2) Reorganize your
life around your goals.
This is the one that I have found to be the hardest. To my wife, it was simple making a
change. Once she had her goals in place,
she changed her day. It was nothing more
complex than waking up at 5 AM every weekday to go to the gym. On the other hand, I'm a bit more ambitious
and want quite a bit more. I also saw my
wife had a great idea, so I was simply going to follow suit. For me, it provided a way to start learning
and studying for the CCENT and eventually the CCNA.
My life is rather hectic.
I used to wake up about 6:45 AM, slug back some coffee, wake up the
kids, get dressed, and be out the door by 7:45 AM. From around 8 AM to 6 or 7 PM was work, then
supper and playing with the kids until 8 PM.
After that, I'd kick back and relax until 11:30 or 12 PM or so and go to
bed. And I'd get up and do it again. But
I decided to change. I spent too much of
my time at home doing things that were counter-productive to what I wanted. Sure, World of Warcraft is fun, but it costs
me money and doesn't make me money.
Secondly, it's a giant time sink.
I don't know how much time I've wasted doing little or nothing.
So instead, I rearranged my life around what I wanted to
accomplish. It's all based off a
simplistic concept: learn more to earn more.
The whole idea is based off something I think Dave Ramsey said, "10
years from now you will be the same person making the same money except for the
books you read and the people you meet."
So, the goal is to read more books. My schedule has changed to something like
this. Wake up at 5 AM. Read the Bible until 5:45. Study work related stuff until 6:30. Wake the kids up. Head to work at 7:45. Work from 8 AM until I get off between 5 and
7 PM. Eat and play with kids until they
go to bed at 8. Relax until 9:30 PM. Read until 10. Go to bed no later than 10:30. And that's Monday through Friday.
Part of my job requires me to drive around a lot, so I spend
my time listening to my own self-created audio books. This is something new I've started
trying. Essentially, you take whatever
material you want to learn and record it to an audio CD. Throw the CD in the CD player on infinite
repeat as I drive around all day.
I'm expected quite a few things out of all of this. I expect a much more stable and consistent mood. Often, listening to the doom and gloom
present on most radio stations is even to make us believe that our lives are
going nuts just like the rest of the world.
Note to everyone: Real Titans Don't Whine. So I quit listening to reality as presented
on the radio. As a Christian, I should
be doing that anyways. If you want to
succeed, quit listening to what the rest of the Chicken Little world says and spend some
time understanding where you want to go. I think Dave Ramsey put it best... "Throw a brick through your TV and get a clue about your own life."
I refuse to have my fate tied to Washington, or any other
town. I will succeed, or I will die
trying. There is no other option. And I do have to credit Jim Collins Good to Great for his Chicken Little analogy. He said
it much better than I could have.
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