I’m a big fan of not letting your emotions control you leading you to decisions that you’ll regret. But there has to be a line somewhere. You can’t be miserable you’re whole life. Maybe I’m too loyal sometimes. At one job, I loathed everything about it for literally 6 months. Part of that was me not getting off of my lazy butt and agressivly hunting for a new job, but still, I was there for too long. Where does the line get drawn?

Consistently Manage Your Career

Here’s what I’ve found to be somewhat helpful: Never stop managing your career. No matter how happy you are at your job, always be on the lookout for your next position. I’ve heard that you should interview with companies year round (without your current employer knowing of course.) I’m not sure that I buy into that. If I were on the other side of the interview table, I’d think twice about hiring the guy that has had 5 jobs in the last 2 years. Job stability is important.

So we’re back to square one. How do you know when to change jobs? Well, here’s my two cence: If you’re consistently miserable at your job, it’s time to look for something else. I’m not talking about “I had a bad day! I quit!” I’m talking about “I’ve had a bad day, week and month! Now I quit!”

Step 1: See if there is anything you can do to change whatever it is that’s bothering you at your job. Communication can do wonders. If that doesn’t work proceed to step 2 below.

Step 2: This isn’t rocket science. If you hate your job find a new one!

Well, if you remember 2 weeks ago I set out to become an early riser. I set out with the premise that if I could become an early riser I would be more productive. I would increase my personal discipline which in turn would help me to be a better business owner and a better financial manager.

I’ve committed to trying this for 30 days.

Here was the commitment that I made to myself: “From December 5th until January 4th I will get up at 5am. Because of this I will be more productive and I will make more money.”

Here’s the update:

• Wednesday, December 13th – 5am. I stuck to my plan. I was in bed by 10:30 and once my alarm went off, I immediately got up and turned the light on.

• Thursday, December 14 – 9am. Well, I guess I sort of missed it on this one. Thursdays are my hardest days. That may seem really strange to most people, but Wednesdays are actually my latest night. I usually don’t get home from church until at lease 9:00. Then, Wednesdays are one of the best nights for my wife and I to do something together. So we watched Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (Good Movie BTW.) I didn’t actually end up in bed until after midnight. On an up note, I did get up at 5. I walked around and woke myself up, but I don’t run well on less than 5 hours of sleep do I thought it best to sleep in and be operational than to be in a coma all day.

• Friday, December 15 – 5am. Nice. It actually wasn’t that hard to get up this morning. I’ve been getting in bed earlier and sleeping better. This may actually work out.

• Saturday, December 16 – 4:45am. I actually woke up this moring without my alarm. After nearly 2 weeks my body is beginning to adjust to this new sleeping schedule.

• Sunday, December 17 – 7am. I stayed up too late last night. I woke up at 5, but I never made it out of bed. I’ll definatly make sure to get in bed earlier tonight.

• Monday, December 18 – 5am. Another good morning. Nothing much to note other than I’m here and I’m up.

• Tuesday, December 19 – 4:45am. Once again, I woke up with out my alarm. I’m getting ready to head off to the airport. My wife and I are heading to Mexico for Christmas. I’m not even going to try and get up early tomorrow. I will be exausted after traveling all day today.

• Wednesday, December 20 – 8:30am. My predictions held true; I slept in today. Our plane was delayed which led to us missing our connecting flight which left us with a 4 hour layover in Dallas. To make a long story short, we were expecting to make it to our destination at 5pm. With our delays we finally arrived at Midnight. Needless to say, I needed my beauty sleep.

While this experiment hasn’t been easy, it’s been better than I expected. I’ve got 14 days left. After that, I’m not sure if I’ll stick with this 5am thing or not. I guess we’ll see.

• How To Become an Early Riser
• How To Become an Early Riser – Week 1 Update

Well, if you remember 1 week ago I set out to become an early riser. I set out with the premise that if I could become an early riser I would be more productive. I would increase my personal discipline which in turn would help me to be a better business owner and a better financial manager.

I’ve committed to trying this for 30 days.

Here was the commitment that I made to myself: “From December 5th until January 4th I will get up at 5am. Because of this I will be more productive and I will make more money.”

So far….I’ve halfway kept my promise.

