The following is an excerpt from a book called, Personality Isn’t Permanent, by Benjamin Hardy:
“According to Cal Newport [author of the book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You], the idea of finding your passion is based on self-absorption. People want to find work they are passionate about because they’ve been taught that work is all about and for them. The most successful people in the world know that work is about helping and creating value for other people. As Newport states, “If you want to love what you do, abandon the passion mindset (‘what can the world offer me?’) and instead adopt the craftsman mindset (what can I offer the world?’.
There’s one final problem with trying to discover yourself: It leads you to becoming incredibly inflexible to situations that feel difficult, complex, or outside your innate strengths.
Rather than adapting to difficult situations, we lazily apply labels to ourselves such as “introvert” to justify our lack of willingness, openness, and commitment in various scenarios. As a result, we fall to the level of our labels rather than rise to the level of our commitment. In turn, we avoid conflict, difficulty, and newness, boxing ourselves into a shallow perspective of ourselves. We stunt our growth. We only do what brings instant gratification and immediate results.”
A new year is upon us and it’s time to make our resolutions. If you do that kind of thing, whether you make a public show or keep them to yourself, perhaps you could try a different approach this year:
1) Peel off your labels and discard them forever.
2) Commit.
3) Watch it all manifest.
Thing Two
Some Tips For Protecting Your Money This Year
Below are five points from article about keeping more of your money in your pocket. As you do your new year reset, we hope take time to consider them all.
Earn more on your savings
Key quote: “Some of the lowest rates are at the biggest institutions. Customers of the five largest U.S. banks could have earned $42 billion more on their balances in the third quarter just by moving their cash to higher yielding accounts at other banks, by one estimate. Some online-only accounts, for example, pay rates around 5% and can be linked to an existing account for easy transfers. The payoff involved in moving your cash away from the biggest banks is currently greater than at any point in the last decade…”
And for those with less liquidity concerns, consider maximizing I-bond purchases ($10,000 per person per year).
Switch your bank accounts
Key quote: “It is worth regularly shopping around to make sure you’re still getting the best deal, says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, particularly if you are paying any ATM or monthly maintenance fees. It is now easy to find a bank that offers those services free, he said, and the benefits could outweigh the inconvenience of switching institutions…”
Cancel your subscriptions
Key quote: “The average American spends more than $200 a month on subscription fees and underestimates the cost by roughly $130, according to a study by C+R Research earlier this year. Roughly three quarters of consumers say it is easy to forget about recurring charges and 42% admitted that they were still paying for a subscription they had forgotten about.”
Such being the case, the beginning of the year is a good time to take stock of all your subscriptions and shed the ones you aren’t using…”
Renegotiate your bills
Key quote (related to things like cable and cell phone bills): “Don’t be afraid to ask the company for your old rate back or to match a competitor’s price, he said. There is often an unadvertised retention discount to keep customers from canceling. You can also request any deals and discounts being offered to new customers, even if you’re a longtime subscriber…If your first attempt to negotiate isn’t successful, call again on a different day as you may have more success with a different customer-service representative, said Bruce McClary, senior vice president at National Foundation for Credit Counseling.”
Check your 401(k)
Key quote: “You should avoid checking too often, based on what the market did that day, but you need to check in periodically to make sure your choices are still aligned with your long-term retirement goals…”
As always, let us know if you’d like help sorting through any or all of this.
Thing Three
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." -C.S. Lewis
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