The Toll Men

Over spending, the endless nights of partying, eating out and more or less buying everything on a whim, has most likely put a dent in your financial situation and will affect how you live your life for years to come. Clearly, the best option is to dampen your lavish lifestyle sooner than later.

Alleviating yourself from huge credit card, as well as other head-spinning debts by assessing your options now, before all those debs start blowing up in your face is one way to right your financial ship. One plausible option is a bad credit mortgage loan, and it’s a good first step towards a more financially disciplined lifestyle. In other words, a financial second chance.

Unfortunately, many people have a hard time facing the reality of their current financial situation and they foolishly think they can go it alone. Fortunately, today’s credit markets have geared many of their programs for people just like you and they are more than happy to assist you with your financial woes by doing anything and everything possible to assist you in securing that much needed mortgage refinance to get you back to financial solvency.

First, be honest, how bad is your current financial condition. And remember, you need to face the facts honestly and stop playing games and don’t let the possible embarrassment of having other’s poking through your financial records deter you. You current financial situation if water over the dam, there’s nothing you can do about the past so put it behind you and start making the right decisions from this point forward.

Rest-assured the individuals you will be working with are professionals who want nothing more but help you because it’s in their financial interest as well since most loan officers work on commission if they can’t find a way to help you they don’t get paid. The system is built around vested interest and so if it’s possible to help you they’ll find a way.

But before you actually take that big leap into actually applying for a bad credit mortgage loan for yourself, try your best to actually arm your self with (more than) enough information to actually guide you through the debt restructuring process.

First, don’t be intimidated by the process, it’s really not that complicated. More often than not, people allow themselves to get overwhelmed, so take a deep breath, do a little research on what’s available and don’t be afraid to ask questions or to simply walk away from a deal that you feel isn’t right and go down the street or apply online at another lender.

Bad credit mortgage loans are readily available but only if you are willing to get out there and put forth a little effort to dig around and find the right lender with the right program for you. Be willing to have your financials thoroughly assessed by your creditors and lenders so they have the information they need to do their job, which is clearly to come up with a bad credit mortgage loan that is well suited to your means and capabilities.

Just remember that just because you may qualify for a bad credit mortgage loan, does not necessarily equate with you being off the hook. That’s simply the beginning to changing your spending habits and approach to money so that a few years from now you can look back at your current financial situation as learning experience that propelled you to a higher level of financial responsibility. Approach this situation correctly by making the necessary changes and you should also be able to look back and realize that it was the wakeup call you needed and possibly one of the best things that’s ever happened to you.

Kevin Erickson is a contributing writer to the following websites: www.eyeonsubprime.com and www.aneyeondebt.com. This article may be reproduced only in its entirety.

The Call Center world is an intense pressure-driven environment continually being shaped by pressure to ensure steady profitability and a secure competitive advantage.

Accountability and a basic fundamental understanding of Performance Management serve as two of the most power tools a Call Center manager has at his/her disposal. Specifically, accountability when used properly with practical down to earth communication can change the way a group performs and takes responsibility for their performance.

To understand accountability, think of it as a focal point of pressure and let’s view pressure, as synonymous with the “demands of the business”. Nothing exposes a strength or flaw like raw pressure. It is pressure that has the ability to create, empower, challenge or fracture, crumble and destroy. Pressure helps fuel the momentum and vision of an organization to fulfill obligations to employees, clients, and investors with high standards, clear-cut expectations and decisive accountability.

In the hands of the unworthy, accountability can be a tool for self-preservationist, a weapon for the positional manager, or simply a replacement for development. Used with skill, accountability can represent a turning point in any organization, and the corner stone of an improvement initiative.

Let me give you an example. One of my most successful leadership teams consisted of 10 core members, 8 of which were on some form of progressive action. Usually, you don’t associate that level of performance management action, as descriptive of a successful team, but that’s exactly what they were — successful.

It was clear they all understood the expectation, knew the consequences, and made a choice, which in turn, didn’t leave me one. I had an incredible relationship with each of them; they appreciated the honest, direct dialogue and they always knew exactly where they stood with performance. Their success made them grow personally, and professionally. I’m confident that if I didn’t hold them accountable for their actions, they would not have realized their own potential. There were no hard feelings, no misunderstandings, only expectations, accountabilities, and total situation awareness.

