Life Improvement Tips For The Wise Few

Today I am in the mood for showing some “sick” videos. Just take a look at some of the videos I have found. Let me know what you think.

First Video shows how close this 747 Boeing comes to the beach side. Princess Juliana Airport is the only runway in the world where you can try and touch the wheels on the airplanes making a landing. Now mention you read that here.

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Let’s take a look at what St. Maarten “The Friendly Island” used to look like in the past, when you could have left your doors open and be scared that only the chickens would have passed through.

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Human nature has created creatures of habits and on a regular day to day basis we tend to do many things we love, this forms a sort of a pattern, that we can assume is a habit, once we get to really like doing that same thing over and over again. But, we can have bad habits as well as good habits, and you should favor the good habits. It is a form of addiction, whereby we can’t wait to do that same particular thing every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s smoking, gambling, drugs, watching T.V. or just shopping. All are habits, and every one of us goes through life picking up habits. Your no exception to this. My main focus will be on bad habits, because they can bring more harm than good. Bad habits are very easy to start and can be a very difficult problem in the long run and can be a pain in the butt to get rid of. While writing this article it made me focus on two really bad habits that I had when I was a youngster, and the power I got from breaking those habits taught me a lesson I cherished very much and that also gave me the power to break any bad habit that I picked up later in life.

Your toughest job is always acknowledging that you have a bad habit, once you can give into such, then you will be able to break any bad habit.

Here are five of my best tips for breaking bad habits:

1. Acknowledge your bad habit

It all starts when you give into what your doing that is forming your bad habit. To be able to ditch anything that is wrong, you first have to acknowledge that it is wrong. Many of you don’t grasp this process and go screaming at them and trying to help people that have habits whom have not given into the fact that they have a problem.
You can’t help anyone with a problem if they have not given into the fact that it is a problem, they are not seeing it as a problem - so you can’t help them - because they don’t want to help themselves.

If you have a family member, close friend or anyone you wish to help, please don’t go talking about their habit, try to reason with them and see if they agree with you that they have a habit that is bringing them down. If they don’t agree, then nothing you say or whatever I write here won’t help them either.

I have spoken with many friends and even close family members that has bad habits, but they are not giving into the fact, they say nothing is wrong with them. I have one such case where one friend has a bad habit of dressing as if they have only a pair of pants and a couple shirts. They wear the same clothes and have this awful odor.

Anytime we would sit down and talk about that issue, my friend would always say, that they don’t see that as a problem. That is what I call in one word: “weird.” I just accept that as their own norm and look over the fact that they can’t see that it’s not normal what they are doing. I don’t waste any energy trying to convince them to change, you shouldn’t either, you will be wasting your time. If they wanted help they would accept and then seek help.

2. Using a different route to escape

Now that you have accepted that you have a problem, your training starts within your mind. You have to accept that you will kick this habit, and in your mind is where you will build your plan. It all starts by changing your environment. You can never kick your habit if your planning on keeping the same friends you hang with. Sometimes it’s your friends that you associate who are the ones building your habit.

You will have to be strong and decide to block anything that reminds you of this habit. To better demonstrate this I will show you how I kicked my own gambling habit. When I was in my second year of H.T.S. studying for my Engineering Degree. I used to pass through this mall on a daily basis, they had plenty of those slot machines. I hooked up with a couple of Suriname friends and we used to hang in those spots nearly daily. They used to play the games and I slowly started playing these games also. One thing lead to another and wham, nearly everyday I was playing, sometimes loosing 50 or more guilders each and very day.

I would win once or twice per week. My loses were greater than my gains, hey I was a math whiz kid, I was counting in my head my loses and wins. I kept track of how much I was behind. The problem with this habit, is I was digging a deeper hole and never getting out. All the money I made from my extra classes was going into this habit. This went on for three months.

Can you imagine what a wreck I would have been if I was addicted to drugs. Now you have a clue how a drug addict responds when they take that first shot, they keep going back for more and after a while they are lost, hooked, and needing more each day.

Anyway, one day I faced my loses and realized how I was blowing between 1500 and 2000 guilders each and every month. Wham, it hit me so hard I felt like a train ran over me. In my mind I pictured how many nice clothes I could have bought with that.

I decided that now is the time to stop, and gave my word that I would no longer gamble. I naturally started walking around that shopping mall to get to my home. That was the only way I would survive this. That rerouting was only the beginning.

3. Find something else to keep your mind off the habit

As time went by, I decided to start playing sports. I started hanging out with different Suriname friends that played table tennis. Mind shift - it was really about forcing myself to not think of the gambling habit. I slowly started playing table tennis, these friends were teaching me how to play and the owner of the place fancied my style of play and was also giving me some tips.

