PROLOGUE: 

As part of the 7 millionaires in training http://7m7y.com I was given 10 questions to consider. Beginning January 3rd 2009 I’ll take you through my journey to answer them.  

Question # 10

What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

When I was first asked this question I had difficulty answering it because I didn’t feel like I had any strengths and I certainly didn’t want to list all weaknesses.  But after a short time I began to see my life as actually having strengths.  Things like the fact that I like people or that I for the most part have a positive outlook on life and of course I have faith in God’s ability to see his people through tough times. 

Since the question is about both sides of the coin the weaknesses I listed were things like not always finishing jobs I start or for that matter I often procrastinate too much and don’t even begin things that would help me the most.  I’m also not all that thrilled about doing admitting my inability to manage my finances. 

Question # 9

What is missing from your life right now?

To be real honest ‘right now’ what’s missing from my life is  medicine for a booming head ache. I mean like WOW!  But I’m sure that the one who asked me the question wasn’t looking for that.

What’s missing in my life isn’t something that money can buy, or can it?  What’s missing is the ability to not ‘have’ to go to work at a certain time or at all if I don’t want.  The opportunity to ‘not perform’ if I choose not to, the opportunity to do basically as I wish and not as someone who wishes.

From a money stand point I guess I would have to say that what’s missing from my life right now is a better house and newer cars and and all the other amenities that we all want (except for the sporting stuff, like boats, guns and so on). 

Question # 8

If you no longer “HAD” to work what would you be doing with your time?  When would you like to start doing it?

I can hardly imagine not working, but if I was given the opportunity to not, I suppose I would probably do those things I always wanted to do.  I would pittle around with model railroads and do some creative writing along with maybe a trip or two to some exotic place I’ve never been before.

I am ready now to start doing the above, but realistically I would need a few years to get opther things in order.

 

Question # 7

What Is Stopping Your From Doing Things differently?

The first time I considered this question I had to struggle with my set of standards that I believed needed to be in place in my life. Mainly I felt that I needed to take some kind of vow of poverty.  As I evaluated my life a little closer I discovered that the main reason I couldn’t do things differently was nothing more than fear, fear of what others would think and fear that I might not be able to accomplish what I wanted to.

After further analysis I had to honestly admit that there was really nothing except my own decision not to change that kept me from doing it.  I needed to make a different “decision” before I could start “doing” things differently.

Question # 6

If You can do Things Differently, What Would You Like to Be doing in 5 Years? 10 Years? 20 Years?

5 years from now I want to have all my bills paid off especially my mortgage and have a pretty good foot hold on a savings account.  I want to be leading regular seminars and consulting police departments regarding chaplains programs and stress management issues for their officers.

10 years from now my goal is to be finally putting have put together a consulting firm with associates who can assist me in speaking engagements. Also it is at this time that I will be ready to begin building a Retreat Center for law enforcement & fire personnel.

20 years from now I hope to be enjoying the fruits of God’s blessings and writing the stories of lives of people who have interacted with me.

MOST OF ALL at every turn of my life I want to tell the world what God had done and is doing with my life giving HIM total credit for all that I have become.

Question # 5

If You had done Things Differently, What Would You Be Doing Right Now?

This is a tough question because I have always pretty much had the same goal. It was at the age of 12 that I determined what my future would look like (for details go to “Christian Perspective page).

But as I look back and think about what if I had done things differently what come to my mind first of all is that I would probably be retiring from Chaplaincy in the United States marine Corps.  My love was the military and my calling to be a preacher would have clicked in a most perfect way.  But that would have changed everything else since it was in college where I met my darling wife.

But I didn’t do things differently so here I am and regarding my finances who knows what would have happened?

Question # 4

“What Do You Dream About?  What Do You Daydream about?

This question is easy to answer for I have done a lot of dreaming in my day.  When it comes to money, I usually dream about being able to give it away to different people and groups who have great need and projects they are working on.  I have even gone so far in the past to make lists of groups that I would give my money to.

But I also dream about operating a Retreat Center for Police & Fire Personnal and their spouses, a place where we can deal with stress related issues and just “chill out” from all the stuff they have to put up with on their jobs.

I don’t dream about cars, actually I dream of just being able to find a bed for my old 1981 Ford pickup truck.

 

 

Question #3

“How would you like to (one day) be able to describe your life to your grand children.”

Since I already have grandchildren, I don’t need to wait until some day in the future to describe my life to my grand children but of course I am still working on making it look exactly what I want it to be.  I don’t have a back porch on which my grand daughter Kristinaand I could set while I tell her all about me, but we do have this little set of stairs.  For the sake of our Grand Experiment I did just that, I took Kristina and she and I set out on the back steps and I told her how I had worked at a lot of job most of all were some kind of church related job but that I never really felt like any of them were “jobs”, they were positions I was destined to be doing. 

In mid conversation I realized that an 8 year old could rally care less maybe I shoudl have waited intil she was a teenager.

But to sum up our conversation I simply told her that I always did what I liked doing or I determined that I would like what I was doing.  I never had a job I didn’t want to do thought I had several I got frustrated with and had enough so I gave it up.  I loved doing things that were challenging and the older I got the more money I made.  There was one pretty big mistake I made in that mane times I lived in church owned parsonages and therefore had no home that I could call my own that was near being paid for.  But at a later point in my life I purchased my own home but made another mistake of never setting up a savings account, so nothing was set aside for the future.

I guess the bottom line for this back porch or step story is simply that I always did was I enjoyed and was able to live as well as I wanted to. I did what I believed I was suppose to do.

 

Question #2

“What Are The Things That You Value Most In Your Life Right Now?

The question of Value has to do with those things that are important to you.  This usually takes some time to determine.  It’s easy to confuse value with wants and desires.  Values have to do more with your beliefs about a specific thing.  So when it comes to increasing your financial status in life you may find that you think you already have everything you could possibly need.

What you value really has to do with making decisions about family, things and how people look at you or maybe how you look at yourself.  An additional question might be “what am I willing to change in order to live in a higher tax bracket?”  More money will for sure bring with it  changes in your life regardless of what you hear people say. 

Question #1  

“What Do You Want Your Future To Be Like?”

Unless you just set around and think about your future this is a lot more difficult than it sounds.  Maybe one way of looking at it is to picture a “Tombstone”.   Now think about the numbers that you see, one is the birthdate of the person and the other set of numbers is the date they died, pretty easy to figure out huh?

But what about the other figure?  You know the Dash!  That thing that looks like this “  -  “.  I heard a story once that the most important figure on a Tombstone is the dash because that’s when you lived your life.  So how do we answer the question about what we want for our future?

For me I had to think about what brings me pleasure and contentment.  I had to put together what I called a satisfaction meter.  In my mind I tested things that I thought would be fun to have and other things that I really wanted. I also came across some things I really could care less if I had or not.

I had to come to grips with the difference between “Wants and “Needs”.

I came to the conclusion that what I wanted my future to be like was a time of satisfaction.  Satisfaction with who I am and with what I have.  I discovered that I wanted certian things like a home that was paid for and cars that didn’t need constant repair and “special” things like the ability to take great vacations and to develop a Retreat Center for law enforcement officers.

I have tried to answer this question before but this time it’s different.  This time I have the potential of actually obtaining what I want in my future.  The http://7m7y.com  experiment is where I actually have a mentor who is willing to take the time to give me some pointers that will help me move toward changing the dash ” – ” in my life.