#the urge to keep things on the basis that you MIGHT SOMEDAY POSSIBLY find a use for them is real | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thetwominuteshate-blog · 5 years

Text

Hello, cruel world.

I am exhausted with living on this earth.

I could throw literary quotes at you. I could tell you that society at large has become what the dystopian science fiction authors of yesteryear predicted it would. I could start this blog with a call to arms, urging you to riot in the streets and tear down the prison we've built for ourselves.

But the truth is I'm just tired. I'm tired of constantly living in fear. I'm tired of feeling no connection with the world around me. I'm tired of seeing so much suffering that spans continents, in "the greatest nation in the world", while criminals look down on us with derision from their ivory towers. I am tired of feeling as though, no matter what I do, my decisions are of no consequence. I'm tired of the world slowly eroding me until there is nothing good left in me. I'm tired of feeling alone, and I am so, so tired of seeing the world as it could be--as it SHOULD be--and always coming up so short I can't even see the finish line.

I've been rejecting the reality I've found myself in for far too long, escaping into worlds of my own making or the worlds others have created for the sake of escaping my own despair. But it doesn't have to be this way. I still reject this reality, the efficient brutality of a race that has been born into an environment so unforgiving that we fail to put our own violent natures behind us. I reject the notion that the world cannot improve. I have had enough.

Those of you who have read George Orwell's 1984 might remember the Two Minutes Hate. For those of you who haven't or have forgotten, the Two Minutes' Hate is a daily ritual put in place by a maddeningly restrictive government with the intention of directing the fear and anger of common individuals living in such a repressive society by placing them in front of a television screen that projects images of whomever the Party deems is an enemy. The Other. When I first read it, this excerpt in particular stood out to me:

"The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp."

These days, most of what I see in the media is the Two Minutes Hate. Talking heads on two dimensional screens telling us who we should hate. Vicious propaganda that those who lack the will to fight the ones keeping them locked in misery buy into wholeheartedly. Instead of directing their rage at the ones responsible, people punch down, ostracizing people less fortunate than them.

But this isn't the reason why I chose to name this blog after the Two Minutes Hate. Because hate is a funny thing--when we don't let it eat away at us, it gives us the strength to fight without abandon. It causes us to reduce things to rubble and burn the remains so there is no trace of its existence. It can be a powerful tool. But it is fire, and most of us, if not all, aren't well enough equipped with the knowledge to know which things are worth burning.

I've been filled with hate nearly for as long as I can remember. Full disclosure: I'm a 27-year-old white, bisexual cis male. For most of my life I lived in a small town and have largely kept myself in seclusion due to bullying throughout my childhood into my teen years. I only recently became aware of the deepening aspects of my sexuality, but over the years I've faced baseless accusations of homosexuality to the point that a cowardly bully had his friend fight me. As a result, I faced suspension. My school district, like most, put on a public face that disavowed bullying, but enabled it when it occurred. The culture I was surrounded by swam in toxic masculinity, boys that pretended to be men through the ownership of trucks flying the Confederate flag and other meaningless, superficial displays of their own insecurities. My "community", which is so very important to conservative culture, treated me like a stubborn weed long before I could even grasp cruelty. I felt suffocated, unable to flourish because there was always someone watching my every move. As a result, I've come to loathe authority in all its forms.

That's just backstory, though. Over the years I've come to realize that my circumstances were relatively fortunate. I'm privileged; people have been murdered over the merest suspicion that they might be gay. There are people who face severe bullying on a near-daily basis, and that's in this country alone. The atrocities committed in our world's history dwarf mine to a subatomic level. I've had friends who have been raped, faced child and domestic abuse, and even now are in circumstances far more dire than my own. It's no longer for my own sake that I hate, it's for those who are beaten down and cannot fight back, whether on an individual or cultural basis.

I'm not here to play white, straight(ish) savior. In fact, I wouldn't even consider myself to be an ordinary person. I am on the verge of mental instability--for years I've felt the effects of severe depression, which is finally in check. For a time I was so suicidal that I abused substances on a daily basis because the only calming thoughts I had in sobriety were of my own death. I have a deep desire to hurt and destroy, to get back at the world that I feel cut me open and left me to bleed out. I'm a sadist and a masochist in the BDSM scene. I have twisted fantasies that run so deeply to my core and no outlet for them outside of the scene. I want to make others suffer for the injustices they inflict upon those who are undeserving of pain. Because whoever came up with the idiom, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" should have been tortured without cause, broken by suffering that held no ultimate meaning. Then he'd have a greater grasp on the state of the reality as it is.

Hate is addictive. Orwell was right; it spreads like a wildfire, and it's impossible not to be caught in the blaze yourself unless you sequester yourself with comfort and ignorance. And turning a blind eye to the problems others face, whether it's next door or on the other side of the globe, is possibly worse. Until now, I've feared the repercussions of acting against authority, the odds of my successful retribution stacked heavily against me. Even now, I fear the things I will express will draw fire from all sides, so I'm shielding myself through an anonymity browser in order to ward off potential enemies, whether they are a collective agency like the NSA or some alt-right IT cunt with internet access. Those of us in the United States have been officially granted a right to free speech, but we live in an era in which seizing that right can go so far as to get you killed, especially if you call for progress and your voice is heard by millions.

But my end goal is not society's complete collapse. There are pieces of this world worth preserving. I may only be useful for tearing things down, but someday I hope someone will build them back up into something better that works for all people. I long to help individuals understand that all people are just that--people. Not secondary or tertiary characters in your life, good-or-evil projections onto a screen for you to scream at. It's this mentality that causes entire populations to suffer, and I know my work will never be done until the most marginalized find a place in society.

But this is not a call to empathy. Part of recognizing each other's humanity is holding each other accountable for their actions. I believe no person can be perfectly good--we all do terrible things, myself thoroughly included--but there are those of us who are so mindlessly destructive in their actions that I honestly believe the world would be better off without them. This quality of malignance does not discriminate between race, gender, or age. We are among self-made monsters on a daily basis, and they deserve as much sympathy as they dole out.

Words without action are meaningless. I don't intend to sit here and tell y'all to start a French-style bloodletting while I sit comfortably in a downtown loft. This is a time for action. This is a time for violence. This is a time to stand up against the birth of fascism in the so-called "Land of the Free". This is a time for hate.

I am Winston Smith, and this is my Two Minutes Hate. This is my war. Will you join me?

#fuck donald trump #fuck trump #make donald drumf again #fuck maga #fuck fascism #fuck society #fuck you for happening #antifa #anarchist #george orwell #1984 #1984 is now #two minutes hate

1 note · View note

the-colony-roleplay · 5 years

Photo

IRELAND KRII | TWENTY EIGHT; ELITE

House: Calyset Status: Uninfected Elite Specification: Infection Medic, Evolutionary Specialist Alignment: New Age Rebels

HISTORY

Ireland was the third of four brothers, who were all the proud sons of two of the finest (and richest) doctors in western Europe. To say they grew up luxuriously would be an understatement. With two flats in the city, a beachfront vacation home and a couple of seasonal cottages around the countryside, the boys of the Krii family had it pretty easy in many terms.

No, it definitely wasn’t a bad life; it was just a bland life. The expectations were high and the rules were strict. Ireland grew up under the thumb of his parents’ wishes, but excelled nonetheless. He did his duties, went to private school, joined clubs and teams and sports—most proficient in the Science League and on the football team, Captain and centre halfback three years in a row—you name it, if it would look good on his ivy league application, he would do it.

But Ireland never found true passion in any of the extracurriculars he involved himself in for the sake of pleasing his parents and impressing potential universities. His heart was with his studies and with his dreams of someday being a renowned medical scientist. He spent his adolescence building a laboratory in his bedroom, obsessive about human genome and all its curious complexities. His teenage rushes came from watching BBC and medical channels (and, of course, English Premier League, when the occasion called for it) and he treated his own illnesses with antibiotics he’d manufactured himself.

At first, his parents were wary of his zeal, proud of course that he was so dedicated, but concerned as any parent would be that he might harm himself, and that when it came to his health, a sixteen year old boy might be better off leaving it to the professionals. However, many of his research documents were published before he finished school and so by then his parents knew they didn’t have anything to worry about. In fact, Ireland was well on his way to becoming the youngest scientist to design and build a cancer-seeking serum that deliberately and precisely attacked cancerous cells.

When he graduated high school—a couple years ahead of his original class and on an express route to practicing medicine for a living—he sent out his transcripts to universities and medical practitioners around the country, and became the youngest intern to ever be a part of a magnificent biological discovery. He was placed into a team who’s collaborative work led to a breakthrough that made it possible for a newborn’s genome to be decoded and diagnosed in just fifty-five seconds, rather than several weeks or months. He earned his PHD by eighteen.

When D-Day struck, his losses were many. Not only had he lost most of his family, but all of his work had been destroyed—or so was assumed. Rescue parties at the time had much graver things to worry about than mucking through household rubble to find Echo Chip—though that would become more of a concern a few years down the road. He was picked up and herded to safer stays, where he became part of a small clan of fortunate spared lives who were about to face the hardest survival test anyone had ever seen. But when he had the strength, and when it was deemed somewhat safer (not safe enough to risk, others had urged, but he’d ignored them), he made his way on foot back to where his labs once had been, and did his best to retrieve anything that he could that seemed salvageable. Data, Echo chips, research… it was all in pieces, much of it mostly or wholly destroyed, but every day he spent a few hours searching, and came back with an item or two that might help him (and the rest of the human race) in a future of rebuilding.

