escape from the rat race

 I think it is such a shame that we have to grow up! Ok, that is not a very good statement to make but let me explain what I mean.

 Children are mostly oblivious to the constraints that we face as adults and I think that as adults we may self-impose some of those constraints. What’s the first thing that you think of when you have an idea or someone comes to you with an idea? Do you focus on the ‘what if’ or do you immediately start looking at the reasons why it wouldn’t work?

 The reason that I pose these questions is that our daughter has recently been on a quest to set up a business of her own. The only real issue here is that she is turning seven next month! In her eyes even this is not an issue, she just kept thinking until she found something that suited her. In her mind the sky is the limit and we are going to do everything we can to help her reach her potential.

 I understand that as an adult we have to undertake a certain amount of ‘risk assessment’ with any idea that comes before us but I also wonder how many good opportunities have been lost by erring on the side of caution. Maybe if we concentrated on the ‘what if’ a bit more we might find that life is full of good opportunities.

 To read more about Mikaela’s entry into the business world please have a read of the Six Year Old Entrepreneur post at My Online Dollars. I think you will find it an interesting read, but then again I may be biased!

Craig

 With this blog I was attempting to combine two subjects - the HOW of achieving freedom from a J.O.B. using the Internet and the WHY it is important to the human spirit to keep working towards your goals and dreams.

These two subjects come hand in hand for me as I am working towards a life goal of not having to return to a J.O.B. and I am using the Internet as a means to achieve this. I have realized though that both of these subjects are far too vast to adequately cover on one weblog so I have removed all trace of website and internet type stuff and will concentrate this site on the WHY only.

The HOW will be taken care of by My Online Dollars.com, our new site that will show what we are doing online and the results of these endeavors. No doubt there will be a few mistakes made along the way and hopefully more than a few wins but my aim is to share everything to do with making money online, from a complete beginners point of view and with no fluff or hype as you so often see in the Internet Marketing type game.

There has been many techniques and methods that we have discovered to make money online and no doubt they have all been covered before but if you want to see a true beginner trying to master these things please take a look at our site.

If you need some inspiration in your life to start turning your dreams into reality stick around here as we have some really helpful stuff coming up. Hopefully we can provide you with enough motivation to get you dreaming and most importantly get you thinking of ways that you can achieve your dreams. I firmly believe that if the will is strong enough we will find a way to achieve and a life without dreams and action taken towards those dreams is a life not lived!

  When setting goals in any area of your life it is very easy to succumb to outside pressures or even the opinions of other people on what you are trying to achieve and unless you are particularly strong willed these things can lead you to lose sight of where you are going.

I have found this particularly true with what I am aiming for. Many people cannot grasp the concept of me wanting to make a living while still being at home with the kids. Even some family members are wondering why I don’t just go out and get a ‘real’ job. It is these opinions that honestly make me think if I am doing the right thing, especially when things aren’t moving as quickly as I would like them to.

One way I have found to combat these feelings of self-doubt is to sit back and take a look at the small successes we have had on our way to our goals. Rather than focusing only on the dream or goal that we know we will achieve in time I think it is important in keeping our focus to occasionally celebrate the steps we have already taken in our journey.

After all, it is these steps that make eventually lead us to our ultimate goal and without them we just wouldn’t get there. They are also a very useful way to ‘re-ignite’ the fire inside you when the journey seems like it is taking forever. Do yourself a favor, if you have set any goals at all for your life in the immediate future take the time to sit back and think about how far you have come already, visualize the successes you have had no matter how large or small and see them as important steps in the path to obtaining your ultimate goal. Sure, there may be many more steps to cover but I bet there is also many steps that you have already walked!

Craig 

 I am a huge believer in looking at life in a child-like manner. Not childish but child-like. Somewhere along the road to adulthood we loose the ability to dream and we loose the belief that we are capable of anything.

 This post was written by a very talented woman from one of the social networking sites that I spend way too much time on and I think it sums up perfectly the road to adulthood and the reasons we loose sight of our dreams and abilities.

