Paraphrenitis Blog

1. Have a huge vision to grow into…the bigger, the better.
2. Have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly specific and measurable goals, and evaluate yourself accordingly.
3. Surround yourself with a support network that will both encourage and challenge you.
4. Know your personal balance and boundary indicators and re-adjust your course as needed.
5. Practice your personal spirituality daily.
6. Invite laughter and humor to keep you flexible and fluid.
7. Recite your life purpose every day.
8. Always find time to do nothing but notice the beauty around you.
9. Infuse yourself with books, CD’s, and presentations that stimulate your intellect.
10. Find mentors in whose success you can model.
11. Give unconditionally.
12. And never, never, never, never settle for anything that violates your values or personal code of ethics.
13. (Bonus) Come up with your own “Awesomonious” word for your Awesomonious Life!!

Ken Donaldson has been based in Tampa Bay offering counseling, coaching, and educational programs since 1987. His REALationship Coaching programs empower people to have more successful lives, businesses and relationships by building a powerful relationship with themselves first. Visit his website at http://www.REALationshipCoach.com for more information and sign-up his free e-program Illuminations and Sparks of Brilliance. Ken is also the author of the upcoming book Marry YourSelf First!

OK. You’ve made the decision. You’re ready to buy a house. Great! You’ve got that dream home pictured in your head. Now all you have to do is find a Realtor, make your offer and move in. Right? Wrong.

Your first step should be to find a trustworthy mortgage professional. But that’s not the fun part, you may say. Why start with a mortgage professional? In a nutshell, this can save money, time and increase your bargaining power.

Your mortgage broker is going to be able to tell you first if you can qualify to purchase a home at all. Second, if you are in the running for purchasing, he or she can tell you how much home you can qualify for. Think about it. Do you and your Realtor want to run around for a month or two worth of weekends, finally find your dream home, just to find out that you cannot afford it?! That’s a lot of time, and time is money (or at least a lot of wasted weekends). Wouldn’t it be better up front to know what you can and cannot buy, zero in on that, and achieve that wonderful feeling of success? Of course.

Well, you may have already thought of all that. However, did you realize that the seller of your dream home may give you preferential treatment if you’re pre-approved? The seller has a life too and time lines like the rest of us. They want deals that are going to work. They don’t want their home under contract, just to have the deal fall through because the buyer cannot qualify! So, let’s say you make a bid on a house and another party makes a bid at the same time for the same amount. The other bidder is pre-approved, you aren’t. Which bid should they accept? Obvious. Another scenario, let’s say you (not pre-approved) make a bid and another bidder bids slighter lower but is pre-approved. Which bid would you accept?

And one last matter to cover, there are different levels of pre-approvals. The lowest level might be called pre-qualification and this involves the mortgage professional taking your information (income, expenses, etc.), putting it all together and letting you know how much home you can qualify for based on the numbers you provide. Another level of pre-approval is for the mortgage professional to run the loan through automated underwriting (getting more technical, here) to get an approval provided that all your info can be verified. The highest level would be running the loan through a lender and actually doing all the verifications. Obviously, the higher level of pre-approval gives you more to stand on and carries the most weight when bidding on a home. In any case, your mortgage professional should provide you with a letter stating on what level you are pre-approved.

Hopefully by now the picture is clear, call that mortgage professional BEFORE starting your house search. And maybe, just maybe, the process might even be fun.

Mark Courage is the owner and originator of Colorado Capital Lending, bringing thirteen years of mortgage experience and help to the home owner.

http://www.coloradocapitallending.com

Would you believe the sterling is fetching a little less than a Euro at currency exchanges, you would guess that there would be many excellent ski bargains to be had in snowboarding resorts this winter as snowboarders stick back home to fight the crisis. Provisional numbers merely released show that skiing towns are 84 percent full across the New year and Christmas period. 10 percent up on the equivalent period of time a year ago.

You’ll have more chance in the new year which at the moment has a 37 39 percent booking rate. The signs of a recession is across the important Feb vacation month which has 62 % bookings, 4 percent down on last ski season. Reservation desks in the ski fields of Les Houches, Espace Killy, Le Grand-Bornand and Isola 2000 have observed increased reservations in November boosted by the brilliant early ski season snows. Les Gets has better reservations in comparison to Chamonix, and Plateau de Beille experienced a grand New Year.

