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    • Life is like a surf comp……….

    Life is Like a Surf Comp!!

    Today I had the absolute privilege of taking my three kids to a school surf comp. It was one of our best days ever as a family. A gorgeous sunny day at Caloundra, great surf, great friends and we got to encourage and support all the beautiful kids competing for our school in the competition. A very precious day. The thing is I couldnt help but analyse and smile to myself at the behaviours of the kids and the parents alike. As a parent, watching your child compete in anything can bring out all sorts of issues within you. Both good and bad. Perhaps your own unresolved feelings from childhood experiences that suddenly out of nowhere re surface their ugly heads. You think you’re a well adjusted adult then all of a sudden you are yelling at the judges for their unfair scoring of little Johnny or you secretly hope that little Susie doesnt get any waves, her board snaps and she loses the heat…….just so your little darling can WIN!!! WIN!! Did I say WIN!!!???? We tell our kids it doesnt matter, that winning isnt everything when deep down we know we want it even more badly than they do! Its hilarious when you think about it. The idea is to have fun and enjoy yourself but we all remember the feelings when you dont win and I guess the reality is we dont want our precious children to share that pain. There are always the kids that seem to win everything. They’re great looking, athletic, intelligent and succeed in everything they do. We all know those kids. We all know those adults. I was never one of them and sadly my kids arent either. They’re great kids and do well at alot but they’re not the ones winning it all and they have to try hard at whatever they do. That was me. Thats still me! I have always had to work hard and be consistent to accomplish any of my success in life. I still do and I somehow think I always will. But the beautiful thing is that I’ve learnt to fully appreciate the rewards for my efforts and I take nothing for granted. I love my life and I’m proud of all that I’ve achieved. Has it come easy? NO! And I would love for my children to have an easier ride but what I’ve learned through my experiences is more precious than gold.  I will impart that into my kids and help them every step of the way.

    I choose to help motivate, encourage and inspire as many people as I can because I know how much we all need it. We thrive on it and it pushes us to try harder, do better and ultimately WIN in life!

    And to me thats the greatest success. A life that we love, that we’re proud of and that we can enjoy every single day.

    Sue xx

    www.workingwomenonline.com

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    categories Law Of Attraction | | datetime July 30, 2010 11:00 pm | comments Comments Off

    Happiness isn’t having what you want but wanting what you have!

    Happiness isnt having what you want but wanting what you have!!

    This is a concept thats taken me 40 years to get a handle on.

    Do I want what I have? Do you want what you have?

    I can honestly say I do. But its only really been recently that I’ve

    begun to fully appreciate and love what I have.

    You see I’ve always had the tendency to want more, want it all and want it now!!

    The trouble with that is that you lose sight of the blessings you have and you constantly look outside of yourself for the next best thing. I’ve spent my whole life doing that. The best job, the best group of friends, the best house, the best holiday, the best ‘Me’, older more well behaved kids and a husband that is just perfect! Does anyone else do this or is it just me?

    I had my three children very close together so it was an extremely busy time. I wanted to rush through those years and have them older and more manageable. It was also a time when I decided we had to become more financially secure so I set us on a path of investment strategies. This has worked well for us but it also put us under alot of stress as we renovated and built house after house while also working, while also having three tiny children. All of these things in themselves were great but unfortunately I rushed through them all wanting to get to the next thing and never really stopping to just appreciate what we had and where we were at, at that moment in our lives.

    I’m not sure if it’s age, maturity, wisdom or simply a conscious choice but these days I am definately stopping to smell the roses and loving every minute of it.

    Life isnt perfect. There is still work to be done, children to deal with and plenty of relationships to work through everyday, but I am learning to be extremely grateful for each and every one of them and realise the blessings I have are golden. I hope you can feel that too. You have so much and your happiness is just a choice away. You may never have all  you want but you can always want what you have.

    Sue     www.workingwomenonline.com

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    categories Community, Law Of Attraction, Newsletters | | datetime July 19, 2010 5:10 pm | comments Comments Off

    How are Your Finances right now?

    How are your Finances right now?

