A New Education

Think about the education that you received growing up.  Consider your formal education from school, and the lessons, habits, and ideas that you got from your parents and family.  Reflect on what you learned from your neighbors, friends, everyone.  Think about what you learned and what it has or is doing for you.

It means something different for everyone.  It's ongoing...What everyone takes from it varies.  We're taught to value education, in a traditional sense.  For example, we've been learning historically that getting a college education is the best way to a great career and financial security.  We've been learning that saving as much as we can is the best way to prepare for retirement.  We're conditioned to take the road most travelled.  Some of us are trained to follow in someone's footsteps...become the future leader of dad's company, be a lawyer like grandfather, or a politician because that's the family business.  Some of us are trained to "just go out and make a decent living, and take care of our families."

Part of the lesson is correct.  We should be trained to be leaders...of ourselves if no one else.  We should be trained to take care of our families.  But why is it that we are trained to go down the traditional, beaten path? It is because we've been trained to believe that it is safer.  The less risk you have to take in life, the better.  We know that the doctor or the teacher is going to be successful and secure...so we continue giving our posterity this one sided education.

Again, there are no quarrels here with teaching our posterity about the good possibilities that lay down road familiar.  But what is really sad is that even though we now see that steering the future leaders down that path is not necessarily safer all the time, we still turn our back on that road less travelled.  Experience is teaching them that going the traditional route is not always a sure bet to having the life you want, whether from a financial or happiness perspective.  So why is the formal education they are receiving not providing them with an alternative?  What does it say for our own education, that we believe it's okay to send them out into the world so inept for what they will really find out?  What will what they have learned actually do for them and us in the future?

Are you spending your time meaningfully?

I hear people all the time speak about how they wished they could live our their dreams.  They want to be wealthy, they want to have nice homes, cars, and a great nesteg.  They want to be debt-free and put their children through college.  They want to retire young and die happy.  I also see people pass up opportunities all the time that could put them on the path to those things they truly seek.  I heard a wonderful acronym for poor once...I will share it now:

P-Passing

O-Over

O-Opportunities

R-Repeatedly

The really ironic thing is that people pass the opportunities over, in large part, because they feel they don't have the time to pursue them.  They say, "Oh, I will work on my dream, once my husband or wife achieve theirs." or "I will do it when the kids can take better care of themselves."  Or "I am working too much right now, I can't take the time to go after my dreams, I have bills to pay."  Now, while it is a good thing to support the spouse's dream, or wishing the children were older, and it's okay to work those extra hours on the job (for some people at least).  That does not mean that you can't work on your dream too.  Even if it's for a few minutes to an hour each day. Really, for all the things that we can accomplish in this life, a lot of what we afford to do depends on how well we manage our time.

Take my life for example.  I worked a full-time job, ran a small business part-time, went to school full-time to earn a master's degree (which I accomplished), wrote and published a book, all while being a single mother.  What did that look like for me?  Well, I didn't get a chance to watch as much reality television.  I didn't have as much time to spend with negative people (which does affect you- whether you believe it or not), and I didn't have time to take on tasks for other people, so that THEY could have the laissez-faire lifestyle they were dreaming of.  I had two steady streams of income (which have now become 5), I learned a lot- and I taught my child a very valuable lesson, which is no matter what your circumstances are, you can do better!  Of all of my accomplishments, the last one is the one which I most savor.

The good news in all of this is, that YOU can accomplish the same things and more!  You simply need to start by assessing how you use your time.  Once you determine where the time is going, you can decide what things you need to delegate- what things are just wasting time, and where you can add more time to your day.  For instance, if you turn off your television for 15 minutes a day extra- five days a week, you add 1 hour and 5 minutes to your week- an hour that you can spend working a business, taking a class, or just reading for information. Just imagine if you illiminated 1 hour a day, five days a week from watching television, or doing some other leisurely activity that you participate in all the time.  That's 5 hours that you can use doing something else.

There are plenty of books which have been written on the subject.  Stephen Covey, has produced a lot of great information that can make you more effective in managing your time and resources- but this kind of information has been made available across the span of our age.  A quick way to assess where your time is going is to take a week- to jot down all of the things you do in a day, and evaluate how long those things take you.  Make an update on a schedule or appointment page at least once every hour.  At the end of the week, go back and look it over- then ask yourself, "How much of this, did I really need to be doing?  What benefit did I get from it, and could I have spent the time doing something more meaninful?"  Finally, ask yourself, "What things could have been delegated and what things could have waited?  I am sure that you will be surprised at where your time goes, and seeing it written out will more than likely spark a fire in you to change some things.  Remember, if you want something different, you will have to do something different often times to get it...why not start by making a difference by managing your time better?  It's a sure fire way to help you gain the success you seek!