do it yourself FREEDOM

Impacts: Mind, Health, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.” – Seneca

We all need time to relax and rest our minds. We also must have opportunities to play and challenge ourselves physically and mentally. These recreational activities are often fulfilled by what is more accurately defined as entertainment in our modern culture. Things like television, movies, video games, the internet, listening to music, and the use of intoxicants often serve as the mechanisms for facilitating modern entertainment; and this is a problem.

The problem is that when we choose activities that give us little opportunity for personal growth we are using our time unwisely. If we were to choose activities that exercise the mind and/or body while we are relaxing or having fun we begin earn back time to live quality lives. We also give ourselves the opportunity to grow and/or improve our health. Every time we spend our time being proactive and productive we move closer to realizing more personal freedom.

Take Action

• Read instead of watching television.
• Play music instead of listening to music.
• Write or read online instead of just surfing or gaming.
• Avoid intoxicants.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“Games of chance are traps to catch school boy novices and gaping country squires, who begin with a guinea and end with a mortgage.” – Richard Cumberland

A friend of mine says, “The lottery is really just a tax for people that are bad at math.” In fact if you stop for a moment and think about the odds of winning in any type of game of chance you’ll quickly realize there’s not a lot of money in gambling unless you’re the casino. Continue to look around and you’ll notice that those casinos seem to be getting bigger everyday. I wonder where they are getting all that money?

The problem with gambling is that it’s all about taking risk without thought. The few people that fall into the category of mathematical genius and learn to count cards or otherwise beat the system get banned from big casinos because they have some kind of unfair advantage. That’s pretty funny actually. Who has the unfair advantage?

You can also apply the idea of gambling to other things in life beyond casinos. Anytime you take on unknown risks for the chance of getting ahead you are choosing to put your future in the hands of luck. Maybe that’s the core reason why people gamble in the first place; they are seeking the excitement delivered by risk. It’s a bit ironic that the excitement of an unlikely win somehow outweighs the disappointment of loosing, at least for a few moments.

So the trick is to ask yourself if the excitement is worth the cost.  The next time you’re considering taking unknown risks for unknown gains stop and brainstorm ways of having fun for free.

Take Action

• Make all choices carefully and try to factor in all risks.
• Avoid buying lottery tickets.
• Avoid casinos and online.

Impacts: Mind, Work, Money, Community, Time

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” – Francis Bacon

“When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.” – Zen proverb

I’m a true believer in the idea that we make our own opportunities. But I’d also say that opportunities expand at an exponential rate. The inverse is also true; when opportunities are sparse creating new opportunities is extremely difficult.

This is why you hear those of us who have achieved a certain level of success saying things like you make your own opportunities. What you don’t hear most successful people say is that it is really hard to get started, but you’ll hear everyone say that if you persevere you will succeed and anything is possible. This is most definitely true, getting started is the hardest part.

Another simple truth is that opportunities come from connections with other people. They don’t come out of thin air. Building quality authentic relationships with other people is the secret sauce to creating opportunities. Also keep in mind that the number of connections is secondary to the quality of relationships. You can also think of it like this, it’s not how many people you know but who you know.

Now that particular idea might leave a bad taste in your mouth because it sounds like how the good-old-boys-club works and in fact it is how their club works. But it works for them because it can work for everyone. The community you build around yourself will the source of the opportunities you make. If you choose to get and MBA and climb the ladders in the corporate world the opportunities you make will come from those people higher on the ladders. If you choose to connect with other groups of people you will make a different set of opportunities.

Take Action

• Spend more time with more people online and in person.
• Build friendships and relationships on trust.
• Be loyal.
• Be authentic and honest.
• Be yourself.
• Carefully think through your thoughts and put them out there.
• Always listen to new ideas and remain open.

Impacts: Mind, Health, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.” – John F. Kennedy

“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” -  Abraham Lincoln

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” – Buddha

“Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.” – Martin Luther

“War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.” – Martin Luther

“Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.” – Zen proverb

The main problem with choosing to resolve differences through conflict is that the final cost is incalculable at the onset. This is because it is not known what the opposition will bring to the table or what responses will be required. This is true for every kind of conflict from arguments at home, to lawsuits, to world wars.

When the final cost is incalculable it’s impossible to know if choosing to resolve the difference through conflict will turn out to be positive or negative. It’s like jumping off a cliff without knowing the height of the fall. It could be a street curb or the grand canyon. The risk is only acceptable if you know the final cost.

The only certainty is that the conflict will cost money, time, energy, and sometimes lives. This is why conflicts of all kinds should be avoided. Conflicts by their nature involve accepting unknown amounts of risk and gambling without knowing the rules of the game.

The people who enjoy or profit from conflict will always advocate war, legal battles, and incite arguments. Some do it for sport and others for profit. It is also easy to get sucked into conflicts so the next time it happens to you try to step back and consider the potential benefits and costs and look for other ways to resolve the difference.

