* There are several benefits of decluttering such as reducing clutter stress, being more productive, having more time to do what we want, and keeping more of your money.

* Prioritize the things you need to declutter. Start with the most important areas of your life.

* Get rid the things you don’t use or won’t use often. Organize the things that you want to keep.

* Make thoughtful purchases in the future. Don’t allow yourself to re-clutter your life!

Hey guys! What are the benefits of decluttering your life? What does decluttering look like and how do we do it? These are the questions that I am going to answer in this blog post.

We live a very blessed life. We have access to so many things and sometimes we fill our lives with too many of these things. Every once in a while we need to stop and assess the stuff that we’ve allowed in our lives and see what we can take out in order to make more room for things that matter. This means that sometimes in life, less is more. The less we fill our lives with junk the more time, money, and better health we’ll have. When we have more time, money, and better health we can focus more on doing the things that we really want to do and the things that will help us to reach our goals. Decluttering can be thought of as a type of investing. The time we invest into decluttering is going to be rewarded by the many benefits that decluttering offers. Also, by being intentional about avoiding clutter we can avoid the negative side effects that clutter has on our lives.

I can think of at least 3 main areas of life that we can declutter: things, time, and finances. Let’s take a look at how decluttering can be beneficial in these different areas.

Benefits of decluttering:

* Decluttering gives you more space and less stress. When I have a cluttered space the clutter makes the space feel cramped. I’m not someone who is claustrophobic but I would definitely say that I much rather be in a room that is clean and organized than a room that is jam packed full of stuff. A room full of stuff (like the current condition of my messy basement) makes me feel uncomfortable and adds more stress to my life. Decluttering can make you feel less stressed. Recently I walked into my garage that I’m moving into and I have tools that need to be cleaned, boxes of stuff that needs to be organized, shelves stacked with things that need to be organized, and I tell you what, I didn’t even know where to start. I asked myself, “Should I start cleaning tools, organizing shelves, or do one of the other millions things with all of this stuff?” I felt a little overwhelmed by all the stuff and it was easy to see that all this stuff was adding to my stress.

* Another benefit is that decluttering can help you to be more productive which ultimately can save you time. Think of a workstation area, maybe at work, maybe in your garage, maybe in a craft room, or maybe in your home office. If your work space is clean and organized than it’s going to be easier to find things and to get things done. This is going to make you much more productive.

* Having less stuff saves you money. When you spend less money buying stuff that you don’t need you have more money to put towards your goals like saving for retirement, your child’s education, or your down payment on your next home. Also, by not having as much stuff you’re not going to spend as much money maintaining things.

The Success Schedule helps you win by design. It will help you to: 

* Keep on track to reach your goals.

* Break down your big goals to small actionable weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.

* Be intentional about making choices that will help you reach success.

You’re probably asking yourself right now, “What the heck is a success schedule?” In short, it’s a tool that helps you achieve your short-term and long-term goals. You’ve heard me time and time again say that you need to create goals if you want to reach your dreams, right? A success schedule is part of the goal creating and achieving process. It’s a one page document that lists your goals and action items out on a yearly, monthly, and weekly basis. But before we jump into more about success schedules let’s do a little review on goals. When creating goals the first thing you need to do is figure out what exactly you want to accomplish. Maybe you want to start putting away money for retirement or start a small remodel project at home. The thing that you want to accomplish can be anything. It can be something big like saving up for a down payment for a house or it could be something small like cleaning out the garage. So, what is your goal? Obviously in life you have a lot of goals. You have them for your work life, you have them for your home life, and you might even have goals that are not really a tangible thing, like maybe it’s finding more happiness by being a better person. The goal is the answer to “How do I get what I want?” It’s what you want to accomplish so you reach your dreams. Ok, we get, the goal is like a race with a finish line. But how do know where to go in order to get to the finish line? We get there by creating a road map, a game plan. In other words, we accomplish our goal by creating a step by step process. This process is where the success schedule comes in.

