Different People, Different Methods, Different Priorities: Setting Better Priorities, Part Four

The idea that different kinds of people will have the most success by using different kinds of methods to set different priorities may seem like common sense. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

Anyone who has read a few books, blogs, or articles on personal development knows that common is hardly the word for the seemingly obvious idea that each individual person will only achieve their individual best by using their own individual method for setting priorities.

Nearly every school of thought on personal development has its method for how to set priorities. And nearly every person who learns about one of those methods thinks, or at least hopes, that the method will work. And sometimes it will work decently. Sometimes it will even be a pretty good fit. But more often, it won’t, and for a very basic reason.

Different people don’t look identical, think identical, or even smell identical, so why on earth should they be using identical methods for assessing and setting their priorities?

Each one of those systems, with its rules and lists and methods that prescribe how to set priorities, can only tell you how to set priorities that work for one kind of person. And you may not be that one kind of person. In fact, if you've ever experienced burn out, frustration, or hopelessness after trying to follow a "system" for a few days, or even a few weeks, it's likely that you're not the particular kind of person who that particular system of priority setting methods was designed by or for.

What then?

To set priorities that will work for you, you need self-knowledge.


Self-knowledge isn’t a 30-day system to success, or a ten step ladder that you can climb by answering the questions posed to you in a book or a quiz. It isn’t a method or a system that you can crack or hack, and there aren’t any rules about how to gain it. I’m not going to teach you to unlock the secrets of your self knowledge, and I’m not going to give you any phony, too-good-to-be-true rhetoric about how to look inside yourself.

What I am going to do is offer you some practical, actionable techniques that will keep you company on your journey to greater self-knowledge. They won’t get you there by themselves, but they’ll help you hail the cab, or get together the money for the train ticket.

I’m going to offer you jumping off points, starting points, openers for the great conversation that only you can have with yourself. I’m going to offer them in the final part of this series, Know Yourself, Know Your Priorities.

More Posts On Priorities:

The Limousine: Setting Better Priorities, Part One
What Good Priorities Do: Setting Better Priorities, Part Two
Priorities That Stop You In Your Tracks: Setting Better Priorities, Part Three

Priorities That Stop You In Your Tracks: Setting Better Priorities, Part Three

Sometimes, setting priorities is the worst thing that you can do. Setting priorities can hamper your efficiency, your productivity, and your motivation. Setting priorities can even lower your opinion of yourself, and send your confidence running. Of course, this only happens when you’re setting the wrong priorities.

What happens when the wrong priorities take hold?

If you've got the wrong priorities in place, you'll constantly be fighting against the tide of your natural workflow. If you’re setting priorities that don't realistically suit your thinking style, your energy levels, your motivational triggers, or your time management abilities, you’ll hit trouble. In fact, you're likely to hit lots of obstacles on your way to fulfillment that have nothing to do with your goals, simply because of how you're approaching your tasks.

It's almost better to set no priorities at all than to set the wrong ones.

You might not get much done without setting priorities, but at least with no priorities, you'd never feel like you were failing! The truth is that having the wrong priorities can make you feel bad about yourself and your work even when you’re actually being productive, efficient, or even downright amazing. That’s because no matter how much you do, if the priorities you’ve got set up for yourself don’t match your strengths and abilities, you’ll never measure up to your own expectations. Setting priorities that work against instead of for you harms your confidence and your self-image, not to mention your ability to make more money and have more fun.

So, what are the wrong priorities and how can you recognize them?

In almost every case, the wrong priorities are the ones that “someone else” told you that you should set.
That “someone else” might be a peer, or a supervisor. That “someone else” might be a well-meaning family member, or a friend. That “someone else” might be a so-called personal development expert who believes that he or she has all of the answers. That “someone else” could even be you, especially if what you think you want and what you really want are two different things.

What all of these “someone else”s have in common is that they’re not taking into account who you really are, how you really work, how you really think, what really gets your motor running, and what you really want. In short, all of them have advice on setting priorities, but none of them are taking into account what you’ll really do once those priorities are in place!

