My work is to help people think. My clients write books, create innovative solutions, develop brilliant breakthroughs, and endeavor to make the world a better place.

During the last twenty years of working with business leaders to build their personal reputations, and to enhance the profile of their organizations, I created a system for developing intellectual property – ideas.

Not long ago a number of my clients turned the tables on me and suggested I take a little of my own medicine and organize my methodology. I eventually distilled my process down to eleven essential steps. I wrote a draft outline and circulated it among many of my clients, asking if it captured what they had found valuable. With their comments and further refinement, that system is what you now hold in your hands. I call it the Endleofon (END-leo-fahn), an old English word for “eleven.”

Do you get a knot in your stomach when you sit down to pay the bills each month?  Wake up in the middle of the night wondering how you’re ever going to get out of debt?  Get a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness when you read headlines about the housing crisis, oil prices, soaring health care costs, inflation, recession and unemployment?

If you’re feeling worried and anxious about money, you’re not alone.  For millions of people, financial stress is eating away at their basic sense of security and well-being.  And it’s not just bank accounts that are being drained, but also physical and emotional resources, which in turn impact health, relationships, productivity and happiness.

It is easy to fall into the trap of busyness – constantly going from one thing to another – from demands at home to demands at work to emails to exercise to relationships – with no time for stopping, reflecting, or recharging.  We can become like a carpenter who doesn’t have the time to stop and sharpen his or her tools.  As a result, the tools become dull; more and more effort is required; less and less is accomplished. We think we must move faster, work harder.  It’s a vicious circle.

“The mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.” – Confucius

With any undertaking, it’s important to have the right tools. The same is true when you simplify, scale back, live more frugally and sustainably, and make room in your life for things you love.

We’ve already discussed several key tools. The Short List:

1. Determining your essentials and eliminating the rest.
2. A “thriving” mindset where you focus on what you love, not what you don’t have.
3. An “enough” mindset, where you realize you already have enough, and stop wanting more.
4. A plan to reduce expenses, both small and large.
5. Sound financial habits.
6. Debt-elimination strategies.