Once you’ve identified your goal and you’ve identified the steps that it’s going to take to get there, then it’s time to create your success schedule. This schedule is going to list the things that you need to do on a weekly, a monthly, and a yearly basis so that you know what you need to do in order to reach your goal. For me a weekly schedule works great because I tend to plan for my week on the weekends and it helps me to stay on track throughout the week. I’ve created a success schedule template that you can download for free on my website buildwithkeegan.com under the “Success Tools” page. You can use this success schedule as it is by simply filling in your goal information, you can use it as a model in order to create your own success schedule, or you can modify this success schedule to be customized to your goals. One thing to take into consideration is that you can create several success schedules for different goals or you can use one success schedule that lists several of your goals. So, let’s look at an example of what you might put on your success schedule. (As a side note, to help you follow along with this example, you might take a look at the success schedule template that I’ve put on my website.) In the yearly section of the success schedule I’m going to put an item for retirement because I want to be intentional about putting away money for retirement. For this yearly retirement goal I’m going to put a dollar figure amount so that my goal is a SMART goal. A SMART goal is one that is specific, measurable, attainable,

* Debt can be disastrous for your finances.

* It can increase risk which can cause stress and worry in your life.

* Minimizing and eliminating debt can create more monthly cash flow and therefore financial freedom.

* Create a plan to minimize debt by clearly identifying your debt.

* Create a monthly budget to see opportunities for cutting expenses and figuring out how much debt you can pay off each month.

* A wealth builder does not use debt or uses debt to at a bare minimum.

* As a wealth builder, your end goal should be to become someone who is collecting interest not paying interest.

When most people hear the word debt the first thing they think of is something that is probably negative. Maybe it’s just me, but when I hear the word debt the feelings that I get are similar to those feelings that I get when I hear my dentist tell me I have a cavity, or the feeling I get when I’m washing my car and notice I have a door ding. These feelings don’t feel good and could be considered a little painful. However, I can’t be too negative towards debt because there have been times throughout my life that I’ve used debt for something that was good. For example, when I was young there would have been almost no way for me to buy a car without the help from my dad. Through the financial help from my dad I was able to get a vehicle, which allowed me to get to a job, which allowed me to make money. Had the vehicle not been in place, the job wouldn’t have been either. Not that it was impossible to get a job without getting a car, it’s just that riding a bike an hour each way to and from the job would have taken a level of ambition that was way greater than where my 16 year-old self was at. I’m sure that many people have found themselves in the situation of needing a loan to buy a car. So, it’s easy to see how debt can be helpful. In another example of debt used in a good way was when I decided to build a house at the age of 26. There was no way I had enough money to even come close to completing the house with the savings that I had at the time. However, there was a bank that, surprisingly enough, was willing to give me a construction loan to build the house. Through this example we can see that debt gives people the ability to buy a home. This can be a good thing!

But, we all know there are always two sides to every coin. So, what are the reasons you wouldn’t want debt? One reason that you don’t want debt is because debt can be dangerous. I’ve seen time and time again people that take on too much debt and before they know it they’re struggling to keep up with all of the loan payments. They find themselves trying to work more hours, in order to make more money so they can stay afloat financially. They live worried lives, constantly stressed out because they don’t know if they’re going to be able to make all their payments. They live in fear of the phone ringing with the debt collector on the other end asking for their money. Taking on too much debt can be disastrous for your health, wealth, and happiness. The stress that debt can put into your life can cause your health and happiness to deteriorate.

The reason debt can be dangerous is because it increases financial risk. Let’s examine what financial risk can look like. This example is something that I’ve seen others experience in my life and I’m sure you’ve either heard of something like this happening or maybe even know someone this example has happened to. For this example I’m going to tell you a story about a guy nam...