Accountability should not be negative, but rather represent the strength behind the expectation. It is the empowering factor behind a directive or standard. John Maxell, Author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of leadership, said that change could only occur when one of three factors are met: the person truly understands the big picture and why the change is needed to such a degree, they willingly change, or they hurt badly enough that the change must be accepted. So, hence we see the birth of the easy way, or the hard way. The fact is if everyone took the easy way, there would be no such thing as the hard way.

With that fact understood, as a manager you must accept that your expectations will be ignored, follow-up will not consistently occur, and the process, vision, and company mission will be challenged. You must accept the inevitable, and make a decision. Your options: Lose control of your staff, and exist in the land of mediocrity until your business fails, your client is lost or you become the new focal point of all that “pressure”; or challenge and develop your team to increase their abilities, set high standards and expectations and expose them to their own potential. The choice is yours.

Believe in your team, and expect them to accomplish great things, and they will rise to meet the challenge. If your culture lacks a solid Performance Management process with clear-outlined accountabilities, resistance should be expected. An entire team with average or below average performance will defy change easier because when you apply pressure, it’s evenly dispersed because they are all on the same level. Set a clear expectation; raise the bar. Your stronger associates will break rank and begin to rise to the top. These reps are motivated by success, and only need a cause to rally behind. Praise them, recognize them, and use them to establish your benchmark. Once you have proven that one can do it, you can then more confidently expect more results from your remaining staff.

Ensure that your conversations are direct, honest, with no sugarcoated words, or reserved dialogue. This level of communication will ensure that the message you send is the message received. If you ever proceed to progressively document an employee, and they are surprised, you must evaluate your communication process. Surprise or unawareness that he or she is not meeting standard prevents the employee from being mentally prepared, diminishes the effectives of the process, and will most likely not be a learning experience for the employee.

Be consistent, and be fair with your expectations. Inconsistency leads to frustration, issues of favoritism, and also diminishes the effectiveness of the entire process. What would be the end result if a child touched a hot stove, and sometimes it burned them, and sometimes it didn’t?

Remove emotion from the process. If you take how you personally feel about an employee into a progressive counseling situation, it could impact what decision you make, which in turn could affect your ability to be consistent. View accountability as the end result of a process. An example would be how 2+2 will always = 4. Not sometimes, or most of the time, but all of the time. I’m not suggesting you disregard your judgment on the situation, but you must stay focused on the facts at hand and not irrelevant external variables.

I had a boss bluntly address the team after each social company outing. He would pull us together in his office and state very directly: I personally like each of you, but I hope you don’t take how I personally feel and doubt for a second that I wouldn’t make the call and whack you if I needed to. That type of communication might sound harsh, but we never had any questions on what his expectations were. There were no hard feelings, no misunderstandings, only expectations, accountabilities, and total situation awareness.

Aubie Pouncey has been in management for the past several years. In doing so he has developed his perofrmance management skills resulting in incredible success. He is a contributing writer for http://www.righttolead.com and he has developed a very success performance management process: http://www.accountabilityprocess.com

A new year, a clean slate, a fresh start.

You wish!

Much as we might like to believe that things can be different and better in 2006, we all wake up on January 1 with a nasty hangover.

No, this is not the kind of hangover caused by over-indulging in drink. This is the carryover of all the fears, limiting beliefs, assumptions and assorted blocks that keep us from doing the things we say we want to do - whether that is losing 20 pounds or cleaning out the garage or starting a business.

When the calendar year turns over, our inner obstacles tend to hang around, despite good intentions and determined resolutions.

Now comes what Christie Latona and Janet Fox advocate as a potent cure for this particular kind of hangover. It is to be found in their new book, The Playful Power of Metaphor: Harness the Winds of Creativity, Innovation and Possibility. If you really want a fresh start, these authors say, begin by telling yourself a story. If you really want different and better in 2006, find a metaphor that describes how things are now, or perhaps a metaphor for what you want to see in the future.

