Read Time: 6 minutes

As an avid Lifestyle Design fanatic, I have to admit, I have been bugging all of my Facebook and twitter friends about this topic.  I ask them, Which would you rather have? Time or Money? To which 99% reply, they’d rather have more TIME.

So my follow up question is, What is standing in the way of your ability to get more TIME? To which they all respond: Money or My Job.  So it seems to me that most people draw the conclusion that inevitably TIME = MONEY.  But is this really true?

Retiring

As I write this post, my wonderful father will be retiring in less than a week after having “served” the phone company for most of his adult life, 39 years to be exact.  Started as a lineman and worked his way up into important management positions.  I am so proud of my dad for making the decision to retire.  They are financially secure and will have their house paid off in less than 2 months! A monumental undertaking!

I said to him, “You know, you’re the last of a dying breed.”  He acknowledged and said that not many who retire after him will be receiving a pension and excellent benefits.  This represented a major turn in our country’s work history going from Defined Benefits (Pensions) to Deferred Contributions (401Ks and the like).  I guess my dad was one of the lucky ones, but he certainly did sacrifice a lot to get to this reward.  But I do also know that part of him is terrified, not because of the money, but NOW, what does he do with his TIME??

What will be my reason to wake up in the morning?

“Kenz, [my dad’s nickname for me] I just don’t know what my reason for waking up in the morning will be if I don’t go to work.”  Ugh! Just pulls at my heart strings, and of course, I mention 101 things he could do aside from he and my mother trying to kill each other for spending too much time together.

Retirement depression is so common among new retirees, that AARP addresses this issue on their website.  Part of me is fearful that my dad will end up one of these statistics.  These are some of the things that they mention that can curb retirement depression:

• What do I want to do? (Go back to school? Be a gourmet cook or master gardener? Start your own business?)
• Who do I want to do it with?
• What resources do I have?
• What resources would be available in a new community if I choose to relocate?
• How can I make this happen?

Now hold on a second… When I read this list, I was flabbergasted!!  Why are we not doing this NOW? Why don’t we ask ourselves these very reflective questions today?  Do we have to wait until we retire old to ask ourselves these questions…especially this one:  How can I make it happen?

Opportunity Cost

I recently read a great book by a wonderful Author, Tisa L. Silver, MBA entitled The Time Value of Life.  Tisa was an esteemed finance professor at the University of Delaware’s Alfred E. Lerner College of Business and Economics, and unlike many professors, takes a different (read: refreshing) approach in her view on money.  In her book, she looks at several factors that play into the time value of money and then also explains why our time is so precious.

I obviously agree with her argument that, money is a renewable resource and time is not, “Time can be spent but only money can be replaced” (Silver).  And one interesting concept that relates to both time and money is “Opportunity Cost.”  In money terms, if you invest in a bond or other investment, you’re giving up your money for a certain period of time for someone to use it, and you forfeit any other benefit that you may have received by using that money in other investments (or to spend on yourself).

Time works the same way. There is an opportunity cost to time.  When we spend our time being angry we are forfeiting our time that we could be using being joyous, happy, silly, or even indifferent.  Even more deliberate than that, when we choose to spend our time doing what we feel is an obligation rather than a choice; we forfeit our time to do what we choose.

So there are choices with how you spend your time, every minute you spend holds an opportunity cost.  Where and how are you spending your opportunity minutes?

If Only’s and Once I’s

Do you do this?  Do you wish for something so badly and then once you get it, the result did not make you feel the way you thought it would?

Silver calls these fallacy statements, I call them “If Only’s and Once I’s”.  We have all been victim of these statements.  I remember my husband early in our marriage would say, “Once I become a police officer then everything will be alright, and I’ll be happy…finally.”  Take a guess at what happened.  Yep, he was the same person, no more or less happy!

Do you say this to yourself?

• Once I get that really nice sports car, then I’ll feel good about myself.
• If only I had more money then I’d be happier.
• Once the kids get older, then I’ll have more free time.

Fallacy statements do not allow us to spring into action, instead we wait for the “perfect timing” of an occurrence, or we wait for the occurrence to happen to us rather than go after it.  We give up our power to be present in the NOW when we use fallacy statements.  We would rather focus on wishful future events, rather than appreciate what we have in front of us.

How DO you Trade your Time?

