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Perfectionism

Is it Best to Buy the Best?

Why don’t you own one of these?

Good morning. I went golfing a while ago with a friend who I know doesn’t earn a lot of money, yet he had a $500 golf set. His driver alone cost over $150. I asked him how many times a year he golfed and he said only once or twice. Once or twice! And yet he thinks he needs to have a top of the line golf set. I mean, come on, if you’re golfing once or twice a year I would think a decent $200 golf set would do just fine.

I have come across a number of people with this same trait. They think they need to have “The Best”. There is nothing inherently wrong with that except these are people that can’t pay their bills each month. Their money picture is all out of balance, meaning, in some areas they are lacking and other areas they have too much. Their house is falling apart or they can’t afford to pay their bills and yet they’ll go out and buy an item and it will be the top of the line or the biggest or the best and of course the most expensive.

Another example is an individual I know who is struggling with money. She went out and bought a brand new $700 computer. Now a $700 computer may not seem like such a big deal to most of you, but I know for a fact that you can purchase a great computer for around $400. I recently got one for my family and it works great and is very powerful. I don’t know what she got for the extra $300 but I guarantee you she doesn’t need it. All she is using her computer for is to access the internet and do simple word processing. But for some reason she was compelled to get “The Best.” (more…)

How Strict Should You Be with Your Goals?

Good morning! I want to talk about how strict or rigid should you be in keeping goals. For example, in my case I set a goal to go to bed each night at 10:30 p.m. How rigid should I be with that and should there be exceptions?

My answer to that is that there has to be exceptions at times but they should be few and far between.

For me last night was one of those exceptions. The only time there should be an exception is if there is a higher priority at play here that supersedes the lower one. For example, a higher priority would be my family and my relationships with my children. In this case it was attending a performance that my son was in.

Marching Band

Let me just explain what it was about. My soon-to-be 17-year-old son is a member of the local high school marching band. He plays the sousaphone. (Yes, that’s him in the center of the photo.) I thought it was called a tuba but apparently a tuba is played sitting down such as in a concert. A sousaphone is simply a version of the tuba used by marching bands. Anyway, my son and his band have worked extremely hard on their performance. For those of you who have never been involved with marching bands, they actually have competitions where many marching bands get together and compete. Each band puts on a performance that includes a number of elements. They have judges who judge the competition and they give awards at the end. This is a huge event that begins in the early afternoon and goes on until after 10:00 at night. (more…)