Wow,  it feels like I have jammed about a week and a half into this one week.  The blog and comments this week have been great.  I see there is a lot of interest out there about our work and what the jobs we have are actually doing to us.

As this week comes to a close.  I want you to continue thinking about what we have discussed here.  We have talked about the current work model that has been forced upon society as a whole.  It is outdated and needs a serious overhaul.  We have looked at major companies that have made the change for more flexibility and the retention rate has gone through the roof.  Not only are these companies saving money but they are saving families. 

I believe that this topic of time control has taken us to a place where we should look at our current situation.  Can you sit there and say that you’re passionate about what you’re doing?  Does the day just fly by, and you pour yourself into working for wherever your’re currently working?

Here is a great video from MSN that shows exactly what I’m talking about: http://video.msn.com/v/us/Money.htm?g=EAF1A79D-D387-4400-A50A-7629A97C5872&t=&f=15/648WorkPerksYouWishYouHad&p=&fg=

With all that’s been said this week.  Remember this; Don’t spend your time doing what you hate, invest it in doing what you love.

If you would like to begin a journey on that discovery,  just e-mail me.

Plan – Build – Live

Freedom Coach

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I want to bring this topic to a close.  Feel free to continue to leave comments and based upon those, I may pick the issue back up.  I realize that I have hit a nerve here and this is a topic on the hearts and minds of millions of others as well.  Here is where I want to go today.

What would it feel like to be able to do your job from anywhere you were able to.  Of course, this wouldnt apply to an assembly line or manufacturing type of position, but there are millions working in offices and cubicles all around the world that if given the freedom, could do their work from anywhere and be more productive.

Let me tell you about a work model, that if it were used more today, would revolutionize the attitudes of employees everywhere.  Less turnover and higher productivity means a big fat bottom line, and employees that are happy and families that are stronger. 

Employers, you really need to look at changing your model.  If you don’t you will lose in the end.  You will lose good people, you will lose credibility, you will lose integrity and character because the work model that you force upon your people is ruining families.  Inflexibility is killing your people.  Open your eyes.  God have mercy on you.

In this article, Business Week features the electronic retail giant Best Buy.  This shows how a very large, and I mean very large company, can make the changes to influence and promote what is really important in their business, their people and their families. 

Enjoy, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm?chan=rss_topStories_ssi_5

 Plan – Build – Live

Rick@FreedomCoach.org

“When the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was passed in 1938, it was heralded as a giant step in protecting the rights of American workers—guaranteeing financial compensation for time worked in excess of 40 hours a week. The “40-hour work week” was born, and the term “9-to-5” became synonymous with working “full time.”

Six decades later, the 40 hour work week has become a benchmark for corporations to build a platform for their work enviornment.  What is the deal with working a set number of hours equating to full time work? 

There is such a mentality in our culture today that anything less than 40 hours and your lazy and unproductive.  Like my post yesterday, this keeps creative thinking and productivity in a box.

Living in an age where knowledge is increase faster than ever, our society still uses a platform 60 years old.  How productive would you be if your time wasnt controlled?  How much time is wasted with your commute and having to sit in an office just for the purpose of being seen?  Unfortunately, in our culture, being seen by the boss is first and productivity is second.

What about working too much and not being compensated for it.  More than likely what you lose will be alot more that what you gain.  Kudos from the boss, but time missed with family and children.  Is it really worth it? 

Lee Ann Sandweiss from Indiana University says this, “An Expedia.com survey said that 63 percent of Americans work more than 40 hours a week, with some 40 percent exceeding the 50-hour a week mark. More than $21 billion dollars in vacation time goes unused annually (and back to employers!), as we spend 2.5 more weeks—and three months more—at work than do our Japanese and western European counterparts, respectively. “

Don’t be controlled.  Be free.

Plan – Build – Live

Rick@FreedomCoach.org

For the next few posts, I want to discuss, and I welcome your comments, how we are being controlled?  I want you to ask yourself, “What is my life revolved around?”

I want to look at our current work model that is prominent in our society today.  You have heard of mind control, today I want to talk about TIME control.  The work model we see today became used in abundance decades ago.  The idea of the 40 hour work week being carried out by 5 days a week at 8 hours a day, although may be good for the company, has unfortunately caused people to develop a mundane attitude about their jobs.  Keeping employees in a box has stifled creativity. 

