One thing we have going for us as humans is our own ability to create something out of thin air. Especially when it comes to our time. We have the ability and resources to spend it in an array of ways. How we spend it has a direct reflection on our results in life. If someone isn’t getting their desired results in life, chances are, they just simple aren’t spending their time doing the things they must do to get the result. The hard part for people is knowing how to change the way they spend their time. It’s so easy not to change, right?

My point is….so many people have time working against them instead of for them. It seems that most people are in a hurry to die, to put it bluntly. The sooner they get off work the better, the quicker the day goes by the better, the faster the time goes by so that they can sit there on their couch, the better. Most people want time to fly by and in my experience, thinking of all the times that I wanted time to fly by, these were the times when I was most miserable. I was either at a job I hated, with someone I didn’t enjoy being with, terribly sick, in pain or just flat out sick and tired.

These were the moments in my life that I wanted my time to go faster. These were the times that I wanted to speed up time and literally get closer to my end. I wanted time to pass by faster, I wanted to waste that time just to spare myself of the misery I was experiencing at the moment. I wanted to get older, just by a small bit, so that I could move on with doing what I wanted to do and enjoyed doing. In doing so, I wasted a small section of my life…..a section that I will NEVER get back. Your TIME is your LIFE. It’s a simple concept….if you waste your time, you waste your life.

So let me ask you a question: Who in their right mind wants their life to pass by quicker? Who, having a sane mind, wants to die sooner? Because that’s basically what you’re doing when you spend your time doing what you can’t stand to do, hoping it passes by quicker. Now, fifteen minutes of time wasted at your job may not seem like you are wasting your life, but what is fifteen minutes multiplied by five or six days out of the week times 52 weeks in a year times the number of years you have been wasting 15 minutes a day. That adds up to a lot of wasted time, doing something you cannot stand to do. And if you are just working that job or business just for a paycheck and get no personal satisfaction or enjoyment from it, what are you doing?

So let me rephrase the question: Who in their right mind, who is following their passions in life, wants their life to pass by quicker? Who, having a sane mind and is living life to it’s fullest, wants to die sooner?

So how do you live life to it’s fullest or at least know you are? Here are a few questions for you:

• Is there something you have wanted to do for a while but haven’t taken the action?
• Do you feel like you should be doing something more with your life?
• Do you hate your job?
• Do you feel like you are just going through the motions just so the time will pass by?
• Do you find yourself thinking of all the great things you could have done in your life up to this point?

These are just a few questions and if you answered YES to any of them, chances are, you are not living your life to the fullest. My suggestion to you: Time is ticking, get to it!

Why is it that Coke always out performs Pepsi and, during this new economy, Ford remains stable while Chevy struggles? What is it that separates these amazing companies and why is it that Pepsi will never capsize Coke and why Chevy will never be better than Ford? It has some to do with the products but not as much as you would think. It has a lot to do with which company established their role as the leader in the industry first. Coke came before Pepsi and Ford came before Chevy. They set the standard first and have remained as the industry leader since.

After Coke came about, others tried to copy or out-do it. The same for Ford, others tried to make better trucks. The industry leader always remains the same.

So how do you know if you are an industry leader?

Here are a few ways to know that you are a leader in your niche, or industry.

1. Others copy you in attempts to make things “Better!”
2. Others are constantly talking about you.
3. You have both positive and negative publicity.
4. When you make a change, everyone notices. When someone else makes a change outside of your company, you have no idea!
5. Chances are, you were the first in YOUR niche to begin with!

The leader is the pace setter and the reason others will do great. They set the standard. Others will come and will attempt to out do and over perform, but it just won’t happen. The only way to dethrone an industry leader is self-sabotage. So as long as the industry leader is evolving and growing, it will continue to thrive as the leader in its niche.

I am with an industry leader in positive media and Personal Development. We were the first in our niche, we set the standard and will continue to thrive, in the lead. Others mimic, talk, hate, love and notice our every move. That’s what happens! If you are creating some waves, that’s a good thing, as long as your intentions are good. It’s difficult to be noticed while crawling around on ground-level. If you’re at the top, everybody can see you. That’s where we are. A beacon for entrepreneur minded people looking for their ticket to time freedom and financial abundance. We’re changing the world one entrepreneur at a time and will continue to do so as the leader in our niche.

We have all heard of the people that say their biggest desire in life is to live “The Simple Life.” Not much responsibility, worry or care, just simply them and what they love the most. Out of all they have experienced in life, their truest desire is to live simple, to get away from the hustle and bustle of the world.  That’s the simple life!

I think that living “the simple life” has different meanings for different people. I have personally had conversations with people that say their idea of a simple life is living like a hermit in the mountains without clocks, a schedule or even a wife. Just them, nature, maybe a dog and no where to be. The more common idea of living the simple life is to own a home in a suburb somewhere, have a few kids, a mortgage, a dog and a white picket fence.

I just asked my wife what her idea of a simple life would be and she said, “My idea of a simple life would be to live on the beach, in a hut with clothes made out of hemp, bathe in the ocean and just lay out all day!” I think her idea of the simple life wins the golden nugget for today! I wouldn’t think that hemp clothes would be that comfortable but obviously she is a beach bum at heart!

The word simple means, easy or not complicated. So the simple life is plainly a life that is easy, or not complicated. It is a life without much worry or stress, a life of simplicity. Although life can be complicated by nature, it is our choices that make it that way. We create our lifestyle. We either are the cause of our simple life or the cause of our miserable and complicated life.

