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Silvina Petersen

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The Five Ingredients For a Well-Crafted Set of Goals You Are Sure to Achieve

Silvina Petersen

Dec 31, 2020
4 min

The Five Ingredients For a Well-Crafted Set of Goals You Are Sure to Achieve

Goodbye 2020, and welcome 2021! The new year is here, and with it, a new list of resolutions and goals to reach. How is it looking for you? I spent this week writing mine up. I want to share some ideas to go from a blank page to one filled with goals you are energized about and will achieve in the next 12 months. Here are the five ingredients for a well-crafted set of goals you are sure to work for and achieve: 1- Decide What you Want. Please don’t pretend to be confused abou

All You Need Is {Unconditional} Love

Silvina Petersen

Dec 29, 2020
4 min

All You Need Is {Unconditional} Love

It's the last week of 2020, so I asked myself which practice this year has created the greatest internal shift, propelled me forward, and resulted in much personal growth. With no hesitation, I would say that the concept of unconditional love has been foundational and transformational for myself and in coaching my clients. My primary focus was on cultivating this type of love for myself. Let's not confuse this with having an ego or being arrogant. It is quite the opposite. Th

Organize your Holiday Shopping by Having a Plan and Managing your Mind

Silvina Petersen

Dec 1, 2020
4 min

Organize your Holiday Shopping by Having a Plan and Managing your Mind

It's the holiday season and many of us feel the pressure and impulse to break the piggy bank and spend our savings in gifts for our loved ones. Furthermore, many of us will get into debt to make sure all of our family members and friends have a gift from us under the Christmas Tree. As a Money and Life Coach, I’m not one to tell my clients what to buy or not to buy. In the end, every dollar they spend is an investment, and what may seem like an investment to me, may not be an

Judging Your Emotions Is Creating Unnecessary Suffering

Silvina Petersen

Nov 21, 2020
4 min

Judging Your Emotions Is Creating Unnecessary Suffering

As many Covid restrictions are reinstated in our state, I was inclined to address the emotions we are feeling after the "normal" activities we'd been able to resume have once again come to a pause. I had gone back to my pole dancing class a few months ago, and the studio is now closed. I am sad about this. Many of you are rolling your eyes. Not being able to dance does not even come close to the hardships people are going through in this country, right? Yet, I'm willing to be

The Four Steps That Will Stop You From Clicking "Buy Now"

Silvina Petersen

Oct 29, 2020
4 min

The Four Steps That Will Stop You From Clicking "Buy Now"

You are cleaning up your emails inbox and see an email from West Elm. The subject line reads: "Bright ideas for your home school and office!" You are curious, so you open the email, and beautiful photos of your dream home office start flashing on your computer. All you have to do is click on one of the images. There you are: on their website. The accessories section promises that you'll stay organized working from home and will transform your office into a beautiful and polis

Why Willpower is NOT the Answer to Cut Down on the Latte

Silvina Petersen

Oct 20, 2020
4 min

Why Willpower is NOT the Answer to Cut Down on the Latte

Have you gone through phases in your life where you decided you were spending too much money on something? Perhaps it's online shopping, the latte, the latest cookbook that promises you to serve dinner to your family in 30 minutes or less, or the impromptu pizza nights after a long day of homeschooling. You wake up one morning, and you decide that you will stop spending money on these things and start saving for a rainy day, the next vacation, or the kid's college fund. You t

Dopamine: What Social Media and Overspending Have in Common

Silvina Petersen

Sep 30, 2020
4 min

Dopamine: What Social Media and Overspending Have in Common

I watched The Social Dilemma documentary on Netflix over the weekend. I was reminded once again of how vulnerable our brains are to advancing technology and our social norms' evolution. I genuinely believe that biologically, we are equipped as humans in a way that doesn't always serve us best. The neurotransmitter dopamine, best known as the "Happy Hormone," is an example of this. Dopamine has a well-intended purpose in human design—no question about this. But when we don't f

Bought something at Costco that you weren't planning to buy? Here is Why...

Silvina Petersen

Sep 16, 2020
4 min

Bought something at Costco that you weren't planning to buy? Here is Why...

