I believe in the value, worth, and capability of every person
I am sharing with you my perspective on life so you can understand the thrust of my books and what to expect. You may even be able to better decide if you want to read more of what I have written. I am going to share with you what I believe—what I think is true about life. Your ideas may be different than mine, or you may have a very different philosophy, and that is to be expected. My aim is to show you the pathways that have worked well for me, and for others in my life, with the hope that you also find them to be helpful.
First of all, I believe in the value, worth, and capability of every person, and that includes you, whether I know you or not. I also believe in the potential inherent in each person. I believe each of us has the capacity to be far more than we ever imagined. I believe you have the capacity to be far more than you ever imagined. Each of us is capable of significant accomplishments.
We want to feel valued
I believe that each of us wants to live our life well. We want to be successful, loved, appreciated, respected, and comfortable financially. We want to feel significant. We want to feel valued. Note that all of these desires involve relationships with others. Much of our success is, therefore, dependent upon understanding how to live productively with other people. Humans can be a source of great strength and encouragement, but they can also be a source of pain and hurt. It’s important to understand how people act and react in relationships, and how to successfully relate to them.
We each have the capacity to help
I believe your life can be better when you attempt to be an encourager and supporter of others, rather than simply using others for what they can do for you. We each have the capacity to help our friends, family, and acquaintances in their quest for success and meaning in their life. In so doing, I believe we enhance our own lives. Each of us is capable of being loving, caring, and helpful. When others disappoint us, we can learn to extend grace to them. It helps if we consider that most people are doing the best they can, given their background, education, training, skills, and available time. I believe that life is not a zero-sum game, where the only way you can gain is if someone else loses. It doesn’t diminish me if I help you to succeed.
We must address how we respond to challenges
I believe that, as humans, we often sabotage our own best efforts. To avoid doing that, it’s important to understand ourselves and how we typically react in various situations. We humans have the capacity to know the right thing to do, for example, but something in us may stubbornly insist on doing the opposite. To be successful, we must address how we respond to the many challenges that come our way so the results are productive and helpful, not unhealthy and damaging.
We each leave a mark on everyone we interract with
I believe that we all want to leave a legacy, an impact on the world for the better. This is often viewed as something we accomplish through our children, who live on after we have passed. But it can also be through the impact we have on everyone we come in contact with in our lifetime—family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, even chance encounters with strangers. I believe we each leave a mark, an impression, on everyone we interact with as we go about our walk through life. That mark can be for good or ill. It is up to us, but we will each have an impact, a legacy, that will live on long after we are gone. Think of it like a boat going through the water on a lake. The wake it leaves behind causes ripples that begin spreading outward and continue all the way to the shore. On a large lake, the boat may be long gone by the time the ripples reach the far shoreline, just as the ripples we leave behind will have an impact for many years after we have passed. One way we can leave positive ripples, a positive legacy, is by living a successful life.
My aim in Your Money, Your Life is to provide some life principles in order to enhance your financial wisdom
I propose to explore with you, through my writing, many facets of successful living. In fact, I like to call it Rich Living, because a life well-lived leaves one feeling rich and satisfied. I have chosen to write my first book on the subject of personal financial management because I believe an important foundation for success in life is financial stability. If you’re struggling financially, that becomes your dominant thought and concern, day after day, week after week, and can even continue for the rest of your life. It is crucial to be able to attain a basic level of financial stability in order to grow past a preoccupation with money. My aim in Your Money, Your Life is to provide some life principles in order to enhance your financial wisdom. Most of these are directly related to money and finances, but some are more general and involve nearly every area of our lives.
My Mission, My Purpose
is to help each reader to be successful—to help you be successful
In summary, I aim to do that by sharing my perspective on the way life works and how to navigate your way through it. I want to help you understand that you can control your own destiny, and to challenge your thinking if you feel you must resign yourself to being subject to the winds of fate. You have the opportunity to make decisions about every area of your life, and then to enjoy the rewards of those decisions.
Above all, I want to encourage and inspire you, the reader. I want to help you adopt a success mindset, become optimistic, and to develop a “can do” attitude. I want to help you succeed. My wish would be for you to think of me as “A Voice of Encouragement,” whispering over your shoulder, “I believe in you. You can do this.”