The Can I Swing It Development team is proud to announce the all new and improved journal. Another great feature our members can take advantage of. Can I Swing It has brought you the dead simplest way to track your expenses and now we bring you the absolute best way for you to keep track of those precious moments of your life. A secure, feature rich, private journal or diary that can be accessed from anywhere in the world through the internet.
My Journal
The Can I Swing It Journal has the look and feel of, well, a journal. We want you to feel as comfortable writing in our journal as you would on a piece of paper. Everyday you write in your Journal you will be encouraged to to answer the “Daily Personal Growth Questions” and then write your thoughts and experiences of the day. You can then also add Pictures and or Links that were of significance to your day.
Daily Personal Growth Questions
These questions were created to help you keep track of your daily ups and downs, your accomplishments or missteps. Answer them honestly and days, months or years down the road you can come back and see how you’ve grown as a person and learned.
Pictures and Links
As the old cliche says “A picture is worth a thousand words” and we wholeheartedly agree. We have given our members the ability to attach pictures to their daily journals and save those precious once in a lifetime moments.
On most days one can find different websites, blogs or articles that make you think, laugh or are plain ole memorable. You will now have the ability to save these links right on your journal and have access to them when ever you want. Think of it as a simple way to bookmark these websites. These bookmarks will be available to you from any computer not just your home or office.
The Journal will always be there for you. 5, 10, 15 years from now you can always come back and find your memories with the Can I Swing It Journal.
We are not done yet!
We look forward to making more and more improvements to the journal that we are sure our members will love. Let us know what you think. We are always looking for member feedback on how to improve our product.
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Can I Swing It is proud to present our first eCourse series “10 Ways to Improve Your Life”. In this 10 part series we touch on many aspects of life and how to better them. Take a look at the out line below. Below the outline you will find the signup form for the eCourse.
Outline
Part 1 – Education – Creating great listening skills
Part 2 – Being Honest – Little white lies wiil always come back to haunt you
Part 3 – Bucket list Creation – Your list of dreams that what to accomplish in your life time
Part 4 – Your Purpose in Life – Identifying who you are and why you exist
Part 5 – Investing in yourself – Understanding why you should save
Part 6 – Loans & Credit Cards – Understanding the pros & cons of having them
Part 7 – Paying bills on Time – Don’t give money away
Part 8 – Needs –vs- wants – Do you know the difference
Part 9 – Spending – Learn the skill of self control
Part 10 – Track your Accomplishments and Failures – never forget where you came from and how you got there
…or are you the Cure to this Cancer
Do you find yourself in a rut that is holding you back from being a productive member of society? Wow, that’s a powerful statement. Is it true though? Is everything always doom and gloom when thing aren’t going the way you think they should go? Is it always some one else fault? Do you find yourself in conversations with others about negative things? Do you find yourself starting discussions about negative things? Are You the Leader or Follower Of Failure?
Why does it seem easier to talk or follow a conversation that is only about negativity? Is it because you can relate to the situation at hand? Is it because you have no intentions of fixing the problem, because it may require a conscious effort on your part? Is it because you know that your opinion (negative) on the matter draws in more useless negative opinions?
Let’s explore the Leaders of Failure. These people find every reason possible not to accept responsibility for their failures. They consistently blame everybody and anything for their short comings. They only want to do what they want or like. They hate their jobs. They complain about others that are better off than they are. They complain about their health/weight and are not willing to help themselves. They are not willing to accept any constructive criticism whatsoever. Worst of all they’re always right, no matter what. They are Leaders of Failure. They can get a crowd to listen on a moment’s notice, these people are the Followers of Failure.
Now, the Followers of Failure. They will listen to everything the leader has to say. These people will join in the discussion because they too are not willing to accept responsibility for anything they do.
The days of families getting together on a weekly, monthly and even yearly basis have decreased over the years. Why, because in the family unit there are some that still think that life isn’t about the doom and gloom. These people have no time to waste on why something is bad. They’re the type of people that identify problems and fix them or seek out others to help them fix the problem. They’re not willing to sit around a table and listen to others talk about negative things. They are not willing to even talk to the person if the person isn’t willing to do anything about it.
