Corey Stokes

Still trying to figure this all out. Issue 2

Is your fear killing your baby?

Corey L. Stokes

I am often in amazement at how fast my children are growing up on me. My son, now 9, went on his first camping trip without his parents. While I, concerned for his well-being, I was more concerned of his readiness to succeed without us. Although this trip is supervised and he is not solely on his own, I know he is ready to go and experience the world (or at least a campground not too far away). Getting out of the car once we got to the camp grounds, he asked me, “Daddy, can you help me carry my bags and put up my tent?”; then he was gone. He showed up about ten minutes later with a friend ready to help get the bags out of the car and then off to set up the tent. By the time I arrived at the site the He had much of his things unpacked and was ready to put up the tent.

We, and I do include myself, treat our dreams like we treat our children; We hold them close by keeping them safe. For some Fear of your child getting hurt will keep you from letting them go off on their own. But by letting our fears dictate what we allow our children or our dreams to do , will only hinder their growth. In his book, “Start, Punch fear in the face” Jon Acuff goes further into detail about how to deal with this phenomenon. For starters, letting your “Baby” (both dream and children) grow and not stifling them before has a chance to breathe, is vital part of its success.

Two of the most common reasons that many endeavors don’t get off the ground is the fear of success and the fear of failure. The number one reason in all cases that dreams will fail, is not giving it a chance at all.

This weekend my son, showed me that with some guidance and molding, he was ready to grow and flourish. It was time for me to give him a little room so he can show me that he can! I’d like to share some advice I received, that I use in my personal life as well as in any endeavor I take on. This continues to work with everything I apply it to.

Work from a position of strength – I have often heard that you should work toward making your weaknesses your strengths. In doing that however, you set yourself up for less success. Instead, work from your strengths. You stand a greater chance of succeeding if you are working on something you know. This also, as you complete tasks, builds your confidence as you move through your accomplishing.

Set goals – I often recite the quote ” If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time”. This reminds me to set goals and to ask myself, “Where am I going”?. Setting goals will help keep you on track to seeing your dreams come true. For more on Goal Setting See my blog post titled “Plan our 2013”.

Give your endeavors a chance to breathe If you are like me, when you start something, you want to see results. Looking at many of the pioneers in your field and seeing their success was frustrating to me because I wasn’t getting there. What I had to remember was, I could not judge my beginning off of the endings of others. I had to give my projects time to take its first breath. Do expect immediate success, it will take time to develop. If you keep that in mind your chances of quitting before you get started , lessen dramatically.

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Frugality leads to security : www.corey-stokes.com/?p=1106

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Science with Nalah and Nolan

Will Paper get wet if you put it in water? If you missed it, check it out on You tube

Something to think about

What is a dollar?

Answer – The “dollar of our fathers” is a silver coin weighing almost one ounce. It was never to be debased; it was never to be any weight less than 371.25 grains of pure silver.

What am I building?

I was asked to build 2 challenge coin holder’s.

The first one is a Pyramid coin holder this is my template I am using.

The second one however, I’m still trying to find a design.

What am I reading?

I am currently re-reading Decisive: How to make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Notice: Although I strive for perfection I know I am not perfect. If you find mistakes in my work, simple inbox me to let me know! Thanks.

Frugality leads to security

Some time ago I posted a question to my Facebook followers. “If you were debt free, what could you do?” Some followers had big dreams and thoughts of having lots of money in the bank. Others however, were not able to see life without debt. In a survey conducted by Federation of America, it was found that 2/3’s Americans were failing or had made no progress toward building a savings, let alone hacking away at debt. While the other 1/3 were secure their financial lives. The number one reason given for the majority’s inability to succeed financially is American’s inability to live within their means. In our culture of buy now and pay later, Cash has been replaced credit as the societal norm.

My wife and I have, learned that, living within our means can be highly rewarding. With summer Stay-cations, free stuff, as well as the hundreds of dollars of savings offered by companies around the world, we have experienced that we could be frugal and fabulous. All it took for us to get there was a little planning, saving, and commitment, Here are some of the things that we did to start our move into the 1/3 of Americans who make building a savings a priority:

Commit to learning about and using proper money management skills. The key thing in this endeavor is to acknowledge that you don’t know it all. This was hardest thing for me to do, but once I changed my way of thinking, learning and using the proper skills allowed me, and will allow you to change your life style.
Tell your money where to go. Many financial advisers have said that people live from month to month allowing their money to tell them what to do. Once I started telling my money where I wanted it to go, I noticed that I had a lot more money to go around. Creating a budget and living on a budget allowed us to start making the baby steps needed for progress.
You are your biggest debt. I’m sure we have all heard, Pay yourself first! Financial experts advise putting 10% of your income into savings. They also advise, putting a buffer between yourself and emergency’s. This emergency fund, will prevent you from having to spend on credit or take out loans when you are barely covering your living expenses. In addition, add a line item in your budget for some fun money as well.
Stop borrowing money. When I first committed to becoming debt free, Living within my means meant I had to learn to stop borrowing money. Spending, on anything that I had to repay, had to go. Your income is your biggest asset building tool If it is tied up in paying back money you’ve borrowed, how will it ever help you exceed.

By setting a goal, committing to living within your means you can move toward a position of financial security. So I’ll ask again, If you had no debt and your full paycheck, what could you do?

How I spent my Father’s Day

Being a dad is an awesome job! In fact I’ll go as far to say it is the best job in the world. This Father’s Day my children did an experiment with Dear Old Dad. We asked the question, Will paper get wet if you submerge it in water?

Will Paper get wet if submerged in water?