image by Stuart Miles

Because the return on your investment can be high. You get something out of it. When I first pursued skills in locksmithing I was not after a new job. I was after the education. I wanted the skill. I could have paid for courses and learned. However, I  immediately began to acquire real applicable skills. My cost was only time, one day a week. After four payments (four days in four weeks) the owner of the company offered me a job. After almost ten years of working for him I have acquired skills in alarm systems, electronic access control, and safe cracking. Could I have gotten the job by just asking? Maybe. However, the level of required commitment for the owner was low and thus it was easy for him to say yes. If I turned out to be a dud, he could just tell me to not come back. No paperwork needed. If he liked me he could move to a higher commitment level (hire me). My cost was low, just time.

So here is the question. What would you like to learn today? What field would you like a job in?

Here are some options:

Volunteer for a small company that will expose you to the field

If you want to be an accountant, start by volunteering for an accountant in exchange for the learning experience. Your cost is time. You can go to school later if you decide you really enjoy it.

Want to learn a skill

Barter your time and skills to someone who can teach you the new skill. If you want to learn french, start by calling the nearest university and asking for the french professors’ numbers. Then contact them for the names of students that tutor others for extra money. I guarantee that they have needs other than money. Ask them what they could use in exchange for tutoring. A home cooked meal or two could do the trick. Maybe you can tutor them in an area they need help. Get creative and don’t think something is out of your reach.

Volunteer for a non profit

If you have the skills and need the job volunteer at a non profit. You will position yourself as someone who is employed and available. You will be helping out an organization that will be grateful and willing to give a recommendation for you. It is more enticing for an employer to hire someone who has a job or is doing something other than sitting on the couch waiting for a job to come to them.

This week I wanted to expand on not having enough time. Here are some rough averages from multiple sources.

We sleep 42-56 hours each week.

Work 40-50 each.

Watch TV 28 hours or more each week.

Seven+ hours go to eating each week.

Six and a half hours per week in the bathroom(no details please).

It was nice to see we spend eight or more hours a week caring for others.

And let’s not forget the almost two hours average drive time.

Now take that information and put it all together.  If you did everything mentioned above for the most amount of time mentioned, can you guess how much free time you would have left? You would have about ten hours left over. So, where are those ten hours? We spend them.  Much like the average person’s finance, there is no plan to use them.  Thus, they slip by with time wasters and things that appear urgent.

Now it is time to fix it.  Think of it like a budget for your time just like the one you have for your money (if you don’t budget your money then maybe it is time to contact me). Here is a simple method you can begin to use today.

Categorize your tasks and activities

If you have never read “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, you should.  In this book Stephen Covey presents a method for categorizing the tasks and activities that we want to do and end up doing. Every activity should fall into one of the four squares on a sheet of paper. The squares are labeled:

Important and Urgent (picking up your wife for an anniversary dinner), Important (exercise), Urgent (an acquaintance needs you to do a favor because they don’t have the time), and Neither Important or Urgent (TV)

Important is when it works towards you goals and purpose. Urgent is when it is attached to a time deadline or appears to.

-Your wife and marriage is important, pick her up on time and show her you care and appreciate her.

-You don’t have to exercise today, or tomorrow, or ever. You can choose to be unhealthy and not live a long life. Unfortunately, we usually let the important things go that are not urgent even though they may have enormous consequences at a later date.

-We hate to say no to people(including ourselves) so we give up on the important and we do the urgent even though it really is not important. If it really is important to you and it is urgent move it to that category.

-If it is none of the above, then it probably does not belong in your day.  It is wasting your resource. It is robbing your time. If watching an hour of TV is important to wind down at the end of the day then it should be in that category and isn’t a waste for you. However twenty eight hours is a bit much.  If you need to ‘buy more time’ then you actually need to prioritize and categorize.

“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.” Stephen R. Covey

Begin to assess all your activities and you will soon find out where you loose so much time.  Then begin to eliminate the ‘neither’ items and replace them with the ‘important’ items. Make sure you do the ‘important and urgent’ items and do not hesitate to let the ‘urgent’ only items slip by. It helps to practice saying ‘no’.

