How Much Mortgage Can You Afford?

• 

  4 Tips to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford

  By knowing how much mortgage you can handle, you can ensure that home ownership will fit in your budget. Read

Visit houselogic.com for more articles like this.

Copyright 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

How to Win Five in a Row

Five in a Row
To win five sporting events in a row is an amazing feat. There has not been a Triple Crown winner in horse racing in 30 years. To win a Superbowl in football takes winning at least three in a row and is celebrated as one of the great accomplishments in all sports each year. To win a World Series requires winning four games, although they do not have to be in a row: just the best of seven. So when Ron Hornaday won his fifth consecutive NASCAR Camping World Truck Race on Saturday, I watched in awe.
There is so much that has to happen to win just one race. So many things can go wrong, and so many things have to go right. There are 36 other trucks on the track, all hoping to make it to Victory Lane. Equipment can break or malfunction. The pit crew can make mistakes. A driver can be caught up in an accident beyond his control. Thousands of other things can happen to take a car out of the race or put it behind the leader.
So what does a driver have to do to win five in a row? First he has to have awesome equipment. He must have engines with outstanding horsepower. The handling on the truck has to be spot on. Pit stops need to be fast. All of these things have to happen, and the driver has to believe he is a winner. In fact, on a racing team everyone has to believe. The guys in the shop who prepare the truck for the race, the people in the engine department, squeezing the last bit of power out of the engine while making sure it holds together for the entire race, the driver himself—all need to believe.
To be able to do this five consecutive times is historic. In fact, it has never been done in this series and has not been done in any of NASCAR’s major touring series since 1971, when NASCAR was very different from what it is today. The moral of this account is that if you believe you are a winner, you will be! The 33 team believed it was and proved it to the rest of us.
As a side note I could not be happier for Ron Hornaday and his team. About 4 years ago I was with some friends in Mooresville, NC at this little, hole-in-the-wall, local bar to listen to a band and relax on a Saturday night when a guy tapped me on the shoulder, asking for help to move a table. I said, “No problem” and “Man, you look like Ron Hornaday.” He replied, “I am,” and we ended up talking for awhile. I can tell you that he is as down to earth and as much a gentleman as anyone I have ever met. He has all the humble qualities someone needs to make history like he has. In my book he deserves the accolades. I congratulate the 33 team! They proved to me that if a person believes, he can achieve.

Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com
Quote of the Day!-“Faith is to believe what you do not see, the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”-unknown

Do You Play Victim?

Playing the Victim
In racing one sees a lot of post-race interviews in which one driver blames another for getting him loose or spinning him out, causing a wreck. I am amazed that drivers have such a hard time taking responsibility for what happens on the track. In racing, as in life, few things happen over which we have no control. A series of events usually occurs before a wreck, and often the wreck could have been avoided. It troubles me when drivers get in front of the camera after a race and play victim.
This is an important issue for me personally. I have spent a good deal of my life in victim mode. However, when I honestly look in the mirror and take full responsibility for my life, I am able to move forward. As a life coach I find many people who do not realize that they have created everything in their life. Placing the blame on others and not owning up to the fact that they are responsible for the life they lead are the primary obstacles that hold back most people. The Law of Attraction states this: everything we have in our lives we have created—good and bad.
If you want to change your life, then start owning it. Take a good, long look in the mirror and realize that you are where you are today because you choose to be—the result of your past thoughts and actions. Today, however, you are choosing to take control of your life and be completely responsible for future outcomes.
When you have negative feelings or are dealing with a difficult situation, assess whether you are in victim mode. Analyze your thoughts and, if you are thinking of yourself as a victim, reevaluate and change your role. Take ownership of your life, and you will finally be in control of your own destiny.
Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com
Quote of the Day!-“Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘Why Not?’” – George Bernard Shaw

What Is Wrong with Failure?

