Tiffany’s Take: 32 Ways to Make Progress – Part 1 | Ep. 304

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You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your

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money nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse

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strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

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podcast. Hey, hey,

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and welcome to another episode of Tiffany's Take, where I answer your

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questions right here on the podcast. So if you would like your question answered, go

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to

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comxtiffany. I would love to hear from

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you. If you heard my 300th episode, you heard all of those

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wonderful voice notes. You can actually leave me one as well with your

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question, if you prefer. I would love to hear your voice. All

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right, so for this episode, I wanted to go over 32

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ways to make progress. Now, I was scrolling on LinkedIn one morning,

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and I came across this post, and it had 32 different

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items that they say you can make progress by

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doing. And when I read through these items, I said, oh, this is pretty much

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how I live my life. So let me share them on the

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podcast, but also add just some things that I do in

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order to stick to these things. So add a little color to it. All right,

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so let's just hop right in because this might be a little lengthy. Number one,

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wake up early. Now, I typically wake up at like 06:00

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every morning because I have to get the kids on the bus. Now, some days

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I do end up laying back down and going back to sleep. But on the

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days where I actually stay up, I use that time. So

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after they get on the bus, usually around 07:00 I

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use that time to work out,

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do a meditation, take a shower, and

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just ease into my day. If I end up going back to

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sleep, I feel like I have to rush once I do wake up again

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to try to get some things accomplished. So waking up early actually

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gives you, of course, more time. But also, you'll

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realize usually when I stay up, it's like

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00 and I'm like, oh, wow, I got so much accomplished.

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So that is something that I plan on doing a little more.

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It's just getting up early and staying up. Okay, number two,

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read daily. This is something that I always do. You will never find

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me not reading. Okay, I know that was bad grammar,

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but it's true. And one thing that I use to keep

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up with what I read and when I read is an app called

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Goodreads. So if you are on Goodreads or if you're not

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and you're interested in what I'm reading, definitely check me out over there.

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But I also use audible. So I do

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listen to audiobooks as well. I count that as reading.

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So there are many different ways to get this read daily

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in, but it's super easy to do. And another

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thing is reading blog posts. So go over to the money talk with

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TIFF website and just read a blog post a day. You

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will learn so much. But then also you'll be getting that daily

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reading in. Number three, eat well. Now, let me

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be real. This is one thing that I do struggle with because I love

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the food. But I will say back a few

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years ago, back in 2011, 2012, I used to be

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pescatarian, mainly vegetarian, with a little bit of fish

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occasionally, and I felt so much better and I want to get

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back to that. So that is one thing that I will be working on, is

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the eating well. And actually, I might do a little

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fun challenge with you all because that will help hold me accountable

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and probably you as well. Number four, love

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yourself. Now, this is so important because what

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is on the inside is usually what reflects on the outside.

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And so loving yourself allows you

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to love others. So how do I make sure

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that I love myself? Well, first and foremost, I make

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sure that I feel it right. Because you can always

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say, oh, yeah, do affirmations. Oh, yeah, make sure you eat right. Da

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da da da. But if you don't feel the love within

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yourself, then it's going to be really hard. You can say all the affirmations and

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stuff you want, but it's not going to change what's on the

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inside. So that's the first thing I do. But also adding affirmations

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keeps it top of mind. And then also, I have

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self care days. I mean, just not too long ago,

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I went to the chiropractor. I got some acupuncture done. I

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have a gift card for a massage that I need to

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use. So that's how you show love to yourself. And what

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you do could be completely different. Maybe it looks like just

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having a quiet night in. Maybe it looks like digging into a book.

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Whatever it is that you need to do to show yourself some love, make

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sure you do it. Number five, judge

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less. Have you ever heard of the saying, comparison

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is the thief of joy? It is so true. Whenever

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you are judging others or comparing yourself to others,

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it does take away your joy. It does have a

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negative impact on how you feel, not only about yourself,

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but about others. And so I always keep

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that top of mind whenever I have a thought, because it

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is human nature. Okay? We do

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judge a lot. And take, for instance, the Super

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bowl. Everybody's like, why did JD wear that outfit? I

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said the same thing, like, what is going on? But it's

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okay to have those thoughts occasionally, but don't let

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it run your entire existence. So

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judge a little less. And that's why it doesn't say

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don't judge, because it's going to be impossible to do that, to be honest.

