Blog Category

Honesty

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” – Albert Einstein

It’s tempting to tell a little white lie.

We’ve all done it at some point. Fudged on our SAT scores, the salary of your latest job offer or the time you got up last Saturday.

This week, a successful client of mine, told me that what differentiates his team from the competition is that they are brutally truthful in all matters, even when it leads to a major financial setback.

Your life is built upon a foundation of fundamental values. One of these is honesty.

How solid is your foundation?

C.J. McClanahan
Reachmore Strategies
317-576-8492
cjm@goreachmore.com

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Finding Four Leaf Clovers

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

“One of the reasons that people can’t find four leaf clovers is that they are too busy looking at all of the three leaf clovers” – Marjorie.

Over the last several years I have been having fun taking pictures of four leaf clovers when I find them and posting them on my Facebook page. It’s exciting for me when I do find them because I was one of those people who couldn’t find one if it was staring me in the face. To add to the pressure, my Mom is a four leaf clover aficionado and finds them all of the time. It was not until my good friend, Dr. Sue Morter, taught me to slow down … just sit down, actually and “be the clover” that they began to show up everywhere. (My first ever five leaf clover is pictured above)

Dr. Sue Morter, my four leaf clover teacher and owner of Morter Institute & Health Center in Indianapolis, wrote a beautiful blog about the experience that opened her up to SEE-ing and listening within. Take some time to “just sit down”, read on and learn. You’ll be glad you did.

”There is a purpose for every event that occurs in our lives: Service. Everything that occurs serves as an opportunity for us to come to know ourselves more fully as an empowered co-creator of our experience. No exceptions.

In the first three months after my mother Marjorie’s passing, I found 69 four leaf clovers. This was not because I was particularly gifted in any way, but rather because I simply slowed down enough to see them. And when I did see them, sometimes three or four at a time, a deep and overwhelming sense of joy slipped in between the crushing grief and reminded me that there was more to the moment than the obvious.

So what was different? I sat down. I stopped from a pace of running a private practice, managing a staff, traveling to all corners of the country and abroad teaching professional seminars, being one of her primary care takers on the weekends and catching a flight back home in order to return to work and begin again on Monday. I stopped with the notion of everything having to get ‘done’. I just sat down. I ‘had’ to.

In that sitting down, in the despair of what felt like losing such a beautiful and rare relationship, my mind stopped and it felt as though all that remained was my breath. Literally all I could focus on was my breathing. Everything else fell away. And something shifted in me. I felt an actual physical, shift. Something let go, and something else ignited. A feeling — (rather than a philosophy) that it really was OK to fully accept my state, trust it, take action from that space or take no action at all, and let go of the outcome — was born.

“One of the reasons that people can’t find four leaf clovers is that they are too busy looking at all of the three leaf clovers”, a favorite quote of mine, offered by Marjorie.
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Ten Great Benefits of Cause Marketing

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Tony Note: reprinted from chapter 7 of Mind Capture: How You Can Stand Out in The Age of Advertising Deficit Disorder (2008 Morgan James).

I’m often asked by non-profits and cash strapped startup businesses to assist them in their marketing and promotion efforts. I’m fully aware that will usually entail me listening to a long litany of reasons from the business owner or Executive Director that low cost marketing techniques are challenging to find such as,

“We have such a limited budget, where do we begin?”

“We have no money for marketing.”

“We can’t seem to get any media attention or publicity for our compamy, cause, event or announcements.”

“XYZ Foundation gets all the money and recognition.”

I’m a huge proponent of giving back to worthy causes. I call this enlightened capitalism and you’ll see it get more and more press because it has a lot of incredible benefits for everyone involved.

The comments I listed above that I often hear from startups and from far too many people in the non-profit world test my patience and overall mental health greatly for three major reasons:
read full article »

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HOME INVENTORIES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR ESTATE SETTLEMENT

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Though not a favorite topic for anyone to discuss, we wanted to share the importance of preparing a home inventory now rather than leaving that task to your executor.

Estate Settlement
Being an executor of an estate is a time-consuming, emotionally draining experience. Most people choose an adult child to take on those responsibilties. Have you considered what you can do to make this easier for him or her?

One required task will be to compile an inventory of the estate’s assets. Consider how difficult this will be for your executor as he or she prepares this document. Emotions aside, they will also need to find the time to document the items and assign a market value to each. One executor stated that he sat for hours staring at a blank piece of paper. He didn’t know where to begin, what he should list, or how to know what value to place on each item. Most prominent was the sadness he felt when thinking about looking through everything in the house. Additionally, he was from out of state and knew it would require him to be absent from his job for a few more days. Having the inventory professionally prepared addressed all of these issues.

How can you prevent this from happening to your adult children/executor?

Estate Planning
Creating an inventory of your personal property now will ease the estate settlement process for your executor. At your death, the inventory proces will have already been taken care of it. The only changes necessary will be making any recent updates and changing the replacement value of each item to the fair market value. That will be a very small task compared to compiling the entire inventory.

Whether you are elderly or just entering your adult life, an inventory is a living document that is extremely important to have prepared. For now, to ensure a maximized insurance claim after a loss. And for later, to ease the stress your executor will face.

Cindy Hartman
Hartman Inventory, LLC
317-501-6818
cindy@hartmaninventory.com

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