Let me just start with the simple fact that I hate going to the grocery store. I always buy more than I plan to buy and the extra always seems to come from the snack and wine aisles. I hate waiting in line. There is no true express lane no matter what they say. Self-checkout lanes? They are designed to check you out of your mind when you realize you’re taking twice as much time to look up broccoli on a touch screen.

I hate carrying bags and as much as I try not to, it seems I’m always forgetting my canvas good shopper recycled bags. I stopped clipping coupons a long time ago because I realized there was a tiny discount for products unless you are a super clipper and besides, have you ever really looked at the coupons in a Sunday paper? They are full of junk foods. Nothing even remotely healthy has a coupon because coupons are mostly there to make the public addicted to food and drugs that aren’t good for them in the first place. Once I became a vegan I quickly realized that at least 70% of the food in grocery stores is not vegan friendly and that’s probably the case for most vegetarians too. I started to wonder why I even bothered and started to think about never going in a grocery store again. Even those who aren’t vegan might want to think about joining me in this mindset.

Amazon Prime

I signed up for Amazon Prime back in February because it seemed a good choice for all the books we order as a family. Just about all books available through Amazon will have the “Prime” checkmark next to their price. Buy a “Prime” book and you get free two day shipping. Plus anyone in my family can use my Prime account even if they don’t live with me. Very nice for my daughter off at college who is always looking for deals on her textbooks. It easily paid for itself in about 6 months. Then I started thinking about Amazons grocery section and saw the Prime logo on many items and I thought…. hmmmm.

For the past couple of months I’ve been working on testing Prime for my grocery items and here’s what I’ve come to know:

Creating a shopping list on Amazon is easy. I went through the house and found all the items we would normally buy and placed them in my account shopping list. Over the past couple of days I’ve put together a sampling of 60 items on my list to share with readers. Find my list here. Virtually everything that I purchase for toiletries, food, pet and household items can be found at Amazon.

It takes about a minute to complete a small order, less than five for larger ones. I just pop them in my cart and pay. I don’t buy everything at once but I try to cut down on having a truck puffing through the neighborhood all the time by making more big orders than not. When I do see that I need something I go to Amazon first. This was the hardest thing to do—reminding everyone at home to go to the site rather than going to the grocery store and spending more money on extra items. I haven’t experienced impulse buys while doing my shopping on Amazon.

My orders arrive at my doorstep in two days tops with no shipping costs. Because we live near a processing facility sometimes they arrive next day. Several times I have placed an order at 4pm and gotten it next day. No bags to carry. No trudging things to the car.

I buy in workable bulk amounts. Some items are in packs of two or three and some in packs of twelve but nothing feels like I need a bomb shelter to store things. Yet, the bonus is that I won’t need more or have to think about an item for several months.

Unlike  Costo and Sam’s  I don’t have to physically go shopping at a discount warehouse to get the benefit and I don’t have to get caught up buying something I don’t need. I make the list that is right for me.

Price. Yes, the important price comparison. Some items are not bargains for sure but I look at the big picture. I diligently compared each item on my shopping list to stores in my area. Some items I saved on and some I paid more for but in the end adding them all together I only spend about $25 more. I think about this when it comes to driving to several stores and the hassle that brings me. I think it’s very much worth it. No more trips to the grocery down the street, the drug store, and then to Whole Foods to get unique items not found in the grocery store. Plus I’ve been on the site and found special deals on some items. I found 12 bottles of our brand of dish liquid for .01. Won’t be out of that for a while!

Special items. There are quite a few items at Amazon that I can’t get even at Whole Foods. Things like black soap and Shea butter tubs. I can avoid a trip to Trader Joes and get my favorite granola from them at Amazon. If you notice on my list I have a bread kit. This kit allows me to easily make fresh loaves of Ezekiel sprouted bread at home as I need them. If you’ve ever purchased Ezekiel breads you know that most are stored in the grocery freezer section. How long have they been there? I also purchase the ingredients to make delicious homemade Seitan, which is my primary vegan meat substitute. No more tofu for me. I’ve decided to stay away from soy products and this option works for me.

Committing to stay out of the grocery store and instead shopping online brings me to yet another important question. What am I going to eat? Well, if you look at the list you will see that there are plenty of things to eat but the other part of my commitment is to only buy my fresh food locally at my farmers market.

This is a commitment to eating food that is in season. In the US we are able to go into the grocery store and get all kinds of fruits and vegetables without regard to how they made it to our grocery store. In truth if it is not in season locally, that fruit has traveled a long way. It may have been picked before it was ripe just so that it would not spoil before it gets to us. The natural flow of nutrients is stunted because of this. Let alone the deadening of flavor that happens when food is refrigerated for transport. Until you have tasted a farm fresh melon or a backyard tomato you have no idea that what you taste when you buy a tomato at a grocery is similar to being in a Matrix movie. You are literally being fed a consumer-based story of what it tastes like. Your brain tells you that story but do you really know what it is supposed to taste like?

Eating only in season brings your body in tune with the world presently around you. Not what is going on and in season in Mexico, Honduras or California. If a particular plant is not in season where you are right now, why should you eat it? Eat the plant that LIVES and THRIVES where you are. There is reason for this. You will live and thrive too! Listen to the earth, the tides and the cycles around you. Become one with what is around you and appreciate where you are.

Farmers markets are of course, filled with local farmers and businesses and it is always good to support them and I do this even though I shop at Amazon. I think this is a good trade. Besides, I don’t see any fully stocked locally owned grocery stores around me. If I did I would shop there. As it stands everything I buy from Amazon would take a similar road to the shelf of a corporate store.

Some photos from the NC Farmers Market:

At the farmers market I can get fresh fruits, vegetables, jams, spices, and wine plus good conversation with the vendors and farmers. They know their product and I get to pick the best foods for me. I also love discovering new items. It you eat meat, dairy and cheese products I think your best bet is to buy them from local farmers who raise their animals locally. Their products are also at the farmers market. Why go to the grocery store and get a pack of chicken that has been processed who knows where, then frozen and shipped to sit on that shelf? Go to the farmer directly.

Finally there is always our backyard garden. Learning to plant in season and care for the food we bring to the table is an incredible experience. Everyone should try to have a little backyard or patio garden. It’s healing.

So overall I believe I can live with no grocery store required. One more thing I have found that I can do without. One more thing that seemed impossible to me because I was just so caught up in the routine of going to the store that I never stopped to wonder if there was another way. Now, I drive past the store without even looking. Feels good. I hope this post was helpful and started your wheels rolling. Think about giving it a shot. The impossible only seems that way until another option becomes clear.

