By Robert Pagliarini, Tribune Media Services
Do you have a gap between where you are and where you’d like to be? Maybe you have a mortgage you can’t afford, credit card debt you can’t get rid of, 20 pounds you can’t seem to lose, a schedule so packed you don’t have time for your family, or the feeling that there’s got to be more to life. If so, you’ve come to the right place.
The goal of this column is to help you radically improve your finances and your life by focusing on the other eight hours — those precious hours of the day when you are not working or sleeping. Your day doesn’t start when you crawl out of bed. Your day — and even your life — doesn’t really start until 5 p.m.
You lose eight hours to sleep. You sell (at least) eight hours to your employer. How you spend the other eight hours determines where you are in life, your education, the satisfaction you have with your relationships, your bank-account balance, your happiness, and just about everything else that is important to you.
Don’t let the title scare you. If you feel like you don’t have eight minutes, let alone eight hours (does anyone have eight hours of free time each day?), you can still radically improve your finances and your life. Your Other 8 Hours is not about cramming more into your already-overscheduled day — a full calendar doesn’t equal a full life. Your Other 8 Hours is about focusing on those activities that are most important and getting you closer to living your ideal life.
Of course, if it were that easy you wouldn’t need me or this column. There are real challenges we’ll need to overcome. The rules for getting ahead have changed and nobody got the memo. We plugged into a belief system that promised our hard work would enable us to pay our bills, send our kids to college, enjoy retirement, and live a balanced life with time for our family and friends. How’s that working so far?
We’ve had to run faster and faster just to stay in place. The solution? We cram more into our calendars and work harder, but this doesn’t guarantee success or happiness. It only guarantees we’ll be overworked, overscheduled and overstressed. There’s too much to do and not enough time. Most of us feel pulled in a hundred different directions and have no idea where to start.
That’s OK. Help is on the way. Your Other 8 Hours provides a blueprint that will help you carve out more time in your day and find the inspiration to spend that free time in a more productive way. Whether you want to start a business, develop a hobby, lose weight or write the next great American novel, I’ll show you how to use your other 8 hours to create new wealth and purpose in your life.
Week after week you will learn specific strategies you can use immediately that will boost your bank account and your spirit. For example, you’ll learn the one thing that helped win a presidential election and that will help you make smart financial and life decisions, how you can instantly make money from your hobbies, a simple tip you can implement tomorrow that connects you to your goals and your better future, how to manage information overload, time-saving tips to get back more of your other eight hours, and much more.
Your Other 8 Hours shows how anyone, anywhere, can use just a few extra minutes each day to live a richer, more fulfilling life.
It’s 5 p.m. somewhere. Are you in?
Robert Pagliarini is a CBS MoneyWatch columnist and the author of “The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose” and the national best-seller “The Six Day Financial Makeover.” Visit YourOther8Hours.com.
(c) 2010 CBS INTERACTIVE INC. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES INC.
This was printed in the February 12, 2012 – February 2012 Edition