There’s only one tool that will let you master setting priorities that help you move smoothly towards success instead of setting priorities that leave you fighting un-winnable battles: self-knowledge. I’ll talk more about that in part four, Different People, Different Methods, Different Priorities.

More Posts On Priorities:
The Limousine: Setting Better Priorities, Part One
What Good Priorities Do: Setting Better Priorities, Part Two
Different People, Different Methods, Different Priorities: Setting Better Priorities, Part Four

What Good Priorities Do: Setting Better Priorities, Part Two

Good priorities are a powerful thing. Even if you don’t think that you have priorities, you do, so they’d better be good ones.

Your priorities are what tell you what to do when you get up in the morning. If one of your top priorities is security for yourself and your loved ones, you probably get dressed and go to work. If your top priority was pleasure, you’d probably just dive into a pool of whipped cream instead. Priorities have the power to shape your whole life, and good priorities will shape your days and weeks and years into the kind of life you truly want, deep in your heart of hearts.

Take a minute and think about the three priorities you think are the most important in life. Anything goes-- finding love, supporting the people you care about, winning respect, pushing yourself to achieve your personal best— anything you think is important. Truly important. Vitally important. Do-or-die important.

Now, think about how much you do on a daily basis to make each priority, each dream, a part of your physical reality.

How much do you do to bring your values into the world around you?
Is it everything you can?


If the answer is yes. . . congratulations. Stop reading this series. You’re perfect, and you’ve got the perfect priorities. You’re probably Superman, so you shouldn’t be reading MakeMoreHaveMore, you should be off rescuing somebody trapped under something somewhere.

If the answer is no, there’s probably a very good reason why. Your priorities probably reflect who you wish you were, instead of who you really are. Your priorities are built for Superman, but you’re only human.

Good priorities take into account your strengths and weaknesses are, so that you can always feel that you’re doing the most beneficial thing for yourself and others by using the talents that you have, and by developing the areas where you have room to grow.

Good priorities, priorities that are really right for you, can change the way you approach every aspect of your life. Suddenly, uphill battles won’t feel so uphill. Downhill slides will feel controlled instead of frightening. No matter what happens, you’ll feel more in charge and more excited about what will happen next, because you’ll be working towards the goals that are truly closest to your heart. Setting good priorities means naming what you think the world should be, and what your place in that world can be, and using every day to bring that dream realistically and practically closer.

If you don’t feel comfortable, confident, or justified in taking the actions that make sense to pursue your priorities, you haven’t got the right priorities! Good priorities take into account all of your areas of discomfort, all of your fears, all of your worries, and work realistically within their confines, and within the confines of who you really are, as well as towards the dream of who you’d like to be.

Good priorities start with introspection, so that you can determine what kind of priorities you want, and what role your most important priorities will have in your life. (We’ll cover some of the nitty gritty of how that happens later in the series.)

However, although good priorities start out as thoughts, they don’t stop there: they continue on to action. With good priorities, you’ll learn more and you’ll just quite simply get more done, because you’ll always know the next step in front of you, and won’t have to stop and wonder if it is the right step to take.

Good priorities will make you unstoppable. The challenges you meet will feel useful and engaging, instead of frustrating and demoralizing, so you won’t be thrown off course as easily as if your priorities were weak or vague. If your top priority is just an idea, like “help the world,” you probably won’t know where to start, and will end up feeling useless. But, if your top priority is an action, like “strive to improve the lives of everyone I meet,”, or “always remember those who are more in need than me,” you’ll know exactly what to do, and will feel empowered and energized. Suddenly, you're a lot closer to being Superman than you used to be.

Once you discover your true priorities, the actions you’ll take to be faithful to those priorities feel inevitable, like a call to arms that you cannot refuse. The actions may be big or small, but good priorities, true priorities, will motivate you to get them done so effectively, you won’t even notice that you’re gearing up for something huge. You’ll just take off in the direction of your dream.

