a brief guideto escape the workplace

HOW TO TAKE LIFE BREAKSIN A BUSY WORLD

By Robert Renaudtime trader - writer - life enthusiast

a brief guide to escape the workplace

Copyright © 2013 Robert Renaud. All rights reserved.

www.timetradingguru.com

The Book, The Time Trading Guru

This report contains a number of hyperlinks to guide you to more information. These links are not affiliate links and I do not get paid for directing you to them. They are provided only to share further insights of relevant resources for topics I am discussing.

If you print this guide you will be able to take it with you wherever you go, otherwise connect with your laptop or computer the next time you’re on the go.

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Part 1 - why time trading?

•Why this guide is worth reading 5

•Profile of a time trader 6

•A little about me 6

Part 2 - the levers of life

•Missteps 9

•Primer for changing your life 10

Part 3 - the DREAM process

•DREAM process 12

•Inspirational dreamers 15

Part 4 - values-based thinking

•Values 19

Part 5 - time trading

•Time trading venture 22

•In closing 23

•Escape the workplace 25

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...contents of a brief guide to escape the workplace

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Dreams... You can find your inner motivations, seek support for your journey, and remind yourself of what’s important in life. Each of us have the inner strength that gives us the power to move forward in the realization of our goals. If you leverage this strength as you strive to attain your goals, you’ll develop personal pride so powerful that it will energize you to set and reach even more goals.

...part 1 - why time trading?

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Some of us wonder if it’s possible to really live the life we’ve dreamed. Daily challenges creep in and take over, work drags us down, commitments tie us up, and yet we still yearn for something better and more meaningful. This may prompt one to ask if it’s really possible to live life? Is it possible to change career mid-stream? Is it possible to spend more time doing the things you love without becoming a penniless, hopeless, lost soul.

If you have dreams, as I’m sure you do, then you can realize them despite the chaos you may find yourself in.

I’ll share with you ways you can reach your potentiality, ways to dream your dreams, and ways to give yourself the inner energy you need to motivate yourself toward the future you want. And, throughout it all, you don’t need to sell your house, quit your job,

damage your relationships, or cast yourself away in some desolate part of the world.

Why this guide is worth reading

This guide may not be for everyone and that’s okay. The world is full of people with different views, understanding, and desires. I want to share with you the wisdom I have gained from years and years of experiences, mentors, failures, and successes. There is no secret, multi-million dollar scheme, no colloquial golden touch. It’s simply this:

Your life is yours alone and you can chart the path you wish to follow regardless of what anyone says.

Each of us has within us an inner strength so powerful that it will endlessly energize and propel us to reach the dreams we aspire.

Find the courage within yourself to tap into this power and begin to live the life you’ve always wanted, now, not some time you’ve waywardly allocated in the distant future.

The key premise of this guide is to help people become time traders to take life breaks and reach their goals.

Work consumes a significant portion of our life and in most cases it overrides the enjoyment we so desperately seek. This guide will help you realize that you can indeed live today and capture the time necessary to realize your dreams.

The majority of people need their job to pay their bills. Don’t we all. But who says it has to be the job you’re doing? You need to stop looking at your life through the current lens. To become a time trader you need to change your

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Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.- Confucius

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colored lens so you can see things differently and seize the opportunity to take life breaks. To be a time trader you don’t have to quit your job, you could change it if you want, but you don’t have to quit it, you only have to change your perspective on what it means to you. Do you live to work, or work to live?

Commitments and relationships are usually another key excuse people use to deny themselves the pursuit of their dreams. Time trading is not an all or nothing proposition, you’ll learn in this guide that they’re a source of power for you in the attainment of your goals and time trading with ease.

The need to be financially secure propels people to cling to conservative notions of what’s acceptable or not. Other peoples’ perceptions tend to direct the choices you make, because you allow them to. Stop this nonsense. There’s no ‘single way’ to chart your financial future. What’s important is that you’re able to secure for yourself the

necessities of life with room to live and enjoy life. This doesn’t always germinate with a steady job, house, and conventional notions of life. It can be whatever you define it to be. You can absolutely experience affordable luxury when you change your perspective on what it means to be wealthy. I’m by no means rich, but I’m certainly wealthy. This guide will help you focus on building wealth instead of riches.