If you've been following my blog, you've learned that overspending is a form of buffer, and you know how to identify whether or not you are doing it. Think about the last few purchases you've made...maybe the most recent item of clothing or shoes you bought. What happened right before you clicked buy? Did you find yourself unconsciously browsing through the latest Nordstrom sales online? Did you walk every single aisle at Costco? Today I want to dive into the role of desire i

How To Identify Overspending

Silvina Petersen

Sep 1, 2020
4 min

How To Identify Overspending

I find that one of the reasons women resist starting a budget or some sort of spending plan is because they don't think they will stick to it. The lack of trust in their ability to manage their spending keeps them from starting a budget. As a result, they quit ahead of time. They unconsciously give up on their goals to save for an emergency fund, the kids' college tuition, the next vacation, and even retirement. These women may think that they cannot stop the cycle of oversp

Confidence vs Self-Confidence

Silvina Petersen

Aug 21, 2020
4 min

Confidence vs Self-Confidence

You want to become the CFO of your life, start a budget, manage your spending, and work towards your financial goals. However, when you step onto the "Confidence Scale," the needle is not getting past a four, and you wish you were closer to a 10. I'm curious as to how you are rating yourself and why you arrived at that number. When I ask my clients this question, this is what they say: I never budgeted before. I'm used to living paycheck to paycheck even though I have a very

The Love Of Your "Financial Life"

Silvina Petersen

Aug 1, 2020
4 min

The Love Of Your "Financial Life"

You've given the budget a try, not once, not twice, but multiple times and each time you thought you failed at it. You collected lots of reasons why it's not your thing. You never kept up with it; you saw red all over the place; your partner did not cooperate and bought that lawnmower despite you telling him it would not fit the budget. Or, the car broke down all of a sudden, and you had to dip into your savings once again. Let's not forget the vacation you thought your famil

Why You Need A Budget

Silvina Petersen

Jul 23, 2020
4 min

Why You Need A Budget

One question I get a lot is, why do I need to have a budget? Can't I be in charge of my finances without one? Before I share my opinion on this topic, my instinct as a coach is to want you to answer these questions yourself in the first place. Perhaps start by asking, what does being in charge of my finances even mean? When you answer this, and if you don't have a budget already, perhaps think of how the budget would get you closer to "being in charge" or how it is possible t

How To Fail Well

Silvina Petersen

Jul 1, 2020
4 min

How To Fail Well

There are those of us who dream big, those who dream small and those who don’t dream at all. What do you think contributes to how far you are willing to go when you imagine your ideal life? I know what gets in my way: My Fear of Failure. I like to get technical sometimes, so I went ahead, and I googled “Failure.” Google defines failure as: 1- Lack of Success 2- The omission of expected or required action. From the second definition, we can conclude that we are afraid of not m

Where Is Your Auto-Pilot Taking You?

Silvina Petersen

Jun 17, 2020
4 min

Where Is Your Auto-Pilot Taking You?

During a coaching session, my job is to show my client’s their mind and bring awareness to the cause of their problems. It’s almost as if I was invited to walk into the messiest part of their home, and I enter it with a flashlight to look for all the things that are contributing to the chaos. My job is to find that old pair of shoes that she didn’t even know were there, but it was occupying some precious real estate in her closet and did not make room for the new tennis shoes

Embracing The Negative Fifty

Silvina Petersen

Jun 1, 2020
3 min

Embracing The Negative Fifty

One of the most significant “theories” that changed my view and experience of life is that life is 50/50. Half the time we are going to experience positive emotions and the other half, we are going to experience negative emotions. In one of my previous posts, I briefly explained this theory and how we can make sense of it. I also mentioned that most of us unconsciously believe that life should be one hundred percent positive or, at a minimum, eighty percent. Believing in the

What Is Your Buffer?

Silvina Petersen

May 1, 2020
4 min

What Is Your Buffer?

Why do we do what we do? The answer is we do things because of how we think we are going to feel. The problem is that we believe that we should feel happy all the time. We believe that we are in this big pursuit of happiness. And so life becomes a journey, a race, and we think that the goal, the finish line, is happiness. This idea is so ingrained in most of us that we’ll go to great lengths to appear to the world that we have arrived. We are happy. And so we upload photo