Cliff and Steph,
When you said "I have been inspired by the 4hr work week, not to have a 4 hr work week," that spoke volumes to me. I had posted my opinions prior to actually hearing the layout of what the program would be about.
As far as my reasons for plus membership and my future plus membership if you do this program. First, I became a plus member because after listening to all of your free content I still wanted more. Also because of the U.S.'s current economic situation, it feels nice to support a small business and to do my part to show that not all of us are participating in this recession. I would continue my plus membership if you actually did this program, but only if you added "The world according to Megan" podcast.
John,
This makes TOTAL SENSE!
This is why every time I mention the title of this book and ways that it's inspired me, I try to remember to always tell people that I don't desire a four hour work week. I am involved in meaningful and purposeful work that I feel both called to and in which I enjoy doing very much.
In essence, the 4-Hour Work Week does talk of ways one can try to build a business that can make you money while you sleep and where you outsource everything, and only need to check in on your business a total of four hours a week...
In the end of the book, he then states that the reason to do this is so that you can spend the rest of your time doing purposeful and meaningful things that you feel called to do....
If there were ever a time where I was making 10,000 a month from a business that I only had to work four hours a week running, I can assure you that I'd still be podcasting on a regular basis and if we were that well to do, I'd be willing to bet that all gspn.tv content would be free again.
However.... At this time, I simply don't feel called to spend the next two years building one of those automated businesses.. I truly believe I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing with the Podcast Answer Man equipment sales, podcast consulting, and gspn.tv Plus Membership.
There are a LOT of great insights that I got from reading this 4-hour work week book that I can apply to what I am currently doing In fact, I've been able to effectively cut my hours that I work from 80 to 90 hours per week, back to about 40 hours per week.
This is radically changing our family time together. Not only is there more of it, it's becoming so much more meaningful. I'm noticing a major change in the attitudes and confidence of my children, even in this short period of time. I'm starting to see some major fruits in this pursuit of a balanced life.
I'm glad to hear that your comment was simply based upon the assumption that Stephanie and I were going to take the family on a two year vacation where I'd work no more than four hours a week. Definitely not what we have planned.
Thanks for the updated comment!
Kristina, my responses are below....
In two years, all three of your children will be in school. School is not just academics, its also about socialization and learning skills that will be used throughout their life. Homeschooling does not offer that. I'm not knocking homeschooling at all (it definitely works great for some), but there are certain aspects of school that are not available that route. My concern with this is that you are talking about moving around the world every six months or so. THat means you are going to be uprooting your children every six months.
I suppose it's inevitable that the topic of homeschooling is going to come up in this conversational thread time and time again. Therefore, I'll not even attempt to move it off into another thread....
I'm not going to make a defense of homeschooling at this time. Stephanie and I have been researching homeschooling from the time Meagan was three years old. In the past six or seven years, we've heard nearly all the arguments for and against homeschooling.
We are firm in our stance on what we believe about Homeschooling. And perhaps that may be a topic that we'll tackle in future episodes of Family From The Heart.
Please understand what that will do to your children. They all have connections to their communities at their schools. They will be forced to meet new people, and give up their friendships every time they move. THey will be forced to get used to a whole new culture every time. We have students who move here from other countries, namely hispanic countries, that don't speak the language and are scared to death. Even though they have the support of their family members. They cry because they do not understand what is going on. I see people around my community who do not speak English and have a hard time even though we try our hardest to help them. I'm not saying that your kids will not get a lot from that experience, but there are many negatives to this as well.
We certainly putting forth the affects, positive and negative, this will have on our children. They are our NUMBER ONE concern.
It was difficult for us to even change from one church to another for this very same reason. Stephanie and I felt as though the church we were in at the time had a vision that was so different than what God was calling us to be a part of.
The tough thing was that they had an AMAZING children's ministry program. They had just built a mutli-million dollar facility and had fully stocked and well equipped Sunday School classes for all the age groups. They had the best of the best curriculum for the Sunday School teachers, etc. etc. etc...
The only thing was that Stephanie and I felt that God was calling our family to be a part of another church. A church that met in a high school auditorium. This new church, Watermark, where we are today, has only four or five different age groups. Younger kids meet in class rooms with desks pushed to the side and a few toys that are brought in on a truck each weekend.
The school cafeteria is broken into two or three sections which are only divided up by "make shift" walls between them. Again, minimal supplies are brought in by truck each week. You get the picture.
Our kids begged us to go back to our old church. It was more comfortable by far.. However, we simply felt confident that we were called to be a part of where we are not. Not just Stephanie and I. But our family.
Today we have authentic, real, relationships with the folks at our church, as do our children. Watermark does well at teaching our children in their classes, but they are "only a supplement" to what we are teaching our children the rest of the week. Something, I'm afraid to admit, we didn't do as much when our old church was doing so good at it.
Our family has grown in our faith since this move. This move was right for our family. It took us "MONTHS" to make this decision and we didn't make it lightly. We spent hours praying about it and when we were certain that it was the right thing to do, we did everything in our power to minimize any negative affects that it had on our children to uproot and move to another church.
Now I know that this is totally a small microcosm of the type of movement we're announced that we are considering here. But I share all this to say that we are very mindful of our children and we do see the affects this will have on them as our number one concern.