If you find that some of this is hitting home for you, maybe it’s time for you to think about how you can make a difference. Because even the most negative person in the world can change. When a person involves themselves in positive actions they realize that it isn’t all as bad as they think it is. There is hope for all the Leaders and Followers of Failure. When you take that walk to the other side you’ll realize that Failure is no longer an option. But you have to get up and take action. Once you do, you’ll never look back because that option will no longer exist.
Then there are the people that will discuss the topic with the intent of fixing it. These people agree that the topic justifies the time and the resources to research and develop a fix to the problem. These people take action and do everything possible to help. These people are true leaders, their purpose is to help fix a problem. Their time is too valuable to waste talking about how bad things are. They develop action plans and attract followers that are also willing to devote time to make a positive change.
Can I Swing It was developed to help change the way people see life. It isn’t all doom and gloom. It is what people make of it. It is certain habits that people have that hold them back from seeing life the way it should be seen. It is the way we treat money and ourselves. People have been swayed by technology to “need” which has resulted into “wanting” things they can not afford. Once the “need” turns into “wanting” is when the problems starts. Here is where the Leaders and Followers of Failure get their fuel for meaningless chat.
Can I Swing It is, has and will keep helping the individuals, one by one to see that life is too short to be on the doom and gloom side of the fence. We have the tools you need to stay on course to a balanced life. Once you know where you are personally and financially, then and only then can you make the changes needed to make your life and the life of others better. When you know who you are and what your purpose is you then take away the fuel needed for the Leaders and Followers of Failure. It is a cancer that has a cure. Which would you rather, having cancer or the cure to cancer!
It’s easy to stay the course your on now and fuel the discussions of Failure or Join Can I Swing It and become the Cure!
We end this post with this Quote “The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”~ Flora Whittemore ~
Do you have the recipe for your Personal and Financial Success?
“As I sit down and start to work, I often panic. I stare at the empty piece of music paper. How can I say that my piece will be ready for performance next January when I do not have a recipe for making it happen?” ~ Lukas Foss Conductor and Professor~
The recipe for making it happen starts with a simple piece of paper. The performance is the act of picking up a pencil and writing the recipe. Every good recipe has key ingredients and the steps to accomplish the end result, something that is edible, enjoyable and complete. This is the most important performance of anyone’s life. Life is most rewarding when the recipe is executed properly and the chef achieves a dish that not only he but countless others will enjoy.
The recipe for Personal and Financial Success has 5 basic ingredients:
- Purpose - Definition: an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.Purpose is the first ingredient to complete anything worth while. When there is a purpose the result is much more rewarding than doing something to make ends meet. A person with purpose is a person that has vision for the end result.
- Drive – Definition: dogged perseverance; resolute tenacity; also written stick-to-it-ive-ness.This is a person that is committed and can eliminate or manage any distraction that may keep them from realizing the desired result, the purpose. “I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.” ~Margaret Thatcher~
- Communication – Definition: to give or interchange thoughts, feelings, information, or the like, by writing, speaking, etc.A person that is able to communicate concisely and honestly their purpose, their expectations, their needs have communicated their vision. This ingredient is paramount in the recipe of life.
- Education – Definition: a discipline and development by means of study and learning.The need for knowledge can never end. The person that understands that there is something worth learning on a daily basis will be rewarded ten fold. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ~Virginia Woolf~
- Listening – Definition: to pay attention.The person that can hear what is being conveyed in conversation and has the ability to digest the information correctly will benefit greatly. In order to make educated, intelligent decisions one must first listen to what is being said or taught.
Now that we’ve listed the ingredients action is required to complete the recipe.
