Put the blinders on and focus for 6 months.

After reading almost all of Zen Habits popular blog posts this weekend, I have reaffirmed a decision I had been leaning toward. My family and I are going to put the blinders on and see how much focus we can exhibit in the next 6 months. This was inspired by lots of thought and prayer and a little nudge from Seth Godin’s blog last week. Here are the bullet points:

• We are continuing our process of simplifying life by selling our larger home and moving into a smaller one with about half the payment.
• We are purging even more of our furniture, kids toys, clothes and other “stuff”- my favorite term for everything I don’t really need that takes up space in my home and my mind. I’m all for stockpiling some things which I’ll talk more about in future posts.
• We are cutting expenses and increasing our means per Ben Franklin’s famous quote.

The road to wealth lies in augmenting our means or diminishing our wants, either will do, but the quickest way to wealth is to do both at the same time- Ben Franklin

• We are going to lose the excess weight we’ve gained while having three children the last 3 years.
• We are going to stop doing things that we don’t value or that don’t serve others. No will be a frequent answer.
• We are going to wake up early and go to bed early.
• We are going to focus on growing our primary income through our services to local small business owners.
• We are going to create multiple residual income streams through Eniva and their wonderful health product Vibe and through some other means I won’t mention here.
• We are going to start investing our US dollars in gold- actual gold coins minted in Australia. One is shaky and decreasing the other has stood the test of time.
• We are going to start investing money with Euro Pac capital and Peter Schiff’s team.
• We are going to continue giving money to the ministries, missionaries, our church and local charities/nonprofits. We’ll make every effort to increase our support.
• We are going to pay off our business debt and avoid it like the plague for the rest of our lives.
• We are going to start enjoying life like the famous story of the Mexican Fisherman. I’ve never read this blog but they were the first result in Google so they get the link. I first read this story in Dan Miller’s book.

We may fall directly on our face and miss the mark, but I have a sneaky feeling our situation will look a lot better if we put forth this effort. The blinders are going on. We’ve planned a few rewards along the way for hitting certain benchmarks and we’ve committed to keeping our plans simple. Small daily improvements are the focus. Massive action through a series of small steps with one foot in front of the other. I’ve always had a problem with focus, so I’ll let you know how the battle is going. It will be a battle, but the stakes are too high today to sit on the sidelines. If you’re up for it, let’s draw a line in the sand today and hold one another accountable.

Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler- Einstein

Simplify, Simplify- Thoreau

To close, a large men’s bible study I attended this weekend had a guest pastor who taught us about simplicity. He said following Christ is not always easy, but it’s never complicated. He quoted Micah 6:8 which says “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” No matter what your faith background is, these principles are timeless. Justice- Mercy- Humility.

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