Of course, not all priorities are helpful. I’ll talk more about that in the third part of the series, Priorities That Stop You In Your Tracks.

More Posts On Priorities:
The Limousine: Setting Better Priorities, Part One
Different People, Different Methods, Different Priorities: Setting Better Priorities, Part Four

The Limousine: Setting Better Priorities, Part One

A set of better priorities will make your ride towards self-actualization so smooth, you’ll think that a professional chauffer is competently and confidently in charge of getting you over the potholes and through the traffic jams. Better priorities are the limousine that will take you where you want to go.

With a productive, realistic set of priorities that accurately reflect your unique dreams and abilities, that accurately reflect where you find the most satisfaction and fulfillment in life, you’ll feel like you’re making all of the green lights, riding along towards happiness in a swank limousine, with a glass of your preferred carbonated beverage in hand.

Alright, I’ll be honest: that's not true. There is no limousine to happiness.

But better priorities are as close to a limousine as you can get.

If you can learn to set better priorities, you'll find yourself catapulted towards greater daily satisfaction, and greater success on the road to your long term goals, because you’ll always know where you’re going, how to get there, and how to have fun on the way.

It isn't always easy to learn to set priorities that will work for you, instead of against you. In this five part series, I’ll be looking at the good that priorities can do, and the harm. I’ll be looking at how and why the bulk of personal development culture comes up short when it comes to priorities. And I’ll be looking at the link between priorities and self knowledge, including a smattering of practical, actionable techniques that will help you start setting better priorities, priorities that come from the true core of who you are.

Before you can start setting better priorities, it’s crucial that you start to re-examine what a shift in priorities could do to help you reach your potential. For me, setting better priorities was the first big step I made on the road to making more money and having more fun. Setting better priorities is often the first big step towards reaching a goal.

I’ll be talking more about why that first step is so important, and how you can make it, in my next post, What Good Priorities Do.

More Posts On Priorities:

Priorities That Stop You In Your Tracks: Setting Better Priorities, Part Three
Different People, Different Methods, Different Priorities: Setting Better Priorities, Part Four

Stay Tuned For A Special Series Of Posts

Dear Readers,

There's been a hiatus of a few days on MakeMoreHaveMore because I'm planning something very special: a multi-post series on priorities.

I'll be looking at how priorities get set, and what the right and wrong priorities can do for us. I'll even be mapping out actionable steps that we can take to make sure our priorities are working for us, instead of against us.

By the end, it'll become easy to see how setting priorities that are really in tune with our self-knowledge can help us all make more money, and have more fun.
And, I hope, it will become easier to see how to set those priorities.

I'll be posting links here to the full five-part series. Stay tuned.

Posts On Priorities:
The Limousine: Setting Better Priorities, Part One
What Good Priorities Do: Setting Better Priorities, Part Two
Priorities That Stop You In Your Tracks: Setting Better Priorities, Part Three
Different People, Different Methods, Different Priorities: Setting Better Priorities, Part Four

Three Ways To Turn A Good Mood Into A Great Mood

A good mood is one of the simple pleasures of life, and a great mood is even better. A good mood can happen for any number of reasons, and sometimes for no good reason at all.

The bad news is that a good mood can disappear as quickly as it comes, and you won't always know why it slips away. The good news is that, with a tiny bit of effort, you can make a good mood last longer. You can even turn it into a great mood! When you get lucky enough to have a good mood, here are three techniques that will help you keep the buzz going and turn it into a great mood.

Add An Extra Blast Of Happiness
Doing something you enjoy while you're already in a good mood can skyrocket it into a great mood. The next time you've got a few moments to spare, try jotting down a few fun things that you can do for free at any time of day, no matter where you are. These can be something simple like "think about a favorite birthday present," or even "jump for joy." The next time you're in a good mood, do one thing from this list. The added blast of fun will put you in a great mood!