There are a ton of reasons why having a personal trainer can help you reach your health goals. Natalie Harris, Personal Trainer and Exercise Physiologist talks to us about why having a personal trainer can be so beneficial. Listen to HWH podcast episode 13 for all the benefits and also to find out important questions to ask if you’re considering working with a personal trainer. If you live in the Yakima area and are looking for a personal trainer Natalie can be contacted through Functional Fitness 509-452-4187.

natalie-nobbs

 

Have you ever felt like life was just go-go-go all the time and you didn’t have any time to just rest? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been in that boat before to the point that I just felt burned out. When you hit this burnout mark it should be a wake-up call to you that you haven’t been getting enough rest. It’s easy to keep putting more and more stuff in our lives and it can sometimes be difficult to get the amount of rest you need. Rest can come in different forms and can be applied to different areas of your life. You can have rest for your body which can help you to recuperate energy. You can have rest when it comes to building wealth which can help motivate you to continue to save and invest. You can even have rest for your mind which can help you to be in a better mood, reduce stress, and help you to feel happier.

Rest for our body is probably the first type of rest people think of when they hear someone say the word “rest”. We tend to think of going to bed for the night or kicking back in the easy chair for a catnap. This type of rest is really important for our body to recover from the energy it exerted throughout the day and to help us regain energy to use the next day. Many times when we get really busy this type of rest is one of the things that gets cut back in order to squeeze a few more activities in the 24 hours that we have. We often tell ourselves “I can just wake up a little earlier to get that thing done” or “I can just work on it tonight and go to be a little later”. When we cut back on our sleep in order to be more productive we might be getting a little more work done in the short-term but in the long-term we’re actually hurting ourselves. I’ve seen time and time again in my life and in the lives of those around me that not getting enough sleep means we’re more susceptible to getting sick. When we get sick it dramatically slows down our productivity and can erase what we gained when we were working hard while sleep deprived. Getting consistent sleep and resting our body is very important if you want to keep good health, avoid getting sick, and feel like you have the energy it takes to take on your day.

Rest from wealth building is, I’m sure, much less thought of than rest for your body. I know you probably have an eyebrow raised when I say rest from wealth building. What I mean by this is simply being able to take a break and rest from being focused on building wealth by saving up and buying something special for yourself or for you and your spouse or for your whole family. For me, I tell myself pretty often that I’m not going to buy something because it’s more important to me to save and invest so that I can have recourses to buy things later in my life. I know that by saving and investing now rather than spending all of my money will help me get to my goal of becoming financially independent. This goal is really important to me and it’s more important to me than being able to buy that next gadget or gizmo that catches my eye. However, on the other hand, it is really nice to occasionally treat myself to something special as a reward for working so hard and for doing a good job of saving and investing my money. This treat might be taking my significant other out to dinner or buying something that I really wanted for some time. Buying this treat is usually something small that won’t break the bank. In other words, resting from wealth building means being able to spend a little to make sure you remember why you’re working so hard to save.

Rest also helps us to be happier.

Before reading this post or listening to this podcast ask yourself the following personal growth questions: Have you been intentional about being grateful lately? What are the things that you’re most grateful for? How can you make a positive impact in the lives of others by showing that you’re grateful for them what they do?

It seems like every so often in life we get caught up in the daily grind and we forget to take a moment to appreciate everything that we have. If you want to create more happiness in not only your life but also in the lives of those around you and at the same time create more prosperity then you need to be intentional about being grateful. Often times, we’re quick to focus on the negative more so than focusing on the positive, and this is one of the reasons that I believe it’s important to be intentional about having gratitude.

Focusing on positive things helps us to create more happiness. It drowns out the negative thoughts that sometimes seem to pillage our minds. When I get busy and I’m not taking time to simply contemplate the good things that I have in my life I find that negativity seeps into my world. Being grateful for blessings is one of the best ways to stop negativity in its tracks. Getting in the habit of being grateful can help us sustain happiness and when we create happiness in our own life it spreads, through our actions, to others around us. When we’re grateful and we outwardly express it to those around us it communicates to others that we are grateful for them, and thus, brings happiness to those around us. In the business world, when a managers or team leader is outwardly expresses gratitude for his or her team it creates more productivity and more effectiveness.

