goal achieving life!

This week we’ll go further into steps to actually getting motivated towards your health and wealth goals and also we’ll touch on procrastination and other reasons you may be being held back from moving towards your goals and dreams.

Thanks again everyone for letting me share my passion with all of you!

Mike

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How long have you been waiting to celebrate a Success?!

Posted by mikeschurko on July 14th, 2010

What does it take for you to consider something you’ve done to be a success?  Do you have to finish 1st in a provincial running race, build a multi-billion dollar corporation from the ground up, or write a book that goes straight to the New York #1 Sellers list before you celebrate?  I’m going to let you in on a little secret…it’s waaaaaaay easier than that!

Have you ever heard that like attracts like?  Well I believe that in the universe as we know it, such is so.  So why not create more successes and celebrate them in order to attract more successes to celebrate?

It seems too easy right?!…Well…

Every night before I go to bed, I grab a pen and my day planner and I write down all my successes that I achieved that day (I come up with at least 5), and then celebrate them by patting myself on the back, or by sharing it with someone who celebrates with me.  Here’s an example of what I write down;

- woke up early when I planned to (no snooze)

- hiked Grouse mountain in the am

- got awarded 2 voice over jobs to produce

- stuck to my diet all day

- got a pay raise at my part time job

- scored two goals in my roller hockey game tonight

That is simply an example, but what I’m getting at is that everything can be considered a positive accomplishment if you look at it with the right mind set.  Holy Crap, you’re a human being who is alive right now, and you accomplished something that you set out to do…you went to the gym, you worked on your hobby instead of watching TV, you washed the car, you answered those emails you’ve been planning to for a week now, you didn’t drink alcohol for the whole week, you saved up cash to buy that couch instead of putting it on credit…that is a success and you SHOULD celebrate it.  You may think it’s weird or embarrassing at first but try it, in the privacy of your own home.  Enjoy it, and know that by doing this, you’re simply creating more opportunities to celebrate more successes…who knows what the next one could be, maybe its that 1st prize medal in the race, maybe you become financially free, reach your all time weight and health goals or start that new reflexology practice…who knows?!  Keep celebrating them, and they’ll keep coming!

Thank you all for your feedback and emails from my past posts, I ask you to please continue, I love it!  Also don’t forget that by subscribing to my blog this week (July 12th – 18th) you will receive my band, Traces of Eve’s latest eAlbum!  Now I ask you to share…what are some things you would now consider to be success that you didn’t before?

Until next time, live everyday like it’s the day you will succeed!

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Want to Learn the Simplest and Most Effective Money Management System EVER?!

Posted by mikeschurko on July 12th, 2010

Have you ever heard that quote on those bank commercials, “You’re richer than ya think”?  Every time I hear that commercial or see an ad for it, often times I’ll hear a comment from someone around me, “ya right…actually I’m poorer than I think”.  As funny as that is there is truth to either statement if you believe it.  Also, lots of people think or say that once they have a lot of money they’ll learn to manage it…well I say, Learn to manage your money and you’ll have lots of it!!  I believe that even on a minimum wage income, armed with a proper money management system, ANYONE can become financially free and one day…truly be rich!

Before we get to the real learning, we all have to clarify one important thing with ourselves.  I want you to be successful! If you truly want to be successful, you have to be honest with yourself!  Sometimes it seems easier and more natural to lie to yourself than to anyone else…I promise you that if you’re dishonest with yourself, you will never be successful in ANY way and that includes money, health, relationships, spiritually, business and any aspect of your life.  So please do yourself a huge favor and be honest with yourself always because ultimately you’re responsible for your life and if you want to live a fulfilling life…honesty is an amazing policy!  OKAY, here we go!

In order to have success with this system there are 2 processes you will need to do that may be out of your comfort zone, but if you recall from my last post…that’s a great place to be!  You’ll need to sign up for online banking (if you’re not already set up) and open up 7 new accounts (make sure these new accounts don’t have any fees attached with them otherwise it kind of defeats the purpose), you’ll need 8 accounts if you own your own business.  Now wait, do not worry!  This is A LOT easier than you may think and believe me, it’s well worth the time to learn how to do it if you don’t know.  Any questions on how to do this just call or visit your bank online or in person.

Now as well as opening the online bank accounts, you’ll need to find 7 jars (8 if you own your own business), the bigger the better…the bigger the jar the more money right : )

Okay, we’re just about there!  You’re going to need to label all 7 online accounts and all 7 jars respectively.  The following are the names of the accounts, the amount of money that goes in them and a short description explaining each one.  Also I do understand there are a lot of people below the poverty line who don’t make much money…it’s okay, if you have ANY money, you still have money to manage!

If you own a business and do your own finances and taxes the first thing you should do with every type of payment or income is to take 20% from it and put it in your Tax account, then pretend that what you have left is now the 100% from which you’ll distribute into the other accounts below.