Here’s the update:

• Tuesday, December 5th – I’m up, it’s 5:07am and I’m preparing to write the introduction to my challenge. It wasn’t too terribly tough to get up, in fact it was rather nice. We’ll see if this continues.
• Wednesday, December 6th – I went to bed way too late last night. When my alarm went off this morning I was only sitting at about 5 hours of sleep. Not a good way to start. At least I’m up. Hopefully I won’t be too groggy to be productive today.
• Thursday, December 7th – This morning was not a good morning. My alarm went off at 5 as usual, but I hit the snooze button until 6. After that I reset my alarm for 7 and went back to sleep. I guess this reduced sleep is getting to me. I slept for about 9 hours last night. I feel great now. Hopefully I can get used to going to bed earlier so I can find my rhythm.
• Friday, December 8th – I’m back to my schedule again. I got in bed at 10:00 last night and I felt refreshed when I was out of bed at 5. I’ve noticed that I am much more sensitive to the cold now. I am generally a very warm natured person, but over the last few days I’ve felt much colder. I suppose this is because I am getting less sleep now, we’ll see if this continues.
• Saturday, December 9th – Well, I was close this morning. I rolled out of bed at 5:30. I’m still feeling a little tired, but not too bad. It’s strange getting up so early on a weekend, but I have to do this every day so that my body gets used to it. I need to really start getting to bed earlier.
• Sunday, December 10th – Another 6am morning. I am so bad at hitting the snooze button. I really need to quit rationalizing why I need to go back to bed. I have to force myself to get up no matter what. Even though I haven’t done so great this week, at lease I am getting up earlier than usual.
• Monday, December 11th – Wow, the weekend really drained me. I went to bed at 10:00 and still struggled to get up at 5:00. At lease I’m up and moving around now. I find that one I get up and turn some lights on I do much better than if I get up and sit in the dark for a few minutes. Go figure huh..
• Tuesday, December 12th – Well I met someone for breakfast at 7 so I had to get up and get going. I still hit the snooze button, but only until 5:30 this time. This is getting a little easier, but its still difficult. I really hope my body adjusts before too long.

Well as you can see, I haven’t done too well. My biggest problem is that I haven’t gotten to bed early enough. Another problem is that I tend to sit in bed too long before I actually get up.

So to combat those, here is the plan for this week:

• I will be in bed by 10:30 each night, even if I’m not tired
• I will get out of bed and turn on a light immediatly after my alarm goes off.

That is my plan for this week. I’ll keep you updated as to how I am doing with my goal. If you have any suggestions on developing this habit, please let me know! I need all the help I can get.

This is part 3 in the series of “How to Succeed in 2007.” This series is about my thoughts on the CNN Money Article “How to Succeed in 2007.” You may want to start with part 1 and part 2.

Jeff Goodby
Co-founder, Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Remake Ad Campaigns for the Digital Age

“Our campaigns are a lot more work now. Our “Got Milk” campaign was based on the fact that milk made you sleep better and rebuilt muscles. So we created TV commercials where aliens came and abducted cows and took them back to their planet, because their bones were weak and they needed more sleep. Then we made a website for angry farmers, Cowabduction.com. We put up notices around the city about the missing cows. And we made another website promoting the aliens’ point of view. The campaign was such a success that we’re releasing it in theaters.”

This one just cracks me up. I loved that commercial series.

While this may seem totally unrelated to finances, I promise you it is. Just as Jeff Goodby’s firm needed to go outside of the box, we have to go outside of the box with our view of money, our spending habits, our debt reduction, and our determination to be financially free.

If you listen to the majority of the world it says, “Spend, spend, spend!” It says you’re a horrible parent if you don’t shower your kids with presents at Christmas. And it is says you’re not cool if you don’t go out and buy the new Apple 80 GB iPod video (aff.) It’s ridiculous!

If you want to succeed you have to be different! Don’t listen to marketers! Stick you to plan and become financially free!

Eric Schmidt
CEO, Google
SUCCEED WITH SIMPLICITY

“Silicon Valley companies have a tendency to develop these systems that rely on complexity. But it produces things like the personal computer running Windows. Google from the beginning focused on the simple search box, the simple search page.

We have the tiger by the tail in that we have this huge phenomenon of personalization. Now we need to make it simpler for people. We are trying to shape the innovation going forward from here and get things more integrated, make Google more integrated. This is a big change in the way we run the company. In the past the philosophy has been “get this done, get it built, and get it out.” But continuing that, we would end up with hundreds of products named X-Google, and people can only remember five products.”

I think the simplest way to sum up Eric Schmidt’s philosophy is K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid. If you’re familiar with Google at all, you know that it was built on simplicity. A simple white page with a simple search box. That one page eventually took them to the top of the corporate world.

But, Google, in all of its creativeness, began to get a little complicated. It took a different route of trying to become all things to all people. (remember what I said about that yesterday?) You just can’t do that, it will tear you apart and drive you crazy.

So here’s how this applies to your personal finances – K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid. I know, it’s very profound.

Here’s the thing, if you try to get all fancy and do things like interest only loans or transferring balances back and fourth between credit cards, you’ll end up loosing. Financial Freedom is all about creating a winning plan in the beginning and following that plan to the end. For help on that, check out my Budgets for Dummies series or my post on Reducing Debt With a Snowball.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or have a different opinion? Let me know below!