3 Tools You Need to Beat the Economy

Figuring since it's Tax Day, I could offer a little insight on how to overcome the Economy. Will it be easy? Heck no! Will it be useful info? Maybe. Will it guarantee success? That's up to you!

There are 3 skill sets that make you valuable in any economy - professional skills, people skills, and leadership development skills. All of these skill sets will increase your value and your income.

• Professional skills. Whether you are a doctor, real estate agent, mechanic, waitress, teacher, home business owner, or customer service rep, you must know the basics of your profession. You must be willing to learn new, specialized skills. The difference in a professional and an amateur is your skill.

• People skills. People are everywhere! You work with them, live with them, buy things from them, and sell things to them. And where does money come from? People! If you learn more about people than you do anything else, you will be unusually successful. If you learn great people skills, you will attain income security. Those who do not have people skills are usually the first to be laid off.

• Personal development & leadership skills. People with high leadership skills have extremely high influence and high value in the marketplace. They are consistently working on improving themselves, and they raise up other leaders. They have a "no excuse" mindset. They focus on producing results. They do not let circumstances define their success, but they take personal responsibility to create their own success.

Would You Do This?

Would you be willing to live like no one else?

 We have made a big decision. This is something that's important to us and I felt it was something different to share with my Facebook "framily", y'all mean a lot to me and I love each of you, all for different reasons. So I feel it's ok to share this. It's nothing bad and nothing to feel bad about. We are happy with our decision :)

Ok let me explain. We may be crazy and going against the norm, but we've decided to have Christmas different this year. Every year so many people go into debt or spend money they don't have to buy stuff they don't need because they've lost sight of what the holiday is all about. Christmas comes with or without a tree or gifts. It's December 25th, every year, regardless if we have a tree up & gifts under it. Every year we bend over backwards and stress out trying to make sure we get our kids & everyone else the stuff (they don't need) to make them happy and in the process we end up not paying bills or scrimping on groceries or maxing out credit cards to have the money (we don't really have) to do it. NOT this year... We don't have the money! We've had some financial trouble, so things are worse than tight. BUT - We aren't stressing or worried our kids will be scarred for life because they didn't get to open any presents. They will be fine! We have already talked to them about this and they understand (having good kids is a blessing). We don't have a tree either... This year will be focused on what matters: family, having a warm, safe, dry home. Electricity, running water. Food on the table (we will have a nice Christmas dinner), love, community and being together. Those are our gifts.

In an effort to start a new lifestyle that will snowball us out of debt, this is our first step. We will live like no one else, so later we can live like no one else.