On a larger scale try to always vote for the elected officials who put war after diplomacy and social services before defense budgets. Governments wield enormous amounts of power and can spend money we don’t have at extremely fast rates. The world will be a better place to live when we can choose people to represent us in government who recognize that war and conflict is not the best way to bring us peace, prosperity, stability and freedom.

Take Action

• Be like a duck.
• When opportunities for conflict arise look for ways both sides can walk away with a win.
• Find alternative ways of dealing with anger. We often get enticed into conflict by our own feelings.
• Be on the lookout for those that like to stir things up. Avoid these people.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

At first delegating might seem like dumping your responsibilities to someone else. You may also be an avid do-it-yourselfer and prefer to complete your tasks by yourself. Or you could just be a penny pincher and think it doesn’t make financial sense to pay other people to do something you know how to do.

Those all seem like perfectly reasonable reasons to do-it-yourself but every time you take a step toward reducing your load you take a step toward realizing your real goals. Some tasks chew up valuable time, energy, and money and the truth is nobody is great at doing everything. Some things are better left to people who do them all the time.

A simple example is moving the lawn. It doesn’t take much training to mow a lawn. Depending on the size of the lawn it may not even take that much time or energy. But all chores like this can eat up time and require that you work it into your schedule.

Keep an eye out for tasks you don’t like doing and cost very little to have someone else do. Every time you delegate a task you buy back time literally because delegating often costs money. Simply weigh the cost against the benefit. If it makes sense to try it, give it a shot, you can always go back to doing it yourself.

Take Action

• Make a list of the regular tasks you do.
• Order the list by least favorite.
• Get some estimates from people who do that kind of work.
• Weigh the cost against the benefit in recaptured time and mental clarity.
• Give it a try, cancel the service at any time.
• Reevaluate that decision regularly.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. ” – Buddha

Staying focused on the present moment can be a challenge; we naturally multitask. Maybe it’s because our minds are so active, or maybe it’s because we lack the ability to concentrate. Whatever the reason the benefits of focusing on the tasks and issues at hand will improve your interactions with the people around us and improve your ability to complete tasks. Staying focused and completing tasks are required for achieving long range goals.

Take Action

• When in a conversation try to give the other person your full attention.
• When working on a task try to filter out distractions and complete the task.
• If you feel overwhelmed try making a list and tackle each thing one at a time.

Impacts: Health, Home, Work, Money, Community

“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.” Henry David Thoreau

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Henry David Thoreau

By burning less I mean everything from cars to lawn movers to cigarettes to fireplaces, yep anything on fire. Every time you choose to burn less you reduce your carbon footprint which immediately makes positive improvements to the environment and indirectly to your health.

We often don’t think about the stuff we burn. In fact most of us probably don’t realize how much is burned for us to bring us the things we want. Coal is now generating about half the electricity in America. Our cars and homes burn up the majority of the fuel we use. But it goes far beyond these things. Lets take the banana you ate at breakfast this morning. It was probably imported and traveled thousands of miles on a ship that burned fuel the whole way to America. Once it arrived more fuel was burned up in the truck that brought it to the brightly lit air-conditioned store where you bought it. Your choice of paper or plastic is such a minimal issue compared to the rest it always makes me laugh when they ask me. I usually ask myself why am I buying this fruit from across the globe.

I’m not trying to get all crazy here; I’m just pointing out a simple truth that we don’t often think about when we answer the bag question. Everything in our modern world requires energy that usually comes from burning a fossil fuel. I bet once we run out of gas our carbon impact will be reduced for us and all the problems of global warming and pollution will be solved. We’ll have a few bigger problems.

Until that happens the benefits of burning less are cleaner air and water and an immediate reduced dependence on combustible fuels. Switching to renewable clean energy sources and reducing your consumption of energy all together reduces a burden that impedes your freedom everyday. Burning less means you spend less too. Fossil fuels are still a relatively inexpensive source of energy but every time you choose to burn less you save more, which will always give you more freedom.

Take Action

• Drive less, carpool, take mass transit.
• Bike and walk more.
• Shop in small local stores that sell locally made products and food.
• Only in-season produce from farmers’ markets.
• Use less electricity and heating fuels in you home.
• Insulate you home.
• Add passive solar features to your home.
• Move to a more temperate climate.
• Move closer to work.
• Consider careers that permit working from home.
• Travel less.
• Vacation closer to home.

Impacts: Mind, Health, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Edward Young

When you choose to live life strategically you quickly realize that time is the most limited commodity. Achieving goals requires a plan, action, a little luck and most importantly time. Much of our lives is spent doing things that don’t move us forward, but simply help us tread water. Finding ways to spend the time you have more carefully will give you back potentially wasted time.

Sometimes you have to get creative and find ways of catching two birds with one net. When you procrastinate it’s like tossing your net on the ground and wishing the bird into it, which won’t catch you any birds. Procrastination is more than wasting time it’s the complete denial of progress and because it’s mostly in your head it’s an incredibly behavior to overcome.

Confronting yourself and getting things off your mental back burner should become one of your top priorities. As you begin to bring them forward, work through and resolve them you’ll feel an enormous lightening of stress and weight. This very fact should shed a little light on how much these back burner tasks were a burden.