I’m not a snake oil salesman trying to sucker you into some cockamamie scheme. I’m not asking you for money. I’m sharing this information freely – it’s my crowd-sourcing of ideas so you can fulfill your dreams and become personally fulfilled. Your happiness is my happiness.

Profile of a time trader

A time trader is everyone who dares to live life today. They’re the people who venture to embrace and leverage the levers of life.

So, who are these time traders:

• They are the workers who leverage the levers of life to gain time, whether it’s one day, one week, or one month, to achieve life breaks to travel, pursue personal goals or establish and maintain relationships.

• The self-employed, business owner, or investor who uses his power as the decision-maker to balance his life. He simplifies his interaction with the business, automates its processes to the greatest extent possible, and frees himself to pursue his life goals.

• The unattached who has the greatest flexibility to pursue life goals. With a clean slate he can easily reframe success and value without any attachments.

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A little about me

I was fortunate to have grown up with strong-middle class values despite a dysfunctional family structure and working poor family paycheck.

Like many of you, I rode the proverbial treadmill of life becoming a slave to the nine to five concrete jungle. Then one day I walked away from it all, sold everything I had, said goodbye to family and friends and headed off to Ecuador for 2 years.

It was at this point that I realized the power of time trading to live life breaks and the strength of goal setting to attain my dreams. More so, in finding, not just the power, but the will to dream.

Since then, I have reached many life goals from dancing with a princess, getting an MBA, to becoming an executive. Most important, I have a wonderful family with a great girl who I’ve shared my life with for over 21 years now and three beautiful kids, who give me endless strength, each and every day.

I was able to re-look at my experiences in life and came to the realization that to be happy, I had to be happy with myself.

The wisdom, I’d like to share is simply that. You can find happiness because it’s in you and you alone. If there is one thing I’d like you to get out of this guide, it is this:

You must remember that it’s your life, not someone else’s that you’re living, and this realization alone will give you the motivation and power to take the first step toward personal fulfillment. This was my epiphany; maybe now it will be yours.

I must warn you though that you may feel pressure and resistance from others as you pull your newly discovered levers and redefine your perceptions of life. Don’t give in, remain strong and you’ll become a very happy and fulfilled person.

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Living... To live life as you want, you need to see life as it is. Understand it, learn from it, then change it.

...part 2 - the levers of life

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Hopefully, you’re asking yourself how you can leverage the levers of life: time, flexibility, and money to reach your dreams. You’ve heard a little bit about me, but then this really isn’t about me, it’s about you. You’ve downloaded this guide because you were searching for something that’s missing in your life, whether it’s a more engaging job, a meaningful relationship, or a personal quest. Reading this guide is a first step in your quest to reach your personal fulfillment, the rest is up to you.

A simple measure of our success can be found in the number of mistakes we make along the way. Mistakes allow us to learn and grow. Before I share with you the levers of life, I’d like to share with you 13 missteps people succumb to.

If you find yourself in these missteps, don’t despair you’re normal. If you want more than

You can’t control the winds that blow across the sea, but you can always adjust your sails through it.

- unknown

1. Not believing in yourself and falling for others negative outlook.

2. Seeing your current life as all there is.3. Not leveraging the relationships around you.4. Forgetting to focus on limited things.5. Allowing others to direct your future.6. Trying to do it all at once.7. Failing to truly ask yourself if your happy.8. Not understanding your real values.9. Not diversifying your income.10. Focusing too much on the white noise in life.11. Not recognizing that time is finite.12. Not taking an agile approach.13. Failing to make room for the important things in life.

Missteps 13

the life you have now then you’ll fit the mold of a time trader quite well. If not, then you’ll let the happenstances of life dictate your future and your life will be safe, predictable, and out of your control.

However, if you desire to dream and find the inner energy to realize those dreams then you’re ready to embrace a wonderful personal journey.

The primer for changing your existence are the levers of life:

Time: we only have so much time available to live. The key is to find the right balance in life.

Flexibility: reframing your life will allow you to become more flexible in attaining your dreams.

Money: we need to diversify our income sources and establish, where possible, automated sources of cash.