When news of the forming Colonies began to spread, Ireland volunteered to help in the establishing steps and to act as a medical personnel to those now filing into the colony’s safe houses. It was upon arrival at Colony 22, that he discovered that his brother, Soren (the second eldest of the Krii family) had survived D-Day. He’d been registered at Colony 4, but had left a few months later and there were no official traces of him since.

Now, it goes without saying that no survivor was without change after an immense tragedy such as D-Day, 2157. But the pivotal moments in Ireland’s life that altered him into becoming the man he is now, were three fold: the first, obviously, surviving the first Falling of the skies. The second: the emergence of evolutionary changes in man so drastic and ahead of their time that they defied everything that mankind knew about science up until that point.

Before Reformist power, Ireland was as content as he could be with his life in the colony. Flabbergasted by the new biological data that had landed like a bomb in their world, he became committed to the research of these changes in the Infected. No one had seen anything like this before, and though some seemed convinced that the falling of the asteroids had some kind of connection to these evolutions, Ireland was far from content to point blame and leave it at that. The human body was far too complex to do so—if this was happening, regardless of the source, it had to be understood. Because what were its capabilities? Its limitations? Would it both birth and die in those of initial contact, or was it fated to thread itself so deeply into human genetics that a hundred years from now it would be impossible to tell the difference between telepathy and standard, 21st century thought?

Would these genes be passed on to their children? Would they change through generations?

The apocalypse may have been the end of so many things, but it was the beginning of a whole new world. And it was a world that Ireland felt he was both destined and blessed to be a part of. To be here at the helm, at the beginning.

IRELAND TODAY

His research became the only thing that was important—impassioned about the future of mankind, and what these next ten years would unveil.

But there was a third turning point for Ireland—the rise of the NWRF.

Reformist control changed everything—it threatened everything. They wanted his work, his research, an eye over his shoulder and a finger in everything that he did. Suddenly there was new motivation for his research, and it wasn’t to empower mankind with knowledge and an insight into the possibilities of this new horizon of the 22nd century—it was to smother, to suffocate, to exterminate. It was clear that Reformists wanted to eradicate this new unknown, and use it exclusively as a tool that only a select few could control. Illuminate any power that made individuals threatening to the 'purity’ of the human species, because individuals could not be afforded that kind of power. It would surely get out of hand. It needed to be controlled.

But evolution was critical to the continuation of man. And Ireland was convinced that if this was the result of an apocalyptic event that nearly wiped out the entire planet, then this was the design of their new future. This feat of science and evolution needed to be protected. To be understood, and then protected. At all costs.

Ireland will be going into his fourth year of residency here at the Colony, and those who have been here long enough will have seen him go from a man of few words to a man of many. He has always been committed to his work, to the well being of the Evolved individuals he works with on a regular basis, and has always spent hours upon hours bent over his findings, and anything in Echo he has been able to salvage to try to make sense of all this.

But since the NWRF take over, he has been harbouring both an anger, and a fear of which he’s never felt before. In his entire life, nothing has ever or will ever come close to being of this significance. He believes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this is the most important work he will ever do, and that he was meant to survive so that he could do it. The fate of the world lies now in the hands of those precious few who are able to think clearly enough to accept progress. And these traditionalists stuck in the past, arguing matters of conservatism and a God they put above science, above facts—they had to be stopped. The Reformists had to be stopped.

The key, however, was to find a way to do so without risking his work, his leverage. He couldn’t compromise his position, or the clearances he currently had to accessing the Database, the means to accomplishing his cause. And, being that he did not believe in needless violence, aligning himself with the Radicals was not an option.

No, something else had to be done. Something that had a shot in hell of working. Lasting. And he has yet to decide what that is—but murmurings of a New Age Rebellion has reached his ears and he thinks about it nightly. Perhaps all such a movement needs is a leader? A foot in the door, perhaps?

For the time being, he keeps his head down. Dutifully learning everything possible during his patient time with the Infected, and committing himself to his research and lab testing. He is known as being a level-headed man with a gentle touch and a surprisingly soft word, despite his stoicism. For all the work that he does, all the endless hours of focus and time he contributes to the Colony, he is a man of patience and compassion—and an intensely spirited belief.

However, when it comes to his work in the labs or on a particularly promising (or challenging) research binge, Ireland can appear cold and detached. His work is, after all, immeasurably important, and he fears that with every day that passes, the NWRF gain more and more traction, and it is something no one can afford. They are running out of time. And so his tendency is to shut people and the rest of the world out to allow him solid concentration. His intensity can at times border on unhealthy obsession, and if he feels he is responsible for solving a problem presented to him, he does not stop even to eat or sleep until he has exhausted all of his options.

Nonetheless, despite his introspective demeanour, the friends he has formed he holds very dear to his heart, and once he finally emerges from his shell in a relationship of any nature, his loyalty is steadfast and dependable.

He continues to look for signs of his brother, but it has been two years, and still nothing—he fears that with the Reformists’ purging of the wastelands, that he has not yet shown up in another Colony is a sign he may already be dead.

OPEN

2 notes · View notes

our-dailyimpact · 4 years

Text

How To Find Your Passion In Life

How to find your passion in life? What is your life purpose? What am I alleged to be doing with my life? These are the large questions that we would like the proper answers to.

But somehow, along the way, we stray in our busy lives, time passes, and that we find ourselves Googling “how to seek out your passion in life.”

It’s completely normal to urge a touch lost during this crazy and bizarre thing called life.

I know the sensation.

We’re all together we are meant to try to do something. With this comes worry and that we stress about our true calling in life and our cortisol levels skyrocket.

Instead, we'd like to hamper, ask the proper inquiries to get the proper answers.

How to find your true passion in life ain’t easy but our gut knows, and that we just got to pay more attention thereto. Finding Your Why Finding you're true why maybe a piece of cake for a few and a troublesome pickle for others.

The bottom line is that we all have that something that tugs at our heartstrings whenever we expect about it.

We’re so busy being busy and that we never stop to seem, reflect and devote enough time for our dreams to seek out us.

This is particularly true on behalf of me.

Whenever I'm going on vacation or take a day off, I always come to my dreams and what it's I want to try to to with my life.

It’s like they’ve been expecting me to urge off work and stop being so busy, so I can concentrate.

I spend this point on Pinterest to peak my inspiration or brainstorm until I find something that resonates with me.

Fun fact: this is often actually how She Dreams All Day started. I always come to what’s most vital.

Sometimes it takes a short time for your body to whine down and for your mind to think clearly about your dreams.

In our society, distractions are endless.

Go for an extended enter silence (or hear an inspirational podcast), continue a weekend getaway to a secluded cabin where you'll get some peace and get to the basis of who you're and what you would like to try to to.

Set your atmosphere and environment bent to support you.

If you’re unsure what you would like to try to, fear not.

Try answering the subsequent questions:

What did you dream of as a child? If I had a million dollars I would… What causes you to feel good? If I knew I wouldn’t fail I would… What would you rise at 5 AM within the morning for?

Shout It From The Rooftops Once you’ve found you're why, scream it from the rooftops.

I’m dead serious – roll in the hay.

Tell your friends, family, and be proud and happy that you’ve found out what it's that creates your heart pop.

When you have you're why, the subsequent step is to write it down and make the commitment.

Get Real & Write Up A Contract There’s just something about writing things down that creates it all very real.

Write down your dreams in bold on a bit of paper and commit yourself.

Honor this commitment.

You’re going after your dreams.

It’s all happening and it’s close to get real. 💫

Your dreams do no good just hanging call at your mind.

If you create your dreams a continuing daydream, they're going to never manifest into reality.

Daydreaming is dream-killers, it keeps your dreams locked in your mind and that they got to get out of there to truly come true.

Make it all real, shout your dreams from rooftops, tell your ally and make the commitment to yourself.

Never Feel Shame Onto my next important point and as woo-woo because it sounds – you ought to never be ashamed of your dreams.

Dreams can seem crazy, wild, and unattainable and that’s ok!

That’s the entire point.

Your dreams should scare you a touch.

If your dreams and keenness don’t scare you, you would like to dream bigger.

When you’re telling people about your new dreams, you ought to never downplay them.

For example:

“Oh, I even have this dream, but it’s really stupid so don’t laugh. But I might like to, someday, maybe, (INSERT DREAM). Or I don’t know.”

This is an enormous no-no. Why would you mention your dreams this way?

Be proud, stay committed and goodies will happen.

Slow Down The world may be a hectic place and other people seem to possess an opinion about everything.

It is often hard to not get distracted, side-tracked, or inspired by other people’s actions (good or bad).

But have you ever just stopped, bogged down to think for yourself?

All I can say is roll in the hay.

Find 10 minutes out of your day to take a seat in silence, journal and get to the core of what your body, mind, and gut is trying to inform you.

Pay attention to your body and increase your self-awareness.

Open your mind to your dreams. Meditate daily to urge clarity and to whine down your mind and body.

The best and most genuine ideas appear in solitude.

Stop the noise, hamper and you’ll know what to try to to 🙂

Ask Questions Ask your mind the proper questions.

Put your brain to figure and ask it for help, ask it to guide you in the right direction.

Slow down, sit in silence together with your thoughts, and get to the rock bottom of what you would like out of life and pursue what lights you up.

Challenge Yourself Live a touch, go a touch crazy.

Challenge yourself to undertake something you’ve never done before and obtain out of your temperature a day (or a minimum of a few times a week).

Try new things and see what they’ll cause.

Things may surprise you and you would possibly just find your thanks to your dream life.

You’ll never know what's possible if you don’t put yourself out there.

Challenge yourself, grow, and learn a touch something along the way.

