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 went as a chaperone for my son’s choir trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. What made this especially significant for me was that I was the only dad that went. I was able to go because of the freedom I enjoy.

I was able to spend quality time with my oldest son at the “happiest place on Earth.” We created memories that will last a lifetime. He is a junior in high school and in just over a year, will begin his adult life. I think this trip will turn out to be one of the most important things that I did this year.

Other parents expressed their regret at not being able to go, citing work related reasons. Some had been laid off, and some were experiencing work loads that did not allow them to take a few days off.

Being able to share quantity time with my boys allows me to experience tons of those priceless gems of memories with them. They are only young once.

Do you have a plan to get your freedom? Or do you just accept it as that’s just the way it is? A home based network marketing business can give you the lifestyle freedom you deserve.

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My youngest son’s 5th grade class wrapped up a poetry unit in school and held a ‘poetry cafe’ event where they stood up and read poems. The parents were invited. I noticed that I was the only father there that did not have an access card dangling on my person. On other words, I was the only father who did not have to rush back to a job.

This is not an isolated incident. At his Winter Party in December, I was the only father there.

With my oldest son, I will be 1 of only 2 dads that will be chaperoning his choir to Walt Disney World in March.

Being my own boss allows me the flexibility to control my schedule. I get to spend more time doing what I want to do which to me means spending more time with my family. At the end of your life, the main things that matter are you memories and your relationships, not how many hows you spent at the office.

Another important fact in this economy is that I am in control of my income. I can’t be laid off.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those that sacrifice freedom for security will receive neither.”

Technorati Tags: access card, job, memories, poetry cafe, relationships, things that matter, walt disney world, winter party

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. It is one of my favorite times of the year. It brings back a lot of good memories and makes me consciously think of the blessing in my life. My blessings are bountiful.

Thanksgiving Day has its origins in dark and hard times. The first official holiday was proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It was in the middle of the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg had been fought earlier that year with it’s carnage on both sides. The war’s end was nowhere in sight. Lincoln proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving to point out that while there were bad things going on, there were good things as well. Bountiful crops, population increases, prosperity were all things to give thanks for.

In this day and age, when all the news outlets are proclaiming all the negativity going on, there are still things to be thankful for. We, as a whole Earth population, are much better off than we were 100 years ago. Medical advances have all but wiped out the top 10 killers from 1908. The food supply has grown to allow the population to greatly increase.

In your personal life, think of the things you want and have such as shelter, food, health and relationships and be grateful. Think of the things you don’t want and don’t have and be grateful.

Things that you are grateful for in your life increase. Don’t limit your gratitude to just one day a year, do it every day. As the song goes, “Count your blessings. Count them one by one.”

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There’s an old story about the boss take a new hire to show him mansions, yachts, nice cars, tracts of land and other things. At the end, the boss puts his arm around the new hire and says, “If you work hard, put in overtime at night and on weekends, remain loyal and be consistent, all of this will be mine.”

Long ago, I decided that if I’m going to work hard and put in overtime, the dream that I build will be my own. As a former corporate IT guy, I spent a lot of hours working on problems long after everyone else had gone home. On top of all the time spent away from doing what I wanted to do, being an exempt employee meant that I didn’t get paid any extra either.

One company promised “comp time” but after 10 months of working there, I had accumulated the equivalent of 2 months of “comp time” which was never given.

I have only one life, so I decided to spend it the way I wanted to spend it. Nobody ever got to their deathbed and said, “I wish I had put in more hours at the office.” Memories and relationships are what matter most at the end of one’s time here. I am working to make it all worth it.

Technorati Tags: comp time, dreams, memories, overtime, relationships