This experiment has been done before and it had great success. Cereal tycoon A.K. Kellogg began offering his employees a short work week in December 1930. Kellogg was a hard working man who worked hard as a child and felt like he never had time to just live. He was always working. At first he offered 35 hours worth of pay for 30 hours of work. Not only did Mr. Kellogg offer a shorter work week but he also built parks, a summer camp, nature centers, garden plots, sports fields, and other recreational facilities for the community of Battle Creek Michigan where his plant was located. His plan created 400 new jobs in Battle Creek and within 2 years Kellogg began paying workers for 40 hours worth of work for just 30 hours of actual time. He made the increase in pay because productivity had increased so much.

Just as I have said before, if we could incentivize workers to get the job done and let them have the rest of the day to themseleves, they will find a way to be more productive in less time. If you have to be somewhere for 40 hours a week doing something you really don’t want to do, you will most certainly find other things to fill that time.

Shortly after A.K. Kellogg died, the Kelloggs Company changed to a 40 hour work week. Within just a few years the city of Battle Creek Michigan reported that volunteering at the schools and in the community went down and the cities crime rate went up.

The Kelloggs company successfully offered its employees a shorter work week for 55 years. The quality of life for the workers and their community increased and Kelloggs was a desirable place to work. Sadly the new management joined what everyone else was doing and that decision has lowered the quality of life for the entire community and has not increased the companies profits.

It is not a coinidence. Free time is life. Free time turns Human-Doings into Human-Beings.

In our fast paced lifestyle we are all moving 100 miles per hours. We forget to stop and take time for the little things. And if you stop long enough to think about it, it is the little things that make this life enjoyable. Actually it is probably the big things in your life that is causing all of the stress.

My five favorite things to do:

• Walk in the Sunshine
• Push my Daughter in a swing
• Listen to the silence at the summit of a mountain
• Planting, Watering, and Tending to the Garden
• Have a conversation about nothing in particular with an old friend or a new acquaintance

These are very simple things that I enjoy spending my time doing. They also are things that I had a hard time remembering to do when I was busy running the rat race. I hope you are finding the time for little things in your life.

My personal health and well-being has improved tenfold since I quit the race and started living in the moment. At some point you have to decide if you want to be a Human Being or a Human Doing.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”~Robert Brault

What if you died today? Would you want to be remembered as the guy or girl who showed up to work everyday, ate the same fast food for lunch, and drove the speed limit all the way home. Or would you want people to actually remember you as the one who took chances, did something exciting, and reached their full potential.

Think about all of the biography’s you’ve read, watched on TV, or heard about. It is always about someone who took a chance and reached great success because of it. Sometimes those biography’s include failure, set backs, and delays but that is all part of a memorable story.

I’m not saying to do it for the story. I think you should do it for yourself. The story is just something to look back at and smile.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

I took my wife out for coffee at a cute little coffee shop, worked for a couple of hours, spent the afternoon playing with my kids, and then took my family out to dinner. It was a lovely day. Plus, I am very healthy and I feel great, probably better than I have in years.

I have everything I need and more. I have two beautiful and hilarious kids, a wonderful wife, a nice house, two cars that run, and a ton of crap I don’t need.

I have so much to be thankful for. I can’t imagine letting an inconvenience like a flat tire, loss of sleep, or bad weather ruin my day. I could have (and most people do) focused on the negative and the inconveniences, but instead I looked at all the positive things and all the things I have to be thankful for. I can’t help but have a smile on my face. Why wouldn’t I, Life is Good.

Too often people stub their toe when getting out of bed and the rest of their day is shot. Nothing goes right because they are only looking at all the bad things that are happening to them. The more you focus on it the more that those bad things will continue to happen and the worse it all seems.

Hold your head up and let those little things roll off of you. There is too much to be thankful for and life is too short to worry about the little things.

Life is Good so Turn it Up!

In addition to living a life of freedom, running a small business, and hiking mountains, another passion of mine is living a green and earth friendly lifestyle. I wanted to take a minute and make my readers aware of a really cool project going on over at the Hip Mountain Mama Blog.

Hip Mountain Mama has developed a project called one small change. The idea of the project is to encourage everybody to make a couple of small changes that combined with everyone else, leads to a large impact on our environment. Hip Mountain Mama asks everyone to commit to making one small change each month leading up to Earth Day (April, 22) 2010. There are many earth friendly prizes available to those who participate.