My Amazon List: (Link)

Local Harvest Site: Find Your Local Farmers Market (link)

Barbara Kingsolver: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Eating Local (link)

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It would be easy to blame Tim Ferriss and his book The Four Hour Work Week for planting the seeds of my desire to leave the US. His writings on mini retirements, where people not of traditional retirement age head off to live months or years in exciting new places before returning back home, could have come from my own daydreams. I have been thinking about it for a long time and planting the seeds in my own life so that if given the okay I would be ready to go.

The complexity of waiting for two people to be ready for such a thing at the same time is nothing new for those in committed relationships where one has a little more wanderlust than the other. It works great for those couples closely paired in that department and I know of a couple or two who are about to head off on their adventure together. Most long-term travelers I follow are single or travel alone with spouses back at home. I never wanted this in my relationship but the itch to disappear is always right at the surface for me. In my life I have lived in 35 US cities and lived in over 50 homes. My partner has lived in 5 cities. I’m not going to say which way or experience is better or worse but each creates different definitions of stability and home. Sometimes I feel more relaxed in the strangeness of a hotel room than in the familiarity of my own home. It is only after going somewhere and returning that I feel a full appreciation for the hardwoods, stainless steel, gardens and other markers of suburbia around me. If we haven’t taken some form of overnight trip at least once a month to relieve this within me, I start having a bad case of PMS, which means PLEASE MOVE SOMEWHERE!

This moving somewhere thing isn’t the rhythm of our life right now. We have family responsibilities. Elders to be attended to. My daughter just finished college and has such a small immediate family circle: me. Still we think and talk about it. It is certainly more my dream and I plan to make it happen. My charge and duty in meeting a compromise between the two of us is that If I want us to leave and move to a foreign country for any amount of time I have to make sure that our lives can be the same when we return with few palpable loses. This is not a bad compromise and is probably not unwise. Why leave and start over if we return? Why not leave and leave things behind?

I have done my best to prepare:

WORK – One of the things the Four Hour Work Week speaks of is that to be mobile, you must create an income that is automated. Create your own business that you can run from anywhere– that is the key. Well that takes too much energy for me. Too much thought. Too much attention to what can go wrong and who needs to fix it. I don’t mind working for others. My gig for the past 5 years as an online instructor and more recently in adding freelance writing has allowed me to work for corporations where my existence is vital and required but so enmeshed in the virtual world that I can do my work from anywhere. If I do my job as required, I have no need to speak to a “boss.” I have all the independence I need. I am paid and someone else worries about the day-to-day operations of the business. My partners primary occupation as a Therapeutic Massage Therapist allows work in varied locations. We are set.

HOME – Four years ago using patience, aggressive research and creativity I figured out the purchase of our home with the dream of travel in mind. I was able to manage a rate pay down, which has now evolved into a 2% interest 30 year- fixed loan. Yes the sellers market is now a mess but remember my charge- to be able to return to what we left. It was never the plan to sell in order to travel. With a ridiculously low mortgage we can easily rent our home for twice the mortgage and use the profit on a rental in another country. We have a management company in mind that for a small fee will handle tenant approval and check on the property regularly. If we choose to sell someday we will. If we return, our home waits for us.

BILLS – We do have a few of those and they are with you no matter what. School loans and such don’t care where you live as long as you pay them and we have keep that going and finish. I have a car that is in great body and mechanical shape. It doesn’t look like it has 140,000 miles but as far as I’m concerned it will be my car for a long time. We both are at the edge of paying off our cars. At this point taking on the financial responsibility of new cars would be like an anchor tethering us here. Once paid off, we don’t intend to sell them. It might be nice to have that cash but once again we want to have them when we return. While we are gone we’ll be saving money otherwise spent here by cancelling all but theft coverage.

STUFF- I feel like we’ve been living a fairly minimalist life for several years now and what we don’t yard sale off we should have no problem putting in storage. The monthly fee for that is worth it.

I am all for this compromise and I anxiously wait for the day we can just get it going and leave. If we had this regular adventure of leaving and returning to the US, I could live with that.  What kind of places are on our bucket list? What are we looking for and could we become happy expats?

Next Wednesday’s post will detail what makes another country attractive to us and what places we have in mind. See you then.

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The other day I was walking through the mall doing something that can be pretty stressful. I was buying clothes to wear to a friends wedding. The wedding was less than 2 days away but I couldn’t bring myself to worry. I knew I would find something. I was completely relaxed, walking slowly with hands in my pockets. A mall maintenance guy noticed me and said, “You’re walking like you don’t have a care in the world.” I said, “I don’t.” “Must be nice,” he replied. “It is,” I said.

It’s true. Now of course my life is not perfect and of course I do worry. But the structure that I have built around my work life allows me to feel pretty darn good about how I make my living. In fact, work is such a small part of my day that I feel like I’m not working at all. How do I do it? I follow 3 simple principles. Not 10. That’s too much to remember. Not 5. I go simpler. Just 3. Start Early. Work Efficiently. Walk Away.

1. Start early- Thankfully I am a morning person but even if I were not my biggest tip for working at home would be to get the job done quickly and as early as possible. If I want to sleep in I do. When I get up, I sit down in my office and spend whatever time I’ve set aside to get the days work done. Then I close shop and move on. If you’re not a morning person think about it this way: If you worked for I Hate My Job Inc. , by 8 am you would be stuck in traffic. Get up and get your work done. Have the rest of your day for you, your family, your dogs and your books. Whatever. I am typically done with work by 9 or 10 in the morning. Because of this, work quickly becomes a memory and life swallows up my day. Before you know it I’m walking through the mall with no worries.

2. Work efficiently-I’ve never worked in an office setting but I have worked in many places where I was responsible for being there a set number of hours. I didn’t have enough work to do in those hours and I resorted to busy work. There is no point in this when you work from home. You have a task to do and there’s no reason to drag it out. Spending time web surfing, making unrelated calls, checking personal emails and hanging out at essentially the water cooler in your own home does nothing but make your work day longer. For me this would feel like the kind of work I promised myself that I would never do again. So I do my work requirements from start to finish, even if it’s a long project. If I have to see someone or have an appointment, I try to chunk my work together so that I’m not spread throughout the day. I try to get everything done by lunchtime though I’ve rarely worked to lunchtime. Which brings me to number 3.

3. Walk away -When I started to structure and move towards this life of working from home, I wanted a life where in general my days would be mine and my mind could be at ease. One of the ways I do this is by not thinking about my work during my day. Yes, starting early works. Yes, working efficiently when I sit down works. But it also works to have a set time that begins my ‘no work zone.’ This means that if I haven’t finished something I put it on the front burner for the work session of the following morning and I don’t think about it anymore. Now you say, “what about something critical coming up?” That’s the thing. If I’m really sharp on principles 1 and 2, I don’t get caught out there with a work crisis. I don’t allow the space for that. By this, I mean I won’t take a job that would after my best efforts, put me in that position. That is against what I “work” for. Sure a once in a moment may come up and I step up to that. But by planning an efficient work session where the most pressing work gets done first and planning work ahead of time so that I am not overwhelmed, I can walk away from my desk with little or no worry and zero guilt.

