It's important I know my "Big Why". Why do I do what I do....every day, month and year.

My big why? To provide Freedom for my family by creating wealth in character, Christ, Business, health, finances and relationships. 
Freedom is my "Big Why" Everything I do is supposed to point ahead and support my "Big Why". If I discover that my actions don't support my big why it's important I change my actions.


My big why gets me up in the morning on my worst day.  My big why brings tears to my eyes....daily. My big why keeps me going when the energy is gone and fatigue has set in. My big why will be here after I am gone.  So, what is your big why?

My mentor told me that the team atmosphere at his company causes people to live for the work week.  His employees are not trading 5 days of work for 2 days of freedom and they long for the weekends to go by quickly so they can return to the vibrant atmosphere where they are celebrated and appreciated.

I long for that atmosphere and not from the standpoint of the employee but from the standpoint of my relationships.  I want the people in my life to feel appreciated and celebrated.  

• Plan/Do/Review

I am in sales in Oklahoma City.  I've worked for the same printing company for 16 years and 3 years ago I bagan a major life transformation.  The change came from my now 5 year old daughter who was born with moderate/severe asthma and severe allergies to more things than we can count.  The asthma and allergies seemed to be connected and my wife and I soon realized preservatives in the food we were feeding her contributed to the majority of her symptoms and health problems.  

The transformation came when my wife and I radically changed our diets for the benefit of our 5 year old, Grace.  We went through all of the food in our house and threw out anything and everything with ingredients we did not understand as well as those we knew affected respiratory function.  We were/are committed to only consuming minimally processed foods which are preservative free.

The result for my daughter Grace was instantaneous.  No longer did she require 1 allergy shot per week and 1 allergy pill per day but her asthma became manageable.  Two added benefits that were completely unexpected: our budget is not burdened any longer by the monthly $300 in medication and my wife and I started losing weight.  Over the course of that year my wife lost 30lbs and I lost 75lbs.  Keep in mind, we did not change our physical activity.  The weight loss was due solely to the change in our diet and aside from the addition of our 4th child, Jacob, we have kept the weight off.

Around the same time a local entrepreneur, Steven Vancauwenbergh, began feeding me books by the likes of Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Nepolean Hill and Stephen Covey...... Steven is now one of my closest friends.  I consumed the books with a hunger I've never known.  It was an awakening to say the least.  If you have seen the movie The Matrix starring Keanu Reeves the best way I can describe my transformation is being unplugged from the Matrix.  I will write more about this in a later post.

I have also been reaching out to those I aspire to be like. Tom Pace has been instrumental in my development.  His book, Mentor the kid and the CEO, found here mentorhope.com, is definitely worth reading.  Tom recently challenged me to go 10 days without complaining, gossiping or lying.  You can find out more about this here 3pointcommitment.org.  I'm proud to say I have gone 12 days and my new goal is 21.

Thanks to God, my wife, children, family and mentors I have matured more in the last 3 years than in all of my 37 years combined.

• Plan/Do/Review

     Expectations I place on my children are the bare minimum and I groom them to be exceptional leaders, honest, trustworthy and to think outside the box but what I expect of them is the bare minimum.  This is the way I was brought up and have found the corporate world to be like minded.  By expecting only the bare minimum I am making it extremely easy to be let down and setting my children up for failure.  I look back at grade school.  What did my teachers expect?  What did the system expect?  I didn't need acclaim, trophies, awards or approval.  I only needed to stave off the pain of failure.  By doing the bare minimum I met their expectations.  By design, I became an expert at bare minimum.

     It was on my first Daddy Daughter date with Elizabeth, now 7, that I realized the need to teach my children to recognize expectations.  the new bare minimum for my children is to recognize and exceed the expectations others place on them.

• Plan/Do/Review