Be Specific, Set Goals To truly find out how to seek out your passion in life you would like to urge specific about the results you would like in your life.

Once you’ve found your WHY – get specific and set the proper goals to support these results.

Make your goals S.M.A.R.T.

Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-sensitive

Dream Big & Work Backwards When you’ve got your goals ready, dream big and work backward to urge to the end-goal.

Break your life goal up into smaller actionable tasks and put these actions on your calendar AS RESULTS.

Going after your passion in life can feel overwhelming.

After all, it's your life goal we’re talking about, and therefore the steps to urge there might not always be crystal clear.

If you're employed your way backward and break the actions you would like to require down – it'll make the journey there an entire lot easier.

Before You Go If you would like to find out more about the way to find your true calling in life, how you'll make the foremost of each day, be more productive, get things done, and completely avoid procrastination so you'll specialize in creating your dream life…

I encourage you to see out my ebook, Dream Morning.

It will offer you the precise tools you would like to urge to start and follow the life of your dreams.

0 notes

distant-rose-archive-blog · 7 years

Text

Dads Against Daughters Dating

Note: This little bit here has been my headcanon for a good few months and a part of me wishes that I had posted it during Pride Month, but I didn’t because I’m an idiot. I don’t have a lot of experience with “coming out” as I don’t fall under the LGBTQA umbrella, but I do think that Emma and Killian would most certainly not care if their kid was. I was supposed to be working on a Wes request and a Harrison request, but my Beth muse was going so I decided to follow through with it. I will work on Wes tomorrow and hopefully post it by tomorrow night. Anyway, thank you @welllpthisishappening for listening to me babble on and on about these children. I would be lost without you. Available in AO3 flavor here: [LINK] Summary: Beth Jones has been going on a lot of dates, but Emma and Killian aren’t entirely prepared for the bit of news that their fifteen year old daughter drops on them over breakfast. Rating: T Word Count: 2,900+

Killian Jones loves his daughter with everything in his heart, but these days he misses when she was a little minnow in his arms who wanted nothing more than to splash around in the waves, fiddle around with his hook and giggle against his chest as they watched whales break the ocean’s surface while taking the Jolly on a joy ride.

Now, she’s a full-fledged teenage girl, no longer sweet and adorable, but clever, gorgeous and maddeningly charming with a penchant for tight fitted clothing and low neck lines that blatantly show off more cleavage than Killian is comfortable with. At fifteen years old, Beth Jones is both Killian’s pride and joy and his worst nightmare. There are days where Killian is pretty sure he’s going to suffer from aneurysm due to half of the outfits she puts on. Even worse is that he now catches men of all ages blatantly staring at his little girl. He nearly killed one of the dwarves who had been checking out at his daughter’s ass in the grocery store before his wife stopped him. It doesn’t help that she’s also aware of the staring and sometimes even encourages it with a flirty wink and an all-knowing smirk that gives him a sense of deja vu.

Now boys hound her at all hours of the day. Text messages, phone calls and little notes start cropping up all over the place. One boy who had been working as a bus boy at Granny’s even had the nerve to ask her out while they were eating together as a family. He could barely contain his look of disdain while Beth calmly told him she was unavailable and to ask her some other time. Harrison looks as horrified as Killian while Wes and Neddy tease their sister on how popular she is.

“Jeez, you cannot even eat without getting someone’s number,” Wes snickers. “And I thought I was the gorgeous one in the family.”

“Shut up!” Beth hisses under her breath. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

She says it doesn’t mean anything, but half the time she humors these idiots and lets them take her out for dinner, to the movies and even to the park. Killian doesn’t understand it and doesn’t want to. He just wants it all to stop.

“She’s fifteen, Killian, she’s allowed to date. I don’t remember you giving Henry, Harrison or Wes this much grief when they started dating,” Emma comments after listening to him rant about Beth’s latest date at the movie theater with Dean Kelleher. Dean is two years older than Beth and his parents were some sort of minor nobles back in the Enchanted Forrest. Killian doesn’t care if the boy’s parents were Olympian gods, no one is worthy of his daughter.

“That’s different!” Killian exclaims. “She’s”- “Your little girl,” Emma interrupts him with a teasing smile.

“Your little pirate princess. Your little buttercup. Your minnow. Shall I go on?” she asks him, looking every bit amused.

“Swan…” Killian gives her an irritated look.

“Killian, like I said, she’s fifteen, not three. She’s going to grow up someday. Pirate princess is possibly gonna find a pirate king in the future and you can’t handle it.”

“Pirate queen, Swan, pirate queen. Princess is a bit demeaning and I know she’s going to get older and perhaps settle with someone someday but fifteen is not old enough to be looking for, how did you put it? A pirate king?”

“Easy there, sailor,” Emma says, placing a hand on his cheek and caressing his scar. “I think my mother would be offended about your thoughts on princesses but mainly I think you’re overblowing this. Going to the movies isn’t a marriage. It’s a first date. A casual first date and you’re just gonna have to suck it up and get used to it because unless you’re planning on throwing her into the brig on the Jolly, she’s gonna keep dating.”

Killian is silent as he mulls over her words in his mind, debating the pros and cons silently of locking his daughter away on his ship. Emma seems to have caught on to his line of thought because she gives him a light slap.

“That was not a suggestion. Do not lock up our daughter, Killian. She knows how to pick a lock. It was one of the first things we taught her. She will escape and she will hate you.”

Killian sighs and drops the argument with a shake of his head, deciding that his time is better spent watching the front window until his daughter comes home rather than a fruitless argument with his wife.

Luckily for Killian, Beth comes home at nine o’clock; two hours earlier than her scheduled curfew. He watches as Dean’s car rolls up to their house and the two get out of the car. The boy is chivalrous enough to walk his daughter to the front door, giving Beth a nervous smile. They talk for a few moments, Killian strains his ears to hear what they’re saying to no avail, before Dean bends forward. Alarms go off in Killian’s head. He knows this movement. This is a goodnight kiss. This son of wannabe nobles wants to kiss Beth, the apple of his eye and the most likely inheritor of his ship. (He’s pretty sure she would kill her brothers for it so he might as well put it in his will that the ship is hers outright and save them all from the bloodshed.)

However, all the alarms are silenced when Beth turns her head so that Dean’s lips land awkwardly on her cheek rather than her lips. Killian inwardly crows. His girl seems to realize the Kelleher boy is no match for her and has found him lacking. Beth gives Dean a waning smile and a stiff pat on the arm before walking into the house.

“Watched that, did you?” Beth asks as she places her jacket on the coat rack. It’s small leather number that is similar to Killian’s own except with a more feminine cut.

“Just making sure you got home alright, love,” he replies with a small smile.

She scoffs.

“Yeah, because the whole thirty yards to the front door is so dangerous. Dean wasn’t going to murder me on the steps, Dad. I was the one packing heat, not him. Knife in my boot,” Beth replies with a roll of her eyes that is so completely her mother.

“That’s my girl, always prepared. Did you have a good time?”

She gives a casual shrug.

"It was okay. Movie sucked, though Dean was more interested in other things than the actually movie, which I don't understand why guys think pawing someone on the first date is a good idea," she comments nonchalantly.

Killian's entire body goes stiff as he digests her words. A violent urge to pay Dean Kelleher a visit and discuss his dating behavior with his sword is a near compulsion. He tries to keep a calm demeanor as rage quells inside him.

"I will kill him," he says softly.

"No, you won't," Beth replies without a hint of fear as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. It strikes him that his daughter looks like a dark-haired replica of his wife in this moment. "I'm not a damsel. I'm not in distress. You can't go killing every single person who gets a little handsy with me. I can handle it. I handled it tonight. He got the picture when I kept kneeing him accidentally in the balls. Besides, I texted his mom about it. I'm sure whatever she has in store for him is worse than anything you could do. You taught me to take care of myself. Trust me. And trust your teachings."

"Beth, I'm your father. I'm always going to worry about you and going to hate it when you date boys who aren't even worthy enough to lick your boot," Killian replies, raking his hand through his increasingly silvery hair. It almost shocks him how fast he went gray, though at the same time with the sheer amount of insanity his kids put him through on a daily basis, it’s a miracle that Killian still has a full head of hair.

"Well, you shouldn't. I'm the best sword in Storybrooke. You said it yourself," she says with a smirk that's more Jones than Swan and brimming with overconfidence.

"No, I said you were the best sword of your generation, which really isn't a large pool to contend with, so don't get head of yourself. You still have a lot to learn, my young apprentice."

She laughs and suddenly she's no longer the strange flirtatious teenaged Beth that she's become but back to being his Beth, the small girl who is more interested in sword fighting and sailing the Jolly than boys.

"Well, we will just have to see, I may surprise you, old man, and even beat you," she replies, green eyes glittering.

Killian chuckles. Beth’s got good form and far more talent than any of her brothers, much to Killian's disappointment (and David’s for that matter. Killian will never be over Beth singlehandedly disarming Neal who is nearly five years Beth’s senior.) Her issue is that she's both overconfident and impatient, things that Killian is sure will wane in time. She's got enough dedication and determination to keep with swordplay for as long as she is able.

"I would despair if you didn't, my minnow," he smiles. "But for now, how about some hot chocolate, hm?"

“Sounds delightful,” she replies with a small laugh.

Killian wraps an arm around her and places a kiss on the top of her head as they head towards the kitchen. They spend a good few hours talking; Killian regaling her about his old pirate days and Beth pretending she hasn’t heard them at least ten different times before. He’s missed their small chats, which have been growing less and less frequent as her gentleman callers become more and more common.

