Inspiration & Motivation Blog

Peaceful Life Free of Debt

Arswino Sonata — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:33:20 +0000

Having debts is giving you a headache? No need to worry much, most people have had that kind of headache. But living peacefully free of debts is not just a dream, provided we know very well and manage our financial capability.

Debts have become a routine part of most people’s financial life. Nearly everyone on this planet is having a debt, whether of small sum or of huge sum for enterprise capital. Not to say the aggressive offer to purchase needs via credit system. Who doesn’t want to get his own car or house through this credit system?

One type of debt most people, especially women, just can’t resist, is credit card. Wow, having this one “magic card” benefits various facilities. In large sale season, when not enough money left in our bank account, credit card enables us to make purchases at will, provided the expense is within the limit specified. But this is the very thing that leads us into the trap of debt’s “devil’s circle”. A moment’s desire might incur considerable impact in all aspects of our lives.

This complicated problem is very possible to come, even more when prices keep going up while we still have to fulfill our needs and also to pay our routine installment. So, who doesn’t want to have a steady, prime financial condition? One reasonable solution to take care of our financial problems is to stop having new debts. We must believe that by getting wiser in managing our finance, it is very likely in future we will have peaceful life free of debts and surely it is something that makes us happy.

After knowing the effects of debts to financial life, it is only natural we then are eager to free ourselves from that burden immediately. But afterwards we don’t have to keep away from debt of any kind. It is allright to have debts provided we specify its purpose, know the exact sum to borrow and most important, we ascertain the source of fund to pay them off.

Types of Debt

If you want to manage your financial life correctly, you’d better make out what type of debt you are in. there are two kinds of debt: good and bad. It is bad if used for consumtive needs, which value will be imposed to depreciation. It is good debt ig it could produce an asset, for example: for purchasing a house on credit.

Debt Checking

How do we look into the amount and condition of the debts we are in? is the amount still in the normal level or has it already exceeded the limit? Each debt owed to a financial institute is always put into a written memorandum of agreement stating the states of payment and bills. If we borrow from a non-financial institution, see that you get a letter of agreement or make carefull note on the amount, period of installment and its due time. Also make a simple balance note showing your credit in the left column and your debit in the right column.

When the total of installments in one month has exceeded 30% of our monthly income, it means we have borrowed too many. And if the rasio of our credit and the short-term debt (debt which due time is under 3 years period) as already three times bigger than the short-term debt, it proves our financial life not healthy. If so, we must review our expenses.

Dealing with Debts

The easiest way us by not having more debt. By controlling ourselves to stop having debt of any kind, we have taken correct step. Then we set up a systematic schedule to pay off the remaining debts. If needs be, try to negociate some of them into rearranging the due time and the sum of installment. It might help lightening the burden of our financial capability.
Or we may directly ask the creditor for lightening the payment stipulation. If the creditor is our own parents, family or close friend, this may not be too difficult to do. We can frankly tell them the true condition of our finance. But we must manage never to loose their trust to us. Fulfill any promise we have made. Initially they likely will decide not to give us more loan. Any how this will favourably discourage us not to have more debt.
Things will be different if the creditor is a financial institute. Here we may offer more collateral or ask for restructuring the debt into longer period. We may also propose a temporary suspension of payment in compensation of increased sum of installment taking effect after the suspension period ends.

Paying Off Debts

After calculating and classifying systematically the amount of our debts, then we can proceed to the drastic step of paying them off. This one solution will relief us a lot. Asking for less amount or postponement of payment just won’t release us from our debts.
In planning to pay off the debts, we must see how much exactly our asset is. It is enough to pay off all the debts? Don’t be too hasty and don’t push yourself. We must anticipate our financial future in longer range. If we pay all the debts off only to be compelled afterwards to borrow again to cover our cost of living, then we just come back to square one!
For employees, soft loan families or the use of KTA (non-collateral Credit) may offer some more solution. But both options are temporary. Then the ratio of the asset and the monthly payment must be checked continually.
After knowing the effects of debts to financial life, it is only natural we then are eager to free ourselves from that burden immediately. But afterwards we don’t have to keep away from debt of any kind. It is allright to have debts provided we specify its purpose, know the exact sum to borrow, and most important we ascertain the source of fund to pay them off.

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Using Our Brain to Think

Arswino Sonata — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:24:49 +0000

The title above is unfamiliar because each of us knows that when we talk about thinking, then we also have to talk about the tool that is used to think, which is our brain.

Brain is a marvelous thing given by God to human to be developed and not to be given for human’s, because one time human will be asked for responsibility of the thing that is entrusted to them for using it. Who ever he/she is, nobody will get away from Him.

The marvelous thing called brain is in fact amazing. Brain has one trillion nerve cells. Each cell can process information faster than Pentium 4. It has ever been calculated that if we want to build a super computer with processing ability and memory capacity close to human brain, it needs a computer that has size of 50 times bigger than soccer field and has the height of Liberty statue, meanwhile the electricity of our brain is smaller than a 10 watt lamp.

