Creating Balance In and Unbalanced WorldWritten by Lynne Kaska
The Importance of Creating Balance in Your LifeBalance is a topic that is of great concern in my life. How many of you feel that you are being pulled in 50 different directions every day of your life? The kids are fighting, your husband needs your time, you haven’t seen your parents in two weeks and they are requesting to see you, boss gave you a deadline for a huge project, and you haven’t even thought about doing laundry, or going to church. Don’t worry you aren’t alone. I think that everyone feels at some point that their life is out of balance. Everyone feels that at some point in their life they are like a master juggler. For me, when looking at creating balance in my life, there are several different areas that I have to look at. I call this exercise Wheel of Life. By doing this exercise, it will help you identify what is important to you, what would improve areas that aren’t a 10 on a scale of 1-10 and it will help you come up with intentions to help you design a balanced life. First, I want you to draw a circle. Then divide it in half, and in half again, keep drawing it in half until you have eight equal pieces of pie. I want you to label each of sections as follows: fun/entertainment, home environment, family/friends, health and well being, spiritual, career/education, personal growth, intimate relationships. Now I want you to think about each category for a minute. In category of fun/entertainment, rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 and write it in circle, 1 being least fulfilling and 10 being most. Do same with each category. Once again, I want you to take a few minutes to think about each category. What in each category would make it a 10? Now in each category you have something that you want to create more of in your life. From this, you can create what are called intention statements. I’m going to use my home environment as an example. Having my own apartment that was safe and secure was what was lacking in my home environment. From that I created and intention statement that says, “My intention is to create a safe environment that feeds my soul.” Go ahead, you can do it. I want you to come up with at least one intention statement for each category.
| | Protect Yourself from Identity TheftWritten by Scott Hawksworth
Millions of Americans use credit cards, take out money from savings and checking accounts, write checks, and open new bank accounts everyday. By completing these everyday tasks, many Americans put themselves at risk for identity theft. However, there are many steps that one can take to protect oneself from being an identity theft victim. In addition, knowing how an identity thief gets his or her information will allow a person to be safer.How Do Thieves Get Their Information? An identity thief can do many things to retrieve things like your Social Security Number, and credit card number. Some thieves steal mail, which often has bank statements and credit card numbers. Thieves may get information from an institution or business by stealing records while they are on job. Some thieves use false advertising to get victims to give out their credit card numbers over phone. Thieves can also implement a process known as “skimming,” This process is where a thief uses a computer to track what buttons you pushed at an ATM machine. How Do They Use Information? How an identity thief uses personal information is a whole different ballgame. Identity thieves may change account numbers, or access all money in your account electronically or otherwise. Identity thieves may also open up various credit card accounts and run up charges. Some identity thieves go so far as top change billing address for a credit card account, so they can run up bill, and it will be some time before you realize it because bills are being sent to a different address. Some thieves get jobs, or file false tax returns using someone else’s name and Social Security Number.
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