Finance

January 20, 2015

Three Reasons Why Casting A Vision Is Important To You

If you haven’t decided where you are headed in life, your circumstances will decide for you. It is important to intentionally decide what you want all areas of your life to look like. I affectionately call this “casting a vision.”

1. Casting A Vision Helps To Fight Away Distraction

In geometry there is a rule that states: between any two points is a straight line. This rule also applies in our lives. Your vision acts as the second point in the equation keeping you moving in a straight line toward your goal. One of my goals at work is to “produce three product videos per week.” This vision pushes me to avoid distractions and time-consuming tasks. It has also caused me to develop specific, repeatable, measurable steps in completing my projects.

2. Not having A Vision Will Leave You Shipwrecked

If you haven’t set a destination, you’re like a ship adrift at sea going wherever the current takes you. Early last year, I had to stop producing videos to help the increased load of our photography department. At first my editing was taking forever! Finally, my boss challenged me to process an image every 15 minutes. I didn’t always meet that challenge, but I realized that I was saving about 5 to 10 minutes per image while trying to hit my 15-minute mark. Over the course of a 480-minute day, that’s up to an extra 48 images!

3. Without A Vision There Can Be No Strategy Having a vision doesn’t mean you have it all figured out. It isn’t a game plan or a strategy. It is simply a destination. But that destination, I believe, is far more important than strategy. In fact, it is an essential precursor to strategy. How can you develop a strategy to win if you don’t know what winning looks like? Would a football coach be able to develop an effective strategy if he didn’t know that winning meant having more points at the end of the game than the other team? Of course not! In the same way, you have to decide what winning looks like in your life. You have to cast a vision.

Question: What is your vision for 2015? What do you want to accomplish at work, in your finances, with your family, and everywhere else in the Wheel Of Life? What does winning look like in those areas? Drop me a line in the comments!

January 7, 2015

The Wheel of Life

Long before I ever considered blogging, possibly even breathing, a man by the name of Zig Ziglar presented an illustration called The Wheel of Life. In this wheel, Zig illustrates the importance of seven crucial areas of our lives: Career, Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Family and Social. Zig tapped into a universal truth with this simple diagram; what you do in one of these areas of life will affect your overall ride.

The Wheel Leaks!

If it isn’t maintained, it gets out of whack. A perfect example: When I graduated college I thought my wheel was pretty round; until Maura and I got engaged. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been more excited about anything in my life but we had no idea how we were going to pay for it. Maura was in a career transition, so much of my income was going to things like rent and lights at her apartment. I hadn’t been doing any saving or even budgeting up to that point, so my wheel wasn’t as round as I had thought. As a result, the ride got a little bumpy!

Pump it up Schwarzenegger style!

Thankfully, around that time we discovered Dave Ramsey. Over the next few months, we hunkered down, cut our lifestyle and began selling anything that wasn’t nailed down. We began pumping the wheel like Arnold pumps iron! It was a perfect opportunity for Maura and I to work on something together. In the end, we had our wedding and our honeymoon without acquiring any debt!

All Parts Need Each Other

An even more profound aspect of the wheel is how connected the different areas of our life are. You can be the champ at work, but if you neglect your family it will catch up to you there. You can be the best parent, but weigh 500 pounds and not live to meet your grandchildren. It is so important to give attention, or “air” to every section in the wheel. The other sections depend on it!

Question: As 2015 really gets moving, what areas do you need to give some air to? Leave a reply in the comments!

December 17, 2014

The Trap of Least Resistance

We’ve all heard about “The path of least resistance.” As a teenager, all I heard in that phrase was “no fun for you!” Today, as a newly wed and fresh college grad, I understand why avoiding what that phrase entails not only means life, but a successful, fulfilled life. Following the path, or as I call it, the trap of least resistance has caused me serious pain. Read on to find out why, but most importantly, how you can avoid it.

Hakuna Matata
As a young college student I ventured out without a plan to pay for school, prepare for life after college, or how to get the most out of my time while attending. So, like many students today, I took a part time job and coupled that with Student loans. I had the H.O.P.E. scholarship, which covered most of my tuition, and the loans covered my living expenses. It was easy, stress free, and I didn’t have to think about it. Hakuna Matata. As a result, I graduated with loads of student loan debt which is a huge tax on my income today.

It Hurts!
This is the problem with the path of least resistance. It’s easy now, and may save you a little pain, but it always catches up. When it catches up, the pain is multiplied exponentially compared to what it would have been had you put forth the work of being intentional. I could have avoided the student loans with wise spending, saving, and working more hours. It would have been a little harder then, but it would have changed my life forever. Instead of living in a tiny apartment with my wife, we could be saving up for a big down payment on a house right now. Not to mention avoiding the pain of being the only one to bring debt into a marriage. Don’t follow the path of least resistance! It hurts!

You can avoid the pain that comes with this easy path. The key word is intentionality. Be intentional about how you live. Use your emotions as a gauge. How do you feel in your marriage, at work or at school? Is it easy? If so, it’s possible that you may just be in a good season. But I encourage you, strongly, take inventory. Assess your situation and see if there’s something you could be doing better, somewhere you could be working harder, somewhere you could be more effective. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Don’t just go with the flow!

Have you ever found yourself caught in the trap of least resistance? How did it affect you? What are your tips for escaping it? I would love to hear from you in the comments!