What are your priorities in life? What are the things in your life that you hold dear? Let’s take a second to really reflect on those questions, and then write down your answers. After you do that think through what your average day looks like. How much time on average do you spent on your priorities? Is it proportional to the importance of each priority?
Let’s look at how the average American’s day breaks down. According to Neilson Media Research the average American watches 151 hours of tv every month, that is 5 hours a day! Now the average amount of sleep Americans reportedly get is around 7 hours a night. The average amount of time people work a day including driving to and from work is roughly 10 hours. So let’s see what this looks like.
When we really take a close look at how we spend our time each day it really gives us a good picture of what is truly important to us. According to this chart the average American only has about 8% of their day to squeeze in all the things that are probably most important to them. Does the breakdown of your day follow this chart or does it more closely resemble your priorities? When I was first shown this a few years ago it was a reality check. I knew if I was going to live a life of my priorities I would need to change some things, drastically.
Ask yourself what habits you can change and what areas you want to expand in your day to utilize your time. If you are happy how your graph looks, then congratulations! But, I know most Americans are not happy with how their graph would look.
I encourage you, figure out your priorities, figure out what you need to change in order to really show that they are your priorities and then start that change process! God Bless, Paul.
I have been thinking a lot recently on the issues of government spending, taxation, and economic growth, especially since Tax Day was just here. For most Americans these are topics that come up in daily conversation, but how many of us really bother to look into these subjects in greater depth to really understand them? This is why I decided to write a few articles on these issues to shed some light on the issues that we need to have a better understanding of if we are to call ourselves “True Americans”.
The Federal Personal Income Tax
It is a shame that very few Americans today know how we even became a country; that the biggest reason we fought for freedom from England was taxes! Today the government takes a good portion of our income from us before we even get the chance to see it. In America today we are taught that having a personal income tax on work we do is the way it has always been. We are also taught that we must pay this tax so that the government can “take care” of us, and if we didn’t pay a federal income tax our country would be wiped out overnight. Well, lets take a look at the real history. When America first became a country the federal revenue was raised by two methods 1) tariffs and 2) luxury items, corporate bonds, and slaves. By 1817 the federal government did the unthinkable, they actually did away with ALL internal taxes and the only source of revenue was by tariffs on imported goods. This lasted until the Civil War and from 1862-1872 we had a personal income tax of 3%. So for the first 85 years our country was prospering we had no personal income tax, and 45 of those years we didn’t have an federal internal taxes. Now for the part you almost will never hear in school or read I in a textbook. In 1894-95 the federal personal income tax again surfaced. This time in 1895 the U.S. Supreme Court actual declared the personal income tax unconstitutional because it was not allowed by the Constitution. It was not until 1913 that the 16th Amendment was past that made the personal income tax a fixture that we know it as today. As you can guess there were many “promises” by politicians that this tax would only impact a few of the very wealthiest people in the country, and would never be more than a few percent of the individual’s income.
Now that we know the history behind the federal income tax, let’s take a look at some numbers to see the impact of the tax. Would our country really be wiped out without a federal income tax? If you look at the breakdown of the total revenue the federal government takes in, about 45% comes from the personal income tax. That might sound like a lot but lets look deeper. This year, 2011, the proposed federal budget is roughly $3.82 Trillion dollars of expenditures, total revenue of $2.17 trillion, and that leaves a budget deficit of $1.65 trillion. If you calculate what 45% of the total revenue would be this year it is roughly $970 Billion. Now here is an interesting point, if you were to subtract that amount and the subtract the budget deficit from the federal budget you would be just above what our 1997 federal budget expenditures were. If we can find a way to cut our budget back to 1997 levels we could eliminate both a budget deficit, in which we must take on more debt, and we could eliminate the federal personal income tax!
So next time you hear someone talk of eliminating the federal income tax, give that person some credit, do not just classify them as a nut and say, “That’s just the way it is, Jack!” If we become informed we can make a difference in this country and in our community. I encourage you to look deeper and think for yourself on these important issues.
Thank you and God Bless!
Can someone of great character be successful in business and in life in general? This is a question that is raised by many people and something that I thought would be of value to look into. This past weekend I attended a seminar. The part of the seminar that hit me the most was when the speaker discussed a theory on leadership. This theory discusses the three basic traits that a leader must have. If someone is lacking in any or all of the three areas their leadership ability will suffer. The speaker encouraged everyone to look at the three traits of Character, Task, and Relationship and do a self-examination of which trait we could need to improve the most. After some self-reflection the area that I thought I needed the most improvement in is Character. The speaker happened to mention that Character is also the most important trait of the three.
