I nearly gagged. It was friggin’ horrible.

How could this be. I had been told that “It doesn’t get any better than this”, but that couldn’t be true. I was a young man but I knew that was a crock. I was thoroughly disappointed and new I could do better.

From that moment on I knew I wasn’t going to settle for anyone else’s expectations. I knew I could be better.

This is just one of many times in my life when I expected a situation to be something amazing just to realize when I got there that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, Including becoming a Vice President of a bank. That position was something that I wanted for a number of years but I was no where near happy once I reached it.

From that teenage moment where I had to struggle to finish that crappy beer I knew that I had to set my goals higher and that I should never settle for someone else’s idea of a great situation. I have lost my way a couple of times but I am back on track… working towards my own goals and not even considering what others consider as good as it gets.

It Does Get Better Than That. And It Keeps Getting Better.

Actually, My true reason for not even visiting this space for a month is that I’ve been too busy living the dream. I have gone camping in Moab, UT, visited Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, rock climbed with my kids, taken afternoon hikes with my family, morning walks with my wife, explored new areas on quiet bike rides, visited new open spaces, had a picnic by the river, met with members of my community to discuss topics I am passionate about, met my neighbors, made new friends, and became closer to some old friends.

Its been one hell of a month. But these wonderful experiences would have never happened if I hadn’t turned the wheel of life to go the direction I wanted to go.

The other day I drove past the bank building that I worked in for almost 5 years.

My 3 year old daughter said, “Look Daddy, there’s the bank.”

I said, “Yes, you’re right, that is the bank”.

It was quiet for a few seconds then she said, “Do you remember when you used to live there?”

I laughed and said, “Yes honey I remember that, but now I am really LIVING with you.”

Have you even thought much about why the standard work week is 40 hours? In all the years that I was punching a clock I found ways to fill those hours. A lot of that time was filled with chatting with co-workers, email, reading the newspaper or other online news. I also used to drink a ton of coffee and water just so I had a reason to get up and walk around.

What if workers were giving the opportunity to work less hours? I would wager good money that if a worker was asked to produce the same amount of productivity in 30 hours, they could do it. Wouldn’t a great way to entice talented people to work for your company be to pay a typical 40 hour salary for only 30 hours of work. The workers would become more efficient and finish the same or more work in less time. Not only would this make the company a desirable place for talented people to work but it could also save the company money by closing the office one day a week or just less energy bills with people in the building for only 5 or 6 hours at a time.

Not only would a shorter work week be desirable to the individuals (for obvious reasons), the company (for the reasons in the previous paragraph), but it would also be a major improvement for the community that the workers live in. It is well documented that people choose not to volunteer at their child’s school, get involved with charity work, or other community activities because they just don’t have the time. Would an extra 10 hours a week help? I think so.

I imagine a world filled with too many little league baseball coaches instead of such a hard time finding anyone to do it. I envision community gardens filled with people working with their neighbors to feed themselves healthy meals. I believe in lower crime rates, lower teen pregnancy rates, and higher high school graduation rates due to an increase in parent involvement in schools and other activities in their child’s life.

If you think about it, it really is simple. The complex problems in our world are at least partially due to the lack of time and commitment we all have available for ourselves, our families, and our community. I think that freeing up the time we all use slacking and watching the clock tick could be much better used. What could you do with an extra 500 hours each year?

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”~Carl Sandburg

If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. In fact it does happen to almost everyone. Even famous people flip flop on what is important.

In 1992, Al Gore who was still just a U.S. Senator wrote a book called Earth in the Balance. He wrote, “The accumulation of material goods is at an all time high, but so is the number of people who feel an emptiness in their lives”. He goes on to say that our society promises happiness through, “the consumption of an endless stream of shiny new products… But the promise is always false.”

It sounded like we had found a leader who understood the problems of over consumption in our society. Senator Gore seemed to be just the person who could correct our screwed up system. However, by the time Al Gore was running for President in 2000 he vowed to increase the size of the U.S. economy by 30% in ten years.

He went from speaking out about the problems and emptiness of over consumption to vowing to increase consumption. He may have lost his way due to lobbyists and pressures to be elected, but there is something within us or within our society that makes us all decide to go for more and more.

I have realized that I don’t need more stuff. Actually, all I need more of is more time to spend doing the things I love with the people I love.

If that is true shouldn’t we be holding every moment sacred. If we have a fixed amount of time available to us shouldn’t we do everything we can to spend every minute doing the things we love to do. Holding our kids a little longer, spending time on adventures, traveling the world. How can we as human beings rationalize trading our time for money. Sure we need things like food, clothing, and shelter but do we need to continue working for that 3rd car, a speed boat, and the time share condo?

In the book Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, author David Wann states that 1/3 of all Americans don’t take all of their vacation days. He quotes a study that says in 2006 574 million days of available vacation time were not taken by Americans. 

Is it really possible that we are so into our work that we are willing to give up a day doing something we love, anything at all, even doing nothing so we can get more work done. I think the world would be a better place if we would all just take a moment and relax.

Don’t be a statistic, take some time to yourself. Go for a walk, drive, or just sit and watch the birds. It could do you a world of good.

We have to think more long term and see that buying a high quality products that will last for many years is actually a better use of our money than to buy a cheap product now that we will have to replace 6 months from now when it wears out. But most people don’t think long term. They are thinking about today and the amount of money that they have today to buy that particular product.

