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Easier Said Than Done

So last night after I saw a client I went shopping at Express because it was the last day for me to use my 50% off coupon. I only ended up buying 1 pair of Jeans. I wanted to buy 3 pairs, but the other 2 styles I wanted weren’t in my size. Bummer.

I did not have my Bank Card with me because of my new plan to keep me out of the Casinos. I did, in fact, have an extra hundred dollars on me just in case my client canceled so I could still go buy some new clothes. After purchasing the jeans I had to walk through Caesar’s Palace to get to my truck parked at City Center. While walking trough the Casino I saw my favorite Quick Hit machine with no one sitting at it. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a total ‘Max Bettor.’ It doesn’t make any sense to do the minimum bet because you can’t hit a Jackpot or win $500+ on a lucky spin.  Since I had the extra $100 on me, I took a seat in hopes of hitting one of the ‘Quick Hit’ jackpots.

After the first hundred disappeared, I popped in another $100 in hopes of breaking even. When that was gone, I popped in the last $100 hoping to walk away with at least $200. That didn’t happen either.

So I need to restructure the money situation. My new plan is this: Besides work, which I easily can walk in and out of a casino for that, no trips to the Strip unless I am accompanied by someone else. It’s mandatory that I get a handle on my finances if I want to be a business owner. And if that means I need people with me to say ‘NO’ for me, then thats what I am going to have to do.

Looking forward to being a Millionaire. Can’t wait!

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Time

Cheryl Richardson: “A high quality life has more to do with what you remove from your life then what you add to it”

What that means is: If you want to get more done with your life, don’t keep adding things to do, but rather focus on a few things to do and discard the rest.

The problem with me, though, is that I have too much free time on my hands with not enough to do with it. So I honed in on something important she mentioned about Time Wasters. Time wasters are things that create over-stimulation and keep you from focusing on what’s important. Obviously, the biggest time waster for me is Technology, like my computer, Facebook, iPhone, TV, Nintendo Wii, etc..

My attempt at fixing my Time Wasters is to set aside 2 hours a day with no Technology. No computer, phone, TV… nothing but me with myself. Let’s see what I can come up with. The 2 hours starts now.

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Money

Cheryl Richardson asked a big question in regards to dealing with money issues and it was this:

“What is the one thing you know you need to do to handle

your money better that you keep putting off?”

The Answer to that question was easy: Keep money in my bank account, no more expensive nights out with friends and stay out of the Casinos.

As a single male in Vegas who always has a few bucks in his pocket, this town is designed against me. Every time I get bored or have nothing important to do for a while I hit the strip, which ends up costing me dearly.  So I have to create a way to prevent my money from making it to the Casino floor.

The solution I’ve decided to try is to take all my money (which happens to be all cash and in white envelopes stashed around my house) and put it in the bank. That way I won’t  have cash at my finger tips all the time. Next thing, with all my cash in the bank, I’m going to leave my bank card at home. That way I won’t be tempted to visit expensive casino ATM’s when deciding to hit up a club or throw down some cash at a hot table on a whim. The Whims are what destroy my finances.

The Clubs and the Tables aren’t the main things that get me in trouble, thou. It’s the overdraft fees. I’m willing to bet that last year I must have shelled out over $3000 in overdraft fees alone. I didn’t know this at the time, but there is something called ‘overdraft protection’ that I could sign up for. That means I’d have to open up a new savings account because I currently have a savings account at a different bank. Definitely something to look into.

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Detour

Detour…

After looking at my room with no desk, I saw the filthiness of the walls. The walls actually looked like the walls in a frat house. If my room is going to be the home base for starting my Abundant Life, then that was going to have to change. If my living space is a reflection of my life, then I want it to be interesting. At 3pm Saturday afternoon I made the Executive Decision to repaint the whole damn thing.

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My First Objective: De Clutter

Time and Money are the first areas that need to be dealt with, but it would be better for me to start with Energy. She talks about Energy Drains, things in our life that we have to get done which we put off. Also, or physical space acts as an Energy Drain. Is it cluttered or is it organized? Your mind and your physical space are the same thing. A cluttered space relates to a cluttered mind. My physical space is cluttered, which leads to procrastination and laziness.

So my first task in creating my Abundant Life is to de-clutter my Living Space. Since I share a house, my bedroom is the first place I need to start. In my room there is an old desk that was here when I moved in. I wanted to get rid of it before I moved in, but never did. It takes up a lot of space and is ugly. I’ve been using it to store all kinds of junk, the junk that is my life. Well it’s time for that junk to go. It’s amazing the type of crap I have in there. Old Las Vegas Weekly’s that I never read, Matchbooks from the different clubs I’ve been to, 3 old iPod boxes, a cell phone that I had since 2002 and doesn’t even work, napkins from Subway (WTF?), the Sports Page from the Las Vegas Review Journal from May with nothing important on it, a granola bar I never opened, old copies of Men’s Health, A few old boarding passes, My Rose Bowl Ticket Holder (Hurray, I found It!), Business cards from clients who wanted to give me a job and never did, pens and note pads from the different conventions I like to visit here in Vegas just to get the free stuff… All kinds of junk, 2 trash bags worth.

After hauling the large bags of crap out of my room I looked at the desk to see if there was any other function it could serve, like if I painted it or only used the bottom half as a table. I found no reason to keep the desk and began to dismantle it, which was a bitch to take apart. Whoever designed this desk had no concept of ‘light construction.’ I didn’t go after the desk with a hammer; I just removed all the screws and let it fall apart.

When the desk was gone I felt the room totally open up. I see what Cheryl Richardson meant by de cluttering your living space to help clear your mind.  And it’s refreshing to throw that stuff away. It was like I was surrounding myself with unwanted useless junk and because of that all I was producing for my life was unwanted useless junk.

De-cluttering is Awesome!