The 54-page book, published in November by Fun & Done Press, illustrates by exercises and anecdotes how imagery can help us re-imagine our lives and turn intention into action. Do you feel like a candle in the wind? A deer in the headlights? A babe in the woods? A goldfish in a sea of barracudas? Identifying what your situation is like is an excellent starting point for generating options and alternatives.

Latona and Fox, who are both consultants, coaches and group facilitators, also present the idea of hats as metaphors for roles and perspectives. A surgeon’s cap, for example, can be helpful when clear thinking, not bogged down by emotion, is called for. Metaphorically donning a construction worker’s hardhat is useful when it’s time to move off the blueprint and on to the actual implementation. The graduate’s mortarboard may help us sort out and celebrate what we’ve outgrown, what we’ve gained, and what learning we want to take into the next stage of life.

“Fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, perfectionism, pessimism - all those things that keep us stuck - are really strong forces,” Latona said. “We need something even stronger to fight them. In our work we see every day that stories, similes, images and allegories can be the active ingredients needed to get people moving and thriving.”

The Playful Power of Metaphor is available for $10.95 at http://www.christielatona.com/

If you’ve just started working and saving but you desire to have
your own house and own car, you may not need to wait for a
decade or so for your dreams to come true. But that’s only
possible if your mortgage application gets approved.

Mortgage has been viewed by many as a form of lifesaver
especially today. It’s getting harder and harder to come up with
payments for monthly bills so how else can ordinary consumers
afford to have their dreams come true? With the help of mortgage
companies, however, they may just have that dream house and car
before the year’s end.

What Do You Have To Know About Mortgages?

If you’re new to the mortgage scene and absolutely do not have a
clue about where and how to start then you’ve found the right
page to learn more about mortgages. Here, we shall be
introducing you to the topic of mortgages and give you
information about everything you have to know, from the types,
to tips on choosing a reliable mortgage provider to suggestions
on what you should do in order to qualify for a loan or mortgage.

Types of Mortgages

All you have to do is open an accounting or finance textbook or
browse the internet and right away, you’ll get to know about the
different types of mortgages. But more often than not, the
descriptions provided are somewhat too confusing or too
technical for lay people to understand. We know that, so with
each type of mortgage we’ll be explaining, we make sure that we
do so simply and clearly.

Base Rate Mortgage

We’ll start with a fairly easy one, the base rate mortgage. This
type of mortgage has its roots founded on the rates provided by
the Bank of England. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to find a
mortgage provider in the United States that offers this type of
mortgage but when you do, you’re at least familiar with how it
works. Anything else you have to know, simply ask a solicitor -
it’s the British way of calling lawyers, by the way.

Fixed Rate Mortgage

The interest rate for the mortgage you’re applying for shall
remain fixed or constant.

Variable Rate Mortgage

The interest rate for the mortgage you’re trying to qualify for
varies and is dependent on the wishes of the mortgage provider.

The Right Mortgage Company

Simply put, don’t just trust any mortgage company and don’t sign
anything without reading the contract thoroughly.

How To Pass Mortgage Qualification Interviews

Never lie about your finances and check your credit ratings
first before passing your mortgage application form.

What you focus on and pay attention to at any given time is very important. You need to concentrate to finish what you started. If you don’t focus, you can be easily distracted and you can pass your whole life away, frustrated and unfulfilled, without accomplishing anything of what you wanted.

Too often we focus on
something that is inappropriate for us and it drains
us of energy. There are many people in this world
who are constantly focused on paying their bills.
That becomes their only focus, and they lose
sight of the needs of other people around them,
including their children, their spouses, and friends.
Debt is a huge distraction and great pain to so
many of us. We are overwhelmed with debt.

We really have to focus to stop spending, and to get out of
debt, otherwise we will also never be able to a
ccomplish what we are called to do.
Often times you must change your focus and
concentrate on attaining something that will help you
or propel you forward with time. For instance, you
may need to go to school and get a degree before you
can take a job that is higher paying. But you have to
take your focus from your bills to the focus of completing
your school requirements, and do it well. Once you receive
that degree or certification, then you need to focus on
presenting yourself to prospective employers and getting
a better paying job. If you focus on that job, and keep
your spending habits down to a minimum, you can pay down
your bills over time.