Define your purpose, what do you want to do with your life. Then, stick with it, your drive will motivate you and others. Always communicate your thoughts using every avenue available. Don’t ever forget to stop learning, learn from books, people and most importantly yourself. What you find out may not always make you happy but it’s all part of the continued education. Learn by listening this is a key ingredient to success. Master what other say and how they say it. The emotion, the passion in how people explain their success should be contagious to a good listener. In turn, the emotion and passion will become the catalyst to your Recipe for Personal and Financial Success.
What do you think? Have we missed any ingredients? What is your recipe for personal and financial success?
In this day and age respect for ourselves and others has changed. It has become distorted to the point of failure. For what reason has this happened. Is it because our views of what a person should be is different than others? Is it because a person who has more money deserves more respect? Is it because someone does more he/she deserves more? Is it because a person has a prestigious tittle that he/she deserve more respect than others? Or is it because as individuals we have lowered our standards of the word.
There is a phrase that was coined by our founders “all men are created equal” it’s true. We are all human. We all make mistakes. We all have the same opportunity for greatness in our own ways. We all have the desire for success. When we mention the word respect some think greatness needs to be achieved before respect can be given. If someone has to achieve greatness before deserving any respect from others where does that put the common person? Respect for your fellow man has become a very hard thing for some to understand. It has been distorted by how one thinks of others. It has even distorted the way people think of themselves.
The thought of not respecting oneself is absolutely terrible. People that live in self-doubt have no respect for anything they do. People that procrastinate have no respect for how precious their time on earth is. People that give up have no respect for themselves. People that go to work for the sake of getting a paycheck have no respect for passion. If you are living a life of mediocrity, being complacent and just going where the wind blows you, you are not showing yourself respect. The first person that you should show respect to is yourself.
The individuals that respect themselves are the individuals that live a balanced life. These individuals have principals that they grew up with and are passing them on to their children to live by. These individuals don’t have overinflated egos and unrealistic dreams. These people understand that respect is given in the way that they themselves want to be respected. They understand that the only way to achieve anything is to work hard and stay committed. They understand that helping others is how they can grow personally. They understand that respect is not expected unless given. They understand personal success!
Can I Swing It believes in the power of Respect. Defined as having “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability“. We have great esteem for the human race, we believe in it’s worth.
How about you? Do you respect yourself? Do you expect others to respect you? Do you show respect to everyone regardless of their status, creed or how much money they make? Join the conversation, we would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
What is the matter with people! Why aren’t people taking responsibility for anything anymore? Why is it easier to blame someone else for things that could of been taken care of by them in the first place? Is it because they don’t care? Is it because it might be too hard? Is it because they have depended on someone else all their lives to bail them out? Or is it because they know that the consequence isn’t great enough to matter?
Why is it so easy to say things like, I didn’t know, I don’t care, No one told me? Why do people allow this kind of behavior? Why have the blinders increasingly gotten bigger over the years? Is it that when they don’t take responsibility for anything, they look for everyone else to be responsible?
Why has passing the buck become so easily done these days? Have people become so dependent on others to fix their mistakes that it is easier to say, screw it, someone else can fix it. Is it because they are not willing to admit failure? When things go wrong, is it easier to blame some one for all the half finished and not very well thought out actions.
For what reason does everyone think that stuff should just be handed to them? What has put this in their mind? Why does everyone think that the people who are successful in this world got there by being lucky? Is there any reason why we think like this? Why have people become so needy? Is it because the needier they are the easier it is to get help? Is it because they know there is a program out there that will help them. Is it because they are OK with the consequence of being needy?
Why are people so willing to take advice from others? Is it because they accept the this persons sales pitch? Is it because it’s what they want to hear? Maybe they were promised easy money with no effort, guess what, no effort equals no money and no positive outcome. Beware people, it is very likely that disappointment is looming around the corner.
What is it with people that think that their employers owe them a job. For what reason would anyone think that they were so valuable where they work that they could do anything they wanted and think it’s OK. They think nothing about being 1 or 2 minutes late or taking a couple of extra minute at break and lunch.