 Many thanks to White Trash Queen for permission to use this article.

To Whom It May Concern: 
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.
I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of a 6 year old again.

I want to go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks.
I want to think M&Ms are better than money, because you can eat them.
I want to play kickball during recess and paint with watercolors in art.
I want to lie under a big Oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summers day.
I want to return to a time when life was simple.

When all you knew were colors, addition tables and simple nursery rhymes. But that didn’t bother you, because you didn’t know what you didn’t know and you didn’t care.
When all you knew was to be happy because you didn’t know all the things that should make you worried and upset.
I want to think that the world is fair. That everyone in it is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible.

Somewhere in my youth…I matured and I learned too much.
I learned of nuclear weapons, war, prejudice, starvation and abused children.
I learned of lies, unhappy marriages, suffering, illness, pain and death.
I learned of a world where men left their families to go and fight for our country, and returned only to end up living on the streets… begging for their next meal.
I learned of a world where children knew how to kill…and did.

What happened to the time when we thought that everyone would live because we didn’t grasp the concept of death?
When we thought the worst thing in the world was if someone took the jump rope from you or picked you last for kickball?

I want to be oblivious to the complexity of life and be overly excited by little things once again.
I want to return to the days when reading was fun and music was clean. When television was used to report the news or for family entertainment and not to promote sex, violence and deceit.
I remember being naive and thinking that everyone was happy because I was.

I would walk on the beach and only think of the sand between my toes and the prettiest seashell I could find.
I would spend my afternoon climbing trees and riding my bike.
I didn’t worry about time, bills or where I was going to find the money to fix my car.
I used to wonder what I was going to do or be when I grew up, not worry about what I’ll do if this doesn’t work out.

I want to live simple again.
I don’t want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind and making angels in the snow.

I want to be 6 again.

 With the new year only an hour old we got to thinking about what lies ahead for us in 2008. One thing is for sure, we have to get to Sydney next year to see the new years eve fireworks. What a spectacle! I have had enough of watching it year after year on the idiot box so now it is time to put some plans in place for actually seeing it first hand.

 This got me thinking about the difference between the dreams we have for our lives and the goals that we set or should set if we want to get somewhere.

 The way I see it is that we have dreams or aspirations for our lives as the overall plan that we are working towards and goals as measurable steps on the road to these dreams.

 Without goals we have no way of knowing if we are getting closer or further away from our dreams, and without setting goals the dreams we have for our lives may seem so far away that we are tempted to give up altogether. Each small success that we have with our goals can be seen as one more step on the road to the life we desire, take those steps away and all we have is one long road that looks too long to even contemplate.

 Planning out and writing my goals was something that I struggled with early on. I am the kind of person that stores everything in the old grey matter and have become quite good at it. It wasn’t until I wrote everything down that I realized I was actually not getting the things done that would put me one step closer to my dream, instead I was wasting a lot of time doing I don’t know what! If there could be one ‘rule’ when it comes to goal setting it is to write everything down and go back over what you have written at least once a week.

 As an example, part of building our niche websites involves adding new content to each site on a weekly basis, so I mentally set aside Monday’s to do this. Funnily enough, when I look back at the dates of each post made there are times when some sites got forgotten for a fortnight or more. Now after writing the goal on the whiteboard near my desk there is no forgeting Monday’s and what do you know, there has been new content added every week since doing this! Funny that.

 I know writing website content every week is not exactly an awe-inspiring goal to achieve but the way I think of it is that every new piece of writing is one step towards building a large site, one step towards getting better search engine placings, one step towards attracting more readers and therefore increased revenue and that is one more step towards my dream of being financially free. As you can see that goal is very important because it gets me one step closer to my dream.

 If I was to focus solely on achieving financial freedom instead of the steps taken to get there I would feel very overwhelmed at the amount of time and effort it takes to succeed and probably give up after a short amount of time. This is why I think setting attainable goals is crutial to achieving success in any part of your life.  

Craig