Conversation and commitments

I was talking with a few friends the other day, and I went public with the assertion that I am on track to reach 1 Million in liquid assets by July 1 of 2015.  I think it is good to set that milestone, because if I get off track, I must troubleshoot and correct my course. It becomes necessary to do right at that point, because I expect my friends to check in with me on it. I deserve to be accountable, I deserve to hold myself accountable for reaching that, and to be honest, I want officially go public with the realization that I HAVE TO. I owe it to myself to do this. I deserve this level of success and I am determined to reach it. All other priorities must be set aside whatever the consequences. It is time. 

Creative Projects on hold-Reality check

I think I have to execute on something that I have been contemplating for a long time, and that is to put my creative projects on hold.  My recent reality checks with regard to my assignments, my savings, basically my financial health all indicate that I must deal with the current situation immediately. I don’t think that I can realize my creative vision while I am constantly distracted by dealing with money issues. I cannot ‘do the work’ while I am dealing with the essential randomness of corporate employment.  I must capitalize on recent opportunities that have been offered me and take my life to the next level.  Although it is irksome in the short haul, in the long run it will be the correct decision. What could honor my creativity more, what could value my artistic side more than putting myself in a position to devote full time to it? 

Between Gigs

I have to be honest and say that I really treasure the time that I have between assignments, between jobs, between projects. Although it becomes expensive if it goes on too long, there was a certain point where I realized that working for someone else wasn’t doing much for me. Although its true that it pays the bills and has eliminated a lot of my debt, its still not much more than check to check. More of the same is definitely not a solution. It is tough to solve this problem when I am hustling, coping with the daily grind, it’s hard to get out of the prison if you can’t get some time to see it from the outside, even if its only from the yard. Also, I really have no choice. I have to make my business work or I will be dependent on an employer for the forseeable future, except for my little 401(k). My Dad wasn’t even retired three years before he became ill and passed, and that was a raw deal in the extreme even if it was partly his fault. If I can get some of my ‘retirement’ before I am 60, I can use the downtime effectively. Although I do sleep in and take my time to get moving, I still expend a lot of mental energy during the day in planning, brainstorming, researching. How do I make it go faster? Am I doing everything I need to do to get the income coming in? What information is missing? If I have a presentation meeting planned for October, what can I do to bump it up earlier? I think its about time for me to get some business cards and send a clear signal to the Universe about this operation. I don’t think I am going to need any cards I get from my upcoming dayjob as the people I’ll be seeing likely won’t want to use them.

Philosophy of Knowledge part 2

Although it may seem obvious, lately I have become aware of a “metabolism” of information that exists within me. There seems to be a somewhat toxic cultural meme that I was exposed to- which goes like: You don’t have enough knowledge! Someone else has information you need! What you don’t know will hurt you! I am sure this is part of what creates ‘paralysis by analysis’ and the idea that knowledge can substitute for skill and experience. You can’t learn how to sing just by reading… The cure seems to be in trusting myself, and the immediate result of that is an increase in discretionary income that isn’t going to Borders. The medicine itself seems to be that in the course of moving towards my goals, very specific questions are generated by the problems I run into. Example: how do you fix your credit? What mortgage options are there? How do I set up a RELP so that its legal and all partners are happy? For me at this point, there is a relief I feel in this ’specialization’ where I am dealing with applied knowledge and specific, finite information that I know is available. Now the knowledge I am acquiring deals with solving problems I run into in the course of (gasp!) actually doing something. It’s not as scary as I had anticipated.