I really got good at that game, and I finally forgot about the gambling games. I made up my mind and decided to walk through the mall. It worked, I walked pass that place and didn’t have the urge to play anymore.

One day while walking home, one of my old friends approached me and asked me if I wanted to go play the slot machines again, at that moment my whole mindset shifted, I really wanted to, the fight between good and evil was taking place. I said no, and gave an excuse that I had to study, never before did it ever bother me that I had school work, but this excuse was my secret weapon. I used it many times when I was confronted by my old friends.

4. Saying you will stop and meaning it

The method I will discuss here isn’t for the faint of heart or those who drift. You have to be firm and commit to doing whatever you say you will do. I always lived by my own saying: “Promises are made for fools, they are made to be broken!”

I don’t fall for promises, once I give my word, you can rest assured that I will do whatever it takes to not break my word. That is why I don’t believe in anyone who say they promise to do or not do. You have to believe in yourself and think how much of a better person you would be once you keep your word.

To demonstrate this I will share another life secret, and this one is even tougher, because it bares heavily on my manliness. When I was in my prime and really into the ladies, I was dating older women than myself. I seldom went around with girls my own age. I was all into women that had something to offer.

One day I sat down and asked myself: “What are you going to do with your life?”

That one question opened my mind, and I realized that all these women was not what I wanted, I wanted to find a woman that would help me build a life and that women was to be baggage free, no kids.

I then told my bro, mark my words, I will dump all those girls and from today, I would never have an affair with any women that has kids. I knew it was a tough, bold and very challenging statement to make. But, I had to stick with it. One night while going to the club, it was a club we visited often. We were well known in this club, something happened that proved how strong I was.

That evening I met a lady out of this world, a nine on my rating scale, nice black hair, smooth skin, one of those ladies that the Lord took his time and put together. We started chatting and I took her on the dance floor, things was really looking great. As we were dancing, I popped the magical question: “Is there any specific or important person in your life I should know about?” She said: “Yes, my son.” And I told her, well I am sorry, but I gave my word that I wasn’t going to deal with any more girls that has kids.” I ended the dance and walked off the floor. My bro approached me some time later and asked what happened. I said she has kids, not my type , he said man you “sick”. Ain’t no promise I make to myself would have kept me away from her.

5. Only you can kick the habit

The type of bad habit isn’t the problem, it is the strength you posses to decide if you want to break that bad habit is what really counts. And it all depends on you. I have one friend from Middle Region where we grew up and he had a drinking problem. It was really severe and no matter how much anyone talked with him, he just continued to drink.

It got even worse that he tried to commit suicide. That failed, and my guess is, that he was to live and kick that habit. I can’t tell you how he gathered the strength to go on and kick that drinking habit, but he finally did it. He joined AA (Alcoholic Anonymous) and stopped drinking. He found the right lady to help him kick this habit and he changed his friends.

As you can see, it is all about you, so if you have any bad habits, it’s never too late to change and start all over again.

A lot has changed since I did my studies in Holland, but the principle of how to go about spending your money wisely still remains the same. There will always be students struggling, that is why they call you all students. Many of the new students that go abroad have money management problems and that stems from the fact that they have never really managed their own money back home. Mom or Dad was always right around the corner to give a little hand out.

Your in the big leagues now, and you don’t have any parents around to keep passing you extra handouts to help you get by. That means you will have to come up with a better way to get by with what you have.

First couple of months

The first couple of months are the toughest, because you have no clue where to shop, where buy cheap stuff or how to balance your money. It is like living with no end in sight, nothing makes sense and most of all it seems like your money keeps running out before the month ends. It’s like your living off penny’s and can’t figure out how others are making it. Want to know their secret? Pssst, you listening, they are also struggling.

What you master now, is what will make the difference when you move on from studying to working. There are people who are way older than you and they still don’t know how to budget money, think if they read this article they would have gained much insight. They still live life like when they were students.

You have to become a bargain shopper, and a good one if I may add. No brand name products, your buying what you need to survive, it’s what I call survival of the fittest. You don’t want to live like a miser, but you do want to count the little bit of money you get each and every month. Eat plenty of fruits, even if you only buy them in the weekend. You have to stay healthy, so buy fruits once a week, especially oranges. I have heard that kiwi’s packs more vitamins than oranges, so start adding them to your weekly shoppings, just one orange or kiwi per day will do.