I know what is true for me that I make a horrible employee, and prefer entrepreneurship.  But I know a lot of people that LOVE their jobs and they make great employees, this is how they choose to trade their time, for money, and I think that is wonderful!  I am not in the business to tell people to quit their jobs.

For these, the opportunity cost is a fair trade.  They love what they’re spending their time doing at work, and gladly collect money for doing it. In fact, time seems to breeze by, they feel free in their life, and they don’t necessarily feel their time is being sucked dry.

There are, however, far more people that are miserable, hate their jobs and the opportunity trade off does not seem fair in their book.  So then what?

The Timing is Never Right

You have options about how to spend your time, good and bad.  If you’re spending it in a way that is not consistent with a fair opportunity trade, then you have a choice to change it.  Sometimes it seems impossible, but you do have choices.

One of my favorite reads, The Four Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss, tackles this very issue of deciding when the time is right.  He describes the time he asked his mother about how she timed when she would have a baby, to which his mother responded, “We figured we would do it at some point, the timing is never perfect to have a baby”.

I can certainly attest to this one…and not just one baby, two!  My older son was a surprise package when we least expected him, and our younger son came right before I was starting our mega venture business.  The timing was so wrong for both of them, but if I waited until it was right, I likely would have no kids!!  Yet I survived and realized that my worst case scenarios never usually manifest.

So with this in mind, are you waiting for perfect conditions to change?  Are you waiting for someone else to tell you what to do you get your act in gear?  You can do it the Band-Aid method, make it fast, and let it hurt for a few minutes until the stinging stops.  Or like jumping into a cold pool, it is numbingly shocking, but then you warm up to it.

Every Day Opportunities

While my dad was one of the “lucky” ones to retire with a pension, he sacrificed a lot of time to get him to where he is at today. In fact my mom will argue that he was a work-a-holic.  He did not know any different, it was in his programming.  He is now faced with a totally foreign challenge, and that is to learn to have, do or be what he loves!  Yet, what he did not realize all a long, is that he could have chosen that path every day!!

Which path are you on? One that misuses your opportunity cost?  Or one to HAVE, DO and BE whatever you desire?

Leave a comment below and let me know!!

Many adventures to you!!

To be honest, when I was talking to mothers that were single, barely making ends meet, I felt awful.  I wanted so badly to alleviate their pain, to make them instantly successful, to end their worries.  But I knew if I did this, it would only provide temporary relief.  Much like those that win the lottery, they find temporary financial relief, only to blow all of their money on frivolous spending.

The best way I have found to help people swamped in Stress, in Debt, stuck in Life, is to show them the way, let them figure it out with help and assistance.

If I were to do all the walking for my kids when they were growing up, they would not have a reason to learn to walk on their own.  Same is true for anyone stuck in a miserable situation.  I could hand you a life preserver, and rescue you, but it is better if I teach you how to swim so the next time you fall overboard, you can make it to shore on your own.

With this being said, when you’re stuck in a horribly stressful situation, “SEE” your way out of it.  What I mean by this is you have the capability of visualizing your way out of debt, out of stress and out of fear.  The three most debilitating human feelings are those I just listed.  But, people find their way out all of the time, why can’t you?

If you’re saying that it’s impossible, you’ve defeated yourself before you began.  All personal development experts will tell you that the number one way to getting what you want is to Visualize your Desire.

So then, let me ask you, if you are stuck in this miserable situation, WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?

• Do you really want to become debt free? – ask for it
• Do you really want to find a better paying job? – see yourself working in one
• Do you want a better relationship with your kids? – believe every day that it is happening.

Doing this exercise may seem what I call “woo-woo” or just plainly stupid and esoteric.  But ask any of the super successful, the wealthy, the happy, the balance people in this world, and they will admit, they had a vision of how their lives would be.

This Vision puts into play several practical steps:

• -          You declare that you desire something to happen, you openly admit it to yourself, and it goes beyond wishing, it is a request.  You believe this will happen and you get past the fear of actually asking for it.
• -          Your Reticular Activating System (RAS) acts as a “fulfillment request center”.  It is given a demand to fulfill a desire, and then seeks to accomplish that request.  It is a very black and white issue, and does not deal with the complicated emotions that are involved, it doesn’t have to.
• -          So now that the RAS has its request, it starts shooting out images and ideas to your subconscious in attempts to fulfill that request.  Sometimes you may start seeing more images, TV ads, signs or other “coincidences” that will potentially fill your desire.
• -          Lastly, as we declare a desire, and we see it vividly in our mind’s eye, we start doing the emotional work necessary to complete the goal.  Emotions like to get in the way of goal completion, but having a clear and accurate vision will allow us to do the work necessary to make it happen.  The question is, how badly do you want it?

