I have a new favorite person these days - Carlton. A brilliant artist and a genuinely nice human being. I see him each and every day, and each and every day he's there to greet me with a smile and his regular salutation - "what up, what up my man J?! How you feelin' today?". Coming from him, this means a lot.

While Carlton follows his passion by creating art all day (that's his painting up there on the left), he's also one of the many homeless here in DC. But rather than roam the streets asking for money every other minute, he finds a curb and he paints. And he paints, and he paints, and he paints! And the most interesting part about it all? He's HAPPY! I've never once seen him complaining or agitated with that brush in his hand - on that street, he's as peaceful as can be.

Now, I'm not naive to think his life is all rosy and without hardship, nor do understand that much about the homeless lifestyle in general, but I DO know that when Carlton paints he's following his passion. He'll sit there for hours sketching on scraps of cardboard, poster board, wood, whatever he can get his hands on. Just this morning I saw him outlining his family portrait on a rug. A rug! Seriously, even if you're not a fan of art you'd be inspired by this guy.

And I think that's what this post is really about today - inspiration. Inspiration to keep moving on when life gets you down. To keep pursuing your dreams and holding onto that positive mentality as best you can. Yes we might be in $XX,XXX of debt, or owe way more on our houses than they're worth, but you know what? Life is more than about making money and working for that next promotion. It's about LIVING. About finding that little piece of happiness every time we awake. Every time we're blessed to have another day on this Earth.

Does that mean we just quit our jobs and go fly fishing all day? No, of course not (unless you can figure out a way to make some money off it :) ) but it does mean we could do better at setting aside a little more time each day to pursue the things we enjoy. We still have to pay the bills and all, but following that passion of yours keeps the flame inside of you hopeful and going strong.

And that's exactly why I put Carlton's eye painting right next to my desk - to remind me to wake up and spend time on living today. Kinda like he's watching over me and making sure I don't forget ;) It's a wonderful feeling seeing that. My friend right there to remind me of what's important.

Labels: art, inspiration, life

With all the gloom and doom surrounding our economy, i don't blame ya.

Luckily though, i've stumbled upon something that may just help cure you while we wait for the top dogs to clean it all up. And it doesn't cost ya a penny!

I've been doing it for a good month now, and it actually IS helping me put things in perspective. Everyone's different so i won't promise you a miracle, but at the very least it makes for a good memory book.

It's rather simple: Write down anything you've accomplished for the day! That's it. Amazing, huh?! haha...It doesn't matter if it's big or small, stupid, or sexy - at the end of the day, or whenever you're in the mood really, just scribble it down and date it. And don't feel like you have to do it every day, putting in a limit like that always screws you over. I tried doing this at first, but after 3 weeks i cought myself feeling like i "have to" do it. you don't.

The awesome thing about it is that over time you start feeling more confident in yourself, as they all serve as reminders of the success' you've had over the days! And even more so if your memory is as horrible as mine is.

So what's on my list lately? Well i'll tell you, my little voyeuristic ones ;)

• NEW! Found out i'm a fav. blogger of Frugal's! (9/29/08)
• Finished up ALL my wedding Thank You notes!!! (9/28/08)
• Stayed late @ work & designed some kick a$$ graphics. (9/26/08)
• Wrote a fun blog post today - came out easy! (9/25/08)
• Cleaned up all the cat's throw up. (9/23/08)

I could go on and on here, but some get pretty weird. But that's the awesome thing here, it's your own personal list so it really doesn't matter - whatever you're proud of accomplishing that day goes onto it. I found a snazzy little journal i've had laying around for years to jot it all down in, but anything works. You could even staple a few pieces of blank paper together if it gets you to start.

And wanna know something else? They're all POSITIVE things! Nothing negative is in there, unless of course you write something down like, "I punched my sister in the face" and were proud of it....but who'd do such a horrible thing? (honestly, that's pretty bad). So whatcha waiting for? Save your dollars on a "self-help" book, and start scribbling down your own accomplishments - for free!

-----
ps: I have to give a shout out to Trent from The Simple Dollar, whose latest post on MSN Smart Spending last friday jolted me to write about my own similar approach here. He wrote about a similar idea of putting things down that make you happy, it's all pretty interesting!

Labels: inspiration, life

Words of wisdom from the queen of finance herself - Suze Orman (who seems to be popping up everywhere these days!)

I don't know much about her, but it sure seems like she wants me to :) She's on every other magazine, or financial show i check out - my favorite being the SNL skits they always do on her! haha.... she's got one helluva marketing strategy!

But this quote of hers, "You have to look at what you have, not at what you had." is really something to think about. It's SO enlightening, yet so simple. I love it! With all my bitching about sucky cab rides, friends trying to "split" the tab, and those whacked-out investors feeding off of emotions, it's a nice slap in the face to get back to reality. (you can check out her wiki here)

The truth of the matter is that I have a LOT more than I sometimes think, and I'm willing to guess the same goes for you too. Having stable jobs, good families, and nice financial safety nets (even if in theory), beats out those trivial complaints by far. The only problem, of course, is REMEMBERING that you are fortunate enough to have these things - something I should probably focus a bit more on.

That being said though, a little financial bitching every now and then never hurt anyone ;) In fact, it makes life (and blogging) even MORE interesting, not to mention accurate. Not everything that happens to us can be positive, I don't care if you're George Bush or Barack Obama......haha sorry, i'm really not sure where i'm going with this...the words just typed themselves out :)

I think there's a healthy mix of appreciating what we all have, and learning from the reasons why we don't have what we did yesterday ... sprinkled with rants and raves throughout! As for this Suze chick, I'm gonna have to do a little more research and find out how she got this cult following. I heard "The Money Book for the Young Fabulous & Broke" was pretty good, anyone read it?

ps: Thanks for emailing me the quote RSB , it sure got my brain thinking!

Labels: advice, education, inspiration, life, money quotes, suze orman

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest" - Benjamin Franklin

Happy holiday weekend everyone! Eat lots of food, and down a lot of beer milk. (or just read a lot of blogs, it's all good for the heart either way)

Labels: inspiration