There is strong interest in bigger ski chalets, 7 to 13 spaces, as folk group together to save money. Evidence shows that do it yourself skiing holidays are holding up, perhaps pointing to the fact that keen skiers are not going to sacrifice their trip to the mountains. However bookings from tour operators are down.

If you are going to refinance your home mortgage you can save yourself some trouble by organizing your documentation before applying. Here is what you need to know to make your life easier while applying.

Be prepared; it’s not just the Boy Scout motto, it can save you money on your mortgage. There are a number of costly mistakes homeowners make when refinancing their mortgages. Not organizing your documentation prior to applying is a mistake that could delay your closing; this could result in losing your guaranteed interest rate. Before you start shopping for a mortgage make sure all of your financial documentation is in order. Here is what you need to put together.

Pay Stubs and W-2s

Keep one month’s worth of recent pay stubs for you and your spouse. If you are self-employed you will need to dig up tax returns for the last two years. Find the w-2s from your employers for at least two years for both you and your spouse. These documents will help you calculate your average monthly income.

Bank Statements

Keep two months worth of statements for your bank accounts, investment accounts, and retirement plan. This will enable you to document your assets.

Homeowner Documents

You will need the most recent deed to your home if you have one, your title insurance policy, homeowner insurance policy, your most recent appraisal, and the last survey of your home. The lender may require some or all of these documents. You should also have the most recent statement from your current mortgage lender, their 800 number, and the payoff amount of the current loan.

By organizing all of this information before you begin shopping for a loan you will streamline the application process. Being prepared could even save you money on the new mortgage. If you fail to prepare you could miss your closing deadline; if this happens and the lender’s interest rate guarantee expires, you could lose money. To learn more about saving money and avoiding common homeowner mistakes, register for a free mortgage guidebook.

To get your free mortgage guidebook visit RefiAdvisor.com using the link below.

Louie Latour is a mortgage professional and the owner of RefiAdvisor.com, a mortgage resource site offering a free gift for homeowners: “Mortgage Refinancing – What You Need to Know.” This guidebook helps homeowners avoid common mortgage mistakes and predatory lending practices.

Claim your free guidebook today at: http://www.refiadvisor.com

Minneapolis Mortgage Refinance

“There is no use trying,” said Alice; “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Lewis Carroll

Regardless of what your mind may propose serenity is not impossible.

Serenity is a product of humility. False pride, vanity, and self-pity destroy humility and therefore diminish our capacity to meet our daily lives with the peace and clarity that accompany serenity.

When I speak of false pride I do not mean a reasonable or healthy self-respect. I am referring to the false sense of oneself that stems from an embellished sense of achievement and the defining of oneself within the limits of that achievement.

I know many people – including myself – who have achieved wonderful things but then became stuck because they constantly compared themselves to something in the past. It’s the same as living off of a good reputation but no longer making progress or doing what is needed for growth in the present or future.

How many of us think that our bodies are the source of what we have or do not have? Using our bodies as the reason we do or do not have a relationship is an act of vanity. I know people who rely solely on their looks and are terrified of growing old. I also know people who believe that they do not look good enough to attract love and companionship.

Where vanity has to do with one’s appearance, serenity stems from knowing who you are and your relationship to that which lives beyond the physical. Some call it a Higher Power, God, Supreme Being, or The Universe.

Self-pity is self-indulgent. It is a product of dwelling on one’s own sorrows or misfortunes. This keeps us stuck in the dead, boring, discouraging, limiting past and destroys our serenity. False pride, vanity and self-pity keep us from being humble enough to ask for help, strength, courage and support from whatever we feel our Higher Power to be.

To move into serenity, we must accept that there is a Higher Power at work in our lives. Humility opens us up to that Higher Power because it acknowledges that the body can never contain the spirit.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all else will be added unto you. Mathew 6-33

Whenever I am in the presence of a being grounded in serenity, one of two things occurs. I either feel myself in balance and peaceful or I become painfully aware of how out of whack I have become.

Many times we become adversarial simply because we do not get our way. Accepting that we do not always get exactly what we thought we wanted, and staying open to new experiences assists us in meeting life with a fresh enthusiasm.

Reading passages from inspirational books, listening to soothing music, prayer, walking in nature are all ways we can restore our serenity.

