by: Joseph Yakel
The Army defines seven values that soldiers should strive to emulate in their daily lives. These core values establish a standard of conduct; they form the foundation of personal behavior that defines the person, as well as the expectations soldiers have of one another. These values are Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage.
Here's the thing. The Army didn’t invent the values. There are many more than seven values that identify desirable human conduct and behavior (and plenty that define undesirable behavior as well), and they've been around for a long time. So, that said, it should come as no surprise that the seven Army values are not just for the military - they apply to each and every citizen…this makes perfect sense, as all soldiers are citizens first.
We all have positions in life…stations, if you will…and it matters not what your station in life happens to be…some or all of these seven values are tested as a matter of course, each day of one’s life. The values are as applicable to the student as they are to the professor; as important to the patient as they are to the doctor; as challenging to the child as they are to the adult; and as attainable by the penniless as they are by the millionaire. In short, the seven values are for everyone. What are the values, and how are they applicable to everyone?
Loyalty - Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. constitution, the Army, and other soldiers. Be loyal to the nation and its heritage.
For the citizen, this means showing your faith in our nation, your elected and appointed leaders and your fellow citizens. People want to know they can trust you. And you want the same reassurances from others.
Duty - Fulfill your obligations. Accept responsibility for your actions and those entrusted to your care. Find opportunities to improve oneself for the good of the unit.
For the citizen, you’ve got a job to do and people depend on you to get it done. If someone needs help, give it to them. If you need help, seek it from your peers. Be consistent in action and deed.
Respect - Treat people as they should be treated. How we consider others reflects upon each of us, both personally and as a professional organization.
Act courteously toward friends, acquaintances and strangers alike. If you disagree with an opinion or point of view, challenge the position, but avoid the personal attack. Remember that your actions speak volumes about yourself and your business or organization.
Selfless Service - Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own. Selfless service leads to organizational teamwork and encompasses discipline, self-control and faith in the system.
Take care of your children, your parents, your siblings, and co-workers. Go the ‘extra mile’ for your customers and clients, even if gains you nothing more than some personal satisfaction. Volunteer to take on the tough job, or the mundane job that others avoid.
Honor - Live up to all the Army values.
Live up to the values of your business, your community, your church, your family. Act accordingly, and others will recognize you as an individual of principled character. Don't fall into the trap of, "but I just did what others did before me". Given the choice, take the 'high road'. Distinguish yourself from those who would be satisfied to do less.
Integrity - Do what is right, legally and morally.
Ask yourself, “Is this the right thing to do? How does it reflect on who I am?” If your inner voice is sounding the alarm, it’s doing so for a good reason. Avoid shortcuts, cheats, or otherwise doing less than what is expected. Don’t compromise yourself, your friends, family or business for some short-term satisfaction. Integrity offers long-term rewards that can't be acquired any other way.
Personal Courage - Face fear, danger, or adversity with physical and moral courage.
Is a boss asking you to do something questionable? Watched the local bully pick on someone repeatedly? Been in a group that disparages a certain race or ethnicity? It may be safer to go along with the crowd, or do nothing at all. It takes inner strength to stand up to peer pressure, bullies, social challenges, and moral dilemmas. It’s easy to be a follower…anyone can do that. True leadership requires all of one’s audacity, nerve and 'guts' to negotiate the difficult roads that lie before us.
Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. These are values for everyone. No, they're not always easy to live up. Our standards are challenged all the time. We make mistakes. Hopefully, we learn from them, and over time, these values become a part of who we are.
The best news is that if we emulate these values singularly, we become a better people collectively. And that is why the values are so important. They set us apart from those who choose not to live up to them.
About the Author
Joseph Yakel is Chief Warrant Officer 3 in the US Army, a freelance writer, and author of three books. His articles have appeared in numerous publications and Internet websites. Free chapter previews of his books are available at: http://www.lulu.com/yakel
Joe welcomes visitors to leave comments and book reviews, and is available for author interviews. Contact him at: armeuv1@yahoo.com
The Seven Army Values - They’re not just for the military
The Top 6 Website Sins
by: Niall Roche
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Your website then is the window to your business. What would a passerby think of your "window"? Would they want to stop and maybe come inside for a few moments? Or would they just pass by without giving it a second glance?