Learning to procrastinate less will propel you forward because you’re not just saving time, you’re saving your peace of mind. You’re removing the cancer lingering suppressed thoughts grow in your mind.

Exercise

• Confront your procrastination. Make a list of the things on your back burner.
• Prioritize the list based on the level of stress these things cause you.
• Post the list somewhere you’ll see it often, on your desk, by your bed, etc. Don’t do this to torture yourself. Do it to remind yourself and help your self feel better because you’re at least being honest with yourself about your back burner projects.
• Work the list from least stressful to most stressful. Build momentum with the easiest stuff.
• Cross items off as you complete them, leave the list up as motivation.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Time

“A man in debt is so far a slave.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our strong desire to consume tends to lead each of us into incredible economic trouble. Money has become so easy to borrow we now take borrowing for granted. Virtually everyone from kids to corporations operate on a daily basis on borrowed money. We’re living on the margin; the margin between the borrowed money and the next payment and this existence has literally turned us into debt slaves.

Sadly this is no exaggeration and the worst part is that it is almost impossible to free ourselves from debt without making some difficult choices. Back in the middle ages this was called indentured servitude and it was a bit more forced on the masses by the rich. Today we choose debt slavery happily so we can share in the essentials and spolis our culture requires and provides like beautiful homes and nice cars.

Breaking this pattern is difficult. Money fuels and limits our freedom in so many ways. Earning more money doesn’t solve the problem; learning to control our need for instant gratification is the solution. Money doesn’t set you free, changing how you think about money sets you free.

Making more money seems can have the reverse effect on debt because the more you make the more able you are to borrow more money than you can afford. Without discipline it’s easy to fall into the trap and choose to buy the best things you think you can afford and have earned.

The trouble is that your brain may still be stuck in instant gratification mode and your greed will get you stuck deeper in debt. You eyes may then open and you realize that your debt has also shackled you to our job. If you’re luckily enough to love your work your shackles may seem to disappear, but your freedom and options are still limited. You may also convince yourself that your job is a requirement and unavoidable, but ironically the opposite is true.

Deciding to live more frugally sets you free. Paying down debt sets you free. Living well within your means sets you free. After watching the economy crash and the housing bubble burst it’s not hard for most of us to realize how debt enslaves us. Remembering this valuable lesson when things turn around could be the most valuable lesson of them all.

Take Action

• Avoid accumulating dept.
• Spend far less than you make.
• Always pay more than your payment.
• Avoid buying things that don’t move you toward your goals.
• Buy only what you need.
• Eliminate unnecessary payments.
• Reduce how much you spend for things you need like transportation and housing.
• Be more frugal.
• Downsize.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money

“Taxation which lessens the reward of the producer necessarily lessens the incentive to production; taxation which is conditioned upon the act of production, or the use of any of the three factors of production, necessarily discourages production. Thus taxation which diminishes the earnings of the laborer or the returns of the capitalist tends to render the one less industrious and intelligent, the other less disposed to save and invest. ” – Henry George

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin

Today we accept that income tax is a fact of life, but this has not always been the case. Over the years there have been those to point out the simple obvious truth, that taxing income  counter productive and puts us virtually in the employment of the federal government.

There have been many alternatives presented to our elected representatives but for some reason taxing income before our employers can pay us has become normal. Unfortunately for us it also seems to be the most effective way to take our money. For example when you talk with friends during tax time do you focus on the total you paid or how much you got back?

Henry George (1839-1897) was an American economist that made great progress during his day on setting up foundations for taxation and helped defend the working class from early corporate impacts. In more recent years others have stepped up to take on the issue of unfair taxation.

One organization, FiarTax, is pushing for a national sales tax to replace income tax. The idea is simple. We still get taxed but we don’t get money taken from our paychecks before we see it Instead we are taxed when we buy things.

The effects are controversial because it is not known how this will help or hurt the economy. Would people stop buying because the tax is higher? Would large and small companies feel even more economic trouble? Would an end come to American consumerism? One thing is for sure, there must be hordes of lobbyists and politicians running all over Washington DC thwarting any impact serious tax reform movements like might make.

In the mean time, until some kind of serious tax reform is found, each of us can make it a point to take advantage of every tax credit and deduction we can. I’m not advocating tax evasion. I’m suggesting that with a little extra effort and possibly some professional tax advice each of can discover ways of lowering our tax exposure though our choices.

With some digging, research, and careful planning you’ll find that some consumer choices actually pay you back at tax time, like buying a hybrid vehicle, metal roofing, or solar systems for your home. Educating yourself and choose wisely and find those tax breaks so you can keep more of your money at tax time.

Take Action

• Learn more about the FairTax plan. www.fairtax.org
• Read  FairTax: The Truth: Answering the Critics by Neal Boortz and John Linder.
• Visit the IRS website and read the sections on tax credits and deductions. www.irs.gov
• Gather your tax documents and seek professional tax advice before tax time for planning advice.
• Keep good financial records of all expenses especially if you have a small business or work out of your home.