One of the most powerful tools for maintaining my serenity is to daily inventory my thoughts and actions. I usually do this at night before falling into meditation and sleep.

Making a list of everything we resent but cannot control and then mentally forgiving ourselves, and others, is a therapeutic exercise. Forgiveness releases us from the anger, frustration and resentments that keep us imprisoned in negativity.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong. Mahatma Gandhi

We sometimes feel that we cannot summon up the strength to forgive. Quite often, even forgiving myself seems to be a copout. When we feel this way, we must remember that progressnot perfectionis the goal. I ask my Higher Power for help and the courage to forgive. Through humility I am reminded that we are all human and that we all make mistakes.

Love and encouragement are powerful allies. Wherever you are, whatever you are facing, remember that; “You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here.”- Anonymous

Begin to live in the possibility of serenity. You owe it to yourself and to those you love.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
– The Serenity Prayer

This is your Life. Don’t miss it!

Matt Garrigan is a motivational speaker, the founder of LifeForce Educational Corporation and the creator of The Liberty Experience Training, The Mastery Course and the Awakened Potential Course. Matt has been a pioneer in the human potential movement since 1980. His exceptional goal oriented coaching techniques, expanded consciousness training, awareness counseling, integrity coaching and spiritual guidance have assisted thousands of individuals in transforming the quality of their lives. As a motivational speaker Matt’s ability to uniquely integrate many different philosophies and practices, combined with his steadfast commitment to empower people, makes his work a potent, life enhancing experience that sheds light on new possibilities in communication, relationship, prosperity and enlightenment.


You may reprint this article in your newsletter as long as appears exactly as printed above including the links.


© Matt Garrigan – http://www.mattgarrigan.com

Internet based gambling world wide websites are currently governed by means of three agencies. These are OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association (the FTGA).

The OSGA is a self ordering institute which currently checks the modern overseas gaming business, they want to grant the paying public an avenue to easily find legitimate organizations to play betting games with. The OSGA tries to champion the rights of betting lovers, and also they don’t demand any society costs. The agency is a competent not to mention equitable third party agency who pronounce objective points of view, suggested by your feedback, unbiased research, discussions, inside information and also imparts inside communication.

The IGC is a non commercially motivated agency. The organisation was created to furnish a platform for involved participants to address topics moreover to further relevant matters in the global online gaming business, to ensure upright and level headed professional precepts and patterns which endeavor to raise customer certainty in net based gaming merchandise and services, and in addition to serve as the offshore betting industry’s global strategy representative not to mention the council operates as a data hub.

The IGC has built up a reputation for trustworthiness, equity and in addition believability through its tough ethical standards, and also its allure to moral business organizations. The IGC regularizes overseas gaming via employing a special 10-step series of protocols and charges gambling business enterprises fees for publishing their logo. Malcontent clients can, should they desire to, disclose any of their conflicts to the IGC.

Rangers hold off Devils, win series in 5

The FTGA has been founded in an effort to present a standard which will reform the standards of internet based gaming web sites. The authority hope that doing business with reputable businesses, they are able to perfect a coalition of the most honest and most efficient internet gaming businesses multinationally. To recapitulate, there are agencies that regulate the procedures of web based gambling and which should work to mitigate most of the uneasiness felt by detractors. Networked gaming internet sites are now entirely free from pitfalls, now that individual details should not be required and in addition the rewards not to mention the gaming odds should be equivalent to an orthodox Vegas-style sports bet. These internet sites cut down traveling time, but retain the ethos of a familiar Vegas-style betting site, however nowadays you are enabled to bet in your own house.

A new survey reveals that in the last five years, the equity in the California real estate market has increased by more than one trillion dollars. A trillion dollars is a large number to ponder, but put in concrete terms, it can be represented by a stack of one hundred dollar bills that is six hundred thirty one miles high! This astronomical increase in California home values isn’t all that unique, however. Prices on the East Coast, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area, are increasing just as rapidly. There are areas on both coasts where home prices have tripled during the last five years. This, along with the dramatic increase in interest-only mortgages among homebuyers, suggests that home prices may be peaking.

