Category: General

Written by guest blogger: Jackie Waters. Jackie is passionate about sustainability and simplicity.  She runs hyper-tidy.com, providing advice on being…Hyper Tidy! 

Planning for the future sounds like a scary, overwhelming task, but once we reach a certain age it’s imperative to have a plan in place for finances, living situations, education, and emergencies, and not just for yourself–for your children too. Many people find it difficult to budget for next month, let alone ten years down the road, but there are several easy ways to help you can start planning for the future and give yourself peace of mind; you just have to know where to start.

Read on to find out how you can create a strategy for the future that won’t overwhelm you…or break the bank.

Education planning

If you have children, their continued education is likely a concern. College isn’t cheap, and it’s hard to rely on financial aid when the awarded amount is income-based and the criteria for grants changes from year to year. A 529 college savings account can help eliminate some of that stress and allow you to deposit after-tax money for your child’s school tuition. You can even check with your company to see if they’ll take a portion of your paycheck to be deposited directly into this account.

Another smart way to make sure tuition is covered? At birthday and holiday time, ask grandparents and other loved ones to write a check that will go directly to that 529 account instead of spending money on more toys.

Pre-paid tuition

One of the few sure things in this life is that there are no sure things. It’s terrifying to think about, but few of us have real job security these days, and there’s no way to know what financial shape you’ll be in twenty years from now. If you have the money now, consider pre-paying your child’s tuition. The only catch is, it’s best to pay it in one lump sum, rather than making payments over time.

Spend smart

It’s appealing to open a line of credit at a furniture or appliance store when you need to make a big purchase, in part because many of those stores offer discounts on your first purchase with approved credit. However, incurring more debt is never a good idea if you’re trying to save, so if possible, save up to buy that refrigerator and skip the credit card. Minimize your monthly bills as much as possible and get organized about your spending; with mobile apps, most banks make it easy to check your balance and purchases in real time, so there’s no reason you should be left in the dark when it comes to how much you’re bringing in versus how much you’re spending.

Keep up with the savings account

Open up a savings account, make a resolution to deposit money into it every payday, and stick to it. You don’t have to put the same amount in every time, but getting in the habit of putting aside don’t-touch money will reward you in the long run. Much better than trying to save cash at the end of the week, when you’ve gone through most of your check.

Hire a professional

It can be overwhelming to try and plan for the future by yourself, so hire a professional to help you go over living wills, plans for your estate, and preparations for your children in the event that something happens to you. No one wants to think about it, but it’s essential to plan, and with the help of a lawyer you’ll be able to get it done with little to no hassle.

Week 14

Weekly Mileage: 32

Long Run: 16

I dipped out last week and didn’t write a week 13 running and leading post. I was too busy with work and with trying to keep up with training and family, so I gave myself a bye week- for writing, not running (we ran 38 miles last week).  Maybe the best leadership lesson for this post should be for us all to give ourselves a bye every once in a while….

But a topic has been weighing on me related to running and leading stemming from my long run of 22 miles alone a couple of weeks ago.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought. And if I’m honest, the training for this entire marathon hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be either. And I think the reason why is because of one simple tactic: chunking the training and the long runs into manageable pieces – small, accomplishable pieces that I can wrap my brain around.

For the long run, I found myself breaking it into these pieces: Eight miles on the beach road and a water, Gatorade and chews break where I had set these things out prior to getting started.  Five and a half miles to my hotel and back to where I had left these things out.  Six miles out and back on a backwoods trail for another break, then two and a half miles back to the hotel.  Done.   In each section, I just thought about getting to the next break, not getting the 22 miles done and it helped me mentally and physically.

Same is true for the longer view of the training plan.  I just posted one month at a time on the fridge and tried to take it week by week. Low and behold, we’re headed to Philly for the run a week from today, and the training seemed manageable (with a lot of help along the way that made it manageable).

