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The Benefits of Free Time 150 150 admin

The Benefits of Free Time

In this article I’m going to share with you the benefits I’ve experienced through having lots and lots of free time. If there’s interest I can share the downsides too cuz uh…it hasn’t been all roses.

Backstory of Having Damn Near No Free Time

There was a period of time where I was working a job I hated then doing deliveries on the side and it felt like I was just spinning my wheels. My expenses = money I got from the job I hated + delivery money. I just kept hearing this message in my head that said “you’re wasting your time”.

Then, I went to a conference called Love Rising in Hollywood, CA led by Kyle Cease. A core message I got from that conference was to stop chasing money, and so that’s what I did. He published a book called The Illusion of Money not too long after this workshop.

I tried my best to do everything – especially creative work – from a heart-centered space. I really felt like I was fed up doing work and feeling like a damn slave. I quit my job right after getting out of that conference (because I was doing it just for the money), and life hasn’t been the same since. In many ways it has been amazing, and in many ways it has been horrific. I’m sharing the good stuff here now though.

Online learning

There is literally so much information on online that you can web surf through – especially with YouTube. I also like my local libraries online resources, and if your local library sucks then…I’m sure you can find a way to break some rules…Just don’t hold me responsible.

I tend to gravitate towards the practical information and online courses. People are taking their knowledge and putting it in online resources at a level that has never been seen before – especially with COVID. All i need is an internet connection and a device that can use that internet connection to show me stuffs. I just found another course I wanna take today from Scott Scorch (a little disappointed it’s only 2 hours long). It was a gateway to find the other courses on the platform though.

Finding Money to Play With

I’ve been able to “find” money through different ways. Lowering expenses dramatically helps with this a lot! No more car note draining my finances, and no more expensive rent. HAD I BEEN MORE PATIENT, last year would have been my first 6-figure year by way of crypto. 2020 was the first year ever I felt like I was able to play with money. And it was all because of downsizing, doing independent contract work as a gig worker when COVID hit, and binge watching videos on crypto.

Self Care

Sometimes I wonder how people deal with self care with a job. Meditation, hygiene, fitness, food prep/shopping, self care appointments i.e. doctors/dentists, vehicle care, living space care, fun/hobbies/creative outlets, assessments about all of the above, and learning about how to improve all of the above.

This about this – I’m a single guy, but what about if you’re in a household and have to take care of others? Many of these things can’t be outsourced or helped by a significant other. How do people adequately do self care when a job takes up such huge blocks of time. How do people fit all this in? I think the answer is many people don’t.

Doing Things At Different Times Than The Majority

In a populated city like Houston, Texas it feels so much better to do things when others don’t do them. I don’t have to sit in traffic during lunch time when everyone is one the road. I don’t have to deal with large crowds in stores because I can shop while everyone is at work.

No More Resentment For Things That Were Taking Up My Time

I don’t find myself saying “I don’t know enough time”. I could easily say that when I had a job, and it would make me resentful towards the job. I was spending a lot of those days working feeling resentment.

Lately, if I can deal with what others say and think about me and accept it and not be triggered by it, then I can experience that freedom. That is a part of the freedom. I might be called lazy or a bum, or not self sufficient (nobody’s really self-sufficient) in the short term, but over the long term things start to get really good. You don’t relate to money with this neediness and it can flow to you.

Depth and Quality Creatively

I put depth and quality together because depth has a lot to do with quality. I can’t get to the level of mental depth I could creatively as long as I was using so much mental ram on my job. This is the biggest benefit. It gives me room to breathe. I can step back and see the forest for the trees, and not always be stuck in the trees.

I don’t even think my brain could go into writing an article list this or many of the other articles I’ve written without sufficient space to let my mind wander into different rabbit holes. Eventually, the rabbit holes start to connect together in a way I can’t predict.

Nothing feels rushed now. Even if there is a deadline to things, I don’t feel the intense pressure I would feel going to jobs. I can take my time cooking up good shit. Good plans, good assessments, good articles, good presence with people, good quality overall.

When I would work at jobs, I very rarely got to see my own work. It was purchasing and data entry, so…it was gone as soon as I did it. I never got to see it or marvel at it or add to it or build on top of it. I’ve created a lot that I get to look back on these past years. It makes me waaaaaay more proud.

That’s it folks

That’s all I got. I’m thankful that I made it a priority to downsize and take my time investments away from chasing money and started to embrace and cherish the time I have on this earth. There is nothing like it.

