Live Free in an Unfree World

Today begins a new schedule at work - 12:00 noon to 9:00 pm - and a new surge to embed critical activities into my life.

I have no choice. The job is tough and beating me up, but diabetes is kicking my ass.

Actions I have to take at my age (54) include:

• testing my blood sugar levels daily
• absolute control over my food intake
• not giving in to food temptations
• walking twice a day (for diabetes and the dog’s sake)
• having sunshine hit my skin everyday(it’s South Florida - it’s always available)
• using dumbbells during breaks every hour from the computer
• getting serious about taking care of my teeth and oral hygiene in general
• write and post - daily - to my self-hosted blogs
• write like a scanner about what you like then find the products to monetize it
• work affiliate programs like a borrowed mule
• be collateral damage in a dangerous world
• be in a position to quit my job in 33 days - whether or not I decide to stay
• revive dating blogs where income was coming in
• keep my personal notes online in this blog so I can access them whenever I need to
• scratch and claw and be the online marketer and blogmeister I need to be
• master Twitter, Hubpages, Squidoo, and Facebook

Failure is not an option.

Charles Lamm

“Life is a series of problems; you’re in one now, you’re just
coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.”

High gas prices will cause some interesting results:

• more people will shop for bargains online, rather than traveling from store to store
• delivery charges will be reasonable compared to picking it up yourself
• home gardening and locally grown food will enjoy a resurgence
• people will think twice about drives to the beach or to the lake
• going for a Sunday drive is a sign of wealth
• if your neighbor fills up his SUV at one visit to the pump, he is probably doing better than you are
• you may see some unlikely people - bankers, lawyers, doctors - use the gas crunch to justify commuting by motorcycle
• some smart commuters will get their exercise by commuting by bicycle
• people will need second jobs to stay afloat - most will create new businesses online to earn extra income
• small restaurants will suffer first as more workers shift lunch money to gas tanks
• fast food places will suffer next as prices of oil run up food prices
• over the next few years, temporary dips in oil prices will not be long-lived enough to let Americans drive huge cars and trucks again - SUVs will be like Cadillacs with fins
• supply increases will be sopped up by China and India
• alternative sources of energy will be great businesses but will not dethrone big oil
• Florida will be unhappy when offshore oil wells appear near their coastline in the Gulf of Mexico
• placement of refineries will be hot political topics and push abortion and gay marriage off the table
• politicians, as usual, will screw things up then demand more tax revenue to fix the problems they created in the first place

Just a few of the issues I believe will dominate the economic and political landscape over the next 10 years. With any luck, it will bring back some of the lean, mean, fighting spirit of the American people - but only if the politicians are pushed out of the way.

—

Charles Lamm is a junkyard philosopher whose blogs include Live Free in an Unfree World, the Asset Protection Iron Triangle, and Virtual Joe Friday.

This blog will be a notepad for my efforts to create a free life in 777 days. Can it be done? Of course it can. Will it be done? If I hone in on my why. And I really mean dig deep and honest.

Freedom means freedom from debt, jobs, bad relationships. I must have the money in place to take care of my daughter’s college tuition which will start right after the 777 days end. I must have money in place to travel at will.

Raw notes and ideas will be posted here. Nothing will be posted that can be used against me. Blogging is part of the discipline.

My plan - if successful - will lead to the life I want, and to a book. It incorporates 7 areas of improvement, and the critical activities in each area to make it happen.

1. mental
2. physical
3. emotional
4. spiritual
5. financial
6. vocational
7. social

Knowing what has to be done, and doing it, are 2 different things.

My father passed away 4 months ago at age 83. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for a number of years. He never got mean, and he passed well after he should have. When your brain isn’t working properly, I believe the reptilian brain takes over and does what it has to do to survive. If he could reason, he would have given up 2 years earlier.

My mother (80) would make the 25 minute ride to the nursing home about 4 days a week. Her mind is sharp, and her driving is still acceptable. She was a rock while he was sick, and was with him when he passed.

Four months can be a long time. Without the need to be strong, she is physically slowing down fast. I’ve seen it before. When she does not need the same strength to take care of him, her body stops fighting as hard to stay well.

At least her mind is sharp. I notice she spends time with the Jumble and other puzzles in the newspaper to keep her mind active. She also plays bridge, and keeps the financial records up to date.