Time trading is a philosophy that you can leverage to optimize opportunities that come your way. Change your lens and you change the outcome. We don’t need to let the work life trap us; rather, we can leverage all the opportunities that are within it to our advantage.

Simply pull these levers of life to garner the life you’ve dreamed and take a life break now. A life break can be as short as one day, or as long as you want to make it. The key is to use the life break to foster a relationship with yourself and what’s important in your life. It’ll help you experience life as it’s happening, rather than deferring the experience to the future that never seems to come.

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Dreaming... You have to have an idea of what you want in life in order to garner the energy necessary to achieve it.

...part 3 - the DREAM Process

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Dreaming is an interesting phenomenon. We dream every night, sometimes several times while in the arms of Morpheus. It’s something we take for granted, just like the fact we assume we’ll wake up every morning! Our physiological state is pretty well set, an implicit impulse of our human nature. Yet, we struggle to transcend this physiological dream activity to think about the things we really want in life, to set dreams and reach goals.

Dreams are the energy of ideas. To use it effectively you need to have positive thinking which is a simple and practical way to achieve them. Positive thinking has been used by sports psychologists, executive coaches, life coaches, and even you to harness the power of the mind to realize success.

By thinking of the things we want and visualizing them in every context gives us the power to attract it into our existence. This is where preparation meets opportunity and provides the basis for us to dream and reach our life’s goals.

I know you may feel that dreaming is not a big deal; however, without daring to let your mind wonder, you will never discover what is hidden deep in your thoughts. You can use the DREAM process to realize your dreams:

D: develop awareness of your dreams.

R: realize understanding of the dream.

E: express knowledge of the dream by developing a plan.

A: assist belief by seeking opportunities to live your goal.

M: make realizable by readjusting where necessary to stay on track.

The process of thinking leads us to conceptualize our goals or dreams, and our goals can be expressed as getting the inputs needed to support and sustain us. The strength of our belief in those goals is supported by our emotional investment and motivational desires to realize those goals. The goal, in large respect, becomes a “need” that we’re motivated to satisfy. We feel that something is amiss, or we feel “pain.” It’s this pain that motivates us to realize our goals, and the realization of our goals itself leads us to experience pleasure.

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You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage tolose sight of the shore.- Christopher Columbus

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When we’re born, we’re very much a helpless organism dependent on the help of others to survive. We adopt and conform to the societal norms, and the more we interact with others, we become more aware and modify our behaviors in accordance with others responses. These interactions familiarize us and usually make us skilled enough to live. If this is the life you want, then great stop here and don’t go any further. I’ll even give you some time to dwell.

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Here is a little more time to think…

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Your back? Okay, that’s great. Let’s carry on.

If you want to escape the workplace and become a time trader you must change the paradigm and focus on the individual, which is you!

You need to develop your self-identity. We define “me” as the body (the material and immaterial things that define us), social (the relationship we embrace) and the spiritual (our experiences, values, and beliefs).

Understanding what makes “me” will allow you to take control, thus ensuring that it’s you who is accountable and responsible for your destiny, not someone else and certainly not left up to the happenstances of life.

Reaching the fulfillment of your dreams comes in taking responsibility for your own destiny, which in turn, empowers you to shape your future according to your vision. Successful people actively control their future; they don’t look for other people or circumstances to

determine their own destiny. Successful people are also persistent in their drive to realize their goals. Most people have goals, but few successfully attain them because they lose interest when their goals don’t materialize as quickly as they had anticipated.

Most successful people have also developed mutually beneficial relationships with other people that they leverage when they need. Asking for help can be difficult for many people since they may perceive it to be a sign of weakness rather than a sign of empowerment. You’re not asking people to do things for you; you’re only asking people to assist in guiding you along the right path, to learn from their journey.

Coupled with a strong sense of self-confidence and self-esteem, successful people are able to manifest opportunities into personal success. If you believe in yourself, others will see that and believe in you. Moreover, this aura of confidence gives you the ability to live with a strong sense

of purpose. You do things because you want to achieve your goals.