If you want prosperity in your life then I highly recommend winning with gratitude. Being grateful for the things in your life can help you to see what your strengths are which can help you to better identify opportunities that come up. Seeing and acting on opportunities that help you reach your goals is how you create success in life. A negative person who is always focused on the bad is not going to see the opportunities that will help them to achieve success. However, a person who can see their own strengths can identify ways that they can use their strengths to bless others. You will find that by bringing value to the lives of others you will bring value to your own life.

A good attitude helps people become successful and gratitude helps support a good attitude. Attitude can be everything when it comes to success in the business world. Have you ever been helped by someone with a poor attitude? I have, and I tell you what, I dread going to businesses where the people there have poor attitudes. Your attitude can make or break your career. I’ve seen very competent people not receive a promotion simply because they had a poor attitude. I’ve also seen people who had a great attitude get hired over others who were more highly qualified simply because they had great attitude. I’m telling you, if you want a successful career or a successful business, have a great attitude.

If you’re currently bogged down with problems and you feel like negativity has you down remember that there’s someone else out there that would love to have your problems because their problems are much worse than yours. If you’re unhappy with your job then remember there’s someone who would love to have the job that you have. If you’re not happy with the home that you live in, remember,

First, I want to start off by saying investing is something that you need to do in order to become a wealth builder. Not only that, but if you want to achieve financial independence you must have income that’s being generated from some sort of investment. So, it’s imperative to your financial goals that you find an investment that you’re comfortable with and that will generate the income you need to reach your goals. Investing can sound complicated and sometimes intimidating too. If you’re new to investing and you want a hands off approach I would suggest talking to someone in your community, such as your local financial planner, about the different investing options for you. If there isn’t a local financial professional that can help you then you can turn to the internet. There is what seems like an endless amount of information on the internet that can help you better understand your investing options. You can find different companies that offer investing accounts online and investing professionals who you can call and talk to. I highly recommend doing your research before jumping into any investment. Make sure that you understand the level of risk associated with your investment and remember that it’s ok to start small.

So, let’s take a quick look at a few investments that are out there. One of the most common types of investments that are available are mutual funds. Well, what exactly is a mutual fund? According to Investopidia.com the definition of a mutual fund is, “an investment vehicle made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.” Essentially, different investors pool their money into a fund that seeks to perform a certain investment objective. There are lots of companies that offer mutual funds such as Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and Fidelity among many, many more. Different mutual funds invest into different things. For example, a mutual fund’s goal might be to mimic the performance of the S&P 500 so it will be invested in stock of those companies that make up the S&P 500. According to statista.com there were nearly 80,000 mutual funds worldwide in 2015. The great thing about mutual funds is that they can offer diversification in a very affordable and convenient way. Some of the more diversified mutual funds could be considered “balanced”. This is where they invest in both stocks and bonds. The nice thing about having a balanced mutual fund is that it is diversified meaning it will not be highly affected if there is significant movement in one sector of the market. There are also mutual funds that only invest into stocks, other mutual funds that only invest in bonds, and some mutual funds invest in different sectors of the market. These funds tend to have less diversification than balanced funds but the good thing about these mutual funds is that they can have upside exposure to the market sector that they are concentrated in. For example, a mutual fund can be made up of sever tech stocks which would expose the mutual fund to the tech industry. Or you can have a mutual fund that can be made up of several health care stocks which would expose that mutual fund to the health care industry.

Another investment that is similar to a mutual fund is an ETF (exchange-traded fund). I kind of like to think of an ETF as being half like a mutual fund and half like a stock. The Vanguard Group defines an ETF as “A type of investment with characteristics of both mutual funds and individual...

