Timothy

• - other facilitators
• - health care providers
• - family members and support people
• - People with any mental disorer
  In fact, the process, which is quite defined, can be used with any group of people who have a disease or disorder from which they cannot “recover”. . .that is, go back to their former state of being.
  Procovery is forward looking. . you accept the present, that the past is behind you, and move forward towards hope, satisfaction, and fullfillment. In addition to mental illness, the Procovery model can be used with
• - people with Diabetes
• - people who have the illness of Alcoholism
• - people who are Homeless.
  and so forth.
  I have started two groups so far, one in a Residential Care Facility (RCF) for people who happen to be mentally disordered. The other one is in my home. I’m committed to starting at least 2 more groups or circles before the end of July. One at my church, where they have several programs for the homeless, and one in a church or facility nearby, so that healthcare providers can refer people who are comming out of hospital or residential facilities can have a place to continue their Procovery
  I also have a BLOG that I contribute to 3-5 times a week related to hope, support, and inspiration for people who are PROCOVERING.
  “Procovery – and Friends” http://www.shcrt.blogspot.com

So CHEER me . . . I am DOING it!!!!

With your budget, there are only two variables: inflow and outflow. If you spend more than your income, it’s called poverty or possibly bankruptcy.
There are several ways to help get to a positive cash flow – Increase your income, and/or decrease your expenses.

Here are three things I have done for several years that save money, and help stem the spending, so I can balance my budget:

1) Cook your own breakfast. Whether you eat cereal, or eggs and hash browns, making it yourself can save TONS of money in a year.
Let’s see: 1/2 of a 3 egg omelet and a hash brown patty = ONE Quarter !! (eggs are about a dime each, I get hash browns for about 10 cents each) Time, you say? Well it takes me 10 minutes to make my own pretty good breakfast. It would probably take me just as long to drive to a fast-food restaurant and go through the drive-through. And the cost at a fast food? Well, what do YOU spend. . .$1.25, $2.00, or what? Let’s say that you spend TWO DOLLARS a day (just on weekdays). That comes to $1.75 saved for 10 minutes effort, or an hourly wage of $10.50.

Or, to put it another way, if you save $1.75 (or whatever you spend) 5 days each week, that’s $455.00 per year. Enough to buy an IPod, or a pretty good digital camera, or make one month’s rent. . .

Stay tuned for the second and third easy idea. . .

We just found out that our 11-year-old 1995 Saturn needs about $1700 worth of work on the clutch. So we checked the “Blue Book” value: $200 trade in, $500 to sell it ourselves, $1000 if it was being sold by a dealer. It is costing us $600 per year for liability insurance, as well. Obviously, it makes no sense to have it fixed. Here are the possibilities:

1. Give the car to a charity soon
2. Keep it, only do oil changes, and when it dies, it dies.
3. Drive it down to New Orleans and give it to a family there, and take the train back.

Anyway you look at it, by NOT having a car, We would save at least $2000 in three years. I would have to bicycle and walk more (which would benefit my fitness goal) or take the bus. On days when I need a car, I can drive my wife to work (50 minutes round trip twice), and have a car for Doctor visits, etc.

Simplify, Save Money (Financial Independence), and Fitness, all in ONE simple stroke!!! Amazing!

OK, so I’ve been absolutely HORRENDOUS about balance in the last 6 months. It mostly has to do with being passionte (at least that’s my excuse) about photography. I’ve achieved amazing results in that area, with 3 of my photos getting the #ONE spot in “interestingness” on flickr.com out of over 20,000 photos uploaded per day.

However, I’ve been very negligent in enjoying my personal reflection and spiritual time. Ditto exercise, art, making music, and on and on.

Yesterday I set up a schedule for myself. My exercise time consisted of finding exercise tapes, hand weights, and a mat. Then I decided I could save about an hour by NOT exercising, ‘cause they I could skip my shower. Not an inspiring start. Today however, I have:

• done 1/2 hour of cleaning
• One hour of flickr(ing)
• 1/2 hour of personal hygene (hey, for me this is an accomplishment!!)
• 1/2 hour of 43things.
• some time socializing on the phone.

My plan is to stick with it, shape and mould my behavior a little more towards the model daily. I hope to spend 1/2 hour on 43things during the weekdays. . .so watch out!

OK, so financial advisors and “Wizards” are a dime a dozen. . . I just wanted you to know that I’m not some guy in a bar talking about money. Here are some of my qualifications:

1) I was involved with the local chapter of the Institute of Financial Education in St. Louis for over 10 years. In fact, I was an officer for six years, and Chapter president in 1989.

2) I have taught evening classes to adults on “Personal Money Management”.

3) I’m not wealthy by the standards most people have (a Jaguar in the garage, $1.5 million dollar home, private jet, etc.) But I’m wealth in the following ways:
a) I and my wife have No Debt whatsoever
b) We have a positive cash flow in spite of my being on Social Security disability.
c) We vacation regularly, and well. We are takin a week-long cruise to Alaska in June, 2006. And we just booked a 7-day cruise in the Carribean for January, 2006, as well.
d) I have saved for retirement, and have a number of stocks I own.
e) We did this without the benefit of rich parents or relatives. f) Our house is completely paid off, as are both our autos.
4) I was a banker for 10 years, a vice-president and branch manager, and had a license to sell annuities.