Philosophy of Knowledge

I just went through one of my purges where I sell back a whole lot of my books, clearing the shelves for any more that might be helpful. I have been thinking a lot about knowledge lately, what is valuable information, what is entertainment and what can make us better people. What does it really mean to be educated? How do you create a system for filtering information, for valuing knowledge, prioritizing? It may be that each person has a different viewpoint on this. Of course, there is cultural literacy. There is the Canon of Great Books. There is the box of information known as the High School Diploma. There is the larger box known as the bachelor’s, and there are the specialized boxes known as the advanced and terminal degrees. I’ve always been puzzled about the MBA. Lots of people get MBA s, then promptly go work for someone else. If you have an MBA, can’t you at least open and run an ice-cream stand or vending cart, at least a small retail store? Why on earth would you get an MBA just to be an employee? I’m a big fan of the OJT degree: on the job training. Another thing that trips me out is the folks who go straight from high school to bachelors to masters to teaching school. This I think is a big reason why schools are going down in quality, there are a lot of teachers who have no idea what they are sending their students into. I think that there should be a mandatory, say, 10 year moratorium for teachers between bachelor’s and masters- they should have to spend time in the real world and get an understanding of what waits for their students. I hope any teachers reading this take it the right way. I also had an idea for a MetaSchool- a class that teaches you how to deal with class, this would have a strong basis in philosophy, library science, communications and history. Regardless, I am feeling the need to basically focus my cortex on the application of knowledge. I need to trust myself, my body wisdom, my common sense and vision. I need to trust what I know already and believe in the extensive library that already resides between my ears. I need to focus on the applications of knowledge, the part that results in action and generates concrete results, change and progress, namely financial. I don’t want to be smart but broke. I don’t need people to know what I’ve read, I want them to know who I am by the results I generate and the legacy I create. It actually doesn’t matter all that much what I’ve read, what matters is what I’ve done with it.   

Strange Time

I have another brief period of being between jobs, a few weeks of liberty that I can use to get myself together. I feel as if I am beginning a new phase of life and must gather my energy and increase my clarity of purpose. I feel as if I am on the brink of something really big, like I was pregnant with some kind of supernal realization, a satori of sorts. An urban satori, if that’s possible. Maybe its like getting ready for a big trip, a journey to a new and better place. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it feels good. I feel as if I have untold, unknown, unused reserves of power welling up within me. Not to be too visionary, but there is definitely a transition of some kind happening to me.  I also feel a sense of completeness within me, as if I am realizing myself whole, complete, healthy and full of energy. It could just be going back to the gym, but there is a recovery of personal power I am feeling. This new road, it may lead beyond just the realization of my goals into something greater. This is not egotistical, rather I feel pulled along a path by a power or resonance to what I am supposed to be and do. It is likely a little different than anything I have envisioned, but I trust it. I trust myself and my ability, my knowledge and strength, maybe for the first time in a long time.

A Means to an End

Well, it’s time to knuckle under and try to solve the money problem. I may have to put all my creative projects on hold and try to crank up my business. I think that dividing my time among more than one goal has reached a point of untenability. I need to get my new job in order, I need to get my finances in order and I need to get passive income going. My current job that I am leaving soon, was a huge disappointment to me. After about 10 weeks of temp to temp, I started to get the impression that it was not, as promised, temp to perm. I started to look around. I was extremely pleased with myself because I had never really been looking for a job while I had one, it was a new feeling of being in the driver’s seat. Two ‘offers’ came in at roughly the same time, I took the real one. I didn’t have to sell myself on the cheap, I kept my integrity and stayed professional to boot. Now, unfortunately I am in my late 30’s, so this position will require a new approach. I will focus on it, but I will use it as a means to an end. I will live my current frugal lifestyle and begin socking money away into my investments as fast as I can. I will buy property as fast as I possibly can until I have replaced my income in its entirety and then some. To boot, I will get a master’s courtesy of my new employer. I have a Millionaire Mind, and I am done repeating my history.

Founding Fathers Booklist

Something on my intellectual to do list is to add John Locke to my reference library. Lately I have been cycling through my reading material- I will read, take any necessary notes and then sell the books back at the Strand.  It occurs to me that it would be a good exercise to determine of my own research what my core library is going to be and start to hang on to them, this would mean buying another bookcase.  Although I do trust myself to remember most important things, it would be nice to be able to go back and re-read if necessary.  Wikipedia has a decent article on John Locke and includes his epitaph:

“Stop, Traveller! Near this place lieth John Locke. If you ask what kind of a man he was, he answers that he lived content with his own small fortune. Bred a scholar, he made his learning subservient only to the cause of truth. This thou will learn from his writings, which will show thee everything else concerning him, with greater truth, than the suspect praises of an epitaph. His virtues, indeed, if he had any, were too little for him to propose as matter of praise to himself, or as an example to thee. Let his vices be buried together. As to an example of manners, if you seek that, you have it in the Gospels; of vices, to wish you have one nowhere; if mortality, certainly, (and may it profit thee), thou hast one here and everywhere.”