Much to his relief, over the next few weeks, Beth’s dates become few and far in between. Though Rapunzel’s daughter Claire becomes a frequent visitor in the Swan-Jones household. Claire Fitzhubert is a lovely dark-haired girl with kind eyes, a soft smile and skin like soft caramel. Their friendship is a bit of a mystery to Killian since Claire is incredibly shy and soft-spoken while Beth has always been boisterous and brimming with confidence. More often than not, Killian finds his daughter smirking as she whispers something in the poor girl’s ear, which causes her to go red and blush all the way to the roots of her hair. Killian wonders what will happen first – Claire’s gentle ways tempering his daughter’s wildness or Beth’s brazen mischievousness giving Claire a heart attack.

It’s a quiet Sunday morning when Beth drops a bit of news on their laps. Killian is drinking his coffee (with a splash of rum as usual) while reading the paper, half focused on the news section, half focused on his daughter chatting away about what she and Claire got up to yesterday. Emma is barely awake, nodding her head like a bobble-headed dog on a car dashboard as Beth speaks. Neddy is away, sleeping over at some friend from baseball camp’s house. Harrison and Wes are still in bed and Killian highly doubts either of them will be up before noon considering Wes was at a party last night and Harrison, in a fit of boldness, snuck his girlfriend in through the window. Killian has no illusions that they spent the night having extremely cautious and quiet sex in hopes of not alerting anyone to Nasira’s presence or their amorous activities. He’s going to have to pull the boy aside later and remind him that he knows the house like the back of his hand and Harrison’s not nearly as sneaky as he thinks. (If Killian’s feeling cheekier about it by the time he gets around to giving his eldest a talk, he might suggest Harrison take some lessons from Wes on how to be more sly. His second son is constantly up to something, Killian more than aware of it; he just lacks the evidence to prove it.)

“So, Claire is super cute and we’ve going to the movies tonight and if it all goes well, I might actually ask her to be my girlfriend,” Beth concludes, taking a big bite out of her toast.

Killian blinks for a moment in confusion, dropping his paper and meeting Emma’s eyes across the breakfast table. Emma, who had barely looked more alive than a zombie before, is now alert and meeting Killian’s gaze with the same stunned expression.

“Wait, what?” Emma asks, seeking clarification to make sure both she and Killian heard them right.

“You know, Claire…” Beth says slowly as if they were hard of hearing. “Tinier than me...Super cute...We’ve been hanging out for a good two weeks and I really like her and want her to be my girlfriend.”

“Huh,” Emma responds, not entirely articulate and still looking a bit shocked as she lifts her hot chocolate back up to her lips in an attempt to be casual, but entirely fails as some comes dribbling down the front of her white sleep-shirt.

“I thought you were dating that Tom Rolfe kid,” Killian comments, eyebrows still furrowed together. He doesn’t have an issue with Beth possibly liking girls. That’s not the thing that puzzles him, but rather how he missed the cues. In his mind’s eye, he begins reviewing all interactions that Beth has had with the girl in question. Now that he’s looking back on it, Beth’s actions which Killian had viewed as platonic teasing were most certainly flirting.

Beth scowls and rolls her eyes in near typical teenage fashion. This is Killian’s fourth go at raising a teenager and he finds this action to be part of the uniform. He finds himself less and less impressed with it.

“I went on, like, two dates with him. That doesn’t quantify as dating,” Beth explains as if she is explaining the nuances of dating to her nine-year-old brother rather than her near three-hundred-year-old father who has been married longer than she’s been alive. “Besides, he made me pay for my own stuff and told me that I talked too much and would benefit from listening more instead of speaking so I told him to lose my number. Besides, I’ve always liked Claire more than him.”

“I didn’t realize you liked girls,” Emma responds, essentially reading Killian’s mind. “I thought you were into boys since you went on all those dates.”

“I didn’t realize liking either was mutually exclusive,” Beth responds, raising both of her eyebrows at them.

“She’s got you there, Swan,” Killian mutters, picking his paper up with a sigh.

Silence falls between all of them. Killian reads the same paragraph over and over while Emma sips on her hot chocolate and Beth continues to munch on the leftover crust of her toast. Killian finds himself wanting to say something, but it’s almost as if a spell has been cast over him and he’s become tongue tied. It’s a curious feeling considering that he’s always been so verbose; using words as sword and shield to get out of sticky situations.

“Is it okay…that I like both boys and girls…? Like, it’s not gonna be a problem, right?” Beth asks in a rare show of unsureness, playing with a lock of hair.

Beth has always been a confident girl, which both Emma and Killian had encouraged from a young age; neither of them wanted their children to be unsure and unable to stick up for themselves in a world that wasn’t always kind. It was a bit jarring to see she look so nervous and for these nerves to be over their opinion. Killian had thought at this point their opinion meant as little to her as the dirt behind her feet.

“Yes, it’s a problem,” Killian starts. “I thought I just had to beat the men away with a stick, but now I have to beat the ladies away as well. Beth, with as popular as you are, my arm is going to fall off from all of this by the end of the year and your mother is going to have to spoon feed me for the rest of my life.”

Emma leans over and plucks the newspaper out of Killian’s hand before rolling it up and giving him a loud whack on the head. He feigns pain, giving an exaggerated yelp of pain and making a show of rubbing his abused skull. Emma rolls her eyes.

“What your father means to say is that it’s okay. We love you whether that means you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or no one at all. You’re our daughter and we love you and will learn to love anyone who you deem appropriate to spend your life with,” Emma says, dropping the newspaper and taking Beth’s hand in hers.

“No, I think I’ve made it clear that I’m pretty much against Beth dating anyone because no man or woman is ever going to be a good enough consort for my favorite pirate queen,” Killian clarifies.

Emma picks up the newspaper and whacks him again.

“Your father is a bit of an idiot but we love him anyway,” Emma remarks dryly.

Killian gives his wife an offended look while Beth laughs, the corners of her eyes crinkling and her shoulders relaxing as she watches the banter between her parents.

“I do love that about him,” Beth smiles in agreement. “But for real, you’re cool with it?”

“Aye,” Killian replies, now completely serious. “It was never a problem to begin with.”

#captain swan #cs ff #cs fanfic #cs fanfiction #cs #cs children #daddy!killian #swan jones family #cs babies #my fic #little pirates #my shit #dads against daughters dating #little pirates fic #beth jones

136 notes · View notes

waige4life · 7 years

Text

personal

I dont really post much about myself on here but i thought you guys might want to know more about me (if not just continue scrolling)

this is just something I had to do for a class anyway so here :)

p.s. number 11 was my favorite to write!

My 20 Journals

1. What’s not working? Nothing is working. I have almost no friends and the one friend I do have I barely talk to. I don’t tend to have fun anymore. When I’m not working on school stuff I’m either at work or sleeping. I will occasionally go Pokémoning with my family but this can become tedious and time consuming. My mental health is declining and my physical health isn’t much better.

2. What lessons are you currently learning? I am currently learning that plans will always change. I am a very organized person and I like to plan ahead. From planning when I’ll do my homework to planning when I will graduate. When I started thinking about college almost two years ago I wanted to be a Med Evac flight nurse. Now I’m transferring to another college to pursue a degree in nuclear medicine. Plans change for various reasons. When I was diagnosed with epilepsy my plans changed from coast guard search and rescue medic to flight nurse. When I developed chronic shin splints my plans changed from nurse to nuclear medicine technologist. I always hope this will be the last big change but I know deep down my plans will change again.

3. What would you like more of in your life? I would like more time. I need time to spend with my friends, time to earn money, time to study and time to focus on me. Right now my life is a blur. With 19 credits and a goal of bringing my GPA up by 0.14 I have no time. I now only work on Saturdays and I haven’t spent time with friends since the beginning of the semester. I spend time with my family at night when we go Pokémoning but I fear lack of sleep so I can’t make up the lost studying time at night. I need time to finish what I need to do and then I need time to do what I want to do. I need time.

4. What would you like less of in your life? I would like less stress. I’m stressed out by school. I’m stressed out by my lack of focus and my lack of friends. I’m always trying to drown out the stress with wandering or browsing Tumblr but then I get more stressed that I’m wasting time by not working on school work. I need to relax but I don’t know how.

5. What are you procrastinating on? Why? I’m procrastinating on this class. I procrastinated doing this project because I thought it would be easy. I’m procrastinating taking the exam because I know it will be hard. I need to read the book. I need to watch all the power points. I cannot fail this class.

6. What do you stand for? I stand for doing the right thing. I stand for helping people and always being nice. I have been a girl scout all my life and I feel that is a very good description of what I stand for. I know wherever I end up in life I will be doing the right thing. Whether I’m working as a 911 operator or a disaster emergency responder I will always be helping people.

7. What are your contradictions? When I was running with the ambulance I was really good at staying clam during calls like cardiac arrests. Now I get overwhelmed very easily at the restaurant. Whether it’s having too many tables or having an unhappy guest I tend to cry on a regular basis. It may sound horrible but cardiac arrests are my favorite calls they are so organized and straight forward, I know what I have to do and I do it well. Whereas at the restaurant you’re just kinda trying your best to make every one happy.

8. Who are you right now? Right now I am a student. I am a daughter, a student, a scorpion fan, and a Pokémon Go player, but mostly a student. I am a current student at LCCC and I am a future student at either Indiana University of Pennsylvania or Cedar Crest College. I am member of team mystic on Pokémon go and huge fan of the show scorpion. I am all of these things and more but right now I’m focusing on being a good student.