    How are your finances right now?
    Hhmm. What a confronting question! One that you may not fancy answering.
    Are you comfortable with it or does it make you squirm? Does it make you
    shiver, shake and want to hide those credit card statements? You know the one that shows the new pairs of shoes, then the second pair you bought because the first ones were so good.The bottles of wine (did you really buy that many?), the school fees, the kids uniforms, the soccer fees, the car rego, the house insurance, the car insurance, the medical insurance, the groceries, the mortgage repayments, the petrol costs…….Oh my goodness, no wonder we bought that wine!!!
    Seriously, HOW do people do it? How do families keep up with their expenses. Can anyone really earn that much?? The cost of living is so high these days. I have three kids and my oldest turned 13 last week. Even at 13 they want it all. So many kids have I Phones, it seems nearly every kid at least has a mobile phone of some sort (whos paying their bills?), they want the best shoes, the label clothes (which they lose), the lap top, the Wii, the X box, the best skateboards, surfboards, bikes………………the list goes on. And we havnt even talked about the cost of educating them, sporting costs and food!
    It blows my mind how families make do these days. Most families have two incomes and high mortgages. To me it seems essential to have in place some investment strategies to grow your money faster. It just isnt enough working for a wage without some other streams of income.
    This week we spoke to Jodie McIver, a gorgeous Mum of two littlies and a highly respected financial adviser here in Australia. Jodie gave us some basic tips and information on how to be smart with your money. How to monitor your expenses, how to minimise them  and how to get the whole family on a smart financial plan.It was great talking to Jodie and basically just keeping it simple. It doesnt always have to be complicated. Just starting with some basic strategies to get yourself and your whole family more aware of what you spend and formulate strategies to minimise this.
    I’ve always been a saver. My twin sister has always been a shopper. This has clearly worked to my advantage over the years. Ros buys the latest fashions and lots of them, I’ve learnt to wait more to the end of the season when they’re reduced or better still when Ros is sick of them and hands them down to me!! Its saved me thousands of dollars over the years but sadly she’s onto me now. She’s not as keen to just give it all to me because she’s worked it out. Even the other day we took all 7 kids to Dreamworld. When we arrived they took some photos of us all which we could view later in the day. They were $15 each and although I loved them I didnt really want to spend alot more money. The day had already cost us over $500!! Ros ordered hers and then the man said that you can purchase copies for only $5 each. So guess what I did? Yep. I got the $5 ones!! Okay okay, I did give Ros some more money towards it but we both laughed at how typical it was of her and I. She spends and I save.
    Which are you, a spender or a saver??
    Hopefully after listening to Jodie this week we are all developing good habits of more saving and less spending.
    Sue

    http://www.jodiemciver.com/

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    categories Blog, Finance, Interview | | datetime July 17, 2010 8:45 am | comments Comments Off

    A Work at Home Mum!!

    The True Home Office

    A Work at Home Mum!!

    I’m a Mum of three kids working from home. I love it!! BUT….Its school holidays and I have to admit that I get very little ‘work’ done during this time. I do try. I do. But there are interruptions every few minutes. Just as I’m really focused preparing for our next webinar or writing a new blog post, someone needs food, someone else wants to be dropped at a friends, theres a fight between two of them that I need to sort out, theres craft to be set up, craft to be cleaned up, a spilt drink, a dvd to be picked up, the surfs good and the boys need to go, very quickly the surfs bad and they need to come home…………are you getting the picture?? Do you relate to any of this? I love the fact that I can work from home and when schools on I sit down at my desk at 8.35am and away I go. Holiday time is a completely different story. The thing is though, I love it!! I love the kids being home. I love being here for them. I really just need to be realistic and  check a few emails, then switch off the computer and head out for the day with them.  Then work when they’re all in bed and I can really focus and plough through it all. THAT is the beauty of working from home. I’m here, I’m flexible and I’m happy. The work does get done, just a little later than I may have first expected. Its precious days for me as my oldest turns 13 this week. In a few years he wont be around so much so I’m seizing the day. I love these years with them. We do bike rides, surf, coffee, sit in the sun at the skate park and talk. I wouldnt miss it for anything.

    I would love to know from the rest of you how you manage it all? Do you keep trying to work around the kids or sign off and come back at night when you can really get into it.

    I love involving the kids in what I do too. Last week I did my webinar and they all witnessed how it works and what I’m actually doing. My desire is that they will learn that they too can achieve fabulous success in their lives and I will be right behind them all the way. They have a great Mum to learn from but I’ve been blessed with three wonderful kids to be an example to. How fantastic is that!!

    Sue

    www.workingwomenonline.com

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    categories Articles, Blog, Community, Law Of Attraction | | datetime July 3, 2010 10:27 pm | comments Comments (1)