I’m about 70 days into thinking life can be anything I want, but what the heck does that look like in cold hard facts? What have I read, how have I changed, where have I gone, and how can you learn from it? Continue reading →
Life Designers | Meet some Players, Get in the Game
One of the most valuable things I’ve learned so far is to surround yourself, physically and virtually (phone, e-mail, video chat, etc.) with like minded people. It’s worth its weight in gold when trying to achieve a goal. I’m talking about “lifestyle design” here, but it can be applied to any passion. It’s something that usually happens naturally but can be easily overlooked. I’m voting it one of the best uses of your time and here’s why.
We aren’t all extroverted or think to call every product, service and blog owner out there, so I’m urging those who wouldn’t do so of their own accord to try it. The support, new ideas, encouragement and vast amount of knowledge to be tapped is too great to ignore. Most people love to give back. I thought it ripe to mention now as I’m soaking up extreme value from new found friends in the next stages of this project (cutting out non productive tasks, outsourcing and passive income product development). Tim Ferriss in his book The 4 Hour Work Week continually drives home the point to go ask people who are doing what you want to do, how they do it, it’s one of the best ways to learn. I decided to try it; here’s what happened. Continue reading →
Getting Unstuck in Life | Moving Past Mistakes
We all make mistakes. Some bigger than others, but what constantly shines as more important than the mistake, is how you handle it.
I’m roughly 60ish days into lifestyle design and somewhere in the last two weeks I’ve gotten completely stuck. I see now why everyone isn’t breaking free from work, creating new products, living their dreams and generating income. I think it’s because we’re victim to our habits and we get lost in managing this thing called life. It’s also challenging, but that’s really not it. It’s time to get unstuck. Continue reading →
Real Life | Work Work, Get Friday off with Pay
Riding on the words of my last post and interest from a few readers I thought I’d take the time and give a fairly detailed account of how I’ve actually used the previously mentioned lifestyle design tactics (found here) to free hours of time at my job and make myself extremely valuable. The response received from my co-workers and boss were not what I expected. It seems odd because the point of learning these tactics is to eventually build yourself out of a 9-5 all together, but the fact is, the singular focus and effective productivity methods will down right make you a better, more valuable, impactful employee (for yourself too). Consider it practice. It’s the complete opposite of what I thought would happen and a perfect stage setter for preparing yourself to create income on your own terms. (Note: Nowhere do I recommend ditching your work responsibilities, in fact the opposite are what so far seem to be required in positioning yourself to get out of the 9-5 scene.) Continue reading →
Elimination | Achieve More with Less NOW
There’s something very elusive about actually getting work done. It really is baffling how good we are at not managing life. The key is realizing what’s holding you back. It’s a matter of waking up to how we waste our time and how we can combat it. It doesn’t take a class or a book to zero in on ways to instantly save hours of your day. The concepts apply to home life, but really shine when you realize your current 8 hour work day can be accomplished in two. Only a couple months into testing lifestyle design and I’ve seen what it looks like to cut out the fat and develop effective productivity in all areas of my life. I’ve gained hours in my day, stopped doing things that were simply unnecessary, and doubled on some work days what I’ve usually accomplished in one. If you’re looking to break free like we are, add some hours to your day, or want to be highly valued at work, here’s how…
Minimize | Delete Your Old Shoes, Make Money
Did you know your clutter might be costing you $3000+ a year? Proposterous you say! Maybe, for some of us, but for a lot of disorganized people, the time spent tripping over accumulated junk and searching through papers is quite literally costing dollars. “In a recent survey of 200 executives of 1,000 of the nation’s largest companies, respondents were asked: ‘What percent of time do executives waste because they or their assistants can’t find things?’ The median response was 4.3 hours a week, based on a 40-hour week.” (When Time’s Money, Organizing Pays Off) At a salary of $30,000, the cost of searching for important papers, measured in lost time, is about $3,376 per year. Ouch. What’s worse is that even if you’re an organized person, the act of being so when you own more than you need still wastes time and money.
Before I eliminated all the time wasting actions in my life, I eliminated all the time wasting products I owned. The old running sneakers in your closet and that cashback coupon you can’t seem to find is starting to take its toll. Continue reading →
Dreamlining | Step closer to living your dreams
The stereotypical grade school question comes to mind when I think of dreamlines. If you could be anything when you grow up, what would it be? Only instead the context here is, if you had a million dollars in the bank, or you knew you were more capable than anyone else, what would you do? My gut instinct was to say, well duh, I’d buy a Viper GTS, and lounge around all day but would I really? Sitting down to think of it, I realized I wouldn’t do anything of the sort.
Actions: Write out what fulfilling your dreams Continue reading →
Afraidycatness | Overcoming Fears
“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves – regret for the past and fear of the future.”
Fulton Oursler“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Actions:
1) Identify how you would approach life differently if you never had to worry about money and were not afraid of failing.
2) Identify what is the worst possible scenario that could happen if you were to approach life this way.
3) Identify what steps you could take to work your way out of this situation.
Goals: Realize that fear is probably keeping you from some good things and even if everything goes horribly wrong you can easily work your way out of it.
One of the truest things I found in Tim Ferris’s book (4 hour work week) was the idea that most people would rather stay settled in an unsatisfying situation than face the fear of change. Continue reading →
Reading | How to Improve life as a whole
Actions: Read.
Goal: Improve life, become people and money savvy.
For those of you who like to be resource intensive, there’s a plethora of information that will equip you with the people skills, technical skills, and positive spirit to move in the direction of financial freedom, time freedom and work freedom. Some of these books and certainly their concepts will be Continue reading →
Stage 1 | Definitions of Lifestyle Design
Actions: Re-think assumptions ingrained into us about work and making money. Learn new terms.
Goal: Gain some understanding about the game of life design and terms used.
First things first. I admit I want to jump right to building easily managed companies, making loads of passive income and traveling around the world for experience and Continue reading →