The goal of any website is to make the visitor stay. The desired visitor response might be that they make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, enter a competition or simply complete a survey. The end result is the same - you need the web surfer to hang around your website for as long as possible.
There are, however, aspects of your site which can stop visitors from staying. Some of these are:
Sin #1
Slow loading
The ultimate website sin. Your homepage must, must, must load in 30 seconds or less. This is not optional. If a visitor has to wait more than 30 seconds they will stop what they're doing and move on to the next website. Optimize your website to load quickly by using as few graphics as possible and then only use JPEGS and GIFS. Your website should be no more than 20% graphics and at least 80% text. Why? Text loads faster and also keeps your visitor reading about your site as it loads up.
Sin #2
Poor layout
A visitor should be able to find what they need on your website in 3 clicks of the mouse or less. Any more than that and you're losing valuable visitors. Your navigation menu should be easy to use and every single link must work properly. Make use of a sitemap. Do not use fancy cursors. Do not use complicated menu systems. Text should be legible but not too big. Keep it simple. Imagine how a new internet user would react to your website. Would they love it or hate it? Could a new visitor to your website easily find the information they're looking for?
Sin #3
Awful color schemes
There's nothing worse than searching for a website for hours only to find what you need and then realize that you cannot read the text on the pages because the owner though yellow text on a light blue background was cool. If you need guidance on how to choose colors for your website look at any magazine for examples. Black or dark blue text on a white background is the simplest and most effective color scheme.
For your menus and other background colours bear the following in mind:
Red is stimulating and agressive.
Blue is peaceful and tranquil.
Gree is calm and refreshing.
Yellow grabs peoples attention.
Purple is wealthy and luxurious.
Brown is solid and reliable.
Orange is bright and optimistic.
Sin #4
Poor spelling and grammar
If you're selling a product or service online and your website is littered with spelling and grammar mistakes then you're on a loser immediately. I recently reviewed an ebook that had 4 very bad spelling mistakes including the word business misspelled in the opening paragraph. Inexcusable. We all make mistakes but keep them to a minimum. A visitor may forgive one typo. You may not get a second chance.
Here's 3 tips for checking your webpages.
1. Use a spell checker. Every word-processor has one.
2. Proofread anything you write from bottom to top. You'll spot more mistakes that way.
3. Always proof read anything you've written 24 hours later. You'll be amazed at how many mistakes you'll spot.
Sin #5
Flashing graphics
Banners or logos that flash, spin, fade in and out and/or perform any other gimmick are a no go area. Don't use them. Flashing banners and logos say "I've never put together a website before. Cool, huh?" Any website with this type of graphic element turns me off. A website logo or banner should be a static graphic or text. Online marketing surveys consistently report that animated icons and graphics on a website are a major turnoff for visitors.
Sin #6
Hit counters
Only used by amateurs. Take them off your website. Please. Any decent webhost can provide you with traffic stats which will provide much more accurate information than a hit counter. Having a hit counter on your website was a good idea 8 years ago. The online world has moved on. You should too.
There's an old rule of sales:
"If I could see through John Smiths eyes I could sell John Smith what John Smith buys".
Design your website for your visitor and not for you.
http://www.affiliate-advocate.com is packed full of web marketing advice and ebook reviews. Niall Roche is the content author & owner of http://www.affiliate-advocate.com
The underlying belief system
by: Oyvind Hennum
Copyright (c) 2005 Oyvind Hennum
Many of us do not consider the underlying belief system about money to be of any importance. You think it does not matter, because what matters is what you do now. Right, at one level, but not complete. All ideas that we have learned about money in the past are colouring our actions today.
These are ideas that you are unconsciously following, because you are not aware of them. It might be: "money is bad", "there is never enough money", "money does not grow on trees", etc. The list is long and painful to read, when you realize that this is actually a part of you. I was thinking: how come these beliefs are so strong? Why am I blocking myself from financial freedom? I have been working on myself for 6 years now, and the beliefs are still there! So I went looking for answers in self help books, personal development books, New Age books and financial freedom articles etc. I have also done Psychokineseology, past life sessions and been talking to a lot of people.
The answer that I come up with so far is: the underlying beliefs are coming in as all other conditioning, from our early years. Some people suggest that also past life experiences can have an influence. Our childhood conditioning comes mainly from our parents and then the rest of our family, and also from the environment around us. If the idea in the place you grew up is that money is scarce, you can be sure that this idea sneaked into your mind somewhere along the line and it is probably stuck there without you knowing it. You are just wondering why there never seems to be enough money around.
