Your free Audio is ready for download. Thank you, so much for subscribing to my newsletter.  I look forward to sharing my personal philosphies and the wisdom of the people I admire. As an additional bonus, I have decided to publicy share my “7 Day Challenge” with you!  I have given this popular abstract on Facebook and Women’s Weekend Workshop.  It is also available to my Make Today Matter family of members. As always, live by your priorities and don’t forget to Make Today Matter, for you! Brook Please, take your time to download this introduction my life changing approach.   There is an audio component and a PDF handout component.   The links are below.     Click Here to Download PDF Printable Companion Worksheet PO BOX 327, Manitowish Waters, WI 54545 www.brooknoel.com

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Here are some new affirmation cards I created.. enjoy for your personal inspiration. To browse additional cards and inspiration products, click here.

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Smart Spending: How to Take Control

and Understand the True Cost of Clutter

The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.  ~Mad Magazine

lutter, whether it is emotional or physical, is the number one robber of simplicity. Clutter takes up free thought and free space. Try this simple experiment to see just how much we are affected by clutter.  Walk into the most cluttered area of your home. Start a timer and stand there for 10 minutes. Don’t pick anything up or rearrange anything–just stand there. Look at everything. After 10 minutes go outside into an area that is absent of clutter.  Stand there for 10 minutes. Once again don’t “do anything” – just “be.”  What difference did you feel? (To read this exercise on paper will not offer the same benefit as doing it and really feeling the difference between space and clutter.)  Write down how you felt during this exercise:

When women do this exercise with me, here are some of the common responses:

• “I literally felt like in one area I was choking and in the other area I could breathe.”

• “I felt hopeless and lost amongst the piles. There was clarity when I was outside.”

• “I felt a lot happier outside in open space … instead of mixed amongst all the things I thought I needed to be happy!”

Truth be told, it doesn’t take much to make a person happy. Most of the things that we need to be happy won’t be found in store aisles or catalog pages.  The marketing world needs us to believe that happiness is complicated and requires a lot of “stuff.” Actually, they only need us to believe that until we hand over our hard-earned money.  In the end, what we bought is often used for a very short time, if at all, and perpetuates the myth that there is “something wrong with us,” or that “we just need some other tool” to be happy and then we are sitting ducks for the next marketing ploy that comes our way.

Today, I want you to go back to that cluttered area of your home. Using the worksheet on the following page (it is very important to DO this exercise) I would like you to calculate the cost of clutter in one area of your home. Start with any item and ask: “If I could right now trade this item back for either the money I spent, the time I spent choosing it, or both, would I?”

If the answer is yes, place it on the worksheet; if the answer is “no” move onto the next item. (This will also help you clarify what is important to you in terms of “stuff,” and to see where you are especially prone to impulse buying.) If the item is added to your worksheet, list how much it cost in the second column. In the last column, list how much time you spent thinking about purchasing it or traveling to purchase it or figuring out how to use it.

When you complete an area or room, add up all the columns. This is the true cost of clutter.  This exercise alone can truly change the way you buy and think about material goods for the rest of your life. Take the Cost of Clutter worksheet to other areas of your home. Tally it all up. Let it be motivation to opt-out of buying-in to the marketing culture.

Reflect: What did you learn by completing this exercise? How does it affect your thoughts about spending?

You will find a printable copy of the clutter worksheet at:

True Cost of Clutter Worksheet click here

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Resources mentioned in the new

Change Your Life Challenge

Step by Step Solutions for Finding Balance, Creating Contentment, Getting Organized and Building the Life You Want

As you work through the book, use the links below quickly find extra printables and the mentioned resources.  A workbook on CD-ROM is also available, containing color printables of all the worksheets in the book and many more. See the right hand column for details. Lastly, our online store features many of the worksheets and tools of the program, printed in vibrant color on archival safe, heavy weight text. Check out the tools for building your Headquarters by clicking here.

(The resources listed in purple will be available 9/25/08)

Page 5 Setting Up Shop: Prepackaged binder with the resources listed in the CYLC … click here

Page 9 Free Printable: Snapshot … click here

Page 17 Free Printable Action Plan  … click here

Page 22 Resource: The Make Today Matter Program: offering 15 additional Toolbox Steps, over 45+ Mini-Makeovers and online support  … click here

Page 29 Resource: Browse the Catch-All Notebook line and starter sets  … click here

Page 47 Free Newsletter: Subscribe to the Good Morning inspiration email or read past inspirations online click here

Page 65 – Soul Food

Online: My Favorite Quotes click here

Free Printable Soul Food cards

Resource: Soul Food Kits

Resource: Pre-made cards and inspirations click here

Page 94: Free Online Events … Sign up for Brook Noel’s online event announcement list to learn of upcoming free events click here

Page 101 Free Printable: Power Hour click here

Page 102 Free Printable Short Term List click here

Page 103 Free Printable Active Task List click here

Page 104 Free Printable: Financial Record click here

Page 114 Free Printable: Night Reflection Checklist click here

Page 120 Resource: Mini-Makeovers for Download click here

Page 128 Free Printable: True Cost of Clutter Worksheet

Page 178 Free Printable: Wants Ledger click here

Page 179 Free Printable: Bills Ledger click here

Page 180 Free Printable: Spending Ledger

Page 192: Free Printable Errands Checklist click here

Page 214 Free Printable Organizing Our Relationships click here

Page 226 Free Printable: Prioritizing Our Relationships click here

Page 278 Resource: Weekly Meal Plans click here

Page 304 Free Printable Housework Helpers Worksheet click here

Page 304 Resource: Housework Helpers Toolkit click here

Page 316 Resource: 10 Weeks to the Home You Want  click here

Page 318 Free Printable: Weekly Master Task List click here

Page 320 Free Printable: Monthly Master Task List click here

Page 326 Resources: Menus & Mealtimes Online click here

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September Planning Calendar

September 2008 click here

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Printable Short Term Action List: This Short-Term Action list is used in the Make Today Matter Life System online program and referenced in the new edition of The Change Your Life Challenge (August, 2008)

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August Calendar

A blank printable calendar for the month of August 2008 with a motivational quote and art by Brook Noel

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A blank printable calendar I designed. Enjoy and Happy Summer!

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Here is a blank printable monthly calendar for August featuring one of my favorite quotes and a background taken from a painting I made last year.

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Here is a blank planning calendar for the month of July featuring a background from a painting I did last summer and one of my favorite quotes. Enjoy! July 2008 Calendar

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