I Hate My Job!

I had an interesting conversation with a friend this morning. She said to me, “I hate my job. I wish I could do what you did and quit”.

My response to her was, “plan for it and make it happen.” I have a feeling there are a lot of people who are in my friends shoes. I know for myself – I felt stuck. I made good money in Corporate America, but I was not at all passionate about what I was doing. I had a lot of fear of giving it up (you know the acronym of fear – future events appearing real) – I felt stuck and miserable, but I made a plan. My friend said to me, “I just don’t know where to start…”. So I shared with her my plan of attack. I hope this can help other people who may also feel stuck.

1. Get clarity on what you want (see one of my previous blog posts to get you started — https://adventuretowardfreedom.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/how-to-get-everything-you-want/). For me – I want FREEDOM. Freedom to do what I want, when and where. My long-term goal is to create a nice passive income stream with commercial real estate. As I get closer to retirement, I also want to understand and manage my IRA funds, so I got started a Stock training program. Many people are able to take baby steps – start a part-time business or get the education they need while keeping their job for a period of time.

2. SAVE – make sure you have at least 3 months of living expenses saved. This may sound like a lot, but if you get creative, there are a lot of ways to easily get here.

Budget – know what you are spending today – and see where you can save. Eating out is a big one – can you cut this one in half or more?

• Reduce expenses – here are some suggestions — negotiate with your Internet, cable, phone companies, chances are you can greatly reduce your expenses here. Can you cut out your morning Starbuck? How about your seasonal clothes expenditure? If you want it bad enough – you’ll find a way.
• Purge/de-clutter – this one is huge. For one, it’s amazing what will happen in your life when you make space for new. If you have a lot of clutter – you are blocking the flow in your life. I started purging and set a monetary goal of what I’d like to make selling unused/unneeded items in our house (after 11 years – there was a LOT!). My neighborhood has a Facebook “Swap” page – check it out, these are great. I’d simply take a picture of the item for sale, post it on the Facebook Swap page with a price, and someone would buy it and come to my door to pick it up. It is amazing what I made doing this. It wasn’t the big items that sold easily – it was the little $5-$25 items – those items at first glance you might think no one would want, you’d be surprised. At the very least donate items – you can use the deduction on your income taxes.
• Make extra money – try this exercise – do a mind map of ALL the things you can think of to make extra money. Don’t sensor – just list them. You’ll be surprised when you’re finished of all the different options you have.

• Sell your car – if you have a car payment, sell your car and buy a used car you can afford so you don’t have a car payment. I love Dave Ramsey – if you can’t afford to buy an item (and I don’t mean with payments) – you can’t afford it. Rearrange your lifestyle to one you can afford.

3. Create a transition plan – This is the fun part. Determine when you want to “jump” and work backwards from there – what needs to happen so you CAN JUMP? I’m very fortunate to have a wonderful partner to support me. We sat down and got clear on the minimum amount of income I’d need to generate while we are working toward our long-term goals. One of the ways that we decided to generate additional income was through “Vacation Rental” with our home. Sites like Homeaway.com, VRBO.com and FlipKey.com are blowing up. Recent statistics show 47% of leisure travelers are interested in staying in a vacation home. We did some work on our house to get ready for vacation rental and the response has been overwhelming. We’ve actually had to turn away more interested renters than what we’ve accepted. Check out Playa del Dragon – we’re currently looking for SnowBird renters November 2015 – February, 2016. http://www.vrbo.com/730229.

When I did my transition plan I also asked myself a question, “what’s the worse thing that can happen?” The answer – I’ll have to get another job. I can live with that. I’d love to hear from others – what do you want to do and how are you going to get there?

Don’t be afraid to JUMP and enjoy the journey!

Halfway

Today is July 2^nd, day 183 out of 365 for the year 2015. We are at the halfway point for this year – are you on track for your goals? Did you know that only 8% of people achieve their New Years resolutions? Why is that?

I have a theory – I think it’s “lack of clarity” and/or “lack of a big enough WHY”.

We all have the wonderful ability to manifest. Think back to a time when you were able to get exactly what you wanted. How did it happen?