Don’t forget that YOU have a lot more control over your work experience then you might think that you do. So much is possible. You just have to shift your thinking and believe that it is.

I’m working on a book project and I’d like to hear from those of you who work from home. How did you get started? What were some of your challenges? How do you manage now? I’d like to talk with you! Please contact me by email at: spencer@spencerhopedavis.com

“Education should prepare people not just to earn a living, but to live a life—a creative, humane and sensitive life.” Charles Silberman

The first time I walked into a college classroom as an instructor, I walked in with curiosity, joy and a keen eye to the future. I never looked back. I never dreamed of or aspired to teach in any capacity. This was as had been many moments in my life, something I fell into because of circumstances. As a grad student I was supported by a stipend and my assistantship was a comfortable and enjoyable position as an editorial assistant for the sociology journal housed in my department. I was able to see all the new books, and sit behind a computer writing review blurbs all day. When the journal expired and moved to another university, I had to earn my stipend once again, thus teaching.

My first class was an introduction to sociology course, and I remember preparing for that 8 am class like an athlete before a big game. I stared at the wall, scared to death but trying to meditate it away. Perhaps a tad too serious. It was my officemates fault that I was in this state. “This is pretty big for some students,” he said. “Last year they were in high school and this morning you are the first professor they will have in the first college class of their lives. Careful, they might imprint with you like ducklings do when they come out of their eggs.” No pressure.

Actually, I imprinted with them, and became intoxicated in the generalized sense by students and teaching. Loved it! Teaching was like pure adrenalin and felt alternatively like being shot out of a cannon (fun), occasionally like standing on the firing squad (not so fun). I’d leave class some days wanting to pump my fist in the air, proud of my efforts and totally jazzed when ideas and concepts actually communicated properly and I had seen the light bulb factor in my students. There is nothing like that. There were also days when I would screw it all up. Days when I would be lecturing out of one side of my brain, while my inner dialogue was running rampant, trying to get me back on track shouting, “What the hell are you talking about?” Though I would feel nauseous after those days, I had a strange faith in my aptitude and never believed that I wouldn’t be able to have a better day next time.

Being open to the ride of teaching is challenging. Communicating is no easy task, yet those who do it well understand the role of being open to the emotions, thoughts and beliefs of students. This empathy helps create and shape the best educational experience particular to each classroom. This is why I was often intellectually overworked, creating new syllabi and lectures for almost every class. I was also emotionally overworked, unwittingly choosing an engaged pedagogy that suited my personality, but which also made my classrooms churning and powerful learning spaces for my students and for me as well. bell hooks says, “When education is the practice of freedom, students are not the only ones who are asked to share, to confess. Engaged pedagogy does not seek simply to empower students. Any classroom that employs a holistic model of learning will also be a place where teachers grow and are empowered by the process. That empowerment cannot happen if we refuse to be vulnerable while encouraging students to take risks.” So each of my classes was soaked with that vulnerability and honesty from both sides of the podium. I had to be real in order to expect that in return.

Sometimes realness can become very uncomfortable, and as I matured as an instructor I began to wonder about my real role in creating change. An example of uncomfortable raw honesty in my students arrived regularly with an exercise I developed called “The Rape Trial.” Based on real happenings at my undergrad university, this exercise placed 5 male students on trial for the rape of a fellow student. Each male had differing degrees of involvement from just watching to actual forcible contact. I placed them at the front of the classroom and the rest of the class had to ask questions of them (related to our course topics and theories) in order to decide their guilt or innocence. Each male knew his particular scenario and was asked to embellish as necessary to create an appropriate characterization. No matter how many classes did this exercise, the result was always the same. The male students expressed a seemingly carnal knowledge of the rape process, often with such vileness and ferocity that student’s male and female alike had to be held back from attacking them once class was over. We seemed to all sense that this was not just acting, and the holistic classroom would become incredibly painful. This experience was perhaps momentary for my students but I had to see it happen over and over. Each 16th week they would leave and shortly a new group would come in their place.

This is often when instructors begin to doubt if what they are doing is really creating change in the world around them. We begin to wonder if that “imprint” is hanging around more than the golden 16 weeks. I certainly went through this struggle. What was my purpose? After I left grad school and was teaching full time, these feelings only intensified. A grouchy, yet tenured mentor at my institution added to these existential ponderings. I asked him one day why he was such a miserable person. Caught him off guard for a moment, but in crystalline honesty he replied, “ Twenty-five years ago I came down here to this beach town with my wife in a raggedy Volkswagen and hardly nothing else but my optimism. Over the years I’ve gotten older and don’t feel I accomplished a thing. It’s hard when you realize that you can’t change the world in that classroom. Makes me hate em all.” No pressure.

I am fond of a Twilight Zone episode where a professor is at the end of his life and feels like he has made no difference. Like an academic “Christmas Carol,” the ghosts of his students come to visit him and assure him that this was not the case. Rather than “hate em all,” I decided to transition my teaching style even further and be the change I wanted to be. Everyone has the ability to change the world. You just have to be very clear about what part of the world and the method you intend to use. It’s like when you have 5, 10, or 15 things to do and you’re feeling overwhelmed. You have to take them one by one and you have to take a mindset that the world isn’t likely to end on your watch. My favorite meditation for these moments is, “Today is _____. I’m going to look back at this next _____ and it’s either going to be done or it must not have mattered too much anyway.” You simply start from where you are.

My moment came with the opportunity to teach Social Change. I chose three required text. William Upski Wimsatt’s “ No More Prisons,” a quirky self published brain twister that encourages college students to take charge of their education and free their minds from intellectual chains. “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire, which I chose because of its explanation of the “banking system” of education. To Freire , the banking system revolves around the fundamental narrative character of the teacher-student relationship. Teachers speak and thus deposit, while students listen, memorize and repeat to the satisfaction and grading of the instructor. This grade is then their currency. But this currency is both valid and illegitimate. Valid in that a credentialing society accepts it. Yet illegitimate in that it is “apart from inquiry, investigation…and apart from inquiry…individuals cannot be truly human.” This regurgitated hogwash is simply to cash this currency in a corrupt and unimaginative world. My final text was the 9th edition of some monstrous and overly expensive “sociology” text on social movements that was required of me to choose as a base text by my department.