Is your home making you sick? Many people don’t even realize that the headaches and allergies that they are experiencing could be due to the pollutants inside their home. There are a number of ways that we can eliminate the dangerous air pollutants in our home to make indoor air quality much better. Some of the ways are very simple and cost very little while other ways are more expensive and can take more resources. All of the tips I’m going to give you will help you and your family breath easier and be a little healthier.

A number of years ago I was working in the construction industry building new homes and I wanted to learn more about building green. One of the components of building green is building a home that is safe to live in. Now, you might be thinking to yourself “Aren’t all homes ‘safe’ to live in?” and I would respond with “No, actually not all homes are ‘safe’ to live in due to the poor indoor air quality.” There are many things that you should consider in order to make the indoor air quality better for yourself and your family.

One area of your home that could be making you sick is your heating and cooling system aka HVAC system. If the air filter has not been changed in a while or the venting system has not been cleaned in a while it may be time to get those items checked out. If you’re buying a home I recommend having the venting system and air filter changed right when you get into the home. This way you know for sure that it’s been recently cleaned and that it will not be blowing dusty air throughout your home. For cleaning your vents, also known as ducting, you can call a local HVAC contractor and they will likely know of someone who has the equipment to do the job. It’s important to have your ducts cleaning every few years because the ducting can be a place where dust, dander, and other nasty pollutants can hide and be put into your home at a later time. Also, rodents and other living things can sometimes use ducting for passageways and nesting. Just removing the rodents is not enough. If they’ve been living in your ducting for some time then there are likely droppings that you will essentially be breathing in unless your ducts are cleaned. After the ducts are cleaned get a HEPA rated air filter or a filter with a MERV 16 rating to replace the filter that you currently have for your furnace. The HEPA rated air filter is the top-of-the-line when it comes to air filters and these will likely be pretty spendy on the cost spectrum of air filters for your furnace. If the HEPA air filter is out of your budget then look at other filters that have a MERV 16 rating. The MERV rating is used to categorize how well the filter traps particles in the air and the rating goes from 1 to 16, with 16 being the best. So, the higher the MERV number you get the smaller the particle your filter will be able to trap, and thus, the cleaner the air in your home will be.

Another danger inside the home that can cause poor air quality is mold. You might not think that mold is in your home but I think that you would be surprised if you did some investigative work. Mold as we all know is an outcome of damp places. These places can be anywhere there is water on a regular basis. The way to rid your home of mold is to eliminate any water sources like leaky sinks or fixtures. Even a sink that just on occasion is leaking water in the cabinet below can create mold issues. Check below your sinks like the one in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. Look for any water marks below the sink.

Hey guys! In this post I’m going to talk about pruning your life. This means cutting back the things that you don’t need to do so that you can put more focus on the things that will help you to reach your goals. I know that you’ve experienced this too, that point you realize you’re crazy busy with life and it doesn’t seem like you’re making the kind of progress on your goals that you want. When you hit this point it’s time to do some pruning. So, what does pruning mean and how is it going to help me?  This is the question that I will be answering in this post.

I grew up out in the country near acres and acres of apple, pear, and cherry trees and every winter work crews would work their way through each tree pruning off the excess growth. Someone might ask “Why would you want to prune branches that are going to bear perfectly good fruit”. The answer to this question in one word is: quality. If a fruit tree grows unpruned it’ll likely grow a tremendous amount of fruit, which might sound like a good thing, however, it isn’t, simply because the tree actually grows too much fruit. An apple tree for example is going to grow more apples than it has nutrients to grow into quality fruit. The fruit on the unpruned tree will be very small because there are so many pieces of fruit on the tree sharing the nutrients that the tree provides. So, by pruning back some of the tree it creates fewer places that fruit can grow. By doing this, the apples that do grow will have a higher amount of nutrients and will grow to become big, plump, beautiful apples.

In life it can be easy for many of us to find ourselves over committing, trying to do too many things, and not giving our goals the appropriate amount of time and resources required. After some amount of time goes by we look at our lack of progress with these goals and then wonder why we’re not getting anywhere. If this happens to you, it’s time to start doing some pruning. If you find yourself saying yes way too often and then becoming distracted from reaching your goals it’s time to start saying no. Saying no to one thing means that you get to say yes to something else. Therefore, saying no is a form of pruning.