So if you now can grasp the idea of negative thinking patterns about money, I will tell you to move on. If it is difficult for you to accept this idea and you are now thinking that this does not count for you, because you have learned positive thinking, then stop. Look at the reality and do a little check up: is my positive thinking really working?
I am asking you to do this because my experience is that positive thinking and a YES! Mentality not always is enough. The negative thought patterns I am talking about are deep, you can call them "root thought" or "sponsoring thought", it is thoughts that are lying underneath and behind your conscious thoughts that you are thinking on an everyday basis.
They are very strong and strong enough to sabotage your new way of thinking that might be very positive and good. I point this out very strongly, because it is important that you are willing to look at your own thoughts and to work on them to change them into healthy sponsoring thoughts that are healthy for you and will bring you abundance and wealth instead of struggle and suffering.
To change these thoughts you have to be persistent, you will need a burning desire to train your mind into thinking differently. You will have to do a little brainwash and afterwards a lot of re-learning with your new and healthy thoughts. To train your mind
I will explain to you the concept "Act as if". "Act as if" works the other way round of the normal creation process, which goes like this: thought, word ,deed (action). An idea comes into your mind as a thought and takes shape and gets clear, that is the first step in creating.
Then comes the next step, which is the word. In the gospel of St.John in the Bible: "In the beginning was only the word", there is a great truth, only that in the very, very beginning there was also a thought - an idea. The word gets spoken out or written and makes the idea more strong, more solid. This is already a big accomplishment in the creation process, but the idea is still not physical reality.
This comes in the third step "Deed", or the action that you do, to give your idea physical form. Take a look at this practical example: I had an idea long time ago that it would be great to have a practical “how to do guide” on how to create financial freedom; initially I had the idea because many of my friends and people I met where complaining over the lack of money to do what they want.
As I talked with them it seemed that the reasons for these problems often were similar and I had a feeling that there had to be a solution for this. I wanted to find the solutions (ideas, thoughts, step one), write them down, make them clear and easy to understand, when spoken in a seminar or written down (word - step two) and then in the end to make this article and make it available for everyone who would be interested (deed, action, step 3).
As you are now reading this article, you can see the practical result of the thought - word - deed -process unfolded straight in front of you! Going back to where we started, with the concept of "Act as if", we have to look at why and how to do it. Why? It is because the process of creation does not only work with the conscious thoughts you have, but also with your sub-conscious beliefs. So if your underlying belief system always tells you that there is not enough money that is the reality you create.
To train your sub-conscious to think differently, you first of all have to become aware of when these beliefs kick in. For me it works like this: There is a Salvation Army officer standing in the street, giving out their magazine and collecting money. When I see him I immediately shrink and think: I hope he does not see me.
Now, of course, he sees me and gives me a smile, and I think, okay, I'll give him some money. After all I know that this makes me feel good. Then, for the same reason that I tried to avoid him, I also start having second thoughts about giving him the small donation.
The thought goes like this: I don't want to give away the money, because if I do, then I will have less and I do not have much at all. How can I just give away the little that I have (root thought = it's never enough money). In short term thinking it is right, I will have less money if I give some of it away. In longer term thinking, not.
What I do when I walk pass the Salvation Army officer without giving any money is to re-affirm to myself the idea that I can not afford to give him money, because there is never enough. So what I can do to change this root thought is to first give him the money I thought of, I know it is going to make me feel good, and then think to myself: WOW! I can afford to give him money, I know that there is more where it is coming from and I trust that this will end up in my pocket and on my bank account, so I can happily share it with more people.
This action will then affirm your new thought which is: There is always enough money! Now you might think, this is a lie, but then take the new thought you have learned by "acting as if" and look again on the thought, word , deed process. You might think this is extremely difficult and everything inside of you says NO! But still, try it out.
You do not have to give away all your money, that is not the point. The point is that you give yourself the feeling of abundance and that you can share. If you have very little money, you can give according to that. It is important that you get the feeling, so you can start believing in your new thought.