The first two days of class I lectured like a good little minion, establishing rapport and trust with my student. On the third day, I told them that everyone in the class would get an A, no matter what they did, even if they never returned to the class. I told them we would be reading Wimsatt and Freire and they could return them all if they chose to, but certainly return that 9th edition because I would never speak of it again in class. Of course they were stunned and off kilter. The disbelief ranged from wondering if I was lying to them and thus tricking them, to guilt, and then to anger that some would get an A and not “work “ for it. I assured them that in the real world, plenty of people get “A’s” without working for them. Most importantly I let them know that until that moment I had them under my academic thumb, expecting their involvement and attention in return for a grade. Now, we all were free. What would we do with it?

My attendance in that class was better than in my other classes. They came when they wanted to – which was in reality better than those with 5% attendance hanging over their heads. Some days students came prepared to discuss things I asked them to read. Sometimes they didn’t. What never failed was their attentiveness. They listened. They asked questions. They created. On their own. I had to lecture in ways that I never had before. Intense and intuitive to the day’s scenario and materials. Creative. Open. Raw. When you’re not making students show up, you better say something that makes them want to show up. Each student completed some sort of presentation at the end of the semester where they took my role and talked to their classmates about social change from their unique perspective. The only thing I asked was that each of them come to my office during exam week and tell me how it went for them. At the end, everyone got an A, and only one student never came back from that initial day.

This freeing experience sent me on a path away from the discipline of sociology and perhaps toward the end of my days in the classroom. I began to seek ways and means to communicate larger issues to larger audiences beyond the 16th week, and beyond the thumb of the grade. It was difficult to tell students with whom I had established relationships with outside of the classroom, that I was leaving the place that I had taught them was sacred. I had been fortunate enough not to have to live my whole life before finding appreciation from students. Many of my “ducklings” had majored in sociology after those first classes with me. Some were shocked that sociology wasn’t the same as it had been with me. They were also shocked when I would often advise them against seeking degrees in that discipline. One such student, upon hearing that I was walking away from the sociological classroom emailed me in a panic saying that sociology started with me. His angst was palpable, even though he was about to graduate and would never be in a class of mine again. It was the idea it seemed, that upset him. “Hearing you say that you hate sociology is like Socrates telling Phaedrus to stop asking questions… i.e. having someone inspire you to do something and then “do the 180.”

It was with great pleasure that I responded to him:

“Sociology started with me….hmm. I think about people we encounter in our lives and that brings us to discover something….perhaps within ourselves….I don’t know. I came to realize a very important thing that really has to be told from my past. I was a paramedic for the city of Cleveland Ohio years ago. I saw so much…inequality, racism, sexism…all the isms we speak of in sociology yet I had no language for it then and would never have called it that. I just wondered why! I had no answers and I thought at the time that the answers would be found in the ivory tower…educational halls. I researched and came to believe that sociology had the answers.

As far as my teaching sociology. I found out something else. With the exception of the intro like courses, I never willingly used a book or text that would have been labeled sociology. So I clearly had something else within me. Freire, hooks, Lorde…all spoke to larger than the discipline answers. I want you to realize that what I gave to you was not sociology, it was freedom…which if you think about it is probably why you really haven’t experienced sociology like that since. That’s not egotistical in words. I am just saying that I have had so many students who have been disappointed after my classes and I wondered why. I now know the reason. I am not a sociologist. I am a communicator…on a vision quest…a literary artist….whatever. Who knows. But not a sociologist. So something did start with me. Don’t sell yourself short as to what started with me is now awakened in you in a much broader way! Socrates asking Phaedrus to stop asking questions? Perhaps. Should Phaedrus just ask questions (as sociologists do) or should Phaedrus seek answers?”

I signed that note with the name he had given me: Sensei …teacher.

I have always believed in my ability to weather change and transform. Placing oneself in a situation that doesn’t facilitate this when the time comes is a slow death. In this case, a slow intellectual death. Language is transformative, connective, and aligning. It can also be exclusively elusive. I didn’t want to be a facilitator of the later and so I choose to weather the change and transform through the former.

The last day I walked out of a college classroom as an instructor I went with joy, curiosity, and a keen eye to the future. I never looked back.

Stay Tuned for My Next Post: “When What You Do Isn’t You- Part 2: The Escape Plan”
No matter what your job currently is, if what you do isn’t you, there is room for change. It takes planning though. How I planned for a year to walk away and what I had to do to make it work.

On a typical morning, I awake when my body clock tells me to. I rise, fix a light breakfast and take a seat in front of my computer. Most mornings I’m able to accomplish my teaching responsibilities in short time, having learned to utilize efficiency and task completion tips. Thank you. Some mornings I’ll check eBook sales. Thank you. I might check Kindle blog subscriptions. Thank you. Some mornings I might have an email or two waiting in my inbox notifying me of overnight passive income sales of an offered product. Thank you. Whatever the morning brings, the beauty of it is that I am likely to be in my bed clothes at home, or in a hotel room somewhere about to head out for a day of adventure, or sitting peacefully on a porch or beach front—and maybe it’s not even morning. Maybe it’s anytime during the day. Point is, the time to do my work during my day is entirely up to me. Thank you.

When I meet people, the two things that I’m most asked about are being vegan, and how I work online. I’ve blogged a lot about the vegan experience but not so much about my work. That’s about to change. In reality, how I manage my work responsibilities is the fulcrum to the tag of this blog: “My Life. My Travels. My Food.” 4 years ago when I stepped completely into the virtual world for my work experience I had one thing in mind:

Freedom

I didn’t have as a goal to become wealthy, or make boat loads of money overnight trying to follow some get rich proposal. I wanted to make an online living similar to what I had been doing, but the key was that taking my life online would allow me the freedom to manage my time and my dreams. With a few bumps and stalls along the way, moments of acceleration, good ideas and bad, and a lot of time figuring out how to do all of this, I’ve come to accept that the New Life Resolution I made years ago is my day-to-day life. It has been successful, but to get to this point I’ve had to make my way through a few major considerations that I’d like to share with you, in case you have ideas of doing the same.

FIRST and most important:

Take the road less traveled- Believe that it can happen. Although many more people are working from home, it’s still not the first thought that comes into the mind when thinking of “work.” This had to change for me. There is a paradigm shift that occurs when 8 hrs a day- many days a week, becomes no more. With that noise taken away, I did notice something was missing- my life! I fill that void with experiences, travel, opportunities to try out new things, and my own choices of what I do with my time.

Go with what you know- I was teaching in university settings before and as much as I enjoyed that, I wanted more free time. I paid close attention to the growing technological wave of online education and I sought out opportunities to be part of that wave. It just didn’t come to my door. That is what I knew I was good at and I made it work for me. I didn’t burn bridges, nor was there a sudden transition. I planned. I worked online for a year while at the same time maintaining my teaching job. When that year was up and I could see that I could do it all online, I walked away. No regrets. I firmly believe that whatever it is that you are good at, and whatever it is that you are currently doing for a living can most likely be taken out of its current structure to give you more LIFE.