When it comes to health, wealth, and happiness, pruning can help you to focus more time and resources on your goals in these areas. One of the biggest reasons I tell myself that I’m not going to the gym is because “I’m too busy”. As we all know, this is totally a bogus reason for not going. I need to be better at prioritizing my time and if you find yourself slacking in health, wealth, or happiness because you “don’t have the time”, then you need to do a better job at prioritizing too. When we prioritize we simply look at the things that are most important to us and we make sure that we’re paying the right amount of attention to these areas. For the area of happiness, are you spending enough time with your family and loved ones? If you’re not, I can tell you that you’re going to regret it when your relationships start to suffer. Are you spending the proper amount of time to budget and plan for building wealth? If you’re not, your going to realize down the road that you wish you would have done a better job at this. For your health, are you spending enough time in the gym and making healthy meals? Or are you skipping the gym and eating junk because you “don’t have time”? The only way you’re going to be successful is if you make time to be successful and you make your goals priorities. Do you want to be a great husband and a great father or a great wife and a gre...

If you’re human then you’ve experienced stress. Stress can come from all sorts of different areas of life: from work, from home, and everything else that we find ourselves doing. We’ve all experienced it and sometimes too much stress can build up. On the other hand, I believe stress in a small amount can actually be a good thing. I think of when I feel challenged at work or when I’m working out at the gym there is a mild level of stress there. However, too much stress for too long can bog us down and depleted the happiness from our lives. From my experience when stress and burnout hit at the same time that’s when I feel the most defeated and this is obviously something that should be avoided.

We can’t always control the things that happen at work or in our personal lives and therefore stress is something that we’re going to encounter. The good thing is that we can control how we diffuse stress and if we do this we can avoid the negative impact from stress and use small healthy amounts of stress to our benefit as a way to keep us motivated and engaged in different areas of life.

Here’s 5 ways of letting go of stress.

One way to be intentional about reducing stress is making time for yourself. I know that you parents out there with young kids are saying “Yeah, right, time to myself, huh? What’s that?” But even just taking 15 minutes to have to yourself in the middle of a busy day can be extremely helpful. This could be some quiet time to read a book, mediate, or just sip some hot coffee on a Saturday morning. For me, I like my quiet time. I’m totally an introvert and being around a lot of people makes me feel stressed. After being around a lot of people I enjoy just being alone and having some quiet time to myself. The same is true for me at work. On my lunch break I enjoy finding a quiet place to be by myself. I have found that more and more when I’m driving by myself I turn the radio off and just drive in silence and focus on relaxing and letting go of the stress.

Another way to reduce stress is to hit the gym. There’s something about going to the gym and getting a good sweat on that feels good and helps reduce stress. I’ve read and heard from several people that exercising releases endorphins which are chemicals that are naturally produced by your body that help you to feel good. Also, exercising on a regular basis can increase your metabolism which can help you to feel like you have more energy to conquer the challenges that you face day to day. This will help you to feel ready to tackle the things that you would normally dread. Having a better attitude because you have more energy can help you to feel more confident and less stressed.

Another great way to relive stress is prayer. Sometimes we don’t always have someone to talk to about the stressful things that are going on in our life, or sometimes we don’t want to burden the ones that we do have to talk to with all of our own stresses. The great thing about prayer is God always has time to listen to us. He’s always there willing to take the burdens from our lives. Asking God to help you through that hurdle that you’re facing can help you to let go of the stress by realizing He is for you and with you every step of the way.

Eating right can help you deduce stress . When I’m stressed it’s easy to eat junk food as a quick treat that temporarily makes me feel good. I get a huge smile on my face when I think of stuffing my face with a bunch of glazed donuts. But junk food is only a temporary fix that has really bad side effects.