Yin vs YangThe Battle for Success in Life

I’ve been home a few weeks now, working diligently from my home office. The most annoying struggle I deal with every day is the cravings for attention from my 3 playful cats. I have by no means stopped working any harder than when I went to the office every day, but already I can see the difference.

Giving up on my mortgage branch was not the easiest thing to do. I am a competitive person, and do not like to give up on anything. However, I had to step back and look at it differently. I was not giving up. I was moving forward, so I told myself, going to do what I should have done a long time ago. So how is the change going?

I’ve gotten more done in these last two weeks than over the last four months. I nearly taught myself a new professional program to enhance my video skills, started a commercial, made my first motion graphics clip, started a video for DJ Boris, all the while continuing to write for this blog. Not only that, but I’ve been much more active around the house with the chores. I’ve saved tons of money, and probably time in the bathroom, by cooking for myself more. I’ve saved countless dollars by never having to buy food, gas, coffee, tea, water, etc., etc. And I’ve gotten to enjoy more time than usual with my wife, train twice as much at Jiu Jitsu, and still do some leisure activities.

Most importantly though, being out of the daily grind has allowed me to clear my head. I’m more focused because I have the time to think straight. When I was in my office, I worked three times as hard as I do now, but got done half as much. I was constantly interrupted by conversation, distractions, fatigue, money issues, neighbors, IT issues, and numerous other things. I was in over my head with way too many things going on. Yet, it was still very tough for me to want to give it up.

If you find yourself in a similar situation I have good news for you. You can use me as your guinea pig. I have already taken the steps to make an effort to get the life I want for myself. That means doing the work I love to do, training hard, and spending more quality time with my friends and family. I am in the middle of changing over to that line of thought. I have thrown away the idea of chasing money to pay my monthly bills. I am confident that my new found energy and balance will allow me to clearly focus on all of my ambitions. I am confident that that is what will allow me to be financially successful as well.

Sometimes in life, we all get caught up in the daily grind. Some call it a rat race, and I think it is the perfect analogy. Our financial commitments cause us to constantly focus on our next paycheck. If we need more money, we just work more, and more, and more, till it consumes us. I believe it was the famous hypnotist & life coach Marshall Sylver who said…

“If you chase thousands, you get thousands. If you chase millions, you get millions.”

Well chasing thousands definitely didn’t work for me. I got thousands alright, but never nearly enough. So now, if that’s the yin, then I’m going switch to the Yang, and see if the latter half of the quote is true too…

“If you chase millions, you get millions.”

So far, so good. Stay tuned….

Everyday I wake up the economy seems to look worse and worse. I have been right on top of the slide since I was in the mortgage business for the last few years. Each day, it was like, what other bad news could possibly come out? The government tries to make things look better than they are by cutting interest rates, but even that has had little effect. It’s just a down time.

The question is what can you do to survive in a down economy? You can’t keep spending like you were two years ago, not with gas prices near $3/gallon. So, how do you adjust? Well, here are three ways to start:

1. Make a List of Your Expenses

Part of the reason I moved back home from my office is to cut down on expenses I don’t necessarily need. Expenses are anything that you pay for on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. Your home, your car, your bus tickets, your weekend extravaganza is all an expense. If it costs you money, it’s an expense. Make a list of all of your expenses for a week. Yes it can be scary, but try to list them all.

2. Trim Your Expenses

For the second part, I need you to review your expense list. Separate them into necessary, semi-necessary, and luxury. Try to see which ones fit into which category best. Food shopping is obviously necessary, though you can always be a bit more frugal. Sporting Event tickets on the weekend is obviously a luxury expense. The semi-necessary expense category is for anything that seems necessary, like gas for your car to get to work, but may be avoided. For instance, what if you had the chance to carpool? Then the gas is not necessary. It is only necessary if you can’t carpool or find a ride.

3. Make Smarter Purchases

The last step falls in with the first two. Each expense deemed necessary is still possible to trim. It is more important now more than ever to think twice before you make any purchases. Is it really worth it to buy that new pocket book? Or that new video game? Try to balance your purchases. Obviously, if you work hard, it is great to reward yourself once in a while. Just try not to do it every day.

These 3 steps are not groundbreaking. I’m sure you have heard it all before. This is just a reminder that times aren’t what they used to be. For people in their early 30s and younger (like me), we have never seen a bad economy, nevermind a recession, since we’ve been in control of our spending. These steps are always a good idea during any economic situation, but now they are vital. Those monthly bills are going to keep coming. It’s up to us to be prepared to handle them.

These 3 steps are just a start. The rest is up to us.