It is amazing how such little changes can add up to a huge impact. Please join me in making the commitment to the environment. It only takes One Small Change.

For more detail on the challenge click here.

Ask any successful person what is the most important thing they ever did to ensure success. Almost all of them will say it was setting goals, having a vision, and working everyday with that goal in mind.

It sounds so simple. All you have to do is sit down, write out your goals, and then work towards them. But most people do not have any set goals. It is so much easier to go through the day to day and just show up at work and let your boss tell you what today’s goal is. Soon you are just floating through life and your only goal ends up being able to make the next house payment.

By setting measurable goals, you give yourself something to work towards. You should set a 6 month goal, 1 year goal, and a long term goal. The most important thing to do when setting goals is to do a little soul searching. Think about how you truly are and who you want to be. If your ultimate goals match your true desire it will be easier to succeed.

The two things that people do wrong when setting goals is either setting them too low or not making attainable goals along the way to your final goal. Setting your sights too low doesn’t push you toward greatness. If you set and accomplish lesser goals then you are settling for less than you could accomplish. You should set very high goals for yourself, after all, you are trying to improve yourself to live the life you want to live. However, setting unattainable goals is actually demotivating yourself. At some point you will give up and feel like a failure. You must set a very high final goal but have smaller goals to achieve along the way. This allows you to reach your preliminary goals while still climbing to the final achievement.

Don’t sit down and write out your goals in 2 minutes. Think hard about who you are and what you want to be. You may want to work on this over a few weeks. Your goals should be something you review often and maybe even adjust from time to time as your desire changes.

Don’t let the circumstances run you. Take the reigns and start working towards your true desire and passions. Life can be great when its the life you want to live. It starts with a dream but gets closer and closer every day if you work for it.

“All of our dreams can come true- if we have the courage to purse them”~Walt Disney

It always amazes me how often people complain about everything. We are a society of whiners. Just look at your friends’ status on Facebook or Twitter.  No matter when you check your Facebook, I guarantee you that you will see a list of all the problems, hassels, and illnesses that your friends are dealing with. It is all ‘I am getting sick’, ‘I am so tired’, ‘Sombody cut me off on the highway’, and ‘I don’t want to go to my meeting’. Sure, it’s only social media, but it is also a reflection of how people think and how they focus on the negative.

If you start paying attention to who is posting about being sick you will notice that that person or someone in their house is always sick. The guy who posts about something in his house breaking always posts a week later that his car broke down. And the week after that he loses his job, gets sick,or something awful happens.

Why always focus on the negative and why spread it to your friends on social media? 

“Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be. ” -Eleanor Roosevelt 

Your life will improve when you stop focusing on the negative. Be thankful for all of the amazing things that do happen every day. Even if you don’t believe in the law of attraction you will be happier and more good things will happen.

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” -Buddha

Think about the things you say everyday and what you focus on. You can take charge of your life and improve it.

I began thinking about my own life and the success I have had. I reached a position of Assistant Vice President after only 3 years in banking and was Vice President of a over $2 billion bank at the age of 32. This made my mom and grandmother very happy, but I knew this was only the beginning of great things I would accomplish. I could have settled in and worked in banks the rest of my life, but that would have bored the hell out of me.

Life isn’t about reaching the top. It is about the journey and working your way to the top. I am passionate about climbing mountains. I have climbed many of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks as well as many smaller peaks. I don’t do it for the time I spend at the summit (although it is spectacular). I climb mountains for the climb itself. It is the journey that makes it so addicting. The hard work, dedication, and anticipation is thrilling.

To keep life interesting it is important to keep moving your goals. Take time to adapt your goals as you reach success. Don’t accept an early success as your only success. Always set high goals for yourself and raise them as you succeed. This will ensure that you will enjoy your life and your level of success is endless.

Truly successful people are always working towards a new goal. Accepting what you have as enough is what will keep you in a dead end situation. You are to be grateful for your accomplishments but always working for something better will keep you feeling alive. 

At the age of 33 I walked away from banking because it was boring to me, I felt like I was as high of a position I could reach for the foreseeable future, and I saw opportunities that were more exciting for me. I am excited and passionate about everyday and the success that I have each day is so rewarding.

“What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Henry David Thoreau