The other thing that the big box stores have done is to make products so cheap that we don’t even have to fix them. Recently a friend of mine was telling me about his son who learned how to ride a bike last summer. The kid loved riding his bike and happened to get a lot of flat tires. My friend took the bike into a bike store to have the tires repaired. He paid $18 per tire for parts and labor to get them repaired. Fixing both flat tires costs $36. But the same bike brand new at Wal-Mart is $40. It’s almost cheaper to just throw the whole bike away if both tires go flat than to have them repaired.

What about the inexpensive clothing available at discount retailers. You can buy a brand new shirt for only a few dollars. Sure it may be made by a child, has a low thread count, and won’t last but when you look at the cost of dry cleaning, you can almost buy a new shirt for the same cost as cleaning a dirty one.

Now I’m all for capitalism and low prices, but I am shocked that people can’t see what this problem means for future generations. We can’t just throw it all away.

We all vote with our dollars. Please join me in buying high quality products from American businesses that will last. It will save you money in the long run plus it will lessen the waste you toss in the landfills.

We are American, we expect convenience. Life is fast pace, busy, and we don’t have time to slow down. I understand this and I am a part of it in some ways, but something happened today that just shocked me. A new all time low for expectation of convenience.

My wife and I have been working on getting some of the stuff out of our house. We know we don’t need 1/4 of the stuff we own so we are trying to find things that we can sell on craigslist or give to Goodwill. We listed a few random things this last week on craigslist. Two out of the five people who came to pick up some items asked for something unbelievable in my mind.

Two separate women said they would stop and pick up some items after work but they wouldn’t have time to come up to the door, they wanted us to run the item out to them when they pulled up in the driveway. It isn’t enough that I am selling them something in good shape for much less than its worth, now I have to be a drive thru so they don’t even have to get out of the car. I’m not saying I want this stranger to come in sit down and have a drink, although I bet my grandparents would have offered that to anyone who came to the house.

We love convenience but there must be a line. Get out of your car and meet someone new. You’ll be surprised what you learn.

The national average income has quadrupled since 1960 but surveys show that Americans are less happy than before. We as a society have been under the perception that more money made us happy. If only we could afford that bigger house, new SUV, timeshare condo, or riding lawn mower we could be happy right?

I have found that possessions don’t make me happy. The thing that makes me most happy is time. Time to myself, time with my wife, time with my kids. Ironically, most people are trading in all of their time working longer and longer hours to make the money it takes to buy or maintain the possessions that they think will make them happy.

Think about what makes you happy and what you really need. I have chosen to reprioritize my life around doing the things I enjoy instead of making money for things I don’t need. My level of happiness has grown tenfold.

“The problem with winning the rat race is you’re still a rat.”~ Lily Tomlin

I took a couple days off from posting because I just wasn’t inspired. I began wondering if there was really a value in these posts. I have always believed there was and I have had some amazing feedback from friends and total strangers. Obviously this is just a fun little side project. I am actually building an increasingly successful online business. We have found a model that works and have tweeked it to create a business that people are excited to tell their friends about. I am having the time of my life. I am working for myself side by side with my wife and we are doing something we believe in. It is the best thing I have ever done for my soul. Life is good and I wake up every day amazed at the potential ahead of me.

I used to see a chiropractor because of pain in my neck and back and even in my hip. My pain has just plain disappeared. I used to have dark circles under my eyes- gone. I am not  getting more sleep, haven’t changed my diet, I’ve just decided to be myself. And I have never felt better.

If you do one thing for your health and well-being it should be to ask yourself who you really are and then be that person. Don’t pretend to fit in somewhere that you don’t, don’t put your desires on hold to make someone else happy. Be you. You’ll be happy you did.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

My kids have no fear. I have always been careful not to discourage them from trying something new. I also cringe at the parents at the playground who are so nervous and scream at their children to stop climbing on the jungle gym or to stop swinging so high. Don’t get me wrong, children need to be safe and need to know their limits but if we don’t allow them to explore and learn from mistakes they are bound to follow a boring existence of working in an office cubicle. 

This past summer I took my family on a camping trip to Vedauwoo Wyoming. Vedauwoo is filled with amazing rock formations and is a climbers mecca. We camped with 3 families and 8 kids all under the age of 7. Our campsite was right up against some awesome bouldering spots.

I kept sneaking away from the others with my daughter and one other kid. (I didn’t want to be responsible for too many kids at a time) On the first trip up, the kids were frightened but loved it. They wanted to climb all the way to the top but they didn’t yet have the skills necessary.

I let them pick the route. Sometimes it was way too difficult and I would say something like, “should we look for another way”. They quickly learned that if one route was too difficult they may be able to find an easier way if they just look around.

I helped them work on their technique and confidence by helping them find foot and hand holds. It absolutely amazed me how quickly they improved. On the second day they were climbing routes that they wouldn’t have even considered on the first day. The final morning as I was packing the car to head home, the girls begged me to take them up one more time.  Again they were doing even more difficult routes and they didn’t show the fear of the previous days.

I was so proud of my daughter. She was so ready to learn new things, have new experiences, and improve her skills so she could get higher. With nothing but a little encouragement, guidance, and direction she was climbing to new heights and never looked back.  Most adults could learn a valuable lesson from these kids.