Putting a spending plan in motion

You have to setup a budget plan and stick with it at all cost. At first you will have to learn how to use pen and paper or whatever means you have. If toilet paper is the only writing material available, grab yourself a couple sheets, it will do just fine. Just kidding…

But, I am very serious about putting it all on paper, as a matter of fact maybe you should get yourself a cheap journal and keep track of what you do on a day to day basis, showing exactly how much money you spent. That way you will be able to spot how much money your wasting on useless items.

Your goal here is to establish how much it will cost you on a monthly basis for food, electricity and any other expenses you may have. For now those two should actually be your only expenses. You don’t want any useless or foolish additional expenses. I do know you will have a phone also, but try to keep your monthly spending to the minimum needed that will keep your subscription and your phone number. You don’t want to be changing numbers every month, and please go with a pre-paid card. I can hear you saying that you have control, but you might have many friends who don’t and they will all lend your phone to make a call to just one friend, but it all adds up, and your paying, so only pre-paid.

With a pre-paid, all you have to do is say: “I am low on funds, so just ask them to call back.”

Don’t act like you have money, they all know what student life is like, so act like a student, act cheap.

Knowing how much money you need to survive on per month basis is what your after. If your food cost is on the high side, shop around and see if you can’t find a cheaper place to shop. There are many places to shop for food, try the market if you have to. Just make sure you get better prices for common items. Ask your friends who has been there longer, where they shop.

If you don’t have any friends, then it’s time you “break out your shell”, I got this one from my little cousin, “Lilo”. You can’t survive in such a big place without friends, you need to make friends and you have to start asking questions. Anything you see or like, just ask where they bought it.

The smarty pants makes it without struggles

You and everyone else out there studying have something your great at. You have to use your talent to make some extra money during the week-end. If you are having a hard time balancing with what you got, and you can function well under stress, find another means of earning some extra bucks. You want to stand out and not have to rely on your parents. This is the only way to make yourself stronger, and if your parents sends you extra cash, open a separate account and keep saving that money for emergency purposes. Just don’t let them know that your doing that and every time they send extra, just bank it. Learn to save, no matter how little, try to put aside something every month.
There will come a time when you will need it, I have never met a student that didn’t have a hard time during there studies.

Some money making student tricks

One money making kicker, and it is for those who wants to be go getters. I did this for years, and always had money in abundance. Prove yourself by getting top grades and then start advertising that you will give extra classes, all by word of mouth. You will be surprised what you can charge and they will show up by the dozens. I charges prices as high as 100 guilders, and they paid with a smile. It also helps because your studying and teaching while you make money. teaching is the ultimate strategy of proving what you know.

I know many girls who braided hair for extra cash during the weekends, and even during the week when classes wasn’t really busy. So if your good at braiding, then show off your talent by offering to do a couple heads for free. That will create the eye opener.

Now a couple of my friends did this, but I just couldn’t cut this, so be careful with what I advise here. Get a part time job, working on Fridays and Saturdays. some of my buddies worked even on certain days during the week. They worked at Mc. Donald’s, Burger King, Babarella, Hema, even at sport schools and many other franchises.

As a student there are many different little ideas you can come up with that can make you extra money, just be creative and give it a try. If it’s not working drop it, follow your own rules and guide lines, and test what works for you.

The best advice I can give

If I was to ever do it over again, I would get a group of guys or girls together, please notice I said a group of the same sex and get a place to rent and then share the rental for that space. Look for a space with three or four rooms. You will split the rent three or four ways, and each member will cook on a rotation schedule. Pool the money for food and use that money to live with. It will be way cheaper on each of you living together. You will only be able to get this going once you’ve been there for at least a year or two. If your family is big, start with your family only and add a friend or two later. This is the best way to live, and I can guarantee you that boredom won’t kick in, but distractions will. So you have to be strong or this won’t work.

You don’t have to do any of the above

Nothing above is engraved in stone, but I have seen that those that are comfortable with less money problems gets along better in class. I have seen many of my friends graduate without doing any extra money making activities. So it doesn’t matter, if you want it bad enough you will get it, it’s up to you, and you don’t have to do anything else but study hard and try to be a little better than the best.

Learn to take breaks and don’t study until you go crazy, find little outlets for fun and relaxation.

If you do follow my advice, please pay keen attention to what your grades are doing. If they are going down, drop the extra activities and get back to basics. Your there to accomplish one goal and that one goal only, and that is to make it.

This article is dedicated to my cousin, it was all her idea, she is doing OK, but it looks like she is having a hard time keeping her money in her pocket. I do hope you read this and it puts your head in a spin, now go focus on getting that diploma. You can do it, just keep going “Dutch”. That means, in simple layman terms, stop living like your in St. Maarten. You have to learn how to save and spend like a real dutch person.