When you say to yourself that you always have enough money for everything you want and need, you will protest and say: "This is not true, fact is this, and that and blah, blah." You are right! Fact may be this or that, but if you want to change you better start here, right at the root cause of your money problems.
This is a little bit of "Fake it till you make it". You can make it easier for yourself by thinking thoughts that you can accept, like:" I know there is more money out there and right now I am figuring out how to get it to flow into my bank account".
Then you give yourself a feeling of security and that it is actually true: there is enough money! When you get your head around this one, you are a giant leap further ahead on the road to financial freedom.
Copyright (c) 2005 Oyvind Hennum
About the Author
Oyvind Hennum runs the web site http://www.financial-freedom-made-simple.com
The site contains: Book reviews, articles, biographies, motivational quotes, affirmations, success tests, budgeting advice and practical tips.
The Waves Come and Go!
by: Arthur Zulu
The waves come and go
like the feet of an unsteady woman
in the house of an unfair lover.
The waves roar and clap their hands
like the protestations of a woman
in the hands of a Don Juan.
The waves wear down the shores
like a woman dissipating over unrequited love.
Yet, the woman is bound to the man
as the oceans are in covenant with the moon,
for a woman needs a man.
And the waves come and go
because the celestial body would not leave the seas.
That is why the oceans are full of tempests
as love is replete with broken hearts!
EXCERPTED FROM "BEAUTIFUL," A POETRY COLLECTION BY ARTHUR ZULU, TO BE PUBLISHED SOON. IF YOU ENJOYED READING THE POEM AND WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION TOWARD ITS PUBLICATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR.)
ARTHUR ZULU is an editor, book reviewer, playwright, and published author. He also writes short stories, scripts, essays, and poems, and ghost writes for others.
For his works, professional services, and FREE helps for writers, goto:
http://controversialwriter.tripod.com
mailto: controversialwriter@yahoo.com
Web search: Arthur Zulu
About the Author
ARTHUR ZULU is an editor, book reviewer, playwright, and published author. He also writes short stories, scripts, essays, and poems, and ghost writes for others.
There Must Be More To Life Than This
by: David McGimpsey
If you suffer from a nagging feeling of "there must be more to life than this", you're not alone.
"There must be more to life than this" can be an extremely de-motivating force. Guess where this feeling usually comes from? Your Job. Why? Most people hate their jobs.
The first point that needs to be addressed is that it's okay to hate your job. It's normal! The amount of people who like their jobs are few and far between. Most that enjoy the daily grind are either very lucky or have been in their current job less than six months.
Secondly, changing your job is not a solution to "there must be more to life than this" or to your lack of motivation. Remember the old saying "The grass is always greener"? Changing jobs is only a short term solution. Work place politics soon catch up with you.
Positive habits are all that stand between you and this feeling of "isn't there more?". Of course there is more to life, but we need to stop seeing our jobs as be all and end all. Being positive about everything, job included, allows you to put your work life in perspective.
At all costs we must remember that work is only a means to an end. We cannot allow it to take over our lives. Your job is what you have to do so you are motivated enough to go out and discover what life really has to offer. Work should only be a means to fund what we do when we're not there.
About the Author
David McGimpsey is the host of an inspirational and motivational web site http://www.dontquit.org dontquit.org offers a free weekly ezine containing articles, book reviews, news, advice, quotations and special features.
Three Ways to Add Versatile Content to Your Site or eZine
by: Mitchell Harper
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Introduction
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If you run a content driven web site or eZine, then I think you will agree with me when I say that finding free, quality content on the ‘Net is a pain. Sure, people are writing articles which they want published, but nine times out of ten, these articles are just “copy-pasted” or recycled from someone else’s articles, and content like this wont give your site a particularly high profile.
There are heaps of ways to add some pizzazz and glitz to your site or eZines content that will keep your visitors coming back on a regular basis. In this article I will talk about three of them: Interviews, Reviews and Books.
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Interviews
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People like reading about other people: What they do, how they do it, and most importantly, why they do it. So do you, right? Well I know I do. Have you ever thought about emailing a specific person from a company and requesting a “virtual interview” with them?
When I say virtual interview, I mean conducting the interview via a series of emailed questions. I have, and every single person that I emailed was more than happy to give me the time of day to answer some questions about them, their job role, their history, etc. When you think about it, it’s a win-win situation for both you and that person: You add more quality content to your site, and they get promos and links back to their site from your interview (This is a must, and can be the deciding factor in nailing the interview).