Besides, the human brain has some skills, which are :
1. Language-word, symbol.
2. Number.
3. Logics-order, list, analysis, time, association.
4. Rhythm
5. Color
6. Imagination-dream, visualization.
7. Consciousness-dimension, whole picture.

A fact said that a human actually only uses less than 2% of his/her brain till he/she dies (Institute of Brain Stanford University).

Dr. Mark Rosenweig from Paris, based on his research, made a conclusion that even if brain is filled with 10 kinds of data and simple pictures continuously for 100 years, it only takes less than 10% of its capacity. This fact is amazing and maybe beyond our prediction.

Our brain is created to solve or give a solution for every problem we experienced without causing stress, frustration, disappointment and asking to the wrong people about the problem we deal with. This technique is called mind storming, whereas we stimulate our brain to think about solution of problems we face. The technique is simple. Take a blank piece of paper and a pen. Then, start to write about problems we face in questions. For example :
- How to increase sales this month?
- How do I get promotion quickly?
- How can my family be happy?

Then, we must give the answers ourselves. Give 20 different answers to those questions.
The first five answers are maybe the easiest, meanwhile the rest could be the most difficult.

When you have finished answering all the question, you have 20 different solutions to solve your problems. You can choose and start to do it.

If the technique has not worked yet, add other different answers to those questions.

This is what I mean with using our brain to think.

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Credit of Success

Arswino Sonata — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:49:13 +0000

The ease of getting some goods by purchasing them via a credit system through a simple process, make a lot of people decide to employ their system. Credit system to get some item is not a new issue anymore. There are reasons why people use this system to get any item they want. One reason is that the price of the item is generally higher than their purchasing capability to pay by cash.

In using this credit system, we must pay some monthly fixed amount of installment for some fixed period of time, and we will inflict some penalty if we fail to do that.

Similarly it goes for anyone who desires to be successful. Actually we can “pay in installments” to get the success we want. For example, if you want to speak good English or Mandarin, you must learn English or Mandarin continuously without any long break. And you learn it little by little as by installments, once ot twice a week until you pay it off/you master the language. You needn’t to focus your time and energy too much in one special time to learn, because you do it little by little/in installments.

The same process should be taken if, for example, you want to be promoted to some position in your office. You must “pay off the price” by showing your best attitude, action and discipline day by day until comes the time when your boss thinks you have “paid off the price” and the position you are after is eventually be given to you.

The concept of installment in this case is naturally different from the concept of installment to purchase some goods. The difference lies in the fact that by buying some thing via some credit system we can own the item in advance before we pay off the price. But to get some success, we have to “pay off the price” first by commitment and hard work, and not until then can you get the success. And still, to buy via credit system or “to buy success”, you must pay the installments routinely and consistently each day or each month.

So, when will you start “praying your installments” to get your success?

GOLDEN RULES

“My success is achieved step by step by working hard every day.”
(Jerry Gillies)

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10 Ways to Reduce Stress in Relationship

Arswino Sonata — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:20:33 +0000

Photo by Alexey05

Everyone must have ever been under stress relating to either career, social or household affairs. Gratefully, good communication and self management can remove the stress occurring in marriage life.

No free time, office job strains, kids’ nuisances, bills to pay, never ending house chores. They all sound too familiar, don’t they? Stress haunts you in everything you do, and can affect your feeling anytime.

The way you communicate proves to be greatly influential. At one moment you are a calm person with no stress, but you can change drastically whenever pressure descends hard upon you.

When under stress you usually think too hasty along with the accompanying depressed mood. Sometimes it sooner makes you get angry with anyone directly in your contact, and this reasonably serves as a stress relief. Most times even the people you love are regardlessly subjected to your anger as well. They can be your spouse and even your loving children. They unfairly must share your anger as they are the ones you come to at the end of the day and keep you company.

So don’t let the pressure burdening you harm your family’s harmony in anyway. For the sake of your loved ones you must learn how to handle your stress positively. There are some tricks for this purpose which can help you, in moments of stress, avoid any conflict with your spouse.

1. Prevention

If the stress comes from some factor outside our family, don’t bring it home and unintentionally make your spouse share the stress. You must learn to handle the stress the way you professionally handle your work. See that your personal matters stay apart from your office business and vice versa.

2. Leave Others Alone

Indeed you will feel a bit relieved if you have the chance to release your stress upon someone else. But staying away for a while from your spouse could be an effective way to prevent conflict from springing up.
Wisely get your spouse to comprehend your stress and thus appreciately understand why you are keeping some distance which definitely will bring mutual goodness. And similarly when your spouse seem to be under stress, leave him/her alone for some time. See that no trifle household affairs burden your spouse more.

3. Self Understanding

In moments of stress you need to learn to know and control yourself and to restrain your emotion. It is not too difficult to do : just look into and evaluate your own feeling. So you could check yourself not to treat your spouse wrongly. You also could find out the moment when you start to feel stressed, what the reason is and how to control yourself accordingly.