Essentials (ESS) – 55% - this is the portion of earnings you use to pay for life; bills, food, gas, budget money, etc.

This account is for essentials only.  Things you need on a day to day basis to live like your mortgage or rent payment, or insurance on the car and food.  In many cases, 55% of your income is not enough to cover your regular expenses.  In that case either simplify your life by reducing unnecessary expenses like cable TV, magazine subscriptions, etc. You can find less expensive living arrangements(find a roommate) if need be or increase the percentage of the Essentials account to ensure you don’t have to use credit to get by.  So if you have to, use 95% of your earnings into Essentials and split the remaining 5% into the other accounts.  The point of this system is to instill good money habits, so starting anywhere is still starting!  Good on you for taking the first step!

Financially Free account (FFA) – 10% First and foremost and most important…this is PAYING YOURSELF FIRST.

This is an account that you will put money into EVERYDAY…whether it’s a penny you found on the ground that day, or 10% of your pay cheque or through a savings program like “bank the rest”(every time you use your debit card it rounds up the purchase by $1, $5 or $10 and puts it into an account of your choice), the change that’s in your pocket at the end of the day or any random amount for no reason other than you just feel like adding money into the account that will allow you to never work again!  The only way money ever comes out of this account is if it’s going into a growth equity investment.  You want this puppy to grow and grow, not just sit there.  Make it a point every 1-3 months to take the entire amount from this account and invest it (we’ll talk about how you can invest this in a future post).  This account is your best friend…make sure you rejoice every time you put money in it, even if you feel silly at first!

Fun account (FUN) – 10% This is going to be your favorite account by far!

Make sure that 10% of all your income goes into the fun account.  This is the account that will allow you to pamper and nurture yourself by doing the things you would do every day if you were rich.  Depending on how big of a “fun” thing you want to do, you can let it save up for a month or even 3 months, but make sure that you find a time regularly to absolutely blow it…spend every penny in this account on yourself.  Go for the fanciest supper you’ve ever had, rent out a yacht for a few hours, buy clothing or toys that you really really enjoy and have fun with.  Just remember too, when you’re enjoying this account make sure to feel the feelings of gratitude, put the energy out there that this is what you love, this is what you want more of and it can be very powerful in attracting more of these situations into your life!

Learning account (LEARN) – 10% – Always grow yourself by learning more everyday.

With this account you should build your knowledge and improve your skills and abilities.  Take a course on investing your money,  buy a book on healthy living or join a personal evolution mentor program.  Also depending on what you do to earn income, take a course or training from industry leaders in your field and learn to do what you do even better!  This is the quickest way to improve your standard of living and add value to yourself as a person.  This is a very exciting account!

Long Term Savings to Buy account(LTSB) – 5% Save up for larger purchases down the road.

This is a longer term savings account but will be used for spending or items such as a computer, new car, a piano, a big vacation trip, an atv, camper, boat or a TV (if you own one).  This ensures that you don’t ever have to use credit to buy larger purchases.  When the day comes that you are completely debt free, or you’re currently debt free you can increase this amount to 10%.

Long Term Savings for Debt repayment account (LTSD) - 5% Become debt free faster!

Chances are, if you’re not a monk or rich you have debt.  In order to speed up the process of paying down your debt, at the end of every month, transfer the contents of this account against your highest interest loans, usually credit cards.  I would suggest simply making minimum payments on all of your loans or credit cards with your Essentials account then use LTSD monthly to put lump sums against debt.  If at all possible, try to increase the 5% up to 10% by decreasing your Essentials to 50%.  Basically, the sooner you become debt free, the sooner you keep all of your money you earn and start to grow it big, FAST!

Give Back account (GIVE) – 5% Share with others!

This is the account to use for things like birthday gifts or charitable donations or even taking a friend out for a coffee.  This way you can give back to the people around you while knowing that you’re not putting yourself in financial trouble to do so.  I believe it is always a good idea to pass along the wealth you’ve been able to create in your life to inspire others to do the same!

SO!, Now that you are armed with the simplest and most effective money management system ever, I am very excited! I ask that you put it in to motion immediately, and I promise that you will notice a difference in how much money you actually see that you have, in no more than a month!  Always believe in yourself…you ARE richer than you thought you were!

Thank you so much for your attention.  I based this system off of teachings by T. Harv Eker.  If you have any questions about the money management system or anything else, leave me a comment or email me and I’ll write you back!

Here’s to growing!

Mike

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Can You Eliminate Fear Forever?!

Posted by mikeschurko on July 8th, 2010

Right off the bat you can relax…EVERYONE feels fear, you’re not alone!  I’ve definitely found in the past that I’ve had many grand ideas, goals, dreams, inspirations and opportunities at hand to live life to the fullest…and then let fear stop me from taking action.

