Part 2:

If you want to be free, don't start a business :) I love your comment Shanel Yang "When you can't tear yourself away from your work, that's the right business for you!" And I couldn't agree more with your comment Garrett, about working for others. I used to work for others, helping them become financially successful. Then I started my own business so that I could be 'free' and make more money. Finally, early last year, I took stock and realized I had my priorities all wrong. Time was what I should be focusing on I realized, not money. To put it succinctly "You can always make more money, but you can never make more time."

Not only is it impossible to make more time, it is also impossible to save it, buy it, borrow it or steal it. We all have only a certain finite amount of time, when it is gone, that is the end of the ball game. One of my favorite questions that I ask students in my seminars is "What are you going to do first thing tomorrow morning?" Eventually, as we discuss this, they come to realize that they have no way of knowing that they are going to wake up tomorrow morning to do anything. Tonight might just be their last one on this planet: and sure as governments love taxes, one day it will be.

We have no idea how much time we have left on this Earth. So if we are going to give a lot of it up working for someone else, well we had better make sure we like doing what we are doing. If we are going to run a business, the same applies, it is best it is something we love to do. I changed my business model. I make less money, but I have a lot more time. When I do work I love every minute of it: whether it be copy editing, writing, teaching teachers, or mentoring groups of Korean students. I have a dream job, I get to spend my days helping others achieve their dreams, and improve the quality of their minds, lives and relationships. That beats a high paying salary for me any day of the week.

Now this is not to say that working for someone else is a bad idea, or that going to university is a dumb idea. Not even Robert Kiyosaki advocates that. For some people, working full-time for others is what makes them happy. They let others worry about keeping the business alive and well: a regular salary and good benefits is enough for them. And why not if it makes them happy? Same as the woman, or man for that matter, who wants to say home, look after the kids and support their partner.

Whatever your bliss go for it! Sure, we have to make sacrifices sometimes, there are few of us who can use their total time as we wish. But what time we can use as we want to should be oh so carefully managed.

Take care,

BikerKorea.

PS: Usual I reserve copyright etc. If you think any of this is any good and want to use it let me know.

Some really good thoughts Melanie, well done! I work from home - have an office but avoid it like the plague, I'd rather stay home with my dogs thanks - so I have to watch how I use my time. Too easy to get lost in something non-productive that helps me avoid actually getting started on something worthwhile. Here are some of the things I do, one at least similar to your idea.

1. I never look at email until I have completed or at least started and gotten well into a task that can be completed. Most times I refuse to go anywhere near my email account until after lunch. Email is one of those things that never ends and I can lose the whole morning, my most productive time, replying to emails if I let myself. Maybe I am more fortunate that most, but I have never yet received an email that could not wait three or four hours before I read it and replied.
2. I have a list of five things I want to accomplish each day. My To Do List has a lot more things on it, but I limit myself to five. Imagine how productive you would be if you could definitely get five things done everyday! I use the Covey Matrix method to make sure that I am completing at least one task that is high value and preferably will not need doing again for quite some time if ever.
3. I break up my day with exercise. I am fortunate in the fact that I have two exercise machines in my home office. I work for a while, then go do one session, like arm work, and then come back often with a new idea or perspective on what I am working on.
4. I get out for half an hour or so every day. In my case it is walking the dogs, and on workout days - I workout three days a week - I spend some time doing sprints up and down our local hills.
5. In the afternoons I do a little bit of housework. I am working my way from room to room. Yesterday it was the bathroom, today the kitchen. That means never having to do all the housework in one day: though you might guess I am not married, because it is highly unlikely my wife would go for it if I were...grin.
6. I always, and I mean always, have at least one full day off a week. A very interesting study showed that when people worked more than seven days in a row their performance levels steadily began to drop. Apparently, our energy levels rise again after a night's rest, but never to the same level as the previous day. So, as the days go by we progressively decline more and more.

They tell me this is too long and I have to split my comments...grin...that's me, when I have something to say I love to write, you should hear me talk!

To be continued...

Biker Korea

By devious means and weird twists and turns, I ended up on this rather intriguing site. Interesting thoughts Abhijeet.

I'm one who likes to avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater. So, I think you make some excellent points. I'll be trying a few of the methods you mentioned, like the idea of modeling patient people: very NLP. I never thought of actually practicing patience before. However, I would disagree with universalizing Gandhi's parenting methods. People are individuals, so they need individual responses.

Some of the training seminars I lead are in Classroom Management techniques. I've worked with highly challenging children for many years. What works for one very often fails with another: or as some posters here point out, can backfire. I advise my teachers to carry a very large, invisible bag full of Classroom Management methods. To keep trying different ones until they find the right key for that particular situation.

As for suppression of anger being an unhealthy idea, reliable studies conducted over the past five years strongly point to that idea being incorrect. In fact the opposite is the truth. Expression of anger increases blood pressure, changes body chemicals, and causes other things that can lead to serious harm in the long term. Controlled expression of anger, thus avoiding feelings of powerlessness - I have to think that Gandhi rarely if ever felt powerless once he had developed his life philosophy to its full potential - is healthy.

As the good book says 'Be angry but do not let your anger cause you to sin.' Anger is a normal, healthy emotion and like any emotion it requires control. Whether we believe Jesus Christ to have been simply a great man, or something much more, it is clear that anger was dealt with by him in various ways. At one time he took a whip to the people, at another time he called some religious leaders some pretty vile names, and at other times he held his tongue. Throughout history, men and women far greater than I will ever be, have done the same. Perhaps part of their greatness lies in the fact that for them it was always a choice.

So, in the end I think, we should embrace our anger, practice managing it as you suggest, and work on developing the strength to be able to act rather than react to situations and individuals. But in the process avoid the perfection trap. Perfection is an illusion, it does not exist, and a failure or two needs to be viewed in the perspective of our successes. I've got a wicked temper, a very short fuse. But this past year I've been able to choose not to unleash the beast within during some pretty intense situations: if you ride a motorbike everyday like I do you will know what I mean. Sure, I've failed sometimes, but as the months pass I am finding that the successes are starting to outweigh the failures.

Perhaps some might agree with me, that losing control, letting the anger flow freely, is a habit that we learn. If that is true, and I sincerely believe it is, then developing a stronger competing habit will eventually change how we deal with situations and people who make us angry. So for those of you who, like me, struggle with that inner beast, hang in there. You will become the master in time if you keep trying.

Thanks for reading and with no intention of egotism, I'll reserve the rights for what I wrote. If anyone thinks it might be worthy of inclusion in their blog, let me know.

Take care!

BikerKorea