It’s no wonder that gurus such as Tony Robbins and Joe Vitale suggest using tools such as Vision Boards.  It allows us to take our mental picture and put it into physical reality.  Sure, the physical reality is only 2 dimensional when you’re making your vision board, but it is still a physical manifestation of your desire, and is the first step in seeing what the desire feels like.

This vision board also allows you to reinforce your desires.  If you look at the board once or even twice a day, it is that daily consistency that activates the RAS, the subconscious and the conscious mind to work together to bring forth your desire.

So I know this is a lot of information about a pretty simple idea: Visualization. Yet, believing that you will not be STUCK in your miserable situation is so important to your mental health and to your ability to dig your way out!

Think about this:

In all things it is better to hope than to despair. “ Johann Von Goethe

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.

Let me know what you think…have you had success with Vision Boards, have you been able to SEE your way out of bad situations?  Leave a comment below, I love feedback!

Many Adventures!

Makenzie

I recently read multiple postings by mothers that are so stressed out, that they would likely sell off one or both kidneys to be able to create more time and have more money to devote to themselves and their family.

These were just a handful of the situations:

“I’m a single mother, I work full time, I have a 7 and 4 year old, I’m exhausted when I get home, but then I have to do school work, laundry, make dinner, clean the house and then get ready to do it all over again!  I have no time for myself!”

“I have three kids, I work full time, go to Grad school and still feel like I can never get ahead!”

“My husband is in the military and gone half the year, my son has lost all ability to potty train, and my daughter does exactly opposite of what I tell her to do!”

My heart just ached when I read all of these stressed out Mom’s postings.  They were screaming for help onto a random forum posting, not knowing where to go, just hoping that someone would listen to their cries for help!

Are you this mom?  Are you burning the candle at both ends?  Are you crying for help and thinking that no one can help you?

1. Listen to the flight attendant:

The first rule here is just to be aware that if you are at this point in your life where you are hanging on by a thread, do what every good flight attendant suggests in the event of cabin pressure failure: “Put the Oxygen Mask on yourself first before you put them on small children.”  Easier said than done?

If you consider the reasons, you are like the HUB of the WHEEL of your family. You are what keeps the family together, ungreased, the wheel doesn’t turn well, it’s squeaky and sticky.  With a well greased HUB, the wheel turns smoothly, effortlessly and can do more rotations than an ungreased hub.  Consider your goal to be as smooth as a greased hub.

Taking care of yourself means doing what you need to do to stay healthy. Eat well, take time for yourself, exercise, meditate etc…  Imagine what your family would do without you? If you are not taking care of yourself, you may continue down the road to sickness due to stress.  So first things first –You are first!

2. Slow down to ½ speed!

It is easy to feel that because we have more to do, we need to do it faster, more hurried, and feel rushed.  Yet, when we deliberately slow down the speed of our life, we are able to think more clearly and specifically about the task at hand.  It really is a funny paradox! You may not actually be doing less tasks when you slow your reaction speed down, it just feels like it!  What happens often is you feel more deliberate, your awareness comes into the present, and you can concentrate on the NOW task and not the FUTURE task.

3.Notice How Your Vibrations are Felt Through your Household Like ShockWaves:

Do you notice that when you have a bad day, and you are stressed, the moment you walk in the house, all of a sudden the kids are fighting and arguing, the dog is barking, there is chaos spreading like wildfire? Believe it or not, our energy levels have certain vibrational frequencies.  Children are very sensitive to these frequencies and react in strange and curious ways, and usually ways that tend to sound like nails screeching across the chalk boards.  Notice when you walk into your house calm, centered and peaceful?  The house can sense your “centeredness”, and mimics this energy level.  Its one of those mysterious universal principles.

4.Use your transitional Times and Take Mental Health Minutes:

When time is a precious commodity for you at this time in your life, it is imperative that you use small portions of time to re-center, recharge and rejuvenate.  You probably know this, but don’t mindfully practice this.  So, now I challenge you to mindfully practice this.  When you are driving home from work, put in peaceful calming music (I like to call it yoga music, easily downloadable from i-Tunes).  When you take a bathroom break, take 5 minutes, close your eyes and do some deep breathing exercises and positive thinking.

