Time Management 

Managing my life has become a full-time occupation. It’s no wonder how it can easily fall apart if you work a full-time job. Today I’m going to start tracking my time and what I do with it. I’ll be posting it tomorrow in another table I’m going to create.

Network Marketing Lead Generation Experiment

When I got up this morning I did some research on lead generation for network marketing and I watched a video created by Scott Rogers, network marketing consultant. I’m going to use his idea of utalizing Twitter for creating leads.

Health Log

Jog: 52:28 min.

Yesterday I took a trip to the unemployment office to ask a few questions about my benefits. I spent an hour waiting to speak to someone. When I finally did, the woman sitting behind the desk asked me a few questions about why I was here. Before I could get a word out, she decided that I had signed the wrong sign-in sheet and started pointing me to another direction. I had to ask her several times just to allow me to speak. Once she did I was able to explain briefly my circumstances. She offered me a book on unemployment benefits. I asked a few more questions and she said she couldn’t offer me any more information or explain anything else to me due to being under staffed. Then she made a comment about her not helping me “beat the system.” As I walked out I thought how many times people may have lost their benefits or become unqualified because they didn’t have all the information or wasn’t given enough information.

Later I went to the financial aid department at my school to turn in my scholarship paperwork. After standing in line for thirty minutes I sat down and pulled out my application and a copy of my G.E.D. scores and handed them to the financial aid advisor. She quickly started saying that I needed to provide more information. She flipped to the back of the application and showed me where I needed to also provide a letter of recommendation from someone that knows my academic potential and a copy of my birth certificate.

After leaving the financial aid office I still had time to walk over to City Hall to see if I could get my birth certificate. I walked to the information booth to find out where I can get my records. The woman behind the counter directed me down the escalator and told to go through the double door and the office would be on my left. I followed her instructions. I was greeted by a woman behind the glass door taping up a sign on the window. She spoke as if there wasn’t a door between us telling me that the office was closed and would reopen tomorrow. As I was ready to leave and return again tommorrow she opened the door and asked me if the records were for me or my child. I told her that they were for me. She told me there was another office for records over ten-years old that was still open. I still had time to get them. I’m so glad I asked.

Facing the Dragon

In all my years on earth, I have never sat down and took a look at my monthly income and expenses. I was quite in shock once I learned what I have to make each week to sustain myself. It really has put things into perspective for me. I’m now motivated and focused how I’m going to use my time now. There really is no time to relax. I have to find out ways to creativly earn money while going to school. This could mean a part-time job over the weekends.

Blogger’s Income Report

August 2008

This month I’ve decided to make a comment on my blogger’s income report. As I read some of the blogs today I’ve been inspired. One new blogger to the list is The At Home Couple. What inspired me the most is how new income bloggers are earning more on Adsense than myself. Now that I have the time available (I quit my job) I’m going to dive in with both feet to learn more about making money online.

1. Busy Blogging - $4,343.75

2. Tyler Cruz - $3,830.15

3. Lazyman and Money - $2,246.60

4. Inspired Money Maker - $1,601.51

5. BlueVerse - $850.00

6. Duckle Danny - $583.63

7. Start Breaking Free - $420.92

8. Money & Web - $418.92

9. Atniz - $313.33

10. The Moneyac - $195.00

11. Chris Guthrie - $135.00

12. Norhafidz - $133.93

13. Teddy Money - $83.48

14. The Daily Dollar Report - $76.08

15. Greg Ellison - $61.82

16. Templates Treasure - $53.71

17. Goof Blogger - $20.32

18. The At Home Couple - $7.85

Yesterday I had a yard sale. I decided that I would liquidate most of my possessions.  While I was pondering the idea of selling my things I couldn’t help but think of the story about Jesus telling the rich man to sell his possessions if he wanted to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. I’m beginning to believe that having a lot of “stuff” ties us down. Within an hour I had sold seven DVD movies for $4.00 for a total of $28.00 That was more than I had made selling StreetWise the entire week.

Time and Money 

My income from yesterday got me to thinking about the value of time that is put into an hour and the compensation that is received. The choice is ours to how we use and invest the twenty-four hours that each one of us is given each day. I really believe I can earn a living without working a job. I just have to come up with the right combination of ideas, use of my time and my talents.