People can get into mental loops that keep
playing the same things over in their head.
Unless they put effort into breaking these mental loops,
and control their focus, they will not live their lives to
the fullest. The same goes for you. If you focus on
bizarre things all the time, bizarre things will begin to
dominate your spirit. If you focus on all the things that
cause you to worry, you will be worried all the time. If you
focus on fearful things all the time, you will become
fearful, distrustful and isolated.

These are some of the mental loops that grab your attention and focus. You have to control your thoughts and break bad mental habits. Pay attention to what you focus on. We have to plug up the drains on our time and our energy. If you have work to
do on a project, do your work first and then go and play.

Put your focus into areas that will create a sustainable
income and then you can go and have fun. If your partner
has become your whole focus, at what cost does that come?
Are you willing to pay that cost? Can you have more of a
balance in that area of your life? If you are with the
right partner, h/she will not be possessive of your time
but will share it equally, will encourage you to be the best
that you can be, and will let you focus on what you need to.
You will do the same in return. It is a support team.

One such mental loop that is created is always
putting your thoughts on something that is fearful to
you. How often do we focus on something that we don’t
want to happen, only to see that become a reality?
Your constant focus has acted like a magnet and drawn
in the very thing of which you are petrified. Your focus,
a powerful tool when used in the right capacity, has
become a stagnant, redundant drain on your life force.

The only way to correct the drain is to reconnect to a new focus. Stop the worrisome, fearful, anxious thoughts and start thinking about how you would like to appear in your new life. Start focusing on what you would like to accomplish and how you
will go about doing that. It is not too late to change your focus from something negative and hurtful to something expansive and productive.

Fear and worry causes your energy to retract and become smaller, whereas joy and good imagination causes an expansion to the unlimited capacity of which you are really capable. You can choose to redirect your focus right now.

If you are working on a project, you must focus on
all the steps of the project before they are executed.
That way you will have a solid working plan to complete
the project. After plotting out the structure of the project,
you will focus on each step in priority. Usually you have to
do one thing before you do another, so there is a progression
and order. On occasion you have to complete two or more tasks almost simultaneously. Do what you need to do to the best of your ability, but do not lose your focus, which is completing the whole project. You can’t let yourself get stuck on one part. If you are stymied in one area there may be another part of the project where you can begin to
move forward.

You must be conscious of the focus of time,
and attention, and do not let yourself be distracted.
If you are working on a project by yourself, you must
have discipline, patience, good working habits, be able
to motivate yourself, and determine your focus.

When you are self employed or working on your own, you are
the director, employee, and motivator. If you can’t
motivate, and discipline yourself, nothing will be accomplished
well. If you are learning something new it requires a
lot of focus, concentration, determination, and self-
encouragement. If you are creating something new, you
must hone your focus for something that is not yet there. You
must continually focus on something in your imagination that
is further down the line, but that is coming. Doubt can
distract you from your focus. It is your job to shake yourself
and refocus on your goals. You must see yourself in
your imagination, having accomplished what you set out to
do.

Besides mental loops that can distract your focus,
interruptions from people can break your focus, and the foods
you eat can diminish your concentration and focus.
Excessive sugar, caffeine, and alcohol, in your diet
can wreak havoc on your concentration and your work.
Again, it’s part of self-discipline to monitor what and how much
you are ingesting, and to guard your focus. People can easily
take all your allotted time if you don’t politely let them
know that you are working right now. Again, you can
make a choice to take a moment with a friend or associate,
or you can let them know that you need to continue
working. You need a focus in almost everything that
you do, if it is not work, then you also need to focus
when you are learning, listening, painting, cooking,
meditating, praying, communicating, attending to children,
and traveling etc. Guard your focus, work with it and
you will be well on your way to accomplishing great things.

Yoga Kat–aka Katheryn Hoban is a yoga teacher with twelve years experience. She teaches children’s yoga ages 3-6, and 7-12 and Adults privately in NJ. She is the author the book DAUGHTER BELOVED which will come out next year. She has created a children’s affirmation CD (ages 3-6) and an affirmation CD for adults. Yoga Kat is available for speaking or writing and can be reached at katscoolcorner@yahoo.com or 201 970-9340