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.”

As a kid I had a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine and I would grind up ice cubes, add a little Kool-Aid, and collect a few dimes from the neighbors on hot summer days. It was fun. I remember counting the dimes and nickels with such excitement. Of course it’s all profit when your parents supply the raw materials.

I’m sure I’ve driven by many Lemonade and Kool-Aid stands without stopping but when I was in college working on my degree in business I gained a new respect for theselittle entrepreneurs and began stopping to make my purchases again. Although the price is usually a couple of quarters these days there is nothing like putting a smile on a child’s face, teaching kids about business, and at the same time building a sense of community.

This weekend the temperature only reached the middle 50s but the neighbor girls were out peddling their goods. And boy do they have their advertising down. I was working in the garden when I first heard the girls riding up and down the street on their bikes yelling “Ice Cold Lemondade Only 50 Cents”. They got louder and louder and didn’t give up even as sales on a cool March afternoon were sure to disappoint.

Be sure to stop at all of these fun little stands this summer and help spark the next generation of business owners. And don’t forget about the natural entrepreneur in you. Even if the forecast looks cool and cloudy there may be a great business opportunity just around the corner.

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.

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

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

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.

We searched for a house to buy.  We didn’t want much, just a place to call home.  When we spelled out what we wanted to the realtor our main concern was to have some land.  We wanted at least an acre and we wanted to be in the trees.  We didn’t want to live in town next to a bunch of other people.  We wanted our own space.  After looking at a number of homes located throughout the area, we narrowed the field down by deciding we didn’t want a mobile home and we wanted a road and a driveway that wouldn’t be too difficult in the snow.

We purchased a hexagon shaped home located about 35 minutes from Durango on one wooded acre.  The home was built in 1978 and had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large walkout basement.  It also had wood paneling, an avocado green kitchen sink, and carpet in the bathrooms and kitchen.  It was everything we needed and more. It was reasonably priced and the payment would fit comfortably within our new two income budget.  Ironically, the banker had approved us for more than we wanted to spend.  He even offered to loan us money to buy the empty lot next door since we didn’t spend enough on the house. We chose to be responsible and keep our payments low.

The home we chose had previously been a vacation home for an elderly couple from Texas.  They didn’t bother coming up for the closing and left all of the furniture.  The home was fully furnished with beds, couches, a TV, pots and pans, and even cleaning supplies.  We basically showed up with our clothes and settled in and made it our own.

This home was everything we had ever wanted or needed.  We spent evenings sitting on the deck enjoying a view of the valley below, took the dogs for walks right out of the backyard and into the forest, and assembled groups of friends for small parties where everyone had a great time.   We had it all.

Then things slowly started to change.  I was working for a small local bank at an entry level position.  I was kicking butt and earning higher commission levels than anyone else.  I had dollar signs in my eyes and I was making more and more every month.  Suddenly, I wasn’t happy with the avocado green kitchen sink.  I felt like I deserved better.

Soon I was putting the skills I had learned back when I lived out of my truck.  I started remodeling my perfect little home.  I completely remodled the kitchen. I installed a slate tile floor, new cabinets, granite countertops, stainless steel sink, added an island, stainless steel refrigerator, and dishwasher.  Then I completely remodeled a downstairs bathroom, put new flooring in the upstairs bathroom, added a new wood stove with new slate tiles on the wall behind it.  I even changed the railings on the deck and added a new staircase to the deck.  But it wasn’t enough.

I wanted more. Not because I needed it, but I felt like I could afford it. Maybe I just wanted what the Jones’ had. Whatever it was that caused my sudden change out heart, It took away my simple view on life. I forgot who I was and what I believed in. Somehow the voice inside me said “More, More, More”.

I now have so much more… But I am not as happy as I was the day I moved into my little mountain home.

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.