Value what you know- Much of what I have learned in my life has a value. It can be shared, taught, and written about as intellectual property and because of that it has just as much of a monetary value as the work that I would have to do in an office setting. If I were paid by the hour in an office and took a day to create a report and power point presentation, I would earn a specific amount. Now, deduct tax, transportation, and the immeasurable cost of what it means to be required to spend 8 hrs of ones life in that office. I’ve learned how to produce similar and high quality products in less time and earn that wage and more by creating an electronic product with ongoing sales.

Embrace technology- Technology offers ways to connect. Ways to work efficiently. Ways to communicate. Way to make a living. I never wanted to become bound to working just at home. Using technology properly, allows me to take my work and income sources wherever I roam. For me it goes beyond just having a laptop and Internet service. I’m all about digging into search engine optimization, ipub technology, web site creation and social media. As appealing as technology is for me, I don’t believe that everyone has to be a tech geek to work online and to embrace the technology it offers. There are people like me who can assist others in doing everything that I talk about. But you have to learn such things exist first, in order to take advantage of them whether you do the tech work or not. This is what I mean by embracing technology.

Stop worrying about the future- We are indoctrinated to believe that we cannot possibly have a secure future or retirement unless we earn our wages from a structured position within some sort of traditionally structured company. Truth is, as long as you pay taxes on the money you earn it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It goes towards your social security all the same. Unreported income will lead you down the road to cat food–not working from home. But there are a few more things I’ve done to calm my nerves about what I inevitably have little control over–the future. I opened up a Roth IRA and pay myself first. I purchased a life insurance policy that would help out my family if I suddenly died and that policy has a “bucket list “clause. That means if I am terminally ill, if I want to, I can withdraw the money and live my last days with my loved ones like a rock star. I have an account with Sharebuilder and one with TIAA-CREF from my university days. I trust that by the time I retire my stocks/bonds will have survived through several ups and downs. The rest I leave up to the universe.

Use nothing but cash and live in the present- When the time comes for something that I truly want, I buy it. If I can’t pay for it in cash, I just won’t have it. I have an affordable mortgage on a great house and just a few more months left on a spiffy enough car (and I will not buy a new one). Other than that I live a cash based life. Nothing is purchased on credit. This controls my debt, and controls my budget. This takes a lot of worry out of my life, and it doesn’t bind me. If I can’t pay for it, I don’t have it. I see credit cards and the interest charged as giving an unearned tip. Why would anyone do that?

Being clear about what brings you joy and what you’re willing to manage for that joy- Notice I didn’t say sacrifice because I believe if you have joy, you have something, and sacrifice is about giving something up! Everybody has a financial vice or two. Something that they spend a good chunk of their money on. My vices are travel, books, and Apple products. I think I can have it all, as I see “all” as being what’s most important to me in my consumer life. I don’t feel I’m frugal at all, just focused. I’m very conscious of what I chose to spend money on and how that choice may have a consequence on something else in my consumption life. So as I value traveling, I may not be able to spend money on something else, and that’s okay with me. I apply the same idea to other parts and relationships in my life. It’s the positivity principle. Remember what you have. Not what you do not have! When you do this, you can truly have it all.

Learn to multipreneur with a smile and accept change -What I do is not hustling. It’s taking what I know, what I’m good at, and what I can create, and giving it to the world in exchange for the life of freedom and choice that I value. I’ve never been convinced by the system that security only lies in the hands of the traditional wage earner. I think these times in particular show us that security is not what we thought it was. Those who have the best chance of survival are those who are most able to accept and create change. So, if my current ways of earning my freedom become not what they once were, I am prepared to flow into other areas. I have no career track. I have a life track.

Be grateful and get the paper off the lawn when you want to - Leave the car parked in the driveway for days while your neighbors go off to work. Also known as, “don’t hate the player hate the game.” In the beginning of this journey I would at times be sensitive to the side remarks about how I live my life. About how few hours I work, as if social validity only comes with traffic jams, heart attacks, cubicle madness, phone tag, and busy work. But I learned to let it go, and realized how fortunate I am to have made this decision, this life change, and this paradigmatic shift in how I see my life. I know it’s not for everyone for many reasons. But for those that feel the pull to finding freedom, and finding joy, let me say that I am grateful and you will be too.

My life resolution is to never work in an office or structured facility ever again. And I know that this is possible. I’m living it. A normal day-to-day bill paying life full of joy. How about that?

Interested in starting your own New Life Resolution? Subscribe to the blog and stay tuned. Lots of tips and posts on the way as I share, “My Life. My Travels. My Food.”

Email me with questions specific to your New Life Resolution! spencer@spencerhopedavis.com

Just by looking at the title, some refute the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill as creating an unsavory way of looking at life focused on the materialistic. Yet it is an incredible book, and in your hands it can be shaped and molded to create a destiny of your own choosing. What does being “rich” mean to you? If materialism is an unsavory concept (as it is to me), shift your thinking to redefine what being wealthy is. What being rich is. What living life to your full potential is! When I read it and crafted it through my own lens, and with my own definitions of wealth, I found it to be invaluable. Many jewels lie within it.

“Think and Grow Rich” was published in 1937 and details 13 steps to “riches,” most based on the important tasks of visualization, imagination, persistence, and re-training the subconscious to undo negative responses that have a profound reaction in our conscious. Our subconscious creates the realization of alibis for not reaching, not challenging….not achieving! How many have you used to shift the direction of your life from what you desire to what you will accept?

Read the entire book for free here.

From Chapter 16 The Devils Workshop

People who do not succeed have one distinguishing trait in common: They know all the reasons for failure, and have what they believe to be airtight alibis to explain away their own lack of achievement.

