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.

Day 2: Keep trying

May 25, 2012

     Here it is day two and things haven't changed much.  I tried yesterday to sign up for Google's AdSense, but I was denied an account.  I can only assume to was because of my new blogger status and lack of hits, but I hope to change all of that really soon.  I'm planning on starting a YouTube account and start posting videos of my family and put on of the tags, or what ever it called, at the bottom a link to this blog.  Hopefully the viscous circle of advertising and an interest in our family will generate enough income in help put the kids through school or get us all a really nice vacation.  ^_^

     Family events:  Yesterday, my three children come over to spend a few days here.  We stop by the local Walgreen for some meal bars I had the manager order for me.  While there I showed off the 90 $0.99 Register Rewards(RR) I had gotten last week during my couponing trip.  The cashiers were dumbfounded to see so many at one time.  I was prepared to have to use a couple of the RR for the meal bars, but since I had a FREE coupon for all 36 of them and my state doesn't have tax on food items I didn't pay a dime.  NICE!

     While at Walgreen Heather calls and asks asks if I'm gonna take our band student to practice.  Hmm!  I didn't know he had practice.  I guess I haven't seen a schedule because it's not in my phone calender.  Which, incidentally, is where I keep everything to do with my family's events.  I quickly finish up and head home to take care of another forgetful teenager.  (-_^)

     Something exciting, Heather went to a friends home after work to try the It Works! wrap.  I'll let her tell you about it but the results will show for themselves in a day or two if it works.

     Tonight we are planning a trip to watch a good friend of ours graduate high school.  It should be exciting and a good experience for everyone.  This is all six kids first graduation experience.  I think I'll take some of our entertainment $$ out for tonight and let everyone vote on a place to eat or maybe we can join our friend and her family for a celebration dinner.  Who knows.....

Day 1: Trying something new

May 24, 2012

     So, today officially starts the turn of our lives.  Let me start with a little bit of background first.  My name is Kelly.  I'm 31 years old and I've lived in the same mid-sized mid-western town in Indiana my whole life.  I graduated high school in 1999 and attended college for an initial semester and a half.  Came home from that experience with debt and no direction for the rest of my life.  Have my first child a year later with my high school sweetheart, but didn't get married.  I then met my future ex-wife and tried being a "grown-up".  You'll see how well that went in later blogs.  From that point till now, to try and shorten this up some, I've had two more children, three more jobs, a divorce....  now what???

     Now, for where I'm at in my life today.  Two years ago I met the most wonderful woman.  The woman has changed my whole out look on life.  I have always had goals and dreams.  I've always wondered just how thing might have been IF.  If I'd stayed in college and finished.  If I'd join the Navy when I first talked to them 12 years ago.  All the same kinds of questions I'm sure all of you have asked yourselves.  But no more do I ask what if I "had" done this or that, now it's what if we go on vacation here or I take this job there or what if we move their.  The world seems so bright and hopeful now.  I can't see changing anything from my past.  I don't want to be somewhere else anymore.  I am where I want to be right now.  I only want to move ahead form this point, form this house with this woman...

      And, that's where I'm at now.  I've been listening to Dave Ramsey, the creator of The Total Money Makeover, and Dan Miller, the creator of 48days.com, for months now and I'm tired of not having a plan or clear direction.  This is my attempt to start a life from this point forward and turn this boat of chaos toward a course of....

SUCCESS!!!!