Can I Swing It believes it is time to reverse this cycle. It is time to get back to the basic. It is time to become more responsible, more accountable, more self reliant and self directed. It is time to revive what has been taken for granted. Life is to short to be floundering aimlessly. This may seem strong to some and unrealistic to others, but it is the truth. It is time for people to understand their net worth in society. Everyone is put on this earth to contribute and live a decent life. There is no reason to exist without a purpose. The tool are available and the support is also there.
No matter who we are or what we do, we are going to make mistakes in our lives. We are not perfect were human. We live in a society that wants more. We have the vehicles to get us what we want, when we want it. The problem is that the misuse of these vehicles is totally screwing up our lives. Lets start at the beginning. Let go where nobody wants to. Lets explore and learn more.
Here are the Top Ten Ways To Totally Screw-up Your Life:
1) Procrastination – We should never allow ourselves to put something off that needs to be done
- There is no better time to get it done then the present. Commit, execute and complete. We may not get a chance tomorrow.
2) Limited Education – don’t ever quit – don’t ever stop learning – the day you know it all is the day you will start failing.
- If there is one thing we need to remember it is that we can never stop learning. We can never think that we know everything about any given subject. In order to live a fulfilled life we need to learn everyday.
- When you limit your education you will limit your success.
3) Lying – never lie to others – Never lie to yourself
- Everyone knows about lying. If we want to lose the trust of people that can help us, lie to them. It will take years to regain their trust.
- Whenever we justify something we did that we know isn’t right, we are lying to ourselves. We will fail at everything we do if we keep justifying our missteps.
4) Wanting – learn the difference between wanting and needing something. -
- The absolute best way to get something we want is to save for it. Why, if for some reason we find it hard to save for it, we really didn’t want it bad enough in the first place.
- Understand that we will need to be able to afford it without jeopardizing prior commitments, such as rent or paying some other necessary bill. Before we decide on buying something we want make sure that the things we need are paid for first.
5) Spending – In order to understand how we spend, we need to track every dime – we can’t change what we don’t know
- From the minute we set out on our own we start spending money. After our whole paycheck is spent we try to figure out where all our money went. Tracking where our money goes as we spend it is best. Having certain limits that we’ll spend on specific categories will help.
- Learning what our limits are for each necessary expense category is important. Sticking to it is easy when we know what the limit is.
6) Credit Cards – these are like having mini time bombs in your wallet that are just waiting to go off – some people have more than one
- Credit Cards companies are the biggest facilitators of our demise. They prey on everyone. No matter what, they will make your life miserable. They make make money on membership fees, interest fees and late fees. They can charge enormous interest rates.
- There is absolutely no need for more than one credit card in your life. The only reason that card should ever be used is in the case of an emergency.
7) Not Paying Bills on Time – creditors make millions of dollars in late fees every years – refuse to contribute.
- Every time we pay a bill late there is a penalty. The creditor can then chose to report it to the credit bureau. They can also suspend services being rendered or worse.
- Know when your bills are due. Always work on reducing your debt. Get into a habit of paying a bill the day it arrives in the mail.
8) Loans – in our life time we will be required to get loans – understand what the terms are and make sure you plan for worse case scenarios
- The absolute worse thing people can do is get a loan that requires more of their net income than they can afford. The criteria sent forth by lenders is more on credit worthiness than the what we actually can afford. We should always take into consideration what we feel comfortable spending on a loan.
- Whenever we take a loan we lose control of a percentage of our income until the loan is repaid. Make absolute sure that when a loan is necessary that the risk is low. Don’t take what the lender is willing to give, take what will be easy to pay back.
- Don’t get into the habit of taking or giving personal loans. This will kill friendships and cause family problems.
9) Not Saving Money -
- No matter what the circumstance is we must always find a way to save a minimum of 10% of our net incomes.
- We should always put away for retirement
- We should save for vacation and holidays
- Most importantly we should always have an emergency fund.
- This should be the most important weekly money decision we make. We should always strive to do better than 10%. It needs to be our number one goal.