But just how would you go about asking for a virtual interview? And whom would you ask? Let me give you an example.
About two weeks ago, one of my editors (Tim Pabst) interviewed Markus Maki from MadOnion.com. This interview added value to our site, because in the interview Markus talked about his industry experience, the development of the 3Dmark series, as well as his opinions on technology, etc. No one else has this kind of “insider” information about Markus on their site, so it makes our virtual interview one-of-a-kind.
Here’s the email that Tim used to ask Markus to participate in our virtual interview:
Hi Markus,
My name is Time Pabst, and I am one of the editors for http://www.devarticles.com. I have been a huge fan of MadOnion.com for as long as I can remember, and I was wondering if I would be able to conduct an email-based interview with you.
This interview would consist of you answering some short questions about your life, job and experiences and simply emailing them back to me. Your questions will be compiled into an article and posted on our site.
Your interview will also include several mentions of MadOnion.com, thus creating more links back to your site. Please let me know if and when this is possible.
I look forward to your reply.
Tim Pabst
Notice how the email was short and to the point? No marketing gook, no confusing sentences, just a quick description of the who’s, what’s, when’s, why’s and how’s of the interview.
The email was a success, and the Interview questions were sent to Markus the next day. We had the interview on the site within a week. You can see it at http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/35
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Reviews
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Reviews are another great way to add some variety to your sites content. You don’t have to be a professional to review a product or web site. Reviews are merely one person’s opinion of an item with some technical babble thrown in for good measure.
I am currently in the process of reviewing Namo Web Editor 5. It is a complete web editing solution, similar to FrontPage. I decided to review this product because a lot of my visitors are newbies to the web, just learning how to start programming.
Product reviews can work well for you both content wise and financially wise: You get a new form of content on your site, but you can also link back to the product (from within your review) with your unique tracking ID. This means that for every sale that company gets from a visitor buying their product through a link from your review, you receive a percentage of that sale, usually around 5-20%.
Once again, it’s a win-win situation. The key here is to review products that your visitors will find useful and exclude any marketing hype from the review.
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Books
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Everyone reads in some-way or another: conventional books, email, the daily newspaper, eBooks, articles, etc. People feel empowered when they have read something that provides them with useful, free information. A book review can do just that.
There are hundreds of online stores that allow you to link to their books section and receive commission on a per-order basis. The most popular one is Amazon, with over 500,000 members. Their associates program (located at http://associates.amazon.com) lets you enter a books ISBN code and spits out a link and picture right back to that book on their site.
Reviewing a book is easy, but either you or someone you know must have read the book beforehand. Don’t fall into the trap of simply reading the books blurb and then writing a review on it, because you will get caught out and your visitors will loose trust in you.
When reviewing a book, let your visitors know your overall opinion of the book, as well as your favourite points and sections in the book. Include as many peoples opinion on that particular book as you can, whether they are positive or negative. Your readers will expect you to provide them with honest reviews, and there’s no point lying just so they buy the book.
You may also like to include a sample chapter from the book in your review. This lets visitors have a read of the book without actually purchasing it. If they like the sample chapter, then there’s a good chance they will click on your link to buy the book in the end. I like to review Wrox’s series of programming books, because they let you publish a sample chapter from their book on your site, just like I have at http://www.devarticles.com/art/1/38.
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Conclusion
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Don’t get stuck into the habit of posting the same type of content on your site. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life, and this is true in the online world also. If you run a content driven site then have a brainstorm listing several companies, products and books related to your sites content that you could review.
For each company, compose an email to send using the format that I have outlined in this article. Start by writing to 2-3 companies requesting virtual interviews and see how you go.
For each product, write up a similar email requesting either a beta/full copy of the software you want to review. Because you need to actually spend time reviewing and testing the product first, you should start with just 1-2 emails and see how you go.
Books, on the other hand, are a different story. Goto http://associates.amazon.com and signup for free. Then, pick a couple of books (ones that you have read) and write a 1-2 page review on each one. Post them straight onto your site with the link provided by the Amazon associates program at the end of the review.
Until next time, I would recommend you experiment with the ideas outlined in this article. If you do everything right, then you can expect your visitor count to increase as a result.