Inspirational Dreamers

Farnoosh Brock (www.prolificliving.com) embraced what she calls prolific living. This outlook on life allows you to gracefully walk away from the nine to five chains that we tend to wrap around ourselves to feel some sense of accomplishment or stature. By walking toward your dreams you can exchange the status quo for freedom. She was a corporate junkie addicted to the awe, competing ferociously with the Joneses next door.

Then she shed the corporate shackles by stopping to think with her head and shifting her thinking to her heart. This emotive passion sparked intense energy for her to reach for her dreams. She credited this change as one of the most important personal decisions she ever made. Then she changed her focus away from the negativity and approval of others to herself

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and what was truly important to her life.

She began to transition her life by pursuing her passions of writing and blogging. Then she began to look at these passions as a business so she could pursue even more dreams of reading, photography, world travel, and art to name a few.

Once her passion substituted her income needs she left the corporate chains to pursue those untapped dreams.

Paula Pant (www.affordanything.com) pursued her dream of travelling the world for 2 ½ years for less than the cost of buying a new car. Her journey led her through more than 17 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe and gave her a lifetime of memories. Then she focused on simple income approaches in real estate and writing to generate ongoing residual income.

Daring to live an unconventional life has allowed her to gain location independence. She is not bound by the pains of rush hour traffic or office cubicles. As she says, “location independence means you can work from anywhere on earth.” This freedom means that your income is not dependent on a specific location liberating your choices to pursue your dreams, where ever they may lead you.

Greg Dion (www.onehundredcups.com) is a dreamer of different sorts. He has set a dream to have a cup of tea with 100 strangers. Most would wonder why this is an inspiring dreamer. If you have to ask you have completely missed the point behind real dreams. It’s not about reaching big money, travelling to far reaches of the world, or dropping out of life, it’s about getting close to life itself and how each of us experience it. It’s about seeking to understand others so we can understand ourselves. He has one simple question. Can a cup of tea change your life?

At last count Greg had completed 28 cups of tea and the early returns on his question are simple, yes. The simple power of conversation is leading to profound changes in his views on life and who he is as a person. He has noted that each conversation has influenced him, inspired him toward a different goal, or provided him comfort in the direction he was travelling in life.

Mike Hrostoski (www.summertoserve.com) took time over an entire summer, with his younger brother, to drive 12,000 miles across the United States doing volunteer work in 35 cities.

His volunteer dream kicked into high gear months after the sudden death of his mother and family matriarch. His journey was one of memorializing his mother and giving blessings to the middle class life that he was born into.

He garnered the strength to share his time and in return he gained relationships and new

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perspectives on life. The harsh reality of losing a loved one sparked the vivid realization that time is a precious commodity that should be nurtured. They had no idea what they were getting into, but this unknown gave them the excitement needed to follow through on their dream.

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Purpose... It’s within ourselves that we must be content, and this contentment is what brings us fulfillment.

...part 4 - values-based thinking

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Setting and achieving goals by themselves will not provide you with happiness and freedom. To make your goal meaningful you must base them on values-based thinking. This is the process of basing judgement on a base set of values that define who you are — it’s your moral compass.

We all have a set of values that we firmly believe and our behaviour strongly reflects them. However, we need to seriously challenge what we stand for because we often base important decisions in our lives on a false sense of those values. This leads us toward misguided ways as we strive to reach our goals, ultimately leading to failure.

To truly realize the full potential that awaits us in the attainment of our goals we need to become fully cognizant of our real values. The values themselves guide us in the right direction when we set

our course. These values not only influence how we attain our goals, but give us clarity and purpose that actually energize us to reach the goals we set for ourselves.

We live with values from one moment to the next. Recognizing our values helps us know when we need to align our thinking or the goals themselves.

Values are:

• Principles we consider all important

Principles are at the core of our values. They’re usually those immovable aspects of our beliefs. Breaching them would cause us extreme distress. For obvious reasons you won’t choose a goal that conflicts with your principles and if you do you’ll quickly face overwhelming conflict with yourself.

• Things that give us meaning in life

We retain values that give us meaning in life. If our goals don’t allow us to attain the things that give us meaning in life, then the goals are themselves meaningless and not worth pursuing.