10) Not Knowing What We Want Out of Life -
- Unless we define what our purpose is, we will never be passionate about anything worthwhile. We need to be passionate about what we do at all time. Not knowing what we want out of life will keep us looking for a light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t there. We need to turn that light on ourselves, no one is going to do it for you.
This is a lot to think about and process. For this reason we created Can I Swing It. The tools are simple and there for everyone.
I want to tell you about a person that I met a while ago. A person that married at 18 years old, not because he had to. A person that started his family of five at 20 years old. An individual that has no college education. This is a person that grew up thinking that hard work would bring him success. The type of guy that goes out and gets what he wants. His name is Mike.
I’ve known Mike for a number of years. He built my house in 2001, excellent builder. We happened to meet up one day at a party of another mutual acquaintance. We started talking about my house and the about the family. Then I asked how the recession had affected his business. He responded with, “the business is now closed and I had to lay off all of my employee’s” I passed on my sympathies to him for losing his business. In turn he offered this, “the day I lost just about everything I found Success true Success”. A little taken back and thinking, where is this guy coming from he just lost everything he had worked for, I needed to know more!
We sat down and continued the conversation. What do you mean you found true Success? The day I made the decision to close the doors, I sat down with my family and explained the situation. I expected things like what we are going to do now. I expected a certain amount of stress. I expected, I don’t know what to expect. This is what I didn’t expect. As I’m telling my wife about the situation at hand she looked at two pictures of projects we did for the TV show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition”. These are the only two pictures of any project that had made it home from the office. She told me listen there are no regret. As a family we had the pleasure of working with you on not only one but two of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Jobs. I know that you have done the best you could, she said. She continued with, you were in trouble when you accepted these projects financially, but you still did them. I thought in the beginning that you just wanted to be on TV. As I watched you put your plan together to complete your part of the project, I realized that your passion was to help the family. Your passion for helping these families is what you are all about. You are at your best when you can help others.
I asked Mike what he was doing now that he was no longer in the construction business. He answered with, understanding what she had explained to me, I realized that within my being the passion of helping others is what I was most successful at. I took some time with my family and tried to figure out what I could do to help many people. I listened in on conversation my kids were having with their friends. I listened to family members having conversations about various situations in their lives. There were always two common denominators that were obvious. One was money and the other was confidence in themselves. So I developed a program that will help with these problems.
What do you call this program, I asked. Mike said, what it should be called, Can I Swing It. I immediately loved the name, it fit perfectly. How does Can I Swing It work, I asked. Mike explained the program this way. It tracks tidbits of information you input on a daily basis to help you understand who you really are and helps you develop your passion in life. It is a place where you learn about money, goals and most importantly YOU! In order to have true success and I mean a passion that gets you up day after day, you absolutely need to know what is your driving force is, your true passion. I was lucky, my wife opened my eyes to my passion and in turn I want to do this for everyone that wants to discover their true passion. In turn they can experience true success in their lives. In turn they too can have something that gets them out of bed every day with a burning passion, a purpose and above all happiness.
Where do people get this program, I asked? Mike responded with, just go to www.caniswingit.com and sign up. The tools are simple to follow. It will take some time to complete but at the end you will understand who you are. How to get what you truly want out of life. Understanding your true purpose, your passion will get you what everyone wants out of life, the true meaning of be happy.
When people join the site it is important that they “Pay it Forward” I added this to the program because I only know so many people. The more people I can encourage to spread the word the happier I will be. It goes further than that though. I want to reward people for helping me and the “Pay it Forward” does this. On top of rewarding those that help me, Can I Swing It will donate to their charities or nonprofits also.
All I can say at this point is go to www.caniswingit.com and get started.
Why do so many people bring up the past in conversations? Why do we listen to these people? Is there a reason why people prefer to talk about things they did or use to do? Is it more interesting to use examples of the past to keep conversations interesting? In some cases, yes, when someone is talking about an accomplishment and how they achieved it. This is intriguing to anyone that is interested, but others would most likely say, “oh, they were lucky” or “it was given to them”.