Though, not many people (not just referring to you Kristina) are pointing out many benefits that such a children could produce in our children. That's cool though. That's not your guy's job to "root us on".... You're sharing your concerns from your experiences and this will help us remain grounded in this decision process. I really do value this type of feedback...
I know you said that this was your dream, but I wonder if this is the kids' dreams. Considering your kids could potentially hate this, it would seem selfish to make them do this for your dream.
That is of course if you define dream as option numbers 6 and 7 as found in this list of possible definitions listed below:
DREAM:
1. a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
2. the sleeping state in which this occurs.
3. an object seen in a dream.
4. an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.5. a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.
6. an aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream.
7. a wild or vain fancy.
8. something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.
In the podcast... I said... "I'm going to ask to remember the word "Dream." When I said this... I was referring to the definition as show is definition number 4 listed above....
When I say this is a "dream" we really do mean that this came to me as "an involuntary vision occurring" to me.
Sure, it was a dream that was inspired by a book that I was reading. However, that being said.. When I picked up this book, I had no idea that this thought was going to be proposed or that even if it were proposed, that it would evoke such a response or vision of "what could be" for our family.
You added an "EDIT" at the end of your thoughts and so you already said what I would say here. So I'll save my response for below....
Also, you said that you would be working as hard as you do now and Stephanie would be working even more. My concern is that you are wanting to experience so much, so could you truly experience other cultures that way if you are doing that? I'm sure its possible, but I dunno...I'm typing some of my random thoughts regarding this.
When I said that I'd be working as hard as I do now. I literally meant the type of hours and a "similar" schedule to what I've been working over the past two weeks, after having applied so many of the principles of the 4-hour work week. Yesterday, Stephanie asked me if I could take McKenna to school for her. Because of THE WAY that I have my schedule set up, I had the 'freedom' to do that and McKenna and I had an awesome conversation on the way to her school.
Last night, Stephanie needed me to run to the store. Because my mind was 'freed up' I begged Meagan to go to the store with me. We had the MOST AMAZING conversation ever!
Tuesday Night Soccer practice with Matthew has been amazing these past two weeks.
The point I was trying to make is that I'm not going to travel the world in a perceptual vacation mode. I'd still have work that I do. However, I can see how much more of my work could "include" my children. Something I've been working on more and more these past few months.
As for Stephanie working "harder." I'll admit that perhaps that was the wrong choice of words....
She'll not have "harder work..." She'll simply not only have some "different" responsibilities, but also some "additional" ones as far as the educational part of it is concerned. But she would not be alone, as I'd be very much involved in this process of the educational responsibilities as well.
So yeah... basically, we're still going to be a family that runs a business and works... It's jut that we'd be doing it in a different place than where we are now. This was all in response to the original comment that John made above....
May I also add that, at the time frame you are talking about, Megan will be in middle school, and puberty will really be hitting hard, and her social life will be even more important to her than it is now. I had to change schools and move in 6th grade, and it was very traumatizing for me to move from somewhere I had always known, to somewhere I didn't know anyone and had to learn about. And I just moved across the county! Haha!
Sure, you can add that. It's certainly something that we thought about. It's something that is definitely on our radar. I'll just add that the solutions of minimizing this "trauma" are also on our mind. But it is great to be reminded of this specific detail.
If we don't think it would be able to do be done in a healthy fashion, then we wouldn't do it. Which leads me to the next quote...
It really sounds like this is something that you are all pretty much decided on, even if this is in infancy stages right now. Of course you have to pray about it and do what's best for your family. I just want to be sure you consider every aspect of it. There is so much to think about. IT will certainly be alot of planning involved.
Are we all pretty much decided on it? I wouldn't go so far as to say that at all. However, I totally understand where the language we use would lead anyone to think that. For example..... You'll likely hear me say things like... "When we do this, we would...."
This is how I process possible decisions. I put myself in the mindset of WE ARE going to do this, so knowing that.... How can we make this work. What issues are we going to face? Etc....
There is No Doubt, that this is a strong "dream." Not the a "wild or vain fancy." However, it is something that welled up inside of me completely involuntarily. The seed took root and began to grow like wildfire. I simply sat down and had one single conversation with my wife about this which was all of 15 to 20 minutes in length. We both just randomly mentioned it to our three children....
And well... The seed for this thought has had the same explosive growth in all of us.
So at this point. We're beginning to talk more seriously about this as a family. Stephanie and I are praying individually about this... We'll be praying as a family about it.
I'm continuing to read all the concerns mentioned here and will be reading books, articles, blogs, and possibly interview other people who have done this.
If there is a time where we say.... Yes, it is now officially the type of dream that is defined as.. "an aspiration; goal; aim" then you'll hear us. Though it may sound as if this is already the case as we continue to weight the options.
EDIT: I just wanted to add...after thinking about this a little...I don't want you to think that I don't support what you decide to do. I will support your decisions of course. I am partially jealous because I am nowhere able to go to Europe again and I'd love to. I know you will carefully consider all the variables and possible consequences, especially from the children's aspects. I do love you guys so much and know you make the best decision for your family.
Can I tell you just how much it means to me that you came back in and added this additional thought?
Thank you for that!!!
Seriously... Thank You!!!!
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