I believe that action is truly the ultimate medium through which dreams and goals become reality!

Fear can be described in many ways or feelings, it can come across as anxiety or discomfort or it can even come across as laziness or even inconvenience.  Often times in order for us to grow whether it be physically, mentally or spiritually, you need to push yourself into your discomfort zone which can definitely be a fearful thing if you’re not used to it.  Your discomfort zone is a place where you don’t often go and yes it is uncomfortable…that’s the point : )  The only way to make it easier to be in your discomfort zone or as I like to call it your growth zone is to spend more time in it, and every time you do feel you’re in it…appreciate every second of it, because in those moments you know that you’re growing and getting stronger faster than ever and making it easier for the next time you want to take action towards your dreams and goals that may feel a little bit scary to you.

I believe a great analogy is walking verses jogging.  If your goal is to lose weight, you can lose weight faster by jogging or running verses walking right?…BUT by jogging, you have to be a bit uncomfortable compared to simply walking.

So make it the same in all aspects of your life.  You can walk or jog towards financial freedom too…by using credit cards to buy fun things or go fun places you can’t afford and never pushing yourself to earn more money…that’s easy.  To push yourself to earn more money and create more streams of revenue while regulating your spending, decluttering your life by selling or donating things you don’t need or use anymore and simplifying your life to save up for that fun thing or going to that fun place is a lot harder, but in the end you will be better off, a much stronger person and ultimately live a more comfortable life. (Ah ha!  The ironic twist!)

Lately I strive to find ways to push myself beyond my comfort zone.  Whether it be running harder than I ever have in my training…saying no to buying an over budget luxury purchase on credit and choosing to save up for it instead, getting up early and going for a hike on Grouse Mountain even though my bed is so damn comfy, working for an hour or two on my hobby project instead of playing a video game or watching TV, sticking to my eating plan or taking on a new project I’ve never tried before in regards to my production company…I know that every time I do that, my self confidence grows, I learn more and I grow closer than ever to realizing my goals.

The key is not to try and get rid of fear…the key is to feel the fear and do it any ways.

But hey, we all know talk is cheap and you have to lead by example right? Right! So the latest fear I’m working to over come is my fear of failure and fear of disapproval.  I don’t like the feeling of judgement I guess…but again it’s just another fear to face that can make me stronger if I have the right mind set behind it, therefore…bring it on! : )  SO, I submitted a video for a game show called Wipe Out.  I felt like a goof ball filming it, and I worried about what other people would think of it but after it was all said and done, I had fun making it and now potentially I can share my positivity and personality on a national scale!

So now I ask your participation to please share with me the ways that you face the fear and place yourself beyond your comfort zone!  It’s one thing to do it, it’s another share it and feel pride in celebrating your successes!

Thanks for reading!  My next blog will be about a very simple money management system that will absolutely change your life!

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How important is Passion?

Posted by mikeschurko on July 6th, 2010

Have you ever thought of what truly creates a meaningful and fulfilling life?

Working away the day 9 to 5, making someone else money while simply getting by financially and watching the calendar pages flip away while thinking to yourself, “I can’t wait for this day to be over”…is probably not it.  What do you REALLY love to do?   I love to write music and record it…make a video about something I’ve done, put it together and show my friends and family.  I love to be athletic by doing things like train for a Triathlon, hike the Grouse Grind and the West Coast Trail or playing Roller hockey or pool, and I truly love running a production company producing voice overs, wedding videos, radio ads and commercials…among other things : )

So what are you passionate about?

If you’re having questions or doubts about what your passion is, or whether or not you even have one, think about this…what is the one (or multiple) thing, job, past time or activity you would continue to do if you somehow acquired 50 Million Dollars today?!

Really think about that.   Now ask yourself…why aren’t I doing that right now?  I ask you from the bottom of my heart…START LIVING YOUR PASSION TODAY!  Say you love to build mailboxes but don’t think you could “make a living” doing it, or say you love to teach yoga and share your spirituality with others but don’t think you’d ever have a following…start by spending an hour or 2 per week doing what you’re passionate about, truly enjoy it and immerse yourself in it during that time and then…see where it goes.  What could be the harm?  You love doing it anyway!

I ask you to take part in this challenge!  Try it for a month, and let me know how you’re feeling about your passion and what has transpired because of your new choice to spend more time doing what you’re passionate about!  Please, I love feedback, comments and interaction!

Thanks for reading and remember, you are an amazing person and only good things can come from good energy!  Lets all keep it up!

Mike

*****See some of the music I’ve written and videos I’ve made at;

http://www.myspace.com/tracesofeve

http://www.myspace.com/bellytappers

http://www.youtube.com/user/amandasonic

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