• Things that we identify ourselves with

As humans we attach ourselves to things that give us personal meaning. While values can guide us forward they can also inhibit us. Be sure to challenge the real meaning behind your values and you’ll begin to rid yourself of all the false values you’ve inherited over the years.

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Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.- Socrates

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So, values are what propel us to reach our goals and to give us the inner feeling of success. Without it we feel that something is missing, even though we may have worked hard and devoted significant time in attaining something we considered of value.

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How... It all starts with one small step.

...part 5 - time trading

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Now that you understand the DREAM process, and the levers of life, you’re probably asking, “now what?” “How do you make it real?”

Stick with me as this process will be enlightening, fun, and for some a little hard. It’ll be hard because our brains are hard-wired to think a specific way. I’ll lay out how to time trade using the tools I’ve given you. Take the time and you’ll be well rewarded.

First, find a relaxing place.

Found it? Okay great. Now let’s begin.

1. Let your mind wander, don’t restrict it, don’t question it, just let it wonder. Then write down your thoughts.

2. Now add some substance to your thoughts. Ask yourself simple questions to bring clarity. You may have thought to be a world traveller. Great, now ask yourself, where? When? How long?

3. Next, ask yourself, how you’ll do it? Will you walk, bus, drive, or fly? Will you stay for a month? Will you save money for a year?

4. Then ask yourself, what will you do to motivate yourself to reach this goal? Especially if the going gets tough. Will you post an inspirational picture? Write down a quote?

5. Finally, what will be your support mechanism as you strive to reach your goal? This could be friends, family, or even your dog.

Here’s a picture of how your time trading venture is beginning to shape up.

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You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.

- Yogi Berra

You’ve completed the DREAM side of the time trading guide. Now, let’s look at the other side; the levers of life.

In the time box, note what you’ll do today, what you’ll do tomorrow, and what you’ll do the day after to reach your goal.

In the money box, estimate what you feel your dream will cost to attain. This will then give you the monthly amount you will need to direct toward this goal.

Finally, in the flexibility box, determine how flexible you’ll be in reaching your goal. For example, will you use your holidays? Take an unpaid leave?

These tools will help guide you to identify your goals and a way to achieve them. Stop using endless excuses and harness the power within your desires to take the first step in achieving all the dreams you’ve held so tight. The only thing stopping you, is you! Now take your step and start to live your dreams through time trading.

Sample dream

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In Closing

Hopefully, now you can see that time trading can help you live life again. It’s a process and a way of life that you can leverage to change direction in your life. You can indeed do the things you’ve always wanted to do. The formula is simple. Use the levers of life; time, flexibility, and money, and the DREAM process to time trade and realize your dreams.

You’ve now taken the first step in reaching your personal fulfillment; the rest is up to you. Find your inner motivation, seek support for your journey, and remind yourself of what’s important in life.

As you strive toward your goals, you’ll develop personal pride so powerful that it’ll energize you to set and reach even more goals.

Now, pull the levers of life, use the DREAM process, and time trade to start experiencing your life break.

Welcome, time trader, welcome!

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Escape the Workplace?

Thanks to all my incredible readers from all corners of the world. The internet truly brings people together in a way far greater than any other time in history. I’d love to hear from all of you. You can follow my time trading tidbits via email subscription or RSS feed.

It’s important for people to understand that you don’t need to quit your job, sell your soul, live as a hermit, or deprive yourself of life possessions to time trade. You can use these tools to do the things you’ve dreamed of today, instead of waiting until tomorrow. Just find your dream and then go chase it.

What you decide to do is entirely up to you. It’s your goal afterall, not mine, not anybody’s. It’s yours and yours alone, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

If this short guide has given you any inspiration or helped you in some way, I’d be forever grateful if you’d share a short comment on my site. I’m only one person, with one view, and one experience in life. You can help pay it forward and let others learn from you as well. And together we can all learn from each other.

You can post your comments here:

http://www.timetradingguru.com or write to admin@timetradingguru.com

Thanks again for taking the time to read this brief guide to take life breaks in a busy world. I truly wish you all the best.

If you want a more in depth view of time trading you can read my book, The Time Trading Guru.

Be a time trader,

Robert

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As I reflect on this project, I’m reminded of the greatness that we can achieve when we put our minds to it.

- Robert Renaud

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