Make It A Memory
The next time you're in a good mood, try recording it for posterity. Take a photo, or jot down a few lines about how you're feeling. If you've got the time, you could even make a quick vocal or video recording to capture the moment. This will help you keep a memory of your good mood so that you'll always remember feeling awesome. Immortalizing your good mood will help your feelings linger, because the process of making a memory is always fun. Plus, the sense of accomplishment you'll get when you look at what you've made will help catapult you into a truly great mood.


Share With Others

One of the best ways to boost yourself into a great mood is by helping make another person's day better. When you're in a naturally good mood already, try sharing the happiness by giving someone a compliment, doing someone a favor, or just flashing them a big, genuine smile. They'll get a boost of warmth, and you'll find yourself in an even better mood than you were before.

There are lots of ways to turn a good mood into a great mood. Once you've got the hang of these techniques, I'm sure you'll come up with plenty of your own!

Open One New Door Every Day

Open one new door every day, and you'll be amazed at how quickly your opportunities grow. Diversification is the key to everything from a successful investment portfolio to a successful team of co-workers, but too few of us apply this simple idea to our working lives, or to our search for fun. When was the last time you opened a new door to money, or to happiness?

Think about what could you accomplish if you learned to open one new door every day. You could change your life radically for the better, but the path to success would be so gentle that you wouldn't even have to set aside any extra time, or setting any big plans in motion. One of the most difficult things about finding ways to make more money or have more fun is that it isn't always feasible to try to achieve success in new goals on top of everything that you already have to do. Chances are, you have to do a lot. If you open one new door every day, you won't have to struggle under more pressure, and you won't have to deal with a whole crop of new tasks that are laying the foundation for your future success. Instead, you'll just try one thing each day to make your life a little better. That's a schedule anyone can keep.

The concept is basic. The more different kinds of revenue possibilities you're pursuing, the greater the chance is that one of them will catch fire and start making you the kind of income that you want. The more different ways you're trying to have fun, the greater the chance is that you'll find a new source of joy or passion in your life. The implementation is as basic as the concept: just open one new door every day.

How do you open one new door every day? There are lots of ways to do it. Here are a few examples of how you can open a new door right now:

Open A New Door To Income:

*Hit an online job board and bookmark three jobs that are better than the work you have now.

*Sit in on a meeting in another department at work, and see if there's anything you can do to make yourself valuable to that department as well as your own.

*Drop an email or make a quick call to a past client who you enjoyed working with, let them know that the experience was positive for you, and ask them what projects are on their horizon. There just might be a place in that plan for you, especially now that your name is in the air.

Open A New Door To Fun:


*Go see a movie that you've never heard of, and know nothing about.

*Get back in touch with a friend who you haven't seen in a few months. Make plans to get together for a cup of tea, or go for an early evening walk.

*Do a google search for your childhood nickname, and see where it takes you.

See how easy it is to open a new door? Now, take a moment and visualize all of the doors that you could open for yourself. Imagine how many great opportunities might come from those simple actions. Promise yourself you'll take the time to open one new door every day.

It won't take very long, it probably won't cost you a dime, and it just might make you a fortune, or give you the chance to discover a new source of deep satisfaction. Why not open one new door right now?

Stop Watching The Clock, Thanks To Instant Boss

Watching the clock is one of the biggest perils of the unstructured life. Being self employed means that if I'm not watching the clock to keep track of my work hours and my breaks, nobody will be. So, that leaves me with two choices. Either I spend the day carefully watching the clock to try and keep some kind of work/life balance, or I close my eyes and hope for the best. Most freelancers, self employed people, and knowledge workers who have the freedom to structure their own time get stuck in one of these two scenarios.

The tidy new program called "Instant Boss" (free to download here) is a useful tool that takes on some of the clock watching duties for you so that you can focus on your work. It's a simple alarm that monitors your work minutes and break minutes and alerts you when it is time to switch. I like to set mine for 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of break-- that seems to be the schedule that gives me the most stamina-- but everyone has their own ideal rhythm. No matter what yours is, you can set Instant Boss to send alerts as often as you want. It's a nice way to help boost your focus on the task at hand, so that you can forget about watching the clock and put your attention onto finding ways to make more money.