IF only I didn’t have a wife and family . . .
IF only I had enough “pull” . . .
IF only I had money . . .
IF only I had good education . . .
IF only I could get a job . . .
IF only I had good health . . .
IF only I had time . . .
IF only times were better . . .
IF only other people understood me . . .
IF only conditions around me were different . . .
IF only I could live my life over again . . .
IF only I did not fear what “they” would say . . .
IF only I had been given a chance . . .
IF only I now had a chance . . .
IF only other people didn’t “have it in for me” . . .
IF only nothing happened to stop me . . .
IF only I were younger . . .
IF only I could do what I want . . .
IF only I had been born rich . . .
IF only I could meet “the right people” . . .
IF only I had the talent some people have . . .
IF only I dared assert myself . . .
IF only I had embraced past opportunities . . .
IF only people didn’t get on my nerves . . .
IF only I didn’t have to keep house and look after the children . . .
IF only I could save some money . . .
IF only the boss appreciated me . . .
IF only I had somebody to help me . . .
IF only my family understood me . . .
IF only I lived in a big city . . .
IF only I could just get started . . .
IF only I were free . . .
IF only I had the personality of some people . . .
IF only I were not so fat . . .
IF only my talents were known . . .
IF only I could just get a “break” . . .
IF only I could get out of debt . . .
IF only I hadn’t failed . . .
IF only I knew how . . .
IF only everybody didn’t oppose me . . .
IF only I didn’t have so many worries . . .
IF only I could marry the right person . . .
IF only people weren’t so dumb . . .
IF only my family were not so extravagant . . .
IF only I were sure of myself . . .
IF only luck were not against me . . .
IF only I had not been born under the wrong star . . .
IF only it were not true that “what is to be will be” . . .
IF only I did not have to work so hard . . .
IF only I hadn’t lost my money . . .
IF only I lived in a different neighborhood . . .
IF only I didn’t have a “past” . . .
IF only I had a business of my own . . .
IF only other people would listen to me . . .
IF only―and this is the greatest of them all―I had the courage to see myself as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me and correct it. Then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others. I know there is something wrong with me or I would now be where I would have been if I had spent more time analysing my weaknesses, and less time building alibis to cover them..

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The Four Hour Work Week on My iPad as a Reminder to Stay Efficient and Enjoy the Ride

Before I read Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Work Week, working from home and online seemed the ideal route for me. Four years ago when I began my transition to online, I was juggling two other teaching jobs. One part time at a local university. The other a full time assistant professor position at another university. The full time position required me to be at faculty meetings, prep, and teach several classes during the week. The part time position didn’t require as much commitment, but did require a drive somewhat longer than I was used to. My new online teaching position offered a new kind of freedom that intrigued me. The idea of doing my course responsibilities from anywhere seemed like heaven. Somewhere the seed grew in my mind that maybe, just maybe I could do the online gig alone and sever the tethers to traditional office hours and classroom antics forever. Once that was done, I relished being able to do my work in my pj’s, devoting about 30 hrs a week to students. I had no idea how something so good could possibly be better.

In 2008, I read Timothy Ferriss’s book, “The Four Hour Work Week.” A major component of the book is in how Ferriss challenges the reader to shift their concept of needs, wants, and dreams, to how work plays into all of this. It is possible he argues, to focus on the things that are most important to you, and shape your work choices around that to ultimately achieve them. While I enjoyed a 30 work week in pj’s, Ferriss and the 4HWW showed me that the focus of enjoyable work was still eating up time from an enjoyable life —and I could make that much better.

A principle of the book is to be able to cut the amount of time you spend working, so that you can spend more time living. I used the principles of the Four Hour Work week, not to create an online business that would fend for itself (even though I did; see model here), but to take what I do well (teaching) and turn it into an online occupation that frees up my life to explore and enjoy.

Even now years later I still have days of wonder, and think…”Is this really happening?”

Most days I get up and go to bed when I feel like it.

I work best in the early morning so I will probably get my online work done in the morning when I’m most focused and have fewer distractions. This allows me to have the entire day to read, write, and just be.

I have the freedom to let my day breathe. If I want to sit and read most of the day I can. If I want to go Trikke riding I can. If I get stuck in traffic I don’t worry, because I don’t have to rush to get anywhere.

I have a lot of time to think about what it is that I want from my life and importantly, work on how to get it.

I can travel mostly without consideration to my work. I can work from a laptop in a hotel, on an iPhone on the beach, and now also from my iPad in a coffee shop.

Work is satisfying, not because of the moment I sit down and work on that screen, but for the moment I get up and walk away…out into my life!

At best I do have a four hour work week. It is my belief that without the tactical changes I made in my work, it would take me 30+ hours a week to do these tasks. Now I’ve cut the time by more than 80% and I do what I feel is a better job. Better for my students because of the focus I give them. Better for me because I live a more engaged life.

Over the years I have learned how to do my online work with a focused precision. Ferriss speaks of this time management method as the 80/20 Pareto principle where if you figure that of 100%, 20% is vital and 80% is trivial. If you can give 100% to the vital components and not waste time on the trivial, productivity can be focused and skyrocket. I apply this to my online work. I give attention to students as needed. I do my work with care and give feedback to make the learning process optimal for them. Still, by intently focusing on what has to be done, I am able to treat this precision as a means to gain freedom of time and space that I so love as my main currency to spend.

My 4 hour work week and the application of the principles look like this:

I have two days a week where I am “off” and not responsible for being in the classroom or responding to students at all. I chose to make these Saturday and Monday. By sticking with this, my students learn when it’s best to communicate with me and structure is formed in habit.

During “discussion” weeks, I am responsible for being present 5 days. Being present means coming online at some point during a 24 hr period and responding in a dialogue fashion to students posts to discussion forum questions. I have a certain amount of posts I am required to make. If I’m quick and focused, meaning I don’t get backlogged with reading old comments because I haven’t checked them regularly, I can zone into my students most current and pressing ideas and spend no more than 30 minutes engaging them with new questions or answering responses to ones I posed the day before.

During “attendance”weeks, I do not have to post because during these weeks students are working independently on assignments. My job during such weeks is to check their individual forums 5 days a week to see if anyone has a question or problem to be addressed. If no questions are posed I can usually scan all of the students forums in a matter of minutes and move on. Ferriss discusses this concept in relation to email. We spend an inordinate and wasted amount of time checking emails throughout the day. For me, one focused and careful attending to them per day accomplishes the same thing. By coming online at the same time daily I ensure that students are looking for me, and that I can catch all posts that may come in during a 24 hr period.

Discussion and attendance weeks alternate, so potentially, if no questions are posed during attendance weeks I have a week with an even smaller work load. This is when the appreciation of the time I have rises to the top. If I have a lighter work week, I don’t feel guilty and try to find a way to stay “work-busy.” I step back, exhale, and go find something that fulfills this extra present of freedom.

I have to grade submitted work within 48 hrs of the due date. In most cases this can all be done on Sundays.

Each Sunday I spend the bulk of my online work week grading and posting assignments for the following week. This is my most time consuming day. Depending on the number of students I have, I can still get it done in 2-3 hours. If I have plans to be out of town or my Sunday is inflexible, I can split this time up during the week, and save all my grading and posts as drafts to be released on Sunday. Focused efficiency is the key!

Working online and from home is something I hope more and more people will come to realize as a viable option for them. Teachers. IT experts. Life coaches. Grant Writers. SEO experts. Web and graphic designers. Artists. Writers. Even Apple customer service reps are working out of their homes now. It’s all possible. If you have an idea about your own dream of doing it, drop me an email. I would be glad to help you with the considerations.