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It's an unrealistic expectation for yourself. But

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you can judge just a little bit less. All right,

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number six, be yourself. Oh, my gosh. I love being

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me. Okay? And I will say that

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takes a certain level of loving yourself, going back to

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number four. But being yourself brings you so

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much authenticity, so much joy that you don't have to

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put on a front or a fake face just

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to deal with people. That steals your energy. And so

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how do I be myself? I show up as I

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am. I have been in board meetings where I'm wearing jeans and a t

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shirt. I have been in

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company meetings where I'm wearing my

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african print skirts and things like that. I will always

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be myself. And if anyone has an issue with

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that, then that is not my issue,

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because I don't do anything to be malicious to anyone

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or with ill intent. I'm just being who I am. And

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especially in the case of black and brown people, we are conditioned to

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not be ourselves because being ourselves is wrong. But

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quote unquote wrong. And I'm doing air quotes, you all. But I

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take a completely different approach. I embrace who I am and I

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show that on a regular basis, there's nothing wrong with that. So,

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number six, be yourself. I'm going to try to speed up a little bit. Number

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seven, set goals. I talk about goal setting all the time.

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And so I won't harbor on this too much, but make sure that you

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have your overall life goal. Where are you trying to go with

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life? But then also you have ten years, five years,

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three years, one year. What do you want to do

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in six months? Three months by the end of the day?

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Always set goals for yourself. When I woke up this morning, I wrote a list

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of all the things that I needed to accomplish today. That's the level of goal

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setting. Which leads me into number eight, plan your day.

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So one time I was at a summit

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and I was listening to this millionaire talk, and he was saying that

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he plans his days two weeks in advance. I said, whoa,

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that is ambitious. But I can absolutely

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understand where he's coming from. When he says that. He was like,

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if you plan your days ahead of time, you can't fail.

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It's literally impossible because you are constantly

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working on what it is you're supposed to be working on. And so

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I do do a level of this, and I use an app called

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motion, so I'll put a link in the show notes for that. But motion

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helps me plan out my day, and so I'll put in

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what I need to get accomplished, what the

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priority is on it, what's the due date, so on and so forth. And it

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plans my day for me. Highly recommend. But that is one thing

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that I do. Number nine, have a positive attitude. So this is

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where affirmations come in, because it is so easy, especially in the

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world we live in today, to go into negative autopilot. And

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so I have an app on my phone called I am. Feel

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free to download it, but it allows me

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to have affirmations at my fingertips. And I have the

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widget set up because I have an iPhone where it shows on my lock

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screen, it shows on my watch, it shows on my

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first page of apps. And so that way I always have an

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affirmation ready to go to look at.

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Number ten, have purpose. So go back to

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what is your purpose here? Right?

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What do you feel you were put on this earth to do?

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Everybody has a purpose. And usually when

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people aren't able to figure out what their purpose is, one

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thing that I tell them is, look at what other people come

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to you for all the time. What is something that other people are like,

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hey, such and such? Do you know this? Or hey, such and such? What do

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you think about this? That could be a really good indicator

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of what your purpose is. So really think about that. And

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anytime somebody asks you something, jot it down. What did they ask you

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about? How did they ask you about it? So on and so forth. And you

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might see what your purpose is. Also look at things

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that have repeated throughout your life. So

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what is something that maybe you used to do as a kid that

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you now find yourself doing now subconsciously?

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So think about that and you could figure out what your

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purpose is. Number eleven, find inspiration.

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Inspiration is all around you, but if you're so

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into the day to day grind, you'll miss it.

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So take time to find that inspiration. What makes you

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go? What makes you feel the best?

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And I know for me, my inspiration comes from you all.

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So whenever you all let me know, oh, Tiffany, this was really

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helpful, or this episode or this blog post, or this social

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media post, whatever, had a profound impact on my

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life. That's my inspiration to keep going. Whenever I

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feel like, oh, my gosh, why am I doing this? I know

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I have purpose. I know this is what I was put here to do, but

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it gets so hard sometimes that inspiration kicks in

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and it really helps. Which leads me to number twelve. Help

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others. Always help others first. I love

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helping people. And that's one thing that I do pretty much on a

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daily basis, is I'm helping people in many different ways.

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And so think about how you can help someone. I

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can tell you, the more I help people, the more I

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receive. And it's not that that's why I'm helping

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people, but it's just the law of attraction.

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If you help people, you will get help. And it could be from

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other people. It can be your kids. Get help with something. There's so

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many different ways that that help can come back to you or the others that

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you love. So that's why I always have the help others first.

