Freedom for more peace and stability
March 18th, 2013 by Agent Kevin Miller
Yesterday was Sunday and I stayed home all day. In my house, on my land with my best friends (my family). No pressures and no stress. We made green eggs and pancakes (gluten free) in honor of St. Patricks Day. We had a big snowball fight in the Colorado sun and snow (my 3 year old Nekoda pictured, ready for warfare). We read about food in Genesis then discussed the ‘blood type diet’ we are adopting this week. We made paper airplanes and launched them into the ceiling fan, first one to get a rip wins. We played a word game (Upwords) and watched a meaningful movie (Finding Forrester).
It was a good day.
Today is Monday. And…I’m staying home again. My wife is taking some time for herself and I’m hanging with the kids. I’m doing a little work, but typing this out now from our big dining room table while the kids eat lunch and the fire is warming us from the corner. I found my kids playing out in the woods and joined them (following Nekoda’s footsteps in the picture below). Went for a run in the sun while they napped. The point isn’t me not having to work, I probably put in as many hours as most. But I get to decide when and how I work.
I crave the peace and stability of this lifestyle and greatly fear giving control of my life to anyone else who may jeopardize it. This is one of my primary reasons for being self-employed.
At face value, it would be more peaceful and stabile to travel cross country in a passenger bus, eh? Cheaper too. But you must give up a good portion of your freedoms and desires. You can’t speed up to get their faster, or slow down to appreciate something along the way. You can’t blast the music, or have silence. You must trust the driver 100% because you have zero control of the driving. If there’s a breakdown, you can’t take any action to repair the problem.
Not many people take the bus.
I see people every day however, striving to find peace and stability, while not having much control over their lives. They have values and beliefs and passions they long to be true to and they’re fighting and stressing to achieve them, while the majority of their week is spent adhering to a life they can’t control.
Work.
The j-o-b.
Traditional employment.
Being…an employee.
Riding the bus…
Not all job setups are bad, I hear good stories here and there. But they’re the exception, not the rule. We know…the statistics don’t lie.
Most people long to have control over their daily lives. No fear of being ‘let go’ or getting a bad review or working feverishly to meet an unreasonable deadline. Dealing with office politics and so many hard relationships where you can’t be real in order to ‘protect the job.’
That’s not peaceful. That’s not stabile.
Is this you?
It’s possible to change it. You really CAN achieve the deep peace and stability for your life which you desire. So what’s between where you are now and where you want to be?
Most likely, almost certainly…a time of less peace and stability. And thus the reason few people ever make a change from the norm.
The key is getting help and going after the goal with wisdom and efficiency to minimize the stress between here and there. Something I have personally…seldom done well. But I’m getting better.
How do you get wisdom and efficiency to make the journey and transition from where you are now, to a better place, less daunting? Five things:
- Experienced counsel
- Personal counsel
- Customized strategy
- Commitment
- Routine
Not to minimize anyone, myself included, but the first one is not hard to find. The most brilliant minds in business are only a click or book or podcast away. We generally miss the rest and have the perspective that going from traditional employment to self-employment is some action adventure movie or akin to the big bang theory where a tornado rips through a salvage yard and out the other end comes a Boeing 747 in flight with martinis being served.
It’s nothing as glamorous or dangerous as those.
Just a journey. From one place to a better.
NOT…on a bus.
Are you craving more peace and stability for your life?
*Pictured: As I’m typing this, Nekoda woke from his nap, came in and climbed into my lap and said, “Will you take a picture of me?” I pulled up Photobooth on my Mac and he said, “Do the fishy one”. I’d never seen it, an effect that puts ‘fishies’ around your head. Cuteness. Freedom to be his Daddy when he wakes from his nap is worth…everything to me.