After watching my Dad die not knowing where he was or who he was with, I hope her mind outlives her body.
===
Charles Lamm, retired attorney and lifelong scanner, posts articles on Virtual Joe Friday. His latest project is Affiliate Marketing for Scanners.

Be the Goal
by Charles Lamm

External goals are the enemy, a prescription for failure. Giving your personal power away to the prison of goals guarantees defeat. Why put yourself through it?

Be the goal.

Think about all the problems you have in life that stimulate you to create goals. You even work hard to make sure your goals are measurable and have a deadline.

Few of us have not succumbed to ambitious objectives much like these:

· Lose 20 pounds before the class reunion next month.

· Become a millionaire in 5 years.

· Workout at the gym 3 times a week.

· Cut out all junk food from your diet.

· Spend 1 hour a night helping the kids with their homework.

Then, life gets in the way.

Your boss needs a proposal for your major client by 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. You brew a pot of coffee, open a box of donuts, forget the gym, leave the kids to their own devices, and start to work – on your own time.

If you define success with external goals, life will assure your failure.

Be the goal.

If you are to be the financially successful, physically fit, nurturing parent you have created in your mind, no one interruption from reality can stop you from being you.

All “problems” have one common denominator – you.

Your problems do not exist without you. You and you alone are responsible for everything that happens in your life. The situation may not be your fault, but you are responsible.

How can anyone else be responsible for you?

Boss requires you to work late? It’s your responsibility.

Kids failing in school? It’s your responsibility.

Gasping for air walking up a flight of stairs? It’s your responsibility.

Allow your mind to simmer and create the solutions.

Be the goal.

—

Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at http://www.virtualjoefriday.com or contact him by email at focus@vitaclix.com.

In her book “Refuse to Choose”, Barbara Sher fleshed her concept of scanners. Scanners are hard to define, but as the Supreme Court once said about pornography, you can recognize it when you see it – especially if it’s you.

Here are a few clues to help determine if you are a scanner:

If you believe taking a tangent is the shortest distance between two points . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you can’t stand to do anything, or anyone, twice . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If focusing on only one thing is as exciting as a nap . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If your “to do” list is longer than your phone book . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you can’t commit to one checkout line at the grocery store . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you skim 6 books at once at the bookstore but never buy . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you think potential is a dirty word . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you goal list looks like a total work of fiction . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If the only way you can stick to one subject is with duct tape or superglue . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you don’t go to class reunions because you feel less successful than the class idiot . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you believe jack-of-all-trades should trump aces . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If perpetual student sounds like a perfect career . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you have every been called ditsy, Renaissance man, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, dilettante, flighty, dabbler, or generalist, and not in a good way . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you work at a series of job beneath your abilities . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you wonder why rich people seem so stupid, and why you are not one of them . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you feel you have a lot to offer but nowhere to offer it . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you can’t get to the most important goals in your life because you are just too damn busy . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If your last great passion seems so last month . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you change lovers more often than Julia Roberts before motherhood . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you believe that Barbara Sher should have played the Oracle in the Matrix . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If you believe in your heart you were placed on this Earth for a reason, but have no clue what that reason is . . .
~ you might be a scanner

If many of these scanner traits hit home, buy “Refuse to Choose” at your local bookstore and see for yourself. Chances are, you are in for an “aha” moment when your life finally makes sense.

Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at www.virtualjoefriday.com or contact him by email at focus@vitaclix.com.

I often write “morning pages” as taught by Julia Cameron in the Artist’s Way. I find my life runs more smoothly when I do the pages, which she recommends in longhand. I call them snot pages because it’s like getting your head clear.

What I am going to do instead is use my many blogs as the medium for the morning pages.

Thoughts will be raw like a good blog should.

I just read a new book by Barbara Sher called “Refuse to Choose” which delivered a rare Zen ah-ha moment.

For people who move from topic to topic, who do not stick with a career long enough to be the institutional memory, who read and write and enjoy a number of topics at once, you have finally been celebrated instead of being chastised.

If you have ever thought of yourself or have been described as a Renaissance man or dilettante, you might be a scanner.

If you move onto a new hobby or interest as soon as you get good at your current one, you might be a scanner.

If you can’t focus on your chosen “life’s work”, you might be a scanner.

It’s not a heavy read, but if you see yourself as a scanner, you life finally makes sense.

Instead of trying to be what you are not, you can now succeed as yourself on terms that scanners understand.

Barbara Sher’s Official Website