People would rather hear stories of disappointment, discontent and failures. Why, because they can relate to this. Everyone in one way or the other has either failed or not been happy with the outcome of something they have done in their lives. The problem people have is that it is easy to use the past as a crutch. They use the past as a reason not to achieve what they want to do, whether or not the past circumstance has anything to do with the decision at hand. What is even worse is when a negative person chimes in on a conversation an offers their two cents of nothing. That’s right, two cents of nothing, two cent of totally unrelated negative nonsense. What happens to the conversation at this point? The conversations’ topic goes from reasons not to do something to a feeding frenzy of negative thoughts and negative opinions. It is easier to talk about why you can’t do something than talk about how you’re going to do it. Why, because these people were never really willing to give it 150% to achieve anything beyond what they needed to be comfortable. It’s a shame but true.
If you want to achieve anything in life that is considered extraordinary amongst most people, you better have a positive attitude. You need to align yourself with positive thinkers. You need to stay focused on your dreams. You need to analyze your weaknesses and turn them into strengths. When a negative person comes along you need to help them realize that living in the past is holding them back from being and achieving the extraordinary. Everyone wants the best out of life. Some will achieve it and some will not. Achievers don’t live in the past. They learn from it and become extraordinary people. They grow from it and move on. Which do you want to be?
Learn how to track the past. Learn how to make informed decisions. Learn how to become successful. Go to www.caniswingit.com where positive attitudes flourish.
In a recent conversation with friends and family a discussion started about making the same mistakes over and over. I heard many reason as to why people thought they made the same mistakes time and time again. The discussion went on for a while and the reasons ranged from, “It felt like the right thing to do at the time” to “It wasn’t my fault”. A pretty wide spread don’t you think?
I am a person that likes to find solutions to a problem instead of debating it. I decided to reword the original question. I asked “What can we do to stop making the same mistakes over and over again?” There was silence in the room for about a minute, provoking thought is a fascinating thing, I love it.
The first answer that was blurted out was, (guess) “I don’t know”, which came from one of the youngest members of the group, as expected. Then I asked, what if we had written down all the lessons we had learned in life up to this point. Most agreed that it would take too long. I agreed. Then I said, “what if we had kept a Journal along the way and wrote three sentences per day in it? A sentence that best described our days successes. A sentence that described our days failure. And a sentence about what we could of done better.”
One member of the group blurted out “yeah right, there’s no way I could write it in one sentence”. I responded with, “what you just said is why we spend too much time trying to figure out where we went wrong”. We focus on the negative things in life with a microscope. We give the negative things so much time that all the good things we do get pushed to the side. It is so easy to remember the bad things we/people do because of the emotions that surround the action. I think that this is such a great failure of breakdown in society today. Ok, enough on the negative things, because all that does is hold back some of the greatest people on this earth.
Instead of looking and dwelling on the failures of life lets view them as minor set backs in our quest to be successful. Personally I would rather look at it this way. Imagine if all the great inventors of the world stopped working on their inventions every time they failed. We would still be living in the dark ages. What I’m saying is that successful people learn on a daily basis from their mistakes. How they did it is the part that needed to be elaborated on.
Common people become very successful when they answer three basic questions on a daily basis.
Before the end their day they ask themselves:
1. My greatest accomplishment today was:
2. My greatest miscue today was:
3. What could have I done better?
The answers should be one liners. Writing a book about the question will not help. When you get your answers down to one or two words you will understand how to make quick and easy changes. It takes a while to understand what needs to be changed in our lives to make us successful. But understanding is the first part and by answering these three questions on a daily basis will start the process of recording our strengths and short comings. This is the process of becoming successful. Knowing who we are as individual and recognizing the thing we need to change. Constant reminders of daily successes and short comings when analyzed in a fresh mind daily will bring you all the riches in life you can handle. Go to www.caniswingit.com to learn more.