Five Ways To Beat A Bad Mood

A bad mood squelches any possibility of having fun, and often gets in the way of making more money. After all, you're not going to be savoring the moment if you'd rather be home in bed with the covers over your face. As for making more money, you're sure as heck not going to be succesful on the phone practicing your latest "sell, sell, sell" strategy, at a cafe brainstorming your next venture, or in a meeting strengthening your client relationships if you'd rather be. . . well, at home in bed with the covers over your face.

It sounds obvious to say that bad moods are bad for you, but all too often we get stuck in a funk and forget to get ourselves out of it. Without a set strategy to help us out of the swamp, it's easy to get trapped in a bad mood for hours, or even days. That's a real waste, especially since with the right tools you can fight your way out of a bad mood pretty quickly.

Here are five ways to get rid of a terrible mood fast so that you're free to enjoy your day.

1. Wash yourself.
When you feel like you look good, you're more likely to feel good. No matter whether you're a librarian or a metro guy or a lumberjack or a prom queen, you're probably at least a little bit vain. That's bad news for your moral character, but it's great news if you're in a bad mood, because it means that taking a shower and putting on a nice pair of slacks will probably soothe your angst.

2. Distract yourself.
Turn on a favorite movie, album, tv show. Open a favorite magazine. Get a friend to tell you really terrible jokes. Jump up and down a hundred times. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you shake it up: if you can focus on the task at hand, you'll forget all about your bad mood.

3. Eat something.
Now, I'm not advocating grabbing three dozen donuts to drown your sorrows in, but I am advocating keeping your blood sugar steady. Often, a bad mood is the result of a blood sugar crash from going too long without food. Have a piece of whole wheat toast, and you may discover that the demons torturing you were just plain old hunger. Don't be embarassed if this turns out to be the case: a lot of grownups are surprisingly un-adept at knowing when to break for snacktime.

4. Research more fixes.
Finding new and better ways to trick yourself out of the gloom is a positive, decisive action that can in and of itself help you start to feel better. If you feel warm towards my writing, or too lazy to find something better, you could start your quest with this article of mine, which features some very Fast Fixes For A Bad Mood

5. Pass the buck.
When all else fails, blame someone who is far, far away and can't defend themselves. If you can convince yourself that you're not to blame for feeling bad, it will be easier to cheer up. Once you're in a better mood, you can forgive your "villain."

By the time you've worked through one or two of the ideas in this toolkit of instant fixes, you'll be out of your bad mood and ready to have a better rest of your day.

Ten Ways To Use Monopoly Money: Almost As Good As The Real Thing

Monopoly Money isn't real money, but that doesn't mean you don't want tons of it. I know I do, especially because it's free. The best thing about playing with Monopoly Money is that if you can make it fun just by using it in a new way, you've created real, genuine value out of something that is, by definition, worth nothing. Take that, irony!

Ten Ways To Turn Monopoly Money Into Fun:

1. Prank a co-worker by packing lots and lots of rainbow faux-cash into his or her wallet. And pockets. And desk drawers. And cubicle. And office. And any items in the office refridgerator. And spouse/children.

2. Use it to tip really bad waitstaff at restaurants.

3. Wallpaper your apartment.

4. Print out a whole, whole bunch and stage a stick up where your lover steals it from you in a complicated heist. Then, have your lover show up at your door begging forgiveness. Forgive him or her, then roll around together in all the loot. This is safer than rolling around in real cash because, unlike real money, you know where Monopoly Money has been. Nowhere.

5. Play Monopoly.

6. Pretend that it's real money, and that it's only colorful because it's from Canada.

7. Use it around giftcards, gift certificates, or checks for creative giftwrapping.

8. Teach a kid how to make change, or origami cranes.

9. Write on the backs of monopoly money instead of index cards for your Hipster PDA.

10. Sneak into a friend's place and fill their bathtub with Monopoly Money. Disturb nothing else.

You get the idea.

