Day 17: Back to Step 3 & Read Step 4

June 9, 2012

     So yesterday I made the list and selected three things that were most important to complete and delegated some of the rest to Heather.  I completed two of the three I selected and had to drop fixing the van until today because my mechanic was available yesterday.  So in it's place we completed meal planning for the camping trip and listed a lot of the things we need to prepare today.

     On today's list is fine tune the meals, collect everything we have to take and shop for everything we need to take.  These are really fill ins for me because Heather will be mostly in charge of these at the start of today.  My main two today will be preparing a micro-watering system for our garden so it stays healthy in this dry season and two is to bug the crap out of my mechanic to look at and fix the van for tomorrow.

     The fourth step in Dan Sullivan's manual "How to Get to the Top and Stay There" is about relationships.  Professionally the idea is to focus on the top 20% of your client base that provides 80% of your income and make the most out of each one and delegate the remaining 80%.  Personally it's all about family, put your family at the top of your relationship to do list.  The idea of focusing on only 20% of your client base will have the effect of giving you more free time to focus more on your family relationships. 

Reminder: Don't forget Step 4...

     Three of the children are awake, it's 9am, and probably because they are excited about going to a beach tomorrow.  I might have messed up last night while they were getting in bed by talking about all the thing we are going to get to do.  Oh well!  It is very exciting to think of getting away from everything for a week.  ^_^

     I took the four youngest children to the library yesterday to pick up books for next week.  I looked for Meg Meeker's book "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters", had no luck, Gary Chapman's "The Five Love Languages", found a friend with it willing to let me borrow, and Dan Miller's book "48 Days to the Work You Love", Got It!  I started reading the forward, written by Dave Ramsey, and the introduction and I can't wait to dive in completely.

This is going to be a great week for everybody!!!!

Day 16: Step 2 and 3

June 8, 2012

     Step 2 is all about setting yourself up with more free time.  The idea is that if you give yourself the time to really unplug from the things you do everyday you will be more productive during the time your investing into you work.  I really see the value in this idea and I will do it as I move on from here.  As I start this new J.O.B. in could become easy for me to only look at the income that I'm generating and work more overtime to generate more, but that will be counter productive to the three year goal I setup yesterday.

     Step 3 is about listing 3 things to do today.  I started a list of things that I/we need to get done before we will be ready to go camping on Sunday.  I then marked the three most important to get done first.  First is Unit 4 in Theology.  LOL!  I quickly realized I only have six things left on the list and Heather is home to fill in some of the blanks.  This might actually work.  The other half of Sullivan's strategy is to delegate the things that don't directly need your attention to those helping you.  Heather wants this vacation trip as badly as I do so I know she would love knowing what it is she could do to start getting things together. 

     It's a long process but we can get there together....

Day 15: New Horizons

June 7, 2012

     I've been listening to podcasts from Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller trying to find the inspiration to kick off a new life for me and my family.  Corporate America and I just don't see eye to eye.  It's not that I'm against having a "J.O.B" it's just that I'm not happy working for "the man".  I want the freedom to do as my family needs me too and still be able to provide for them.

      I can't tell you how many time I've told someone that I'm trying to make a living while being a handyman and they look at me like I have a third eye growing out of my forehead.  It can be so disappointing to see the looks of disappointment of your families face while your trying to tell them about your dreams.  It SUCKS!

     And that is why I've started seeking an answer among those people who have done just that.  Those guys that have become successful doing just the thing I want to do.  Find my passion and make an amazing living at it.  Dave and Dan are just the beginning of my journey that I hope to make in to something great.  In Dan's podcast from 5/4/2012 he mentioned another coach by the name of Dan Sullivan and his web site www.strategiccoach.com.  On Sullivan's web site he makes available an 18 page manual titled "How to Get to the Top and Stay There: 10 Strategies for Developing a Multiplier Mindset" for FREE.  I LOVE free stuff! :-)  Anyway, Sullivan gives 10 steps to follow to reach a Multiplier Mindset as he calls it.  I am following step 1 that asks the question 

 "If we were meeting here three years

from today, looking back over those three
years, what has to have happened, both
personally and professionally, for you to
feel happy with your progress?"

     Well... Let me try to answer that with you as I type.  I can see S and T out of the house, M in high school, A and C nervous about starting middle school and C still in grammar school.  The feeling of responsibility for the children's higher education seems to weigh heavy on my mind.  It's not that I feel like it's solely my responsibility but I feel like I want to help them as much as I can and if I'm not in a place of financial readiness then I'll be in a worse place than my parents were.  I didn't get much encouragement from them when it came to college. 

     As far as our life style or station in life I want to see us in a homestead that will provide a place for us to be comfortable with some land to garden and allow plenty of space for the children to grow with the surroundings that we grew up with in the country in the '80s.  I want to see us in a place or ready to find a place that will allow us to feel at ease and connected to our surroundings. 

     I see Heather and I having a business that brings in nearly as much as we do working for "the man".  I want to have a thriving residual income business to produce income 168 hours a week.  How will I achieve this?  I believe Dan Miller's book "48 Days to the Work You Love" will help me focus all of these 10,000 ideas I have rolling around in my head and start one on the road to success.