Fall has finally arrived. As someone living in near Dallas, it was a very welcome change. This summer we broke our record of the number of triple digit temperature days in a year. We even had a last gasp of summer on the 29^th of September with 102.

With the change in seasons comes a change in thinking. Instead of trying to avoid the heat, people around here are looking forward to the State Fair, crisp mornings and Halloween with Thanksgiving around the corner.

This could be a season to change how you think about your life. Many people look towards others for the major requirements in their life. A job, either having one or looking for one, to pay for the things you want gives your power to other people. This is especially acute when you are looking for a job in these times. Like Blanche DuBois, you are dependent on the kindness of strangers.

This dependency shrinks your dreams. You shrink them to fit your income. You take a “staycation” instead of a memory making vacation with loved ones.  You drive a car that fit your budget, not your fancy. Your living accommodations are “cozy” instead of breath taking. All the while, you rationalize to yourself that it will get better “someday”.

I challenge you to change your thinking. Expanding your income to fit your dreams is not only possible but so much more rewarding. You can be your own boss. You can have a carpet commute. You take back your power and control. If you want a raise, you can give it to yourself.

Look at starting a profitable home based business. You can do so for relatively little. Even in down times, people can be successful in business. In fact, down times often force people to come up with ways to be successful because of the lack of alternatives.

Some of the things it has brought me are the two most important things to people at the end of their lives – memories and relationships. Many parents feel they are sending a stranger off to college because they don’t know who their child has become. I have been involved with my sons’ lives especially during their critical teen years. Before that, I was working much too long hours. My youngest still remembers when I would come home when they were finishing dinner.

I have chaperoned a choir trip to Walt Disney World. I have chaperoned band trips. I am often the only dad that’s chaperoning. I have been there dropping them off at school and more importantly, picking them up afterwards. I have confidence in my son’s driving because I had the time to teach him and log the required 20 hours before he got his license.

I have built relationships with my sons and provided foundations for having great relationships with them as they mature into adulthood because I had control of my time and my life. That’s often called time freedom and lifestyle freedom.

I am urging you with the change of seasons to change your thinking. Interrupt the “get a good job” mantra and take control of you life.

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Recently, I was chaperoning my son’s middle school jazz band during a lunchtime concert that was off campus. They needed some help getting music stands and some of the larger instruments transported to the concert site. I volunteered to help. As I was driving back, I realized that I was building my dreams of spending more time with my sons growing up. In all of my volunteering, I see very few dads that volunteer during the day. They are busy elsewhere I’m sure.

One of my marketing slogans has been, “Do you see more of your boss than your kids?” In my past, that had been a problem. My youngest still remembers “when you would come home after we started eating dinner.” I also had a period of time when a puppy we had for 6 weeks would still treat me like a stranger when I got home. Those were signs my family life was out of balance.

I have taken control of my life because I have built my home based network marketing business. Now, I can do things others can’t.

The bottom line is is you are working for someone else, you are building their dream. It’s your life, build your own.

Technorati Tags: dreams, network marketing

Whether you make enough money can only be answered in the context of what you want to do with it. The other question is whether you are using it to pay for your needs or your wants.

When faced with a shortfall of funds, most people cut back where they can. You can only cut so far without a major impact on their quality of life.

My view has been to expand your income to fit your dreams rather than shrink your dreams to fit your income. Life’s natural direction is for growth and expansion. You feel much better when you have something better to look forward to instead having to give up something that you already enjoy.

If you want to expand your income, then you have to find where the increase is going to come from. Some try to get a raise at their job but that may not be feasible in the current job climate. Others hold garage sales but once their excess is sold, that’s the end of the income.

In order to have a continuous source of income, you have to continuously offer value to the marketplace. You have to be able to either find new customers who want what you have or resell to the same customers on a regular basis.

The question is not really whether you make enough money, the real question is whether you dream enough. It’s great to build sandcastles in the air, just build the foundation under them.

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The beginning of Spring is a time of promises. Nature starts putting on her flower show. Kids start dreaming of what to do over the Summer break. People start thinking about vacations and trips. It’s a time of birth both literally and figuratively.

What about you? Have you started to think about moving your life forward? Have you thought about shaking off the moss of complacency and becoming active again?

Many people are living with self imposed limitations. Some people have never been exposed to lifestyles other than the one they grew up with. If their parents struggled to make ends meet then that’s the way life is.

It’s not the way life is just one way life can be. Many people every day wake up to possibilities. I know one woman in her 50’s who was a single mother with two daughters who grew up on food stamps and public assistance. She barely got by while living paycheck to paycheck in a run down apartment.

One day she was introduced to some products that had a positive impact on her health. Other people noticed the difference and asked her how she did it. She shared her products with more and more people. She really did not want to be in a network marketing business. Finally, a trusted financial planner told her that she had the two answers people are looking for – better health and better wealth. What really motivated her was the thought of all the lives that would not be changed if she didn’t promote the products that really helped her.

Today, she lives a life of freedom while doing things she never dreamed she could do. She wasn’t there to spend time with her daughters as they grew up, but now she can spend time with her grandchildren. She has changed her life and the lives of her descendents for at least two generations if not more. She has helped them break the cycle of just getting by.

Maybe you can relate to a family story of just getting by. I can. Now that Spring is in the air, maybe it’s time to give birth to your dreams and take actions to make them come to life.

Technorati Tags: dreams, limitations, network marketing, Spring, vacation

When most people go to restuarants, they let the right side of the menu determine what they order. In other words, they order what they think they can afford based on the price. They scan the prices on the right side until they find some that are acceptable and then look on the left side to see the description. If they do happen to see an item that they like, they make the final determination with the price.

This is an example of shrinking your dreams to fit your budget.

Lifestyle freedom is about expanding your budget to fit your dreams. It really doesn’t matter what the economic climate is, you can always find ways to make more. Many old fortunes were lost in the Great Depression of the 1930′s, but also, many fortunes were made.

Lifestyle freedom includes both time freedom and money freedom. If you have one but not the other, you’re not really free.

By utilizing leveraged, residual income such as a home based network marketing business, you can build your freedom. Many people do it within 2 to 5 years. Some faster, some slower. If you would like to see if this is possibly for you, get a free CD by Robert Kiyosaki called “The Perfect Business” at FreeRKCDForYou.com.

Lifestyle freedom is living life on the left side of the menu.

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