The 5-5-5 Plan

Week 39 – 5-5-5 Plan – Theme – Money

 

Monday:

The theme this week – for the last week of September is money – and I didn’t realize when I selected it how many quotes – and of so many various opinions there were on the subject. At first I was overwhelmed – what was my theme behind the money? The reason it was included is because when looking through my books on quotes I saw an abundance to choose from – then as I settled down to decide which ones to use it became apparent that there are huge differences in opinion about money – and so it makes even more sense to tackle the subject.

So I’ve selected a sampling – and of course freely admit it’s my own bias about money that you will hear – and the gift for me was taking a look at that bias (a word I looked up) then decided maybe it wasn’t bias after all – simply a belief… but I digress…

So this week the theme is money – and as I share quotes with you I challenge each person on this call to think about how you think about money

 

            Quote: The first quote is just for fun and comes from Mark Twain who said, “His money is twice tainted: ‘taint yours and ‘taint mine.”

 

Now for a thoughtful quote – from Henrik Ibsen who said, “Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.

 

So for me this meant that money is needed for things that are needed – and the deeper life I live has nothing to do with money. It has to do with appetite, health, friends, peace and happiness. I am rich!

 

            Word: Bias – prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another -  sometimes considered to be unfair – someone has a bias against something – example: A bias against foreign applicants -

 

You Create Your Day by the way You Think! Be Present!

Go make it a Magnificent Day!

 

Tuesday:

            Quote: I’m starting today with a simple fun quote on money followed by a more meaningful one – I couldn’t resist sharing this sage advice from Kin Hubbard who said this, “The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket.”

 

Second quote: from Kahlil Gibran who has these sage words, “Money is like love; it kills slowly and painfully the one who withholds it, and it enlivens the other who turns it upon his fellow man.”

 

            Word: shrew – although this noun applied to both men and women as far back as the thirteenth century and meant “spiteful person,” it has since come to mean “a peevish, spiteful, nagging woman.” The word comes from the Old English for a “shrew mouse,” which was one believed to have a venomous bite.”

 

You Create Your Day by the way You Think! Be Present!

Go make it a Magnificent Day!

 

Wednesday:

            Quote: I found it very interesting that there were two men among all the quotes I found who had the most to say about money – one of them I’m quoting today and it’s Henry Ford – he provided 7 different quotes on money – some of which I found contradictory which may be a testament to how he changed as he moved through his life so I want to give you the two I liked best from him.

First Henry Ford said, “Old men are always advising young men to save money. That is bad advice. Don’t save every nickel. Invest in yourself. I never saved a dollar until I was forty years old.” This stuck me as wise and wonderful because he calls us to invest in ourselves – and this should never cease – it’s been the best investment I’ve ever made and added more value to my life and those of my clients.

His second quote is, “Money doesn’t change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that is all.”

What I would add that if a person is naturally loving, generous and giving money brings that out too -

 

            Word: Auspicious – this adjective means “marked by success or producing favorable circumstances.” – this word is used a lot in Feng Shui – things are auspicious are good!

 

You Create Your Day by the way You Think! Be Present!

Go make it a Magnificent Day!

 

 

Thursday:

            Quote: The other man that is quoted the most, and even more than Henry Ford in the category of money is Benjamin Franklin who provided 8 different quotes for my business book – so I’m going to share two short ones –

The first some great advice from Benjamin, “Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”

And the second quote is, “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness.”

I remember once reading something about this same idea – that money itself – in any form, paper, coin, gold bar – was only the thing, it was neutral – it was only the value we placed upon it that gave it any power.

 

            Word: Detrimental – this adjective comes from the Latin word that means “to wear down” or to “rub” and means “causing damage, harm or loss.” The noun form is “detriment.”

 

You Create Your Day by the way You Think! Be Present!

Go make it a Magnificent Day!

 

Friday:

            Quote: The last quote of the week on money is from that wise man, Bob Dylan – who I think has it right, he said, “What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”

Wow! How about we live like that -

 

            Word: Fiasco – Interestingly, this noun may come from the Italian fare fiasco. It was used by the French for linguistic errors committed by Italian actors on the eighteenth-century French stage. It means “a complete failure.” And if we live our life without doing what we are called to do – it’s a fiasco.

 

Joke of the week:

 

There was a pastor who always used a standard liturgy for funerals. To personalize each service, he used the Find and Replace command on his computer to replace the name of the deceased from the previous funeral with the name of the deceased for the upcoming one. Recently, he had to replace the name Mary with Edna.

The next morning, the funeral was going smoothly until the congregation intoned the Apostles’ Creed. “Jesus Christ,” they read from the preprinted program, “born of the Virgin Edna.”

 

You Create Your Day by the way You Think! Be Present!

Go make it a Magnificent Day!