Common Sense Living

You might have guessed by now that I drive myself pretty hard. I have goals and they’re not going to be reached if I’m screwing around.

I’ve gotten better about making my ‘to-do’ list reasonable, and if I have it on my list - I fully expect that I will get it done.

Today, it’s probably not going to happen.

You see, the items on my ‘to-do’ list today ahve a high potential for screw up, and I just didn’t want to face the music. Yep, fear of failure.

Oh, I could bury it in a lot of excuses -

Today is my first day off since… when was I off anyway?

I got laundry, and dishes done, ate well, cleaned goose droppings (there were 32 geese in my yard this afternoon!), cleaned the beach, cleaned the closet, balanced the checkbook, spent a good hour yacking with my daughter, took a walk with a friend and hyper-dog. Yep, a productive day. But those things weren’t on my list. They were convenient distractions to keep me from doing what I didn’t want to attempt.

I did re-read the instructions. I got that far!

But, I still have to put sheets back on the beds, and I really need a shower. And at that point midnight will have passed.

And those things that didn’t get done today will be looming large in the morning. I’ve got my boots sitting here ready to give my self a good quick kick in the butt!

And if this blog isn’t here in the morning - you’ll know that I blew it up again.

Wish me luck!

Carole

a.k.a. – ‘Mother’

OK, this isn’t the first time I’m writing about this subject.

Guaranteed Income for them, means a messed up bank account for you.

What am I talking about?

All of these big ebook giveaways that are so popular now. And why are these guys giving away so much stuff? To hook you into the recurring monthly billing. That’s right - they all have a little sentence at the end that syas you will receive their newest product for a discounted price per month.

But they pile on so much stuff, if you’re like me - you figure you’ll just cancel before you get billed. If you’re like me, you miss it every time.

The really sad thing is, there hasn’t been one that I’ve wanted to stay with.  Especially at $27, $29, $47 a month. Plus, it will take me months to read all the stuff they gave me in the first place.

And I’ll tell you what - when a couple thousand people forget to cancel in time - that’s a pretty good payday, don’t you think?

So yes, membership sites are a quick money idea. Not a good long term idea because you really piss off your customers, but yeah, you can make some quick money. All these make money guys are scrambling to find ways to make a consistent income every month.

But they right such good sales copy that they have you salivating - even though the product is usually disappointing. And all the stuff they give you. You’d be crazy to pass it up, right? How can you resist?

For me, the answer is unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe.

“But Carole, don’t you run a recurring billing site too?”

Yes, I do. I have for years. It’s $4.95 a week. If you decide it’s not for you - you can cancel at anytime. If you miss the billing cut off and you ask nice - I refund it. I don’t want you taking food off your table or suffering in any way. And I never want you to be leary of doing business with me. Afterall, Mother only wants the best for you
I guess that’s why these guys are a lot richer than I am.

But I’m a firm believer in what goes around, comes around.

On the other hand - you know full well, just as I do, when you sign up for these things, there is recurring billing. If we forget to cancel in time - it’s not their fault. If you signed up for 5 of them in one month, it’s not their fault.

And you already know that they can write the best sales letters on earth - that can sell ice to an eskimo. They’ll get you every time.

For me, the only solution is to avoid the temptations altogether and unsubscribe. Besides, cutting a large number of emails a day that will tempt me to spend money I don’t have, when I need to be doing something more productive in the first place - seems like a good idea, don’t ya think?

Besides, I need that moeny for gas!

Have any thoughts on the issue?

The FDA is always crying that they don’t have enough time or manpower to do the inspections that we require and expect to keep our food supplies safe. Look at the latest tomato fiasco.

Oh, but they have time to pander to Big Pharma and debate on whether naturally occuring vitamins and nutrients are really drugs because some company came up with a sythetic version that they sell as a drug.

It happened last year with red yeast rice. Now B6 is the target. Can you believe it?