Success/Outcomes is Secondary, The Enjoyment of the Doing is Primary 150 150 admin

Success/Outcomes is Secondary, The Enjoyment of the Doing is Primary

Here was a great video by Eckhart Tolle. His answers are often so good and relevant to what I’m going through at different points in time. This video had a lot to do with how I’m planning this upcoming quarter. I loved how he talked about the relationship with the practice and the work that comes perceived success.

“The successes are nice for the ego, but the spiritual breakthroughs they come when you fail at something”.

Lessons from Meditation / Visualization 150 150 admin

Lessons from Meditation / Visualization

I’ve been doing almost a month of meditation/visualization combined. I’ve done this work before, but my visions were much smaller. Here are some things I’ve noticed usually after 30 days.

  • Life moves faster, and so it’s important to remain grounded amongst the chaos.
  • Relevant, specific, synchronistic information flies in fast. I’ve seen it come in through many directions – Youtube videos, conversations, coaching calls, a note on the ground, the first thing that plays on the radio when you turn it on (these have all happened to me). Pay attention to even the littlest things so you don’t miss out.
  • Welcome the discomfort, doubts, anxiety, confusion, frustration. New things will come. Welcome all that shows up, and don’t resist it. It will make the process flow a lot smoother. Eventually, you will get to a point where you can be ok with the beautiful range of emotions and dynamics life has to offer.
  • You begin to feel like you’re actually in your visions, so when you come out of your visualization session – you have a heightened awareness of yourself, others and reality. You’re more aware of the specific times doubts and fears are causing your own hesitation and avoidance. You’re more aware of your emotions and what’s causing them. You’re more aware of how your eating is affecting your mood/emotions (hopefully!). You’re more aware of when your emotions change. You’re more aware of what’s around you. You’re aware of the small decisions you’re making to either bring aligned things in. You’re more aware of the energy it’s draining to tolerate misalignments.
  • Even if you’ve been aware of all of the above, misalignments start to irritate you more than usual…a lot more. It becomes mandatory to create and enforce boundaries to that which is misaligned. You can feel it.
  • Trust and believe there will be a process that will show up. You might not even realize it’s a process until after you’ve gone through it. You have to trust and be willing to go step by step.
  • If you dare to dream big here, be aware of validation seeking – where you’re trying to prove to other people your vision can be real. Less defense, more surrender. Share your vision with someone who is aligned with it and could support it and make it happen…or at least move you to the next step. I find it best to share it with someone who’s already been down the exact (or very similar) path and come out the other side. They’ll do a much better job of showing you how that looks on earth for real and grounding what feels like a big dream in the sky. I’ve also seen sharing it with a supportive audience work too. They can point you to the person (or group of people) that have been through the process.
Asking Busy People for Help 150 150 admin

Asking Busy People for Help

Have you ever felt like you need help from a person who is already inundated with requests? You know this person has a full inbox, but you still need help and you know this particular person has the specific help you need.

Avoid Taking without Giving

When I first started reaching out to people who I knew received many messages, I would get back messages with template responses.  Something along the lines of “Hello Broderick! We’ve received your message, and someone will get back with you shortly!”.  They rarely did, and it had to do with my energy.  I wanted to take, take, take and not give.

What consistently helps me get answers to my questions a lot faster now is helping the person on the other side somehow…some way.  Thinking win-win.

Another way to put it is Law 13 from Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power.

Law 13:  When asking for help, appeal to people’s self interest, never to their mercy or gratitude.

Give and Take by Adam Grant is another good book that addresses this.

Put yourself in the other person’s position and think about things from their point of view.  What would be valuable to them?   What do they want or need that you could provide?  Money could be one thing, but you can also look for things that aren’t monetary.

Maybe they have a course or a book and they need feedback.  Maybe they’re already inundated with feedback and they need a way to manage the feedback.  Maybe they need a way to have more free time.  Maybe they need new shoes.  Maybe they need a Covid19-free hug.  How can you be of service to them?  How can you create value for them?  If they have a website, they might mention what they need or want.  Coming from a space of service when I need help has been a much more effective strategy to get the help I need.

Show some commitment if you want mentorship

If your question is a how-to/mentor kind of question, show some type of indicator that you’re committed to actually implementing the advice they’re going to give you.  If they have a bestselling book (or multiple best-selling books), its likely they’re receiving many messages.  Each message answered is a time investment.  Again, put yourself in their shoes and imagine someone comes to you for genuine advice.  How would you feel about giving advice to that person knowing it’s falling on deaf ears and that they will just ignore it?  If you want to increase the likelihood that they’ll invest their time in answering your question, show that you’ve already got the ball rolling in some form or fashion.

