SERIES: I Was Broke. Now I’m Not. VALUES Part 1
Welcome to another series at JosephSangl.com – I Was Broke. Now I'm Not. VALUES
In this series, I will be sharing what drives me. The stuff that lights me on fire for helping others with their personal finances.
1. Life Change
Way back in December 2002 when Jenn and I made the decision to break free financially, it required life-changing decisions. It took us fourteen months to become debt-free except for our house (we are within three years of paying off the house now). Our lives were changed!
I have stated before that if you experience a life-changing experience, you will have a changed life! It sounds basic to say it, but it is SO TRUE! I experienced a life-changing experience of saying "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!" and our lives were changed.
Because of that series of life-changing events, I was able to fire myself from Corporate America in 2006 and embark on a crusade to help others experience this same life-changing stuff at NewSpring Church!
Now I have been on this crusade full-time for twenty months, and I have been able to teach this stuff to thousands of others. And guess what? I have seen the same life-change that has taken place in my life! That AB-SO-LUTE-LY FIRES ME UP!!!!!!
Life change NEVER gets old!
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Joe…
I just read you post and can’t believe that I get to be the first to comment!!
When I first found your website and started reading, I could not stop. I have never seen someone that is this absolutely crazy about that they are doing. I thought it was an act…. then I met you in Orlando. I have since changed my opinion!
After that FLE event I sat back reflected and said to myself…. “I want to be like this guy” Then my second thought was “do you REALLY want to be like this guy?” The reason that I am so excited is that I have never met anyone else that is so crazy about what they get to do everyday. That is what I decided I was going to find. What it is that I can get that fired up about.
I work in land surveying for a civil engineering company. Needless to say the industry is having a tough time right now. The company that I am employed by has shrunk to about 50% of the size it was a year ago. Those of us still employed have had our hours cut by 20%.
I made a pledge that I was going to do one of three things on that day off….1) do something that makes the family money 2) do something that saves the family money 3) do something that is an investment into personal enrichment.
Translation….after shopping insurance policies, and making a map of the grocery store to improve shopping efficiency I ran out of ideas and started reading books. Don’t laugh too much…that map reduces time in the grocery thus saves money by not wandering around an impulse buying. Not to mention the aggravation of not knowing where the heck tomato juice is? Did you know that they put that stuff on the isle with JUICES, not the isle with all the other 1,000 tomato products. (I also started doing the family grocery shopping too?)
All kidding aside… I read a great book “48 days to the work you love” by Dan Miller and it sparked something inside of me that I have got to find a way to do. At first thought it seems as if there is no way to make it real career and no way to make real money doing it.
If we had still been living our old life (without a plan….without a budget… each of us going in different directions) we would have been financially hurting in a MAJOR way! This stuff that you are putting out there for people can really change their life, if they will go and do this stuff.
Here is what my wife and I have come to realize as the most beneficial reward of having had and I living a financially responsible life…..Without having to be a slave to what we owe, and owning all that we earn….. We are FREE to decide where we want to be in 3-5-7 years down the road. We do not have to wait the 3-5-7 years to simply see where life and circumstance has taken us.
WE AREN’T STUCK IN THE CURRENT ANY LONGER, WE ARE THE CURRENT!
Without the financial footing we would have have not had the belief that this change would even be possible and we would be lost without hope!
So, tonight (acting on the idea that I had while reading Dan Miller’s book) I took my first step and enrolled in a local community college online course about starting your own consulting business. After that I will take another step…then another.. until I have changed my life!
Thanks for doing that work that you are doing Joe!
travis