Friday, September 5, 2008

Giving Back Is A Kids' Key To Success

A question was asked resently about why am I writing all these articles about internet business, marketing and such when the name of my blog is "Kids' Keys To Success"? Isn't this blog suppose to be about Parenting and being the best parent you want to be? Well, the answer is, "Yes" and the reason I have been writing these articles becasue that is what my readers have been asking me about.


Which you know, really makes sense and ties in with "being the best parent you want to be" and this is why... I have recently been doing a lot of reading and research lately and I am learning that the best way for me to be a parent and a person is to be as financially successful as I can be. See, I was trained to be a social worker and practiced therapy for many years with trauma victims, so, I thought I knew what was the best way I could "give back" to my community. I thought for many years it was the long hours I put in volunteering, working as a therapist, writing up treatment plans, steering down defense attornies in the court room as I explained the emotional, physical and spirital toll abuse has on a survivor, etc.


Although those are all great ways to give back as I know there are other super great ways to give that many people do every moment, I have come to realize there is an even a better way. If I was able to make enough money; to become successful/financially free, then, more than likely, I would not only be financially in good health but also emotinally and spiritually in good health. See, the doors have been opening up to me and revealing some personal truths.


I have realized that not only is the key to well-being, living a balanced life but living a financially-free balanced life. Thus, the freedom to choose how I want to spend my money and where I want to spend my money. Living from paycheck to paycheck and working super long hours was not helping me live a life in balance - emotionally, physically, spiritually or financially.


See although, I graduated with a Master's in Social Work from a great school and always worked super hard (60+ hours/week) I wasn't making even $24,000 a year. Let alone the emotional drain of the type of work I did. The rule: work hard, go to school, do well, and you will be rewarded just was not the case for me. As a newly married person without any kids, it really didn't matter in the beginning because all I really needed to do was support myself but as the years past and I earned only a little more due to our annual 1% raise (FYI: working for non-profits is not profitable!) , I new I would need to earn a whole lot more if I wanted to go back to work and make it meaningful to be away from my kids.




Plus, in order to do that sort of work I would be looking at long hours again, little pay-off financially, and being away from my kids which I did not want. Anyway, this brings me back to the reason why I began this article, I can do so much more for my community and people in general if I was financially free. So, I started my own business: My American Dream.

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