Spend twenty minutes planning your day in the morning and you will find two extra hours by the end.

Personal Finance Tip of the Week:

Less for More

If you want to improve your self image and feel more confident then buy better quality clothes. This can be done without breaking your budget by purchasing a third to a half of the amount of items you may normally accumulate. The higher quality clothes typically last much longer as well, saving you money down the road. Don’t worry about people noticing an outfit being worn four to eight times a month. They will notice the stylish, quality look you present before they realize the last day you wore that specific outfit.

Send me your tips to share with others and I will happily give you the credit (include a link to your site if you want that shared as well).

Efficient - Working in a well-organized and competent way.

Which is good? Both. Which is better? Effectiveness.  I want to accomplish my goals.  However, if I work towards them in an organized way and fail to meet them I will not be satisfied.  If I take the back-roads to get to them and do accomplish them not only will I have satisfaction in the end, I will probably learn valuable lessons along the way.  Ultimately we want to progress toward being efficient at being effective.  Meeting our goals as competent as possible and then moving on to bigger goals while ever increasing our effectiveness.

photo courtesy of Dino De Luca

So should you apply online to 100 different job openings or send personalized letters followed by resumes to twenty targeted companies you want to interview for and follow up with a phone call.  Both, just don’t spend all your time online filing and thinking how effective you are.  You are being efficient.  Anyone who fishes knows that you won’t catch any fish if your lure isn’t in the water.  But you also want the best, most eye catching lure to hit the fish’s sight.  The best lure, in the best spot, at the right time wins.  Don’t wait for the fish to jump into the boat, go fishing.

“Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right things.” Peter Drucker

photo by David Castillo Dominici

I don’t have the time.  It is amazing what we make time to do. Not a good excuse.

I don’t have the money.  Same thing.  We find money to spend on what we want, which  usually does us much less good than if we spent it on things we use this excuse for.  Not a good excuse.

I don’t have the resources.  You do not need that cool machine to loose weight. Walk, run, jump, play, hike, pushup, do something.  Not a good excuse.

I don’t have the patience. No, you don’t.  But you can begin to develop it by practicing.  Not a good excuse.

What have you “not had” or seen others “not have”?  Give me feedback at:

@NewStartCoach or Facebook

JB and Gracie went out hunting squirrels one day. They went after them because they had no peanuts left to eat.  The squirrels had taken them all.  Time elapsed…. Once they found the squirrels they surrounded them.  I paused.

photo by arkorn

Where do we go now?  I had not thought this through.  If we where to shoot the squirrels the story would be over and JB was far from sleep.  Also not quite the best ending for a baby story.  I had to think awhile, so I just continued to talk to him.  The next night however, I was ready to end it.

I continued… As JB and Gracie had the squirrels surrounded they began to talk to them and tell them why they came.  ”We have no peanuts left because you took them all” Gracie said.  ”We need them for the winter” said the squirrels.  ”But do you need them all?” said JB.  ”I guess not” said the squirrels as they gave some to JB and Gracie for the trip home.  JB and Gracie enjoyed their peanuts all the way home.  They were so tired from the great adventure they went right to sleep curling up with each other. (incidentaly JB’s eyes began to really close at this point)  When they woke up and went outside they discovered to their joy peanuts left behind.  The squirrels had obviously been there, but had only taken what they needed now and what they needed to save for the winter.  The squirrels discovered that since they were not taking all they could and eating more than they should, they were more fit and could out run predators that might hurt them.

In case you missed it there was the moral of the story.  Don’t be greedy or gluttonous.  When you stop being selfish and you share you will see added benefits in your life as well as others’ lives.