In 1994 I was working for Yellow Freight System (a job I loved) in Overland Park, KS. They were moving my department to a new Inside Sales Center in Austin, TX. I was offered the opportunity to move and lead my department. It was a great honor and a great opportunity. But I had lived in the Kansas City area my entire life, all my friends and family were there and I’d never been to Texas. I looked at the map – and saw the abundance of Lakes in the area (at that time my biggest passion was water skiing), so I decided why not, what do I have to lose. With the excitement of the move – I made 3 goals, I wanted:

1. A house near the Lake
2. A brand new inboard ski boat
3. A hot tub

These were great goals for a 31 year old to have, and boy was I excited. Oh, I forgot to mention, I was most certainly on a tight budget. I told my Real Estate agent what I was looking for, and what my price range was (I think he thought I was crazy). He kept taking me to boring houses in the suburbs that were not even close to a Lake, and telling me there was just nothing available by the Lake in my price range. I kept driving out to the Lake “looking” (remember, 20 years ago the Internet wasn’t what it is today). I stumbled upon an area that reminded me of the cute cottages I used to vacation in when I was a kid at Lake of the Ozarks – I was in love! And I found a cottage for sale in my price range. I immediately called my Realtor to be able to see inside. He tried to talk me out of buying that house, but it was love at first sight – and it was 2 blocks from the Lake and a boat launch. I bought the house in November 1994 and still have it today (and I must say it’s appreciated nicely).

The hot tub was next – it was easy – I found a nice used hot tub that was just perfect. Lastly was the ski boat – all of my friends in Missouri had Ski Nautiques, so naturally that’s what I wanted. I couldn’t find anything in the price range I needed, but I didn’t give up. I’d met with all the boat dealerships in Austin; they all knew exactly what I was looking for. In the spring of 1995 I got a call from Boat Town, they had a brand new 1994 MasterCraft they had bought from a foreclosed dealership – it was beautiful, and in my price range and I jumped on it. Within 6 months I had accomplished my goals and was having a wonderful time living in Austin. And the best part – it was all so easy!

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was practicing the Laws of Manifestation.

• Clear vision
• Visualizing daily with feeling
• Massive action
• Open to what the Universe brought to me

I needed this reminder today, so I thought I’d share. I’m sitting, getting clarity on what I want to accomplish for the rest of 2015 and beyond. In a future post, I’ll share the method that I now use.

We’re at the halfway mark for 2015, lots of time to make dreams come true. On December 31^st, what do you want to be able to look back and say, “Yes, I did that!”?

Letting Go

I guess I was destined for a career in sales. You know the saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. My 84 year-old Dad has been in the Safety Equipment industry most of his life, and today he is still selling, still getting out calling on customers, and still excited to get every sale.

I’ve been blessed and fortunate in my career – working with great people, working for great companies – and I was happy and loved what I was doing for the longest time. Something started shifting for me though. If I had to pinpoint it to a single event, I think I would have to say around 2006 reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” started planting the seeds of desire to take control of my work life, my future.   Truth be told I was an “employee” – trading my time for money. The great thing about sales is you do have the ability to generate a nice upside when you are successful, nevertheless, I had a job – and I wanted more, I wanted Freedom. I wanted to feel like my work mattered, that it served a bigger purpose.

I grew up with “the Poor Dad”. I was told go to school, get a good job, work hard, stay with the same company until you retire and you will be successful.   In my parents generation this seemed to “work”. For me I felt like the hamster on the wheel – running faster and faster and unable to get off.

A lot has happened since 2006 in my life – 3 jobs, 8 significant deaths in my family, lots of personal growth opportunities, work successes and failures, and more insights, oh and did I mention I turned 50? I had made a decision that 2015 would be the year I’d start my own business. I was still fearful of leaving my job. The stars aligned though – and June 15^th was day 1 on this new journey.

My partner and I sat down and did the assessment on making the move – what are the advantages and disadvantages? The advantages list was huge, filled with opportunity and excitement. The disadvantages list only had a couple of items on it – one of course was “it won’t work out”.   This short list was all fear based, and the worse case scenario would be I’d have to get another job. I’m choosing opportunity and excitement. For the next year I’m taking the leap of faith and building a business. I’ll be blogging about my journey, process, and insights along the way.

I’ll end with a couple of questions – Are you happy with your work life? If not – what’s holding you back?

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!