So pay attention!!! I may have something usefull to say. . .then again, I’m ready to learn and consider myself always ready to discover something new. That’s why this goal is NOT marked DONE.

a story about Africa: Something I didn’t know. That when an elephant reaches puberty, the are driven away into the forrest by the herd to have a time of testing. “Sometimes,” he said, when they are in the forest, they mate with a rhino, because their urges are so strong. They often produce a hybrid offspring” he said. “kinda like a cross between a donkey and a horse (a mule)”. I asked him what they called the strange creature. “elephino!!” was his reply.

This photo, for example was commented upon 35 times!! Yeah!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestrated1/19285720/

Here are a couple of examples from my flickr.com site:

http://photos22.flickr.com/24373508_b76b6efcfb_o.jpg is one I took in color and changed to black and white for dramatic effect. It’t a portrait of a 2-year old african-american girl.
http://photos18.flickr.com/24141260_5d3e31fde4_o.jpg is a favorite water lily photo.

One for our church, where I had to pose 8 people and take pictures of two fancy rooms, then turn it into a photomontage.
You can see one of them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/justsharing/19349466/
Now I’m starting to volunteer at an art studio, to take studio-quality photos of their art works for posting on the web. I’ll show some of that once I clear up the copyright issues.
I’m so Happy!!! Volunteering is a GREAT way to improve your skills.

I’ve been spending so much time at flickr.com enjoying the photography that I’ve neglected my 43things as well as my two blogs. I am getting back on track now.

I LOVE ice-cream. One of the things I’ve had to do with my change in eating habits is just not to buy certain fattening items. If I only have fruit and fresh veggies to munch on, I eat them because they are there.
My mother always has at least 3 half gallons of ice cream, nuts, hot fudge and bananas. Can you spell Banana Split? Well, I had SEVEN in 2 days. Each one is 19 weight watche points. I currently get 26 points. so that day I had 76 points not counting my other food. I gained almost 4 pounds in 4 days! That was three weeks ago, and it has taken me that long to get back to my 24 pound loss.
There’s a lesson in here somewhere!

to donate a large bag of clothing and my in-line skates. At 55 years with the bone structure of someone 65 due to osteoporosis, I decided that it was wise to let someone else fall down, instead of me! :o)

Now I just need to get started on my weight training.

I’m now a volunteer photographer at the Craft Alliance in University City (on the Delmar Loop). They are a non-profit group that has a gallery, to augment donations. They teach classes in pottery, fiber, jewelry-making, glass-blowing, etc:
http://www.craftalliance.org/
I work (or rather play) for them Fridays from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. taking photographs of the art in their gallery for use on their website. I love Art, and almost finished a Master of Fine Arts in painting back in 1977. So it is completely delightful to be taking photos (which I LOVE) of art (which I also LOVE). Last Friday was my first day of what may be a 6-month job. Kris, the 20-something gallery director, and all the staff I met were so appreciative that I almost felt I had it dripping off me before I left. I’m excited about tomorrow, when I go there again.

So step by step (pun?) I’m moving in the right direction. What I need to do next is to find a way to motivate myself to use my bench and weights to build some muscle, and tone my exotically tanned and ripped body (just kidding!)
Any suggestions about how to do something sweaty and hard that I don’t want to do?

• I’m finding that just by expressing myself carefully, and then crafting that expression further, I’m helping myself to clarify and hone my goals, aspiration, hopes, and values.
• In addition, when I comment on a “plea for help”, I’m finding that I often have something that al least “feels” like it’s worthwhile to say.
• All of this is bringing my attention towards goal-setting, accomplishment, values clarification, etc.

So even though I haven’t made many entries in this category recently, rest assured that I’m accomplishing it by my participation in 43things.

1) I’ve started a PROCOVERY circle for people who have a mental disorder at the Applegate Residential Care Facility. We’ve had 3 weekly meetings so far, and people seem to be getting a lot out of it.

2) The Craft Alliance (and organization that has a gallery and teaches art courses) is using me as a photographer for their gallery shows and for student artwork.

3) I’ve done a photoshoot for my Episcopal Cathedral with 8 “models” posing in an elegant banquet room around a fancy dinner table. My first time managing so many people. I probably will put up some photos on my flickr.com account (Creativity+ is my name on flickr).

Turned out to be 506 photos & slides. I not only scanned them, but improved the contrast, color, and in some cases retouched them. Then I burned 16 CD-ROMs and made labels for them. They are set to go, and I feel pleased and proud of my accomplishment. It will be so much FUN to give the CDs away. It’s nice to know everyone will share the same 21 rolls for film dating from 1948 to 2005.
YEAH!!!!

I hope to make it a central location for all my goals, projects, tasks, to do lists, and values. That doesn’t mean I won’t be using 43things. I enjoy the human interaction too much. In addition, the chance to write and expound on a goal is helpful in becoming more clear about it.

I’m going to consider this done, because I’ve used FranklinCoveys stuff for 10 years, and I know it’s effective.

If anyone else is interested: http://franklincovey.com

I’ve made suggestions at http://ideas.43things.com about this. But I imagine that they have bigger fish to fry.

I’m going to go back to doing this on paper. Even though there SHOULD be a way of doing it on a computer that is fast, easy, and flexible (allowing for easy changes in order and priority)