Try A Fast Brainstorm For New Revenue Ideas

New revenue ideas are fun to come up with, and a fast brainstorm gives your brain a real workout. A brainstorm for new revenue ideas can help you discover ways to make more money, and it always gets you thinking creatively. Being adept at creative thinking gives you an extra boost towards success with any and all of the projects that are already on your plate, which is great news for anyone trying to make more money. In this article, I'll help you learn how to have your own brainstorm flurry and generate new revenue ideas faster than you ever thought you could think.

New revenue ideas come in all shapes and sizes, so don't try to force yourself towards one kind of idea or another. Just get a pen, a piece of paper, and write down all the new revenue ideas that come to mind. Here are the only rules:

Don't be afraid to think small (sell that old book on eBay), and don't be afraid to think huge (get together ten other investors and buy some property in Mexico to resell at a profit.)
Don't be afraid to be silly (win the lottery) and don't be afraid to be brilliant (imagine the ultimate web 2.0 application.)
In fact, don't be afraid to think or be anything!

The wilder your brainstorm is, the more likelihood there is that you'll hit on a truly creative concept, one that could become your next major project. When it comes to new revenue ideas, the ones that will succeed are the ones that are unique, so open your mind and let the creativity flow.

Many people don't get much out of a brainstorm because they're censoring themselves. If you find yourself judging your new revenue ideas before you get them written down, or even while you're writing, try cranking up the heat. Capture five new revenue ideas in five minutes, or even try for ten. If you're writing as quickly as you can think, you'll have no time to censor your ideas, and you just might free up a great concept for a new business, or an exciting career move. Even if none of your new revenue ideas turn out to be seaworthy, your fast brainstorm was still time well spent: when you're done, you'll have stretched and strengthened your creativity. The more comfortable you are being creative, the more successful you'll be at problem solving, and at seeing new opportunities to make money down the line.

Have More Fun In Your First Ten Minutes

The first ten minutes of the day can feel sluggish, slow, or, depending on the activities of the previous evening, even a little bit painful. If you wince through your morning, you're not just missing the chance to feel decent-- you're missing the chance to feel great. With just a tiny bit of effort, you can use the first ten minutes of the day to have more fun. If you plan a fun treat for the first ten minutes you'll be awake, you'll suddenly feel much more inclined to jump out of bed and get started on your day.

I myself am a confirmed night owl, and refuse to reform my ways and head to bed at a "reasonable" hour. But that doesn't mean that I don't make my mornings productive, useful, and even enjoyable. The key is getting the day started right by having something fun to look forward to doing right away. If you're raring to get to the good stuff you've got planned for your first ten minutes, suddenly you won't mind the fact that you're a little drowsy, because you'll be concentrating on the treat at hand.

Here are a few examples of A.M. treats that can put a smile on your face even before your first cup of coffee has kicked in:


Watch cartoons while you eat your breakfast.
Wash up by candlelight to add some romance to your routine.
Get a book just for mornings, and read a few pages a day. The trashier the better!

These kinds of tiny pleasures can help turn the first ten minutes of your morning from a torturous ordeal into a springboard for a great day.

Start A Small Business With A Friend

Everyone knows that starting a business is one of the best ways to increase your income. But, how can you possibly find the time to start a venture, maintain client or customer relations, or even to build the expertise you'll need if you want to see your profits grow? With all of the roadblocks and hurdles that every beginning entrepreneur, or seasoned one for that matter, faces during the course of starting a business and growing it into a full-fledged success, how can you stay motivated? And, most importantly, how on earth could any of this hard work help you have more fun?

The answer is deceptively simple: start a small business with a friend.