5. Design Your Day:

This was a new concept recently introduced to me.   At the beginning of the day, spend 2 minutes, grab your journal and decide consciously HOW you want the day to go, and HOW you want to feel.  For example, “I choose to happily drive to work, I will use the free time in the car to relax.  I choose to have joyous interactions with my coworkers.  My meetings will go easily and I will have easy resolutions to my challenges today. When I leave work, I will happily use that time to transition and be prepared and centered for my family.  I consciously choose to be present with my family in the evening, turning off my email and my phones.”  This only takes a couple of minutes, but you can see the impact that this has on your conscious and subconscious mind.  One of the beauties of this exercise is that you will not script your day to say “I wish work is difficult, I wish the kids will be bad, and I want to be angry and stressed!”  It just doesn’t work like that!

Do not expect that you will immediately practice all five steps right away.  Take one step a day and practice.  A mommy’s job is so important and vital to the health of the family.  So mind your thoughts, mind your health and have fun!

Stay tuned to Part 2 Tips for Stress Management – Moving into Action to Reduce Your Stress

I hear this all the time when I encounter people.  Working on two businesses from home, taking care of my husband (whom I might add is recovering quite nicely and doing a great job at this point of taking care of himself!), and shuttling the kids to and from school.  Homework, baseball, play dates, lunches, dinner etc…!

It doesn’t really seem that overwhelming when I am going through my day–well most days.

A LifeHacker’s Views on Time Management

It all starts with my morning, I am not a morning person typically, so I “roll” out of bed around 0730, praying that my husband has been able to make his way to the kitchen before me to put on my morning “heaven” (aka coffee.)  Morning really sets the tone for the rest of the day for me.  This is the part of the day that I have to really be present, to focus my energies, to align with the stars, to regain my Chi.…and ALL of it!  Because if I ALLOW my morning to go bad, then quite frequently I have a hard time getting in front of my day.

The concept of Time is a funny one to me, because some days just seem to go by so quickly and some are a meaningless mess and drag out forever!  Yet, Time always Feels in my favor, when I have a chance to get my energy AHEAD of TIME.  Makes sense or no?  If I can be present in the NOW, slow down my “reaction speeds” and work on my “proaction” speed, then it seems like Time is on my side.  ProActivity vs. ReActivity

Of course part of this proaction speed is defining my day! I define my day on several levels.

1. How do I want to FEEL today? What do I want my energy to be like?  Do I want to be a pissed off, angry mom?  Or do I want to be a happy, joyful, peaceful, fun mom?  (I choose the latter because it is more fun!)
2. What do I want to DO today? And for some this seems like a ridiculous question because you HAVE to do so many things.  So let me point you back to the idea of Proaction…  When you choose to do something, you allow yourself to feel proactive, it’s your choice, it’s your decision! Yay!  When you feel that you HAVE to do something, you’re reacting to outside influence…and well 99.999% of the time you’re the only one that can make the choice for YOU!!  So are you being responsible for your choice, or are you giving up your power of choice?  Think on this for a little while.…
3. What do I want to BE? This can be such a broad statement, but often I chose to be inspired, to be fun, to be happy!!  I also chose to BE a MOM, to be an Entrepreneur, to be a Runner.…  I get to choose these things everyday!  What do you choose?

A few simple steps to align your Mind with Clarity and good energy will allow you to get ahead of TIME!

(PS — I also do this trick, that was recommended by Zig Ziglar that on days when I roll out of bed and feel just cruddy, I jump up and down 10 times, laugh and say “This is the best day of my life!” “This is the best day of my life!”.…then I look in the mirror and say “I’m talking to you–turn that frown upside down!”  It is so ridiculous, but it’s a fantastic pattern interrupt!  Works!!)

I don’t know if you recognize that a lot of my posts are about getting your MIND and your ENERGY in the right spot.  Little of it has to do with how much time or effort I put into certain tasks.  I used to be that very task focused-driven person.…but it didn’t work for me, I was a miserable mess!  So I had to try something different.  Focusing on my thoughts before focusing on my actions was the BIGGEST difference.  IT works…no bullshit here!

Two more “No Bullshit” LifeHacker Tips:

The best Wheat Bread on this Side of the Mississippi:

This is the EASIEST bread recipe I have found.  You have to do it 2 or 3 times until you find the routine, and you will be asking why you spend so much on bread at the store!!