If you could change one thing about your current job, what would it be?  The number one motivation, statistics show, is not money.  It doesn’t matter how much you get paid, if your miserable in what you’re doing.  This will bleed over into your family, your church, your community service, just about any relationship you maintain.  The number one thing that I have found that would keep people associated with a particular job is the opportunity for flexibility.

Flexibility definately goes against the decades old work model that is prevalent today.  In the office at 8:30, out at 5:30, it doesn’t matter how productive you are while your there.  The bottom line is, the boss just wants you there.  What if you could earn income by your productivity and not just the fact that the boss wants to see your face?

What if you could do what you do from home?  What if you could do what you do at your office, but had the flexibility to be creative with your time, if the job was done?  How would that make you feel?  Would it put a pep in your step?  Would you feel a little freedom and possibly enjoy getting up to do the day’s work ahead?

These are some serious questions that need clarification and answers in your mind.  The lack of flexibility from employers today is causing huge amounts of turnover for the company.  The expense of the hiring process of new employees, the cost for their training.  These two processes alone could save companies thousands.  Any HR director can tell you that.

When will companies wake up and see that their people want uncontrolled time. Not fluff,  that at the end of the day, just goes away and is forgotten.  I’m not talking about corporate anarchy, but I am talking about flexibility.  You vacation, when the boss says it’s ok, you go to lunch when the boss says it’s ok, you come in when the boss says to and can’t leave until he says.  With broken homes at an all time high, and stress and frustration running rampant, it seems that there is a solution that could be easily implemented to help ensure the balance of the employee’s lives.  It’s flexibility.

If you’re reading this and you’re a business owner with employees,  you should take a serious look at providing flexibility for your people.  The culture, money or a “because I’m the boss, so it’s my way or the highway” mentality does nothing for people, families and freedoms other than destroy them.  Time is the issue.  Listen to your people.  Get flexible or you’ll be needing to get replacement’s.

Plan – Build – Live

Rick@FreedomCoach.org

If you notice in our culture today, the majority of American’s hate their job’s.  I have found three primary reasons why our culture insists on living like this.  This is a serious issue that people deal with on a daily basis.  Here are the reasons as I see them:

1. Fear of change

What you don’t realize is, is that change is part of our everyday lives.  We change our homes, our cars, our appearance.  Change is inevitable.  It is only when we embrace change that we can pursue excellence in our calling.  It’s the pain of change that helps us to focus on our priorities.  Embracing change and following your passion will allow you to live out your destiny.

2. Fear of failure

Why is it that we can understand failure in others but not ourselves.  Fear of failure is a deception that Satan uses to to keep us afraid to step out in faith to live out our calling to be in the center of God’s will.  It took Thomas Edison 10,000 tries before he was successful at inventing the light bulb.  When asked about it, he said he didn’t have 10,000 failures, but just 10,000 steps to the finished product.  Fear of failure results in a life of devastation and defeat.  Don’t fall for this deception.

3. False sense of security

There are various examples of this in the workforce today.  Corporations have employees controlled into believing that their security is in their pay, vacation, healthcare or retirement.  Although these are good benefits, if available, they should not be what we place our security in.  Security for our eternal life and blessings while we are here should only be placed in Jesus Christ.  But we have been given seeds of opportunity to live an abundant life on this earth.  And that is up to you.  General Douglas Macarthur once stated that “your security is in your ability to produce.” Your security is up to you.

Don’t fall for these deceptions.  The Bible says in the second book of Timothy that we were not given a spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind.  The God’s Word version says we were given a spirit of power, love and good judgement.

Use the good judgement God has given you.  You don’t have to be trapped.  The gifts and callings of God were placed within you when He formed you in your mother’s womb.  And those callings are irrevocable.  They will not go away. 

Find your calling and live your dreams.  You can do it.  If you desire to better your life and find your calling to pursue your passions, just email me.

Plan – Build – Live

Rick@FreedomCoach.org

Time to take a little turn from our normal discussion here.  As I mentioned on my very first post, from time to time, we will talk politics.  I came across a video clip recently of Congressman from Texas and 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul.

What he says has a lot of meat to it.  Whatever side of the aisle you fall on, I’m sure you have concerns about where we are heading economically as a country.  Enjoy the clip and feel free to leave me your comments.

There is a lot of truth in what he is saying.  Maybe he’s not the washed up, nutty politician the mainstream media is making him out to be.  This may very well be the most important election we have seen in decades.  You should decide your vote based upon truth and your investigation of the facts.