9. Who were you? How have you changed in the past years? I used to be an average student. I used to coast through school. I never studied; I would pay attention in class, do the homework, and then cram for the last five minutes before the test. Now I’m realizing that you cannot pass certain classes without studying. For most of my classes I still pay attention, do homework, and cram but for certain ones I have started studying. I studied the models in the tutoring center for both A&P one and two. I also study for nutrition after realizing it was more information than I expected. Finally I study for this class. There is not lecture to pay attention to and the homework doesn’t cover the whole chapter like the mastering homeworks do. I also can’t cram as there are only two tests in the whole class and you can’t cram for nine chapters in five minutes.

10. What do you secretly yearn for? Secretly I yearn to be in the military. Most of my dreams and goals are well known as I am a very open person and I don’t hide much. The reason this dream is kept secret is because it is impossible for me. I have epilepsy, chronic shin splints, and a bunch of other medical problems that would keep me from ever passing their medical exam. Somedays I still dream of somehow getting involved as a civilian though.

11. Describe your ideal day. Claire and I are at Breinigsville Park on a beautiful spring day. Finals are over and we both don’t have anything on our schedule for the day. We start throwing a softball back and forth, right on the field where we first learned to play. She teaches me hooping tricks and we laugh at all our failed attempts. Early in the afternoon a thunderstorm suddenly pops up over head. We don’t have time to run back to her house so we decide to sit in the pavilion and watch the beautiful musical Mother Nature has created for us. When the storm passes we head home, both of our parents are there. Our moms are in the dining room chatting over hot chocolate and out dads are in the kitchen just finishing the most wonderful homemade spaghetti. We eat dinner and dessert before we retire to the living room to watch a harry potter movie. After the movie her dad goes to bed, her mom and my parents start playing cards, and Claire and I retire to the family room where we cuddle up in blankets with hot chocolate and talk about our dreams of moving out and getting an apartment together one day.

12. What are 3 things you are currently – and consistently – doing that don’t serve or support you? First I am stress eating. I eat way more than I need to and I eat unhealthy choices. Second I’m staring to cut myself off from everyone. I no longer go to church and I will most likely not be able to see my camp family this summer as I will be taking classes during the summer. Third I am not seeking help when I obviously need it. My old coworkers at the ambulance corps and many of my friends have urged me to get some help with my (undiagnosed) anxiety. I’m not doing any of these on purpose but I’m too busy to deal with any of them.

13. What’s your one word intention for today? My one word intention for today was focus. I needed to focus on writing these journals and studying for the midterm. On a normal school day though, my one word intention is survive. I need to survive the pain of walking to class and the awkwardness of talking to people. I need to survive this day so I can survive this semester.

14. What are the little things that leave you beaming from the inside out? One of my favorite little things is helping people find their way around campus. My daily route from class to class goes right by a campus map and I often see people looking at it. The map doesn’t show room numbers and they can be confusing especially in the science hall. I always ask if I can help and where they’re headed. I’ve been here long enough that I can give them good precise direction and I always walk away smiling.

15. What are you waiting for? I am waiting for an acceptance letter from Indiana university of Pennsylvania. IUP is my number one choice right now followed by Cedar Crest College. At IUP I would stay on campus but a Cedar Crest I would need to decide whether I stay at home and save money or move into an apartment with my best friend and start my adult life. I like to make decisions as soon as possible. If I’m not accepted I need to know so I can make other decisions.

16. How do you want to feel? Painless, I want to feel painless. I also want to feel satisfied and happy but today my back flared up on top of my constant shin splint pain. My chiropractor went out of business and I haven’t found a new one yet. My back hurts, my neck hurts, my shoulders hurt, and my shins hurt. I envy the day when I can walk to class or sit on a stool for long periods of time without being in pain.

17. When do you feel vibrant, electric, powerful, most alive? I feel most alive when I’m in another reality. I love to read books, watch TV , and watch movies whenever I need to destress because they make me feel like I can escape the horribly boring and tedious life and go on an adventure with them. In books I can be a warrior, I can have special powers, I can be in a completely different universe. In TV shows and movies I can be a genius or a wizard. Anything is better than being a boring college student.

18. How can you incorporate more fun and more play into your life? I think a good way for me to incorporate more fun into my life would be to start MMA classes. My friend and I went to a woman’s self-defense class last year and became interested in taking MMA classes. We both took a free class and we wanted to sign up but the cost was just too much for a college student. I think I may have saved up enough now and I think it might also help me relieve some stress.

19. I love… I love food. It’s actually become a problem lately. I really love to eat and the stuff I love to eat is not the healthy stuff. My healthiest habit is having a banana in my ice-cream. I don’t like many vegetables or fruits so it can be very difficult for me to eat a healthy meal. I’m taking a nutrition class right now and its really opening my eyes to how bad my diet is.

20. 5 things you want out of a relationship. First I want stability. I need someone I can count on, someone that will always be there. Second I need affection, someone that will love every little quirk about me. Third I need encouragement. I need someone who thinks I can do it and tell me to never give up even when others say I can’t. Fourth is an outlet. I need someone I can talk to about my family and my friends and everything that’s bothering me. Finally I want a special bond with someone. I want the kind of bond where we can just sit on a couch cuddled up in blanket and just enjoy each other’s presence without any TV or talking. All I want is the perfect personality, I don’t care about looks.

1 note · View note

noplasticbut · 4 years

Text

I always have strange indulgence about having a fairytale-like relationship. I fetishized a good romance presumably a little too much, in the same proportion as my requisite of good foods. I found it remarkable, that someday we will bump into a stranger—whose personality, beliefs, favorite foods, and political tendencies that we have zero knowledge about—and at some point, unconsciously we are rooting and could not afford to lose each other. Well, I am aware that a decent romance story not always have the same beginning, some of people were lucky enough to marry their best friend whom they have known since they were infant, some others have to hop over relationship and relationship before finding the one, even I acknowledge certain people who had to get through three divorces before their actual soulmate.

That’s probably why I have been a little too intense in having a relationship. I have been dating since junior high school, and as older as I get, I think this brought me more humiliation than pride. I remember some of my friends—mostly male—were bragging about how many girls they date in certain period. During that specific time, I think it was cool to have a relationship. Thus, I ended up saying yes to every boy who asked me out back then, whether I actually found them attractive or just completely because it was cool to have a boyfriend.

In the meantime, I realized that I have been misinterpreting the fairytale I was looking for. I tend to glorify and worship the relationship and tried so hard to carry out a fascinating and beautiful relationship instead of feeling loved, fancied, and nurtured by the person I’ve been dating. Whereas beautiful romance story formed because of the intriguing and undeniable chemistry between the two people, and as far as I know, this is not something we have control of. Come on, I was only 15, what do you expect me to think?

By acknowledging this, doesn’t mean I straightaway became a pundit at romances, I still get trapped at toxic ones and ended up becoming hopeless romantic. I once dated a guy whom I thought I loved to death, so I literally let him do anything, even things I found unlikeable. He never appreciated me, he verbally abused me, and he had the temper. But I thought I love him, that I will forfeit my sanity if I lose him, so I always beg him to stay and tried my best to conceal the pain he had caused, and suck it up. This happened because I was unable to distinguish ‘love’ and other forms of homogenous feelings but contradictive after effects, like attachments, obsessions, loneliness, and ambitiousness. We all can agree that as a human who always desires to belong to something we often get mixed of these kinds of feelings. I tell you, it’s completely normal to be disoriented in this absurd and uncertain scope called romance. What’s not normal is if you shrug these facts off and keeping your toxic companions around for God-knows-how-long.

It was pretty troublesome for me to form a mindset that a relationship could not be forced. I believe at some point you might have thought that relationship could ultimately break only if one of the participants get cheated or betrayed. Well, the world is bigger than our feet, my dear. But actually, it’s much more simple. If we are no longer texting, no longer laughing at our mate’s lame jokes, no longer finding the urge to meet, and no longer thinking about them before we fall asleep, these can be indications that the relationship is not working anymore, although nobody’s cheating or lying. This kind of issue, however, causes a toxic relationship to develop more than any other reason. We unwittingly establish a cognitive illusion that we belonged the relationship, we have been in the same bowl with our companion for so long, thus we think we ought to come back even after the boredom and disinterest, without sensing that the love doesn’t spark the way it used to anymore.

I know what you think, you are accusing me that I am way too effortless in maintaining and holding on to a relationship. You are opining that we—and obviously our mate—should enliven our existing relationship by scraping ourselves to give the best attempt we can do. On the contrary, after observing a lot of relationships around me and, of course, getting involved in various intercourses myself, I slowly become fully aware that we are not supposed to feel like we are trying that hard in a healthy and proper relationship. The attempts, efforts, and endeavors should flow innately, without any compulsion that can be burdensome. We need to cherish, nurture and take care of our mate, but not in a way that we felt obliged or constrained. We give them hugs, deliver food when they’re sick, drive them home, accompany them when they feel dreadful, wrote poetry about how amazing they are, and many other loving expressions that we do, not because we are accounted for, but just simply because we want to do it. We love them, so we are willing to do it. I think this is the key to a healthy relationship, and it’s the basis of all kind, friendship, or family, not only romance ones.

So, when you begin to complain, I have given him the best I can do, why wouldn’t he do the same? Things are going to change. I’m not implying that it is over right away but you should not close your eyes from the possibility that there is something’s wrong. You need to stop gimmicking that everything is under control to avoid a fuss, instead, reach out to your partner, tell them what you think about the status quo of your relationship. Make sure you start this kind of conversation in a good manner. If things are going a little bad, like you have to get through some quarrels, then be it. I didn’t say that a healthy relationship doesn’t involve a few squabbling. It is normal, and it is one of the ways to understand our partner better. Moreover, if the problems are really on them, don’t ever give more than two chances for someone to change the way they behave and treat you. Once you ensure yourself that you need to give it more time to change them, that’s it. You’re already stepping into the house of a toxic relationship. None is going to change unless they want to. No matter how pretty, considerate, stoic you are, they won’t change only for you.