1. 1 cup warm water
2. 1 Tablespoon Milk
3. 2 Tablespoons oil
4. 3 Tablespoons Honey (I usually add more!)
5. 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar ( I sometimes substitute Molasses)
6. 1 teaspoon Salt
7. 1–1/2 cups all-purpose flour
8. 1–1/2 cups whole wheat flour
9. 2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast.

1. Combine Ingredients #1-#6 in a large mixing bowl, stir.

2. Add flours and yeast, and knead (turn on the kitchenaid mixer) for 10–15 minutes.  Dough should be smooth and elastic.  Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.  Cover with plastic wrap, let rise in warm area (usually above the refridgerator or oven works well.)

3. Punch down dough; knead for a few minutes until smooth then form into a loaf.  Place in a greased loaf pan and cover.  Let rise again until doubled, about 30 min.

4. Bake at 350 for 30–25 minutes.  Remove when done and allow to rest in pan just for a few minutes (any longer and it starts to sweat!)  Easy peasy!  Enjoy!

HOMEWORK!!

I don’t know about you, but my biggest battle with homework is trying to just get it done!!  How many times have I asked him?  Is it done yet?  Finally I was exasperated by my attempts to finish it the night before it was due (for us, it’s a Wednesday!) and I thought, well, I will do what many companies do when they want the job done ahead of schedule…factor in BONUSES!!

So his homework schedule looks like this:

Homework comes home on Friday due on Thursday.

If it’s complete by Monday — $3 bonus.…

If it’s complete by Tuesday — $2 bonus.…

If it’s complete by Wednesday $0!!!

Why $0 on Wednesday? The goal was to get him to complete his homework before crunch time, so now he’s self-motivated to complete his homework on Monday or Tuesday.  He doesn’t have to do it over the weekend, and he gets to choose when he wants to do it.  Either choice has an impact, but it’s ultimately his choice!!

Thanks to all of my readers who so graciously follow along with my posts!  You inspire me everyday to make great posts!  Feel free to drop me a line and make comments!!  Many Adventures to You! ~Makenzie

Thanks for stopping by, I really enjoy reading everyone’s comments and feedback!

Many Adventures to you!

Makenzie

Adventurous Mom Talks About Retirement from Makenzie Kelly on Vimeo.

I first wanted to share a life lesson that I encountered early.  I know that most people have experienced friends or family members that have passed away at some point in their life and I have too.  But one person that affected me greatly, was a person that I didn’t even know.

A Hard Lesson at 21

I was 21, and it was Thanksgiving-eve.  It was another shift on my paramedic internship, and I was responding to a call for a “man down”.  We got these calls occasionally, and usually it was a transient passed out on the corner.  This call was about 11:30 in the evening and it was raining and cold outside.  The call was for a man down in the street.  We drove around in circles for close to 15 minutes at the location of the described area.  We couldn’t find him.  Then we saw a bystander waving us down.

In the middle of the street there was a young man, face down, he appeared have been skateboarding and fell.  He didn’t appear injured except that he was not responding and his breathing was very irregular, he also was laying in a pool of vomit.  We had to put a breathing tube into this throat to help him breathe better, bystanders said he had a dog with him and was walking his dog.

We did what we could medically to help him and transported him to the nearest trauma room.  He died later of a massive brain injury.  He was 25.  My fiance (soon to be husband) at the time was 25 too…they looked the same. That really bothered me.  I don’t even remember the man’s name.

You don’t expect at first to be asked to try save someone your age when you are that young (and fail).  For me, still in my early formative years, it was a hard and fast lesson:  LIFE IS SHORT.

Up to then, I had only seen old faces pass away. Since then, I have seen faces of all ages leave.

What are you doing with your time?

So when I approach people and talk about time, I do it in a very deliberate way.  I ask, “What is your most cherished memory?”

Most people do not respond with “Getting a paycheck every other week.”  It usually has to do with how they shared an experience with someone, learned a new skill, received an award, etc…  I am not discounting the importance of making money, because I think it is an important tool for an enriched life.

Simple Truths I’ve Learned about Money and Time

Can Money make you Happy?

While some may think I am completely insane about this, there has been research that shows once basic human needs are met (food, shelter, clothing etc…) which equates to about $40,000 (okay maybe $50,000 in California) the additional income does NOT significantly increase one’s happiness levels.