My idea of the simple life involves a few key words. It involves financial freedom, so that the worries of bills, mortgages, rent, basic necessities of life, gas for my car or anything else that requires money will not be in my simple life. It involves complete time freedom. I mean the ability to choose for myself the schedule of the day, which is never set in stone and always subject to change. It involves service, the ability to give, teach and inspire those in need. It involves pursuing my hobbies and passions. It involves my family right along side me every step of the way.

That’s the simple life and in order to ensure that I have all those key elements in place, I have got to make key decisions right now that lead me closer to the simple life and the more I think about it, I am mostly there!

Know this, 9 out of 10 people who read this post will statistically NEVER reach their ideal lifestyle. They will never live their version of the simple life. Believe it or not but it’s true! Most people grow old wishing they had done things differently. They wish that had purchased that land or they wish they would have started that business. Your life can and will be just as you plan it to be if you choose to do so starting today. So tell me, are you hanging out with the nine……or are you the one?

Life is pretty simple really. When you break things down, it’s the simple things in life that truly make people happy. Time is a very simple thing, it exists all around us, yet hardly anybody has it. Those who do are hopefully grateful for it. Money is very simple as well. It is only worth the value given to it and is a tool used for leverage. You can’t build a house out of it, you can’t wear it or eat it. It is used for a greater purpose, to show value. The level of happiness in ones life directly depends on the simplicity of it, or the simple things in it.

It’s not only what you do but also how you do it that determines your level of happiness. And the thing that determines your level of happiness is your lifestyle. If you work more than you want, you’re unhappy. If you don’t make enough money, you’re unhappy. If you make a ton of money, yet have no time, you’re unhappy. You see, it’s what you do and how you do it that determines your level of happiness.

My role as a husband and a father is very black and white. It’s the three P’s of fatherhood:

1. Provide
2. Preside
3. Protect

If I’m not fulfilling one of those three P’s, I am not happy because my family isn’t happy. There are fathers all around the world that barely see their families because of the way they decide to fulfill the three P’s. Fathers in the Military are shipped out for 6 months or more at a time. They do it to provide for their families. Fathers in corporate sales are shipped all over the country for their company being gone days and weeks at a time. They do this to provide for their families. Fathers and mothers leave their children in daycare to provide. All of these people are noble and responsible and are doing the best they know how. Leaving the home for long periods of time is the way they know, so they continue to choose that way.

Most people just don’t know how to provide for their families, without being absent all the time. There are ways, tons of ways for you, the working father and mother, to stay at home and make a great living. However it involves a choice to do it in a different way instead of the traditional way of leaving the home. Times have changed. Take advantage of what the world has to offer. The world has made it so easy for you to still fulfill the first of the three P’s, provide, while at home. I choose to work from home and by doing so, I am able to better fulfill the other two P’s by being completely present in the lives of those I care for most.

So you see, it’s just a choice really. Everyday you leave the home to provide for your family, you are choosing to do so. One day, when you are sick and tired of being gone, you will start to choose differently. You will choose to open your eyes to that “different” way of doing things. Once that happens, look forward to seeing your life through a brand new pair of eyes because it will be nothing like the life you know right now. That is, if you are still choosing to provide by being absent.

I think there may be a little confusion as to what the term, “Time Freedom,” really is. So many people are seeking it, yet very few really find it. Time Freedom is a concept. It’s a lifestyle and so much more. It’s what allows Fathers to truly be a powerful influence in the lives of their children. It makes it possible for mothers to really and actually be the “Stay at home Mom!” It’s the freedom that allows you to persue your dreams, hobbies and ambitions without restraint. It is probably the most sought after thing in the world.

A lot of people associate Time Freedom with Financial Freedom. Financial Freedom can be obtained while taking all of your free time to obtain it. So many sacrifice their time freedom to get the financial freedom. On the flipside of the coin, a bum has all the time freedom in the world yet, no money! So you can have one without the other.

The big difference is, you can always get more money, but can never really get more time. The clock of life is ticking and when the batteries run out, our time to make a difference in this world is over. The ideal lifestyle is to have them both. Have the money and the time to enjoy it!

Here are a few things that are NOT Time Freedom, just to be clear:

1. 2 weeks of paid vacation from your employer.
2. Weekends off from your business or employer.
3. Only having to work 40 hours a week.
4. 2 or 3 hours in the evenings to devote to family time and hobbies.
5. Summers off, as most teachers get.
6. The ability to take a day off here or there or swap work days for a family event.
7. Having Sick Days!

Now that there is zero confusion, time freedom is a very simple thing to define, and it means doing whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, or just not doing it at all, if you don’t want. That’s it! True time freedom is being in complete control of your day. No boss to take orders from, no schedule to rule your day, no job to take you away from your true passions, no business that robs you of your personal life. It’s having complete and absolute control. If you wake up in the morning and feel like taking a drive out of town with your family, you do it. If you feel like not working at all that day, it’s your choice.

Now the trick is to be able to do all that you want to do, while still having the income flowing in. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple way to get them both, Time Freedom and Financial Freedom? If I knew the way, or at least one of the many ways, would you be interested to know? And once you found out how I do it, and thousands of others have done it, will you believe that it can happen for you?

That’s the key! Will you believe it can and will happen for you?