Getting an itch to run a marathon? You can view and download the month by month calendars we used here:

• August Calendar 
• September Calendar 
• October Calendar 
• November Calendar

When we think about what makes people successful in achieving long-term goals, many people point to grit as a key factor in doing so. “Grit is living life like it is a marathon, not a sprint,” Angela Duckworth, the guru of grit says.   She goes on to say in her TED Talk on the topic, though, that science knows very little about how to build grit.

In my experience, chunking tasks to meet a long-term goal into smaller, more manageable pieces is a good step in the right direction.   Many people refer to this as creating the action plan and focusing on it instead of the end goal.  Nick Saban would call this “the process”. And boy does he win with it.

So if you find yourself overwhelmed in trying to accomplish your leadership goals, break them down into smaller pieces.   And if you need a calendar type model to help you accomplish this like the monthly race calendars do, Gantt charts are a beneficial way to manage projects with long-term goals.  Here’s a tutorial on how to make one for yourself in Excel.

What helps you achieve success towards your marathons in life?

 

Today’s post is a video of founder of Horizon Point Consulting, Inc., Mary Ila Ward, discussing her path to entrepreneurship.  She addresses the following five questions in the video for those considering a business start-up:

1. Can you stick your foot in the water before jumping in full force? If not, have you planned financially to jump out on your own all at once?
2. How are you building relationships now to foster potential success for going out on your own in the future?
3. Is entrepreneurship right for you?  What is your motivation for doing what you are doing?
4. Do you have a support system in place to do it?
5. Finally and most importantly, do you have something that people want and need?  If you aren’t meeting a need you won’t be successful.

Week 10 Mileage: 47 miles

Long Run Distance:  20 miles

 

Shalane Flanagan, who was the top American marathon finisher in Rio (6^th overall),  almost didn’t make the Olympic team. The trials were in LA during a day of grueling heat, and after starting strong, things unraveled fast.

Having trouble with the digestion of her fluids, she started to get chills which indicates a problem with dehydration.  Her drinks were too concentrated and she ended up having absorption problems. At mile 23, she described her experience on the Runner’s World Show Podcast,

“Amy like (her training partner), I’m really struggling…”

“My face was getting really, really red, and she (Amy) could tell I was starting to overheat. At that point I thought I may be missing out on my fourth Olympic team.”

After finishing in the 3^rd spot and qualifying, she underwent a sweat analysis that analyzed her particular genetics and sweat composition to see what type of fluids and nutrition she needed, customized for her, in order to run in Rio- also in hot, humid conditions- to optimize performance.  She is a heavy sweater, sweating almost three times more than her training partner did during the same test.  Amy and Shalane had different fuels in their bottles in Rio and hydrated differently because they perspire differently.

Just like Olympic runners need different things to optimize their performance, different people need different things to maximize their performance at work through the motivational techniques their leaders deploy.  There are different strokes for different folks.

Some employees may be motivated by public praise whereas another might want to crawl under the table if you praise them in front of the team.  Some may need an opportunity to think things through and plan things out in order to perform successfully, whereas others may maximize their performance through the adrenaline rush that comes from a fast and spur of the moment pace.

Do you know what type of fuel each of your team members need to optimize performance? If not, here are a few things you can consider for discerning key motivators:

1. Ask them what motivates them! Email us and we will send you a simple questionnaire that can help facilitate this discussion between you and your employees.
2. Assess them.   There are several personality assessments out there that help us understand what motivates or drives people at the individual level and how that drive interacts with others to drive team performance. Email us and we can also set you up with one of these.
3. Watch and listen to them. Can you see when someone’s stress level is rising?  What triggered it?  Stress masquerades as demotivation.  Too much of those triggers and you are going to burn someone out.  In contrast, when do you notice someone is energized and excited?  They probably need more of the environment, tasks or interactions that lead to that excitement to optimize motivation.

Ask, assess, watch and listen.  This will help you customize your motivational elixir for optimal performance.