Get together with a friend who has a similar goal. No matter whether you're starting a huge media empire or a lemonade stand, you'll get a lot of benefit from a partner who can support you, help you see things in a new light, and hold you accountable to your dreams. Not to mention the benefits of having a friend around to joke with, chat with, or commiserate with during the sometimes rocky road to succesful entrepreneurship.

When I'm working with a friend who I trust, I know that I'm a hundred times more motivated than when I try to take on a venture on my own. When I set up a plan for a solo venture, suddenly I have a million errands that Absolutely Need Doing before I can take step one on my business path. But when I'm working with the right partner, every day I find myself researching, forging new plans, refining old ideas, or discovering ways to make my work better. Not because I feel more confident, or more driven to succeed. Not because I've thrown off other responsibilites, or found an extra hour in the day. Instead, I work harder because I want to do the best that I can to help my friend along. Although I might walk away from a solo project because of motivational or situational hurdles, I could never bear the thought of standing in the way of a good friend's success, so I'll fight long and hard for a joint venture, especially if I have a partner who inspires me with his or her own great work, insight, and creativity.

You'll make more money if you hook your own dreams to someone else's, and so will your friend. And, when you finally reach your goals, you'll have more fun with a comrade by your side to share the success.

What, Why, How, Who, And Welcome


Make More Money, Have More Fun.

What does that mean? Why does it matter? How can we do it?
And, who am I to have any say about any of this?

Let's start with why I began this project.

Over the past few months, as the year came to a close, it seemed natural to start thinking about what had been good and bad about my life in 2006. In many ways, this had been a great year: I widened my portfolio and my client roster as a freelance writer, I lost over twenty pounds, and I was in the best physical shape I'd been in since I was a teenager.

But as I looked more closely at my experiences, I realized that the best moments of my year weren't the moments when I'd landed a new client, or gotten published. They weren't the ones when I'd achieved a weight loss goal, a fitness goal, or any goal at all for that matter. The best moments were the ones when I'd had the most real, vibrant, satisfying fun.

My favorite events of the year were the moments when I'd shared meals with loved ones, shared conversations with friends, and shared ideas with other people who were interested in the things that I found the most compelling. The best parts of 2006 happened when I was free to enjoy myself. As soon as I realized this, I resolved to pursue a very simple idea for the next twelve months. I pledged that no matter what, in 2007, I would have more fun.

When I started to assess how I could make that goal a reality, I realized that, on far too many occasions, my ability to have a great time had been clouded by one problem: money. This year, I worked long hours, but the time I spent working was only part of the issue. The truth was that even when I wasn't actually at my desk earning income, I was still thinking about my financial situation. I was constantly worried about spending too much, anxious that I wasn't saving enough, or feeling guilty that I was doing anything other than focusing on my career. Time after time, I passed up a chance to have fun, or went through the motions without fully enjoying something, because I was preoccupied by money.

As I looked at the year to come, I saw that in 2007, in order to have more fun, I'd have to find a way to make more money.

I also knew that I couldn't be the only one with this desire.
And that brings us to the what and the how of this blog.

As I find ways to make more money and have more fun, I'd like to share what I discover. As I make my way through this year, I'll be posting practical, actionable ideas for increasing income and increasing quality of life. I don't know yet all the places that this search will take me, but I do know a little bit about what you can expect to find here.

At MakeMoreHaveMore, you can expect to find information about money-making opportunities, including a first-person perspective on how well they work. You can expect to find tips, tricks, and creative solutions for living well on a budget. You can expect that every post here will offer you a fresh, practical way to make more money, have more fun, or do both at the same time!

So, who am I to weigh in on such topics? Well, I'm not a financial expert, a self-improvement guru, or a motivational speaker. I'm just a writer who wants to live better, and live happier, and make more money, and have more fun. I'm out to find ways to make that happen, and I hope you'll come with me.

Welcome to MakeMoreHaveMore. Please stay awhile. Browse through the posts and find some fresh ideas for living well. If you've got a suggestion or two that other readers might appreciate, email me, and add a few of your own ideas to the mix.

This year, let's make more money, and have more fun, together.

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