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It's funny when people do a consultation call

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or they're like, hey, Tiffany, can you answer this

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question? Or whatever? And I'm like, sure,

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I want to help as many people as possible. And sometimes it's

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not all about the money. Now, I do have bills,

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unfortunately, but it's not about the money

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all the time. There's so much stuff that you can do that is

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second nature for you and doesn't take much time, but can

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significantly impact someone else. So anyway, all right, number

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13, to also think about building your

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network. It is so helpful when you are a blessing

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to others and genuinely mean to be a

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blessing. That person is now in your network. My

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network is huge. There are so many people. I can

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send an email or send a social media dm

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or call or text or whatever that will be there for

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me like that. And that was because I was there for them. And so

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that's why number twelve and number 13 are kind of intertwined. But

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also, outside of helping others to build that network, find

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people that are where you would like to go.

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That is super important when it comes to building a network as well,

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because they can add value. They could say, well, you know what,

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Tiffany, have you thought about this? This just happened to me

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last night I got an email from one of my colleagues because I asked

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for some feedback, and the feedback they gave was super

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helpful. And so make sure that you're building your network.

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And like I said, that can look many different ways. Number

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14, save money. I don't care how much money

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you make, I don't care what the

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investment gurus told you, but always

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save some money. Always have some money saved up.

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That's liquid because it does a few things. It gives you peace

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of mind. It also allows you to make progress. If you have

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the money saved and an opportunity comes up, you

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can jump on it. If you don't have the money sitting there for you,

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then you're not going to be able to jump on an opportunity. And what if

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that opportunity is the difference between you

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going to the next level or not? So that's why it's so important

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to have some money saved up, so that way you can jump on

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opportunities when you need to. Number 15,

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automate, y'all. I love me some

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automation, and if you are a business owner and you struggle with automating

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things, please reach out to me because I can probably give you some tips

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on how to do it with whatever tech stack you're using. But

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definitely automate, automate savings, automate

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investing, automate how you interact with

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your day. Like I said, with the calendar, the motion app that I

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use that automates putting things on my

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schedule so I don't have to sit there and do it. So

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it's super helpful and super important to do that.

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And next, delegate.

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So one thing that I use is called the Eisenhower

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matrix, and I will put a link in the show notes for

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it, but it allows you to see what you need to

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be doing, what you don't need to be doing, what you need to be

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delegating. Okay? And so breaks your

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tasks out into do now, do later,

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delegate, and don't do. Okay. And so once

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you go through that process of putting all those things in the

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matrix, it's four squares. Then you realize,

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oh, these are the things that I can delegate to other

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people and so highly recommend going through that process

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so that way you can see what you can delegate. And also, I would urge

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you and say delegate things that you don't

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enjoy doing. Start there. If you don't like doing

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something and it needs to be done, but

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it drains you every time you do it. Delegate that thing and see how

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you feel. I had this conversation with my classmates because we

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were talking about, oh, my gosh, school is being so demanding, whatever. And

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I was like, I have a housekeeper, and I've had a housekeeper for quite some

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time, but it really helps. And so one

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of my classmates, she said, you know what, I'm a hire a housekeeper. The next

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class, she said, oh, my gosh, Tiffany, this is a life hack in of

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itself. And I said, see, I told you so. Delegate

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those things that you don't have time for, you don't enjoy. And

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there's someone out there that does enjoy it and would love to do it

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and can do it faster than you. My housekeeper comes for 2

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hours once a week and she can clean the entire house.

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Sometimes for me it takes 2 hours just to do the bathroom because I

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have to put my cleaner in the tub and let it soak. And then

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I sit on the couch and then I forget about it and then it's 2

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hours later. I'm like, oh, the bathroom. So with her,

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she's in, she comes in, she does both bathrooms, the living

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room, my office, the kitchen, everything in

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2 hours. And so there might be someone that's more efficient with

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what you need to get accomplished. So think about that. Now, I know I said

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I was going to go over 32 ways, but I think we only have time

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for 16. So next episode I'll go over

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the next 16 ways to make progress from

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the list and if you would like your question answered on the podcast,

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go to www. Dot moneytalkwitht.

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Comxtiffany. I'll be more than happy to

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answer next week. Catch the continuation of this

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32 ways to make progress list and I'll see you next

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time. Bye. Thank you for listening,

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joining and being a part of the money talk with TIFF podcast this week.

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You can check Tiff out every Thursday for a new money talk podcast.

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But if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous

10 00:17:47

podcast

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episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

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follow Tiff on all social media platforms at money talk

10 00:17:56

with t. Until next time, spend wise by

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spending less than you make a word to the money wise is always

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sufficient.