When I was into self-publishing and I wanted some advice from bestsellers in my genre on how they gained such visibility in the Amazon Kindle Store.  I emailed 4 authors with best-selling books.  Two didn’t respond.  One had an email assistant respond, and the last author directly responded with the exact answer I needed.  An important part of this story is that I had already published books that just needed more visibility, and I led with that in my message to these authors.  I wanted to show that I’m not some person thinking about doing self-publishing, but that I’ve already got works published.  I’m in field.

Whatever you want, give it

If you’re having a tough time getting help from the specific source you’re looking for, consider releasing your attachment to finding your answer in that direction and consider giving help to someone else.  You want advice or help?  Give advice or help.  That sounds crazy right?  Like one of these crazy counter-intuitive solutions I keep rambling about.

Reading a Book in a Day 150 150 admin

Reading a Book in a Day

There have been several days where I’ve listened to a whole audiobook in a day.  If an audiobook is 8 hours long, then if you really focus you can finish that in a day if you make it a priority.  ALSO, you can listen to it at 1.5 or 1.75 or 2X times the speed so it won’t take so long.

If not a day, then you can break it up into 1-3 days.  I wondered…if I can read a book a day…then in a year, can’t I read 365 books in a year instead of the 1 book a week recommendation that’s common?

Just a thought.

Fun Helps Productivity 150 150 admin

Fun Helps Productivity

There can be a tendency to do too much work.  When you start feeling bogged down by work and burnt out…it’s time to stop and completely take your mind off work.  Switch modes.  Switch modes into fun or entertainment or something to take your mind away.

There’s levels to this also.  Vacations or group events seem to totally take my mind off work.

You’ll know you’re succeeding with this approach when you’re eager to get back to work.  When you’ve played so much you feel that itch to get some productive work done.  If you’re truly taking off enough time, you’ll find yourself renewed and work will flow easier.  It’s like you recharged your batteries.  Even the work you love needs a break now and then.  Counterintuitive I know…but many of the great solutions are.

Time Management With Chet Holmes 150 150 admin

Time Management With Chet Holmes

I was listening to the audiobook The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (review coming soon!) and I thought I’d share this insightful article on time management by Chet Holmes.  This was actually in the book, and is in the tell-it-like-it-is style that I like.

From that article:

  1. Step One: Touch it once
  2. Step Two: Make lists, but stick to the six most important things
  3. Step Three: Plan how long you will spend on each item
  4. Step Four: Plan when
  5. Step Five: Ask the results
  6. Step Six: Will it hurt me to throw this away?

You could combine step 2-4 into one step called “plan your day”, but I can see why he might separate them.  They are each critical, so they might get lost in the sauce if you combine them all into one step.

I’ve read lots of time management books, and step 3 (plan how long you will spend on each item of the six steps mentioned in his step one) and step 4 (plan when you’re going to do them) are important and get left out of productivity books.

Let’s say you put that article into practice and create a list of 6 things you plan on getting done the next day “by hook or by crook”.  Well…if you don’t go through step 3 or step 3 is poorly done, then you could end up simply running out of time and leave things off.  Next thing ya know, you’re excusing your way out of a lack of execution by saying “things took longer than I thought”.  Sometimes that actually is true, but seek to become better at making more accurate predictions on how long things on your list will take to complete.  If it’s something big, break it down into smaller, more realistic pieces.

If you don’t do step four, many times the most important things could easily get pushed to the end of the day.

God help you if you don’t include step 3 OR four and your important tasks have gotten pushed to the end of the day AND you ran out of time because things took longer than you thought.  Now you’ve had a day where the important stuff didn’t even get done!

Keep Going 150 150 admin

Keep Going

Have there been any projects where…you dropped the ball and you didn’t pick it back up?  Only to wonder “what if?” years later.

What it you had finished that project you wanted to do?

There’s some projects I’m sure you’re glad you’re dropped, but do you have any projects that gnaw at you?  In your mind, they make you go into a reality where you didn’t drop the ball and you think about how different your life would be if you kept going with that one project?

Maybe you felt like you dropped the ball too early…and if you had just kept going, you would have eventually arrived where you were planning to be.  I know it’s hard to keep going when things don’t look so well, but think about the reference experience you’re creating.  You’ll remember how you handled things.  Did you quit when you didn’t see the numbers you wanted?  Did you quit when reality violated your expectations?  Release your grip on expectations and keep experimenting and striving to be a successful risk taker.

If it’s possible, you can also look to pick something back up if you feel like it’s gnawing at you.  You can frame this as just taking a long break.

Keep going.  Keep moving.  One of the most rewarding feelings is arriving at your planned destination (or one better) and knowing that you had to overcome your own doubts and fears to get there.