Health Log

Jog: 43:19  min.

Personal P/L

Yesterday I didn’t go out to sell StreetWise. I spent most of my morning on the phone talking with distributors in network marketing companies, my ex-boss and the human resource department, talking to my dad, learning more on designing tables and then ending the evening with my computer class at school.  I realized that I had no income for the day and that left me negative for what I’m suppose to earn (which I fully haven’t fully calculated yet.)  I still have to earn money and enough to earn a living. Just thinking about that depressed me the entire day.

New Business Venture

Even though I’ve been able to go out in the world and make some money selling StreetWise, and I have my own business, it doesn’t bring in enough cash-flow for me to sustain and support myself as I’m negative if I don’t put in more than 10 hours a day. I just don’t have that. So I found a business that is in the nutrition field as I’m getting very serious about my health now. The product is a liquid vitamin and the company is called GBG. I bought a domain name called www.chicagoliquidvitamins.com to start marketing it through flyers.

Health Log

Weight: 215 lbs.

Jog: 40:37 min.

Personal P/L

Yesterday while selling StreetWise it occurred to me how much my creativity is increasing. Ideas are coming to me faster than Road Runner could run from Wile E. Coyote. Book ideas, ideas how to supplement my income, blog post ideas, and a host of business and investment ideas. I came up with an idea to sing “StreeWise” instead of just shouting it. I could practice my vocals while working.

Letting Go of Fear

I decided yesterday not to call in sick if I wasn’t going back. Why waste energy and time of calling in sick if I have no plans of returning? Letting go has allowed room for me to focus on investing in me. Now, at 9:30 a.m. I can blog without the worries of being caught doing it on the company’s clock. I can think and write clearly without feeling guilty that I should be working rather than blogging (not that I really cared.)

Learning about Me

This new time that I have on my hands has given me a clear understanding of who I am. I’m not defined by a title someone offers me by occupation, a negotiated wage compensation from an employer, or what others might think of me. I discovered yesterday that I’m a creative being in search of releasing my creative expression.

Health Log

Weight: 215 lbs.

Jog: 30:58 mins.

Personal P/L

Now that I’ve purchased eight hours of my time back each day I have to figure out how to use it. Even though I’ve fired my employer, I still have to earn a living. I’m still selling StreetWise except I’m at a different location now. I’m looking into a new network marketing business as well.

Enjoying Moments of Time

Yesterday there was a moment that I was reading one of my books outside a McDonald’s patio at 2:00 p.m. It was a short moment of joy as I listened to the city’s music of cars and street conversations. If I had been working at my job I don’t think I would have appreciated that moment.

 Income and Expense Project

While selling StreetWise it occured to me how much I actually need to live. I began to think of all the collection of things I have in my apartment and how much I actaully use them on a day-to-day basis. Do I really need those things or are they just “stuff.”

With a portion of my free time I plan on studying tables this week. I’m going to spend about an hour each day. I would like to include them as apart of my blog. So, the first table I’m going to work on is my daily income and expense needs.

 Jog: 35:52 min,

Breakfast

2 Apples

1 Plum

6 crackers.

At what cost would you be willing to pay to be free? Free from a job commitment that treats you unfairly, free to create your own life the way you want it, and free to explore your creative side? Today, my price tag for that freedom is $30,000.00. That is what my corporate slave master paid me in exchange for forty hours of my time each week. What I realized over the last month is my freedom and time is worth much more.

Two days ago I have reasons to believe that my employer has hired a Texas law firm, Strasburger L.L.C. to investigate me. My claims are based on searches done in Google. Why would a law firm from Texas specializing in employee termination put in Google “eric p. martin chicago?” Why would my employer a week prior put in Google “eric p. martin chicago” unless they wanted to gather information about me to use against me.

The only person who could have initiated that would have been my manager. The same manager that I had a talk with about my career just two week prior to these searches who assured me he wasn’t the enemy during our heated discussion. These action just validates my beliefs and attitude towards Corporate America being untrustworthy and unworthy of  any loyalty.

Today I begin my journey on the road to freedom. I will take the resources and time that I have to explore life and all its possibilities than exchange it for injustice from an establishment that only looks at me as a “human expenditure.”