B6 is a potent, very important nutrient. A deficiency can cause many problems. So, correcting the deficiency would of course cure the disease that the deficiency caused in the first place. This is true of many diseases that are caused, or exacerbated by the lack of nutrients. Anyone with half an ounce of nutrional understanding knows this.

Is that what makes it a drug?

No. What makes it a drug is when Big Pharma creates a fake version that they sell as a drug to treat the disease that the deficiency caused in the first place, and then they petition the FDA to regulate the original nutrient because ‘look, it’s a drug that you approved!’

This, the FDA has plenty of time for.

Would they please appoint someone with half an ounce of common sense to head up the agency that is responsible for the health of the nation (not the profits of Big Pharma).  I think that was their purpose, wasn’t it?

Anyway - to find out more here is a good article, with links to the petition.

http://www.NaturalNews.com/023514.html

We have to stay on top of this stuff. If they think they can quietly push things like this through, they will. They did it last year, and they’ll do it again.

Who should we vote for for president? How about someone who will completely overhaul this ridiculous agency? How about someone who will put the health and well being of the people who elected him above all else? Yeah, right. That candidate already lost.

Every good mother knows you can’t take care of everyone else unless you take care of yourself first.

That’s what we need - A Good Mother for President!

Or maybe Mike Litman. He says, “Save yourself first, and THEN save the world.” I think that’s a sound principle. How about you?

OK, enough rambling. Go read the article, and sign the petition if you are so moved.

See ya later…

Carole

a.k.a. – ‘Mother’

What’s your form of self-sabotage?

Everyone’s got one.

For most people, it’s just getting started. Pretty hard to finish anything if you can’t even get started, isn’t it?

There’s a million things that keeps people from getting started on a project.

The biggest claim is ‘no time’.

If you have a couple hours to spend in front of the TV, or your computer screen surfing – you’ve got time.

If you spend time at the bar – you’ve got time.

The real culprit in these cases is either – You don’t really want to do it, or you’re afraid of failure – so if you don’t start, you can’t fail.

But my form is much harder to break.

I’ll not only get started, but I’ll work like gangbusters… until…

I get so burned out that I can’t finish.

Whatever the cause of your self-sabotage is – there is a way to beat it.

First, break the project down into a series of small, easy to accomplish tasks.

Say I wanted to plant flowers in my out door pots.

I would need to remove the old dead stuff.

I would need to buy fresh dirt, and the flowers.

I would need to plant them.

If I wait until I have a day when I have time to squeeze in all 3 of those tasks – it might never happen. But, if I do one little task a day – it will be done without breaking a sweat.

See how that works?

Put a couple of easy to accomplish tasks on your daily ‘to-do’ list. You are using a daily ‘to-do’ list to keep yourself on track, aren’t you?

If you’ve made your tasks reasonably easy ones, don’t allow yourself to watch TV or go to bed until they’re done. If you’ve made the tasks too hard, this approach won’t work. They key to success here is to make them so simple that you have no excuse.

Oh, I hear you saying – “If I do just 5 or 10 minutes a day, I’ll never get it done!”

Yeah? Tell me how much you’re getting done on it now. If you spend 10 minutes a day over the next week, you’ll have put in 70 minutes. Probably more because once you actually get started, you tend to keep going. Or you can still be sitting here with your project not started at all.

Use your minutes wisely!

Carole

.a.k.a. – ‘Mother’

Could you use a Whole Life Overhaul?

Sigh… You may have noticed that the info on the sidebar to your right is a little discombobulated.

I’m a Mother, not a techie. I’m trying though!

I don’t know what happened to the RSS feed - or why everything is all mushed together.

Bear with through the tech stuff, and I promise I’ll continue to give you good tips that you can use to make your life easier.

Deal?

Cool.

Have a great day!

Carole

.a.k.a. – ‘Mother’

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up and get your free report - Getting Organized - and some other gifts I think you’ll really like. No, I’m not telling. Then it wouldn’t be a surprise now, would it?