Oh my God, I have chattered so much. But trust me, I’ve been there. Fortunately, I have given up a few days of my life to feel miserable, unwanted, and disappointed only to gain better future days without him. I finally acknowledged my values and declared no one can take advantage of me and my feelings. I am the only one who can protect myself.

Last but not least, someone who is much better has come to my life. Never, within 14 months of our relationship, I feel less than my actual self. He is appreciative, he listens, he has infinity interesting stories to talk about, he is intelligent, and the most important thing, he never makes me feel like I am trying too hard. I think that’s fascinating, how a person makes you feel more special than all of the other people. I know we all are going to find the one. Just focus on your self-development, and the one you’re looking for, the one who could make your unconscious self give the best and be the greatest version of yourself without any oppression, will be right there in front of you.

0 notes

cathrynstreich · 4 years

Text

How to Keep Your House From Getting Cluttered

You probably want to keep your home neat and organized, but it’s easy to let things slide because you’re busy or distracted and later find yourself overwhelmed with clutter. Changing your habits will take some work, but the payoff is worth it.

Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need and Organize the Things You Do Go through your closets and pare down your wardrobe to pieces that fit and that you wear on a regular basis. Do the same with your kids’ clothes and toys and items in your garage, basement, attic and shed. Have a yard sale or donate unneeded items to charity. Repeat the process at least once a year.

Homes often get cluttered because items don’t have a designated place where they belong. Choose a logical and convenient storage space for everything you decide to keep. Buy shelves, storage containers or wall hooks, if necessary. Make a habit of putting everything in its place when it isn’t being used, and stay on top of family members until they also get in the habit.

Even with an excellent organizational system, you’ll still have some odds and ends that don’t clearly belong in any particular area. Designate one drawer as a junk drawer to store those items, and figure out a way to keep it relatively organized. Don’t put things in the junk drawer simply because you don’t feel like taking the time to put them in their proper places.

Don’t Create New Clutter It’s easy to accumulate a lot of stuff if you like to browse in stores and online and buy things because they’re on sale or because you might use them “someday.” Work on resisting the urge to make impulse purchases. Before you buy anything, ask yourself if you really need it and if you have space for it. If the answer to either question is no, don’t buy it. Only purchase things that you know you need, will use and have room for.

Mail is a common source of clutter. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by junk mail, advertisements, credit card offers, newspapers, and bills and wind up with a pile of papers and envelopes. Deal with mail as quickly as possible. Discard or shred anything you don’t need, and create a system to organize and manage necessary items. Consider scanning important documents to eliminate boxes or filing cabinets filled with paper.

Tackle Clutter and Keep It From Reappearing Clutter has a way of creeping up on you, and it’s easy to overlook it until it becomes overwhelming. If your home is cluttered, figure out what you do and don’t need. Then create a system to organize important belongings and documents, and make sure you and your family stick to it so you don’t create more clutter.

The post How to Keep Your House From Getting Cluttered appeared first on RISMedia.

How to Keep Your House From Getting Cluttered published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

0 notes

col22promo · 5 years

Photo

IRELAND KRII | TWENTY EIGHT; ELITE

House: Calyset Status: Uninfected Elite Specification: Infection Medic, Evolutionary Specialist Alignment: New Age Rebels

HISTORY

Would these genes be passed on to their children? Would they change through generations?

IRELAND TODAY

His research became the only thing that was important—impassioned about the future of mankind, and what these next ten years would unveil.

But there was a third turning point for Ireland—the rise of the NWRF.

HOME | PLOT | SURVIVORS | INFECTIONS | 2157 was the end of the world.

#para roleplay #bio roleplay #lsrpg #reilly dolman #reilly dolman fc

1 note · View note

sarahburness · 5 years

Text

Happily Single: Why Marriage Wasn’t a Good Fit for Me

“I’m not sad about any of my life. It’s so unconventional. It doesn’t look anything like I thought it would.” ~Edie Falco

I knew what was coming. My co-worker Rose was midway through her second chocolate martini and feeling loose enough at our after-work get-together to stop talking about her marriage and instead, start talking about my non-marriage.

“I don’t get it. Why haven’t you ever been married?” she asked, in a disbelieving tone.

I sighed. “You know, this is the third time you’ve asked me that. Remember? We had that whole conversation about it at the office Christmas party last year.”

Looking deeply perplexed, she sipped at her drink, not ready to drop the subject. “I just mean…you’re so attractive and you have such a great personality. How is it that you’ve never been married?”

That’s what she said. What she meant was: What’s wrong with you? Are you some kind of a freak? Couldn’t you get a man? Are you man hater? Or a lesbian? (Not that there would be anything wrong with that—and actually, it’s no longer a valid excuse to be single, now that same-sex marriage is legal).

It’s possible that I was imagining more subtext than Rose intended, and to be fair, she was not the first person who’d put me on the spot about my single status.

On a regular basis, people I meet express astonishment at my never having tied the knot, taken the plunge, walked down the aisle to what is widely assumed to be a happily ever after existence. I am expected to explain myself—to defend my life choices—often to people I’ve just met.

Well-mannered folk who would almost never consider prying into the private lives of a brand new acquaintance have no reluctance in doing so when they find out that she’s an old maid. (Yeah, I’m owning that term.)

I’ve experienced this with bosses, co-workers, a man at a class reunion whom I hadn’t seen in thirty years, dental hygienists, a stranger sitting next to me on an airplane, manicurists, and various random strangers at parties.

A polite conversation can suddenly turn awkward if I let slip that I am an old maid. (I did recently have a different experience with a hair stylist who is divorced and struggling to raise two kids with no financial help from her ex. When she found out that I’d never been married, she said, “How’d you get so lucky?” But that reaction is the exception.)

People want an explanation. A story. Something that makes you make sense to them. After all, isn’t everybody supposed to grow up and get married?

For years, I’d stammer out some cliché intended to put people at ease, like, “I never met the right guy,” or “I moved around a lot for my career.” While that may have satisfied their curiosity, it invariably made me feel worse. Why did I have to apologize for who I was? Assure others that I was normal (in most respects)?

As I grew older, people became even more inquisitive and judgmental. After all, the bloom was off the rose. Even if I came to my senses and made a determined effort to find a spouse, I had aged out of my peak mate-attracting years.

Eventually the questions took a toll on my self-esteem, causing me to question myself and my choices.

Had I made a horrible mistake by not prioritizing getting married? Did everyone else know something I didn’t know? Would I someday deeply regret not having “Mrs.” in front of my name?

Seeing one friend after another get married multiplied my doubts and made me wonder: “Is there something wrong with me?”

I’d wake up abruptly in the middle of the night, overwhelmed by a sick feeling of dread, thinking: “I FORGOT TO GET MARRIED!”

When I was young, I did assume that someday I’d get hitched and have a family. I didn’t have a clear picture of what that would look like, although I was definite about not wanting to do a lot of housework, like my mother did. (I still don’t; I pay someone to clean my house). I had no interest in cooking—another of her daily chores—and as for motherhood urges, I preferred Barbies to baby dolls.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, for many people. I have lots of friends who enjoy sharing their lives with loving spouses—and I’m happy for them—but marriage is not a good fit for everyone. Those who do not, for whatever reason, get married should not be subjected to “single shaming.”

For my part, it took the hindsight reached after decades as a singleton to realize that I’d been deeply ambivalent about matrimony all along. I saw marriage as a choice that would affect all other choices, a partnership with many benefits but one that would tie me down and limit—at least to some extent—my ability to follow my own dreams.

What I really wanted was adventure. My parents’ traditional marriage worked for them, but it didn’t appeal to me, a child of the sixties and seventies who saw new doors swinging open for women, offering us opportunities that had not been available to my mother when she was coming of age.

I wanted an interesting career—preferably something outside of the mainstream—and I knew that marriage would restrict my options. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy. That didn’t happen, which is just as well for America, since I can’t keep a secret. Perhaps predictably, I went in a direction that allowed a lot of communication and became a radio personality.

Had I been married, I would not have been able to advance my career by moving all around the country, bringing comedy and commentary to listeners in various states. I got to broadcast from the back of an elephant in a circus, a hot air balloon high in the sky, and a pace car making the rounds at a racetrack. I introduced bands like REO Speedwagon and The Judds at concert venues and made guest appearances on local TV shows.

Early in my career, when I’d worked my way up from teeny tiny markets to a merely small market, I got a job offer from a radio station in San Francisco. San Francisco! In one move, I could more than double my salary, which at that time kept me just above the poverty level.

Of greater importance to me was the opportunity to work with major market personalities and reach many more listeners than I ever could in Champaign, Illinois. Additionally, I could go from the Midwest to an exciting city in California.

I thought about it for a hot second, and then said, “Yes!”

I didn’t have to ask a husband if he wanted to move. If he would be able to transfer or find a new job in the Bay Area. If he would be willing to leave behind friends and family, forego the recreational softball team for which he’d played third base for so many summers, abandon the garden he’d lovingly hewed out of the wilds of the backyard.

I was able to make a major decision based solely on what I wanted to do, and it was exhilarating. With the exception of the job interview I’d flown in for, I’d never even been to San Francisco, but I was thrilled as I packed up and hit the road for a new position in an unfamiliar city.