About the Author
Mitchell Harper is the founder of http://www.devarticles.com, which provides top quality ASP, C++, Java, PHP, Visual
Basic and .NET articles for the budding web developer! Looking for some
nitfy programming tricks and tutorials that you won't find anywhere else?
Then visit us now at http://www.devarticles.com/
Top 10 Secrets to Avoiding “Marital Money Chaos©”
by: Cindy Morus
Money can wreck a relationship. In fact, how they spend, save, and account for money is one of the leading sources of disagreements between couples. In almost every study, money ranks as the first or second most argued-about topic for couples and partners.
If you currently suffer from “Marital Money Chaos©” you can follow these secrets and achieve more financial success together than you ever could have dreamed. If the two of you can improve your relationship with money, you will also improve your marriage. Money can be romantic!
Secret #1: Know your spending style and your partners’
How many of you are married to your “Financial Soul Mate”?
The most common spending styles are Spenders and Savers but there are also the Procrastinators/Avoiders/Deal with it Tomorrow types and the Money Meek/Humble/ personalities.
What are the benefits/good things about each style? What are the things you call your partner when you fight about money?
Find ways in which you can take advantage of your personality strengths and minimize the weaknesses of that style. In the best possible scenario, you will both acknowledge your differences and move to the middle.
Secret #2: Values Driven Spending
Values are different than goals.
Values: Creativity, Freedom, Friendship, Financial Security
Goals: Be debt free, get a new car, and give more to charity
Take some time to choose your top 5 values and define each of them in your own words. Share the definitions and use them to understand your partner and what is important to them. If your partner’s money behavior confuses you, ask which value they are satisfying. They may be doing their best, but their definition is different than yours. If you both use the same value word but have different meanings, you’ll have conflict.
Secret #3: Have regular Money Meetings or Money Dates!
How many of you think that money is romantic? Actually, since couples fight more about money than anything else (it is estimated that 80% of divorces are the result of money disagreements), having an honest talk about household finances might be better for your relationship than anything else you can do! Financial well-being and peace of mind are certainly romantic!
It doesn’t matter how much money people have, money is a daily event. That increases the chance of it triggering arguments and tension. Use regular meetings as a way to avoid conflict.
Secret #4: Enjoy the present and save for the future
Everyone needs to have their own play money. Ideally 5-10% of your family’s income should be set aside for play. What’s the use of working every day if you don’t get to spend some money on play?
Secret #5: Have a needs/wish list for each person and for the family
We all have things we wish we had and those we need to purchase. Check your list on a regular basis so your subconscious can focus on other things. It’s also great fun to check off the things you take care of. Great place to go to find out how to spend bonuses or other windfalls.
Secret #6: Divide financial responsibilities between partners
Focus on each person’s skills, interests and availability rather than relying on out-dated gender stereotypes or how much money one partner makes. Share what’s going on with your partner during your monthly meetings and make big decisions together.
Secret #7: Each person has some money they do not have to account for.
This is probably one of the MOST important things you can do for your relationship. No grown up likes to have to ask for an allowance or justify every little expenditure they make. Determine in advance how much money each person can “do with what they will” and no questions asked. Savers can save, spenders can spend, procrastinators can leave it in a jar and the money meek can feel free to give it all away.
Secret #8: Take action, one step at a time
I can guarantee that you will save $1000 1 year from today if you put away just $2.74 per day. Where can you find $2.74 each and every day? Do the same with larger goals. If you want to go on a $2000 vacation next year, save $6 per day.
Secret #9: Learn something about money and finances every day
There are lots of good resources out there – websites, books, magazines, classes. You can start at my website: http://www.cindymorus.com where I have articles, calculators, book reviews and teleclass schedules.
Secret #10: Plan your spending and spend your plan
I know, no one likes the “B” word (I call them spending plans) because they feel restrictive. Instead, plan your spending ahead of time and give yourself permission to spend money in certain areas and get creative about the areas where you choose to spend less. When we feel like “going out” at our house, we have “no silverware dinner” of ribs, french-fries and artichokes. We spend the time enjoying ourselves and creating memories without spending a lot of money. I bet you can do the same!