If you would like to have some fun with squirrels check out this site I stumbled across.

photo by Boaz Yiftach

Most of us have heard the old rhyme that still rings true:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

So the question is simple what is the nail in your life.  That one vital area of your life that is important but not apparently urgent.  It could be your quality family time or your relationship with God.  What makes it a nail is how it affects your complete life.  Your work suffers.  Your sleep suffers.  Your personal peace and satisfaction (or lack of them) suffer.  What if the rhyme went:

For supply of a nail the shoe was saved.

For supply of a shoe the horse was saved.

For supply of a horse the rider was saved.

For supply of a rider the message was saved.

For supply of a message the battle was saved.

For supply of a battle the kingdom was saved.

And all for the supply of a horseshoe nail.

Put the nail back in your life before it is placed in your coffin. Harsh, maybe. But tell me, is your life, family, career, peace worth it.

photo by africa

She could have given up as soon as she encountered resistance in the form of no resources and requiring permission from her leaders in the Catholic Church.  But she persisted, she kept moving, she sent a message that this is important and is worth doing.  She sends that message today with her legacy.  From her start with teaching kids to write by writing in the dirt to watching over the dying until she could no more, Mother Teresa sells.  Her product is caring, compassion, love, and service.  Some people buy it just enough to get the warm fuzzy feeling of a good story.  Others buy hook, line, and sinker.  They move. They follow her.  They serve others as they sacrifice.  They give, love, and care.  And they do it over and over until they can’t.  Despite what you believe about her you, you can not deny this.  She served and loved.  I have heard such things as “she should have…” or “if she had done…”.  I have only one question.  What am I doing?  Follow quickly with these two.  What would I like to do?  What can I start doing today?  Then maybe I will have a product that others would like to buy into as well.

“We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.”  Mother Teresa

photo by photostock

I like to call it the law of exposure.  The less we hide the more trust we gain.  Often in marriages when finances remain separate distrust sets in.  It may take years for it to cause trouble, but distrust always does.

The first step in our marriage was to combine the numbers.  This change created much discussion and helped us learn to communicate.  We are still getting better at communicating and we will always have room to grow.  It also joined us as a team, weaving us as man and wife.  It is not my check, it is ours.  It is not my account, it is ours.  My wife even has passwords to access my social network accounts.  She doesn’t care to, and hasn’t yet (she never asked for them).  It gives me peace knowing that I have nothing to hide.  I have the utmost confidence and trust in my wife.

All because we expose ourselves.

“Honesty is the best image.” Ziggy

But it helps you relieve stress.

In the eight years since I have quit smoking I would have spent over $10,000 on cigarettes.

But I had to find other ways to relax and take breaks.

But it is worth it.

But it is so hard. I even cried once. Ok, quit laughing, it was just once.

photo by Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot

But You feel alone. Especially when most of your friends smoke.

But there are people who will support you.

But there are tools to help you.

But you could live longer and healthier

But you then might be able to see and savor your grandchildren.

But you might be happier after the hard journey.

But…..

But you are going to have to work, hard, over and over to quit.

But you will find a day when your work is over, when the temptations stop. For me it was about four years.

But every day since has been overwhelmingly better because….

I changed my but.

Change your but. Just take it hour by hour. Quit this hour, then next hour quit again.  All you have to do is make it through one hour a time.

I know you can.

“Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette.” Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

photo by Anankkml

1. Anyone can get one. Just because you can buy a chainsaw at the local superstore doesn’t mean you should.

2. Many people have them. They are sitting unused in the garage because they did not really need it.

3. It has a usefull purpose. Yes, I know that there are uses for a chainsaw just like credit cards.

4. There are dangers involved. I burned myself with credit cards when I was younger. Incidentally,I also received my worst burn from a chainsaw engine while trying to fix it.

“Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards.” Robert Orben

In conclusion, credit cards are tools that anyone can get. Most people do get one. Alot of people get hurt because they are not trained to use the tool safely. I do not have a chainsaw because I do not need one. I do not have credit cards because I do not need one. Before you get one ask yourself two questions. Do you need it, I mean really need it. Have you learned exactly how it works and the dangers involved. It is your call. Be safe. Be responsible.