Ironically, that job turned sour pretty quickly, for reasons that had nothing to do with its location. After a year, I left for greener pastures (okay, Chicago) just as easily as I’d headed for San Francisco. And that wasn’t my last move, by the way.

Imagine if I’d uprooted a husband, convinced him to go to the Bay Area to start a whole new life there, and then turned around in a year’s time and told him that I’d changed my mind. If he had objected to moving yet again—which would have been completely reasonable on his part – I might have been stuck indefinitely in a job I hated. I would likely have brought that bitterness home from work every day, where it would have affected my marriage.

Being single enabled me to make the career decision I needed to make at that time. Not all of my decisions have been brilliant; I haven’t always had a lot of money, but what I do have is mine to do with as I wish, as is my time. Whatever actions I take or choices I make are done without having to consult with, negotiate with or ask permission from anybody, and I enjoy the hell out of that.

I go where I want to go on vacations, sleep in late when I feel like it and commit to time-consuming projects that appeal to me. I act in plays and sing in a band. I’ve run half marathons, traveled through Europe, and worked as a personal assistant to a movie star. My annual Halloween costume party is legendary.

I’m constantly learning new things; my current efforts include speaking Italian, playing the bass guitar, and sewing.

The point is: I spend my free time doing what I love to do, without having to accommodate someone else’s wants, needs, or schedule.

Married women, of course, get a lot done as well, but their accomplishments are not shadowed by the big “but,” as in, “She climbed Mt. Everest and discovered a new solar system, but she never found the right guy. How sad.” An old maid could find a cure for cancer, figure out a way to reverse climate change in a week, and invent high heels that felt like cushy slippers but at her funeral, people would still whisper, “She never married,” as if that canceled everything else out.

What’s interesting about this is that as a society, our ideas about marriage and family have undergone profound changes in recent decades.

Biracial couples who might have raised eyebrows some time ago are commonplace now and are regularly featured in TV commercials. Same-sex marriages are being accepted—or at least tolerated—to a greater extent now. It may have taken Aunt Vivian awhile to accept the fact that her niece Carolyn will be exchanging vows with someone named Diane, but Viv wouldn’t think of missing the wedding.

But what about people who don’t get married to anyone? Now that’s radical.

Why would someone want to go through life uncoupled? After all, being single past a certain age means being lonely and miserable, right? In a society that relentlessly promotes coupledom as the normal and only desirable way for adults to live, that negative perception about single women (in particular) persists.

That negativity eventually got to me. I became convinced that I was the last unmarried woman over forty (ok, over fifty) on the planet, and that I had made a big mistake in taking the road less traveled. I couldn’t reconcile the happy, busy, friend-filled life I had with the perceptions of other people. That they were people who didn’t know me well didn’t seem to matter.

My friends loved and accepted me for who and how I am. Why wasn’t that enough?

Like everyone who feels alienated, I found myself looking for my tribe.

I discovered that there are plenty of “old maids” out there who are living their lives fully and enthusiastically, despite the annoying questions and side eye glances that come their way. Many are still open to the idea of marriage but they are not waiting for it, not keeping their dreams on hold until the perfect partner comes along. They are complete, just as they are.

Many of them (okay, many of us) thoroughly enjoy the freedom and autonomy that go along with being single.

It’s a tribe that’s growing in size. The percentage of single people in the U.S. is greater than ever before, with single men and women making up 47.6 percent of households in 2016, according to U.S. census data. More singletons were women: 53.2 percent compared with 46.8 percent who were men.

It took me awhile, but I reached the point where I no longer summon up clichés to explain myself to people who can’t think beyond the conventional. I’ve realized that it’s not my responsibility to reassure them that I’m normal. I am normal. I’m just not married.

About Maureen Paraventi

Maureen Paraventi is a Detroit-based writer of fiction, nonfiction, stage plays and songs. Her book, The New Old Maid: Satisfied Single Women, is available from Amazon and Chatter House Press. When she’s not writing, Maureen sings with McLaughlin’s Alley, a pop/rock/Irish band that plays in venues all over southeast Michigan. Find out more about her at maureenparaventi.com.

Web | More Posts

Get in the conversation! Click here to leave a comment on the site.

The post Happily Single: Why Marriage Wasn’t a Good Fit for Me appeared first on Tiny Buddha.

from Tiny Buddha https://tinybuddha.com/blog/happily-single-why-marriage-wasnt-a-good-fit-for-me/

0 notes

amabenceboyle · 6 years

Text

Six Minutes To Success Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocQ4FPnoVw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIQ-agql4BY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg6JwaMvUtE

My Personal Six Minutes To Success Review 6 Minutes To Success is the terribly initial Bob Proctor course that I ever purchased in my journey to find my real purpose in life. The program is so straightforward nevertheless thus powerful and really changes your mindset throughout the day. It very helps you begin to understand what you concentrate on you manifest into your life. Not only that however extremely opens your eyes to habits and beliefs in our lives that have crept in from one supply or another that actually limit our potential in life. We have a tendency to prefer to decision these “limiting paradigms”. They are the true killer to any and every one success. Once you learn them, you'll be able to see and understand how they not solely prevent you, but others from achieving what they want in life. Let me take things a step more and offer you my personal review below in video kind. Maybe You can Relate To My Story Life wasn’t continually peaches and cream, far from. I was 34, single, working during a career that I grew up in (construction) but very did not love or have any kind of passion for. My gut perpetually told me that there was a lot of to life and that i needed to seek out it, however I simply kept procrastinating that feeling for about fourteen years. Continually knowing there was more to life however just not doing something as a result of I was snug in what I was doing. It had been easy and i created decent money. I didn’t have the guts to vary. I had lost that inner man that I knew I had within of me, but became week and lazy over the years. It wasn’t until someday I looked in the mirror and noticed my hair was falling out! Literally, and not simply my head however I couldn’t grow a beard anymore as a result of I had bald patches all over my face where hair used to grow! I was shocked and googled what might cause this. The answer I found, “stress and unhappiness”. Seriously, that is what it said. Currently I take good care of myself physically and by what I eat thus I care regarding my health a heap. This wasn't acceptable. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me the heart to mention NO MORE! In that moment I knew what I had to do as I had been avoiding it for fourteen years. I immediately started meditating and randomly dumbed across some recent Bob Proctor videos on youtube. I started watching them for hours every day. when per week I Decided to call and join up for this Six minutes to success program (it had been the least expensive they offered). I watched the videos each morning and started to get pleasure from what Bob and Sandy were attempting to urge across to me. Me being the person I am needed more, therefore I called the company and asked about other programs and soon signed up for private coaching. I soon once sold my business and began a fully new business that I am happy and passionate concerning. Most vital I awaken happy and my hair is growing back!!! No joke. I will have a beard once more and hairs on my head are starting to pop through. Six Minutes To Success Program Currently Has A Nice New Update For 2016: I simply recieved an email from Bob’s team at Proctor Gallagher Institute that is telling me you'll be able to’t purchase this instantly. I was a very little shocked and confused until I read a very little additional. Before you even get the option to buy it, you have to strive it for FREE! I have to say I was shocked and a little jealous. How does this get higher? All it takes is your name and email on the signup type once you click the link below. I would use your best email as some of your free videos can be sent to the address you enter. This could be a win – win – win here. It's so sensible in fact, that I signed back up and the first video is awesome. You may get a video instantly after you sign up. Then you'll be emailed over the following days some additional videos. Once the trial is over, they will give a place to get the program. I’m also told that they added a new purchase level that can have added features that I never originally got after I first purchased this 18 months ago. They just keep stacking the cool and it is to your advantage as it's offered to you right below. This is such a great offer. I will’t wait to work out you modify your life as I did mine! Be sure to enroll while the supply is offered. Therefore What Do You Get And How Does It Work? Great question. How it works is you'll click one amongst the “get started” links above or below and you will be asked for you name and email. The email you enter can be where Bob can send you your 1st three video’s for Free. When the three video’s you may be given two options to continue on with the program. One choice is $49.95 a month which is the only possibility I had after I went through the program. The second may be a new possibility for $ninety nine.ninety five a month and has some added fetures and bonuses that Bob Talks about in his videos. Thus individuals who relish the quick track can go for the second possibility, but I will solely talk about the primary as it is what I personally purchased. After you get the program, you may begin to recieve a replacement four-half dozen minute video along with an audio and pdf version (for simply listening or reading) each morning. The idea is to wake up and begin off your day with a new video every morning. Some can have new ideas to think about or concentrate to throught the day and others could have a dialy challange. This doesn’t appear like a whole ton, however just beginning off your day with these easy videos begin to change the means you have a look at things and causes you to notice some things that may have been preventing you from success before. Starting simple and little can be terribly powerful as it was in my case. I won’t be offing this if I didn’t believe in it I assure you. The Pros And Cons: Pros: Solely takes half dozen minutes every day. Affordable on a good budget. (which is why I started here) Videos are simple to follow. Powerful recommendation for a brief video. Starts the time off right. Leads to raised things in your life. Bob could be a nice coach and straightforward to perceive. Cons: It is only half dozen minutes on a daily basis (I crave a lot of) There are only 320 videos Not all of the videos are Bob, some are Sandy I can’t notice any coupons for it to save money. Summary: If you're here reading this, then I would venture to mention that you are still searching for additional like I was! This may seem sort of a straightforward program, however I assure you that it has changed my life forever and it will modification yours still. Bob is a master when it comes to private development and I even have nonetheless to buy one in all his courses and regret it. Please don’t wait to travel when your dreams like I did. You have all types of options here at law of attraction coaching from free, to high-finish courses from myself and Bob Proctor.