I am a planner. Some would call this being a control freak and on many days, I might be inclined to agree with them. I come from a long line of planners, most evident being my mother, who went to her passage with notebooks full of ideas and unfinished dreams near her side. I too have such notebooks, and if I’m not writing plans out there, I admit to having a dry eraser board tucked in the corner of my office for those moments when I need to see my grandiose ideas drawn out on multicolored mind map diagrams. I actually never knew what a mind map was until my daughter had to draw one for a middle school project. I was smitten. What a way to dream. What a way to plan!

I’ve noticed that my daughter is filling up her own notebooks with ideas and plans. Interesting how our three generations are similar yet different. My mother preferred the .69-cent drugstore wide-ruled spiral classics. I am partial to Moleskin tablets with accordion pockets in the back. My daughter drops mini notebooks in her purse, or index cards in her back pocket where she calculates the pros and cons of life decisions such as staying or leaving a boring but sometimes beneficial part time job. She got this from me. I clearly remember a decade ago when I contemplated moving to the South and starting a new path. We sat a dry eraser board up on the mantle and on the left wrote pros, and on the right, the cons. The pros won out.

The thing about being so specific about planning, dreaming, and idea hoarding is that somewhere along the line, flexibility inevitably smashes up against you. It is a challenge to be admittedly anal about planning, but fluid in the creation and acceptance of change. Especially when dealing with this loss of control comes in the form of a plan crashed and burned in a pile before you. This is why it is important to be able to understand the difference in goals and plans. Goals can be short term or long, but they encapsulate achievement. Whether it’s about what you want out of your life or about the need to have an experience—this part does not matter. What matters is that you see the goal as the fruition of a portion of your overall journey. A plan then, is how this goal can be achieved. If you keep the two connected by a flexible thread that reflects your ability to change plans if needed to achieve a prescribed goal, your journey will be a more flexible one where you are able to go with the ebb and flow of change in your life.

My goals revolve around freedom, and the crux of this in a capitalist world is that I must earn a living at the same time. For me, freedom means not punching a traditional time clock, having boatloads of introspective time in order to fill up the aforementioned Moleskin notebooks, and having the space to travel and explore my world—all of course while earning a living. This sounds like the life of someone on the Travel Channel, and I would love to be someone so fortunate. My fortune and my plans to support these goals currently involve teaching online, selling Trikkes, developing web ventures, and working on creating new paths. Still, a few months ago, I got caught up in the promise of a gift. Such a special gift, and one that would allow me to take some time off from all of my planning and just simply enjoy my goals. In other words, everyday I believed I worked for the goal. This gift held the promise that maybe the planning wouldn’t be so crucial anymore. I was thankful for this because I really had grown weary of planning.

Now I am a responsible person, and even though I was “plan weary,” this gift too had to be planned as to how it would be utilized. Notebooks filled with those ideas on the regular. I allowed myself to dream in a way that was different than the dreams that I held before in prior notebooks. These new dreams were one-sentence affirmative bombshells. “I’m going to _____” and that was that. No plan needed. What a relief to not have to write, “I want to do _____” and follow it with a pyramid of steps required to reach the precipice, each marker laden with its own set of steps tucked within.

Well the gift did come, but not as I assumed it would. In other words, not as I planned! I was crushed for quite a while. Depressed actually. I wasn’t sure if it was because I had allowed myself to dream in a different way, or because I had no plan for this perceived setback. Either way, it wasn’t until I unconsciously reached for my notebook many days into my doldrums, that I realized that my goals were still there undamaged, just waiting for me to see and appreciate them. I realized that my belief that I was working and planning each day for these goals was flawed and was keeping me from living what I had already accomplished. I realized that I am living my goals. The wise choice for me from that day forward, perhaps one my mother never realized, and one that I must instill in my daughter, is that goals are often already achieved, and notebooks should be used to record the experience of living them.

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Lo and behold, you might actually have a life that complicates the pursuit of your core goals! However, in order to achieve them you must stay focused, connected, and accountable to them. This holds especially true when you aren’t able to actively take steps towards them at any given moment due to your job, activities or responsibilities.

Here are 5 simple and useful ways to remind yourself to take a moment to reconnect with your goals.

1. A very common reminder: a rubber band or odd bracelet on your wrist.

2. Set your wrist watch or cell phone to alarm (vibrate) at an odd interval or once a day. Pull out your “And so it is” paper, or just simply take a moment to work on your life script in your head.

3. Install a reminder on your computer. There are several for PC’s http://www.024h.com/, or have your iCal set up a reminder on your Mac. Write something positive and productive on this pop up.

4. Write a reminder or positive vibe-ology and send it to yourself via email. The site http://www.futureme.org/ allows you to set up future emails. Become accountable to yourself and monitor your progress by checking in. If you have a particular goal to finish in 2 weeks, set that email to arrive a few days before the deadline.

5. Become accountable to others. Share some of your goals with a few friends. Ask them to check in via email or phone call on a regular basis and ask just one question, “ How are your goals coming?”

Next Week: We Start Pulling It All Together

Click to Review the Series:
Day 1: Vision Boards
Day 2: Last Thought – First Thought
Day 3: Speak It and It Is

Over the past two days I have discussed tips to visualize goals. Today, we verbalize them. Seeing a picture or actualization in your mind is one powerful directive to manifesting your goals. Saying them out loud, both hearing them and saying them, creates an increasingly powerful dual effect.

In “Speak It and It Is” you will write down your goals as if they are your reality. As if they are already your day to day. You will then return to this note and verbalize this intended reality as a path to manifestation.

The key for this exercise is to stay in the present, to stay assertive, and to stay focused (note the passive voice in the photo). Begin your writing with the words, “And so it is.” This is your intellectual trigger. It serves to reset your brain and prepare you to receive the words you are about to speak. This simple mantra can also be used throughout your day to trigger you to remember these goals.

Next, write your goals out, not in a list but in paragraph form, remembering to state them as if they are reality. State them as if this is your life NOW. Choice of words is very important here. You must say things like, “I am,” versus “I will.” “Is,” versus “will.” “Have,” versus “want.” “Are,” versus “will be.” “And so it is,” versus “And so it will be.”

For example: “I am (not “I will be”) currently the owner of a lucrative ________business that has (not “will have”) in excess of ______ sales per week. This business is (not “will be”) one that has (not “wants to have”) _x number of ____ dedicated customers….etc. ”

Or example #2: “I am a strong and physically fit person who exercises 60 minutes per day as part of my weight loss goals. I watch what I eat, and I have over the past 6 months lost ____ pounds.”

