I realize it has been a bit longer since I wrote about my ME Day and this post today.  While I plan on writing here at least once a week at minimum, I got distracted over the last ten days with the Holidays and then illness.  K and I spent a lovely white Christmas with K’s family in Detroit, MI.  It was a festive couple of days, and for me nothing is more pleasing than to see the happiness the holidays bring.

Unfortunately, as I stated above, I was afflicted with a minor stomach flu when we returned home.  It’s this illness that I wanted to talk about today.  You see, I used to be very sickly when my life was out of balance.  I still went to work, don’t get me wrong (I made them all suffer as much, perhaps more, than I was suffering).  It was my standing policy that unless you were on your death bed, you should be at work…you know spreading the misery, infecting you co-workers, and then complaining about their weak wills when they called in sick the next day.  Very positive times indeed!

These days I don’t really get sick.  I may catch a cold, or have my sinuses rise up on me from time to time, but I do not really get ill.  This is primarily attributed to my living in balance.  Healthy living, healthy mind, and healthy spirit are often the best preventatives in my opinion.  So this week while I was ill, it was a harsh blow.  I used to love the times when Read the rest of this entry

Birthday’s are a strange time of year for some folks.  For some people it is a time of joy, especially amongst the younger crowd.  As we get older, birthdays become a time of stress for many people because, I suppose, it’s a time that reminds them that they are getting old.  For me it’s a different story.  You see for me it has always been a great time of year, filled with love, presents, and family.  That could have to do with the fact that Christmas is the week after my birthday, but who am I to judge.

For the last few years, my birthday has taken on a different role in my life.  While it is still all about me, it is less about the people in my life celebrating my birthday and more about me celebrating another year of being me.  You see, there isn’t anyone else out there like me, just like there isn’t another version of you other there.  I, like you, am unique.  I have chosen my birthday to reflect back on the year that was.  I take that time to celebrate my victories, learn from my mistakes, and look forward to the year that will be.  I call this a ME day.

As the name implies, a ME day is all about ME.  Not you, not my clients, not my family (although they still play a big part of it), and not my business.  It is a day that I Read the rest of this entry

Last Thursday I wrote about the changing experience that my beautiful wife K is going through transitioning from her life as a cube farm employee to a full time rehab entrepreneur (and not the rehab as in homes, but in body).  Before I talk about my central thought, I just want to offer my condolences to anyone who is works in a cube farm, especially if that cube farm is a government facility.  Friday was the first time that I got to see first hand K’s old work location (it is btw an award winning architecturally awesome looking building).  No matter how impressive and how “green” this building is, the inside was devoid of life.  Concrete walls, pillars, and drab grey cubes were overwhelmingly depressing.  No, not depressing, soul-sucking.

I used to joke that working in my cube at Games Workshop felt like prison (I even had a friend send me a set of real prison clothes for Xmas one year), but Games Workshop has/had nothing on STC and this NOAA building.  You see, above the cube farm on the “ground level” was a nice walk way, just like in a Prison.  Matter of fact they could have potentially filmed Prison Break in the NOAA building and no-one would be the wiser.

So beyond the environment itself, the building has a major lack of…noise.  I don’t know if it was the acoustics of the building or the sheer lack of humanity but you couldn’t hear anyone chatting, typing, or even snoring.  There were huge signs everywhere stating “SILENCE!”  or “SILENCE!” or “SILENCE” or my favorite, “SILENCE!”.  Don’t they know that as humans, we need to interact with one another?  That we are social animals who not only thrive with human interaction but also are more productive?  Then I remembered something, I was in a government facility.  The government doesn’t care Read the rest of this entry

This has been a busy week to say the least.  One of our businesses has been recently expanded to include lead generation for real estate investors, so I have been working out the numbers for how much to charge per lead, bundle deals, subscriptions, etc, etc, etc.  Another of my businesses has recently partnered with a local real estate guru to run his affiliate business, helping him and his staff to expand their marketing online and get a wider penetration on the web.  All of these have been occurring this week, not to mention the day to day operations of following up on leads (Thanks Peg!), invoicing clients, meeting with new clients, and meeting with current clients.  Needless to say it’s been a busy week, and that’s just business and not personal stuff (and you can bet that the list of personal stuff is actually much longer than the business!)

But I am not writing to complain about my busy life, no not in the least.  This past week has been a blast!  Full of new endeavors, and learning a lot of new stuff.  The most important thing that has recently happened is that my beautiful wife K has been officially released from her J.O.B.  You see, she has been suffering from chronic back pain for the last 8 or 9 months, and while she really hasn’t needed to work for some time now, it has been her security blanket.  That warm fuzzy blankie that keeps us “safe”…you know the one, because if you look at your life you will find that you have one, two, or maybe even more of these security blankets.  The little things that keep you tied down to doing the same behaviors that have bound you to the same life.  When you release those chains, life becomes real.  Life becomes powerful.  Life becomes yours.

I believe that we hold on to these security blankets, whether they be jobs, partners, “friends”, social groups, etc, due to the fact that they make us feel justified in our keeping them.  Am I saying that all those things listed are truly holding you back, no I am not.  What I am saying, however, is Read the rest of this entry

Today I had the pleasure, no the honor, to meet a gentleman whose home I was looking to purchase.  This gentleman has lived in the home for 20+ years and has a size-able amount of equity in the home with mortgage payments under $500.  Living there has given him a content life.  A decent life with a solid job (one which he had for 27 years!) that payed him well enough to enjoy the comforts he needed while supporting his daughter.

Then real life happened to this real person.  All it took was for that comfortable job to go away to spin his life out of control.  He reached out to one of my companies (Simply Sold Home Buyers) looking to see if he could perhaps start over and be free of his debt by selling us his home.  You see even though his payments were low, when you have zero income coming in…your reserves can go away very quickly.  With mounting late payments, potential foreclosure looming, and his life starting to spin out of control, he turned to us just to explore the idea of a new beginning.  Needless to say nothing looked very positive in his life at this very point.

You see when things go dark in ones life, it is easy to get consumed by that darkness.  Hope becomes a distant memory.  Optimism turns to pessimism.  Joy turns to misery.  And doubt rules your life.  You begin to doubt your abilities, Read the rest of this entry