#SixMinutesToSuccessReview

0 notes

foursproutwealth-blog · 6 years

Text

The best way to spend less? Cut back on the big stuff!

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/the-best-way-to-spend-less-cut-back-on-the-big-stuff/

The best way to spend less? Cut back on the big stuff!

Important note: If you received this article by email, you are subscribed to the old daily GRS email list, which is going away soon. If you’d like to read Get Rich Slowly by email, subscribe to the new, weekly GRS newsletter here.

You don’t need a high income to achieve Financial Independence.

Making more money helps, sure, but if you’re diligent about cutting costs, it’s possible to reach financial freedom on even an average salary.

I want you to meet my friend, John. John is an 81-year-old retired shop teacher. He’s a millionaire — but you’d never know it.

John started life as a carpenter. In his thirties, he went back to school to become a teacher. He spent the next twenty years teaching shop at a junior high school in a poor part of town. He retired to financial freedom at age 58. He never had a huge income and he didn’t inherit a fortune.

So, how’d he get rich? He pinched his pennies and doted on his dollars. John achieved Financial Independence by ruthlessly cutting costs.

John doesn’t live in a mansion. He lives in the same small ranch house he bought for $10,500 in 1962. He paid off his mortgage early, and has now lived in the place for 53 years!

John doesn’t drive a brand-new Mercedes or BMW. He drives a 1998 Chevy minivan he bought for cheap five years ago. It’s ugly, but he doesn’t care. It meets his needs and he has no plans to upgrade.

John doesn’t take lavish vacations. He spends his summers in southeast Alaska on an old 38-foot fishing boat that he bought with cash in 1995. He spends his winters doing volunteer work on farms and ranches in New Zealand.

John doesn’t like to dine in fancy restaurants. He’d rather make his own meals at home. “For me, restaurants are a waste of money,” he says. “I don’t appreciate them.”

Does John sound like a typical millionaire to you? If you were to believe TV, movies, and magazines, you might think most millionaires live like this:

We’re constantly bombarded by messages that wealthy people enjoy lavish lifestyles filled with luxury. From my experience meeting with dozens of millionaires over the past decade, this kind of lifestyle is the exception not the rule.

Most wealthy people I know are like John. They’re quiet millionaires. They practice stealth wealth.

But don’t just take my word for it. Let’s look at what the experts say.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Fameless

In The Millionaire Next Door, authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko share what they learned through years of academic research into the habits of America’s wealthy. Here’s one key takeaway:

What are three words that profile the affluent? FRUGAL FRUGAL FRUGAL…Being frugal is the cornerstone of wealth-building.

They write that millionaires tend to “play great offense” with money — their incomes are much higher than average — but they also “play great defense”. They’re not big spenders. They’re thrifty. They opt out of consumer culture, making purchases based on their personal needs and wants rather than status and fashion.

“Few people can sustain profligate spending habits and simultaneously build wealth,” write the authors. “[Millionaires] became millionaires by budgeting and controlling expenses, and they maintain their affluent status the same way.”

Study after study shows the same thing. To get and stay rich, you have to manage your lifestyle. You can’t outearn dumb spending.

Great. You get it. To achieve your goals, you’ve got to cut costs. But how?

There are two schools of thought:

Most money writers emphasize saving on small stuff. They teach how to clip coupons, conserve electricity, and spend less on entertainment. These small wins are usually quick and easy to achieve.

A few folks urge readers to pursue “big wins”. They argue that the quickest way to wealth is to spend less on big-ticket items like your home and your car. The downside to this approach? Big wins take a lot of work, and opportunities to pursue them are rare.

I believe that a smart money manager does both. She practices thrift on a daily basis and she seizes every opportunity to slash spending on the big stuff.

Frugality is an Important Part of Personal Finance

You could save maybe 50 cents a day by drinking a glass of water instead of a can of soda. That doesn’t mean much if you only do it once, but over the course of an entire year that single change would increase your personal profit by nearly $200. When taken together, many such small economies make a noticeable difference.

Small amounts do matter.

Rather than provide some made-up examples of how much you could save, here are actual numbers from my own life. When I dug out of $35,000 in debt a few years ago, I decided to:

Switch my cable TV package from $65.82 per month to $12.01 per month, saving $645.72 every year.

Get rid of my home phone line (roughly $46.50 per month) and my subscription to Audible ($21.95 per month), saving $821.40 per year.

Cancel my magazine and newspaper subscriptions, saving $137 per year.

Make use of the public library instead of shopping at bookstores, saving $391.95 in the first year.

Plant a vegetable garden to grow my own produce, saving more than $300 per year. (Yes, I’m such a nerd that I kept a spreadsheet to track how much I saved!)

With these changes alone, I increased my cash flow by $2,281.61 per year. That’s an additional profit of almost $200 every month.

You won’t get rich — slowly or otherwise — by cutting your cable bill or growing your own tomatoes. But when small changes are a part of an ongoing campaign of saving and investing, they can bring big changes indeed!

True story: I recently had a friend ask me how to get out of debt. “You can start by getting rid of your $200 cable package,” I told him. “No way!” he said. “That’s the first thing everyone says, and it’ll be the last to go. TV is important to me.” Right. More important than being debt-free, apparently.

The Magic of Thinking Big

While it’s important to save money on everyday stuff, it’s even more important to watch how much you spend on major purchases. By making smart choices on big-ticket items, you can save thousands of dollars in one blow. If you spend fifty grand less when you buy a house, that’s fifty grand (or more!) you never have to earn.

Housing

Housing is the biggest expense for most Americans — and by a wide margin. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2015 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the typical American household spends 32.8% of its income on housing, which includes mortgage (or rent), maintenance, insurance, interest, and utilities.

In an ideal world, you’d slash your housing expense by buying an affordable home in a city with a low cost of living.

While relocating to a cheaper home in a cheaper city would probably provide a huge financial reward, it’s not exactly easy. A more practical alternative might be to move within your current city. Sell your home (or move out of your rental) and choose something more affordable.

Think about it: If you’re an average American who spends $1534 per month on a place to live, dropping that expense by 10% would save you $150 per housing payment. Drop it by 30% and you’ll save more than $5000 per year!

“If you’re not yet wealthy but want to be someday, never purchase a home that requires a mortgage that is more than twice your household’s annual realized income. Living in less costly areas can enable you to spend less and to invest more of your income. You will pay less for your home and correspondingly less for your property taxes. Your neighbors will be less likely to drive expensive motor vehicles. You will find it easier to keep up, even ahead, of the Joneses and still accumulate wealth.” — The Millionaire Next Door

Transportation

Transportation is our second-largest expense in the U.S. We spend an average of $792 per month (17 percent of the typical budget) to get around, including vehicle payments, gasoline, insurance, and repairs. I know Americans love their automobiles. They’re loath to let them go, even in the face of logic. But imagine how much you could save if you could cut your car costs in half! How do you do that?

Sell your current car. Replace it with a used vehicle, one that’s fuel efficient. (Side benefit: An older, used vehicle will cost less to insure!)

Drive your car only when necessary. When possible, bike or walk to reach your destination. (Side benefit: Increased fitness, which also saves you money!)

Make use of public transportation. (Side benefit: Time to read!)

When I recommend people change the way they get around, I’m usually met with a wall of objections. But let me suggest that instead of looking for reasons you can’t do this, instead look for ways you can. You’ll save buckets of money.

Other expenses

Together, housing and transportation consume half of the average American budget. There are enormous opportunities to save if you choose to economize on these two categories. But you can achieve big wins in other areas too.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey shows that the typical household spent $1846 on clothing in 2015, $4342 on health care, $2842 on entertainment, and $7023 on food.

Because each of us is different and we spend in different ways, opportunities for big wins vary from person to person. After tracking my spending for the last half of 2013, for instance, I realized that I was spending way too much on travel. In 2014, I cut my travel costs in half. This allowed me to save money for other goals, such as buying a motorhome.

The Best Way to Spend Less

A few years ago, I asked my friend John if he had advice for young people who want to retire early.

“Here’s the secret to financial freedom,” he told me. “I don’t care how much you make — you spend less than you earn. You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it. Because that is the secret.”

The best way to spend less is to optimize the big stuff.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t make your own laundry detergent or plant a vegetable garden. By all means, do these things! But understand that if all you do is the small stuff, your only hope is to get rich slowly. You can do better.

Exercise

Pull out your personal mission statement. With that in front of you, brainstorm ways to reduce your spending. No idea is too small. No idea is too big. No idea is too stupid. Do a rapid braindump of any (and all) actions you could take to cut costs. If all your spending were aligned with your goals and mission, where would the money go?

After you’re finished brainstorming, pick three specific ways — large or small — you’ll reduce spending starting this week. (Examples: I’ll walk to the grocery store. I’ll sign up for a library card. I’ll finally cancel my landline.) Also pick one “big win” that you will work to achieve in, say, the next two years. Make this a big, hairy audacious goal. (Example: We’ll go from a three-car family to a one-car family.)

Note: During the month of March, I’m migrating old Money Boss material to Get Rich Slowly — including the articles that describe the “Money Boss method”. This is the fifth of those articles.

Part one answered the question, “What is financial independence?”

Part two looked at why you should run your life like a business.

Part three explained how to write a personal mission statement.

Part four explored the importance of saving rate.

Look for further installments in the “Money Boss method” series twice a week until they’ve all been transferred from the old site.

The post The best way to spend less? Cut back on the big stuff! appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

#Wealth

0 notes

foursprout-blog · 6 years