What does Character really mean? Now I never thought I was someone that lied and deceived people a lot, but is that what having character means? Well after reading an article on a leadership blog about character one thing stuck out at me. Character is not just having the integrity to not do what is wrong, but it is also having the courage to do what is right. That is a profound paradigm shift from what our culture teaches character is. I was always taught integrity and character were interchangeable but it turns out integrity is only one variable of the character equation.
With this new definition of character I could now understand why I felt the Lord was leading me to work on my character. Over the course of three days I attend a seminar where I felt convicted to work on my character, I read an article on character, I read a chapter in the book I was reading on honesty (integrity) and one chapter on boldness (courage), and I while doing my devotions one morning I read a passage from scripture on character. I think the Lord knows he needs to be very obvious for me to get something! So I’m going to dissect the character equation, first starting at integrity.
What are qualities of integrity? Keeping commitments, telling the whole truth, not talking about anyone in a negative manner, these are all things to help us from doing what is wrong. I have heard it said many times that integrity starts with your alarm clock. If I do not have the integrity to wake up to my alarm when it goes off, which for most is a very small personal commitment, then I am training my subconscious mind not to keep any commitments. This is an area that I made a priority to do every time, it is a great step in helping to keep personal commitments. Now how am I at keeping commitments to others? Once I have improved keeping commitments to myself it is much easier to keep commitments to others or know when to not commit to something I know I will not be able to do. A bad habit of many that goes along with this is not being on time. If we are not on time it shows the other person that we do not respect their time. In the book I was reading called the Compassionate Samurai the author told a story about a very large business deal he was wrapping up with a customer. He had to finish the deal with one of the executives over a phone call at a certain time. The author called in five minutes late and the executive canceled the business, because he no longer could trust him. That is how important being on time and keeping a commitment can be in the world of business. This leads me into telling the truth. The Bible gives clear examples that God detests liars. Read the story in Acts 5 about Annanis and Saphira who both lied and God struck them dead on the spot! Revelation 21:8 says that liars will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur; that means hell! Telling the truth also means not exaggerating (one of my struggling points) and not leaving out important information. Another area that we commonly struggle is with gossip, which is talking negative about someone when they are not there. It is so easy to do but it is very harmful. It is first harmful to the person we are talking about because it erodes the trust others have placed in that person, and it is harmful to us because it shows we cannot be trusted with information about someone else.
The second part of the character equation is courage. Remember courage is doing what is right, always. Many people will do what is right, but only when it’s convenient to them. This is where I thought God was wanting me to focus my improvement the most. True character is being courageous even when it is not convenient to be. Maybe it’s standing up for someone at work when we could be fired over it. It might be taking a leap on a new path in life that we feel God is leading us. This is what my wife and I are currently experiencing. I have a good job and am living by all our friends and family. Then we felt that God was calling us to move overseas to New Zealand, about 9,000 miles away. We need to have courage by quitting a good job, moving away from everyone and everything we know and love to a new country, and go on faith that the Lord will lead our next steps. One of my favorite stories on courage is in the Bible story of David and Goliath. Goliath was bad-mouthing the God of Israel, David’s God. David had the courage to defend the name of the Lord against the slanderer, even though, not one of Saul’s soldiers had the courage to do something. David trusted in God to protect him in the fight because he knew God would reward his courage with victory. That is a key to courage I believe many books miss. When we base our life on the Lord and His Word and ask for courage He will give it to us. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus Christ says, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find,” so if this is an area we feel that we are weak in, we need to bring it to the Lord in prayer. I believe our culture has beaten the courage out of most people, especially the men. Trust in the Lord, take responsibility and choose courage, do what is right every time, not just when it is convenient.
Here is a list of things I am committing to do over the next month to improve my character:
1. Keep commitments to myself
a. Wake up when my alarm goes off
b. Complete the tasks that I listed for the day
2. Keep commitments to others
a. When someone asks me to do something no matter how small, make sure I write it down and do it in a timely manner
b. Always be on time
c. Speak only what is 100% truth, don not exaggerate
d. Do not talk negative of anyone and do not allow others to talk negative of anyone while I am present
3. Take action upon what is right – ie. Have courage
4. Speak what I believe and defend my faith, doing it in a loving manner
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