The days of voting party lines and just because your grandad voted a certain way are over.  Wake up.  Our freedoms are too important.

PLAN – BUILD – LIVE

Rick@FreedomCoach.org

Here’s another example of the way our culture has transitioned from a country of pay as you go to being financed to the max.  It’s time to wake up America.  The companies that we do business with everday have deserted the idea of consumer first.  Because of the debt burden that abounds today in corporate America, companies are at the whim and will of the bankers, not the will of their consumer.

The idea of living without debt is probably a culture shock to most Americans.  But it is the only way to live an abundant life that will cause you to experience the true freedom you were created to enjoy.

Steve Pearlstein from the Washington Post shares this very informative article that discusses one company’s action and shares how overwhelming debt is common place today. 

Plan – Build – Live

Rick@FreedomCoach.org

What does that number mean to you?  Just to give you an update on the state of our economy.  I want to briefly talk about debt and how it is crippling our society.  There is appoximately $38.1 Trillion owed domestically here in the United States.  That number blows my mind.

Is it surprising?  No.  We live in a society where we have substitued the American Dream for American debt.  We have seen a transfomation in our country from a people who will work to save and pay for things, to a country with an entitlement spirit where it has become our right to get whatever we want, whenever we want it.

Let me finish our equation.  $10.3 Trillion.  This is the amount that the United States owes foreign interests.  Wow, almost 25% of our debt load are for loans abroad.  This too is staggering.  We are a soveriegn nation.  Our government spending far exceeds what’s coming in.  What would happen if you operated your budget like that.  Within 6 months, you would be in shambles.  Our government has been operating this way for almost a century.  It has got to stop.

In closing, this is how it breaks down; $161,287 for every man, woman and child.  Or, $645,148 for a family of four. And that is $45,514 more than last year. 

When are we going to wake up.  We should consume ourselves with life and the freedom’s we have, not debt and the bondage it brings.

Contact me at Rick@FreedomCoach.org.

It doesn’t matter what you may do for a living pertaining to your work or your play.  Planning is a big part of life.  Let me see if this sounds like your daily plan; you get up, go to work, come home, eat a bite, spend a little time with the family then go to bed.  You then do it all over again.  Is this your routine?  Whether you want to think about it this way or not, this is your schedule or your plan for probably 75% of your week.

We plan our days, our vacations, and our building projects.  If planning is such a big part of our lives, why aren’t we more intentional about what we are planning?  In life, there are 3 major areas that if we do not plan for and be intentional about, we will live a life of mediocrity. 

Number one, we need to plan our spiritual lives.  What is your plan for the spiritual well being of you and your family?  The Bible says that Christ came to give us an abundant life.  Therefore,  a spiritual plan with Christ at the center is necessary for true success in life.

Secondly, we need a plan for our career.  What is your calling?  With the right career plan, you will find yourself living a life of purpose and your work can be equal to your play.  We read in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 that our labor is a gift from God.  Does your work feel like a gift or a curse?

Thirdly, we need a plan for our money.  Every day, month, year and over our lifetime.  If we do not have a plan for our money we will not be in control.  And when we’re not in control, it will be gone.  Plan your budget each month.  Tell your money where to and not to go.  Plan for periodic rewards such as vacations and special things for the family.  People today seem to think that vacations and spending are rights.  That’s why consumer debt is the highest it’s ever been and families all over the world are in financial bondage.  Also, you need to plan for the future.  Where do you want to be sitting, living and relaxing when you’re time for performing a job is over?       Think about it.

 For questions about these topics and how to get on a how-to plan to make it work.  Life coaching may be your path to freedom to live.  Contact me at rick@freedomcoach.org.

PLAN IT – BUILD IT – LIVE IT

Just a brief challenge for you.  Here it is the middle of June.  It’s been a long week and your work may have consumed it.  Take time this weekend with family.  Remember,  time is the one resource that once gone, you can never recapture. 

Take advantage of the summer days and spend it with your kids.  Maybe a walk in the park with your spouse.  Take advantage of opportunities to brainstorm ideas to better your future and to find your calling.  Use this time to communicate with your better half and build your future together. 

We will be discussing more next week about finding your calling in what you do.  There is a way to experience joy in life and your work be part of that.  Finding your place in life will make you a better spouse, parent, employee or employer.

Plan It – Build It – Live It

You can contact me at rick@freedomcoach.org.