(c) Phelps Creek Financial Coaching - All Rights Reserved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cindy Morus (www.cindymorus.com) is a Certified Financial Recovery Counselor specializing in showing women and their families how to achieve financial well-being and peace of mind. She is also a Certified Credit Report Reviewer. Contact her at 541-387-2995 or cindy@cindymorus.com. Get a free copy of the "Secrets to lowering your Credit Card Interest Rates" e-book when you sign up for the "Women's Financial Freedom Monthly" newsletter at www.phelps-creek.com/newsletter.asp .
Attention Ezine editors/Site owners: Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or website as long as you leave all links in place, do not alter the content and include our resource box as listed above. If you do use the material please send us a note (cindy@cindymorus.com) so we can take a look. Thanks.
Traditional VS Modern Anniversary Gifts
by: Slade Hartwell
Most people are familiar with the traditional materials list that good etiquette requires us use as a guide when selecting a gift to commemorate a wedding anniversary. If you are like most people, you might find it a bit challenging to convert the materials on the list into an acceptable gift idea. There may be more choices available to you than you realize. Do you know that an updated "modern" gift list is available which is becoming more and more popular? This article touches on the history of the traditional list, highlights the differences between the modern and traditional lists, and helps you decide which is right for you.
Parts of the traditional list have existed since medieval times. Historians can trace the origins of silver and golden anniversaries to medieval Germany, where garlands made of these metals were presented as gifts for the 25th and 50th years of marriage. The rest of the list may not be as traditional as you think. I was surprised to learn that the traditional list, as we know it today, did not exist until 1937. In that year, the American National Retail Jeweler Association published a list, which associated a material for each Anniversary up to the 15th year and then each fifth year after that up to the 60th Anniversary. The following is the materials list from 1937, through the 60th year:
* First - Paper
* Second - Cotton
* Third - Leather
* Fourth - Fruit/Flowers
* Fifth - Wood
* Sixth - Candy/Iron
* Seventh - Wool/Copper
* Eighth - Bronze/Pottery
* Ninth - Pottery/Willow
* Tenth - Tin/Aluminum
* Eleventh - Steel
* Twelfth - Silk/Linen
* Thirteenth - Lace
* Fourteenth - Ivory
* Fifteenth - Crystal
* Twentieth - China
* Twenty-Fifth - Silver
* Thirtieth - Pearl
* Thirty-Fifth - Coral
* Fortieth - Ruby
* Forty-Fifth - Sapphire
* Fiftieth - Gold
* Fifty-fifth - Emerald
* Sixtieth - Diamond
The modern anniversary materials list presents us with a contemporary, easier to use alternative. The modern list has no clear beginning, but like the original, each year's gift is more precious than the last. This arrangement is intended to honor the longevity of the commitment. The new list retains the spirit of the traditional list, but loses the some of the sense of etiquette in the original. Although more convenient, the modern list sacrifices the thoughtfulness previously required to make a good gift from the more mundane materials on the old list. However, the modern list is more extravagant (expensive) than the original, which in some cases may be more appreciated than a thoughtful but humble gift from the traditional list. The following is the widely accepted modern list, through the 60th year:
* First - Clocks
* Second - China
* Third - Crystal/ Glass
* Fourth - Appliances
* Fifth - Silverware
* Sixth - Candy/Iron
* Seventh - Desk Sets
* Eighth - Bronze/Pottery
* Ninth - Linen/Lace
* Tenth - Leather
* Eleventh - Jewelry
* Twelfth - Pearls
* Thirteenth - Textiles/Furs
* Fourteenth - Gold Jewelry
* Fifteenth - Watches
* Twentieth - Platinum
* Twenty-Fifth - Silver
* Thirtieth - Diamond
* Thirty-Fifth - Jade
* Fortieth - Ruby
* Forty-Fifth - Sapphire
* Fiftieth - Gold
* Fifty-fifth - Emerald
* Sixtieth - Diamond Jubilee
For most couples, I recommend using the modern list. When selecting a gift from the modern list you have the benefit of more specificity, for example a desk set is much more clear than copper/wool. With the modern list, you won't risk insulting your spouse by rewarding 10 years of companionship with a pitiful tin or aluminum gift. Believe me, she won't be satisfied with the excuse of tradition. Also, good luck finding the ivory candlesticks for year 14! Unless you really enjoy the creative challenge of using the traditional list, try the modern list this year.
About the Author
Slade Hartwell, Webmaster at www.ezromantic.com
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