4. Responsibility

Be conscious of your responsibility that comes with your marriage life, either as a husband or wife. Be conscious of your obligation to keep your relation in harmony. Don’t let any stress damage the marital bond that has existed so far. Live your life in full responsibility.

5. Self Control

It is you that take control of your own emotion yourself. You automatically can control your stress the moment you learn how to control your min. No one can control your emotion and feeling unless you let it happen. Anyhow your ability to control emotion depends largely on your desire, discipline and will.

6. Stop Worrying

Excessive worries are not good for your health. Worries come when anticipate something in the future while doing nothing about it. But if you make some plan for the future, it makes you feel ready and you find nothing to worry about.
Indeed household life has questions about the future : would your marriage endure, would some temptation come to break the marital relation, and more and more unanswered questions. Stop living in the future! Just think what we can do in the present. Think of today!

7. Don’t Stay Still

When you are under pressure, it is so easy for you to give up. Winston Churchill once said, “When we are walking into difficulties, just keep on walking. Don’t stop and give up!”
Try to relax and think smart, but don’t just give up. If you give up when you are having hard times with your spouse, it will haunt your memory for a long time to come.

8. Go Away

When your relation is in tension, you might just need to go some place to clear your mind. But it isn’t necessary to join a package tour to distant place for this purpose. It will be enough just by doing some activity that can make you forget what problem you are facing, for example, doing some sport. Surveys prove that physical activity helps minimizing the production of the hormone that causes stress. So by putting some distance from your stress, you can think more clearly in dealing with the stress.

9. Be Flexibility

You must read the situation to detect who really is under pressure, your spouse or yourself. By being flexible, it guarantees an easier way to deal with the tension occurring in your relation with your spouse.

10. Ask Others

Consulting other more experienced people might be the best way to help you dealing with your stress and controlling yourself. Ask them how was it like when under stress and how was their feeling at that moment. That way you learn how they reacted and if they didn’t do it well, you always can try to do better and harder for self control.

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How To Choose Your New Mind Pattern

Arswino Sonata — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:59:19 +0000

Photo by Ul_marga

How do you get your new mind pattern? How do you choose a new thought to replace the limiting old thought? Next are some clues to create your new mind pattern.

1. Create your mind as real, as concrete, and as comprehensive as possible.

It means write it down exactly the way you want it. What new faith you want to have? What attitude or opinion you want to realize? What new mental habit or new useful pattern you want to put in your life? What exactly are your values? What hopes that will bring you to success? Who do you want to be? When you read your new mind pattern and the life vision that you want, how is the vision look like? Where are you? How do you feel? What do you see? Who is around you? What will it be like someday if you live with your new attitude, faith and new mind?
Start with writing, “I am very happy, and grateful now because…” Then continue to describe your faith, attitude, mental habit, values, hoes exactly the way you want it.

2. Think beyond limitation.

Let yourself imagine the future and your attitude to yourself, others, and how the world works just the way you want it. Do not just try to get what you think you can get. Realize the life that you really want!

3. Make sure you write it down just as if you have already own it.

You cannot think with ‘someday’, or write ‘I will’. Write and experience it, just as if it happens at this moment, although the result is not yet realized. Write, for example, ‘I like making money and running a successful business, because it enables me to be generous to everyone else’. Give your subconscious a message that this reality is already in your life.
Remember, subconscious receive everything that is given to it, without editing, censoring, or judging. If you write ‘it will happen later’, it will tell your subconscious that you don’t have what you want and you are not yet the person you want to be. When you say, ‘I will’, you are telling your subconscious that you are not.

4. Make your mind pattern emotional.

Besides writing in present tense, put in emotional words and be emotionally involved with what you are writing. Remember, feeling is the gate to subconscious, and your subconscious is the true power behind your success. Emotion creates motivation. You have to be passionate. If you are not passionate with your new mind pattern, if you are not really in love with the new mind pattern, that mind pattern will not be shaped physically. Human passion will not invest its effort for something ordinary! If you are not full of passion after writing your new mind pattern, go back and do again what you have written. When it truly moves you, you are ready to shape it into reality.

5. Be careful so you state what you truly want, not what you don’t want.

Our mind cannot process the word ‘no’. If I tell you not to think about ice cream, what will you think? At first you must think about what I said not to be think about. Before you can tell your mind not to think about it! All these thoughts will make you pull in things that you don’t really want. So remember to state what you really want.

6. Create a picture about your mind pattern and be in the picture, not just become an observant who sees into the picture.

If you are seeing yourself in the picture, you are telling your subconscious it is not your true self, you are not really there. When you are really in the picture, you are feeling the emotion and the result you have got in your new life. You tell your subconscious, ’it is real!’ Your subconscious will start to create the reality. See what you see if you are in the picture, not seeing to yourself in the picture.

When you start living based on your new mind pattern, you start to make different decision. You may start to contact new kind of people, and you pull a new environment into your life. The more times and the more passionate you put your mind pattern into your mind, the faster that mind pattern manifests.

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