The point is, whether your goals are business, relationship, or lifestyle oriented, you need to write them down and speak them into being by focusing on visualizing this as your reality. Try to be detailed in describing your life here. How long you make this written piece is up to you. Feel free to write your life script. It’s yours after all!

Once you’ve written your goal scenario down on a piece of paper. Fold it up and put it somewhere where you will have regular access to it. Put in your wallet or purse. Put it on your nightstand. Put it on your office desk.

At least twice daily, find a quiet place and unfold your goal paper and read it aloud. Begin with saying, “And so it is. ” Don’t rush through it. Don’t read it to yourself. Say it out loud, even if it is a whisper in a closet at work! Hear each word. See each scenario as the words come alive from the page.

Having a bad day or frustrated with your progress? Say out loud the trigger “And so it is,” to remind you of your words. Or, pull out your folded manifestation and cut through negativity that you’re falling for with a quick read. Verbalize and visualize your way to success!

Tomorrow Day 4 of Goal Focus: Wake Up Calls

Click to Review The Series:
Day 1: Vision Boards
Day 2: Last Thought – First Thought

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Focusing on Your Goals

“Rainy Days and Mondays…” or so the song goes. After a particularly brutal Monday, I lay down to close it off. Exhaling I said, “Well, let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.” Then in my mind I replied to myself, “It will be. I’m setting it up right now.” This wasn’t a joke or a split personality moment. What I was doing was thinking about what I wanted to do on Tuesday, and I was committing to visualizing how it would look and feel accomplishing it.

Few of us will have a cheerleader ever present in our lives. No one can support our thoughts better than we can, because only we know what we’re thinking at any given moment. To be conscious of the emotions that play out in our minds on a daily basis is important to developing a good balance in our lives. When striving to achieve goals, it is vital that we create within our mind the visualization of the success that we are striving for. Really, what good would it do to visualize failure? Yet, we often do just this.

“Last Thought- First Thought” is a 5-minute exercise designed to set your mind towards a positive track for each day. Like prayer and meditation, this is a moment where you connect, reset, and reflect upon the direction your life will take. It is assertive, positive, and very necessary in order to travel the path you’ve aspired to.

As you are heading off to sleep, spend a few moments thinking about the next day on your goal path. First, get into a positive mindset. Quickly immerse yourself in one simple thought of positivity—-that you are successful. Allow this thought to wash away fears and abstract criticisms that can take you down. Next, think about your broad goals and the small steps that you will be taking towards them the next day. Remove anxiety by realizing how much easier you are making your day by contributing to the script of your life!

Now. Focus on two or three steps. Perhaps it is a phone call that needs to be made. Imagine yourself making that call, and all the things you need to come from that call now become part of your visualization. Keep these small steps in mind, maintaining a positive view of them. Do not allow failure to come into your thinking! Close off your mental exercise by repeating the thought that you are successful. Feel relieved of pressure because you know that you are prepared and ready to begin anew! Be aggressive in contributing to your success.

When you awaken, and especially before you get out of bed to zoom into the world, take a moment of pause to remember. Repeat this process.

It’s important to note that you are not spending more than a few moments on this exercise. You are not to overwhelm the mind with numerous tasks and to-do lists for the next day. The purpose of this exercise is to visualize goal success, and to set the mind in a forward momentum by defining some steps towards the goal. This simple act of visualization before you end your day, and before you begin it, will plant a seed of success in your mind that is extraordinarily powerful and productive.

Tomorrow Day 3 of Goal Focus- ” Speak It and It Is”

Click to Review The Series: Day 1-Vision Boards

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Over the next 4 Days I will be presenting tips and tools for gaining sharper focus on your goals.

Day 1 Vision Boards

When we were younger, a common project was to create a collage of our thoughts, ideas, and dreams represented by words and images. Our teachers would plop us down with glue, blank white board, scissors, and a box of random magazines. We would let our untainted imaginations run wild without fear and flip through the images. We pulled out those we felt connected to and pasted them to the board. What resulted was quite unique and telling about the person who created it.

As adults we rarely connect outer images with inner desires and goals. We “want,” but have no plans to achieve what we desire. In fact, visualizing goals and the road to achieve them are often so blocked by fear that we refuse to even contemplate the path. We think in a straight line instead of broadly and creatively, so when adversity strikes, we are stuck. Many feel the dreaded “dead end” feeling. Thinking of goals broadly allows us the freedom to choose differing paths to overcome adversity, while still maintaining our goals. But first, we must learn to recognize our goals. What is it that we want most? The exercise of creating a vision board connects us to our powers of visualization.

Vision boarding is a free flowing exercise designed to do two things: One, to connect to the inner goals and interests of the self. Purpose two is to present these interests in a tangible medium that we can repetitively refer to, which assists us in manifesting that visualization. It is vital to become attuned to what it is that we really want out of life. We must surround and immerse ourselves in this vision or we are literally wasting time!

5 Key Tips for Vision Boards:

1. Begin-The vision board is the first step to opening these channels of visualization for you. Become childlike. Do not allow fear of failure, past slowed achievement, or bad experiences to change your choices. Open yourself and choose images and words that speak to you. There is a reason for this. You are hearing your inner voice. Listen to it! Freely cut out and place these images on your board. Try not to have regard for design or what others might think about your choices.

2. Revisit- Place your finished vision board somewhere that it can be seen daily. I have mine on the wall in front of the computer I work from. Several times a day, when I lean back to rest or contemplate, the vision board is right in my eyesight, reminding me of my goals.

3. Reflect- Once you’re done with your vision board, consider what you’ve created. Pick up an inexpensive journal and on a clean page (labeled “Vision Board 1”), work through what you’ve created. What words appear? Think about the deeper meaning for you. For instance, I have the word “entrepreneur” on my board. I have a literal meaning of this word, but to help me define my goals I know that this word means “freedom” and “flexibility” to me. As I constantly work on my goals, I see that each one ultimately will reflect the broader meaning of a word like entrepreneurship for me.

4. Leave it Alone- Don’t remove anything! There may be things on your vision board that make absolutely no sense to you now. You may look at it and think, “Well that certainly isn’t going to happen!” Stop those thoughts immediately! Don’t take it down! There was a reason for you to place that image or word there. You might not be able to understand it now but you will. Keep visualizing it as is. Its broader meaning will become clear soon.

5. Blank Slate- Place an empty board up next to your finished one. Make a habit of being attuned to images around you. Don’t become closed off and see the original board as your only path! When a word or image strikes you as significant to your goal search, cut it out or write it down on your blank vision board. Make this an active project, designed at keeping your mind moving forward, while strengthening your visualization and focus.

Tomorrow: Day 2 of Goal Setting- “Last Thought -First Thought”

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