In California, 35% of all mortgages written are interest-only mortgages. In Washington, the figure is a whopping 48%. With an interest-only mortgage, the homeowner pays only the interest on the home loan for the first few years of mortgage payments. After the agreed-upon period of time ends, the amount of the payment is adjusted to include a portion of the principal. This typically increases the amount of the payment by about one-third. Interest-only mortgages have gained in popularity as home prices have increased, mostly because buyers otherwise would not be able to afford to buy homes. The problem with these mortgages is that for the first few years of payments, the buyers aren’t actually paying anything for the home itself!

What these statistics tell us is that in California, more than one third of buyers cannot afford a mortgage that allows them to actually contribute to paying for the home when they move in, and in Washington, the figure is nearly one half. Experts disagree on exactly when the hot real estate market will collapse, but it would seem to the casual observer that when half of all buyers can’t actually afford to make payments on the home they’ve just purchased, the collapse may be near.

What does this mean for potential buyers? Anyone considering purchasing a home in the red-hot markets in California or on the East Coast should carefully consider whether or not they can actually afford to purchase a home. Qualifying for a loan isn’t good enough if you can’t actually make payments that will reduce your principal. If may be wiser to buy in a cheaper outlying area and commute. Others may wish to rent in the short term in hopes that the prices will soon decline. It is always difficult to predict which way the real estate market will go, but a market where one-third to one-half of buyers can’t actually reduce their principal should set off an alarm for anyone considering a real estate purchase.

©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing.

Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a Website devoted to debt consolidation information and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information on home equity loans.

The other day I was delivering some coaching skills
training for a company when a delegate asked me how
she should coach the person who is an introvert and
has little to say.

This is the type of person when you start your
coaching session by saying “How is everything going?”
they just reply with “OK” and then the tumbleweed
makes its way across the floor!

Overall, during a coaching session the coach should
be doing around 30% of the talking and the coachee
should be talking around 70% of the time.

This is a challenge when you talk to someone who either
does not have a lot to say or who is naturally shy.

This is what I recommend:

After you get the normal “OK” response ask this:

“On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being absolutely perfect
and 0 being the pits, where would you currently rate
yourself?”

If the coachee responds with a “7″ that must mean that
to have rated themselves a “7″ they must be comparing
themselves to what a “10″ looks like.

So the next response and question to ask is:

“A rating of 7? That’s great. What would a 10 look
like to you?”

Let them explain this and probe a little deeper.

What you are doing here is stimulating a conversation
by using an alternative method other than just saying
“What is going good right now?”

To someone who is naturally shy you are not going to
get a lot out of them by asking this question.

Then, the next steps would be to ask:

“So you have described a 10. And you rate yourself a
7. What do you need to do to bridge the gap?”

I hope you can see how powerful this method is?

And you can use it on all types of people not just
the shy ones – I use it all of the time!

I hope you enjoyed this tip? Add this technique to your tool box
of skills and make your coaching sessions more effective!

Sean McPheat is the Managing Director of MTD Training, a leading UK management training company. Sean is regarded as one of the leading authorities in leadership development has been featured on CNN, ITV, BBC and Arena magazine to name but a few.

Please feel free to download MTD’s FREE Management Skills Course at http://www.management-training-development.com/freeecourse.htm

For further details on MTD’s range of management training courses and programmes visit http://www.management-training-development.com

No, I’m not talking about different poker games, I’m talking about your play style. I’d like to explore for a moment the various styles of play we have to learn to adopt depending on the situations. I like to think of it as a kind of costume party where you have to pick the right costume depending on the guests. You wouldn’t walk into a sports themed party wearing a Dracula costume, and the samemetaphoricallycan be said of your poker play.

Here’s an example. You’re playing a lot of passive opponents. This in and of itself gives you the opportunity to play hands that would be considered medium strength otherwise. You’re not going to make any money at this table if you’re playing like the Rock and only betting the strong hands. Instead you’d want to evolve your style to exploit the passiveness of the table. Hence, you’d bluff more, and call down opponents with weaker hands that you would if you were playing against a solid or aggressive poker table.

And, speaking of aggressive tables, you’d also want to adjust accordingly. These types of tables tend to get all kinds of hands on the board that shouldn’t be on the board in the first place, but the reckless play dictates that they end up getting played anyway and people get drawn out on a lot. For this, you would exploit the aggression, taking on the guaranteed shots and busting them for trying to play garbage.

So just remember, before you just show up with your party favors, scope out what kind of costume the other players are wearing and adjust yours accordingly.