More money does not equate to more happiness.

Trust me, I’ve known many people with a lot of money that are more miserable now than before. (Added stress, added possessions, added risk etc)

Can Money buy Time?

Can Money Buy Time?

While you can argue that money can allow one to work more efficiently, hire help to do tasks that one doesn’t have time to do, money, in it’s purest form is really just a mechanism for trade.

It is no different than when the farmers used bales of grain to trade for a cow.  You cannot physically buy time, it is not tangible.

You TRADE money for TIME.  This is what most employees do, or if you are hiring help, this is what you are doing by hiring a house cleaner, personal assistant etc…

But let me be very clear here, you cannot BUY TIME. You cannot “own” time and you certainly cannot make more of it.  You can just enjoy each minute as it comes!

A New Goal This Year

So as I am sitting here, and reflecting on my past, I cannot change it, only appreciate the lessons that the past has taught me.  I cannot change the experiences that time has already delivered, I cannot pay to get that time back.  I can only be present in the NOW time.  (Oh, and that’s a free activity by the way!)

The best way that I know how to honor my most valuable asset is to be Present and Aware now.  For me this sometimes means turning my brain off, and sitting in the stress, the emptiness, the anxiety of the now.

Is it hard for you to “shut it off” like me?  Yes! I get  anxious like I should be doing something. That something is just stuff to fill up my time, it’s not my conscious decision about how I want to spend my time.

After some practice, that anxiety  passes, and soon your time will be spent in relaxation, enjoyment, and happiness.

My second goal is to either be spending my time in one of two states:

1. Relaxation/Enjoyment  or 2. Productivity.

The in-between states are just clutter that fill your life, add stress and don’t honor your time.  See my “To-Do” list for a short list of things that bring relaxation and enjoyment!

Productivity is important to an Entrepreneur.  I need an Area and Time where I can create and be productive. Often times one mistakes productivity for sending emails, doing bills, answering others emergencies, Twittering, Face-booking etc..

Productivity is about the time that you set aside to create your goals, create your life… putting aside the trees for the forest.  Productivity requires unmatched focus, uninterrupted time.

As a successful Entrepreneur and LifeStyle Designer, I am putting these mechanisms in place to protect my most valuable asset.  I am securing my currency of time.  How are you honoring your time?  Happy New Year!

I really wanted to share with everyone how exceptionally excited I am to have Retired!  I guess I like to use the term Retire because it really epitomizes the mindset that I have taken regarding my new life transition.

Some define retire as:

To withdraw from one’s occupation, business, or office

To fall back or retreat, as from battle

To move back or away; recede.

I have definitely withdrawn.…

I moved back or almost like the tide, I’ve receded.    Yet, I really enjoy the second definition, as I’ve fallen back or retreated as from battle! Wow!  I definitely felt like I was in a losing TIME battle, and with the decision to fall back, I have regained my Life! Deciding not to continue to fight the battle doesn’t always mean you lose.  Sometimes you find out that you’re only battling yourself, you are your worst enemy in some situations.

Retiring young DOES NOT mean:

Well what the heck do I mean then?

This type of retirement stinks

How DID I retire at 33?

Gasp!  I know.  I can’t believe I am saying this.  I really do believe that my son is smart, and at the same time, he does need guidance and a good “education”.  Sometimes I ask myself what type of education he is getting in school. 

The public schools of California rank 47th among the nation in spending and get a respective “D” for academic achievement.  Wow, he may learn more if I just drop him off at the local McDonalds everyday. 

But it is not just the California schools that aren’t teaching our kids.  I think as parents we get trapped into thinking that our children learn everything they need to at school.  But in, fact they do not. 

How are we to teach our kids about the love of adventure, about financial independence, about being creative and creating a living for themselves?  School will not teach that.  In fact, I never learned a thing about finance until I was well into college. 

Financial independence and how to create money is definitely not taught in school.  In fact one of my friends keyed it well when he said, “The only thing school teaches our kids, is how to be good workers.” 

Well, there is a much valued need for good workers.  But shall I doom my children to the rat race before they even have a chance?  Send them to school from 8 to 3, fill out the forms, get good grades, only to find out that they didn’t learn all the other needed skills? 

It is no wonder why there are more than 1 Mil homeschooled children in America.  And as more and more are studying the impact of homeschooled children, they are finding that homeschoolers are more motivated, smarter and graduate earlier than their respective peers. 

