Good Morning! Are you back on your program? Did you get in a workout yesterday and jump right back on your clean lifestyle nutritional plan? I am confident you did. Regardless of how you may of felt yesterday “water buffalo or blimpy”, moving forward and those feeling will subside. Promise, just jump back on and give it a few days for your body to adjust and you will be right back in action, feeling amazing!
Black Friday has just passed and with all the hustle and bustle, it brought up some thoughts…Yesterday started three days of shopping and about $41.2 billion in sales. For many retailers, the day after Thanksgiving is when stores go from being in debt to making a serious profit! With the holidays comes people spending money and buying gifts galore. Before you go out and start buying be sure to have a few things in mind…
-What can you afford?
-How much do you want to spend?
-What is reasonable and realistic to buy?
Just like we made a list of what we needed for Thanksgiving dinner, it is important to make a list of who you want to get things for and what it is you are going to buy. Notice how I said “want”. Gifts are not a necessity and don’t feel the need to have to buy. The holiday season is not about giving gifts and who can out do someone in the gift department but it is about quality time and love. I am not sure how you were raised but in my home, gifts have never been the focus. To this day, I am not a big gift-er nor care to be the receiver. Put thought into the gifts you give. TO me, thoughtful gifts are much better and more meaningful than gifts that are on the “top gifts to give of 2010” list. Do you want to be one of those people making the statistics of Black Friday valid or do you want to think twice and focus on offering gifts that may not help retailers stay in business but help your loved ones invest in their future and improve themselves. Before you buy something, think about how this gift will benefit someone…
If you look at some of the most wealthiest people in the world, by wealth, I don’t necessarily mean monetary wealth but mental, physical and emotional wealth… Most only invest in things that are going to better or are going to be an asset towards their future rather than a liability. Before you pick out that Tonka Toy, think about an investment into ones future. Think about investments that will help build character, growth, and quality of life…
Here are a few of my favorite quality gifts:
-Book
-Magazine subscription
-Kindle (if you must go that route)
-Restaurant Gift Certificates (quality time with loved ones 🙂 )
-Spa Gift Certificates (quality time spend on oneself)
-CD or Bond (yes, sounds a little crazy but why not help out your niece or nephew by investing in their future with a little extra savings. Now with interest rates, you may be better off just opening up a special savings account for them)
-gym membership (if they already have one, maybe go in and prepare for a few months)
-If you have a cook in the family… a gift certificate for new cooking utensils or maybe a gift certificate for a few cooking classes)
-What I suggest is to find out what it is they enjoy and are passionate about and spend some time researching something unique that can help them with their talent or passion… If someone likes to play the guitar, maybe a new guitar case.
-The best gift is one that is homemade!!
How often do you realize it is the day before Christmas and you still need to buy a few gifts… People so often just go out and get a gift for the sake of giving a gift. The bottom line is, rather than buying just to buy
or buying to not show up somewhere empty handed. Put a little extra time and thought into a gift and buy for the sake of investing in one’s future! Find their passion and give a gift that is going to help someone enhance their abilities! Think about what talents and skills someone is trying to improve and invest in helping them better those skills!
This brings up anther great point… With all this investing in others, don’t forget that you MUST invest in yourself. As you are preparing to give to others, remember you must give to yourself first! Don’t say you are “too busy or don’t have enough time” to get in your workout or prepare your food, because you are out shopping for others. The holidays can easily make you feel like you need to put yourself on hold for a bit while you do for others. You must invest in yourself and continue to invest in your future by continuing to work on YOUR self improvement! The time and energy you are investing in YOU will help you be that person you want to be to help others! As the holiday season gets hot and heavy, do not invest more into others than you do yourself and don’t invest more in “things” than you do assets that will benefit one forever!
Before you shop, think really hard. Before you put yourself second and tell yourself you are too busy, think even harder…
Have a great day and before you give into “Black Friday” you may want to sit back and come up with yet another, List! 🙂
hugs