What Is Wrong with Failure?
I have crashed and burned several times in my life—in a race car, in business and in relationships. I have made some pretty major mistakes, and they have cost me a lot. I used to really beat myself up over them. Now I realize the real cost was the time and energy I wasted on feeling sorry for myself or on not moving forward because I was so caught up in the past, where all my energies were focused.
Not until I was able to let go of the past and concentrate on today did I truly learn how to live. I learned to embrace the mistakes and failures as life lessons. I believe I may have created these challenges in my life to help me grow and to prepare myself to handle anything that comes my way. My failures have given me the strength to be successful.
From Portrait of an Achiever:
-1832 Failed in business: bankruptcy
-1832 Defeated for legislature
-1834 Failed in business: bankruptcy
-1835 Fiancé died
-1836 Nervous breakdown
-1838 Defeated in election
-1843 Defeated for U.S. Congress
-1848 Defeated for U.S. Congress
-1855 Defeated for U.S. Senate
-1856 Defeated for Vice President
-1858 Defeated for U.S. Senate
-1860 Abraham Lincoln Elected President of the United States of America
Abraham Lincoln shows us that failure can overcome us only if we let it. Those who are truly successful take life’s hardships and setbacks and use them as preparation for the next challenge. The lesson in all this: Use life’s challenges to build character and strength to move forward with your life.
Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com
Quote of the Day! - “Strength is built by one’s failures, not by one’s successes.”- Coco Channel

August Book Review: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

It has been passed down through the ages, highly coveted, hidden, lost, stolen and bought for vast sums of money. This centuries-old Secret has been understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie, Einstein—along with other inventors, theologians, scientists and great thinkers. Now The Secret is being revealed to the world.
“As you learn The Secret you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want. You will know who you really are. You will come to know the true magnificence that awaits you in life.”
— from the Introduction
If you don’t know the Secret, then you need to read this book or see the documentary that was made by some of the leading business leaders, philosophers, authors, speakers and quantum physicists of our time about the Law of Attraction.
The Law of Attraction states that what you think about, you bring about. You control your destiny with the power of your mind. You become what you think about most, but you also attract what you think about most. Like attracts like. If you have positive thoughts, you will have positive results. The Law of Attraction gives you what you want—period! If there was ever a book that I could recommend that would start you on the path to changing your life, this book is it. Further, I suggest you get the DVD and the book and use them together.
You can find these at www.erikelsea.com/books/
Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com

Go or Go Home!

I had the opportunity this past week to watch qualifying for the NASCAR race in Chicago. For those of you not familiar with NASCAR racing, there are 43 starting positions in the race. Usually there are more cars than that that show up to try and make it into the race. The cars that are in the top 35 in owners points are guaranteed a spot, so all of the cars that show up outside of the top 35 have to qualify their way into the big show. For this particular race in Chicago there were 11 cars competing for 8 spots. These 11 cars are considered go or go home cars. Basically their whole weekend is riding on their being fast enough to make the field in the 2-lap qualifying run.
That’s a lot of pressure. A driver has two laps to make a fast run or his team ends up putting its equipment back on the car hauler and heading back to Charlotte without even racing. Think of all those wasted miles, driving out to Chicago or Las Vegas or California and not making the race. All the preparation is for naught if a racing team cannot make a good qualifying run. This past weekend 3 teams made that long, disappointing drive home without the chance to race.
When you are a team that is trying to qualify, you do everything legally within your power to try to make the field. The preparation that goes into a qualifying round is extensive. The team’s one goal is to lay down the fastest possible lap it can. As is said in other sports, “It’s do or die.”
What if we started having that kind of focus in our lives? What if in our careers we treated each meeting or presentation or client like it was go or go home? What if for our health and well-being we started making going to the gym a do or die activity instead of thinking, “I’ll try.” The amount of preparation put into qualifying on a go or go home car is intense. If we put that same amount of preparation into the important aspects of our lives, I promise we would start accomplishing more.
I use a system that Charles M. Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel, learned from a man named Ivy Lee, whose objective it was to sell him services to make his business more efficient. It is called the critical six. At the end of each day make a list of the six most critical tasks that you need to complete the next day. The key is that they be critical for moving you toward your goals. After you number them in order of importance, complete them the next day in that order and check them off as you do. Any unfinished tasks automatically become your most important tasks for the next day. By doing this you will stay on task to complete the most important steps toward personal success. Start treating your life as go or go home. . .to win the race of life.
For more in-depth coaching on winning in life or in business, check out my website below.
Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com
Quote of the Day!-“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” –John Wooden

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, by Dr. Robert Fulghum – July Book Review

Like most people, I have a going on in my life. Between work and family and keeping up with the normal hustle and bustle of life, I, like others, tend to forget the simple pleasures in life and miss the bigger meaning in the little things. This book by Dr. Robert Fulghum reminds all of us of the significance found in our relationships with others and in everyday occurrences.
So often I find myself forgetting to slow down and smell the roses. My schedule is extremely full. When life starts to overwhelm me, the essays in this book help bring me back to the basics and remind me what is truly important in life. And when I get right down to it, I did learn it all in kindergarten.
(From the book)
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday school. These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life: learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: they all die. So do we.
And remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned—the biggest word of all—LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere: the Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are: when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
(End of book excerpt)
I have read this book three times in my life. As far as I’m concerned, that is way too few. As complicated as I have made my life, I need to be reminded more often to keep it simple. We all want the same basic things in life. They just come wrapped in different packages. This book will help you realize how truly special the gifts in your life are.
To order your copy of this book or look at past book reviews, visit www.erikelsea.com/books/.

Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com
Quote of the Day! “We are not held back by the love we didn’t receive in the past, but by the love we’re not extending in the present.” - Marianne Williamson

Harmonic Wealth Book Review

Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want by James Arthur Ray

This book is not only a must read: it should be kept and referred to daily. If you want to become wealthy—I mean truly wealthy—then this book can show you practical ways to do so. Harmonic Wealth will help you achieve real wealth in the “five pillars”: financial, relational, mental, physical and spiritual. This book helps make clear that true wealth will never be attained without success in all five areas.

James Arthur Ray combines teachings from some of the world’s premiere spiritual leaders with theories from top physicists and scientists to explain the Law of Attraction and how to create for yourself the life you have always desired. As a featured expert in the book The Secret, Ray knows the keys to getting what you want by unlocking the powers of the universe.

Harmonic Wealth is not some feel-good, motivational book filled with pie-in-the-sky fantasies. It encourages you to get real and be creative in identifying and living the intentions you have for your life.

If you want to break through personal limitations and acquire true financial, relational, mental, physical and spiritual wealth, start by reading this book. Then Live It!

You can find this book at www.erikelsea.com/books/

Don't Beat Yourself

This past weekend’s NASCAR race in Dover, Delaware was absolutely dominated by Jimmie Johnson and the Number 48 Team. Johnson led 289 of the 400 laps. He was the class of the field all afternoon, but with a late wreck bringing out the caution flag, everyone came in to pit. Different strategies played out: some teams took four tires, and others took just two, getting out of the pit faster with a better starting position when the race restarted.

The 48 Team, which had been perfect all day in the pit, had an extremely slow stop: Jimmie Johnson came into his pit in first place and came out running eighth. The problem was a different system for the pit stop than the one they had used all day long to try and save time. I interpreted it as their trying to be cute in the pits. This threw off their rhythm, and it looked like they would succeed at losing. Fortunately, Jimmie, with his four fresh tires, was able to catch up to the leaders and eventually pass them with only a few laps remaining, but that poor pit stop could have cost him the race.

The moral of this narration is to avoid beating yourself. Do not do things that open up the possibility of failure. If you are battling an addiction, do not put yourself in positions where you might use or be around people who do. If you have had a string of bad relationships, do not pursue a partner with the same characteristics. If you have found a technique in business that works for you, stick to it. I have seen many people who were on the right track, who beat themselves by getting off it and then failing. Unfortunately, you can be your own worst enemy. You need to work on being your own best friend.

Erik Elsea

www.erikelsea.com

Slow Down!

Slow Down–The Fastest Way to Get Everything You Want

This book has meant a lot to me. I picked it up, early into my sobriety, as part of a course I was taking to get my life coaching certification. The course was taught by the author himself, David Essel. I was not sure at the time that I wanted to be a life coach, but I knew that I needed to make some major changes in my life if I were going to maintain my sobriety. I was willing to try anything–even slowing down.

Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile know that my passion is racing. Going fast is just the way I am wired. David’s book Slow Down and his course have taught me a lot about how to slow down in order to achieve my goals faster. He debunks the notion that I personally held that in order to be more successful you have to work faster and harder and always be first.

David Essel is an author, lifestyle coach, speaker and TV/radio host whose nationally syndicated motivational program was heard in over 220 cities for nine years. An athlete, poet, and more, David has been labeled a “21st century Renaissance man” for his ability to inspire millions through the combination of his creative, authentic and philosophical energies and drive. David’s mission is to inspire others to reach their own personal potential, and his professional presentations have drawn rave reviews from Fortune 500 companies across the U.S.

David’s book, his course, and his theories have helped me shift my beliefs about what it takes to be successful and has helped me maintain my sobriety. I highly recommend this book if you are facing any challenges in your life, in business or with spirituality. This book will offer you a formula for achieving all that you desire in life. You can find Slow Down by visiting www.erikelsea.com/books/.

Erik Elsea

www.erikelsea.com