I had the opportunity to meet one such homeschooled woman the other day.  She finished high school at 16!  She gained an average of 2 years to live her life and do what she wanted by taking this route.

When time is such a precious commoditiy, as I believe it is, is it possible school, the way it is now,  is just a waste of time?

But as we embarked on our 11 day adventure to Yellowstone, I was excited and anxious at the same time. I did not know what would happen over the next eleven days.…I love and live for adventure, but I knew that this trip would be different. I must have had a premonition about what was to occur.

The adventure was filled with an Emergency Room visit, Travel Trailer failures, Thunderstorms, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Mosquitoes the size of birds, Truck failures, and on and on.…! How did we manage? For those that were fortunate enough to follow my vacation on my Facebook, you were able to see the daily struggles that we encountered on our vacation. Many people commented that they would have quit by this time! But NOT us! We were determined to have fun irregardless of the difficulties that were facing us.

It had been a long time since we were able to be together as a family like this and to come through this triumph the way that we did. The kids were Fantastic! They were such troopers and flexible and strong! We were all determined to be adventurous and have fun! We had such a difficult time in the last two years with the struggles of a growing business and a hurt daddy. This trip had more meaning than any other family trip I can remember.

Yellowstone was amazing, truly a wonder of the world and perhaps one of the most beautiful places I have seen. The rivers were wide, the grasses were green, and the sky was definitely the most blue that I have seen. It was so refreshing. On day 9 we were on our way out of the park, driving through Wyoming, on our way to Powell, WY to visit friends. My business partner called.… I was anxious to find out the news of a meeting that he attended in my absence. Suddenly my fun stopped. The news was not what I was expecting and I became anxious. So anxious, I felt that my vacation needed to stop and I needed to be back at work today. I became so anxious, I didn’t stop worrying for a day and a half.

The next day was spent at our very good friend’s house in Wyoming, which I must say is absolutely God’s country! Rolling fields of wheat are contrasted with fields of corn and painted hills of red, orange and burnt umber. The sky is like sapphires in the evening and the clouds are beautiful. The neighbors are friendly and everyone waves at a passing vehicle. The atmosphere is relaxed, and family is more important than the dollar here. Imagine that.… They are out-riding the “recession” because people in Wyoming just make it work. They are in it for the long haul, not working for the money, but working to create a purpose for themselves and their families.

The Fourth of July parade in Cody WY was a celebration of a culture that I do not routinely see in the hustle and bustle of the SF Bay Area. It was a celebration of community and a celebration of true freedom. It was the first day that I realized I was not living my life truly free. I was trapped in my work and also in my fear.

The last five years of my life have been a struggle for riches and glory. I felt that if I struggled and sacrificed that I would be able to work less and have more time with my family. Boy, I really did not know how much I was missing my kids! I had the paradigm shift that over this quest for financial freedom, I may have been going about it all wrong! Oh no! Has it all been wrong? All of a sudden the money did not matter to me so much. I would have given everything up just to have more time with them. I was living in such fear and felt so shackled to the business that my time and my emotions were trapped. I was a caged bird.

But that day in Cody and the three days we spent driving home, I did some serious searching. How could I be free from worry? How could I get more time with my kids? And I was not going to accept “I can’t” for an answer. My mom…and bless her for teaching us this.…taught us that “Can’t NEVER could!” There is a possibility for everything.

Often as I do, I pick up books in stores, or just out of curiosity and sometimes hang onto them for a time before I start reading. I picked up a book called “The Secret of the Ages” by Robert Collier. Not really knowing what it was going to say, it really looked interesting, or at least interesting enough to buy it on sale for ten bucks! I don’t always necessarily feel that one book is better than another. I really feel that a lot of them have messages that are very important. This book was really able to speak to me in a time where I really needed to receive the message. A couple of notable quotes from Collier:

“Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more. ” “Plant the seed of desire in your mind and it forms a nucleus with power to attract to itself everything needed for its fulfillment. ”

The timing was right for me to free myself from the internal fear that I was experiencing and realize that there was an option for me to change my situation. Not only my situation of fear, but my situation of missing my children.

So as I am moving forward with this intention, I am working on finding ways to work on my Lifestyle Design. Working less.… Making more. Evolving from my existing place in my life into a more satisfying and rich lifestyle. Stay tuned! The adventure is just beginning!